Have you given up on any books you started reading?

I'm giving up on The Birthing House (C Ransom). I'm just not enjoying it. Off to the library today with my list off here! Is anyone else a fan of Margaret Atwood's novels?

It's worth persevering with Captain Corelli, it really was a very enjoyable book once you get past the first bit. Agree about the Da Vinci Code. Couldn't understand why it was so popular.

I re-read Cold Comfort Farm a couple of weeks ago and loved it just as much as I did before. Nightingale Wood is another good one by Stella Gibbons.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin - I looked at the back cover and put it back on the shop shelf.
Da Vinci Code - managed two pages before dumping it back in the charity shop I bought it from!

I love haggis so yes please!

Love Rose Tremaine. Another of hers is 'The Colour', about the gold rush in New Zealand.
Am I alone in having a liking for sci fi? My favourite is Iain M Banks (Iain Banks in his sci fi incarnation), especially his 'culture' novels. Banks's other novels are enjoyable too. Some. like 'Whit' are very funny. Anyone for haggis samosas?

crimson I loved Cold Comfort Farm, it still makes me chuckle out loud, also I Capture the Castle. I wonder if my Grandchildren, now 5 and 3 will come across books like that later on.I will have to make it happen. Love children's books, read Mary Poppins it has a good message about parenting. I loved and can still read all the E. Nesbitt books. And yes there is a sisterhood developing here,( or should I say personhood!) and it's great. Find it difficult to tear myself away and clean dusty house. Twobabes, will read The Road Home, have just read Tresspass and loved that.

Read Cold Comfort Farm at school, then again a few years ago. A few things made me smile but wasn't keen.

Read ICTC for a National Housewives Register book gp in the 70s. Loved it and it's on my 'read again' list.

Started Captain C's M 3 times and gave up by p 70 each time. Bored.

White Teeth? Tried once but early bath for that one too.

Just finished The Postmistress and absolutely loved it.

Rose Tremain(e?)'s The Road Home has to be my favourite book of those read this year, like The Kiterunner two or three years ago, deeply moving and also an insight into life in another culture.

....and brotherhood....

Interesting how often Cold Comfort Farm and I Capture the Castle are mentioned; neither of them books that I'd expect the majority of the population to have read [or even heard of]. Does anyone feel that we have quite a sisterhood developing here [or am I being a bit sentimental?]. What I was that I've alwyas meant to read Dodie Smtihs 101 Dalmations. And Mary Poppins, which is meant to be quite dark. I do like childrens books.

The Slap - absolute bilge!

Every non-relevant detail described at length, characters I hated/didn't care about and it infuriated me that critics and reviewers made me part with my money.

It was so tediously verbose that I decided he (yes, a male author) was paid by the word. I can just imagine the publisher phoning him - " Yes, pretty boring so far, well done, but we've got another 50 acres of trees to use up. Can you pad it out even more with puerile observations extended beyond credibility? And how about a few more really stupid people whose thoughts, habits, clothes, scars and inadequacies you could describe in microscopic detail to really bore the intelligent reader to screaming point. You can? Brilliant!"

I battled as far as p40 ish then took it to the charity shop. Have calmed down now!

Anything by Martin Amis, tried several times, but without success

'Precious Bane' and Constant Nymph' written in the 1930s and had enormous success and still sometimes get quoted. In fact I heard Constant Nymph being talked up on the radio last week. The two of the silliest books I have ever struggled through with gritted teeth constantly checking on how many pages to the end and flipping over whole chapters as I went.

Realised since that Cold Comfort Farm, which I did enjoy, was a send up of Precious Bane.

Was given Swallows and Amazons at 8 and absolutely loved it. As a result as soon as I got to university I joined the sailing club, a fellow member eventually became my husband!

Ah - Capture a Castle is a lovely book. I read it several times. There was a not- bad film. What an innocent age for girls to grow up in. Was teenaged angst worse or better when there was no label for it?

I was following the messages about books not finished - I have no idea where I am now, this is my first time. All I wanted to say was: there are 2 types of book I find hard. The first, like War and Peace, where the characters and especially the names just will not get into my head. The other type are those that are too painful, like "even the dogs" by Jon McGregor. This is an author who has written beautifully, he understands words and they flow as poetry. His first book "If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things" was a delight. When "even the dogs" came out I was daunted by the subject matter but made myself finish it. It took days to recover. I certainly learnt something. BUT thank heaven for When God Was A Rabbit - I loved it! And does anyone else enjoy Dodie Smith's "I Capture the Castle"?

I was attracted to "The Slap" after seeing a railway poster advert for the book but after getting home and looking up the blurb about it on Amazon I decided that it was not for me. Surprising how advertising can draw you in! I can't bear anything violent or aggressive these days, I can't watch violent films or series on television and will walk out of the room if my OH is watching something which I consider "nasty". I used to love horror films through in my youth, "Tales of the Unexpected" was a weekly treat!

Oh yes Wolf Hall. My husband bought it for me for xmas. in hardback (i wish he wouldnt do that!) i got on a plane, forgot i'd got it, bought it again in an airport somewhere dammit. Too long! Some good bits. but not a good read.
I have enjoyed Revelation and the other books in the series set in Tudor times by Sansom I think.

I have given up on many of the same books mentioned here. I used to try to plough on but now I've decided that life's too short to spend time reading books that I'm not enjoying, so I feel quite free to start and then chuck.

I did give up on Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It won all sorts of prizes and all the critics praised it to the roof tops AND it is set in a period of history that I love, but I got sooooo bored! Nothing happened

I gave up on White Teeth. Enjoyed Time Travellers Wife.

I loved Jumping the Queue by Mary Wesley but had to abandon her next books, The Camomile Lawn and the Poppy Carew one.

I used to be very strict and make myself finish any book I had started, but as I have got older - and wiser? - I have found the freedom to give up if I am not enjoying or getting anything out of a book. I abandoned the much-hyped White Teeth and The Line of Beauty after a couple of chapters because I just couldn't make myself care about the characters.

I once threw a copy of The Witches by Roald Dahl in the bin after the first chapter or so.
Loved the TT's Wife but thought the film was dreadful.
Am saving the book of the Crimson Petal and the White for holidays - will it live up to the wonderful TV...?

gma, an Aussie writer I really enjoy is Tim Winton. He's quirky but thought provoking. A real good read.

gma, an Aussie writer I really enjoy is Tim Winton. He's quirky but thought provoking. A real good read.

Thank you ladies! Off to the library to look for Kate Grenville!!!
You can rely on Gransnet to come up with the best suggestions!!!

I'll second that Baggythecrust, the Kate Grenville book is lovely,has wonderfully flawed but very likeable middleaged characters.Fabulous read!

Kate Grenville's The Idea of Perfection is a good read.

The Slap is simply awful! Like you GoldenGran I gave up on it, something which I very rarely, and hate doing. The 'blurb' grabbed me and it promised lots but delivered zilch!!! The eight main characters were obnoxious,I agree with you, they all needed a good slap! The language was foul, the grammar was dreadful and overly long descriptions of sexual encounters became rather repetitive. I did not even bother to read the end to see what happened! ' Frankly my dear (s) I could not give a damn'. If this is an example of the best of Australian literature perhaps it is time that they gave up. I passed it to a friend who lived in Melbourne to see what she thought of it, I am still waiting for her response. Can anybody suggest any worthy Australian authors???