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.

Thought of another recent one .

What was lost more like What was the point? know a lot of people liked it .

Also agree about Brick lane and I really wanted to enjoy it .

The Outcast. Seems to have been nominated for lots of prizes, several people recommended it, turned out to be unrelentingly depressing and miserable, and there's enough reality like that without reading it for fun IMO. Could add the same reason to loads of others!

Kite Runner - trite, trite, trite.

Underworld by Don DeLillo. Finished the whole bloody thing even though it was like swimming through treacle, but a year later I can't remember a single thing about it. Says it all, really.

Saturday, even though I usu love McEwan.

Oh, another quick question - is there anyone on here who liked Catch 22? Reason I ask is that I have yet to find a woman who enjoyed it. I usually hate the whole 'man's book vs woman's book' concept, but IME this one really does seem to be a bloke's book.

I LOVED Catch 22, but then I am, how to say this, quite manly in my tastes scratches arse and burps. There's lots of girly stuff I can't stand. I put it downt to growing up around too many males

Funny thing is, bleh, I usually think of myself as quite blokey in my tastes as well... Maybe I should give it another try [already feeling slightly weary at the thought.]

I think it does pick up towards the end.

There are lots on this list which I like/love:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Catcher in the Rye
• Confederancy of Dunces
• Great Gatsby.

Maybe I should just give up on being a girl.

I also liked Catch 22. I'd tried to read it a few times and been unable to get into it until I read somewhere that the first 100 pages are awful and then it picks up. I gave it another go and it was literally at page 100 thart I started to enjoy it. It's laugh out loud funny in some places.

oooh, I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost

was v disappointed with The Dream of Scipio

I liked Cap corelli.

I don't like harry potter am so relieved as i thought i was the only one. The films are ok.
bleak house- most dickens is excellent but that book drags on.

i loved a tale of two cities- i cried at the end.

forgive one handed typing.

Greensneeze - how I agree with you.

My guilty pleasure is Ian Pears' stupid books about the English bloke and his Italian policewoman girlfriend.

Every time I'm at Gatwick I spend ages mulling over something improving then put it back and end up one of Pears's comfortingly predictable whodunnits and enjoying it on the beach . Same thing with Christopher Brookmyre.

I also hated Wuthering Heights, Labyrinth (I hate everything about it but mostly find the way she pads it out by translating easily understandable French words and phrases to be a grand bread in the arse.)

The Rabbit books.

Found Flaubert's Parrot a bit confusing but maybe it would have been a good idea for me to know something about Flaubert before attempting it. I still think it would have been dull, though.

It took me three attempts to get into We need to talk abotu Kevin - it's not got the most gripping start or style but it is really worth persevering with.

oooh Fanny Hill, it's only a short novel but it was so boribg despite all the sex

gah!... boring!

The only book I hated enough to actually put in the bin is We Need to Talk about Kevin.

I read We Need to Talk about Kevin when I was pregnant.

That was a mistake.

Kate Mosse Labyrinth was just dire. Couldn't finish it.

Iain M Banks The Algebraist, I finished because I wasn't going to let it beat me, but I thought it was terrible. Not enough plot for the length.

Possession. I can't get passed the bit in the flowery bathroom.

Crime and Punishment. I want to finish it, I do, I do. But I can't.

The Fingerpost thingy. I got to the bit where the heroine was dismembered after her execution. Eeeeeeew.

I really regretted finished American Pscho. Yukky yuk yuk.

earthpixie - you have to get beyond that bit in Fingerpost - all is not as it seems! (it's one of my faves, though I second the easiness of Iain Pear's daft detective fiction.)

Dislikes;

Great Expectations (not as good as I hoped)
Lord of the Rings (er....)
Birdsong (not a patch on Regeneration)
Foucault's Pendulum (didn't get past the first couple of chapters, was losing will to live...)
Catch 22 (again) (just didn't get it)

I didn't hate Lovely Bones, Book Thief or Shadow of the Wind but I won't be re-reading them or recommending them.

Re-read Possession again recently - quite enjoyed it (but it felt long).

Cicatrice - my sister gave me We Need to Talk about Kevin when I was pregnant with DS! Nice.

I'm finding myself agreeing with more and more of these.

Pippa Lee - trite, trashy, tedious.

The Outcast - yawn. Somebody's been reading Ian McEwan methinks. Managed to make Ian McEwan look like a reasonable writer in comparison (and I can't stand him).

Jasper F..F...Ff...whatever his name is. Silly, not very clever, irritating. And so determined to show off how 'well read' he is by piling cliche on top of cliche and then chuckling at his own jokes.

Catcher in the rye,
Birdsong
The Ghost Road
Wild Swans
The God of Small Things.
We need to talk about Kevin.

I only managed to read all of TCINR & TGOST,the others defeated me.I used to plough on regardless,but the older I get the more I realise that life is too short to waste on crap books.

Thank goodness I regularly go to the library and haven't wasted money on the above!
I

Hooray, more people hated Birdsong, I'm not a freak!
And The Time Traveller's Wife - hated hated and hated it. But I did lurve Catch 22....

Birdsong is my favourite book ever. I cried and cried.
Also cried over Captain Corelli, God of Small things, Brick Lane and Wild Swans.
I adored Possession. And liked Atonement and To Kill a Mockingbird a lot.

However, I hated the Kite Runner and the Da Vinci Code. Absolutely cannot understand the hype over those.

The Da Vinci Code is utter utter shite. I got angry whilst reading it, I hated it so much. Don't care how crazy I sound.

Then there are the books I deeply resented my English professors at university assigning and loathing: The Golden Bowl (Henry James), John Galsworthy novels, Vilette, the list goes on. When I worked out how much the individual classes were costing I was even crosser.

Find quite a bit of McEwan very irritating.

Brick Lane isn't at all believable. Shame on Monica Ali.

Loved other books on here though (Catcher) and I've got Underworld on my bookshelves. Haven't been able to get past the first chapter. I can now forgive myself.

I love Great Expectations, I thought there was a vast array of interesting characters I really enjoyed the changing dynamics of them. I think Dickens is very creative in his writing and build a fascinating picture of people and places.

American Psycho; I understand why it makes you feel sick, the gore was the main thing that stood out for me the first time I read it (the most violent book I have read). The second time the humour really shone through and I was laughing out loud on the tube.

Is the Da Vinci Code that bad, I haven't read it and was considering it.

Harry Potter, not something I thought I would ever read. But I think my baby gave me a lobomy in the final trimester and I found the series very enjoyable, apart from the final book when she tried o wrap things up and did so very lazily.

I think Stephen King (excluding The Shining) is rubbish, or that too low brow for this thread? [wink}