Really Rubbish Books

I don't much like Dickens either vampirequeen can't wade through all that descriptive stuff. My daughter loves his books though.

I disliked
Any of the Fifty Shades books
Anything published by Mills & Boon
Girl on a train
Lovely Bones
Prof Fitzpatrick biog
Books overly hyped in the press are often rubbish I've found.

Anything by Salman Rushdie. I’ve tried but it’s just not for me.

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald is only good for firelighters. Our book club read this on our local library's recommendation. Mercifully, it isn't a long book and the blurb would have you believe you have a masterpiece in your hands. You don't.

I dislike reading Dickens but love the TV adaptations. I'm currently catching up on the 2011 version of Great Expectations with Ray Winstone as Magwitch and Gillian Anderson as Miss Haversham.

I began reading Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch and gave up after about five chapters. Thought it would get to the point, but it just dragged on...

DS2 recommended The Girl with all the Gifts. Horrible! I shall tread warily if/when he recommends anything in future.

Witzend re not buying Kindle books by unknown authors - I've recently discovered that Kindle book purchases can be returned! Who knew?

I will often also download a sample first because I can usually tell whether or not the author's style appeals to me.

But I had bought a few books in Kindle format that I didn't like and was moaning about it to my husband, who told me I can return them! I had had the book I was grumbling about for three days, returned it, and got a full refund.

I’ve tried 3 times to read The Goldfinch. I’ve now thrown it out to stop me trying again.
ayse
I agree about Wilber Smith. He’s lost it in his later books.

Callistemon - you can delete kindle books ‘from this device’ but they stay in your cloud and the device knows you have read them, and you can easily download them again. Frees up your memory. However, I didn’t know you could return them for a refund.

The Keeper of lost things- got to the end but a struggle! Boring!

Tizliz

Callistemon - you can delete kindle books ‘from this device’ but they stay in your cloud and the device knows you have read them, and you can easily download them again. Frees up your memory. However, I didn’t know you could return them for a refund.

Thanks for that information Tizliz.

I didn't know you could return them either.

I forgot to say, 2 books that have had a lot of praise did nothing for me at all. I finished them, but thought they were dull and boring. They were, Gone Girl, and The Girl on the Train. Sorry if I`ve upset anyone who loved them.

I haven't read Gone Girl but Girl on the Train did nothing for me either, although I did finish it.

Don't hide! You probably read enough to form an opinion and that's good enough. Unlike someone I know and overheard panning a book he had TOLD me had not read. When called on it he posited that he knew the writer Ayn Rand to be very right wing therefore that was enough. The book we were talking about regularly appears in the world's best one hundred books and is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I have read it twice and I am not right wing. The only thing I have against the book is that my copy is soooo old and the print is so tiny but this is the only thing that it makes it almost
unreadable.

I loved the first four Strike novels by Robert Galbraith ( or J K Rowling), but Troubled Blood left me cold. It was way too long and complex and required a strength that I just don’t possess to lift it!

Lucca

The Slap. Aussie thing. I cannot remember the author but I have been Told the book was pants.

The TV series was one of the best things I have ever seen. It was brilliant. I was totally gripped.
I ordered the book from the library on the back of it and was so excited.
But it was really, really awful.
Horrible, unsympathetic characters.
The author was obsessed with sleazy sex.
The whole thing was very misanthropic.

I have another confession about not liking a classic, I don't like Trollope, Anthony I mean, quite like Joanna.

Lucca yeah, you're probably right about the title.

I suppose I expect people to not take things too literally.

So, dear reader, if you are still with me - it's books that I hated.

Agree absolutely about The Slap, sleazy porn. Such a disappointment as it sounded such an interesting idea to explore.

A book I read many years ago, and glad I stuck with it, was The Day Of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, but oh dear me, it was hard going at first, so glad I persevered.

vampirequeen

I hate Dickens. There I've said it and now I'm going to hide behind the sofa . It's not the stories but the way they're written. The only book of his that I finished was Hard Times. I had to read it as part of my degree. I called it Hard Going and forced myself to read a chapter each day until it was over.

I regard Dickens as a good journalist about social subjects but not really a great writer.

I have an even worse confession. I hate Jane Austen. I’ve never managed to finish one, and I don’t even like the television versions.

I hate The Lord of the Rings too. My English teacher had been taught by Tolkien and never stopped going on about it. I did read all of it for her sake (she was a brilliant teacher) but didn’t enjoy it at all.

I suppose I can’t describe these as ‘rubbish books’. They are just books I don’t like. I think I just don’t like novels. I much prefer poetry, including Shakespeare. I have a friend who has read War And Peace three times, but would never think of reading poetry for pleasure.

Don't worry about the rubbish thing! Please!

I could never get past the interminable birthday party chapter in Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, though I absolutely adore Peter Jackson's LOTR and Hobbit movies.

Ilovecheese

I have another confession about not liking a classic, I don't like Trollope, Anthony I mean, quite like Joanna.

If you haven't already read it, her book 'Mum & Dad' is very good.

I’m afraid I tend to plough on to the end, it might turn out to be wonderful. I was so tempted to give up Possession by A S Byatt, but it’s absolutely one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I could have missed it!

I did give up on Catch 22, I really tried but I hated it.

I also really disliked The Lord of the Rings, everyone was swooning over it, and I thought it was awful.

More recently, was disappointed in The Testaments.

I could never get on with Jane Austin don’t even like watching any dramatizations of hers on TV but loved Dickens,

Had to read The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare for my English Literature GCE and we read it in class as a play for preparation , I was surprised how much I enjoyed it
On a more modern note could never see what the hype was about Gone Girl also not keen on chick lit.

I have to confess that I have tried to read The Hobbit, both as a child and an adult, several times. I just can't get into it, and find it interminably dull.