Books You Couldn't Finish

[emmie]

have you any books you picked up, put down, then thought this is rubbish, not working, or can't get into.
I have tried with a number of books, one was Gullivers Travels, but somehow i don't actually like it, not sure why...

[ichkeria]

"i did get about 3 pages into James Joyce Ulysses, and gave up, it might have been more than 3 pages, but really didn't see the point of progressing further. "

I'm afraid that was my feeling too. I think it might be one of those books which you need to read about, rather than read, or else just take the plunge and read it, perhaps aloud, without stopping. But the knowledge that there's so much hidden meaning in it would make the latter approach very frustrating.

[mccfluff]

i must be behind in my peter james - Sandy has resurfaced?

[Jan1957]

The Dark Half by Stephen King was too gory.

[chaptazbru]

Yes fluff, she's alive and well in Germany.

[mccfluff]

i thought that's where she would be, oooooooo

must catch up :-)

[Khandro]

em10; May I suggest that you pick up Ulysses again and just READ it, don't try to 'understand' it, I'm sure no one really does fully, it's one of the greatest books of the 20th century.

[shaneystar2]

In the last book she's turned up in Brighton from Germany with a child in tow and she's floating around spying on and shadowing Grace and Cleo ..even looking into buying their old house .

[chaptazbru]

Of course she is shaney, I'd forgotten that! I remember being annoyed that Grace didn't know she was in Brighton. It's his child as well, isn't it ......

I do hope this is followed up in the latest book.

[Meg888]

50 Shades.... the writing was just awful, like it was a youngster's first novel!

[chaptazbru]

I could never read a book like that Meg - give me a Tess Gerritsen, Peter James, Peter Robinson or Douglas Kennedy any day of the week !

[mccfluff]

whats that one called shaney?

i can;t remember the last one i read, he's living with cleo - dead tomorrow?

[chaptazbru]

I know you asked shaney, but it's Not Dead Yet.

[shaneystar2]

Here's a list fluffy so you can check ,as chap said she's turned up in Not Dead Yet .
1. Dead Simple (2005)
2. Looking Good Dead (2006)
3. Not Dead Enough (2007)
4. Dead Man's Footsteps (2008)
5. Dead Tomorrow (2009)
6. Dead Like You (2010)
7. Dead Man's Grip (2011)
8. Not Dead Yet (2012)
9. Dead Man's Time (2013)

[mikey4444]

Ric.ror...you mentioned Lady Chatterley. There was a well-thumbed copy doing the rounds in my Secondary Modern in the mid-60's. For some reason or other, if you dropped the book in the playground, it always fell open at the same page !

I wonder why !

[Canary42]

/// i couldn't finish 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' ///

That's odd, neither could Dickens LOL.

[Old_Geezer]

Many: but generally speaking I don't use memory trying to keep in mind which they were.

[mikey4444]

I used to have a copy of "Ulysses" on my bedside table for years. It was a sure-fire cure for insomnia that worked where everything else failed.

I was at dinner party years ago in the States and I just let it slip that I had never managed to get past the opening few pages of "Catcher in the Rye"

You could have been forgiven for thinking that I had broken wind violently, the shock was so great. I expect there are dinner parties, even now, all over America, where people tell the story of how an Englishman that they had once met years ago had been rude about the book. But I wasn't being rude, just honest. Honesty isn't always the right thing to do, despite what your Mum used to tell you.

I am a huge fan of Anthony Powell and I have read the "Dance to the Music of Time" series so many times, that the 1970's paperbacks are falling apart at the seams. But I can count the converts that I have made to these books on the fingers of one hand, whilst wearing mittens. God knows I've tried but failed miserably. Is anybody else a fan on AB ?

[FredPuli43]

War and Peace; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Pilgrim's Progress (it is a wonder the author wasn't kept in jail for writing that); The Adventures of Don Quixote.

But that's nothing compared to the dozens, probably hundreds, of books I have looked at in bookshops, read a couple of paragraphs, and thought " I could never get through this !"

[China Doll]

I really loved Wolf Hall... Just thought I'd stick up for it a little bit. :c)

[chaptazbru]

em - just to let you know that when I was browsing the books in Asda earlier today, I saw 'Gone Girl', so I bought it! Won't be reading it just yet, but when I do will let you know what I think of it.