What did you start and just couldn't force yourself to finish?

[grumpypants]

I was reading The Seven Secrets of Happiness and it was so dire I couldn't make myself finish (knew who wd end up with who/ 'messages' blindingly obvious etc) - what shd I avoid next

I really, really don't like giving up once I've started so I tend to plod on, even if it takes me months. This was certainly true of Capt Corelli - bits of it roused my interest so I kept going, only to find I'd 'read' several pages and had absorbed nothing. (Louis de Bernieres gave a book signing where I was living. I thought he would resemble Capt Corelli but no, he looked like Ian Hislop).

Didn't like The Time Traveler's Wife.

I am currently bogged down with The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth. I was attracted by The Times' review: "A superior novel of psychological tension" but it just ain't doing it for me!

Book Thief
Kite Runner
A Brief History of Time (not brief enough IMHO)
Spycatcher
Wild Swans
Any Martin Amis
Any Sophie Kinsella ones (is that her name? Can't get passed the front cover)
Any Thomas Hardy and any Dickens

oh gawd got one of those s kinsella ones for bday last week - absolutely dreadful writing.
does anyone want it??

Glad someone else here put down The World According to Garp. Im just over halfway through and I really dont like any of the characters and dont feel engaged with the story at all.

Catch 22 - made a better film, I did read up to page 150 of this so I gave it a fair go.

Sophies World - really good idea but I just couldnt get more than half way through.

The Rapture - ended skim reading

Going Bovine.

Northern Lights I FORCED myself to read but only because my mum and sister loved it.

The Da Vinci Code.

I always try to read books people have given to me as presents/loans as I feel it's a bit rude otherwise. This is the only book I've ever stopped reading at the final chapter. I honestly did not give a shit how it ended.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Now this deserves a special mention. I actually finished this as my lovely DP had bought it for me but it was terrible, just terrible. It took me months and I had a sinking feeling each night before I read my mandatory five pages. If I hadn't had to read it I would have stopped at the first page because there was a mistake on it (she drips blood onto her sleeve, and then suddenly she's wearing a sleeveless shirt).

Agree Amis.

Dostoyewski but not Crime and Punishment - can't remember which now - in any case I exacted my revenge by choosing the tin drum as our next bookclub book

39 steps as a child.

Something by the one who wrote Remains of the Day - kinda liked it but not enough to finish it.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. I don't know why I thought it might be good but it wasn't. I think I read about 50 pages and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Fortunately I got it from the library!

The Swan Thieves. Far too much back history to wade through.

I did love The Children's Book though. Probably to do with I live quite near where a lot of it's set.

Lurking under my bed are:

Midnights Children (I lost it half way through), Adam Bede (I got distracted), Anna Karenina (aah - that woman!), Shadow of the Wind, Doctor Zhivago (I lost that one half way, too), Pope's Rhinoceros, Life of Pi, The strange affair of the dog in the night time, The name of the rose (it's not the same without Christian Slater), Titus Groan

Those are the ones I started - there's a whole pile I know I never even open.

But I loved Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters and AS Byatt's Children's Book - so it's not he size of the book that the problem and I used to think it was.

Cloud Mountain: I'm so glad there is other people out there that couldn't finish it too, god i hated that book, so pointless, boring and really badly written.

My sister keeper: worst book i have ever read.

Cloud Mountain

although A suitable boy is my favourite book of all time, so sad to see other people didn;t like it.

oops- my first book is suppose to be Cloud Atlas, another poster mentioning Cloud Montain must have made it stick in my mind

Her Fearful Symmetry - just got boring and a bit silly (I note her other one is oft mentioned here).

Wolf Hall - Really wanted to like it but didn't half find it hard going. Just given up and have started the 19th Wife which is keeping my attention much better.

The Book Thief
Twilight

Cant believe so many for book thief.. I loved that..

agree Pride prejudice and Zombies got about 10 pages in..

Brick Lane..

some other thing about spice islands I cant even remember.

Andre Agassi autobiography (it was recommended. I got bored about half way in).

Oh and I loved Captain Corelli and all Louis De Bernier books..
I think I must be odd..

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Loved her other books but this was all in the present tense and I found it unreadable because of that!

Cloud atlas
any Salman Rushdie
any Tolkien

On The Road - Jack Kerouac. Despised all the pretentious characters and couldn't care less what happened to them! The only book I have ever leant and not got back without feeling miffed about it.

I managed to finish Wolf Hall but won't bother with the sequel.

'We Need To Talk About Kevin' - managed 30 pages and wanted to kill myself and everybody else.

'Daphne' by (I think) Justine Picardie (sp?). Somebody needs to teach her how to punctuate. V badly edited.

'Gone With The Wind' - it was boring the life out of me. I managed about 180 pages but was losing the will to live.

"One Week in December" by Holly Chamberlin.

The writing wasn't great, the situation wasn't believable and the characters were a bunch of cliches. I wanted to slap everyone in it.

After the first 4 chapters I skipped to the end as I couldn't believe it could get worse...thank god I did as if I had wasted more time reading it would have been even more upset!!

I have just abandoned the latest Jilly Cooper (Jump!). It's a big yawn IMO.

Myself and most of my bookclub hated Love Eat Pray, dont care how many other people loved it, I wanted to give her a good slap and tell her to pull herself together!!! Wont be watching the film either!

I agree with Tolkein. I managed to read the 1st paragraph of the Hobbit and that was more than enough. I have never watched a single second of the film[s] either.
I was unfortunately subjected to the 1st Harry Potter film, in my role as a parent. Would never be tempted to read any of the books, and neither have my kids. IMO it was utter complete crap.
Same with Dickens [I was forced to read Bleak House for Alevel], it literally made my skin crawl.

John Steinbeck, the Grapes of Wrath, which is bizarre, because I love him and have read pretty much every other book, but couldn't finish this one. my Dad had exactly the same problem.

Wolf Hall
Short history of time
The Blind watchmaker.
Mostly I keep going with books once I've started. I am generally disappoined with my tenacity, but, living abroad makes book buying ridiculously expensive.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is the only book that has totally defeated me. I'm another "must finish" person and I do read quickly but (despite trying several times) it seems to suck the love of reading out of me and I find it really hard to start reading (anything) again. No other book has ever had that dreadful an impact on me

Agree with those who cite LOTR, but am glad that I've read it. Don't feel the need to read any more Tolkein though ...

Many I've loved have appeared on here: Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, Atonement, Midnights Children (obviously ), so I wasno't surprised to read the post pointing out that this list has a massive overlap with the good reads list.