Bad Books or wish I hadn't bothered!

I just can't finish The Doll Factory, it is being reread and it is there just waiting to go back to Wilko's charity stall.

I know it is a best seller by a young author but I am not all inclined to pick it up!!

I agree with some of your choices Eloethan, but not "Star of the Sea" I absolutely adored that book. Still we are all different, as Blue Sapphire has testified above with her liking of "A Gentleman in Moscow" a much loved book on MN, I just found it tedious. One man's meat and all that!

I loved 'A Gentleman in Moscow'! DD recommended it and lent me her copy.

I can't read Thomas Hardy, although I enjoy (some) of his poetry. Managed to read Far from the Madding Crowd when daughter did it for GCSE, and another one about somebody called Eustacia (?) for book group, but I just can't concentrate on them.

Just staggered to the end of "Time & the Hunter" by Italo Calvino. Short stories of which maybe 2 were slightly interesting and the rest I found incomprehensible, but I suspect that they are actually very intellectual and I am thick.

Also read a couple of books by Elizabeth Bowen (inherited from DM) with which I was unimpressed.

Still, I don't ever have to read any of them again

Middlemarch - worthy but so dull, dull, dull.
Don Quixote - each chapter ended with something like, 'in the next part we will learn etc' which removed any surprise. Parts of it were funny but I wouldn't want to read it again.

I'm not sure any book can be classified as "bad". People have different opinions and different tastes. A poster said she hated To Kill a Mockingbird, but I think it's a wonderful book.

Here are the ones I didn't enjoy - many of which I didn't even bother to persevere with:

Catcher in the Rye - a supposed modern "classic"

Wuthering Heights - thoroughly depressing

The Time Traveller's Wife

The Accidental - a much lauded writer but I just don't get it

The Slap

Star of the Sea - a literary prize winner

Bel Canto - another literary prize winner

Muriel Spark's 'Little Red Chairs'. Had to read it for book group but it should never,never have been published. Just because she's a famous old lady. Nobody else could have got away with such a load of old tosh.

My son gave me "Gentleman in Moscow" with the comment "you must read this book it's really good", I found it dull! dull! dull! I noticed it's a great favourite over on MN. Son studied Soviet Union for a history and politics module at university, so he finds anything about that era wildly interesting, unfortunately I don't!

I read the Railroad one. Not an easy or comfortable read. Wouldn't recommend it for reading just now. Might just make you feel worse.

I belong to two book clubs and the books we e read recently have been real stinkers! ‘Little friend ‘ by Donna Tartt. How tedious and long winded - I couldn’t finish it. The Underground Railroad ( can’t remember the author) was brutal and over descriptive. Again couldn’t finish it. I’m beginning to think it’s me. The next book is Swamplandia by Karen Russell. About alligator wrestling! ........ fascinating! ??

Anything by Jane Austin I really have tried but just cannot get to grips with them, and also Stephen King
Did enjoy Pride & Prejudice on TV though but think that was down to Colin Firth ?

Just finished The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal, but wouldn’t have bothered if the library wasn’t closed and I had anything better. It was apparently read on Radio 4 and had quite good reviews. Sorry I persisted as it definitely didn’t appeal to me.

Another thread that mentioned Barbara Pym, reminded me that after reading her a long time ago and enjoying her books. I tried to read her two years ago and gave up about 10 chapters in, and even getting that far was hard work. I dipped into several more and came to the conclusion that she had dated very badly and I would give up the struggle to read her.

No no no! I just read the post about Never Let Me Go - I thought it was wonderful, if you haven't tried it yet don't be put off; and Ladder To The Stars - brilliant.

Can I have a gold star for having actually finished "One Hundred Years of Solitude" please? I kept hoping that it would stop being so boring and that something interesting would happen, but sadly, no.

Terribull I’ve tried to read ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude”twice and never got beyond the first chapter.

I really enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera. I didn’t find it “heavy” but recently it has been accused of being sexist. I must confess to finding it quite amusing in places. Perhaps I should re-read it and maybe I would feel differently about it.

Be careful with using Fifty Sheds, Callistemon - you don’t want to have to explain to the doctor exactly how you acquired splinters in your fundament.

Greeneyedgirl. She gets a lift from my kindhearted friend who set the group up so comes along for the outing I guess.

SueDonim
Unfortunately long gone to the charity shop!

Not Fifty Shades as I have never read it.

However, DH does have Fifty Sheds of Grey

I do think it matters how old we are when we read a book.
For example, I loved Wuthering Heights when I was a teenager. I read it a few years ago and found all the characters were hateful. Heathcliffe is no Mr Rochester.

We studied Northanger Abbey for O Level and I have disliked Jane Austin ever since. I prefer the Brontes or Dickins.

I am glad everyone else enjoyed The Secret History. I just thought all the characters were unlikable, even the main protagonist. No saving grades or optimism.

I only read the first chapter of Fifty Shades and decided that it was the worst written book ever.
A book that arrived in a book box for our book group is Strange Heart Beating by Eli Golding. I started it but, frankly, can't face finishing it. I would be surprised it anyone here had read it, but I remain to be corrected.

We should be thankful for Fifty Shades & The Da Vinci Code. When loo paper runs out totally we can fall back on the above two titles as a substitute!