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

The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro, just couldn't get what was going on at all, then decided it was worth knowing anyway

The Little Friend - Donna Tartt. Didn't get further than the first chapter.

Some the books other people have mentioned, I absolutely loved - Catch 22, Cloud Atlas, Time Traveller's Wife. I guess I'm just a sucker for distorted timelines!

Roots (by Alex Haley I think)
The Women's Room - Marylin French
Vernon God Little
Wuthering heights (seemed to change plot half way thru)

Like Rocicante - I loved Catch 22, Cloud Atlas, Time Traveller's Wife

Love so many books but I'm currently being bored rigid by 'Wedlock (How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match)' by Wendy Moore. Have only read two chapters though - does anyone know if it's worth persevearing with?

Funny thread - PMSL at 'my eyes were bleeding with boredom'

I have made a pact with myself to go back and finished the un-finished this year.

So far I have got to the end of 'Moab is my Washpot' (Stepehn Fry)and am tackling Victoria Hislop's 'The Return'.

Waiting for me on the shelves are;
'Burning Bright' Tracey Chevalier
'On Green Dolphin Street' Sebastian Faulks
'The Stone Diaries' Carol Shields
'Rebecca's Tale' Sally Beauman
'I Capture the Castle' Dodie Smith

If I don't get through it this time, whatever it is and whatever well-meaning person lent/gave it to me, its going to the charity shop!

Lightshines, I loved I Capture the Castle, so hope you get through it this time. Rebecca's Tale is a bit meh.

Also love the Digested Read in the Guardian, always makes me smile and feel better about not finishing books.

Anything by Iris Murdoch
Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban - I tried and tried but it made me cry with exhaustion after three pages.
Finally got through "Once on a winter's night, a traveller" after three attempts and am still none the wiser.

I love the Stone Diaries and I Capture The Castle - I hope you conquer them this time!

lightshines Stop! Don't do it to yourself! Go, slowly and stealthily to the bookshelf, take The Return, put it in a brown paper bag, secure it tightly, so it doesn't escape and recycle it quickly!

T'is the very worst book I have ever finished (apart from the Memory Keeper's Daughter and the Abortionist's daughter)

Never finished Northern Lights or William Horwood's biog (supposedly one of those I'm really poor but look how well I did yawnsome reads) Have attempted Cranford twice and had to give up twice too.

Eat Pray Love (yawn-self indulgent and so very boring)
The Book Thief

oh I'm so glad I'm not alone with The Book Thief - I keep buying these Richard and Judy book club things and feeling stupid when they bore me senseless. Phew!

Anything by Martin Amis
Anything with a bright pink cover.

And lightshines, don?t bother with Rebecca?s Tale either, by far Sally Beauman?s weakest book, IMHO.

Couldn?t get through Bonfire Of The Vanities (anyone remember that? It was meant to be one of the greatest novels of its era).

And life?s too short to read anything by Stephen Fry.

Kevin, Corelli and Brick Lane

just finished the Stiegg Larrson trilogy, brilliant.

favourite book of last year was Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

Oooh, DuchessofAvon, what are your favourite Iris Murdochs? I love The Bell, The Unicorn and The Book and the Brotherhood, and Flight from the Enchanter was all right, but some of them are appalling , for example the Nice and the Good, An Unofficial Rose. Those I should add to my Couldn't-Finish list.

She is really inconsistent, and I'd really recommend recommendations about what is good and what to avoid!

The Labyrinth...

Anything in hardback that is too heavy to take on the train.
So that's the 3rd Salander book (bored anyway now)
And will mean Wolf Hall never gets read.

The Kevin book - hated it so much I actually threw it away.

Time Traveller's Wife

Netherland

The Lord of the rings completely escaped me - I tried so hard to a) like it b) finish it as my Dad had said it was his favourite

Victor Hugo 'les miserables' has taunted me from the bookshelf for years can't get rid of dh bought it for me, it just looks sooo long. Likewise so has Hawking's 'brief history of time' and 'a short history of nearly everything' by Bill Bryson.

I remember liking the beginning of 'Sophies world' but can't actually remember finishing it.

MIllions of others too numerous to mention.

Possession -- AS Byatt. What hard work!

Oh, I liked Possession! But A.S. Byatt herself got on my nerves when I went to see her at a reading with a friend. I asked her what she thought of the proposal to introduce VAT on books (it was due to be zero-rated, but of course could be increased afterwards without too much fuss). She said her husband and son had assured her it was a Good Thing, and I thought: Oh, piss off!

Now I must blush Winged Victory - for sadly I did mean that I can't finish an Iris Murdoch AT ALL. But your obvious enthusiasm will send me back (again) for another go.

Oh, no, DuchessofAvon, sorry I misread you so badly! We're just flipping back and forth between hate-love and love-hate that I didn't keep up.

You are quite right to hate some Iris Murdoch books; some of them are quite dreadful. However, for gothic beauty and real sexiness, The Unicorn is great, and The Bell is also very good, not quite sure why, but will think about how to explain.

The Book and the Brotherhood has its "longeurs" , but has an incredible plot.

Now, IM does like to get into the essence of things, and if you can't stand philosophical similes about, for example, how thought is like light, she is not for you (or anyone else listening to my blathering). I first read The Bell when I was a teenager, and it soooo appealed to me, ideas and comparisons I could think about, not the so-conventional people around me, that I was extremely grateful. It was grown-up writing and reading for me, when the RL grownups around me were a bit dull.

I hope you're not going to take my recommendation without considering these style issues, as I'd hate to disappoint!

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Was about three quarters through and put it down. Picked it up a year later and had to start from scratch again as there is so much going on and it's bloody long!!! Great book though but hard going.

Funny thread
Sophie's world Aye
Corelli Aye
James Joyce Aye aye aye
Anything involving several generations of Chinese women around the time of the revolution
War and Peace Even living in Russia at the time didn't help.

I've been limbering up for Moby Dick but am having second thoughts now.

Fishie, I'm a fellow Zola fan.Trememndous.I think I've read everything he has ever written.

Excellent thread - I always feel such a failure if I don't finish a book and usually persevere and it's good to see some of my demons in these posts!

Pleased to see i'm in the majority with Kevin, couldn't bear that book

crankytwanky The Celestine Prophecy! I had completely forgotten about that book, can't even remember if I managed to finish it but it was def a struggle

Loved White Teeth but it wasn't the easiest I've read, her next book I gave up on though, can't remember what it was.....

oooh bluesky I bought the Stiegg Larrson trilogy before xmas but haven't started them yet, am v. excited about them

ellieanne, they are great! You need to concentrate a bit on all the names, there are so many characters and unfortunately he doesn't do a list like Jilly Cooper (!!) of all the people and who they are, so if you leave it a while inbetween reads, you think, ooh is that the lawyer, the policeman, great uncle or who?

but I'm sad I've finished them now, great twists, very clever.

The Mulberry Empire by Philip Hensher and The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann - got a fair way in and decided nothing had happened and I didn't care about any of the characters anyway.

I struggle with Dostoevsky but have managed to finish all the ones I've attempted.

Less "worthy" books I give up after a few pages if I don't like them and don't remember.