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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.