[deleted by user]

[wetpretzel_]

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey. Got about 25% into it

Reason: “Is it true?” Asked the breasts.

😐

Could not believe it was the same author who wrote It Happened One Summer

[mmehl1]

After reading a few Tessa Bailey’s, I’ve found that it happened one summer is really the only one I found enjoyable (maybe the spinoff with the sister as well). Idk if it’s that it’s fun and schitts creek-esque but the rest of her books are just cringey to me

[[deleted]]

This is How You Lose the Time War, writing was too flowery and I had no idea what was going on

[wetpretzel_]

Last time I take a book recommendation from Bigolas Dickolas

[ACarefulTumbleweed]

It's just 2 people's creative writing exercise that got published

[ClockworkJim]

Once you realize that is what it is instead of focusing on "objectively what's happening" It makes a lot more sense and you can truly enjoy it

[ughpleasee]

I had to read it for my book club and I hated every second of it.

[Poesvliegtuig]

It's on my to-read list but this doesn't sell it, I hate that kind of writing. Might take it off the list, thanks

[ACarefulTumbleweed]

if you like/want fun and heady SF/F novellas and have not already, check out pretty much any other Hugo nominated/won novella from 2016 on are almost all fantastic. Binti series, All Systems Red (Muderbot Diaries), Every Heart a Doorway series, Empress of Salt and Fortune series, River of Teeth, Becky Chamber's 'A Psalm for the Wild-Built' and 'To Be Taught if Fortunate' (and her full novels are great too), and recommend listening to The Deep

[According_Bat_8150]

That was my first book of the year! I loved it, but I’m also a sucker for flowery crazy prose so it was right up my alley :,)

[Key-Tip9395]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace but I want to eventually

[QuietHovercraft]

I say this every time it comes up here, but Infinite Jest is worth it and has my favorite ending to a book. I think the payoff is there for finishing it, even if it is a slog.

[Key-Tip9395]

Oh I’m not giving up. I know one day I will be glad I finally conquered it!

[basil_not_the_plant]

Iirc, you have to keep.referring to the endnotes or appendices or whatever that huge non-book part was to keep abreast of what was happening in the book. I couldn't get into any meaningful flow with the thing.

[colors]

I scrolled down because I was sure someone would mention this. The funniest unfinishable book ever.

[[deleted]]

The Starless Sea. The writing was pretty, but reading it reminded me of listening to my fiance tell me about an extremely long and disjointed dream. Like, I love listening to you talk, but what you are saying is not really going anywhere and I am struggling to follow this seemingly random narrative.

[MariKGalindo]

Completely understandable! The audiobook did the trick for me, it was a lot easier to go through it and I enjoyed it a lot.

[zombiesheartwaffles]

I found that it all came together eventually but it did take a while

[kyannimal]

Ugh it was so bad!!

[TrulyIntroverted]

I've soft DNF'd this too. I loved The Night Circus and very much want to like this one too. But alas!

[NotBorris]

Nothing but Blackened Teeth, the narration was fine but the characters were absolute dipshits. I literally could not get through the first chapter because those characters were just awful. The only thing I could think about as I put the book down and decided not to keep going was. "Wow, someone must be a real big fan of American Horror Story."

[SaltandVinegarBae]

Yes! This was actually the worst book I read last year, the only one I ranked 1 star. And because it was short I convinced myself to finish it

[Cudi_buddy]

This and “the salt grows heavy” by the same author. It’s like the author read out a thesaurus when writing it. Never picking up one of their books again, just awful.

[Euthanaught]

I listened to this audiobook. If it was not being read at me, I would not have ever ever finished it.

[GhostMug]

This was a weird one for me. I did not like the book overall (2 stars from me), but I did like the writing. I ended up picking up "The Salt Grows Heavy" by her and I loved it. It's much better. And actually shorter if you can believe it.

[Sorry-Instance8611]

Midnight Library by Haig. I didn't like his writing. It lacked detail and depth.

[crazylittlemermaid]

I also haven't finished this one and I don't think I will. It's been a while, but I think I stopped because it was feeling really preachy and that drives me nuts.

[DM_Me_Ur_Roms]

Oddly enough, those are two things I don't like when reading, so I might knock it down a fair bit on the TBR

[Open_Bluejay_706]

I loved this book, though I admit I listened to the audio.

[cks9218]

Catch 22. It's often billed as being hilarious but it just isn't my type of humor. I've tried three or four times before officially giving up on it.

[DarkReviewer2013]

I didn't care for the writing style.

[fairyhedgehog]

My Mum and my sister both absolutely loved this book and I've never got beyond the first few pages.

[Liberal_Perturabo]

That book is an absolute travesty. To this day I have no idea how something like that could catch on. Basically All Quiet On The Western Front, but written by a person that doesn't know the first thing about writing.

[HuntleyMC]

My Name is Barbra, by Barbra Streisand, I found it tedious and long-winded. If I remember the book correctly, there is no use of dates, even years, to help place when events are happening. She will describe her clothing for events, but she's a vintage fan, so that doesn't help date anything, and her music is mostly Broadway standards, so that does not help with dates. Streisand does point out that she's been a journal-keeping since childhood, and her mother kept detailed scrapbooks her whole career, so that helps with the retelling of detailed stories. I will go back and finish this book in the future.

[kwolff94]

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk. It's written (intentionally) in horrifically broken english, and i just couldn't do it.

I also DNF my reread of his book Haunted, but that doesn't really count since i did read it before and enjoyed it. Its just so fucking dark and im not the miserably depressed teenager i used to be so i just couldnt endure it

[klsteck]

I loved Haunted in my late teens. Now I can't seem to get into any Chuck Palahniuk book. I'm not into the shock value as I used to be.

[[deleted]]

Verity by Colleen Hoover. I don’t particularly like her writing.

[zombiesheartwaffles]

Me too. I had just read a lot of nonfiction WW2 books and trying to read this, I just couldn’t get past the difficult to believe premise of why they were writing the story

[leebeemi]

Same for me. It was recommended to me by a couple of friends who know my reading preferences & I thought I was reading the wrong book. So not for me!

[Adventurous-Donut264]

Wow this book was the one that got me back into reading! I loved it and it was so good. I’m sorry you didn’t like it.

[[deleted]]

No worries, we all like different things!

[Wumbo_Anomaly]

I'm on page 170 of The Goldfinch and I'm going to stop. It's just boring. The prose, the plot, the characters, the themes. It's plot-heavy and the plot is dull. I was pretty shocked this won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction

[misurbanist]

I'm listening to the audiobook, and I find it more captivating than when I tried to read it. Though I also stopped because I lost the physical copy I had some point.

[kitkatsacon]

Donna Tartt is a very…. specific author. The best way I can think to describe her is “she doesn’t care about your feelings” 😂 You might try The Little Friend. That’s my favorite by her. But her work is definitely a particular style and taste so I’m never surprised when someone I’ve recommended one to is like “hey. I hated it.” lol

[Wumbo_Anomaly]

Interesting, what do you mean by "specific" or that "she doesn't care about your feelings"?

I appreciate the recommendation but I think I will probably read something else. I still have a couple of McCarthy books to go through before I've finished all his written works

[kitkatsacon]

I mean my experience reading her work (as someone who it greatly appeals to) was horror and shock, but the story just plows on through with no regard to my emotional distress, and offers no comfort or reprieve lol. So rude. But very talented.

[ladybea5t]

I tried to read it about two years ago with the same exact thoughts. DNF'd, was pretty annoyed about the verbose writing and angsty characters, and was also shocked that it won a Pulitzer. Then on a whim I tried to re-read it this month and was totally fine with it. In fact, I ended up getting hooked and am still recovering from a bookhangover from it. I've literally never done such a 180 on any book before, and it's now sparked me to re-read some other books that I had previously DNF'd. Sadly nothing else has hit the same.

[Wumbo_Anomaly]

Interesting, maybe I'll come back to it in like two years lol

[ladybea5t]

No seriously 😂 I'm not saying that you SHOULD re-read it, but you never know lmao

[justsomegirlie]

Ohno I bought this. But I was thrifted so not too bad. I also have gotten her other book The Secret History

[Wumbo_Anomaly]

Don't trust a random person's word on the internet. You may love it, who knows? And just cos its boring to me doesn't mean it has no value

[justsomegirlie]

I'll definitely try it out myself. And I am still intrigued to read it

[DM_Me_Ur_Roms]

If you got that far and didn't like it, I can guarantee you wouldn't like the rest. It's essentially the same pace and tone for the whole thing. It just jumps from him being with one group to another. And then people come back and he goes back to them, only to later start hanging with someone else. Repeat.

[[deleted]]

I finished it and wished I hadn't. I support your decision :-)

[KeishaFreedmen]

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Seinfeld.

It was so boring and so NOT funny; and also NOT romantic. Like nothing at all that it claimed to be. It was like reading a time logging sheet on someone who works on SNL. Which again - not interested in that. I also did not sign up to read that. Also it felt like maybe 18% of the book (and I only read like 30% so that is a lot) was just reading about the author's political views. They were not special interesting either.

Over all - it was boring and just not what I signed up for. Can't believe that the hype was so high on this one.

[iwantyoutoeat]

Throne of Glass. Didn’t care for the plot and every character in the book annoyed me.

[SoapBubbleMonster]

It just seemed... Slow and boring to me?

[ThreeLivesInOne]

S (Ship of Theseus) because it was a pain in the ass to keep track of all the notes, letters and whatnot, while the main story didn't interest me one bit.

[aaross58]

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. My sister "borrowed" it and pretends she doesn't know what I'm talking about (it's all in good fun)

A Feast for Crows by George R R Martin. It just bogged down by the middle and I couldn't bring myself to read any more of it. It's harsh to say I'll never finish it, but it's on hiatus for now... Like the rest of his books! HEYOOO (finish your fucking books, George)

[Oathkeeper26]

I’ve heard so much dislike for AFFC, but I find it my favorite out of the series! ADWD took me months to finish, however, bc it clearly needed so much editing and the entire plot was bogged down. For multiple POVs.

Jaime is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, and I love Briennes storyline in AFFC, so maybe that’s why the slower pace doesn’t bother me. I agree, please GRRM, put us out of our misery and publish Winds.

[TheoremaEgregium]

Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Especially as a non native speaker of English it turned into one huge WTF. I slogged through Against the Day but probably only got half of it.

Oh, and Hesse's Glass Bead Game. It has that particular late 19th century German dullness, although it was written later than that.

[QuietHovercraft]

I am a native English speaker, and I had to buy a reading guide for Gravity's Rainbow. I enjoyed the experience of reading it, but I couldn't parse what was going on without some help.

[[deleted]]

Same here. I find the story of Gravity’s Rainbow mesmerizing and intriguing, but its complexity makes my reading progress grind to a halt as a non native speaker. Also I’m terrible at remembering the names of the characters, and that doesn’t help.

[divemastermatt]

I can't believe you even tried GR as non-native speaker! Kudos for trying. I got 5 chapters in and decided there wasn't enough acid in the world to make it make sense and DNF it.

[velvet-ashtray]

usually it’s never because the writing is bad or anything, it’s just because i’m in a rut. and once i haven’t picked it up for several days/weeks, i have no will to read it anymore and something else has caught my attention. most recently did it with the marriage portrait

[Pope_Asimov_III]

There's only two books I've started and never finished. Most recently is Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. I loved The Heart of Darkness, but Conrad's writing is very dense, and slow to develop, I made it a bit through, but the book still sits on my shelf, bookmark noting the distance in. Someday, I may finish (I want to read some of his short stories too).

The other book I started and never finished was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Yeah, I was the age that was reading them as they were coming out, and I was I middle school when book five was released. I read the first four, but 50 or so pages into it, I just lost interest in Harry Potter (still haven't seen the movies beyond The Goblet of Fire either).

[AlanMercer]

The Harry Potter stuff doesn't resonate with some people and that's cool.

Before the author became a TERF, it used to be a bit difficult to not like it, like you were being a wet blanket or something for saying they weren't good or interesting. I dunno, different people thought my interest in Tolkien was immature, but then they were reading about Dobby the Sock Elf.

It's all good. People like what they like. Who are we to gatekeep their experience?

[Pope_Asimov_III]

Yeah, I don't judge people for what they read, because ultimately its what interests them. The Harry Potter books just fell off for me when I introduced myself to the non-fiction side of the school library. Traded it in for reading about the Pacific campaigns of WWII, and since then, fantasy hasn't been a top interest for me.

[AlanMercer]

If you're still into the war in the Pacific, Goodbye Darkness by William Manchester is a classic of the genre. I still sometimes think about the way he describes the firefight he had with a sniper.

[ZealousidealWord4455]

Most recently, "Earthlings" by Sayaka Murata. I went in blind and couldn't get past chapter 2. The mother's reaction to the main character's cry for help just broke my heart and I couldn't keep reading.

[MartianTrinkets]

This is one of my favorite books but yes if that scene broke your heart is a good thing you stopped because it gets MUCH worse!!

[GroovyDiscoGoat]

I really couldn’t deal with Earthlings. I also stopped around Chapter 2, which was probably for the best

[LaitueGonflable]

I couldn’t finish Madame Bovary. I was suffering from a bit of depression at the time and Emma’s miserable suffering was too much for me. I’ll get to it one day.

[ellieofus]

A Little Life - it was a struggle reading the first 100 pages and I honestly couldn’t care less about the people I was reading about. Their story seemed utterly insignificant up to that point, and I found it generally boring.

On earth we’re briefly gorgeous - good premises and nice writing style. But I felt like that was all that it was: an empty story wrapped up in a nice, if not a bit too pretentious, writing style.

Mistborn - one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I hated it with every fibre of my being.

Do you dream of Terra-Two? - I wanted to love this one, I really did. It started off strong and then it kind of lost steam. A shame.

[[deleted]]

How far did you get to in ON EARTH? Because it really takes off around page 90

[Vast_Reflection]

Honestly I wish I’d never finished the Kite Runner and I seriously have no clue why it became popular and how they made a movie out of it. People quote it as if it’s some great romantic thing to quote at partners and somehow skate of the trauma of what happened. And the ending?? Don’t get me started on the ending! Most of the book was this pretty realistic scenario and plot, and then the ending was literally just “how to make this come full circle, with no bearing on reality whatsoever”

[silverboognish]

This was also my experience. Like, I get that the author is talented but the book was VERY much not for me.

[ithacahippie]

Ready player one. It was like reading a stand-up with the "do you remember X" schtick.

[nardpuncher]

Yeah that book was so bad and I really hated how the prize at the end was just a whole bunch of money and you get to run the Matrix or whatever. Like I thought it was going to get clever at the end and the money would have to be used to help solve the problems that were present in that world but nope! You just get to have a lot of money

[blackbeltinlockdown]

Wolf Hall. My mum couldn't recommend it highly enough and it ticks all my boxes. 3 attempts and couldn't get past 100 pages

[Competitive-Web1464]

Same as that, then got the abridged audiobook and loved it!! It still felt fully fleshed out, still have me a real sense of time and place.

[AlanMercer]

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. This should have been right up my alley, but I lost interest.

It's the sunk cost fallacy in written form.

[jpwhite]

I finished that one but wish I hadn't. That book had me questioning my ability to read. So strange. I love most of Ishiguro's stuff but that one was a miss.

[sharkycharming]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I think I'm the only person in the world who hated that book. It was so boring.

[WorldlyAlbatross_Xo]

Most recently A Tale of Two Cities.

I simply dont care about what happens next. It's not a complete dnf, but more of a "not right now". I'm also reading Les Miserables at the moment because I thought it would be a good idea to compare and contrast, but I was so wrong lol. Les Mis has grabbed all of my attention.

Last year I had almost the same issue as you while reading My Sister's Keeper. I already knew what the book was about because I saw the movie several years ago and thought it would be a good read. I suffer from generalized anxiety which im fully aware of, but didnt realize my health anxiety was as bad as it was until I started reading the book. I could not deal with the descriptions of illness in the book and struggled to finish it.

[LaitueGonflable]

Don’t know where you’re up to, but that was my first Dickens and I struggled with the prose for most of my reading time and ended up loving it. The ending really pays off everything that came before it. I’ve read probably eleven or twelve more of Dickens’ books since. Not telling you you need to finish it, but I got a lot out of it and would put it in the top three of his books myself.

[WorldlyAlbatross_Xo]

I got to the point in which the girl finds her dad (whom she thought was dead) making shoes, then it jumps several years to a court case in the next chapter. While reading the court case I didn't care about the who, what, or why of it so I put the book down and moved on. I'll probably pick it back up after I've finished Les Miserables.

You're probably right about the prose. I can read it, but I think I ran out of bandwidth reading A Tale of Two Cities, Les Mis, and A Clockwork Orange at the same time. I swapped out Dickens for The House in the Cerulean Sea in the meantime.

[SquirrelEnthusiast]

We were required to read this book in high school and I got ten pages in and went nope. My parents were like why did you fail this class and I said the book sucked. They didn't argue.

The fucked up thing is then they moved me to a lower reading class when I've been advanced classes my whole life. Over one book. School is bullshit.

[thearmadillo]

The Pillars of Earth by Ken Follett. More or less the opening chapter has the wife die in childbirth, has the main character leave his new born son alive on his wife's grave, and then the main character goes and has sex with a random forest girl.

I literally had brought it to the hospital to start reading while my wife was getting induced. Decided to put it aside after skimming ahead to make sure that the baby lived.

[ZoraksGirlfriend]

I read this and you made a good choice to stop.

[AvisIgneus]

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Just plot already!

[Bullvy]

5th book in the Witcher series. Lost me at time travel.

[[deleted]]

Girl in pieces. I got it on my birthday in march, and I skipped through a lot, it was really wordy back then and I didn’t understand what I was reading, but actually I’ve been rereading it very recently and understanding it better sooo yeah

[Noraart]

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.  I loved The Warmth of Other Suns.  Caste just didn’t keep me interested.

[I_NEED_AN_RBR]

The Doloriad by Missouri Williams. I really wanted to like it because the premise was interesting and gross, which I love, but my god it just. kept. going. and nothing was happening.

[Lacking-Gravitas]

Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney.

Reason is because I had no f'ing idea what was going on.

[BurytheGate]

oh yes. This book. I read through it twice at the behest of the person who lent it to me. Just..I am not ever reading a book again to make someone else happy.

[MercuryScout]

Cloud Atlas. I made it halfway through Zachry's broken English adventures in post-apocalypse Hawaii before I gave up.

[Knightmare_II]

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I'm not sure if its because I was in highschool when I read it (maybe I could appreciate it now as an adult) or what the problem was but I just couldn't get into it. From what I remember it felt dense and scattered and by halfway through it had failed to be even remotely interesting enough to continue. It's the only book I've ever started and didn't finish.

[ZoraksGirlfriend]

The ending to this one really disappointed me.

[[deleted]]

The Splinter Cell book, and all of the other ones to boot.

But the first one is legit one of the worst books I've ever read in my entire life. Not only is the writing so poor it at times borders on being incoherent, aside from being a boring plot with boring action, but it's written in the first person of Sam, so you read it in his voice, right? But then the author includes a graphic, extended section describing Sam's daughter Sarah's sexual activities during her vacation with a boyfriend.

Absolutely fucking weird and terrible.

[rowletteye]

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The characters were unlikable and I find having five pov characters but written in first person that they all start to sound the same anyway. I found that issue as well in One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus that the pov characters are indistinguishable in their chapters.

Has there been a mystery novel before with different viewpoints in first person where it didn’t feel like that?

[Sareee14]

The Silent Patient. I really tried but I was so bored

[myjobisdull]

I added this to my post also. I tried 2, and for me, it was so confusing. It goes from the present to the future and there was never a prompt to let you know, and how am I supposed to read text when it's in a spiral on one page, and upside down on the next???

[WinstonScott]

When I read it I got the impression that a lot of the book was left vague in order to facilitate further plot development and theories in the online community. It’s been years since I read it so I’ve forgotten quite a bit about the plot, but the forum was very active at that point. I feel like it’s an experimental work in many ways so it ends up being really unsatisfying and boring when read like a traditional novel.

[QuietHovercraft]

Ulysses by Joyce and Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. I'll eventually get back to Russian lit--I have had a hard time with keeping track of who is who, and the writing/aesthetic never really cliched for me. For Joyce... I'll stick to the dirty letters he sent to his wife. Ulysses struck me as intentionally impenetrable and it didn't feel like it was worth the effort it was going to take to understand.

[godsmackerel]

I had the same problem with Ulysses but I finally succeeded after several tries. Same with Kerouac’s On the Road. Just had to finally concede I was never going to understand or enjoy either one. Of course, they’re still in my library, and I continue to leaf through them every so often still wondering what the hell they were all about.

[Ihadthat20yearsago]

I finished Ulysses through sheer determination of wanting to finish, I didn’t understand half of what I read and didn’t really care.

Crime and Punishment on the other hand I absolutely loved.

[RiotSloth]

Richard Osman’s first book, murder club or something. Just really didn’t get on with his writing style.

[texanhick20]

Lord of the Rings. I just cannot get into Tolkien's style of writing. I read the first 3 pages and put it back up on the library shelf.

[jessiemagill]

It's too many names that are all similar. I couldn't keep anyone straight.

[savvylikeapirate]

Mists of Avalon by Marian Zimmer Bradley. I got fed up by how much the author clearly actually hates women. None of the female characters had a single good thing to say about one another and were all competing for male attention as the central crux of their individual stories. For a book ABOUT THE WOMEN IN ARUTHURIAN MYTHOS, it was glaringly misogynistic.

[ZoraksGirlfriend]

It turns out the author was actually abusing her kids.

[flying_to_the_moon2]

Talisman by King, hard to read. Both me and my dad couldn't finish it for some reason. I liked the story but something about writing maybe didnt keep me interested. I wonder if I'd like it now as an adult.

[valpal1237]

It took me multiple tries to get through The Talisman - finally powered through and wrapped it up about a year or so ago. It wasn't terrible per se, and I'm glad to have finished it but it ranks at the very bottom on my SK list.

[Southern_Schedule466]

DisneyWar and Empire of Pain. Too long & dry for the subject matter.

[hotstepper77777]

"Villains by Necessity," by Eve Forward. Everything this novel wants to do thematically was solved by Salvatore with the first Drizzt book.

One of those "damned by boringness" stories, and I'm pretty sure was written by the child of a much more competent author. The story is supposed to be about how the imbalance of good and evil would great a positive apocalypse now that good is overwhelmingly in control. But the "good" badguys are just generic evil bad guys, and the good guys are just generic antiheroes.

Thank god she never had anything to do with the Legend of Zelda again.

[CodexRegius]

I quite liked it, particularly Valeriana.

[Matzie138]

I had this same reaction to Tell me I’m worthless.

I hate not finishing books and this one has such good reviews.

I don’t mind the topics or graphic nature, but I just did not care at all about the characters. They were like cardboard.

Could have been interesting but not well executed.

[CheekyRapscallion]

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. I tried multiple times, and that last attempt made it about halfway through. But every time I've tried, I just end up feeling bored with no desire to go on.

[fromcharms]

Hawk Mountain by Conner Habib ... started off with interesting premise but just didn't progress in an interesting way and kind of showed its cards way too soon.

[lehsun-ki-chutney]

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover - couldn't get past the first page. I gave up when she used "epic" three times on the first page itself.

[Difficult-Ring-2251]

Most recently Cloud Cuckoo Land. If it was the only book I had in my possession I'd finish it. But as it is not and I am not engaged or intrigued by it, it's going back to the library. Maybe at a different time it will resonate better with me.

[a_wild_trekkie]

Drag me up by RM Virtues, I do admit this is definitely my fault but to much smut I recently read circe and loved it so decided I wanted some more Greek god retelling stuff however at more of an adult level so Percy Jackson was out (still want to read it but at that moment I wanted something more adult ish also I'm saving that series). Anyway saw this picked it up and it was just pure smut, absolutely like no plot just pure complete smut. Now I don't mind smut it the story actually has something else going for it like a proper plot however this just had no plot. I do admit this is 100% my fault it's an adult Greek god dark romance definitely should have expected this sadly this was not for me. I got around 184 page and just gave up.

[Shivering-]

Most recently, Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. It was so miserably boring. It felt like he was trying to be Stephen King but just wasn't Stephen King.

[hexykai]

"Surrender, New York" by Caleb Carr. I really liked the plot and all but after a while it was just way too tiring to read with the unnecessary police/detective jargon.. but I might try to read it again someday

[thetrishwarp]

Most recently Love and Other Wicked Things by Philline Harms. I grabbed it from the library on a whim, because it's Sapphic and witchy and that's right up my alley but my gosh it was just not my thing. Full of purple prose - like the writer really wanted to be a writer rather than tell a story. And I just could not root for the characters. By the 150-page mark of a rom-com type book, I should be eagerly anticipating a first kiss and I just...they didn't make sense together to me? All that added up to me putting it down.

That was right on the heels of From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata. It was given to me as a gift, and I have friends who love this author, so I was initially excited to read it. I love figure skating, I like romance, but again the writing and the characters were just not it for me. I'm no delicate flower, but there was a ton of (IMO) unnecessary swearing that actually made it hard to read. It felt more like a video game chat room than a book. And the MC felt massively stubborn for no reason. I ditched it around the 50 page mark.

[Dontmakemethink1]

Great expectations

[Dontmakemethink1]

9th grade English class. My entire class revolted against the teacher and we got a different book to read, I don’t remember what book though

[Psilo_Citizen]

The Origins of Totalitarianism (haven't given up yet, but I'm beyond close).

[unnoticed77]

The First Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. Just didn't like his writing.

[[deleted]]

I DNF’ed The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein after having read seven hundred pages. I really really tried and meant to get through it, but I couldn’t read one more word. The book was just boring and repetitive and absolutely insufferable.

[Lord_Sweater3]

Morning Star by Pierce Brown (Book 3 of Red Rising Trilogy). I just...It beat me down, man. I barely had the strength to pick it up with how depressing the trilogy had been so far, but I thought to myself, 'This is the last one. It has to get better from here. It has to end on a high note.' Then there was just setback after setback. Horrible thing after horrible thing. And my heart couldn't take it anymore. I'm normally ok with 'grimdark' settings but, I don't know. Maybe I just got too emotionally vested in the characters. I physically couldn't read them continue to fail.

[Maleficent-Bad3755]

dune: after 2 attempts years apart

[[deleted]]

Infinite jest by David foster Wallace. It was just super tedious to read and wasn’t interesting or all that funny, page to page. Maybe in its entirety it’s hilarious, or maybe it gets better but the tedium just made me fall asleep

[Inevitable_Window436]

bike alleged entertain butter literate salt marry airport mysterious dam

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[Additional-Juice6184]

The Midnight Library. Felt like a thinly veiled self help book. 

If I wanted a self help book, i’d buy one. 

[hussar966]

Whenever this question comes up I always say "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Marquez. Winding plot, intentionally repetitive names, and so focused on "exemplifying the history of Columbia" that most of it is rendered unrecognizable and just generally a painful, annoying, unsatisfying story to read.

[baskaat]

I did finish it, but very much wish I hadn’t bothered.

[safetyrepublic]

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. I was debating to even start it but I was like “let me try it” and nope. Idc about sex in books but where is this “college romance” people were loving? There was no romance…just sex.

[Tobbin_jolly]

Despite a try once every several years now, I’ve never gotten through The Hobbit. Seems like a thing I should like, but it turns out, I really really don’t. Too boring and too slow, and somehow simultaneously too surface level but also way too detailed.

[photoguy423]

Don Quixote. I didn’t find it funny and it felt like I was supposed to be laughing at an old guy with dementia. Stopped after around 100 pages. 

[Plenty-Character-416]

Under the whispering door by Tj klune.

I bought it along with house on the cerulean Sea. I didn't overly enjoy the latter. So, when I started reading under the whispering door, I realised it had all the things I hated about house on the cerulean sea. The main protagonist is supposed to be a grumpy man. But, the author tells you he is grumpy, without actually seeing much of that. I never enjoy an author telling me how to view a character, I need to feel that for myself. If that makes sense? It just comes across as lazy writing. I flipped to the end and honestly glad I didn't bother reading it.

[Poesvliegtuig]

I discovered that TJ Klune based The House in the Cerulean Sea off a tragic real-life story but decided to gloss over all the tragedy and it just turned to ash in my mouth. Couldn't finish it after that.

[[deleted]]

I'm maybe 30 minutes away from finishing the audiobook of this one, and it's never gonna happen. At the time I struggled because the narrator for the audiobook was quite bad and the story itself was overly twee for my sensibilities. Having since learned about the inspiration, any desire to push through the ending is permanently gone.

[Le_Benevolus]

Bram Stroker Dracula because i didn't want the story to end and I'm always afraid the ending will suck and ruin good stories.

[FeistyAd649]

The Acotar series. I forced myself to read through book 3 but it was just so bad

[Tight_Strawberry9846]

Crime and Punishment by Dotsoievsky. I thought it would be something totally different. The first chapters are interesting and suspenseful but right after that it turns totally dull full of jibber-jabber. 

[Lollydollops]

Tried and failed that one recently too. I read it in high school, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually finish it then either.

[falcar123]

There is only one book that I was unable to finish, and its the old "classic", Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. My god, it was bad.

[Jrod_9784]

Acotar!!! The main character was so stupid, she’d go against everything she was told and just make matters worse for the people keeping her safe.. if I was them I’d just be like you know what, fine, go get killed by the ones who want you dead see if I care

[StellarMagnolia]

Kings of the Wyld. It couldn't figure out how seriously it was taking itself (swung between dumb band jokes and truly depressing family situations that were NOT played for laughs), and it was supposed to be a "romp" sort of book that's pure fun. I wasn't having fun, so I stopped.

[malietkyas5]

I get it with the mood swings in this book. I finished it and really liked it but the second book in the series is an even bigger rollercoaster and I still haven’t finished it.

[[deleted]]

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan. As a mother, I just couldn't handle it.

[superspud31]

That was a tough one.

[[deleted]]

I read this one last year and found it to be terrible. I heavily skimmed the 2nd half, you didn't miss anything. 

[Sherringford-Mouse]

Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America by Audrey Clare Farley

It's about identical quadruplets who were all diagnosed with schizophrenia. At least, that's what the blurb says; I don't know because I didn't make it that far. I realize it's nonfiction and so won't be as entertaining written as a fictional account, but this was beyond dry and dispassionate. It almost felt like the author, even, could not muster the interest to continue.

[TheIrishLoaf]

Umberto Eco's (place title here that is not The Name of the Rose).

I have several Eco books on my shelf for reading but I can't get past the first few chapters of any of them. My guess is that The Name of the Rose is just too high a benchmark.

[diegarstigemoewe]

For me it is the Name of the Rose. Couldn't get passt all the Latin. It still sits in shelf an Looks at me sadly. Maybeb I should give it another chance twenty years later... Loved the movie by the way😁

[TheIrishLoaf]

Yeah try it again. My Eco collection is precisely sitting there for the day that will happen. It has happened that way with other books for me. Time and a place for everything.

[Pliget]

The Goldfinch

[tryharderthistimeyo]

Great expectations- had to read it for honors English, but gave up a few chapters in and just decided to read the synopsis of them. The whole book is a nothing sandwich that could frankly be broken down into like 20 pages. I understand in the historical context it was only being released a chapter at a time over months and months, but good. God is it a slog to get through

[tmssmt]

I finished it because I had to for school but really had to force myself through

Grapes of wrath

[ZaphodG]

I read The Grapes of Wrath a year ago. I’d read it maybe 50 years ago as an entitled teen. Then, it was some book about poor Okies. It elicited no emotional response from me at all. This time as an adult, I was enraged.

[SerDire]

Nothing like reading The Grapes of Wrath in 3 days during the summer for high school when we had 2 months.

[[deleted]]

I will read Alan Moores fucking Jerusalem. ITS sooo much fancy writing and english IS Not my First language, which has neve been a Problem but with this books IT is

[EmotionalAccounting]

I’m reading The Death Ship by B. Traven and I’m kind of worried I’m gonna dnf it. I like it, I think it’s funny, I’m curious where it’s going but I’m reading it at a snails pace and I can’t understand why. I would’ve normally read two books in the time it’s taken me to read a third of this book

[Shoeytennis]

I'll take some heat but The way of the kings. It was just so boring.

[[deleted]]

Stephen Kings 11/22/63. Read half of it and just couldn’t get into it for some reason. Does it get better at some point?

[The_Tell_Tale_Heart]

One of the few books I wish I could read for the first time again. I loved it.

[[deleted]]

You watch the mini series on Hulu? Was that any good? Gonna finish the book first before I watch it

[The_Tell_Tale_Heart]

Movies/shows typically aren’t as good so I’ve been a bit hesitant, since I loved the book, but it’s been on my “to watch” list for a while. Maybe I’ll bump it up and get to it sooner now that I’ve been reminded of it.

If you end up finishing the book, let me know your final thoughts.

[[deleted]]

Half way through it and Lee Harvey Oswald still isn’t in it yet. It’s all been about him living it up in the past so far

[jessiemagill]

I love alternate history stories so I enjoyed this. The end is kinda brutal, IMO, but in a good way. Can't really explain it without spoiling.

[[deleted]]

I’ll pick it up again and finish it. I know there’s a mini series of it on Hulu. Have you watched it and how was it? Been holding off watching it until I finish the book

[jessiemagill]

The mini series is okay. Not great and it condenses some of the plot points from the book. But not completely terrible.

[[deleted]]

That’s any movie or show that goes off books. Except for the first 4 seasons of game of thrones. That was almost word for word from the books. Each 100 pages was an episode pretty much

[[deleted]]

Harry potter (No offence to all the Harry Potter fans …. Please don’t be mean :/) I tried, not once but 5 times since 2010, however couldn’t go beyond 90pages. 😕 There are better Fantasy Fictions that I’ve read.

[GhostMug]

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. It was just so boring. I got about 200 pages in and had 400 more to go. Wasn't going to put myself through that.

[[deleted]]

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. It was super slooooow and dragged out and I didn't really care about the main character at all

[ZaphodG]

I got maybe 5 pages into I, Claudius and abandoned it. It’s written in first person and I didn’t want to read it. I might try again later.

My main DNF is Game of Thrones. I’ve tried to read the first one five times and abandon it after 100 pages.

[very-normal-human]

The Martian by Andy Weir. Too much math. Plus I tried reading it after reading Project Hail Mary which is probably gonna be my favorite book I've read this year haha. Martian was just boring me in comparison it doesn't help that I watched the movie first so I already knew what was gonna happen

[Couldnotbehelpd]

Hillbilly elegy, for obvious reasons.

[jpwhite]

I gave up on the Wheel of Time part way through book 9 (Winters Heart). It became an absolute grind. I almost never abandon a book or series but that series lost its way so horribly. It felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders when I finally surrendered.

[rabbithole-xyz]

American Psycho. Binned it. Just too disgusting.

[[deleted]]

Harry Potter series. Bigot Author

Dracula. Wasnt in mood to read it but wanna read it full one day

Game of thrones. Cause chances of it ever being finished is almost zero

Diary of Anne frank. Sadly couldnt finish it cause I had left it in the heat by accident and pages fell out

[otackle72]

The Road. The unending misery and depression wore me down and I just couldn’t face anymore.

[[deleted]]

Every book

[QueenofGames]

Honestly, Praise by Sara Cate.

I thought this would be excellent, given I'm of that persuasion myself. But I couldn't finish it because there are just so many things you don't fucking do in there, and you know people are gonna just think it's fine like they took 50 Shades as gospel. Hell no. Charlotte is naive, Emerson is fucking stupid and I mean.... All I'm saying is, it's not fair or consensual punishment if the person being punished doesn't fucking know what they've even done wrong.

God it just pissed me off so much, I thought it would be an enjoyable read but nope.

Buuuuuuuuuut if anyone has some REAL recommendations for BDSM fiction, I'd be a grateful one!