Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Books you’ve tried to read but just can’t get on with them

213 replies

GonnaGetGoingReturns · 28/04/2023 23:15

I know this is subjective but what books have you read or tried to read but just can’t stomach them?

My recent ones are:-

Brother of the More Famous Jack - what a load of pompous affected twaddle! Can’t seem to see how it’s so lauded, got to page 17 and gave up.

Cold Comfort Farm - managed a bit better with this, about 4 chapters in, but still, affected pompous twaddle. Was told it was similar to the adorable I Capture The Castle but it’s not, at all! Gave it to SIL to read as she got I Cspture The Castle for me and she didn’t like it and when I asked DM if she’d read it when she was younger she said exactly the same about it as me.

Oh and if anyone sees K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary and thinks it looks interesting, it isn’t, it’s just weird!

OP posts:
Kittykatchunjy · 28/04/2023 23:16

Middlemarch

Kanaloa · 28/04/2023 23:19

I can’t get on with Mansfield Park. Have written two well received essays on it for uni and have still never gotten past the first quarter.

JaneJeffer · 28/04/2023 23:57

I read Cold Comfort Farm but I didn't get why there's all the love for it Confused

There's been a few books lately that have great reviews but I couldn't finish. I'm very suspicious of reviews nowadays.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 29/04/2023 19:56

Daniel Deronda. Tried four times then took it to the charity shop. Even the introduction floored me.

Bunnywabbity · 29/04/2023 19:57

Lorna Doone

backaftera2yearbreak · 29/04/2023 19:57

Catch 22

morelippy · 29/04/2023 19:58

Where The Crawdads Sing

Soooo boring

Chickenkorma64 · 29/04/2023 19:59

Loved Middlemarch, but would advise everyone to avoid Lincoln in the Bardo, what a load of claptrap. Also Lord of the Rings, most boring book I’ve ever read- needs some serious editing!

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 29/04/2023 20:01

There's been a few books lately that have great reviews but I couldn't finish. I'm very suspicious of reviews nowadays

After my experience with two Matt Haig books that were garlanded with praise and I found to be a waste of time, any book that has a load of enthusiastic celeb reviews on the covers gets ignored. Unfortunately that seems to be a lot of recent fiction.

midsomermurderess · 29/04/2023 20:02

I like some Dickens, but A Tale of Two Cities just did me in. And Sons and Lovers, Christ, that was painful. Another one the comes to mind is 100 Years of Solitude. I tried, I really did, when magical realism was all the thing, but the relief I felt when I ‘forgot’ it at a holiday cottage stays with me. Some I had to read for school, but nowadays, if something isn’t working for me, I move on. I just can’t be doing with tha t’I must always finish a book’ thing.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 29/04/2023 20:02

Chickenkorma64 · 29/04/2023 19:59

Loved Middlemarch, but would advise everyone to avoid Lincoln in the Bardo, what a load of claptrap. Also Lord of the Rings, most boring book I’ve ever read- needs some serious editing!

If you can't get on with LoTR, don't even contemplate The Silmarillion.

Maireas · 29/04/2023 20:03

Pride and Prejudice. Just can't take to Austen.

Custardbanana · 29/04/2023 20:03

Thursday murder club.

So boring I don't even care who did it.

RenegadeMrs · 29/04/2023 20:04

Agree with Lord of the Rongs! Love the Hobbit, loved the films of LoTR, can't get on with the books. I hate the structure of them.

Also, Jonathan Stange and Mr Norrell. Despite having enjoyed Piranesi.

Maireas · 29/04/2023 20:04

I agree about A Tale of Two Cities, I love Dickens, but that's not his best.

AgentProvocateur · 29/04/2023 20:05

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin for me, and Lincoln In the Bardo, as someone already mentioned. All others, I have persevered with.

Iloveabaconbutty · 29/04/2023 20:05

It's few years back now but I just couldn't get on with the Harry Potter novels when everybody else in the world seemed to be reading them. I tried a couple of times but I just couldn't get into them at all.

I felt like the odd one out among my family and friends when everyone else was raving about them.

Chickenkorma64 · 29/04/2023 20:06

Also if you fancy reading Anna Karenina (I read it and that’s probably a week of my life in total I’ll never get back)
well, anyway my advice is just Google a summary. What a pointless story ( though I did learn about the feudal system in Russia!)

Twitch45 · 29/04/2023 20:06

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
Never Never by Colleen Hoover
The Marriage Act by John Marrs

Twitch45 · 29/04/2023 20:07

Oh, and Wolf Hall!

VeryQuaintIrene · 29/04/2023 20:07

Shuggie Bain. I've tried about 3 times but I think I'm going to give it to the free library next door.

trulyunruly01 · 29/04/2023 20:07

I expect to get flamed, but any of Richard Osman's books, I just cannot get on with them.
He's a great presenter and has a very clever wit, I should love an evening in the pub with him (and Ingrid, of course) but I cannot get more than a few pages in before abandoning.

FaintlyMacabre · 29/04/2023 20:08

Wolf Hall. I tried twice.

Cold Comfort Farm is a brilliant parody of a particular type of pompous twaddle.

Chickenkorma64 · 29/04/2023 20:09

Chickenkorma64 · 29/04/2023 20:06

Also if you fancy reading Anna Karenina (I read it and that’s probably a week of my life in total I’ll never get back)
well, anyway my advice is just Google a summary. What a pointless story ( though I did learn about the feudal system in Russia!)

Oops, just remembered there’s an Anna Karenina read along, sorry!

Maireas · 29/04/2023 20:09

Richard Osman I like. His books, no. Couldn't get through them. Please get a decent editor, Richard.

Swipe left for the next trending thread