Why is it so hard to read a book when you dislike the main character?

[Swedes2Turnips1]

In spite of really lovely writing I am struggling. Any advice?

What's the book? Is it one of UQD's?

liek that stupid book i dont know how she does it

i didnt knwo WHy she did it tbh

i ahet shit books
dh recommendded ben elton chrart throb and its not even funny
just shit

Is it Mansfield Park? I never took to her.

Go on tell us wha tit is and we will provide inspiration. I find having a good plan of how you are going to murder the annoying character useful.

Urgh - is it that mysogonistic franch twat?

Wotshisface?

(of course that's French. I was doing the accent)

Michel Houllebecq thingy

more drugs, JV??

was it Atomised ?

Yes please Pan!

No, I think it was Platform.

I think you have to give up. There was one character in one of Iain Banks' books that I couldn't get along with so I had to stop reading. Was annoying.

I am having a bad reading phase at the moment too. What are you reading?

I went and stood in a book shops for ages yesterday and couldn't find one book I wanted to take home and read gah.

which Iain Banks was that ?

I hate it when that happens. It is normally when it is a book you really fancied too and then you feel all cheated.

No, just edit out all of the conversations/actions/any plot line that involves the main character..as if they weren't there sort of thing. Really easy.

The narrative may appear a little disjointed, but this is a small price to pay, surely.

Fanny in Mansfield Park isn't so bad, she's just a "still point in a turning world".

I love Austen, but I just want to smack Emma.

See, it's that brand of gritty determination that puts the Great in Great Britain.

A fine case!! Go through the novel and with a big thick marker pen, just cross through anything Emma says or is mentioned of. INfact, the book may benefit from this!!

I don't know. I'm sure I can find it somewhere. It was a recent one (last few years).

It's called Novel With Cocaine.

That's why I hated the Shopaholic books (apart from the fact they are total shite).

The main character needed a good slap round the chops. Awful woman.

Wasn't Room At The Top about an anti-hero? Quite readable though. And all those books about Flashman by MacDonald Fraser - the main character is a completely despicable bully. I haven't read any but I believe they are v popular.

I have read books before with flawed characters but beneath their flaws (perhaps even because of their flaws) there is some humanity. However this character, Vladim, is wholly unlikeable with no saving graces whatsoever. So horrible that I can't be interested in him.

You wouldn't like Martin Amis, then. In his novels, all his characters are unlikeable. I still read them, though. I don't mind not liking characters. Seeing them come unstuck is part of the fun.

Flashman is so well written that you're kind of on his side even though you deplore his actions.

I had the same trouble with Midnight's Children - left me cold.

OOh, you see, I like Martin Amis.