Russethouse Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6440981.stmSo which books have you given up on ?The Boy With No Shoes by William Horwood got the better of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 Books that were/are supposed to be 'good' in some way? On the Road - Jack KerouacCatch 22 - Jospeh Heller, which has the current distinction of being the only unread book in my house. I've tried several times and just don't 'get it'.There may be more. I've discarded countless rubbish books that people bring on their holidays, including one by that Drink water woman, which I read 5 pages of, skimmed a few other pages, then burnt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 'Critique of Pure Reason', Immanuel Kant.No plot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 Dick has just reminded me of many, many more books I've given up on.[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum. Unreadable. Much like Baudolino, but I lost that before I could chuck it at the wall.But I have several hundred books I haven't finished reading yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 12, 2007 Author Share Posted March 12, 2007 I've discarded countless rubbish books that people bring on their holidays, including one by that Drink water woman, which I read 5 pages of, skimmed a few other pages, then burntAt least I waited until I had ploughed through to say how dreadful they were [:(] but I never learn, I even bought the sequel to A Year in the Merde, and I didn't like that much and the sequel , less. Talk about being stupid!(By the way today I read an excerpt from a book by Edward Enfield 'Downhill all the way' the story of his bike trip from Le Havre to the Med, which looks promising in a light, holiday read sort of way) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 I actually read both Merde books (one on a train journey to and from Darlington, so that was a day of exquisite pain) and I thought they were crap. No idea why I bought and read the second one - triumph of hope over experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 12, 2007 Author Share Posted March 12, 2007 I'm glad I'm not the only one to make that mistake !I tend not to buy books or see films that are hyped, so Star of the Sea remains unopened on the bookshelf (a friend gave it to me after she had read it) in just the same way as I didn't go and see Titanic. I've never read Harry Potter or been to a film either - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 [quote user="Russethouse"]... so Star of the Sea remains unopened on the bookshelf ...[/quote]Gay, you said that a couple of years ago. Surely you could take peek now the hype has died down.[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 12, 2007 Author Share Posted March 12, 2007 You know I keep looking at it, but somehow I always have something I have chosen that needs reading first......I have just started 'Our Betty' the autobiography of Liz Smith, then there is Home to Big Stone Gap by Adrianna Trigiani, bought because I so enjoyed Lucia, Lucia plus I suspect the mothers day fairy might be bringing The Tenderness of Wolves (breaking the hype rule) and Philippa Gregory's Bread and Chocolate [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 I've only looked at a few pages of one of the Merde books. I thought it was plodding, cliche ridden, and worst of all, not funny at all.I wonder whether you really need to read some books at the moment they are published to 'get' what it is others find so worthwhile. A similar book (left by a relative)Wilt in Nowhere - Tom Sharpe. I loved Wilt etc, all those years ago, but this new one I couldn't read. Dull, dull, dull.I didn't burn it though.I wonder if I'd like Wilt now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Zadie Smith - The Autograph Man. After "White Teeth" it was incredibly disappointing and I was glad I'd borrowed it from the library rather than having bought it. It was funny (I usually become incandescent with rage about this) but someone had written in the back in pencil "I hated this book, and I didn't finish it because I really didn't care what happened to any of the characters". I only read the comment after I'd drawn the same conclusion, BTW.Patricia Cornwell's book on Jack the Ripper. Boring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. I bought it following someones recommendation on here but what a disapointment. I kept reading, thinking it would develop, but it never happened, not for me anyway.Or am I missing something ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gastines Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Unreadable or am I missing the point books,anything by John le Carre. Regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.It had some good reviews apparently but I found it to be over long as everything seemed to be described in the most tedious detail and it was very predictable. I skipped a huge,huge chunk and read the last 10 pages just to save time and to confirm what I thought. No surprise twist.[:(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 I bought a second-hand copy of Norman Mailer's 'The Executioner's Song' in the 80's and could not get past the first 20 or pages despite numerous attempts through the years. I was asked for it several times ("Come on, you don't like it! Let me have it!") but refused to give it away... I started it again a couple of years ago and could not put it down. Book I was most disappointed with: "Captain's Corelli's Mandolin" ... what a waste of time that was! I forced myself to finish it, thinking there must be more to it than that... but there wasn't.And the "Bridges of Madison Country" too... Book I have yet to finish: "A hundred Years of Solitude", more like of hundred years of sheer boredom [img]http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla05.gif[/img]and there's another one about a man travelling to find a treasure somewhere only to realise the treasure was within himself...Can't remember the title or the author, but quite stunningly obvious, but I may have missed "it" altogether... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 I have a method of reading books where I skim the book very fast first. If I think I'm going to enjoy it I then go back to the beginning and read more slowly. If no good then put it away or pass it on. But I still skip large parts of most books. I prefer short stories and hardly ever read novels now. May be I have ADHD. I also like travel books and biographies. Then there are other books which I read over and over again, every single word and know almost by heart. Pat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opas Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. It wasn't something I chose, it was in a box of books given to me by a neighbour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Tragically I was an Only Twin - Peter Cook (William Cook).I loved this man, but his genuis just didn't come across when reading his scripts. The Telegraph review said "this is the sort of book that, if read while taking refreshments, will make tea come shooting down your nose"... hmm, not in this house it didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 [quote user="Clair"]... and there's another one about a man travelling to find a treasure somewhere only to realise the treasure was within himself...Can't remember the title or the author, but quite stunningly obvious, but I may have missed "it" altogether...[/quote]I've remembered that one: it's "The Alchemist" by Paul Coelho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 The Olive Farm, pure tosh, just couldn't go on with it.The Atlantic Celts, I was so bored, I can't remember if I finished it or not. A scifi that was passed to me twice and was so awful that I just couldn't read it. The good thing about it was that it made me realise just how hard it must be to write well. I have read Patricia Cornwell's Jack the Ripper thing, she really lost the plot with that one and was all over the place. It has put me off reading her books.I love The Count of Monte Cristo, but couldn't read more that the first few pages of The Man in the Iron Mask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 When I went to art school I was given a reading list. I managed to read The Nude by Keneth Clark (which sadly was not a Raymond Chandler style thriller) but The Meaning of Art by Herbert Read defies all attempts. I used it as a cure for insomnia in those days. I still have the volume and I sometimes claim that one day I will have another go - and a certain lurcher sniggers behind his paw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5-element Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 I never managed to finish reading Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu" but know I am not the only one...Others that I might be equally ashamed of not finishing being: Salman Rushdie's "The ground beneath her feet"Sebastian Faulk's "A Fool's Alphabet"Jamie O'Neill's "At swim, two boys" - I would love to read and enjoy it, but might have to accept that it is too Irish for me (nothing wrong with Irish, but I am just too challenged by the extreme Irishness with dialogues that are barely understandable)Toni Morrison's - can't remember the title?Jane Gardham's "Tambourine Queen".I love all of Margaret Attwood, Alice Hoffman, Barbara Kingsolver, Carol Shields, Rebecca Wells, Sue Monk Kidd, and many more wonderful contemporary American women writers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 [quote user="5-element"]Toni Morrison's - can't remember the title?[/quote]The Song of Solomon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5-element Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 [quote user="Cassis"][quote user="5-element"]Toni Morrison's - can't remember the title?[/quote]The Song of Solomon?[/quote]That sounds right, Cassis. How did you know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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