Books that everyone likes except you?

Oh yes Dickens! Another teacher at school had the 50 Shades books. I borrowed one after she'd finished it but never even got as far as the rude bits. I was so distracted and appalled at the writing, I couldn't bear to read on!

The Luminaries, forgot that, another Booker Prize winner, over 800 pages [yawn] hours of my life I won't get back again and when it was dramatised why? , it seems the general consensus was, that it was dead boring, yes too right!

GrannyGravy13

One book that have been trying to finish since before Christmas is The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides my DiL loved it. I am about 6 chapters in and not enjoying it, so have put it on my bookshelf to be read another time.

Don't bother with The Silent Patient GG it's rubbish! I plodded on, highly implausible tosh, just not worth the effort.

I read Lord of The Rings, and enjoyed it, in my younger days I was 18 or thereabouts, when I actually hauled it up to London to read on my daily commute, that was then, this is now and I couldn't be doing with any of that other world fantasy elf stuff these days. Even the film versions have me running for the hills. .

I confess to liking a couple of Thomas Hardy once too, they wouldn't appeal now, my son went through a phase of reading a lot of miserable books he actually enjoyed Tess of the D'Urbervilles a real tale of woe if ever there was one.

I found Cloud Atlas heavy going, several people I knew thought it was sublime, although I thought it was a clever premise I can't say I enjoyed it.

Hated Lovely Bones, Time Travellers Wife, more lately Midnight Library and that awful and vastly overrated book by Richard Osman

The Leopard - Giuseppe di Lampedusa, a classic I believe, Rick Stein said it was absolutely one of his best books when he was promoting Sicily where it was set, certainly not one of mine.

My absolute worst book ever would be Lincoln in the Bardo which won all sorts of accolades including The Booker Prize, it wasn't that it didn't have a linear narrative, I found it positively unreadable.

However, I did enjoy some others' horrible books, Crawdads, The Goldfinch and Atonement (once I got about 50 pages in, it took a while from what I remember)

Yep, I can't do fantasy books- so no, thank you Lord of the Rings et al, and I loathe Jane Austen - aka known as Miss Sniffy .Can't cope with Donna Tarrt, award winner, unbelievably. I also have feelings about certain children's books, too: those awful Mr Men books for starters.

I really enjoyed Chocolat!
There aren't many books I read twice but I read that one again years afterwards.

"Fifty Shades of Grey". I couldn't read it. Awful, awful.

But, to keep things light hearted, I'm copying the following from Digital Spy... made me LOL!

- here are some gems from the narrative - with the appropriate response -

"Desire pools dark and deadly in my groin."
Ana should probably get her doctor to look at that.

"I have become my own island state. A ravaged, war-torn land where nothing grows and the horizons are bleak."
U OK, hun?

"Sometimes you're so closed off... like an island state."
Enough with the island states, already.

"A small moan escapes my mouth as my insides melt and unfurl."
An unmistakable symptom of Legionnaires' disease.

- and, my favourite -

"I could watch you sleep forever, Ana."
Spoken like a true murderer.

I think you've really got to have more than a command of the English language to write about erotica. I once watched a film (it might have been a French fil, but it was so long ago I can't remember). A couple are sheltering from the rain, but both are already soaked through. They try to dry off, and smile at each other. He eventually puts his hand gently on her knee. No words are spoken at all, and nothing happens... the whole gamut of emotions is played out through the way they look at each other. It was intense - I remember the whole cinema watching, studying the scene... my mother included who just smiled at me and said something along the lines of "subtle isn't it"? It was all left to the audience's imagination.

That's the thing with 50SOG, there's no subtlety, no 'magic'... nothing to make you hold your breath.

But it was a best-seller!

I never finished
The Time Travellers Wife
Madame Bovary
Wolf Hall
Midnight’s Children

eazybee

Any book by Thomas Hardy. I have tried and tried, particularly since living in Dorset, but find them really hard-going.
Enjoy some of his poetry, though.

I think Hardy is a far better poet than he is novelist, but most people only seem to know the novels.

Retired English teacher here and also was a school librarian in previous years. There are very few books that I haven't persevered with, even if I originally wasn't keen. I have never read Fifty Shades and the following books although I tried. Funnily enough I couldn't get into Where the Crawdad sings either. I'm going to go back to it in a bit.

Jane I was born in Netherton; went to school in Quarry Bank; grew up Amblecote / Stourbridge (drank in The Mitre).
And I went to Halesowen College.
I probably caught exactly the same bus!
My dad worked at the MEB Office there too.

I remember a friend of mine cheekily saying, ‘people in The Lye aspire to live in Quarry Bank’

One book that have been trying to finish since before Christmas is The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides my DiL loved it. I am about 6 chapters in and not enjoying it, so have put it on my bookshelf to be read another time.

FannyCornforth

One for Black Country folk:
The Catcher in The Lye

Very good. I used to live in Stourbridge and caught the bus to work in Halesowen, two colleagues lived in ‘The Lye’ and used to catch the same bus. Apparently its claim to fame is that Sir. Cedric Hardwick was born there.

I did like ‘Crawdads’, I felt immersed in the book. Likewise I enjoyed ‘Little Fires’ though that was because my son lived in that community at the time so it was fun to try and work out who the characters were based on.

I didn’t like Girl on the Train and never finished Gone Girl because I read it on Kindle and I didn’t realise something had gone wrong with the download and it was all jumbled up. I wondered why it made no sense, haha!

I don’t often give up on a book but I’m wondering what others do when they decide to stop. Do you look at the last pages, to get an idea of what the denouement was?

I hated Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, found them boring and the main characters weren`t likeable at all.
I started War and Peace when I was 14, but gave up after the first few chapters. Bought a copy in my early 70s, managed to read it all, but still not enamoured by it.

I can’t even remember the name of the book I didn’t like at all although everyone seemed to rave about it. Just got one though The Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime? Something like that? I’ll have to ponder in the other one. It was another completely stupid one (to me) with no story I could understand.

Witzend it’s probably for the best that you didn’t finish Kevin.
It’s incredibly shocking!
Unlike you I absolutely loved the book

Any book by Thomas Hardy. I have tried and tried, particularly since living in Dorset, but find them really hard-going.
Enjoy some of his poetry, though.

Everyone seems to dislike Where the Crawdads sing. I read it on recommendation from someone here on GN, and found her life fascinating. Then the twist at the end.. All in all I wasn't completely gripped but I did stick with it to the end

I only came to Dickens late in life and love it - even the Pickwick Papers I found amusing.

I dislike most fantasy fiction, so that rules out Tolkien and Rowling/Potter. Can't seem to get on with Donna Tart. I tried The Goldfinch but found it slow and pretentious; similarly The Great Gatsby.

I did like Where the Crawdads Sing, glad I persevered with it and am looking forward to seeing it on screen.

Witzend

I’m another who could never get into Wuthering Heights. Love Jane Eyre and a lot of other Victorian fiction though.

I couldn’t bear We Need To Talk About Kevin - couldn’t even finish it.

I agree about Lionel Shriver. I also didn't think much of Chocolate as mentioned in the OP. I was given "Little Fires Everywhere"(Celeste Ng) for Christmas. Didn't find it had much depth to it, although it was lauded enthusiastically by people who seem to know better than I.

Gone Girl and Girl on a Train - meh. Couldn't understand why they did what they did. It all seemed very contrived.

I thought it was only me with Captain Corelli Reubenblue

I'm another who really found the Harry Potter books poor. I groan even thinking about them as I had to read some of them to my youngest. I suppose it all feels derivative and unfortunately I don't rate her language skills. Give me, say, Alan Garner or Philip Pullman any day.

Also, Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. I've started this several times. I think it's probably the only book I've started and not (eventually) finished. Just couldn't get "into" this at all.

Callistemon21

NanKate

‘Where the Crawdads Sing’. I started it twice but still couldn’t get into it.

I downloaded that on to my Kindle, not started it yet.

I read two chapters on my kindle and deleted it after a glowing recommendation by DD.

Atonement made me cross. I was reminded of the shower scene in Dallas.

sodapop

Anything by Donna Tart, Richard Osman's over hyped books.

I agree about James Patterson Cheesey however in our small voluntary library he is one of the most borrowed authors.

It's odd. I loved Tartt's first two books and hated her third.