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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:
Mrbatmun · 20/08/2018 18:46

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I have given up on Eve of Man by Tom and Giovanna Fletcher. Absolute shit. I picked it up because it had quite an interesting premise and I thought it might be gripping in a Hunger Games type of way.

No, it's rubbish.

I can't remember the last book I didn't actually finish (apart from GoT which I just gave up on in the end when the series took over) but I did struggle to finish We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I only persevered because I thought something would happen towards the end. It didn't.

Maliali · 21/08/2018 13:32

Thank you for starting this thread. I feel more vindicated about having read about 3/4 of the books mentioned and hating them. Am
Currently about to give up on Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. She might be fine but I’m very bored and disinterested.

midsomermurderess · 21/08/2018 19:29

100 Years of Solitude. It defeated me.

annandale · 21/08/2018 19:39

Quite enjoyed The dry but yes wouldn't sell my granny for it.

Tell you what i liked much more than i expected was The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Quite gruesome but in a way that it needed to be. Also finalky finished ADay In The Life of Ivan Denisovich after many attempts over the years. Fuck me it's good.

midsomermurderess · 21/08/2018 19:51

I'd forgotten about Shantaram although given what a stinking pile of poo it was that is quite a feat, including, as I did finishing it. There is a cracking one-star review on Amazon, from 2009 the nails all its awfulness perfectly. eg '"Indeed," opined Khaled, as he exhaled the chillum. The wisdom of a million camels reflected in his beard like cascading streams of gibberish, and I trusted him even more as he gently wafted a warrant for my arrest for crimes against literature across the fragrant Bombay night. "It is not the crime you should trust in a man, but the time you crust that matters in a man."

woollyheart · 22/08/2018 08:49

Yes, interesting that many people's worst books are firm favourites for others. I love Bleak House (but not so keen on other Dickens novels) and have read it many times and I'm never disappointed. Also love Wolf Hall. Maybe because these are novels that transport you to another time and place, but the amount of detail required to do this is too much for some of you.
I didn't manage to finish Foucault's Pendulum, and also The Silmarillion. Just too dry for me....
I also had to give up on Crime and Punishment because it is so dark that I was finding it hard to keep the book's tentacles out of real life.

Womaningreen · 22/08/2018 10:34

woollyheart "the amount of detail required to do this is too much for some of you."

I love books that transport me somewhere, using lots of detail, Crimson Petal & White being a great example.

with Wolf Hall, as I said upthread, it was the detail in religion in particular that I found off putting, but that's just because for me personally, it's boring. I could see why people think it's brilliant - as I also said upthread - it just wasn't for me.

it's not the case the detail puts me off, I just need to relate to it.

SagelyNodding · 22/08/2018 10:50

I loved Shantaram! Admittedly, I skipped over some of the bullshit philosophical twaddle...
I rarely give up on a book, but recently gave up on City on Fire, which I had asked for as a birthday present... I just found it completely unreadable and don't understand the hype.

dreaming174 · 24/08/2018 11:34

@heymammy oh my goodness The Power! What a load of rubbish! I THOUGHT I must've got 3/4 of the way through and then kindle told me I was only 20%. Good god, what drivel.

dreaming174 · 24/08/2018 13:41

@cakemonger ohmygosh, WHO described 'The Box of Delights' as the greatest children's book? I'm pretty sure it must've been my ancient old English teacher, who made us all read musty old copies aloud in class 20 years ago, until SHE got bored about chapter 5 and we all of a sudden, gave it up. I was known as 'the bookworm' at school, and I thought it was dreadful.

GrouchyKiwi · 24/08/2018 15:41

I have tried A Game Of Thrones three times and given up at the same point each time. The prologue promised an interesting story and then it turned into boring punctuated with "Ooooh, look how shocking I am, killing & maiming these characters, and sibling sex" and bah, I don't give a shit, Mr Martin.

I also couldn't finish The Catcher In The Rye or Conrad's Heart Of Darkness. Just too boring.

I did, however, hate read all of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. It was so patronising.

CramptonHodnet · 24/08/2018 16:01

Oh, The Power. I really thought I'd missed the point of it when I'd finished it. It was disappointing. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads, but that was being over generous. I didn't like it and only saw it through to the end because I needed to know how it ended Confused

Cakemonger · 25/08/2018 11:13

You're not wrong @dreaming174 - I persevered for 3 whole months, I don't know what I was thinking. I had a similar experience with The Hobbit at school - a particularly uninspiring teacher made us read it out for months, with the same kids in the same characters. Haven't touched it since.

Re The Power, it's in my TBR pile. When I saw it won the Bailey's prize I thought 'hmm, looks like the type of thing that wins because it's zeitgeisty'. But the premise was intriguing so I bought it anyway gulp

Murine · 26/08/2018 22:59

Serious Sweet by A.L. Kennedy, I just could not get into this at all.
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel. So dry and full of unnecessary detail.

HushabyeMountainGoat · 29/08/2018 23:30

I've just admitted defeat on The Little Friend. Promising opening chapter but i've waded through the subsequent 100 pages and NOTHING has happened. A quick glance at Good Reads tells me that things don't improve over the 400 still to go.

So no. I'm not doing it.

LilahTheTiger · 29/08/2018 23:37

I've just binned off A Marriage in Dog Years for being awful whiny drivel.

Toseland · 30/08/2018 00:32

American psycho - utterly vile - I actually threw it in the bin rather than give it to charity and risk someone else reading it.

OctaviaOctober · 30/08/2018 01:10

War and Peace. My copy is so battered you'd think it was my favourite book. But I never get past the first part - a reception? Instant boredom every time. I should keep it by my bed for when insomnia strikes.

The Little Friend defeated me too. Unfortunately I learned a spoiler that makes me think it won't be worth my while slogging to the end.

Northanger Abbey. I though finally learning how to pronounce the title might help me connect with it more. Still can't finish it. I love Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. I like Sense and Sensibility. I couldn't care less about the other two.

I loved Gone Girl and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

HappydaysArehere · 03/09/2018 08:48

The Essex Serpent. Well written but so boring. Gave up half way through.

hackmum · 03/09/2018 09:29

I've never been able to get past the first few pages of anything by Ali Smith, which is sad, as so many people rave about her.

I also disappointed myself by giving up on The Idiot (Dostoyevsky) about half way through. I kept trying to read it and just got to the point where I couldn't take any more.

There are some surprises for me on this thread. I can understand why people couldn't finish Wolf Hall, because it's quite dense and requires a lot of concentration. But The Catcher in the Rye is a very easy read. I also think it's a masterpiece, but that's by the by.

Belletower · 03/09/2018 13:08

The Girl on the Train - I really, really wanted to like it but I found the characters completely flat and couldn't go on anymore.

Belletower · 03/09/2018 13:10

I've seen a few mentions of The Goldfinch here and must say, I had blocked that one from memory completely. I could barely even start it.

SequinsOnEverything · 03/09/2018 13:27

I've just finished A Fact of a Body and if I wasn't reading it for book club I would definitely have given up on it. It took me ages to get in to it. It was broken down into three parts and I found the third part really boring.

sandandc · 06/09/2018 18:35

A few my book group has read over the last two years:
My Grandmother sends her regards and apologies
The keeper of lost things
Eleanor Oliphant
Little Fires Everywhere

And Definitely Wuthering Heights

Shampaincharly · 06/09/2018 18:42

100 Years of Solitude , Gabriel Garcia Marquez
New York Trilogy , Paul Auster

I read the first book of Elena Ferrante Naples thing....soooo glad I did not buy the others. I had no investment in any of the characters.