Last book you couldn't finish?

wijam

corblimey wrote: »

Title says it all really. What's the last book you read that was just too bad to finish?

For me, it's The Damned United. I just couldn't. Stand the writing. Style.

Just after seeing this thread there now and from the title I hought The Damned United - just like the OP, terrible style of writing, was told it was a great book, but just couldn't read it.

On a side note, see the film there a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it.

kylith

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

6 weeks, that thing took me, 6. fcuking. weeks.

It's a very misleading titled. It should have been called "a 19th Century Guide to Whaling". :mad:

I always make sure to bring it on holiday with me because I can always find something I'd rather do than read Moby fecking Dick.

Titus Groan was a hard slog too.

bp1989

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Which was disappointing for me because I loved the movie.

Asphyxia

Stardust!! It actually killed me trying to get through it, I actually read three other books while reading this. I did get through it in the end but I will NEVER be picking it up again!!!

bp1989

unfairlytreated wrote: »

The picture of dorian gray, what a tedious book.

+1

Amazotheamazing

damselnat wrote: »

The Beautiful and Damned - my second go at it. I think I just got distracted by other books, I'm going to give it another go in the next few weeks, took me about three goes to really "get" The Great Gatsby, and it's now one of my favourite novels, so I'm going to persevere with Beautiful, hope it's as rewarding

I really don't think it's anywhere near as good as Gatsby or Tender is the Night, it's an ok read but he was still finding his voice at that point, parts of it are very dense, unlike his usual effortless style.

mwexford

fionav3 wrote: »

John McGahern's That they may face the rising sun. And I HATE not being able to finish a book but this is just so...eh. Great book if you're having trouble falling asleep though, will put you right off in a matter of minutes!

The one that always sent me to sleep was Sophie's World - I persevered, but I wonder now why I did. because I really couldn't make it out.

Warrior Saint

It is very rare that I will simply give up on a book. The last book I couldn't finish was The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Even though I am from a financial background and this was a mass market book I simply was way too bored and confused to go past half way.

sfmonet

The one that was pulling teeth for me lately was The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It was recommended to me by a friend trying to get me to read authors that are still alive. This book was brutal, I don't know if it was because it was translated from Hindi, but...well let's leave it at that...
And when I saw it on the List of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (well to say the least the title is miscontrued).

Give me a Turgenev or some other dead author...anytime :-)

emeraldstar

rockmongrel wrote: »

Bleak House.

Good god, it's a ****ing chore to say the least, long, long, looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong book.

One of my favourite books ever! Yes, the start was a bit tedious with the fog, and the fog, and the fog... but it gets great!

emeraldstar

Pocketfizz wrote: »

Stardust!! It actually killed me trying to get through it, I actually read three other books while reading this. I did get through it in the end but I will NEVER be picking it up again!!!

Yeah, it's amazing how dull the book is considering the movie is so great (IMO).

kylith

emeraldstar wrote: »

Yeah, it's amazing how dull the book is considering the movie is so great (IMO).

Really? I'm the other way round. I love the book, but thought that the film was just silly, especially the de Niro bits.

GodlessM

Not sure if this counts but I couldn't finish the Stand for nearly 3yrs and then I eventually forces myself into it.

Amazotheamazing

sfmonet wrote: »

The one that was pulling teeth for me lately was The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It was recommended to me by a friend trying to get me to read authors that are still alive. This book was brutal, I don't know if it was because it was translated from Hindi, but...well let's leave it at that...
And when I saw it on the List of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (well to say the least the title is miscontrued).

Give me a Turgenev or some other dead author...anytime :-)

Agree completely, such an awful book. For some reason, a lot of rubbish seems to drift towards the Booker prize...

pwd

Surprised to see these come up:

The Stand
The Portrait of Dorian Gray
The Hobbit
American Psycho
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Catch 22 [Closing Time was good too I thought]

as I think they are all excellent, and easy to read.

Almost shocked to see Dune come up :eek: What is wrong with you?

I also didn't finish Under the Dome; just never got interested in it. I agree that Chuck Palahniuk's more recent books are much worse than his first ones.

emeraldstar

kylith wrote: »

Really? I'm the other way round. I love the book, but thought that the film was just silly, especially the de Niro bits.

No way, loved it! Had to force myself to keep going with the book.

Sprocket77

Very rare for me to not finish a book, usually force myself to finish one I don't like, but any time it has happened it's been a so called classic or an award winning book, not sure what that says about me.

Couldn't finish:

A Clockwork Orange
Catch 22
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

GodlessM

pwd wrote: »

Surprised to see these come up:

The Stand

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I didn't like the book, I thought it was great, it was just the sheer volume of text and the amount of pages it took to introduce the characters. It wears on you :P

naasrd

1424, Gavin Menzies

Bagmagnet

The Soft Machine by William Burroughs..

I could not get through it at all.. There are a few funny paragraphs, but most of the cut up, jumbled words are just a chore to read. I have enjoyed other books of his, but this one was just too hard to get into..

MadRush

one day in the life of ivan denisovich by alexander solzhenitzyn

tried really hard, but couldn't get through the tedium....

kinda ashamed, as it's about the soviet concentration camps, but hey...

politicsdude

i'm surprised that people didn't like catch 22 i thought it was great

MadRush

politicsdude wrote: »

i'm surprised that people didn't like catch 22 i thought it was great

i couldn't stop reading it....its like falling down a hole :P

when i finished it i felt like i'd been slapped in the face

natsuko

dark volume by gordon dahlquist, sequel to glass books of the dream eaters. Loved the first book, love the writing but it was left too open ended to not buy the second, then the second just kept trying to reiterate what happened in the first book, got really annoying. But still wanted to finish it. Was secretly hoping the film would come out soon after but im still waiting..

Miss Lockhart

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

I can't put my finger on why. I was about 1/3 the way through and just never went back to it.

Can't think of any others.

Wolfe Tone

Very surprised to see Robinson Crusoe mentioned, I love that book! Must have read it ten times!

me-skywalker

THe Princess Bride... I got side tracked by The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama Ill go back to it... haha

alabandical

Funny to see Catch 22 coming up so often, I didn't finish it either and I know a few other people who couldn't as well.

Joseph O'Connor's 'The Star of the Sea' had to be put down too, found it wasn't picking up at all.

femur61

Joseph O'Connor's 'The Star of the Sea' will try reading again in a year.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

femur61 wrote: »

Joseph O'Connor's 'The Star of the Sea' will try reading again in a year.

I really loved that book, can be a little challengine with its format at first but you get used to that and when it all starts falling in together you wont be able to stop reading. An excellent story

thenakedanddead

"Grapes", I suspect

Lupine

House of Pain, through the rooms of mayo football
by Keith Duggan

It was too painful

Foleyart

I cannot put a book down no matter how bad ! The only one I ever did was Alan Carr's, How to give up smoking permanently. I had fixed a date for the fags and it arrived to my great relief before I had gotten to the end of the drivel. The book was the one and only to ever crash against the wall in my house.The best I've read lately, the third book of the dragon tattoo series, the girl who kicked a hornets nest. the second one was a bit tedious, but worth it for the third.

CiaraG75

Foleyart, I've just had a good laugh because I came on here to say I couldn't get through the Hornet's Nest. I loved the first two books but just couldn't get into number 3. I found it way too bogged down in the political history of Sweden, so I gave up after about 100 pages. Would be tempted to pick it up again if I thought it got any better.....

I used to be the same as you in that I would never not finish a book, but recently I've come to the conclusion that life's just too short to waste it finishing bad books. Another one that I couldn't get through recently was John Banvilles The Infinities - really awful.

Giselle

Under the Dome by Stephen King. Usually I like a bit of easy reading, but it just hit me that I was reading something that had become too familiar after reading a few King novels.

I just couldn't be bothered reading more G vs E told in the samey style.

After being told how accessible it was, I was ashamed at how hard going I found A Brief History Of Time (Hawking), but I won't admit to quitting it, I'm just giving it a rest.;)

Newaglish

Really struggled to finish American Psycho, I actually had to put it down twice to read other books just for a break. Other than the very last few pages, the remainder of the book could have been chopped up an re-inserted in random order. There is no plot! Finished it in the end and really wished I hadn't bothered.

Also I found 1984 too thoroughly depressing (also I began to think in Newspeak) and stopped quite close to the end!

louloubella

:pac:The Brain that Changes itself by Norman Doidge- excellent book but for some reason I keep leaving it down for months at a time,
Also " The Wasp Factory " by Ian Banks...its only about 280 pages and Ive been 'chipping away' at it for six months now.

Valmont

Although I still consider it a work in progress:pac:, and I can't exactly think why, I put down Catch 22 one year ago and never picked it up again. When I think of the parts I did read it was quite funny but I'm guessing I bought something that I wanted to read sooner and just never got back to it. I'll start it again some day.

Sammy Jennings

Emma by Jane Austen

dull dull dull

spanx

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

Major snoozefest

sudzs

The Womens Room by Marilyn French.

Ground breaking in it's day I believe, but I just couldn't get past the first few chapters.

Skinback

MickShamrock wrote: »

Revolutionary Road. Just a real struggle.

#
Ah no....that was an almost perfect novel.Beautifully written and paced.

Zadkiel

The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
I make a point never to leave a book unfinished so I WILL come back to it at some stage but for now something in the way its written just grates on me.

Anyone else have a similar feeling about it?

Journey to the End of Night by Céline.

Just couldn't get into it at all, I'll give it another shot sometime.

joannaman

2 books I couldn't finish in recent times:

Under The Dome - Very long and tedious; cardboard characters. I gave up around 50 pages from the end. Just couldn't do it any more.

The Road - Pretentious twaddle. Over-rated cack.

Tchaikovsky

The Human Touch by Michael Frayn: I love science books in the style of A Complete History of Nearly Everything, but my brain was about to melt with all the theories and factoids crammed into each sentence.

Qiaonasen

I am halfway through Norwegian Wood by Murakami. I really don't like it but I am wondering is all of his stuff this dull or should I try something else?

GerB40

Zadkiel wrote: »

The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
I make a point never to leave a book unfinished so I WILL come back to it at some stage but for now something in the way its written just grates on me.

Anyone else have a similar feeling about it?

I actually did finish The Satanic Verses. It took a few attempts but once I got into it I was flying. I won't say it was easy, there were sometimes I had to go back a few pages and re read what I had just read to know what was going on but I did finish it and I feel that I 'get' it. Then I bought Midnight's Children, another Salman Rushdie classic. I got to maybe 100 pages before I gave up, figuring that life is too short. Nothing gripped me, nothing seemed to happen. Just chapter after chapter of character building which I found to be too much. I read a synopsis of the plot and it does sound good but reading shouldn't be a chore.

Arghus

I tried and I tried but I could not finish The Wings of The Dove by Henry James.

An utter chore of ploughing through impenetrably complex prose that was about as clear as mud. After a while I realised that life is too short.

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

Catch 22, you'd have to be mad to read it.