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What books could you not finish?

281 replies

almondfinger · 15/08/2018 21:17

I am having the most miserable of summer reads.

Do not say we have nothing - FFS, I persevered and it got a bit better and then reverted to tedious. Have way in I had to put it down.

Then I picked up A brief history of 7 killings - Every time I pick it up I fall asleep. The patois is difficult but when it gets to the CIA agents told in English I cant read that either. So far their have been so many killings I have lost count and it's far from brief.

I had to go out yesterday and buy some new books to look forward to. Tell me some of the books you couldn't be arsed with so I can avoid.

OP posts:
SusieQ5604 · 17/08/2018 04:40

Also The Goldfinch!

SusieQ5604 · 17/08/2018 04:48

I've never heard of The Slap. I can't believe so many of y'all hated Confederacy Of Dunces...I'm from the state where it's set and I thought it was hilarious. But it's a New Orleansy kind of thing.

I loved Wolf Hall!

I also used to punish myself by slogging thru to the bitter end of books I hated...but now just stop and give them away.

Also hated Gone Girl and The Woman in Cabin 10

BitOutOfPractice · 17/08/2018 05:30

I’ve just given up on The Essex Serpent. I wanted to love it. Found that I was yawning every time I picked it up and I really didn’t care about any of the characters

FinallyHere · 17/08/2018 07:00

I loved we are all completely beside ourselves. Only read it for Bookgroup, where liking it definitely put me in a (very vocal) minority.

TheHalfBloodPrincess · 17/08/2018 07:09

I’m a huge lotr fan but I have never finished the Silmarillian.

I’ve started it about 20 times but just don’t get on with it at all.

Growingboys · 17/08/2018 08:14

Wolf Hall for sure. I tried so hard but it was torture and life is too short. I later read an interview with the woman who wrote it and thought how unlikeable she was so I felt vindicated.

So many others. I persevered with The Goldfinch and got there in the end.

All the light we cannot see went to the charity shop before I got to the end.

The Slap was tedious and I barely got halfway.

Reservoir 13 gosh this was boring and went in the bin before I finished it. Jon McGregor's a serial offender as If nobody speaks of remarkable things was also a struggle.

Growingboys · 17/08/2018 08:18

By the way, if anyone is considering buying Why Mummy Drinks may I save you £7.99 by telling you it is the biggest pile of shite I have read in recent years and don't bother.

Someone at work who actually has a brain swore it was properly funny and not the usual mum lit dross, and as I was stockpiling books for hols I thought ok, why not.

It is appalling - littered with typos, poorly edited, crap jokes and the feel of something a big published has churned out quickly to make a big buck. And now there's a sequel!

Dearie me.

AliasGrape · 17/08/2018 08:55

@FinallyHere I also loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves I remember eagerly recommending it to loads of people only for them all to come back and say they hated it and I was really baffled!

Wolf Hall is one of the best things I’ve ever read, the second one Bring Up the Bodies was even better (editing was a bit tighter I think). Likewise Captain Corellis Mandolin I thought was wonderful, and when I reread it recently whilst on holiday in Kefalonia I loved it even more.

FermatsTheorem · 17/08/2018 09:05

TheHalfBloodPrincess as a fellow Tolkien nerd, I did manage to wade through the Silmarilion as a mega-keen teenager, but I don't think I could do it twice. However, it is possible to treat it as a collection of short stories and pick bits out selectively. The story of Beren and Luthien is quite fun, as is the story of Turin Turambor (basically Tolkien's riff on Siegmund and Sieglinde - brother and sister unwittingly marry one another).

HereBirdies · 17/08/2018 09:08

Anyone tried The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle? The guy in Waterstones talked me into it and I just can't get past the first couple of chapters. It's a really hard read.

Cakemonger · 17/08/2018 09:37

Me too Growingboys, I gave up on All the light we cannot see about 3/4 in and regretted persevering for so long. I think I won't bother to get Reservoir 13 either, it looks like that kind of literary novel that gets wild praise but that I just don't get on with

AliasGrape I too thought Captain Corelli was wonderful - charming, quirky and original. I also learnt many things about WWII I didn't know, Btw love the name!

I tried to start The Essex Serpent in a bookshop but found it hard going so put it back on the shelf, despite the temptingly lovely cover

Wolf Hall and We are all completely beside ourselves are rapidly disappearing to the back of my TBR pile...

Cakemonger · 17/08/2018 09:39

AliasGrape I meant to say, I also went to Kefalonia but before I'd read the book. I so wish I'd read it before now!

Toomuchsplother · 17/08/2018 10:34

Crikey, I must have weird reading tastes. So many of the books I love are on this thread!
Wuthering Heights is in my all time top ten. Wolf Hall was hard to get into but brilliant, though I agree that Bring up the bodies is better.
Loved Reservoir 13, also All the light we can not see and The Essex Serpent. Also liked A suitable boy and captain Corelli. Agree about Dan Brown and anything by Tolkien.

tobee · 17/08/2018 11:11

Yes to Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and not finishing . I probably got as far as you, HereBirdies. Very over ambitious plot idea. Not really happening so the author suddenly lumps in expositional character, to help it along and I thought "no! no! Next, please, now" and put it down.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 17/08/2018 11:16

Room.

What utter drossel.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 17/08/2018 11:19

I loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.

And Alias Grace.

How can people hate them?

LighthouseSouth · 17/08/2018 12:09

I think the main issue with the Essex Serpent is it was sold as being something it isn't.

I don't want to say what in case anyone here is annoyed by it, but if any reviews or the back cover had correctly identified the genre, I wouldn't have bothered.

BitOutOfPractice · 17/08/2018 12:27

I think the genre is "turgid and pretentious" @LighthouseSouth

LighthouseSouth · 17/08/2018 12:32

LOL @BitOutofPractice

but it started so well!

the poster upthread who talks about "another fucker knocking on the door" in the Hobbit made me cry laughing just now.

I haven't read the Hobbit, certainly won't after that description Grin

annandale · 17/08/2018 13:04

Reservoir 13 is fucking awesome. I think it will be one of the few novels of this era that survives longterm.

EmmaGrundyForPM · 17/08/2018 13:30

I can't believe people dislike All The Light We Cannot See. It's one of my favourite novels of the last few years.

I really enjoyed Reservoir 13. We did it in my book group and I think 8 out of 9 of us liked it.

chemenger · 17/08/2018 13:37

Wolf Hall and The Goldfinch. I just found them boring. I enjoyed quite a few of the others that are deeply unpopular here, it takes all types, as they say. I skipped swathes of War and Peace as well. I dislike books with so many characters that you need a list of them to remind yourself who they all are.

LighthouseSouth · 17/08/2018 13:39

Reservoir 13 is on my list....debating crossing it off...

already have Prayer for Owen Meany sitting on the shelf so will start that next week probably. Again, I thought the description sounded good...famous last words!

southeastdweller · 17/08/2018 14:03

I wish I hadn’t bothered finishing Reservoir 13. It was so tedious - page after page of boring nature descriptions and no depth to the characterisation.

MazDazzle · 17/08/2018 14:18

Me too, Emma. I loved ATLWCS.