Books you picked up and quit because you hated it.

[Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World]

There have been plenty of books that I've started reading, but either got too into another book and forgot, or had to leave behind and forgot to pick them back up.
But there have also been some that were just so terrible I couldn't finish. Twilight for one. I think I got 13 pages in before I decided it was a stupid book about a stupid selfish girl.
Tried reading Sword of Shannara a couple times. Couldn't get into at all. It didn't grab at me. Just a bunch of boringness.
Same goes for Fellowship of the Ring. It took way to long to go anywhere. I swear I was a hundred pages in and they hadn't even left the shire. I tried, but I just couldn't push through it.

Ugh. Heinlein I am back and forth on. I read Number of the Beast even though it was a terrible horrible book. But only because I had a grade riding on it. Lets just say he has his good and bads, so choose wisely.

And I keep meaning to read Le Guin, but just haven't gotten around to it.

[Zeldy]

The Great Gatsby

I'm forcing myself to re-read this book; It's my third reading of it. Damn you English Literature!

Surprisingly, for me it's Eldest, the sequel to Eragon. I adored Eragon, I remember I wasn't able to put the book down when I read that on holiday, but Eldest took so long to actually get interesting that I put it down. My brother even told me to keep going and that it was even better than Eragon once you got the past the first few chapters, but my enthusiasm was gone.

A Catcher in the Rye~ The writing style was just horrible.

I've literally JUST finished reading this book, It's the second time I've read it since I was made to analyze it for my English GCSE. I absolutely adore it now although I originally loathed it (Holden and his "GODDAMNNNNN") but I do think the author tried too hard to be American and ended up going completely over-the-top.

[KentaRawr!]

Silent Spring. Seriously, I get it, PESTICIDES ARE BAD MMKAY.

(SPOILER)Just joking, I actually like that book. I don't think I've found any books I actually dislike reading.

[Ryth]

I can't think of any fiction I've voluntarily read that I couldn't make it through. I'm incredibly picky about my choices of fiction and being young theres still a vast library of classics to go through before treading in the more dangerous waters.

And it still breaks my heart to see people hate on Conrad's magnificent Heart of Darkness.

I guess the book I've had the worst time going through is Marx's Das Kapital (volume 1, perhaps one day I may go through the others?...). I find Marxism pretty grating to me philosophically already, despite a general fascination with the subject for some reason. I'm aware at this point it might be better to just read interpretations of volumes like Das Kapital, but I've found reading these sort of works personally gives me a closer understanding and intimacy of the text. I've gone through other works with Marx's name on it, unfortunately for me, but those works (The German Ideology for instance) would have Engels (a much superior writer) at his side. Thats what makes Das Kapital so difficult for me to drag myself through, despite being obvious sophistry (at best) it is written in a way best described as verbal constipation with a blight of malignant tumors-- its plainly dishonest academic drudgery that seeks to make obfuscating theoretical systems and pseudo-economics (a caricature of the flaws of classical economics; a sort of Ricardian minstrel show) out of old fashioned Prussian blackheartedness towards business and a comical secular reinvention of the process theology of yore. I've had similar problems with Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, its easier to swim through concrete than to read one of Hegel's sentences.

I'm not interested in discussing why I might be wrong about Marxism.

[Bunny]

I managed to read the first three Harry Potter books before giving up on the fourth. I'm fairly sure the only reason I managed to read the first three was due to a lack of connection to anything resembling the modern world.

[Madame Adequate]

Ryth, your scathing criticism of Das Kapital is right on the money. I forgot about that one completely, but never have I read anything as absolute disasterous - quite apart from the merits of what is said - in my life. It is a broken, shattered land where language goes to die, at the ruined end of the world.

[Ryth]

I'm glad we're on the same page, MILF (unfortunately there are many people still stuck in that dead zone). Have you ever tried reading any Marxist interpretations of Das Kapital? I've gotten a laugh out of some of them.

[Carl the Llama]

I loved Gatsby. And I even studied it, which makes it really unusual for me to enjoy! I don't know where I would place Gatsby, but it's near the top (where Lolita is sitting).

My step-dad raves about Cormac McCarthy, so going to try read him some time.

I got put off the Wheel of Time during the 2nd last book. It had just got ridiculously long.

The second to last book? A Knife of Dreams? I thought the book was good, unless your unaware that The Gathering Storm has been released and are talking about The Crossroads of Twilight in which case I would have to agree with you... the book dragged as did The Path of Daggers (book 8)... though book 8 was botched due to the fact that RJ was very ill and they didn't think he had time to finnish the series.

The only book iv never been able to read (much to my everlasting distress) was A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin which is strange as I loved the entire series up till then and have met the author in person and had my entire collection of books signed with a personal inscription on all... I hear it gets interesting but I cant seem to find the will to carry on reading the book.

If however you need an author to recommend I would have to say all Raemond E. Feist's books are completely awesome.

[BarelySeeAtAll]

Just realised, I never really got in to Enduring Love by Ian Mc...someone. It wasn't too bad I guess, but my english lit teacher said we had to know the book we chose like..off by heart. This meant reading it three+ times. I got an A and didn't even read past page 40.

[Madame Adequate]

I'm glad we're on the same page, MILF (unfortunately there are many people still stuck in that dead zone). Have you ever tried reading any Marxist interpretations of Das Kapital? I've gotten a laugh out of some of them.

Not really, I only read Das Kapital because I had to for class (and I only had to read a bit of it, thank the lord), I've little interest in communism beyond that. I did read The Communist Manifesto though, which was a far, far more readable piece, so I assume Engels had a hand in that one.