"Once I put it down, I couldn't pick it up again"

DPinBucks

What books or authors which you feel you really ought to read have you found you couldn't finish? What I mean is, the whole world says this book is really great (or at least wildly popular); it sounds really great, just the thing you'd like to read, but when you tried it, it was awful?

With me, it's been:
The Hilary Mantel Booker winners Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies.  Simply unreadable;Lord of the Rings;Anything by Dan Brown (I finished The da Vinci Code, but wish I hadn't);Patricia Cornwell after the first few;Ditto Larry Niven;Stephen King's 'Middle Period' (eg Misery; Gerald's Game; Rose Madder);I'm sure I'll think of more later.

We've all been recommended authors or books by friends and then found we couldn't get on with them.  I don't mean those; I mean the huge sellers or real 'classics' in the wider sense.  Include E L James if you want.

What's remarkable is the sense of relief (after the first flush of guilt) when you decide you really don't have to soldier on.  It's like a great burden lifted off your shoulders.

richardb70

I've read - and enjoyed - all those

I finish everything I start. Sometimes it takes ages (Jim Crace's "Quarantine" was utter tosh, to name but one) but I get there in the end.

sniffer66

Dune.

I'm a big fan of sci fi and fantasy, but this was just pants.

Theydon Bois

Most Stephen King books. Especially IT

The Belgariad and The Mallorean by David Eddings. First read them years and years ago and tend to re-read them once a year. I've been known to read all ten books in a two week stint.

Apsilon

I think you need to re-read the OP

Lord of the Rings for me. Struggled a few times to get through the first book, finally did it not long after watching the 1st film, and struggled through book 2 - I don't think I completed it.

sniffer66

All Stephen Kings books from the last 15 years

Dune and most of Frank Herbert’s work for that matter

Anything by Tolkien

Anything by Terry Pratchett

Gone series by Michael Grant. Had to finish it though as I was well into the third book by the time I became frustrated with it, so had to persevere

Dean R Koontz – You get to the halfway stage of his books and you know how they are going to end

James Patterson – Read Dean R Koontz (formulaic and predictable and stopped reading his stuff ages ago)

Robert Ludlum – Boring

Tom Clancy  - Good early stuff but incredibly drawn out affairs

Clive Barker – Like King, his early stuff was great, then he became a little too obsessed with the details and consequently his books now tend to ramble

Irvine Welsh – Read a few of his but I found most of his stuff bleak and very slow going (not that I mind bleak but I need to be gripped by the story). Marabou Stork Nightmares (short stories) was probably the best that I’ve read of his

Ernest Hemmingway – How this guy’s work is considered classic I do not know. Read 3 or 4 and would not attempt to read another

I'll echo David Eddings as well. Total snorefest

This list could go on an on

Jules Winfield

Oops. Skim reading in bed. Doh

Courtjezter

War and Peace - boring and slow.

richardb70

Best way of reading Lord of The Rings, skip The Fellowship of the Ring entirely, just watch the film.  Start reading from The Two Towers.  You then don't have to trawl through all the boring songs and the interminable Tom Bombadil stuff.

For me American Psycho.
any HP Lovecraft,
I managed to force down the first two books of The Twilight series, but gave up partway into the 3rd
The first Wheel of Time book.

Courtjezter

lol, you lot are all wimps!

War & Peace = boring? Not at all. I read it on holiday, great fun, especially the battle scenes which are highly amusing. A year later, I struggled through Crime and Punishment, hoping it would be more of the same.

With all the Tolkien talk, special mention must be made of the Silmarillion. I started this three or four times before I finally made it through the horrendous first chapter (which is pretty much Genesis retold). Very glad I did, as there's some great stuff in there. The story of Beren and Luthien is all kinds of excellent.

P.S. American Psycho was not a nice reading experience. Yuck.