Books that defeated you!

The Satanic Verses. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but I just couldn’t engage with it.

I once gave up on an author…Sir Walter Scott. At 16, I was studying the works of H G Wells for my English literature exam. I loved his works! Then, we were suddenly moved to West Lothian (Dad was in the army) and I found I had to study one of Sir W’s tomes. Heavy going! I must have been traumatised because over 50 years passed before I thought of him again.
I was reminded of him on a trip to Scotland. I thought suddenly that if I could read and enjoy Dickens, what was so bad about Scott? So I did take him up again….not difficult and I have enjoyed several of his novels and his biography of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Incidentally, I have a Kindle and knew I could get one of his books free as he was out of copywrite so no money wasted if I still loathed him. However, by parting with a mere £2, I found I could buy his entire works-novels, short stories, essays etc. I love a bargain like that! It will probably all take till my centenary. Though the short stories I have tried are fairly incomprehensible being in Scots.
I mentioned ‘The Corrections’ upthread…perhaps if I leave that for 50 years, I will finally come to similarly enjoy that….

Sara1954

I loved Wolf Hall
I liked the style it was written in, and I fell a little in love with Thomas Cromwell.

I enjoyed Wolf Hall too. I studied Thomas Cromwell and he seemed quite benign in the series but I don't think he was really.

I loved Wolf Hall
I liked the style it was written in, and I fell a little in love with Thomas Cromwell.

gillyknits

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

Wolf Hall for me too gillyknits. It seemed to me to be one long boring sentence and I had no idea which character was narrating and when.

Doodledog
I don’t remember finding the beginning of ‘Kevin’ to be too difficult to get into, it’s a book that shocks and horrifies, but the worst thing is that you can see how in a country with few gun laws, this could too easily happen.

50 Shades of Grey, not so much for the reputed raunchy content as for the appalling writing. I abandoned the attempt after the first chapter.

TerriBull

I think like Sara above the reason why I do persevere with some books is that sometimes, what initially comes across as a complete bore, once you crack the first 100 pages or so it turns into something else altogether. I found that very much with Atonement, I really didn't like it at all until 70 pages or so in, but ended up loving it once I got into the heart of it. Although I would add that's an exception, more often than not my first instincts are often right.

I found that with We Need To Talk About Kevin. I was reading it for a book club meeting and struggled until the person who'd chosen it said to start later in the book as the opening was hard work. She was right. I started where she suggested and it has become one of my favourite novels. I re-read it from the beginning when I'd worked out the structure, which was what was getting in the way. It's really a very good book.

I also gave up on Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Wolf Hall. Not a big fan of Phillipa Gregory either, but Shadow of the Wind is one of my favourite books.

I think like Sara above the reason why I do persevere with some books is that sometimes, what initially comes across as a complete bore, once you crack the first 100 pages or so it turns into something else altogether. I found that very much with Atonement, I really didn't like it at all until 70 pages or so in, but ended up loving it once I got into the heart of it. Although I would add that's an exception, more often than not my first instincts are often right.

Grandabatty
I agree with you, I always need to get to the end if possible, and very often I’m glad I persevered.

Nearly all my late husbands books I found very boring and never finished one of them
Catch 22 - he read this at least once a year
Lord of the Rings
The Alchemist
All of Hilary Mantels (although I enjoyed Wolf Hall on TV)
All of Philip Pullmans
Any books people say will change my life ie Where the Crawdads Sing - The Time Travellers Wife. They don’t

I am a firm believer that if I've started then I will finish, to paraphrase Mastermind. Some of the titles mentioned, I would agree are difficult and turgid but I persevered. The only book so far that I was unable to finish was Ulysses by James Joyce. It hurt my brain and I've given up a number of times! Maybe I should make that my project for March.

Anything by Donna Tartt. And I have really tried 😟

Some Other Rainbow by John McCarthy and Jill Morrell defeated me as did Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawkin. I tried both several times.

PS. I didn't like Michelle Obama's book, or Cloud Atlas, or Midnight's Children, or The Lovely Bones to name a few.

Sara1954

A lot of Booker winners are awful, but I always think the Booker panel are far better informed and intelligent than me, so I must be missing something.

I agree. I have given up on several of them but, as someone else posted earlier, life is too short to persevere with a book you don't find interesting/enhancing.

I have loved books all my life.... if a book doesn't resonate with me for whatever reason (could be due to what's going on in my life), then I put it aside.

I read for pleasure ... if I'm not feeling it, I find another book. Every day I give thanks for libraries

A lot of Booker winners are awful, but I always think the Booker panel are far better informed and intelligent than me, so I must be missing something.

I too don’t like books written in the present tense. A friend and I used to challenge ourselves to read the Booker shortlist. Dreadful forgettable books a lot of them. I have become more selective now. Life is too short to deal with books I don’t enjoy.

Marmight
Funny isn’t it, Life after Life is probably my favourite Kate Atkinson.

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. Love most of her books but this one defeated me

I'm with Notspaghetti on Capt Corelli - tried twice failed twice

The Harry Potter books. Not bad films but I can’t read the books. Also the Da Vinci Code- dreadful style.

Anything written by William Faulkner. I was required to read The Sound and the Fury at school. Awful.

NotSpaghetti

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

I tried 3 times too.