Which books or authors do you know you *ought* to like, but just can't?

[Cosmosis]

I find both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights almost unreadable, and yet I know many people who love them both. It's not a Bronte thing I don't think, as I loved Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Also, other than Hard Times and Great Expectations, I really can't read Dickens.

Iris Murdoch

I've read Catcher in the rye about three times, thinking perhaps I'd missed something. I still don't get what all the fuss is about.

im with ya on catcher - what a pile of wanking shit bollocks

Agree re: Catcher In The Rye, although unable to put it as eloquently as Custardo!

Have to disagree here , Got CITR the second time, all of a sudden at the end - hairs rising on the back of the neck kind of feeling

Scarletibis- I did the same with the Women's Room. (although have never gone back for a second attempt)
I remember with CITR thinking "yeah, and???"
Maybe I should go back and reread all these "meh" inducing books.
Except Magical Realism. I'd rather read Elvish poetry than that. Or Cold Comfort Farm. I'd be the loopy one in the woodshed if I had to read that again.
Didn't really get Time Traveller's Wife either. It was OK, but not worth the hype.

For some reason, I've never read Iris Murdoch so, when one of hers came up in the book group, I thought that it would be a chance to improve my high-brow credentials. Hated it! It is a first-person narration and said FP is a very, very tedious character; I cannot relate to him at all. I gave up about a quarter of the way through because we were still scene-setting and nothing was happening. Very yawnsome.

I forced my way through one Iris Murdoch.
I also dislike Edna O'Brien.

bucharest and scarletibis, we recently did The Womens Room for our book group and the first half I really struggled with, however I have to say, I persevered and ended up really quite liking it.

Interesting that there are so many Catch 22 haters. DH said he started off really enjoying it, thought it was well written and quite witty, but by about half way through, he just felt he was re-reading the same chapter over and over again.

Message withdrawn

I've thought of another one: The Alchemist.

I know it's meant to be allegorical and I'm probably just really shallow but...yawwwnnn...

I can't bear Dickens.

And I started reading the Harry Potter books when they first came out as everyone raved about them - read one, thought ok, not too bad. Then read the second one and had to double check the cover as I thought I'd picked up the first one again. Persevered through then by the time I started number 3 I decided they were the Groundhog Day of books and gave up.

I quite liked Catch 22, but I was quite young when I read it so perhaps I was less discerning. I don't see why it's an "ought to read" book though, I though it was a fairly standard thriller thing.

Could not get to grips with Philip Pullman at all, DH urged me to read it as he though it was great but I just thought it was dull and a bit pretentious.

Don't like Dickens or Ian McEwan. My Mum loves McEwan and keeps trying to pass books on to me. She says that he writes the thoughts of female characters really accurately. Which explains why my mother and I rarely see eye to eye on anything I suppose as I think his female characters are irritating.

I like some Iris Murdoch, but she can be very heavy going.

Thomas Hardy
Virginia Woolf

I love Catch 22 though!

arti - Paolo Coehlo is total crap, and about as deep as a petri dish. please dont apologise for not liking his stuff! I dont know why so many people are taken in by it.