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Original poster

Books that have defeated you

201 replies

Queenoftheharpies · 25/05/2009 16:25

Middlemarch.

I've tried reading it three times now, and enjoyed it right up to the point where Dorothea gets engaged to Casaubon. And then, for no reason hit a stumbling block.

It's always the same point in the story as well. I think it's when there's some protracted discussion of the corn laws / agricultural practice.

Has anyone else encountered this? A book you really want to finish but that just defeats you?

OP posts:
lljkk · 26/05/2009 22:44

I couldn't bring myself to even crack Middlemarch open, lol. It sat by the bed for a month before I gave up and took it back to the library.

Anything with very small text, really (I am getting old). I am a terrible one for reading the first 50 pages or so of a novel and then skipping to the end to see what happens, then skimming back thru for an hour or so for the interesting details. I did that recently with Kiterunner: I just found it so formulaic and trite, I couldn't be bothered to read the narrator's anguished details any more.

LOTR Book2, like others have said!!!

But no regrets.
I have managed to properly read a lot of the others, I even read Crime and Punishment in my 2nd language (with English copy nearby for tricky words, you understand ).

Nobody mentioned Moby Dick! I loved it, but I bet it belongs on the list, too. Or Anna Karenina?

Tarka · 26/05/2009 22:49

Another vote for Life of Pi.....tried a number of times, just cannot get past first few pages for some reason.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith, after feeling like I was wading through treacle for ages, got a quarter of the way in and then couldn't put it down.

Loved Middlemarch, Catch 22 and Crime and Punisment.

usernamechanged345 · 26/05/2009 23:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MollieO · 26/05/2009 23:38

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (even though Apocolypse Now was based on it I still couldn't get through it).

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (given to me by a friend and described as the 'best book ever'). I thought it was shite (well the bit I read was ).

Have not tried to read Ulysses but as I like punctuation I won't be trying any time soon.

Linnet · 27/05/2009 00:01

Pride and Prejudice
Catch 22
The welsh girl

tigerdriver · 27/05/2009 00:05

am trying to read Blindness by Jose Saramago for my book group. BLIMEY ( pardon the pun). am going to have to read the reviews and bluff it for the talk, it's a stinker.

PrincessLayer · 27/05/2009 01:35

American Psycho. It was far too descriptive for me, and I don't mean the graphic violence (although I gave up before most of that) but the boring shit describing his tie and shirt and such, and then there was the mind numbing chapter about a Genesis record (I think it was genesis anyway) It was about there I packed it in.

daisy99divine · 27/05/2009 01:46

Don Quixote. Couldn't do it. God, the pain.
Now just looking at the cover makes me shiver.

weasle · 27/05/2009 02:33

Oh yes, Heart of Darkness defeated me.
And anything by Ian McEwan, have tried 3 and not finished any. Did about 5 pages of Sunday.
I forced my way through Anna Karenina whilst on mat leave after ds1. Thought it was crap, and all that 'best novel ever' stuff is a smug conspiracy by literary types showing off that they got through it!
A F Scott Fitzgerald one not Great Gastby, Tender sonmething?
Hmm, probably a few more. i used to refuse to give up, but now agree life too short.

Captain Corelli really good after the first few chapters. I loved the English patient on the second read after watching the film (gave up first time)

BikeRunSki · 27/05/2009 09:03

LOTR - Couldn't cope with the books, hated the films. Although loved the Silmarillion.

Have tried to read The Great Gatsby about 20 times and always give up about 1/3 of the way through. I would love to finish it, but well, never seem to get there.

Love Captain Correlli, Hitchhikers', Ian McKewan and Zadie Smith. But agree with Catch 22 haters.

notnowbernard · 27/05/2009 09:06

The Great Gatsby

Was utterly defeated, but did try

GothAnneGeddes · 27/05/2009 09:21

White Teeth again. It was just some one chuntering on and on and a way that is meant to be dazzlingly insightful, but is actually just tedious.

Also Catch 22.

I second whoever said Jodi Picoult was dreadful. My Mum brought in My Sister's Keeper when I was in hospital after having dd.Awful, clunky and unbelievable.

I would have rather read the lettering on my catheter bag.

Original poster
Queenoftheharpies · 27/05/2009 09:43

I'm put off Jodi Picoult because they all sound like they're about "people coming to terms with stuff" (to quote that fine literary critic Homer Simpson).

OP posts:
cupcakefairy · 27/05/2009 10:06

Oooh spotted this topic on the day's picks and had to come and join in.
I unfrotunately have a disease whereby I CANNOT leave a book unfinished...so even ones I've hated I just have to finish them.
Examples-
Dune (forced upon me by sci-fi mad members of my book group)
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Then there are others I didn't hate at all but it was a long haul to the end-
Possession (soooo worth it in the end!)
Captain Correlli's Mandolin
Dracula
The Beautiful and Damned
etc...

Am reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt at the moment...absolutely loving it! And I thought Great Gatsby was a relatively easy read...
Agree that Jodi Picoult writes trash but am quite looking forward to the film of My Sister's Keeper

Is American Psycho really all that bad PrincessLayer? Have been wanting to read it for ages cos I looove the film.

basementbear · 27/05/2009 10:24

Catch 22, Captain Correlli, anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez I absolutely LOVE! Please persevere, they are worth it.

Agree that Jodi Picoult is rubbish.

American Psycho - can't say I really "enjoyed" it but I like Brett Easton Ellis's style.

I cannot get through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand although I have tried many times. A year or so ago I read that they were making it into a film with Angelina Jolie but it doesn't seem to have materialised.

Also Sophie's World I have never managed to finish.

Ulysses I keep meaning to start but have never even managed to! It just looks too big ...

dreamygirl · 27/05/2009 10:39

I also struggle to leave books unfinished and I agree with you cupcakefairy that it has its rewards e.g. Captain Corelli although I have ploughed through some miserable and unrewarding stuff, most notably Always the Sun by Neil Cross. I began Ulysses a couple of years ago with the attitude that I could force myself through anything even if I didn't really get it. In this case though, apparently not... I don't say that I've given up, just that I'm "still reading it".

One other that I never finished is The Name of the Rose. Started it for book group whilst pregnant 7 years ago, left book group and didn't finish the book before DD arrived. Now whenever I look at the cover I'm overwhelmed with nausea at the memory of the horrible morning sickness and can't carry on

purpleduck · 27/05/2009 10:57

That Swan one about China....I have tried and tried.....

And Wuthering Heights

Original poster
Queenoftheharpies · 27/05/2009 11:06

Wuthering Heights gets loads better after chapter 4, if you can stick it out until then, it gets much better.

OP posts:
dittany · 27/05/2009 11:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

beaniebaby25 · 27/05/2009 11:52

All those not convinced by Ian McEwan, try reading his Child of our Time (I think it's called) - one of my favourite books ever. Much better than the others, which I admit can be a little slow and difficult to get into. Try this one though, you won't regret

I also loved American Psycho, but you just have to skim through the clothing references. It's integral to his character but once you 'get' that, you don't need to read every single description otherwise it becomes mind-numbing. Great book, not so keen on the film though.

Books that I've never got through? Another vote for Catch 22 here. I have a stack at home that I mean to read (many mentioned here already), and have started several of them but not 'got into them' yet.

Note to self: must try harder!!

londonlexi · 27/05/2009 12:57

I just read every other chapter of Captain Corelli and ignored the bits about war!

Margaret Atwood doesn't do it for me, despite everyone always telling me she should. I keep trying

Spaceman · 27/05/2009 13:04

Catch 22 - tried three times.
Currently Great Expectations.
Lord of The Rings; the last two.

Should never force yourself to read a book.

cupcakefairy · 27/05/2009 14:03

Ah yes, Great expectations is one of the few I didn't finish... it got so boring halfway through!

Beaniebaby I agree, The Child in Time is prob the best McEwan I've read but it's barely known for some reason. I looooved Atonement but hated On Chesil Beach (what tosh!!) Have just bought Amsterdam so will see what I think of that

Anyone read Sophie's Choice? I borrowed it from my MIL months and months ago and haven't been able to face it yet...

infin · 27/05/2009 15:09

Yes, I read Sophie's Choice, almost 30 years ago when I was a teenager. I certainly read it before the film came out. As it was so long ago I can't remember whether it was a great read but it certainly had a profound affect on me. More recently, I read 'Lie Down in Darkness' by the same author and thought it was an extremely well written, tragic tale.

VintageGardenia · 27/05/2009 15:23

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, it's a genre I like, the reviews were all fantastic, on paper it was perfect. In the hand it was like chewing Ryvita.