Popular book that you didn’t enjoy

[Wanttocry]

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.

Bram Stoker's Dracula . Couldn't finish it

@peaceanddove thanks for the Tom Bombadil info, must check to see if I can borrow The Complete Guide to Middle Earth from the library. I didn’t mind the Aragorn/Arwen stuff in the films, but Arwen came across as quite wet and Eowyn so much more interesting.
@fedup078 I read Dracula a long time ago. Thought it started off well, but have forgotten what happened in the end, so it clearly didn’t have much of an impact.

In the books Arwen only appears in 2-3 pages, and barely speaks AFAIK? Eowyn much more feisty though it always annoyed me that Tolkien eventually turned her into a simpering little wifey.

Hamnet, just couldn’t get into it.

A lot have been mentioned but I will add ‘H for Hawk’. Sentimental and semi-plagiarised.

All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr.

@Wearywithteens

The Secret History - soooo dull and the only musky interesting plot point wasn’t even part of the plot - it’s mentioned in some drug induced retrospective single paragraph buried in endless pages about a dull man with a dull existence.

This was absolutely terrible.

Karen Joy Fowler’s “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves,”

I hate the Great Gatsby.

Have done a search and can see no-one's mentioned it, which is surprising, but Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes.

I don't know if I'm missing something but I found Rachel totally unlikeable, she just seemed so stupid and self absorbed.

Fifty Shades of Grey - just couldn't get why people raved about a book which is so poorly written.

I'm not sure anyone raved about the fifty shades books though.

Wasn't it widely acknowledged that they were dreadful in a literary sense? As opposed to all the other books mentioned, which are generally well thought of.

I agree about most if the books I have read on here including Eleanor Oliphant and We are all Completely... also The Goldfinch and Little Fires.

But Captain Corelli is my favourite book. Have people who dislike it read the Carlo chapters??

Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Birdsong

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, I really did not rate this at all

Another vote for Behind the Scenes at the Museum- was like trying to wade through treacle reading this.

Also Fifty Shades was just bloody awful. Couldn’t get past the shoddy writing and didn’t understand the hype at all! Complete dross.

Also Eat, Pray, Love….the story of a very privileged woman going on a journey to find herself. Yawn.

I really did not enjoy Little Fires Everywhere. Found it hard worn to read and pretty cliched.

Agree with @Firevixen I simply couldn't get on with The Catcher In the Rye. Seriously, what is the big deal?

The Luminaries. My DD loved and gave it to me to read. I hated it so much and gave up about a quarter of the way through.

Totally agree with everyone who’d said Catcher in the Rye!

Eat Pray Love sounds like something you’d see stencilled on the walls of houses of a certain demographic! Sorry couldn’t resist!!

Great Gatsby = boring

Just read Klara and the Sun by kazuo Ishiguro. Really didn't like it...

@FiveGoMadInDorset

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

Get out.