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Books that defeated you!

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TerriBull Wed 01-Mar-23 11:45:06

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 shock 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?

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rubysong Wed 08-Mar-23 09:38:29

We just read The Great Gatsby for book group. Pretentious, shallow and boring. There wasn't a likeable character in the whole book. Only one person in the group enjoyed it.
I also disliked Catcher in the Rye, for more or less the same reasons.
I loved The Essex Serpent (Sarah Perry), A Place Called Winter (Patrick Gale), and Once Upon a River (Dianne Setterfield).

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Sara1954 Wed 08-Mar-23 15:06:38

Rubysong
I read The Great Gatsby when I was about fifteen, and loved it, but I don’t think I would feel the same about it now, and I agree with you regarding Catcher in the Rye.
A Place called Winter is a really lovely book, but I couldn’t get into The Essex Serpent.

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Magrithea Thu 09-Mar-23 09:12:13

I still haven't finished Hilary Mantel's 'The Mirror and the Light' and I also struggled, but did finish, with CJ Sansom's 'Tombland' - I loved the other books in the series but couldn't engage with this one

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Pixieboots Sat 11-Mar-23 13:46:25

Thanks grandnaderby - I’ll stick with it 👍

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Eloethan Mon 13-Mar-23 14:26:57

There are books that I think are really well written and engaging but I would never want to read them again because they are so grim and depressing, eg:

1984
The Handmaid's Tale

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