Stato
Well-known member
- Dec 21, 2011
- 7,136
Oi! Spoilers!
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[Misc] Books you gave up on
- Thread starter Flounce
- Start date
I can't emphasise enough, how dull I thought it was.
Tristram Shandy - WTF was that all about? Nicholas Nickleby - I tried reading it to my younger daughter (at her request), but was thwarted a). by sheer boredom and b). (and more significantly) by the absurd length of the sentences - some took over half a page! Almost impossible for reading aloud. One day while bored at work I drew a little cartoon for my daughter of Mr. Dickens, by candlelight, sitting down to try to write the longest sentence in the world - one of those weird little incongruous things that stick in your mind forever! Wish I knew where it was now!
Oh yes, and Plague Dogs, by Richard Adams (the Watership Down man) - he also wrote Shardik (I must be one of the very few people who actually finished that!) but my third attempt of one of his books .................... No!
P.S. And put me down as a member of the didn't finish War and Peace club too!
Oh yes, and Plague Dogs, by Richard Adams (the Watership Down man) - he also wrote Shardik (I must be one of the very few people who actually finished that!) but my third attempt of one of his books .................... No!
P.S. And put me down as a member of the didn't finish War and Peace club too!
Oh, just remembered, during the first Covid lockdown I decided that, since I kept reading about people using the time to engage in intellectual pursuits like learning French or whatever, I'd read Finnegan's Wake one page a day during my lunchbreak.
No. No I did not finish Finnegan's Wake.
No. No I did not finish Finnegan's Wake.
Perry Milkins
Just a quiet guy.
Ben Hur
hart's shirt
Well-known member
I read just over 3.
I defo like listening to books instead of reading them. Still doesn't always mean I stick with them.
Really didn't appreciate The Wind in the Willows but I just finished From the Top, Brief Transmissions From Tent Show Radio by Michael Perry. Great Americana!!
Really didn't appreciate The Wind in the Willows but I just finished From the Top, Brief Transmissions From Tent Show Radio by Michael Perry. Great Americana!!
- Jul 5, 2003
- 1,459
I bloody love fantasy/sci-fi and currently on book 7 of the Malazan World books, but like you, got to book 7 of WoT and just got bored of it.
- Jul 5, 2003
- 1,459
Can't get on with any Dickens or Thomas Hardy, so so dull. Actually really enjoyed War and Peace once I got my head around all the names and LotR is an all time favourite 
Stopped reading the Dune books after book 3 I think and also the Enders Game series after book 4.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was the one big book I put down after 50 pages and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Dreadful characters, none of whom I liked or had any sympathy for.
Stopped reading the Dune books after book 3 I think and also the Enders Game series after book 4.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was the one big book I put down after 50 pages and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Dreadful characters, none of whom I liked or had any sympathy for.
Skaville
Well-known member
I’m another big fan of Captain Correlli’s Mandolin. I was in a book club. All of loved that book so much we couldn’t continue. It just felt like a natural end.
zeetha
Well-known member
- Apr 11, 2011
- 1,332
I never like giving up on a book, even if I'm not really enjoying it just to see what happens/if it gets better. However, gave up in the end with a couple of autobiographies - Stephen Fry (for the love of god, using 100 words when 1 would've done gets boring very quickly) and Tom Baker (I really wanted to love it as hes 'my' Doctor but the timeline was just too all over the place). Also when I was younger I got 100 pages into Lord of the Rings and decided it wasn't for me. Always meant to go back and read it, so maybe that'll be a future book...
Oryx & Crake (Margaret Atwood).
The wife loves the series, but I got halfway through the first and gave up. Stupid story and sh|t writing (IMO, obvs)
Also, All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr). I tried a few times, but it flits around and it's just BORING.
The wife loves the series, but I got halfway through the first and gave up. Stupid story and sh|t writing (IMO, obvs)
Also, All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr). I tried a few times, but it flits around and it's just BORING.
Dick Knights Mumm
Take me Home Falmer Road
Quite a few tbh. Sometimes books get written that I think should have been a magazine article, and I just question whether I’m actually that interested. Of course I am sure I have missed out on some classics but that’s ok.
North of Robertsbridge
Active member
Der Zauberberg (Magic Mountain) by Thomas Mann, I gave up after around 400 pages. Inconvenient, as it was one of my degree texts.
Two-page long sentences with all the verbs at the end in classical German style. Made my head hurt
Two-page long sentences with all the verbs at the end in classical German style. Made my head hurt
Easy 10
Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Chris Evans autobiography.
It was in one of those little book shacks you get by a swimming pool on holiday abroad, where everyone lobs in whatever they've just finished, and takes something else in return. I think I left Bravo Two Zero in there, and reluctantly picked up the Evans book in exchange - in my defence it was thin pickings, as most of them were in german.
Four pages in it was making my brain itch. I could hear his gingerness in my head. I wanted to carry on at least until the bit when he was hanging out the back of Billy Piper, but I just couldn't be doing with it.
I ended up getting a book about Bostik PVA glue. Couldn't put it down.
It was in one of those little book shacks you get by a swimming pool on holiday abroad, where everyone lobs in whatever they've just finished, and takes something else in return. I think I left Bravo Two Zero in there, and reluctantly picked up the Evans book in exchange - in my defence it was thin pickings, as most of them were in german.
Four pages in it was making my brain itch. I could hear his gingerness in my head. I wanted to carry on at least until the bit when he was hanging out the back of Billy Piper, but I just couldn't be doing with it.
I ended up getting a book about Bostik PVA glue. Couldn't put it down.
Baldseagull
Well-known member
I didn't quit, but the most painful read ever for me was Moby Dick.
Like many games of football, a promising first half, followed by a second half that was incredibly dull and painful to get through.
My daughter had to read "Emma" for A-level English, and hated it. She would complain about it all the time she was reading it. She got to the last page and refused to read it. She said, "to spite that bitch Jane Austen, and I will die happy, not having finished that f***ing book."
She really, really hates that book.
Like many games of football, a promising first half, followed by a second half that was incredibly dull and painful to get through.
My daughter had to read "Emma" for A-level English, and hated it. She would complain about it all the time she was reading it. She got to the last page and refused to read it. She said, "to spite that bitch Jane Austen, and I will die happy, not having finished that f***ing book."
She really, really hates that book.
You should read the book "Dein Buch bereitet mir Kopfschmerzen"
Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,607
Yes x 2. I typically love a slice of Atwood, but that was gash. As for Doerr, utter drivel imho.