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Popular book that you didn’t enjoy

459 replies

Wanttocry · 19/06/2021 16:33

Not really a TAAT but inspired by the Crawdads thread.

What’s a book that has been raved about, but that you didn’t really enjoy? For me it would have to be The Goldfinch, I just didn’t really get it.

OP posts:
Luckyelephant1 · 21/06/2021 16:20

@Wishimaywishimight

The Great Gatsby. I remember making myself read 20 pages per day just to get it out of the way. Found it terribly dull.
Oh yes same. Although I did like the film.
CaptainMyCaptain · 21/06/2021 16:57

@Alcemeg

I love Cold Comfort Farm!

Did you know it was a sort of piss-take of DH Lawrence (who, actually, I also love!)?

I love CCF too. I think it was a parody of Mary Webb (? I'll check that) who wrote using very overblown flowery prose,but quite possibly also DH Lawrence.
CaptainMyCaptain · 21/06/2021 17:01

It was Mary Webb that inspired CCF. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Webb
I think it is one of the books that I have re-read the most.

SheepGoBaaaa · 21/06/2021 17:04

I actually love both the mad, overwrought Dark Rural Passions of Precious Bane and its satirising in Cold Comfort Farm.

Bryonyshcmyony · 21/06/2021 17:07

Everything that's recommended highly by a celeb. It's put me off reading tbh. I absolutely hated Crawdads, dross. Ditto anything by Matt Haig. Hamnet - hated.

The last thing I really enjoyed was Piranesi.

Hoolihan · 21/06/2021 20:26

To Kill A Mockingbird is basically a perfect book imo. Even though it is so well known, it is still so incredibly powerful and moving and beautiful. I have read it maybe 10+ times and I love it as much as I did the first time I read it.

Holothane · 21/06/2021 20:31

Didn’t get very far with Lord of the rings, Sebastian Faulks Bond novel, utter drivel compared to Fleming, I’ve read Fleming since I was 13,(it didn’t go down very well in our house).

ivegotdreadfulpmttoday · 21/06/2021 21:00

The Salt Path. Judgey woman in pickle of her own making

Bryonyshcmyony · 21/06/2021 21:01

@ivegotdreadfulpmttoday

The Salt Path. Judgey woman in pickle of her own making
That book actually gave me the rage. And I didn't believe half of it. She was so horrible about the locals and their predicament was stupid
Tuberoses · 21/06/2021 21:03

Wicked. The musical was great so I bought the book, which was so badly written it was literally unreadable.

Hunger Games. Basically the last book is just “selfish little bitch goes running off and achieves nothing except killing people who didn’t have to die”.

UnwantedGain · 21/06/2021 21:06

We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I read as people often said it was the best book they’d ever read.
I just kept waiting for it to get better but it never did.

StyleAndLasers · 21/06/2021 21:11

@UnwantedGain

We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I read as people often said it was the best book they’d ever read. I just kept waiting for it to get better but it never did.
I wonder if that is a book you have to have read as a teenager. I also read it for the same reasons as you and it was OK, but I was never really drawn that into it.
SheepGoBaaaa · 21/06/2021 22:26

@ivegotdreadfulpmttoday

The Salt Path. Judgey woman in pickle of her own making
I quite liked it, but I must say I found myself wondering about the legal predicament that lost them their farm, which was described in such fearsomely partisan terms (evil friend whose company they invested in and were found liable for his debts, as they bravely represented themselves against very wrong legal machine) that I found myself wondering what an objective third party account of the whole mess would look like.
BrimfulOfBaba · 21/06/2021 23:20

Just thought of a other- The Essex Serpent. It was raved about so I was excited to read it but felt so let down.

There was no real plot, too many issues were crammed together with no real resolution, and the main character was horrible and selfish but everyone seemed to be in love with her anyway. I'm wound up just remembering it!

BrimfulOfBaba · 21/06/2021 23:21

*another

garlictwist · 22/06/2021 05:09

On Thé Road by Jack Kerouac. I hated it. I forced myself through it and then gave up with literally three pages left as I couldn't bear it any more. Boring drivel. And also very misogynistic.

NeedToKnow101 · 22/06/2021 05:18

A little life. Yes it's misery porn on an epic scale.

tulipsaremyfave · 22/06/2021 05:54

A prayer for Owen Meany. I tried really hard but couldn't get through it.
I love all John Irvine's other books though.

tulipsaremyfave · 22/06/2021 05:55

*John Irving

CaptainMyCaptain · 22/06/2021 07:23

@garlictwist

On Thé Road by Jack Kerouac. I hated it. I forced myself through it and then gave up with literally three pages left as I couldn't bear it any more. Boring drivel. And also very misogynistic.
I read it in the 70s. Even then I realised it was extremely misogynistic.
RestingStitchFace · 22/06/2021 07:24

Catcher in the rye. Literally nothing happens at all. Just an annoying teenager talking about themself.

Absolutely this.

envi · 22/06/2021 07:32

Normal people was a waste of time. Felt a bit too old for this type of book

TheWindOnTheMoon · 22/06/2021 07:49

Normal people was a waste of time. Felt a bit too old for this type of book

Same here. Read Conversations with Friends, didn't think that much of it. Tried Normal People & found it tedious. I reached the conclusion that I'm probably about 30 years too old for her books. Just not interested in reading about angsty teenagers when I have the real thing in my own home Grin

RampantIvy · 22/06/2021 07:54

I read Normal People after watching it on TV. I found the chracaters really irritating and not at all engaging. I think this is one of the reasons that I didn't really enjoy it. It was a book club book so I did finish it, but it felt like I was doing homework set by the teacher.

NoYOUbekind · 22/06/2021 12:06

The TV adaptation of Normal People is a triumph because the source material is so bleh. I cared about the telly couple much, much more than the book couple and that never happens to me. Yumster Conor may have helped that a smidge