Books that defeated you!

Plenty …….. have no interest in books that don’t “ do it for me”
A waste of time, if I’m not enjoying something it’s put down in favour of something else. There are so many books to be enjoyed.

I couldn't finish D H Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. It wasn't so much the angst-filled relationships but his patches of purple prose. It felt like wading through treacle.

Les Mis. I didn't get far . I wanted to scream " Just get on with the b****y story!!!

Another one was Game of Thrones. It was before the TV series, which I have never seen. I enjoyed the first few books but by book 4 ( or was it 5?) all the characters I cared about had been killed and there were so many new characters, plots and sub plots that I came to the conclusion that life was too short and that there were too many good books waiting to be read.

C. P. Snow’s “The New Men”. It bored me rigid. “The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood. I couldn’t warm to any of the characters. “The Hobbitt” and by association, “Lord of the Rings”.

Ooooh No! Not The Blind Assassin just loved it, well that's books for you, one man's meat and all that.

dragonfly46

I couldn't get into Catch22 either - it seemed to go round in circles.

Well I did finish Midnights Children, but it took me forever, and I wish I’d never started it.
Bits were okay, but on the whole, a load of nonsense.

NotSpaghetti

^Captain Corelli's Mandolin^
I tried and tried and tried!

Me too!

I also wish I hadn't bothered with Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club. I shall not be reading his later ones either.

Bleak House, which I found boring. I'd just finished David Copperfield, and loved it, but I thought Bleak House was a very poor imitation. Also can't get into SPQR by Mary Beard.

Now that I'm over 70 , I think I'm entitled not to waste time on books I can't be bothered with, although when I was younger I had to batter on and finish them, however bad I thought them.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the only book I haven't managed to get through eventually shysal.
Some have been a struggle but I have to confess that this defeated me.

TerriBull

Hot on the heels of Doodledog's uplifting thread, best novels and why?. What book/s have you abandoned or wished you had!

Mine would be, Cloud Atlas, I did finish it but found really heavy going, at the time a few people around me were saying "what a great book" I think it was a very clever concept and although I can be ok with a non linear narrative, I just didn't get on with it at all. Similarly, Lincoln in The Bardo which has won so many literary awards, Booker Prize winner and then the best Booker Prize Winner ever and very much loved over on MN, not by me, I think, it was my worst book ever. Other than that Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I gave up 100 pages in, not enjoying it with 600 or more pages to go. The Lovey Bones, I just hated it, thought it was utter shite, I couldn't understand why it had so many accolades heaped on it at the time.

So what did you hate and abandon and what did you finish but wish you hadn't wasted your time on?

Me too. I bought a dvd of the film too but I couldn’t understand that, either.

I have attempted to read Catch 22 twice, be it many decades apart, still haven’t finished it.

Sticking up for Captain Corelli's Mandolin here. You just had to get through all the boring political aspects (which did take up a lot of space at the front, I admit).

Lord of the Rings
Most of Thomas Hardy
Most of Virginia Woolf
and too many Booker/Orange Prize winners

I always try and finish every book that I start but just couldn’t cope with Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell.

TerriBull Totally agree about Lovely Bones - just couldn't understand all the hype about it at all. I think my book mark is still about a dozen pages from the end.

There are just a couple I can remember actually giving up on - War and Peace, The Luminaries, and yes, Captain Corelli. But plenty where I skipped through whole sections, such as the last one of the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (all that grinding detail about European banking procedures!). I've developed a good speed reading technique over the years, so that I can get the gist of a book and find out what happened at the end without having to spend hours on something I'm not enjoying.

I loved the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books, but I was a lot younger when I read them. I'm not sure I'd have the patience now. And I do like Dickens, but I've been selective in the ones I've read.

Agreed about Catch 22. It was my dad's favourite book, and I tried to read it to please him, but I just couldn't. I felt the same about The Master and Margarita, and also Cloud Atlas. Oh, and The Time Traveller's Wife.

I gave up on The Shadow of the Wind when I was 75% of the way through it. Someone I was sat next to on a train noticed that I was reading it and said he was 90% of the way through it when he gave up! I put it down and never looked at it again.

Even typing this makes me yawn 🥱 because it was so boring -
Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club.
A dreadful waste of paper imho.

NotAGran55

Even typing this makes me yawn 🥱 because it was so boring -
Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club.
A dreadful waste of paper imho.

I’m another one who gave up on this fairly rapidly. I’m staggered by how populat it was.

NotAGran55

Even typing this makes me yawn 🥱 because it was so boring -
Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club.
A dreadful waste of paper imho.

I did read it all but agree it was a waste of paper. So much hype just because it was written by a 'celebrity'

I very rarely give up on a book but
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara defeated me recently. My DD recommended it, she loved it! I did finish Thursday Murder Club but couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I won’t be bothering with the sequel.

Maggiemaybe Do agree about The Luminaries over 800 grindingly boring pages and a Booker Prize winner too

A book critic who writes for The Sunday Times said a while back, The Thursday Murder Club was so bad she refused to review it and then was forced to review the follow up because of the sensational success of the first. I started it and binned it before finishing. I always think it 's a shame when a high profile celebrity, who isn't an author has a go with some turgid offering and because it's hyped up to such a degree it becomes a runaway hit, when stupendous books by really talented by authors, Amanda Craig would be an example that springs to mind, her "Lie of the Land" was wonderful, but got a fraction of the publicity.

Maybee70 I shall have to disagree with you about Shadow of the Wind I loved it, never mind at least we are at one about Cloud Atlas

I’m another un-fan of Ulysses. I first tried reading it nearly 40 years ago, and have continued to do so every few years. I get a wee bit further each time but will have to live until I’m approximately 250 if I’m ever to finish it. There’s a specific reason (person) I keep trying else I wouldn’t bother.
I’ve enjoyed/loved most of the other books already mentioned with the exception of the Richard Osman (mediocre) and most of the Booker winners I’ve ever tried to read.