Has anyone started to read a book and realised that they HATE it with a vengeance before the even finish the first sentence??

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Out of curiosity picked up The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory in Tesco yesterday and started the read the first page. First sentence goes on about weather, lacing up corsets and scaffolds. It was then I thought this book is going to be a pile of shit and will not waste my time.

Have I missed a good book or was my initial impression correct. I usually read a page before I pass judgement (memories of plouging through first page of The English Patient before flinging it to the floor)

Will give it a try, once I finish the books that have been piling up on my bedside table (have become and incredibly slow reader )

Marmaduke the book you read was by Helen Dunmore, it's called Talking to the Dead. I quite liked it

I'm not good at giving up on books, it makes me feel guilty and besides I feel obliged, and so keep on going. Though there are some where I get that sinking heart feeling by p3.

Me too. At the moment I am reading T.C Boyle short stories which are great and easy to dip in and out of.

Thank you 100x, I'm sure it was a good book just at the wrong time iyswim.

Wuthering Heights - tried about seven times to finish it. I really don't understand how it has lasted (other than amongst Kate Bush fans).

We Need To Talk About Kevin.

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shrieve, I did finish but hated it. She had been taught on a creative writing course how to write a book. And she had clearly never been to London, where half the book is set.

Yes, I feel guilty at not finishing a novel, but the older I get the more complacent to myself I became. As a teenager the only book I didn't finish was the lord of the rings, got stuck at page 20. and kept looking obsessively at the map.

I do apologise for my English, I'm making more mistakes than usual.

Oh, Wuthering Heights. Awful book. But I did actually read the whole thing (masochist)

DH gives up all the time, he reads five chapters and adds it to the pile on his bedside table

He is reckless.

I'll read anything actually, I struggle with things that are very, very badly written. And am surprised at how simple some books are - like that Tractor books, and Lovely Bones too.

Gosh yes, he is reckless ahundred .

Yes, the lovely bones is shockingly simple, I agree.

Can I also ask if anyone remebers trying to read Ben Okri's Famished Road - beautifully written, but nothing ever happens.

In fact, in recent years I have come to the view that almost anything on the Man Booker short list is going to be stupendously constructed and very dull.

anything by Henry James
or Nicola Barker

Rare that I have to give up on a book, but couldn't get into books by Peter Carey and Salman Rushdie - can't even remember the titles now.
Did read all of something by Philippa Gregory once, but wished I hadn't bothered after - it was s**t. Well done on having the intelligence to stop now before you waste any more of your time.

Just checked on Amazon for titles -
Illywhacker by Peter Carey
The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie

It's not just high brow stuff either. My best friend loaned me a Louise Bagshawe novel once which I thought was shockingly bad. Written to try and be a Jackie Collins come Jilly Copper come Penny Vincenzi, and failing dismally on all counts.

I thought the english patient was rather good

And wuthering heights is one of my fave books ever

Elizabeth Costello by JM Coetzee

it was so bad it made me ANGRY

I like WH too. And I LOVE Illywacker and Oscar & Lucinda, but the Kelly Gang and that one set in a hotel in Singapore about a journalist and an artist - god, that gave me bad sinking feeling but I carried on regardless. It was very dull.

I'm trying to think of a book I stopped reading recently. Holidays are good for this because then you can pretend you can't fit it in the suitcase.

Oh! I know. Paul Auster.

Couldn't get it in the suitcase. Shame.

I'd like to mention a Booker Prize Winning Novel AND be really pretentious about it..
BUT..My "couldn't get on with" book was Jordan's (umm.. yes Katie Price') first effort ..I thought it might be quite interesting because of her son Harvey.I WAS WRONG!
And yes before the end of the first sentence I thought..
"trust your instincts here,back away from the till"

Oh, god, yes, Ulysses. What a load of rot!
I even tried to read it drunk and stoned, as it was compulsory in an English class I was in.

Oh, I have no guilt about not reading things I don't enjoy - don't really understand why one should feel guilty, tbh. I did read a couple of Bret Easton Ellis books, but just ended up thinking he was an arse... DWP, it appears we have differing tastes! Just could not abide Cloud Atlas - struggled through a couple of chapters, and then my retinas attempted to self-detatch with boredom. I'm not what you'd call a patient person!

Tried a Philippa gregory once, wasn't keen.

The worst book I ever failed to read was Julie Burchill's - 'I Knew I Was Right', I think it was. Really stupendously bad opening scene.

I gave up half way through Elizabeth Costello - which is further than I'd have got had I realised up front that it was going no where and would never improve.

Famished Road was a load of pants, too.