Last book you couldn't finish?

quickbeam

For me, I do get a satisfaction from finishing a book, no matter how hard the slog. Most times, it doesn't end up worth it, but sometimes, just sometimes, it all comes together and I'm glad I stuck with it (100 Years of Solitude falls in to the worth-it example). Plus, I don't feel I am qualified to critique a book until I've actually finished it, and also feel the time already spent reading is wasted if I just give up. Some I have really struggled with, and weren't worth it were ....

The Master and Margarita - interesting somebody here mentioned the translation matters, and mine was the Penguin version, so maybe there's a better book out there somewhere for me, though I'm not pushed to find it.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Foucault's Pendulum - to this day I haven't a clue what it was about, even reading the summary on Wikipedia makes my head swim
On The Road - just borrrring!!

The only one I haven't finished, on multiple tries, is Catch-22. Though I am planning on trying it again and persevering one of these days.

Henry94

Finders Keepers by Stephen King. This was a sequel to Mr Mercedes which I enjoyed. It started well with an interesting bad guy. But the second half dragged and the re-introduction of the people from the first book didn't work for me. Got to the point where I didn't care what happened to any of them so I abandoned it.

Alf Veedersane

The World According to Garp - John Irving

I stopped halfway through and started reading John Banville's Mefisto.

Never went back to Garp. First book I never finished. Just wasn't good enough to get me back into it.

GuessWhoEh

Lolita. I read 60% of it and my brain gave up. It was weird

scriba

I hate abandoning a book, but sometimes it has to be done.

Finnegan's Wake - although technically not abandoned yet, just being read about a page a month, when not on indefinite hiatus!

John Banville's The Sea. I nearly made it to the end, but I just couldn't do it. Banville just isn't a writer I could ever warm to. I was immediately happier

Umberto Eco's Island of the day before. I loved several of Eco's works, but this bored and frustrated me - I tried read it twice. I won't be going back a third time.

George RR Martin, A feast for crows. I was struggling with this bloatfest anyway, but once I found out that the show would finish long before Martin (if he finishes at all), that was the death knell for the book.

Ave Sodalis

Probably controversial, but I couldn't finish The Book Thief. Maybe it was just my mindframe, but it put me off trying again.

Quiet Achiever

Fahrenheit 451 - expected to enjoy it but...

shaunr68

Mein Kampf

No, really!

Not because I'm a card-carrying nazi but because I'm interested in history and in particular the events of the Second World War. Mein Kampf is an important historical document, if you want to try to understand the mind of a madman what better way than to read his book.

Admittedly it's not the sort of thing you whip out on public transport on the way to work, might raise a few eyebrows!

Unfortunately I found it very hard going, lots of minute detail about the political and economic machinations of the Weimar Republic. I got the distinct impression that he was bitter, angry and didn't like Jews or Bolsheviks much and everything seemed to be their fault.

I've not seen anything by the author since and am still waiting for the sequel.

Wailin

Read The Passage by Justin Cronin and loved it. Struggled with the sequel 'The Twelve'.....twice I tried to finish it and twice I failed, very amateurish compared to the first book.

Read 'Hyperion' recently by Dan Simmons and was almost going to give up early on but glad I persisted, great book and read all the sequels too.

Tried Dune also and gave up on it pretty early but after Hyperion I think I was all spaced out:pac:

Travel is good

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. I only managed to get halfway through. I normally try to finish books, but this one I couldn't. It was a book club choice and the other members were not too enamoured with it either.

I believe there are other Doris Lessing books which are much better, so I'll get back to reading her books later.

ScottScott

I tried to read The Hobbit several times since my childhood...without success.

trixychic

I'm another one who couldn't the hobbit as a kid.

I recently tried to read The Sword of Shannara on my dad's recommendation. Just couldn't do it.

I loved the Narnia series... till The Horse and His Boy. Couldn't do it.

marienbad

ScottScott wrote: »

I tried to read The Hobbit several times since my childhood...without success.

I found all of JRR Tolkien's stuff unreadable , and the bits I did manage to wade through completely derivative and unoriginal .

maximum12

Catch 22. Got about a third of the way through it and just felt the author was still introducing characters to me in an only mildly entertaining way. Recently bought a kindle as I want to read more and Catch 22 came up on a list of great novels so am a little relieved to see a lot of people on this thread couldn't finish it.

Currently reading the Stand which I'm enjoying although it is a bit long winded at times. I'm reading the extended version. I will stick with it.

ScottScott

maximum12 wrote: »

Currently reading the Stand which I'm enjoying although it is a bit long winded at times. I'm reading the extended version. I will stick with it.

The Stand is an amazing book...I think you won't regrets the time spent reading it!

lizzylad84

Fatherland by Robert Harris. Just couldn't get it

SarahBM

The last book I couldn't finish was Rebel Sisters by Marita Conlan-McKenna. A friend gave me a lend of it as she knows I love history. She thought I would love it. But 100 pages in I was starting feel very bored and NOTHING was really happening. So I gave up. That is the most recent one. I find the older I become the more I am like "Life's too short to waste on books that don't interest me!"

I do make a terrible effort to finish books for book club because I feel I can't really give a proper opinion if I haven't finished it.
I have failed previously to finish Rob Roy, Gone With The Wind, Ivanhoe, Goodnight to Berlin, and maybe one or two others.

I saw someone mention The Master and Margarita. I read that on an outstanding recommendation from a colleague, but my god it nearly killed me to finish it. I hated it.
Narnia I stuck with out of curiosity but I agree after book 3 it kind of goes down hill.
However I do remember loving the Hobbit and the LOTR. which I read in my teens.

Edit: I just realised I make myself sound very old! ha ha! I'm still in my 20's for another while at least so I should stop whinging like an auld wan!

super_furry

Of the books I read, I probably finish about two-thirds of them.

I read a hell of a lot, usually get through three or four decent sized books a months and honestly there’s too much good stuff out there to force myself to read something bad.

If I’m not enjoying something, I’ll usually give a book another one or two hours to pick up and if it doesn’t, I’ll drop it and move on to something else.

Life’s too short to read crap stories.

osarusan

The Finkler Question.

Just didn't like it at all.

Quite a few unfortunately. 100 Years of Solitude is staring at me as I type this. "You failure, you missed out, all those people who said I changed their lives. It could have been you". That's what it's saying to me. I might pick it up again in the future.

Anna Karenina was absolutely turgid. Crime and Punishment very punishing indeed. The fountainhead caused pieces of my heart to turn to stone so I had to put it down before the transformation was complete. Peter Carey's The Chemistry of Tears was a surprising struggle. I just couldn't connect with it at all.

There's definitely a few more knocking around. The Golden Notebook was mentioned a few posts ago and it rings a bell. I may have tried it during my terribly earnest all black wearing days.

GerB40

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Quite a few unfortunately. 100 Years of Solitude is staring at me as I type this. "You failure, you missed out, all those people who said I changed their lives. It could have been you". That's what it's saying to me. I might pick it up again in the future.

Anna Karenina was absolutely turgid. Crime and Punishment very punishing indeed. The fountainhead caused pieces of my heart to turn to stone so I had to put it down before the transformation was complete. Peter Carey's The Chemistry of Tears was a surprising struggle. I just couldn't connect with it at all.

There's definitely a few more knocking around. The Golden Notebook was mentioned a few posts ago and it rings a bell. I may have tried it during my terribly earnest all black wearing days.

Avoid Salman Rushdie like the plague...

echo beach

Deleted User wrote: »

100 Years of Solitude is staring at me as I type this. "You failure, you missed out, all those people who said I changed their lives. It could have been you". That's what it's saying to me. I might pick it up again in the future.

It took me months of reading on and off to get through first half of 100 Years then I finished it off in one night. I wouldn't say it changed my life but it widened my reading habits and I'm certainly glad I read it. I would suggest reading some of his other books first. They are easier to follow and get you into that world.

echo beach

echo beach wrote: »

It took me months of reading on and off to get through first half of 100 Years then I finished it off in one night. I wouldn't say it changed my life but it widened my reading habits and I'm certainly glad I read it. I would suggest reading some of his other books first. They are easier to follow and get you into that world.

One of my all time favourite books is Love in the time of cholera

LenaClaire

Deleted User wrote: »

Anna Karenina was absolutely turgid.

We had to read Anna Karenina when I was in secondary school. Oh man, I hated that book so much.

wreade1872

I'm not sure this should count but i recently read the Master and Margarita. Technically i finished it but not by reading :P . I had to give up trying to read it about a 3rd of the way through, it was absolutely killing me... not terrible on audio though .

marienbad

wreade1872 wrote: »

I'm not sure this should count but i recently read the Master and Margarita. Technically i finished it but not by reading :P . I had to give up trying to read it about a 3rd of the way through, it was absolutely killing me... not terrible on audio though .

I have read it many times ,one of my all time favourite books .:eek:

isntlee

Something Happened by Joseph Heller. Novels need paragraphs, loads of them.

Lovely Bloke

Altered Carbon, the first Takeshi Kovacs novel.

I was expecting a Bladerunner type dystopian future novel, what I got was a hardboild detective novel set in the future.

Not very interesting.

Fathom

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. Dagny Taggart paradox. Strong woman. But Galt worship. "Who is John Galt?" Failed to suspend disbelief. Disappointed was I.

Speedwell

Fathom wrote: »

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. Dagny Taggart paradox. Strong woman. But Galt worship. "Who is John Galt?" Failed to suspend disbelief. Disappointed was I.

For Rand, the measure of her strength as a woman was the amount of strength it took for a man to master her. "Test to failure", but psychological rather than mechanical.

Cath54

PS I love you by Cecelia sheen. Load of tripe...

Cath54

Cath54 wrote: »

PS I love you by Cecelia sheen. Load of tripe...

Cecelia Ahern (damned predictive text!)