Have you given up on any books you started reading?

Sorry, GG, I'd gone elsewhere for a while. Hope you have had a nice nap from gn!

Yes, do persevere with Captain Corelli. powerful book in many ways and all that crimson says.

I feel out of kilter here. I could not get on with The Kite Runner. I am fascinated by Afghanistan and usually read everything about it, but I got to the rape scene and thought that actually I really did not want to know about that. Sorry. But, there again I enjoyed The da Vinci Code. It is just a fast paced thriller, I never did understand all the furore about it being true. But I could not follow the one set in Washington (can't remember the name). When the geography and layout of a place is so important to understanding what is going on they really ought to include a map or plan.

I very nearly gave up on Blue Monday by Nicci French. Normally I get through their books really quickly and go looking for more, but as I read in the acknowledgements section at the end of the book (when I'd finally finished it), they are trying out a different style. I'm glad I finished it, because it had a sharp twist at the end, but I was just a bit disappointed. Has anyone else read it?

Biggran, I enjoyed The Kite Runner, but not as much as his other book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, I just couldn`t put it down, have you read that one?
Greenmossgiel, no, I haven`t read that one by Nicci French, but I tend to find what I have read a bit tame, but then I like my books a bit gory!

Thanks numberplease; think I've found the perfect book for my holiday read!

I can't 'do' gory, numberplease!

I can't 'do' gory, numberplease!

OOps, posted that twice - and it wasn't even interesting, sorry!

I have just had to delete a book from my kindle for the first time. Simon Scarrow. All battles. No love. Complete waste of money.

If it had be a paperback at least it could have gone to Oxfam.

I've just deleted a book from my kindle too jangly, "Behind the scenes at the museum" by Kate Atkinson. I tried twice to get into it but have decided that it's not worth the effort when there are so many other books that appeal to me

I loved 'Birdsong' and 'Charlotte Grey' both by Sebastian Foulkes - however haven't enjoyed any of his others ie: Engelby' etc. Have any of you tried Cormac McCarthy's books. Some of them very dark and violent - he wrote 'No Country for Old Men' and 'The Road' both filmed. I've read most of his and love them. Hated 'We Need to Talk about Kevein' too.

Recently read A Week in December by Faulks, I thought it was really good and well written. It's about the interconnected lives of unconnected Londoners

I almost gave up on 'Kevin'. I read about half-way through it and skimmed the rest because I had to, for our book group. I thought it was one of the most obnoxious books I've ever had the misfortune to read!

My neighbour was addicted to Tolkien and lent me The Hobbit. She was totally puzzled when I said I couldn't see why anyone would want to bother reading it. I have tried reading both it and Lord of the Rings since and still can't be bothered! It's not an attention thing - I just thought they were incredibly boring. I find anything by Stephen Fry pretentious self-satisfied garbage and won't bother again, and I struggle with Margaret Drabble - gave up on Seven Sisters and the Red Queen but conscience dictates that I must have another go at some stage. I am currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - being able to dip in and out of various chapters suits my attention span at the moment....

I found that Margaret Drabble's early books were far more accessible than her later ones and I haven't bothered with them in recent years. I could say the same about Iris Murdoch whose works also became increasingly obscure.

I was reading Bel Canto for our book club - paperback version - and had to give up because I could not read the small, grey print. Have now given up my variphocals and have had specific reading glasses made. At least things are easier to read now.

I tried to read something by Gerald Durrell's brother (what was his name again?), because my clever friends were reading him, got to a bit where he's describing a little girl skinny-dipping and he mentions "the white flash of her purse" - I thought "uh-oh, this guy's a paedo" and dropped it. (Subsequent revelations, actually, suggest that I was right.) Anyway, I'll stick with "My Family and Other Animals" thank you!
As for sci-fi, I used to love Kurt Vonnegut - quirky, humane and moral in the widest sense.
And I once read a lovely novella by Judith Merrill, called "Homecalling", about two children marooned on a strange planet, and their interaction with the local aliens, who are hideously ugly but kind and intelligent and organised like a bee colony. I've been looking for something else by her but never found any; has anyone else come acros her? Oh and of course there's Naomi Mitchison!

I started reading War and Peace, but gave up completly when I got to the part when Prince Andre's wife Lisa dies in childbirth.The way Tolstoy describes it is horrific, I could not stop crying over poor Lisa.
I almost died giving birth so that was why it affected me so much.
I also give up on Jane Austen.None of her books do anything for me.

The only book I can remember giving up on is 'Birdsong'. People kept telling me to keep at it but I was chapters in and nothing had happened. I even managed to finish 'Nothing Happened' although I haven't a clue what happened in it now. I must be lightweight.

I read once that Sebastian Faulks isn't a very good writer, so I've never attempted to read the book. I'm sure people who enjoy his books will disagree, but thay may be why you didn't get into it. I've just borrowed a copy of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak..picked it up and was was immediately taken with the style of writing and it's quirkiness.

I didn't take to 'Birdsong', although I did finish it. I found Faulks's portrayal of women unconvincing.

Just realised that the Joseph Heller book, after 'Catch 22' was called 'Something Happened' so more proof I am lightweight - couldn't even remember the title properly. It wasn't a good book. I like the comment about Faultks' protrayal of women being unconvincing Annobel. I didn't analyse why it had irked me so but that may be a part of it.

I think the fact you called it Nothing Happened was a sort of Freudian slip, as nothing obviously did [or didn't] happen.

I nearly gave up on Birdsong because the early chapters were very much a man's view of sex (naturally, as the author is a man!) and I found them tedious to say the least. But once the First World War scenes started I was hooked and stayed up until the small hours to finish it. It ended up being my Book of the Year! Should add that I normally avoid books about WWI, so there must have been something about the quality of Faulks's writing to keep me going. I haven't found that any of his other books 'got' me in quite the same way.
I find Thomas Hardy unreadable and his characters irritating beyond belief. Have tried a few of his books but have never managed to finish one.

'He wrote great parts for women..but boy did he make them pay for it.....' I love Thomas Hardy, but then I lived in the part of Cornwall where he met his first wife, so his novels take me back to my youth. Not sure if I could read Hardy now, but I devoured them when I was young [probably the result of having a melancholy disposition ].