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

Oscar and Lucinda - boring boring boring boring BORING

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence

so many favourites on here! Lovely Bones - awful though. And hold hand up to War & Peace and I am battling through Crime & Punishment, I will get there eventually...

Catcher In The Rye.

I'm so happy to see We should talk about Kevin or whatever it is come on this thread quite a bit. I was really annoyed by the first couple of lines but kepy trying as my friend said it was brill.

Ha!

Afluenza is also crap.

Time Traveller's Wife (total schmultz)

Cloud Atlas (unbearable)

Bloody Richard & Judy book club shite.

I have tried to read a couple of Joyce Carol Oates books and had to fling them down in disgust

I have actually finished a couple of Amis's novels. Dreadful.

Currently The Quickening Maze. It's such a draaaaaag!

I am reading Cutting for Stone and although I have got to page 283 I feel like calling it a day, only another 300 odd to go

it has rave reviews on amazon

There are sooooooo many books I've started and not finished. I'm definitely in the life's too short' camp when it comes to novels. If you're not enjoying it, what the hell is the point?

I have read Catch 22 though and loved it - worth the effort. But I'm quite happy to ditch any book that bores or irritates me , notable examples being Ulysses (utterly pointless) Lord of the Rings (yawn) Short History of Tractors (as a friend pointed out, not short enough) and countless others that I just couldn't be arsed with after the first few pages. I have no sense of commitment.

I'm a book slag.

The Childrens Book A S Byatt. I ploughed through Possession years ago and skipped loads of bits but overall thought it was great - read half of this one and just can't be arsed any more, life is too short. I don't give a flying f* what happens to any of them. Everyone bangs on about the language and the beauty of the writing and so on but surely you need a bit of a plot as well? If you want poetry read a poem, it is shorter. Swapped it for some trashy Tess Gerritson instead

I'm with WingedVictory on the S.Donaldson (see miles above) as I really didn't like the leprosy etc etc...some 'Fantasy' does get a bit objectionable but there are plenty of books which I enjoy in the genre eg. Anne McCaffrey.

Eat Love pray, started it a couple of weeks ago and am not excited about it at all.

Ulysses - started it at uni and changed my module from Irish lit to Shakespeare so i wouldn't have to finish it, couldn't bear it. Mrs Dalloway too. all that modernist rambling, stream of consciousness shite.................

however read Lord of the Rings at 14 and loved it. Couldn't read it now though.

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

At the time, I remember admitting to hating it and people thinking that I must be illiterate and thick.

Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Lots of books on here that I really loved (S Donaldson for starters ) and plenty more I kept going with in an 'I've started so I'll finish' way (the lovely bones, anyone?) but it does take an awful lot for me to put a book down once I've committed.

Having said that, I've just parked "The Dice Man"...it felt both misogynistic and dated, and I suspect wasn't going to be as interesting/original as American Psycho which I stuck with just to see how bad it could get.

Not wildly impressed by Irvine Welsh's "If you liked school you'll love work" collection of short stories I'm working though now, but hate the idea of parking 2 books in a row

Time travller's wife (glad I'm not alone on this one - everyone seems to gush about it )
Cloud ATlas
Labyrnthe - - kate mosse (ugh!)
The Island - Vicotria Hislop
That Salman Rushdie one...

oh loads more, i'm sure.

"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas". A good idea, but very badly written. The story might have been more effectively told from the older sister's P.O.V. but privileging the experience of the 9 year-old boy diminished a desperately serious piece of history IMO. "Outwith" and "The Fury" - ugh.

Ulverton...aargh!

Hello Fatty - although I should've known that DF's autobiography wouldn't be much good...

I second James Patterson, awful stuff - I've never read one through and always thinks I could write a better story meself.

Loved Perfume though...

...Actually, can I also add "The Satanic Verses" and "The Secret Garden" to the list??

I think the fatwa against Salman Rushdie was something of an overreaction in that it gave a mostly esoteric and irrelevent book a reputation it simply doesn't deserve, and I gave reading "The Secret Garden" on Ninetendo DS' '100 Greatest Books' application after 10786 pages of trite, old-fashioned, and frankly class-ridden, bigoted language. I know it's a children's book of its time, but sheesh!!

The Mill On The Floss

It was like breathing treacle

The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass - awful awful awful!
Ulysees - James Joyce - got as far as page 15 in one of the 3 times I tried it!
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - very disappointed! Just too bizarre. Could understand other people liking it though if you like off the wall stuff.
Anything by Dickens - tortured by Great Expectations for O'Level and never really got back on that horse!
Atonement - I did finish it and it got better but the first half was really really tedious.