REALLY???? Oh yuk. Thanks for the warning.

I can't think of any books, but a play is making the circuit around here, called The Book of Mormon. It's supposed to be a comedy, but is filled with vulgar language. Why on earth would the F-bomb and other things be necessary in a play like that?

My cousin kept telling me that I had to read "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand. He said it was the most wonderful book ever. So, I bought it, and after about 100 pages, I tossed it. The most boring book I've ever read. I may watch the movie, to see if I missed anything.

Ahhh, I loved Atlas Shrugged but it's been a while since I read it. As I recall, it started out slow.

I liked Atlas Shrugged too, but that was a long time ago and I don't know if would appeal to me today. But several years ago I became very excited about the book because my autographed, limited edition copy was the biggest sale I ever made on eBay. :-)

I was a teen when I read that and liked it - don't know how I'd feel about it today.

I generally don't allow a book to beat me, some are slow, some never pull me in, some are nonsensical, but few are left unfinished. That having been said. I've given "Smilla's Sense of Snow" more than enough chances, and I have actually read it to the end, but beyond the title, not a word of it has managed to make any sense to me! I've tried, I've read, I've picked it up and started in the middle, but it has defeated me, and it's a war I'm not willing to continue. It sits on my bookshelf glaring at me as I reread/choose other books, taunting me.

Guaranteed, it's a block I have, and not the fault of the author. I just don't have biases against books/authors, other than having favourite genre's or authors, but Smilla and I shall never be book buddies!

'War and Peace' by Tolstoy. lol! I tried twice and just can't get past page 835 (or somewhere around there). :)

I had a great English teacher back in ninth grade, Mr. Wallin. He said , if a book doesn't "grab" you in the first 50 pages, you can put it down and quit reading. I've followed his advice ever since. I even put down one of Stephen Kings books, Lissie's Story. And I've loved everything else he's written.

My husband hated Stephen King's Tommyknockers

I'm with Jannie's English teacher. If I elect to stop reading a book, I don't consider it to have beaten me. On the contrary, it would beat me if I wasted my time and energy finishing it.

If I can't enjoy a book after the first 20-30 pages I put it down with no regrets at all. I read for enjoyment!!! Even when it is non fiction! I love all kinds of books but don't ever regret putting down what I dislike!
Joann

I follow the advice of jannie's english teacher as well. The only books I force feed myself are books that the book club I belong to is reading. It took everything I had to finish Wild and I hated it to the bitter end.

A book that we just finished reading, The Marriage Plot, was a real struggle for about the first 100 pages (I think you had to be an English Lit major, which I was not, to get any of the references) but then it got easier to read, not much better, but just easier to read.

John Grisham's Gray Mountain is the only book he's written that I just didn't enjoy reading. It was almost too formulaic, which caused me to feel that he was trying to manipulate the reader.

I also, surprisingly enough, didn't like Dean Koontz's The City. It was just okay, but not good enough to add to my library.

Stephen King wrote The Long Walk. Honest to Pete, that was pure agony. I kept going because I thought that it had to get better, but it never did.

Anne Rivers Siddons used to be one of my favorite authors. Her use of language was highly descriptive, evocative of place and bordered on the lyrical. Her last couple of books really lacked good plot and character development. Then I picked up The Girls of August. Wow, what a stinker! Mean, poorly thought out characters, terrible plot, puerile language. I can't fathom what happened to this author; it's as if she's phoning it in. I can't imagine how she continues to be published, but I, for one will never read her again. I am sorry I finished it...I was hoping for improvement right to the bitter end.

Sudiepav...I loved Siddons book "The House Next Door". I read it many years ago and I thought it was great! A real gripping horror story. Then after that I tried her other books but I didn't like them!! Usually once I find an author I like I am good to go but not with her. You are the first person who has said the same thing about her!!!
Joann

Back to jasdip's comment - The Book of Mormon is a great play, The language used contributes to it's success.

I had trouble with Atonement by Ian McEwan. One of the only books in my lifetime that I started and didn't finish. More recently, The Husband's Secret. It was on the N.Y. Times best seller list for a while but I thought it was Blah.

Many thanks to Alisande for beginning this discussion. I'm also a fan of Jannie's English teacher's advice to not finish a book if it's not "grabbing" me by the first few pages. I think of myself as being quite a picky reader. There are many books that come highly recommended that I haven't enjoyed, The Goldfinch being one, despite it having been awarded the Pulitzer Prize. I like a book to be well written and one that has a sincerity and honesty about it, that is, events or characters' impressions are believable (except for science fiction, etc.) I also soon stop reading if an author uses phrases that have been used many, many times before by other writers. I like writing that is original.

Fortunately, there are books available for every reading taste and I say once again, thank heaven for public libraries. Otherwise it's scary to think of the money I would spend in "feeding my habit!"

The first that came to mind for me are the "50 Shades" books. I read the first & didn't care for it...way too much "repetition". But I thought I'd give the second one a try to see if the thin story line advanced any,,, didn't get too far & stopped wasting my time.

My friends consider me very square and old fashioned but I thoroughly enjoyed The Book of Mormon. Did you actually see it?

I am in the don't like Siddons books category. I have several of them that were passed to me and I tried to read them but just kept putting them down. I no longer try.
If a book just doesn't grab my interest it's very hard to keep going, in a few cases I have and it improved but that's not always the case.
I can't think of anything right now but there's been a few.

Two books instantly come to mind.

- The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski which is a disturbing tale of a young Jewish boy abandoned by his parents in WWII. ... you are rather unlikely to causally stumble onto this book but if you do, walk on by.

- The other book is a bit more current and likely still on the shelves at the book store or library ... it's called the Glass Castle - A Memoir by Jeannette Walls. Filled with dysfunctional family life. ... it hit so close to home for many of our book club members that many tears flowed during our discussion of the book.

Jodi-

I adored The Goldfinch. I would have to put it on my top ten books ever. My book club just read A Tale for The Time Being and I couldn't finish it. I also gave up on Gone Girl. I don't know what the fuss was about that book.

Oh, I loved The Goldfinch. It's always interesting how varied people's tastes are.

Agree with dedtired about Gone Girl - I gave it up too. I keep thinking I should try again as it's been a few years.

My problem is that I have trouble getting through the classics that I feel I should for a well-rounded reading education. I guess I have a shorter attention span now for current character development and language choices than a century ago. I find I have to focus harder on these types of books than the usual books I read and I often toss them aside for something lighter. I'm working on The Count of Monte Cristo now.

I'd love to one day finish reading Moby Dick, but I always put it down during what I find to be the boring parts. It's not the length, as I read Les Miserables, which is much longer. Did any of you who read Atlas Shrugged also read The Fountainhead?

I didn't finish Gone Girl either. I didn't like the characters.

I read The Fountainhead when I was in my teens. Liked it better than Atlas Shrugged. I've outgrown both of them.

I read The Fountainhead and liked it better than Atlas Shrugged too. I don't think I'd like either of them today.

I just finished A Round-Heeled Woman, a memoir. I wouldn't exactly recommend it, although I did finish it, so at least it held my interest. The author is intelligent, and her writing is often clever. But I disliked her more and more as the book went on (so self-absorbed, so lacking in compassion, such a bad mother), and I was wildly uncomfortable with her "love" life--not on any moral grounds, but because I couldn't relate in any way to her behavior, and thought most of the choices she made were more than a little nuts.

Goldfinch seemed over-written to me.

Didn't every 'mature for her years' kid read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead?

I finished Gone Girl yesterday. Ick. I should have followed my feelings after the first few pages. Hard to give a darn about a pair of nasty, self-centered *children* -- a rube and his pathological princess. Add a ridiculously contrived plot and... oh, WHY?

bee ohio? i'm ashamed to say I read all 3 and hate myself for doing so...felt I should have read them in the shower to get clean....

LOL, Susan. I will say that there was a bit of "enlightenment" there, but it began to be so repetitious, & the thin storyline just couldn't carry it for me. My bff read all 3, so she summed it all up for me in about 3 sentences. She said it didn't take long to read once you flipped thru the sex pages. LOL

I read Fountainhead in early 20's, didn't care for it. I might try it again out of curiosity to see if my perspective has changed. I don't really remember that much about it, only that a friend raved on it.

Hmmm...I've never felt the need to "like" a book's character(s) in order to enjoy the read.

Hmmm...I've never felt the need to "like" a book's character(s) in order to enjoy the read.

I do. In fiction, for instance, there has to be at least one character I care about, have empathy for, or can relate to in some fashion. Otherwise, for me it's like spending a lot of time with people I dislike.

I do need to like at least one character, or at least not find any really distasteful. When I read a book, I enter a world, and I don't enjoy finding it full of people that I don't like.

Arkansas_Girl, after I read that horrible book (Tommyknockeers), I have never read another Stephen King novel.

Stacey-MB, I did finish reading The Goldfinch, but honestly did not and do not understand why that book won anything.

Dedtired, I totally agree with you about Gone Girl; I did not finish reading it, it was so not to my liking.