Really Rubbish Books

I couldn't get on with Girl, Woman, Other or Catch 22.

I loved A Secret History but I read it when I was much younger so maybe wouldn't now.

I love all Thomas Hardy but not Jane Austen.
I just found Normal People full of teenage angst!

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 don't like Dickens either!!

I read Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy at the start of lockdown. I really enjoyed it so thought, months later I would try another Hardy classic.
Downloaded Tess of the d'Urbervilles and settled down to start another classic but urgh, I couldn't get into it at all, despite trying really hard so I gave up. Unfortunately that has put me off trying any other classic.
Much like Henry IV Part 1 which I had to read at school. Turned my stomach against Shakespeare to this day!

NotTooOld

PS Bet they had not read it, either.

I know I'm at great risk of enraging Lucca here - but I really can't imagine Harry reading anything.
But I get most of my knowledge of the Royals from The Windsors, which has got me into trouble on here before!
(Sorry Lucca ?)

Really interesting about controlling what women look at. Horrific

Urms No worries, I genuinely love a derailment! In my opinion, they should happen more often ?

Btw, they can't change the title because it's already gone in the newsletter and it won't work (something like that)

Those comments about burkas stayed with me, all those years later.

I remember chatting to a Muslim friend about them. She is a GP and wears Western clothes. She said her own father encouraged education and assimilation for his daughters as well as his sons. She said the burka, in her family’s opinion, is all about control.

For instance, I didn’t know that on a burka, the head covering is tight to the scalp. This is so when I woman wants to look at something, she literally has to turn her head to it first to look through the eyeholes. That way, her husband, brother or father knows exactly what she is looking at.

Another senior doctor at the hospital I worked in for many years, told me a different, less liberal way of life, unlike that of my GP friend had enjoyed. This hospital doctor said her own brother, a consultant, did not want a Western bride. With all her exposure to our way of life. He returned to Pakistan for a while and chose a girl from the village in the mountains who spoke no English. He married her and brought her back to England. He wanted a wife well versed in the traditional ways who would bring up any children, having only limited contact in the western ways.

I shall think of these two anecdotal stories next time I read the book.

Sorry for derailing your thread Fanny.
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PS Bet they had not read it, either.

I thought your remark was quite funny actually, Terribull! I agree with you.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, is an extraordinary book, I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a contemporary novel, not one set in biblical times.

I loved A Thousand Splendid Suns an incredibly moving but traumatic book.

I read Secret History years ago and thought it was very good, but you are like me Urmston in liking The Goldfinch, there seems to be a propensity of people who don't like it.

I'm also reading a book I'm not loving at the moment, "Real Tigers" from the Mick Herron series about spooks. My husband loves these books, usually we agree about crime genre books, but I'm find this quite tedious, I'll keep going but I won't read any more from the series, it doesn't appeal to me that much.

difficult!

The Echo by Minette Walters dor me. How could a 14 year old illiterate boy remember word for word so much an old down and out had told him and work out what had happened?

Would a journalist allow the same 14 year old to share his 2 bedroom flat knowing the same boy could pull the "rape scam" he had done other times? For me it went from bad to worse, I found it difficuklt to follow but read it to the bitter end.

I spotted ‘Thousand Suns’ on my bookcase the other day MerylStreep and plan to read it again this summer! I read it about 10 years ago on a holiday. I can recall where I was sitting with a glass of red wine in the late evening sun. I couldn’t stop turning the pages and my heart was in my mouth. I wonder how I’ll feel re-reading it? I can’t remember much about it after all this time so that will be interesting. I will report later in the year on your 50 books thread Terribull.

I’m reading Donna Tartt’s ‘Secret History’ at present and not exactly loving it ... my friend raved about it.
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I really enjoyed ‘Goldfinch’ so I will persevere. If I ditch it, I’ll be back on here later, hehe!

I’m sure there are some here who got to the end of Midnights Children: I wasn’t one of them ?

Lucca

Jane43

I am a big fan of Kate Atkinson’s books and I recently bought Transcription on Kindle and really struggled to finish it. DH kept saying don’t bother with it but I felt I had to persevere. The only book I’ve given up on was Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

Agree, I didn’t even finish it.
Also thought Big Sky was disappointing

Yes I thought Big Sky was disappointing too, she should leave Jackson Brodie alone now, the first two were brilliant.

Oh just disregard my comment Lucca it's incidental.

Sometimes, the books that got into the short list are better.
Yes I agree - Notes on a Scandal, Brick Lane, The Handmaid's Tale, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, to name just a few.

Oh dear, someone managed to involve them even here, I was really enjoying this thread.

Notsoold that was me who posted regarding dislike of Midnight Library and The Thursday Murder Club, but we aren't alone on the latter, it seems many on GN didn't think much of that. Regarding ML it appears to have wall to wall glowing appraisals and reviews so it did make me wonder what I was missing, like you I found it boring. Maybe a bad omen that I should have taken notice of, I read somewhere Harry and Meghan had chosen it as a favoured book choice It seems we agree on other likes "The Goldfinch" and I too loved Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's books. Sadly missed.

I don't think the Booker Prize is any guarantee of a good read, of course books are subjective, but some of the worst ones I've read have been Booker winners and the worst one of all was Lincoln in the Bardo.

Thank you for starting the thread Fanny Cornforth, I like to know what other have enjoyed and not enjoyed as far as books are concerned. I think we can all agree to disagree without falling out over our choices.

Sarnia
Absolutely ? It’s a book that will be read again.
Another ‘loved’ book that I’m starting today is: A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Just having a quick look at previous winners, it has to be said, there are also some amazing brilliant winners.
Just trying to be fair.

A lot of 'reallys' there, Fanny

Julie
I quite enjoyed Oscar and Lucinda, but some of the Booker winners have been quite undeserving in my opinion.
Sometimes, the books that got into the short list are better.

I've asked for the title to be tweaked, by the way.

Re Donna Tartt.
I recently bought the audio version of True Grit for DH.

Donna Tartt is the narrator!

She did an absolutely awesome job of it! She has a really youthful Southern accent to perform Mattie. A really memorable and unusual performance.
I really recommend it.