Really Rubbish Books

Just My Luck. Received it at Christmas. Can’t remember the author and I gave it away. Apparently she has written loads of books and having them published at a rate of one a year!,!

Julienoted
Duly noted, apologies. I am forever going off thread, to do with mainly having my head in a book or on a screen to often.

Oh lord and now I can’t spell too ?

dogsmother

Oh lord and now I can’t spell too ?

I read this before you previous post and thought "hmm, she should have said 'either' not 'too' " . And then I read the other post and the penny dropped, haha!

No apologies needed, mine was just a winky, light-hearted comment

Oops, you your!

Greyduster

I’ve decided to abandon The Three Body Problem for now. I’m sure someone much brighter than me will understand what on Earth is going on, but I really can’t. You can’t win ‘em all.

I’ve just remembered another I couldn’t make head nor tail of.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. What the heck was that all about?

Agree. Thursday Murder Club boring....boring....?

Narcissus and Goldmund is one of my favourite books, difficult to get hold of though. I eventually got mine from an old bookshop. I like Sara Baume unusual books.

Ooh thought of another one - Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall - read great reviews about it so picked up a copy from the library. Couldn't get beyond a couple of chapters - her writing style is really not my cup of tea, to put it politely. I often find books that have won awards are nowhere near as good as they are cracked up to be.

I can’t get into Hilary Mantel’s books either. I once heard her on the radio rubbishing another author’s books and wanted to tell her out that not everyone rated hers.

I'm ploughing through this thread but haven't read it all yet. So far no one has mentioned Joanna Harris. I think that's her name. "Chocolat" I didn't connect with at all, then there was another one about blackberries which left me equally cold.

sodapop

I didn't like the first book of Ann Cleves new series either, it was really depressing I thought. So memorable I can't remember the title.

‘The Long Call’ I think it was, The Two Rivers series?

I agree, I read it and not overly impressed.

Ann Cleeves said in her blurb that she hoped we would take to the new detective like we did Jimmy Perez in Shetland, but no charisma came across.

The Shetland series was definitely the jewel in the crown Calendargirl

I agree Saetana I often find Booker prize winning books beyond my ken. Maybe I'm overtaxing my limited intelligence

Ruth Rendell books are a mystery to me. (no pun intended!)
Having read more than 20 of her books I have decided to only read her Wexford stories in the future. Her other novels have a strange, weird theme usually and have a scenario that is ludicrous. I love a thriller but it has to be a little bit plausible.

Apologies to RR fans but I shall be giving a pile of her tales to the charity shops.

DiggingDoris that’s my view of RR’s books as well.

And mine.

MerylStreep

Up until a few weeks ago I’d never read a book recommended by someone I didn’t know, but a poster recommended
Where The Crawdads Sing. I absolutely loved it: one of those books I never wanted to end.

I have a friend who up until a few years ago read the most awful rubbish ( I make no apologies for that statement)
One day I gave her The Far Pavillions: she absolutely loved it. It changed her reading choices.

Oh, that’s interesting MS. I’ve got Where the Crawdads Sing on my kindle and couldn’t get into it, so I’ll give it another try. The Far Pavillions - Yes! An amazing book that stayed with me for a long time.

I’ve read Gone Girl and Girl on a Train, did nothing for me although I did finish them.

Started The Time Traveller's Wife, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Slap, The Paying Guests and quite a few more that received rave reviews but which I just couldn't get into. The characters in The Slap I found particularly obnoxious and unlikeable. I was intrigued by Gone Girl but it was ultimately a letdown as the denouement was, in my opinion, completely unbelievable.

No, thinking about it, it wasn't Gone Girl I read but I saw the film, which I didn't like.

The book that intrigued me but which was ultimately a disappointment was Before I go to Sleep.

One of the advantages of being in a book group is that you don't have to finish a book you don't like. You can stop whenever you want to. You are reading for pleasure not studying for an exam. It's always interesting to find what the rest of the group think. I remember giving a score of 1 or 2 (out of 20) when others were raving about it and marking it as 18 or 19.

Agatha Raisin ?
I recently wanted to listen to something very unchallenging to go to sleep to, and I like Penelope Keith's voice.
But oh my goodness, what a load of complete and utter rubbish.
MC Beaton wrote dozens of the things. Awful stuff. And Agatha is supposed to be this very endearing character - but she's really, really unpleasant.

I'm sure it's someone's favourite but I found Middlemarch so incredibly dull. Well written perhaps, that must be why it's still read today but it wasn't exactly a galloping plot.

I like to alternate between a classic and a modern read. As I've just finished a good book by Mark Billingham I thought I'd try To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. It's a slim volume but by 'eck it's dull.

And Agatha is supposed to be this very endearing character - but she's really, really unpleasant.

I didn't know she was supposed to be endearing, Fanny - I thought she was meant to be supremely irritating.
Perhaps it's just us ?

Strangely, I really dislike audio books and dread the day when I may not be able to read for whatever reason.

Well I think Middlemarch is a brilliant book, up in my top ten ever probably, but To the Lighthouse, well I’m in full agreement, a load of rubbish.
Also read one Agatha book, again, absolutely ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as the television series based very loosely on the books.