Books you're supposed to like but don't.

[Darlene Jones]

I'm guessing that we all have books we know we're supposed to like but don't and don't want to admit it. I'll go first. I've tried to read To Kill a Mockingbird several times and never got past the first few pages, but I did love the movie. I've also never been able to read Hemingway, but am now reading and enjoying The Paris Wife, and because of that book I want to know more about Hemingway's life - I still don't want to read his books, though.

[The Hooded Claw]

All my geeky friends love the Hitchhiker's Guide novels, but I merely think they are okay.  There, I said it.

[Adele Ward]

I really wanted to enjoy Phillip Pullman but didn't like his style from the first page and only forced myself through it because I was reading it for a book club. I really like Salman Rushdie but for some reason stop about 20 pages in each time. I don't like Jane Austen or Thomas Hardy.

[Geemont]

The Hunger Games.  But I've always admitted my dislike.  

[MrPLD]

Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit... I've tried many times - it just doesn't resonate with me

[Sean Patrick Fox]

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie - Don't get the hype. I didn't like or enjoy any of the characters, the plot had the possibility to be interesting, but the writing was rather pedestrian.

The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan - Way too long, the writing is godawful, far too much extraneous material, childish and annoying characters. I really can't think of anything positive to say about the series.

A good chunk of the books I had to read to earn my degree in English, and a whole lot of others.

[nogdog~6op6ou]

Everything I've tried by Steven King. I've tried maybe 4 of his novels and didn't finish any of them. I finished On Writing, but only by skipping most of the autobiographical stuff -- which I think may be an indication as to why none of his novels resonated at all with me.

[Todd Young]

Dickens. I like 19th century stuff, but I find Dickens a bore. And his characters are ridiculous.

[mooshie78]

Most classics, honestly.  Even the ones I like I'm fairly mixed on as the language tends to be stiff, overly descriptive and make for a pretty dull read even if the story and characters are great.  Especially if it's something translated from another language.

[flipside]

H.P. Lovecraft's short fiction.

The Lord of the Rings.

The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Alice in Wonderland.

[newportwa]

The Help.  I could never see why people think it is that great.  Two of my friends read it recently and they did not like it either and I guess that made me feel better!

[tiaratum]

Wow, I thought I'd be alone in not liking The Lord of the Rings but apparently not! Personally, I blame Tom Bombadil.

A good friend recently loaned me her beloved copy of Outlander. What an abomination of a novel.

[Debra Purdy Kong]

The Hobbit. Couldn't get through it when I tried as a teenager and haven't tried since.

D.H. Lawrence, a lot of Hardy's work, the Iliad, War and Peace.

[Steverino]

Ursula K. LeGuin's latest book, Lavinia.

It's very... er... historically accurate.

(Yawn.)

[CharlieLange]

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Hunger Games, but only because I read Battle Royale (although published about a year after Hunger Games) and it is a much better read. It's probably the best 'here you are, now survive' books I've ever read, where Hunger Games did not impress me at all.

Steve Jobs by Isaacson. I'm just tired in general about hearing how great he was. I only made it half way through.

[Ghost in the Machine]

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie - Don't get the hype. I didn't like or enjoy any of the characters, the plot had the possibility to be interesting, but the writing was rather pedestrian.

The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan - Way too long, the writing is godawful, far too much extraneous material, childish and annoying characters. I really can't think of anything positive to say about the series.

A good chunk of the books I had to read to earn my degree in English, and a whole lot of others.

As a old D&D geek, I welcomed Jordan's series... at first.  And enjoyed them at second, and gave it up as an exercise in unedited verbosity toward the end of the third book.  Martin is currently doing it better, though he is starting to show a lot of slipping and seems to have also decided he needs no editing, which may doom the series.  Feist managed to intrigue me through five books of his 20-some-long D&D/Bushido-based series.

I can understand the weakened publishing industry's need for franchises.  They have been a long-time part of the industry, since Sherlock Holmes.  But there seems to be a trend over the last couple of decades to give franchise authors who sell well a pass and not bother editing their later works with due diligence because "they sell."  They are saving the industry.  It isn't limited to the fantasy genre, but is widespread, from Charlaine Harris to James Patterson.

And I hate Jane Eyre.

[tkkenyon]

I hated The Corrections by Jonathan Franzan. It was overblown and could have used a good editor.

Quite honestly (SPOILER ALERT) the big problem with all the characters was that their father was emotionally unavailable.

That's it? All their problems stem from that?

Get the frack over it! (Do we have to cover up frack?)

That's what Tyler Perry calls "White People's Problems." 

Perhaps Not Available For Kindle.

TK Kenyon

[LCLarson]

James Joyce - Ulysses...  urk. I had to write a 5,000 word essay about it back in the 1970s but I absolutely could not plough through the darned thing, so read cheat notes about it and rambled on and on (rather like Mr Joyce, really) and got top marks for my work. I know it is brilliantly written. I know he's a better writer than I. I just couldn't read it.

Also, anything by Marcel Proust... I swear, when my literary friends say the love his works (in superior tones), I say, "You lie - you haven't read any from start to finish - you just think you should have read them because it impresses those who haven't read them (like me)."

[Ben White]

Name Of The Wind.  I was really expecting to love it but dear goodness is Kvothe a huge Mary Sue.  Plus it's just boring, the plot is little more than 'stuff happens', the worldbuilding is lacking and the writing is, at best, adequate.

Bleh.

[history_lover]

Most classics, honestly.  Even the ones I like I'm fairly mixed on as the language tends to be stiff, overly descriptive and make for a pretty dull read even if the story and characters are great.  Especially if it's something translated from another language.

Same here - everyone goes on about the the free classics but I tried to read some and gave up. Among the not-yet-free classics, I have always hated Catcher in the Rye but I know I'm not the only one - it's really a "love it or hate it" book... I have yet to come across someone who is indifferent or doesn't feel strongly about it one way or another.

[Adele Ward]

I kept trying Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and didn't like them either. Couldn't finish them. My sons really didn't like them either.

[bnapier]

Sorry folks....but I just can NOT get into the Lord of the Rings books.

Oh, and also never saw the big deal about Catcher in the Rye, either.

[Beth Dolgner]

I have an awful lot of "classic" books on my list...

Huckleberry Finn
The Old Man and the Sea
As I Lay Dying
(I know, this reads like a high school English class list!)
The Once and Future King

[history_lover]

I struggled through the Hobbit but didn't bother with the LotR trilogy - really enjoyed the movies though which suggests it's a great story that just kind of gets lost in Tolkien's writing style, which doesn't suit everyone.

[Tom Schreck]

For someone who loves the mystery genre this is embarrassing...Lee Child. I feel guilty even saying it.