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Original poster

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

250 replies

grumpypants · 06/02/2010 20:56

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

OP posts:
UnquietDad · 13/02/2010 19:50

The Time Traveller's Wife
To The Lighthouse
A History of Tractors in Ukrainian

Probably a few others, but they are the ones which stick in my mind as having had 50 pages to prove themselves and failing!

80sMum · 13/02/2010 19:53

Nostromo. have tried twice. Just couldn't get into it.

HumphreyCobbler · 13/02/2010 19:59

Lovely Bones, bloody awful.

I finished a lot of the books mentioned on this thread, but wished I hadn't bothered. The Memory Keepers Daughter was particularly bad.

fulltimeworkingmum · 13/02/2010 20:06

The Time Traveller's Wife - too turgid for words!

Georgimama · 13/02/2010 20:13

Another vote for Lord of the Rings. Got about 3/5 through and stopped caring. Have seen the films since, that will have to do.

Lovely Bones was also dreadful. Couldn't fathom it at all, and I have read Ulysses so it's not like obscure prose is generally a problem.

I haven't attempted most of the books on this thread, as I don't tend to read books less than 50 years old (which is not a boast, I am aware I am missing out on many gems but there are just so many damned books published and I cannot distinguish between what I am likely to enjoy and what will be dross, so I don't try).

Am surprised someone couldn't get through Middlemarch though, I couldn't put it down.

UnquietDad · 14/02/2010 00:12

Lord of the Rings is fantastic. There is no point reading it for the first time as an adult when cynicism has set in though - you have to read it at the age of 14-15 when it is officially The Best Book Ever, and then never re-read it.

Tortington · 14/02/2010 00:15

oh no i re-read it - i disagree.

DH knows the fucking elvish he read it so many times.

i have this chick lit book called " how to kill your husband" i just can't get past chapter one.

also DD has a book called noughts & crosses - its a world in which there is black superiority and whites have always been inferior. she raved about the book so much i read it - ad it was proper shit - i didn't finish it

Georgimama · 14/02/2010 06:31

I agree there are books that should not be re-read, just as there are films that should not be rewatched. Juno, for example, is the best film I never want to see again. A complete experience the first and only time I saw it, and frankly too harrowing for me. I am in awe that some people consider it a comedy.

UnquietDad · 14/02/2010 12:22

Noughts & Crosses is by Malorie Blackman. Not read it but I have met her and chatted to her at great length at a conference, and she is lovely.

Elasticwoman · 14/02/2010 16:41

Time Traveller's Wife - hated it.

What Katy Did Next. Thinking about that today because of Valentines chapter in What Katy Did, which I talked about to my Sunday School kids.

Oh and I never quite finished reading the Bible but who has?

To the Lighthouse - didn't understand it.

I did finish Tractors in Ukrainian - and enjoyed it. Quite memorable. Why didn't you like it UQD? Also liked your comments on Lord of the Rings - so that's why I never read it! Missed the window of opportunity.

UnquietDad · 14/02/2010 17:06

That Tractors book - filed it under Trying Too Hard. I just didn't engage with the voice or the characters.

WhatNoLunchBreak · 14/02/2010 19:13

Me: A Suitable Boy, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings (tried twice), Lisey's Story by Stephen King ... and I'm really sorry to say that about the last book: I was, in a friend's words, a true King-ophile until recently

DH: Love in the Time of Cholera - he said he wanted to punch Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the face

We vehemently disagree about Atonement by Ian McEwan. Me: love; He: hate. How???!

chopsache · 17/02/2010 15:39

Another Catch 22 failure here - I wonder how many of us are out there?

War & Peace - tried very hard...

The Time Traveller's Wife - finished it but wished I hadn't.

Atonement - just seemed too miserable.

ClaireDeLoon · 17/02/2010 15:49

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

WingedVictory · 18/02/2010 21:14

Bugger, my earlier post didn't work! I was going to say that I have been emboldened by all this ruthless give-it-x-pages-to-prove-itself-or-it's-history business, to start a book which weighs over a kilo, and it isn't even a hardback. It's 6cm thick!

So far, I am not regretting it. "Drood", by Dan Simmons. Quite gothic already, which I love...

WingedVictory · 28/02/2010 22:05

I finished the "Drood" book today. Nearly 800 pages but worth it (to me). Thank goodness!

LittlePushka · 28/02/2010 22:20

The Life of Pi

WingedVictory · 28/02/2010 22:39

Oh, that's one I've not been tempted by, LittlePushka! How far did you get?

LittlePushka · 28/02/2010 22:47

Page twenty seven.LOL It was truly terrible. DH LOVED it? Why are we married again...??!!

MegBusset · 28/02/2010 22:54

Some of my favourite books are on here! Shame on anyone who doesn't get through The Great Gatsby.

I managed (and enjoyed) Ulysses but gave up on page three of Finnegans Wake. Just had no bloody idea what was going on at all.

tearinghairout · 28/02/2010 23:00

So many here ring bells for me, such as Midnight's Children & The time Travellers Wife. Can I add Behind the Scenes at teh Museam? I really tried, twice, but couldn't remember who was who...

Advice for those struggling with/about to attempt The Return: Don't bother. It's Truly Dire(and totally implausable too).

Re. Dickens - I was given some essays to read a while back as a proofreading excercise. They were very well-written, and brilliantly funny. In places I cried with laughter. Halfway through the author's name appeared at the top of the page - Charles Dickens. So don't give up on him. Have you read A Christmas Carol? It's wonderful.

tearinghairout · 28/02/2010 23:02

I finished Sophie's World (through gritted teeth). 'Tis bolleaux IMHO.

WingedVictory · 28/02/2010 23:16

Oh, I'm so glad people have come back to this thread! It's very liberating to say Philistine things about the Canon, the Holies, the RichardNJudyChoices....

I liked Gatsby, Meg, though realise it's not necessarily lots of people's cup of tea. Lost innocence and dreams can seem very self-indulgent if they are not yours. On the subject of Gatsby/Fitzgerald, I really struggled through "Alabama Song" - a novel/ fictionalised memoir from the point of view of Zelda Fitzgerald - a couple of years ago, not because it was in French (sorry if that's pretentious), but because she just went on and on and on, and didn't seem to have as much imagination about her transgressions as I would have expected from someone claiming to be an artist in her own right. As a feminist, I found it a shame I couldn't be more interested in her! Anyway, I know it won the Goncourt or something like that, but had my suspicions that that was more to do with its being cool to be Americanophile. I think it came out at a time when arch-Armericanophile Sarkozy was in everyone's good graces. This is a bit problem with lots of books, actually: lack of sympathy for a narrator, whose plaints start to bore, and then enrage!

I was also pissed off because the author had written something so much better, and had missed it with this one!

thelunar66 · 28/02/2010 23:27

Lovely Bones
Noughts and crosses

I dont even want to see Lovely Bones as a film.

SpeedyGonzalez · 28/02/2010 23:27

The Idiot. Have tried 3 times. Have learned lesson.

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