Bad Books or wish I hadn't bothered!

Virginia Andrews and that Flowers in the Attic book. Sheesh. I was a very Junior Librarian and it was insanely popular with teenaged girls. It was horrible.

The Lovely Bones, awful. Some of Kate Atkinson, I just can't focus on it. To Kill a Mockingbird, some of it great ,some of it longwinded. Catcher in the Rye loved it as a young 'un.

The Eleoner Oliphant thingy, dull.

Please don't bash me for not writing sentences, having a bad day

Life's too short to bother with books you hate. Does anyone have one book they hate but love the rest written by the same author? I disliked Tess of the D'Ubervilles but I love the rest of Hardy's work even the poetry.

I usually read a book to the end even if I have to persevere but one book recently defeated me.
It was a debut novel by Catherine Lowell called The Mad Woman Upstairs.
There was a decent story trying to get out but the writing was awful. Figures of speech were laid on with a trowel. The final straw for me was ... ‘ His cheekbones were like sunken battleships.’
I decided life was too short and gave up.

I hate books with silly wet women as the leading character

Madam Bovary
Wuthering Heights
Anna Karenina

LOVE:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Shipping News
The Bell Jar
Brave New World
Wuthering Heights

Yes, hated Shades of Grey. I wasn't offended by the sex but I was HORRIFIED by her poor writing. Urgh.

Poppy , i thought the film was dire too.
My bad book ( one of them ) The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill.

The Lovely Bones gave me nightmares.

Urmstongran gave me permission to ditch books I’m not enjoying on the 50 Books. Year thread. I’m usually stoically plough one to the end.

Where is UG, anyway? Haven’t seen her around for a few days.

I also couldn't read Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. A few of the books named on here as awful are some of my favourites!
Very personal thing I guess, but also depends at what age you first read the book, ie as a young romantic teen for example.
I have also found that the least enjoyable books read conscientiously for my book group, have provided us with the best discussions, unlike ones we all like.

Sussexborn I struggled with “The New Achilles”. I couldn’t get to grips with the politics. It did get slightly better toward the end.

UG is in lockdown in Spain I think.

Hope UG is ok I have missed her posts but haven't read the good morning one for a few days and she normally posts on that

I’m getting ready to be shot down in flames ?

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It was written in such an odd way I didn’t know who was who, admittedly I only read about 20 pages.

I loved it on the telly with Mark Rylance. ?

Emma by Jane Austin
I know sacrilegious but it was just a book of genteel women gossiping and twittering

Loved the film then understood the book.

Loved
The old curiosity shop
To kill a mockingbird
Heidi
Going to re read all my childhood books again

Thanks for the UG update.

Most of the books which win prizes; recently 'The Gathering' by Anne Enright. Dreadful.
Not a book to be tossed lightly aside; it should be thrown with great force.
I have tried and tried with Virginia Woolf, read several books to the end, but don't enjoy.

I've never 'read' a bad book. By that I mean if it doesn't grab me in the first few pages, that's it. Life too short to waste time reading a book you don't like. It's not as if there aren't many around, is it?

Winter by Ali Smith. Very weird in a disturbing way

Oh, The Gathering! I read that recently. It was dire. In fact for some unknown reason I’ve lately had a run of books set in Ireland. They've all been depressing, except for one by Graham Norton, which I think was called Holding.

Not a book to be tossed lightly aside; it should be thrown with great force.

Love it, eazybee!

Like others I found Wuthering Heights boring, but I did finish it. Now I reckon I can give up on books that I'm not enjoying. Quite often I find that if something has won the Booker prize then it's not for me.

My reading group has a 100 page ‘rule’. Some books take a while to get in to. Always interesting how some people thoroughly enjoy a book and others dislike it intensely. We even have one member who is yet to read any of the books!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Total load of rubbish. I had to read it for my book club and we all hated it. I'm just about to start Wolf Hall, with no great expectations that it will be good. My friend tried to read it and said she had to compile a list of characters, that she continually referred to, to try to keep track. Sounds like hard work. Also, just remembered Doctor Zhivago, each character had several different names, so very confusing, and nothing much happened.

Speaking of Ishiguro, another bad book for me is Remains of the Day. Loved the film. Thought I'd enjoy the book. No.

As for Wolf Hall - it took a couple of goes and a lot of googling of characters, but in the end I loved it. Loved the telly version too, which helped put the flesh on the bones of the characters.

I re-read Jane Eyre recently and I’m sorry to say I thought it was a load of nonsense.

As for the 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window (or whatever it was called) it made me want to scream - and not with pleasure.

Wolf Hall left me cold, so I didn't get far into it. A 100-page rule is a good idea. I've been reading a lot of Muriel Spark's books and while some of them have been great, there are some that are a real effort to get through. Most of them are pretty short though!