Books you've never got to the end of...

[indiegirl1980]

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Incredibly Annoying in my opinion and I couldn't work out what on earth was going on. I remember one chapter seemed to consist of one woman just saying 'my eyes are crummy' most of the time. It also seemed a bit of a rip off of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, which I'd read and loved.

All The President's Men- I'd sat through the film of this with my parents as a teenager, and as I wasn't alive in 1974, I didn't really understand what was going on. I might give it another try now I know more of the story behind it.


Wuthering Heights- I think I read this when I was about 13 or so and couldn't really work it out, mainly because there are two Heathcliffs and two Cathies.

David Copperfield- Pretty much the same deal as the above, just too flamin' long in my opinion.

To The Lighthouse- don't think they ever got to the flipping lighthouse

Books I've got to the end of and really wished I hadn't bothered

Her Fearful Symmetry- I normally like magical realism but that business with the spirits was pretty far fetched even for the genre.

Any Human Heart- how much sh*gging can you get in one book?

I Don't Know How She Does It- or I Don't Know How She Has The Gall To Complain About It. Books about whiny middle-class women going on about how hard it is having children annoy me.

[Between The Bars]

the bible! (never even got tae the start.)

[timmyb]

That would be a very long list.
Authors that I feel I should like and have tried, but never finished a single novel:
Dostoyevsky
Henry James
Charles Dickens
Virginia Woolf
Will Self

[png]

A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking - apparently 'the most unread book ever' or something, so I'm in good company

Also all of the books for O-level English Lit (I got an 'ungraded')

[MattyMarr]

I always finish books to the end apart from one; H G Wells' The War of the Worlds. I started reading it last summer when I was going through a really bad time and felt like I was having some sort of breakdown. I stopped about half way through and haven't picked it up since as I don't want it to remind me of that horrible time I had last summer. I found it a bit boring anyway.

Every other book I've started I've ended up finishing, even if I'm not really enjoying it much I always feel determined to make it to the end.

[misska]

Kurt Cobain autobiography- though it would be interesting was a bit boring so couldn't finish it. got to the point where he was with Courtney love

[ghost.of.an.englishman]

why were there two Heathcliffs and two Cathies? because they the novel portrays them as children and as grown ups lol?

I tried re reading American Psycho this year, but felt like after 30 pages "alright, alright I get it" and couldn't be bothered carrying on with 300 pages of that stuff.

[LittleMissMouse]

Originally Posted by pantini

A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking - apparently 'the most unread book ever' or something, so I'm in good company

Apparently, the average page to get up to is page 8.

[png]

^ I think I got about halfway through before glazing over for the last time :trophy2:

[Seagull]

Originally Posted by indiegirl1980

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Incredibly Annoying in my opinion and I couldn't work out what on earth was going on. I remember one chapter seemed to consist of one woman just saying 'my eyes are crummy' most of the time.

His much lauded/Guardian Newspaper award winning book Everthing is Illuminated was a struggle, although I got through it. Like Extremely Loud, it was also made into a film, but in my opinion was just self-indulgent drivel.

I never do the crime/spy genre and so should have never picked up The Bourne Identity and 150-odd pages in I've gone as far as I can. Some of the dialogue is atrocious and the book bears almost no relation to the fantastic film.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - I managed about seven pages before it went back to the library.

[Vanessa]

lord of the rings, whichever the first book was called.

[AnathemA]

Gödel, Escher, Bach - although I'm past the half way point and might have stood a chance of finishing it if I hadn't accidentally left it at my mum's over Christmas.

A Brief History of Time is fairly light reading by comparison. (And nice and short, too. )

Personally, I thought Frankenstein was excellent (although quite heavy going and nothing like you'd expect from pop culture depictions), which reminds me that I never managed to finish Dracula. It's just... meh. I've seen films, I know the story and reading the book doesn't really add anything.

[HelloWorld]

The genius of Frankenstein lies in this: If you want to give someone nightmares, first you must bore them to sleep. It's actually impressive that someone can bang on about the lineage and schooling of distant cousins for a hundred pages.

I'm much too dense to make it through a Will Self novel. I don't mind having to consult the dictionary every sentence but some of the references, which are frequent, require you to have lived several lives in London in order to grasp them.

[ghost.of.an.englishman]

I read Frankenstein for A level too and liked it. Maybe we had a good teacher. The parts about the doctor rooting around in charnel houses are still really creepy, and Shelley packed in so many ideas in the novel (about science vs alchemy, industry and nature, innocence and evil etc.) that it was fun to pick apart.


I couldn't finish Money. I think I threw it across the room at about the point where Martin Amis himself comes into the story, which I believe is the same point his dad gave up too

[Twisterella87]

"Post Office" by Charles Bukowski and several others. I used to love reading but these days, I don't do as much as I would like.

[Sea]

Trainspotting.
Couldn't be bothered even attempting to understand the words, lol.

[Sea]

Trainspotting.
Couldn't be bothered even attempting to understand the words, lol.

[Jables]

Catch 22 - just couldn't get on with it, seemed very pretentious.

Prozac Nation - for the same reasons I think

[Mr_Bean]

where do I start..

Actually one was intentional. I tried reading Jurassic Park and didn't go much on the writer.

[Belinda]

Originally Posted by no-moving-lines

I couldn't finish Money. I think I threw it across the room at about the point where Martin Amis himself comes into the story, which I believe is the same point his dad gave up too

You've beaten me to it- I flippin hate Martin Amis. My friend said I had to read 'Money' because it was the best book ever but I found it unbearably smug and tedious.

'Frankenstein' is one of my favourites though- I quite identified with the poor old monster.

[timmyb]

I quite enjoyed 'Money', couldn't finish 'London Fields' though.Too clever by half.
Neither Amis or Self make any concessions to readers who may not be as amazingly bright as they are.Unfortunately that means that 99% of people will ever understand what the hell they're talking about.99% of those that do understand probably think they're talking shite anyway.

[Kayoko]

American Psycho - didn't get far in at all tbh. If I remember correctly the sentences were so long that even reading in my head I felt like I kept running out of breath.

Interview With The Vampire
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring

Frankenstein I liked nothing about it. We had to read it for Eng Lit and were supposed to be reading it at home alongside class reading. I didn't, meaning I had only read about a third, and still got a B in the exam

I couldn't get into it either. I had to read it for English GCSE and despite never touching it outside the classroom I got an A on the essay. Only A I ever got
Should probably try it again at some point now that I actually like reading though.

[Rane]

Originally Posted by Belinda

I flippin hate Martin Amis.

There is a growing theme here . Seeing Martin Amis mentioned I flashed back to the mid 1990s and me trying (twice) to read Dead Babies
. At the time I was leading a pretty hedonistic life style and yet even then I still couldn't engage with characters, utter toss. I shall never attempt to read any of his other books.

[Kevin Hodge]

so many books on here that i've read and enjoyed, and some that i've even read twice. does this make me a hero or some kind of bawbag, who can say?

[Omar Little]

The NeverEnding Story- for obvious reasons.









Can't believe I made this very lame joke, sorry.

[ghost.of.an.englishman]

Originally Posted by Belinda

You've beaten me to it- I flippin hate Martin Amis. My friend said I had to read 'Money' because it was the best book ever but I found it unbearably smug and tedious.

Yep, unbearably smug indeed. You just have to look at his



urh


I don't get the trouble with Self though. The Book of Dave isn't difficult, it's about a ranting, bigoted London cabbie for chrissakes. Same applies for most of How the Dead Live. The short story collection he first published is pretty smart arse and brainy, I suppose, but it's also really rather witty. Yet to read Umbrella, which people are saying is his best yet...but yeah written in a hardcore modernist way. when I attempt that it'll probably join this list!

[Hades]

The last Harry Potter book. Didn't like the fact that JKR blew up Harry's owl (seriously, wtf), the characters were on this extended camping trip and Potter's ginger mate was being more of a complete arse than usual etc. Plus I heard the epilogue was jaw-droppingly awful.

[Belinda]

I'm not going to requote it cos it's too disturbing but that pic of Martin Amis just says it all!!

[Seagull]

Originally Posted by Dory

Trainspotting.
Couldn't be bothered even attempting to understand the words, lol.

My all time fave film, but the book I managed about two chapters if that.

[neilm]

Id always finished almost all of the countless books Ive started over all the years.

Then I made the mistake of attempting to read "Ulysses" by James Joyce a couple of years ago.

Dear god that was a mistake , Ive never come across anything like that before or since!

I gave up after bout 6 pages , as I found it utterly unintelligible

Ive avoided anything written by Joyce ever since.