Book or books that you thought would be good but was disappointed with after reading it?

[boogiewoogie]

For me it would have to be "On Chesil beach" I really enjoyed "Atonement" and had high expectaions for this but the end was an anticlimax. Pun intended.

First Wide Sargasso Sea gets a thumbs down

Then To Kill a Mockingbird

Now Middlemarch

Three of my favourite novels

Am in a serious huff

Girlysquare - thanks for endorsing my endorsement of Oryx and Crake . It's because it's so good on every level that Cloud Atlas seemed so feeble in compaison.

Forgot to say that I couldn't manage more than 20 pages of Northern Lights and not many more of The Hobbit.

Middlemarch marks the invention of the modern novel, it is probably the greatest book ever. The last page is a work of genius, saying something deep and profound about humanity - makes my skin tingle just thinking about it.

Ha, just thought of some more classics that I couldn't deal with:
Tess of the d'Urbervilles - gave up after a cople of chapters
1984 - was so hyped and then it wasn't that good, preferred Animal Farm
Sons and Lovers - boooring

And on a more modern note, anything by Karin Slaughter. She is one sick-in-the-head lady.

Ughh, Animal farm. I hated that book - had to study it in school. Still remember the little motos they had and the commandments. Loved 1984 when I was younger but read it again recently and it didn't have the same impact it originally had on me. Some of the concepts such as the three superpowers controlling their people by fear and Newspeak are quite relevant in today's world but the characters were a bit two dimensional.

georgiemama- you are so right re Middlemarch and the last page.
I'll never forget a lecture I went to where the lecturer claimed that George Eliot was more important than God!!!

Knew I'd offend some of you I'm afraid I didn't actually reach the last page; gave up long before that. Who thinks I should try again? Convince me!

Tess Of The D'Urbervilles - fantastic book but only if you read it before you are 21. I have discussed this with many people and most are in agreement. We feel that after that age readers are likely to have far less sympathy for Tess and that instead she irritates: ditto Jude (although that one line, "Because we were too many" can still make me howl just thinking about it, if I'm feeling down anyway).

Another one that I feel I ought to love but just can't is "Wuthering Heights".

Yep, agree with Wuthering Heights. Got through it but just didn't care!

Also, Gone with the Wind annoyed me immensely.

Gosh, I'm so horrified. Atonement was wonderful, and how could anyone trash Wuthering Heights, Middlemarch or Tess?? And 1984??

(Will log off and crawl back under duvet with a fab book)

I'm not trashing Tess; I used to love it - I just really feel that it meant much more to me at 18 than it has since.

I love "1984" though!

charliegal - you didn't study English at Bristol university did you? One of my tutors was a total George Elliott nut, I'm sure he said that to us!!

Good grief, I went to Bristol and did English there- I think I might know the one you're talking about!

Know what you mean about Tess before and after you're 21. I remember really being struck by the whole letter-getting-stuck-under-the-carpet-when-someone(Tess?)-pushes-it-under-the-door in a dramatic irony type way when I was about 16 - and then rereading the book about 10 years later and almost missing that whole passage because it was so uninteresting!

Am currently hunting for Middlemarch (difficult in Holland) to read for the first time...

Wuthering Heights
Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre (but don't tell my mum, it's her favourite)

Will admit to never having made it through Tess. Jude the Obscure, now there's a good book. Damn depressing, but damn good.

I LOVE Jane Eyre and have read it several times! Ditto Wuthering Heights. That said, I was in the bookshop this evening to try and find new stuff to buy to read on holiday and was really struggling...

Jane Eyre - love the second half, hate the first half. Once she meets Rochester it's brilliant.

Am going to start a parallel thread about books you want to read or think you should have read, but somehow never have. Come and see.

Wuthering Heights
I have tried SOOO hard to get into it. Its been laying under my bed for AGES..Years even

Memory Keepers....

Ukrainian Tractor

Oh, Oh, Those books that are all about those sisters, and they are supposed to be "witty and sharp"....Cat, Freya, and whoever. HATED THEM!!!!

Ugh, Wuthering Heights... friends all raved about it, I thought it was bollocks. Sorry. Terribly melodramatic.

Middlemarch is wonderful. My favourite bit is the passage about the most sensitive of us walking around "well wadded with stupidity" so that we do not "die of the roar that lies on the other side of silence" (I may be slightly misquoting but that's close anyway). Beautiful.

That letter-under-the-doormat episode in Tess was in the Hamish Hamilton Five Dials mag recently. I remember loving Tess, but that particular section summarises everything I loathe about Hardy.

a little side-track - I have learnt never to buy a book that claims to be "witty" if I want to be entertained. most of them are far from my idea of witty. In fact, most of them don't even raise a smile.

Got through Withering Heights, don't mind Jane Eyre but don't read it any more; and yes, I was older than 21 when I tried to read Tess, so I guess that was the problem - missed my window!

Ben Okri's Famished Road - loved the first few chapters, got bogged down after that the first time and then had to give the borrowed book back, bought it years later and soldiered through to the end - wished I hadn't bothered!