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

[GonnaGetGoingReturns]

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!

@LadyMonicaBaddingham I agree. I finished it because I skimmmec out every second page. Sentimental rubbish. I don't get why she could just be a bit of a weirdo without some horrendous back story.

I think I have a copy of this somewhere but never got round to starting it. I'll dig it out now.

Shuggie Bain too. I think it's the Glasgow dialect. This Sassanach couldn't get on with it.

LOTR, and Hobbit which mystified DH because he loves Tolkein.

Dickens. Too difficult to get through. Most "classic" literature though. It's a chore to read than a pleasure.

Ah see I haven't read those so it means nothing to me

Shuggie Bain was quite an eye opener. I read it with horrific fascination. It wasn't a comfortable read.

@JaneJeffer , you haven't missed much. Though my DH was riveted by one of them.

Les Miserables. I generally enjoy French 19th century literature but can't get on with Victor Hugo.

Something by Luca Veste. I'd read a couple previously and they were ok. The last one though I couldn't finish. I can't even remember the title and that probably explains why it was £2 in the supermarket.

I never saw the point of Lord of the Rings when people got into it at school and I've never tried to read Harry Potter either.

My Brilliant Friend - a book needing a whose who at the start is over complicating things.

I read LOTR when I was 11 and loved it. I read it again in my 30s and thought it was absolutely rubbish - needs serious editing to make it even faintly acceptable. And The Silmarillion I hated even as an 11 year old. I read War and Peace when I was 11 and read it again when I was in my 30s and still loved it (just understood the nuances slightly better!). So it is not an age thing - a good book is still a good book, irrespective of my age!

The Mirror and the Light. I loved Wolf Hall. Bring Up the Bodies was not as good, but still good. But OMG, The Mirror and the Light was tedious.

Another vote for Anna Karenina. I've been attempting to read it and completely failing for 36 years. (Though now I think about it, it's always men who are pressing it on me. There must be female fans of it?)

Having gone from totally not getting Dickens to being a big fan, I think there's always hope of new horizons.

The Grapes Of Wrath. It was so bad I couldn't read more than a third of it, even though it was my A level exam text.

I really really tried but it was like wading through treacle. In the dark. While drunk. Wearing a lead suit.

So lucky that the exam was entirely on the first third!!

Also the Tom Bombadil part of LOTR. Completely pointless and intensely annoying.

All of Ernest Hemingway’s work
and
war of the worlds

The Power. Gave up halfway through.

I actually really liked Eleanor Oliphant and Shuggie Bain though!

Have never understood the fascination with The Catcher in the Rye either.

Oh and Normal People by Sally Rooney, yawn!

I think that’s the reaction you’re supposed to have to it, it’s a very sad story.

Wolf Hall. Boring as all hell.

Couldn't get into life after life by Kate Atkinson and yet watched the tv adaptation and really enjoyed it.

I loved the time travellers wife and the paper palace. Couldn't put either down.

I’m very glad to see so many other people say Wolf Hall, I was sooo lost trying to read it, and I so wanted to love it but I couldn’t figure out wtf was going on or who was saying what.

A little life, dull, interchangeable dull characters for the most part except the main misery porn one, they all hated each other, I gave up.

Funnily enough I loved the book of Life after Life but couldn’t stand the adaptation!

I gave A Little Life 2 or 3 goes ... stuck with it and ultimately loved it.

So interesting to see what people like/hate.

I love Wolf Hall (and sequels) and have read several times. Also read and enjoyed A Suitable Boy, all of Harry Potter, all Jane Austen’s, Life After Life, Shuggie Bain, A Little Life, I Am Pilgrim, Hamnet….

However, some books don’t appeal so haven’t attempted (possibly because they are hyped/pushed): Crawdads, Eleanor Oliphant, Richard Osman

Didn’t enjoy The Hobbit so haven’t attempted LOTR. The Goldfinch was a bit of a mix - enjoyed parts but not all (needed a better editor)

Books I have failed to finish are relatively few and far between but Umberto Eco features as does The Hare with Amber Eyes…

@JaneJeffer @Footle I love Precious Bane! (It may have helped that my mum was from that part of Shropshire). It really cracked me up, the first time I read Cold Comfort Farm, how well it was parodied.
@gertrudemortimer it you think Assassin’s Apprentice is bad, avoid the Soldier Son trilogy like the plague. The Ships ones are good though.
I can’t cope with anything by James Joyce, or Marian Keyes which MIL keeps pushing at me, and have tried and tried with A Tale of Two Cities but need to accept it isn’t going to happen.

I also loved the book Life After Life but hated the adaptation. Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite writers and the adaptation just doesnt do her justice.

They are known as 'wallpaper historicals' - where the historical background is basically used to stick modern people in fancy dress into situations that would never fly today (ruined woman marries duke, etc).

I absolutely loved Barbara Erskine's Midnight is a Lonely Place and House of Echoes. Every other single one of her books I've tried to read comes over as 'just READ about all the research I did!'