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.

Loathe Mansfield Park, particularly since I love all of Jane Austen's other novels. Just couldn't stand Fanny Price.

Whilst on classics I can't stand Jane Eyre and Wuthering sodding Heights either.

I would also add Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis to the list of the unreadable.

I used to be very patient with books and plough on through even if I hated it, as I so hated the thought of not finishing a book. Now though if something doesn't appeal in the first paragraph I give up. Unless I am on holiday and there are no books around in which case I will read anything out of sheer desparation and necessity, past horrors include that bloody Kate Mosse travesty, something by Marian Keyes, some nonsense about life in France called 'A Year in the Merde' (it was) and some Tony Parsons nonsense. Also have read a pile of Mills and Boon stories when stranded in Kenya once, actually they were great fun but shocking in their attitude, could have been written in the 1930s.

I am surprised to see Dickens mentioned here so many times. I absolutely love his writing.

I have lined up Hard Times as my next read....... IF I can ever finish reading "women in love" by DH Lawrence, my god it's a struggle. Unlikeable characters so I couldn't care less what happens to them, and the most pretentious dialogue.

The next time I read the Ursula "cried" something the book is going in the bin.

I also hated We Need to Talk About Kevin... good idea but written in a very indulgent way.

Could never get past the 3rd page of Peter Pan... does anyone know if it's worth the effort?

Some more votes for:

A Suitable Boy
Catcher in the Rye (although wasn't there a thread on here recently about how if you re-read it when older you "get" it? But I can't be arsed.)
Lord of the Rings
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (have heard it said that Capt Corelli is "a man's book." Discuss.)
Frankenstein - had to read it at university - one of those books that, when you have finally finished it, makes you want to throw a party.
Anyone remember A Woman of Substance? Everyone was always reading it on the train and when I tried I was incredulous that she had even managed to get it published, let alone have it become a bestseller.

Haven't read 'em all yet Ladyaga, but it has to be said, Hard Times is not one of his best...

Here's mine:

Karma Sutra (thought it would be more interesting than it was).

The 19th wife (the one about polygamy & Mormans - just bored the pants off me).

White Teeth (put it down one day & never gone back to it as always have better things to read).

There's loads actually, & its not that I've got a short attention span, I love LOTR & have read Ulysses from start to finish. Its just that there are so many shite books out there.

Life's too short to struggle through books for the sake of it!!

Read a Discworld book instead!!!!!

The Lovely Bones - probably one of the worst books ive read that everyone raved about at the time.
Also some R&J book, think its was the Diary of Pippa Lee or something like that, utterly crap!

I loved The Island by Victoria Hislop which I know a lot of Mners hated, also didnt mind the Time Travellers Wife either.

I have never read any of the Harry Potter books but I think Id hate them

My fave book ever is This Book Will Change Your Life by AM Holmes (and if anyone has a copy they dont want i'd love to read it again, I give all my books to the charity shop but its one I shouldve kept)

The Great Gatsby

(Actually, I don't know if it's a load of crap or not, because I just couldn't get into it - so didn't finish it)

Balloonslayer - I read Woman of Substance when I was about 12, it was one of my fave books then! I can still remember the story in microscopic detail.

Do I do remember it as being ropy old tosh. Can imagine if I read it today I probably wouldn't love it!

I agree with so many on here!

Lovely bones/PS I Love you/anything else with baby blue and pink on the cover
Pillars of the Earth (so slow and predictable)
Anything by Dickens (wading through sludge)
Thomas Hardy (you know it will all end badly, and was analysed to death in English A-level)
Catch 22 (never finished)
Crime and Punishment
That Jilly Cooper about a school (way too much about minors having sex, all felt slightly wrong....)
I'm sure there are more!

I agree with Getorfmoiland about Wuthering Heights. I was sooooooo angry when I finished reading it, thinking about all the hours of my life wasted on that stupid book.

Another book that makes me super-angry is The Line of Beauty, but I think that's more to do with the whole snobby class system thing that goes on in it.

This thread is great, I am in total agreement with so many people (although must confess that I absolutely LOVE The Time Traveller's Wife).

Would also like to add The Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory, An Interpretation of Murder, Love in the Present Tense, and many of the smug, self-satisfied I'm-so-original literary adventures by Jaspar Fforde - Lost in a Good book etc (although the nursery rhyme ones are OK)

Owen Meany
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency
A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine
To Kill a Mocking Bird
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Susan Hill - Mrs de Winter (a sequel to Rebecca) was one of the most disappointing books I have ever read.
Canal Dreams by Iain Banks - love his work but this was terrible.

I agree about Wuthering Heights too. How anyone could consider Heathcliff a romantic hero is beyond me. He digs her dead body up FFS . . . bleurgh

I agree about Wuthering Heights too. How anyone could consider Heathcliff a romantic hero is beyond me. He digs her dead body up FFS . . . bleurgh

whoops! sorry...

Hmmm - some of the books I have been given as presents over the past few years are on this thread! Instead of taking them as holiday reading this summer, maybe I should just list them on eBay now .

Some book called Incidents of the Finger Post or something - it was contrived beyond belief and yes, a pile of poo!

i got so bored one night reading Lady Chatterlys lover I went through it and counted all the references to fish

(there are 37)

Middlemarch - George Eliot. One of the most tedious, irritating books ever penned.

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen, solely because of that wet bint, Fanny Price.

Portnoy's Complaint - Phillip Roth. Self indulgent rot.

Paul bloody Auster. Especially the feted New York Trilogy.

Saturday - Ian McEwan.

Sooo many, where to start?
Wuthering heights truly terrible and Jane Eyre not much better.
Can't tell you how may times I've tried to read vanity fair and failed
Jasper Fforde was recommened to me by my sister who's usually pretty reliable but was really irritating and far to clever for its own good
Anita Shreve/Jodi Picoult overwritten unengaging drivel
Thomas Hardy in general - cheer up mate

I loved an unsuitable boy and Midnight's children though read them a long time ago whilst travelling in India so not sure how they would stand up to being re-read now. Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well.

How can you not like To kill a mockingbird? It was the first book I stayed up all night to finish.Go on, give it another go!!

Another vote for AS Byatt's Possession - fortunately I got flu and that got me out of finishing it.

And Wuthering Heights which was just bloody dreadful but fortunately I bought a second-hand copy and it fell apart halfway through so that got me out of finishing that.

Biggest let-down ever was Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook. Tutor at university raved about it, I saved it up for a special treat to read after graduating, it even had a golden cover, I was so excited, but then it was just dull dull dull and I just did not grasp whatever it was that I was supposed to grasp. Although as I recall there's quite a good description of period pain in it at one point. But that's all I can remember. When I think Golden Notebook I think period pain. And that's not a good recommendation for any book really is it?

I've said this many times before but I think Brick Lane is incredibly poorly written. And I shelled out for the hardback and everything. Bah.

The Lovely Bones is a pile of pants too, IMO. But then I wasn't really expecting that to be any good (it was bought for me).

I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Confederacy of Dunces I found depressing rather than hilarious.

I avoided Captain Correlli's Mandolin for years thinking it would be rubbish because it was so popular, but was then extremely pleasantly surprised.

Just goes to show - we've all got different tastes!

There was a post on the guilty pleasures books thread last week making references to necrophilia in Wuthering Heights!

Oh and agree re. Brick Lane - it was awful, couldn't believe the hype.