Which book/books have you really tried hard to read,but failed ?

[Mirage]

Mine are;
Ulysses(sp)
Wild Swans

god yes satanic verses. Never got to the offensive bit. Don't even know why it's meant to be offensive!

Ulverton by Adam Thorpe (jus checked bookshelf!!). This was recommended for people who like historical novels but I struggled through it. Normally I gollop up people like Philippa Gregory or Edward Rutherfurd but this just dragged.

I'll try it again though once I've worked my way through the pile of books by my bed and the new Harry Potter .

"The Unbearable lightness of being " was unbearable for me too

Another Midnight's Children here. Also Girlfriend in a Coma and Cold Mountain, the last being particularly dreadful. Do tend to try and persevere but these were beyond the pale.

I got to the end of Ulysses!
I got to the end of Ulysses!

But only so I could say I've got to the end of Ulysses. It was a highly gruelling experience that I wouldn't want to repeat, and was before I had dd, when I had much more time on my hands. You know when you get the point when you haven't got a clue what you're reading about, and you're certainly not enjoying it, but you're trudging through it anyway out of bloody-mindedness?

The only book I've abandoned recently is Brick Lane, because I found it excruciatingly badly written bollocks. I'd been looking forward to reading it and bought the hardback and everything, and was very, very disappointed.

Haven't even started Tolkein because I know I'd hate it. Haven't seen the films either.

great expectations
a brief history of time
don quixo (or whatever)

a quite a lot of 'classics' - i start them with good intentions, get bored with the slow pace, difficult language and small print, and then find something else worth reading.

oryx and crake

The Lovely Bones was dull dull dull!

Started War & peace 7 years ago, suprisingly good actually but never have the time to re-start it.

Frankenstein was boring too.

Captain Corelli's thingy doo dah. Have got to page 64 about 3 times and then slipped into a coma.

Also Birdsong. Just don't get it.

Moby Dick. Tried but couldn't manage it.

Time Travellers wife - I think I nearly got to the end but decided that life was too short to read something that I actually wanted to chuck out of the window.

at some of the couldn't-finishes on here. Love LOTR, Dickens, Austen, Rushdie, Asimov, AC Clarke (some)....

Oryx & Crake
Wild Swans
Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The Jasper thingy books where the main character is a dectective travelling through fiction to solve crimes .

Sold one of the books on Amazon - good riddance to a bad read.

ormirian - i think that what most people find is that the adaptation is better than the original.

some poeple would never read LOTR or Asimov, but 'get' the film etc.

btw - i love these two!!

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Kafka on the Shore
The Secret History

Thought all of these were tedious and couldn't understand why everyone else raving about them.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Kafka on the Shore
The Secret History

Thought all of these were tedious and couldn't understand why everyone else raving about them.

The last Lord of The Rings one.
The Constant Gardener

Have to agree with all those who said anything by Dickens - dull dull dull

Captain Corelli
Midnight's Children & Satanic Verses love other Rushdie though
Finished but hated Lovely Bones

War & Peace is one of my all time favourite books, well worth perservering with (but maybe I'm just a Tolstoy/Russian ficton fanatic..)

Surprised at people stuggling with A Suitable Boy, thought it was a great book, loved Wild Swans too

Always thought I'd hate Prtchett - my brother is a huge fan & kept trying to foist them on me - was left with nothing to read one christmas started on Equal Rites (still my favourite) & haven't stopped reading them since!!!

War & Peace - even got the new translation. I think the problem is that I usually read books in snatched 5 minutes scattered throughout the day, and then maybe 15 min in bed at night. Don't think this reading style suits War & Peace
Shall wait until the children have moved out.

oh yes wheresmysuntan, Kafka The Trial - don't think I understood a word - have never dared try anything else of his as I reallydo hate not finishing books..

Plus another I remember being really annoyed about (was younger & had time to finish even awful books was by Margaret Drabble & set in Cambodia I think..

Secret History. Anything by Margaret Attwood. And I WILL FINISH Wicked by Jilly Cooper which I am hating as I refuse to be beaten by her...

The shipping news
The lovely bones
Time travellers wife
Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell
War and Peace (much to my dads disgust)
Cold mountain
Anything Stephen King has written since the mid 1990's
Anything by Ian McEwan
Any of that series about the ladies detective agency

However, I LOVED A Suitable boy & Captain Corellis Mandolin.

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey... another Booker winner but I've yet to meet anyone who's finished it.

Also, The Accidental by Ali Smith. Massively overrated. IMHO.

Oh meowmix you've discarded my favourite bit of foreplay!...the seduction near the beginning of birdsong....am having palpitations just thinking about it...may have top log off!