What books were you 'supposed' to enjoy but thought were a pile of crap? And why?

[MrsMerryHenry]

A Suitable Boy

Writing style far too poncey and utterly incapable of moving me.

Beloved - studied it for A'Level

Herzog - whiny

Anything by Hardy -aaaaaargh

Dickens - unreadable

I couldn't read the Diary of Ann Frank - I hated it.

However - I loved Flowers in the Attic, If there be Thorns, Petals in the Wind and ummm nope it's gone...Seeds of Yesterday? - addictive teen twaddle

Gave up both of these two thirds of the way through:

The Hobbit - found it a bit dull and couldn't get 'gripped'.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - utterly depressing and painfully slow-moving.

I know it's a bit of a kids book but after 6 months I finally got hold of

The Boy in the striped pyjama's

and it was shit! It was too repetitive, and I thought the story in general was pretty crappy expected much, much more. I want to see the film now though.

In my defence though I did'nt know it was a kids book so that could be why i did'nt like it LOL,

We bought a zoo.

I thought it was going to be light hearted and about a zoo.

It was actaully the struggle between buying zoo and wife dying.

Good book but definetly not what I wanted.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin. It was an ok book I just could not see what all the fuss was about.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon-sentimental shite imo

DaVinci Code -crap

The Island- beyond crap

A Prayer for Owen Meany- meh ! not as good as everyone bangs on about..lost interest.

All the Jane Austen books, dull dull dull

Captain Corelli - could not start it.
Any Harry Potter beyond the first 3. They do not function as either children's or adult's literature. The first three are solid children's books.
I am also struggling to like One Hundred Years of Solitude. I know the failing is mine, I've been trying to read it for many years.

Agree with Shadow of the Wind, didn't think the author really knew what he wanted to write

Saturday - lots of navel-gazing, uninspired characters

Anything by Dan Brown - over-hyped, poorly written drivel!

i read at least 3 or 4 books a week, mostky paperback fiction, but these were thr pits.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, why did everyone think it was amazing? Having been to a lot of the places in the book, it is unbelievably inaccurate and inconsistent. Thought I 'd give him a second chance with Kiterunner, utter tripe too

Ladies detective series, so young and immature, like something for 11 year olds to progress to. ( No sex!)

Captain Corelli and Da Vinci, just downright boring, so were the films.

Light on Snow - Anita Shreve, infact most books by her, covers look good and that is about all!

I did read all the way through 100years of solitude, but only because I was on holiday and there it was. I finished it and thought - nothing.

Funny about Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. everytime I read it, I quiet enjoy it. But I feel no compulsion to read it (this is not like me). An odd book.

Hated Cap corelli and da vinci code - just awful books. Also English patient was one I read about 2 paras of and realised it was not going to be my thing. I do love a sentence to have a verb in it.

But I adore Hardy and Dickens, so am going to leap in and take them out the bonfire.

Basically, everything Waterstone's have on their 'lit-lite' 3 for 2 table is here isn't it? Books that are supposed to be proper literature but are actually badly written drivel - Lovely Bones, Alchemist, Kevin, Captain Corelli, Ladies Detective, Time Traveller's Wife. All pants and all have made the writers and publishers A LOT of money.

...despite the fact that nobody likes them or has even managed to read them right the way through.

On The Road
Owen Meany
LOTR
Started them all so many times but just can't get through them.

Used to try really hard to finish any book I started but now have 50 page rule. If it hasn't got me by then I give up & don't feel guilty. I was always a big reader but since having kids just don't have the time so not about to waste precious time struggling through stuff that doesn't grab me.

Oh and I hated Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

yes if I do manage to find a book you want in the 3for 2 table I lose the will to live trying to find another 2 and give up

Middlemarch[Dorothea's goodness irritates]
Life of pi [couldnt get into it at all]
I find a lot of modern 'intellectual'fiction tries too hard to appear clever.
My best recent reads have been 'The Inkheart Trilogy'by Cornelia Funke-given to me by my 8yr old dgd who loved it-wow vol 3 has over 700 pages!!and 'The Long Road Home'autobiography by John Grogan[Marley and me].

Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

I just couldn't get into it at all and I always try to read a novel to the end. Got to the end of Chapter One and gave up. Absolutely hated it.

Anything by Thomas Hardy is just so depressing and having read many of his novels for study purposes,I lost the will to live by the end of each one. Such drudgery...... and oh God yes, Middlemarch, bloody hard work!

Agree with Captain Corelli's Mandolin - couldn't finish it; could barely start it.

First chapter of LOTR great; but then deteriorates quickly.

Biggest recent disappointment was The Olde Curiosity Shoppe - such an old pot-boiler, with a terrible plot and I certainly couldn't give 2 hoots about Little Nell and her untimely demise.

Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year - he had the great idea of deliberately writing badly so he could make out that it was written by a non-author...

Life of Pi

The Book Thief
Mr Pip
Anything Thomas Hardy
Rachel Papers, or anything Amis
Henry James

Really hated them all.

I enjoyed The Lovely Bones, Life of Pi, The Little Friend/Secret History by Donna Tartt and No1 Ladies Detective Agency series

I loved Midnights Children, and Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell too, I thought they were totally absobing and original.

I hated The Picture of Dorian Gray. Enough with the aphorisms, Oscar.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin- the film was bad enough, the book eurgh!

One thousand splendid suns- boring twaddle
Kiterunner likewise.

Ladies Detective Agency- banal, surely this is really for children?

Eat, Pray, Love- shallow and self-absorbed.

Birdsong
London Fields
Enduring Love
That thing by Kazuo Ishiguro about cloning
The True Story of the Kelly Gang (or some title like that)
The English Patient
The Famished Road
Lark Rise To Candleford
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time (I know it's a kids' book but it was marketed at adults)
Anything by Thomas Hardy
Most things by Dickens - I know it's valuable social commentary but I can't get past the twee names and mawkishness
The Heart of the Matter
Anything by Margaret Atwood but especially Alias Grace

I loved A Confederacy of Dunces but agree you have to plough through the first 30 odd pages

I agree with so many of these although i did enjoy The girl with the Pearl Earring (and all Tracy Chevalier books in fact). also quite liked The Life of Pi but that may be because the tiger has the same name as my brother!

I can't believe no one has yet mentioned The Bridges of Madison county. I was given this as a gift but what a lot of over-hyped tosh that was!

Agree with some of these but not all. My two worst were Birdsong and anything by Martin Amis.