Books you picked up and quit because you hated it.

[Flying Arrow]

^ Cormac McCarthy is pretty darn good. Check out Blood Meridian (that is, if you're not averse to a little (a truckload) of gore). Inspiring prose. He's getting a lot more press lately because of The Road and No Country... movies. Hell, the hermit even did an Oprah interview if I recall.

However, if you're a fantasy/sci-fi genre fan (I only assume this because of the nature of the forum that has brought us all together), check out John Crowley and Gene Wolfe. Little, Big and The Book of the New Sun, respectively, are the absolute peak of the genre. I cannot recommend them higher. Like McCarthy, these guys are inspiringly good at the top of their game.

The only book or series I can ever actually remember quitting reading due to how much I disliked it is Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind, which I quit midway through the first book due to how thoroughly inept I felt the characterization was. I even tried to re-read it and had the same reaction, and I tried a later novel in the series (Faith of the Fallen) and wound up being just as disinterested, although for somewhat different reasons (the constant nonsensical political rants didn't help my appreciation of the book). I won't give Goodkind a fourth chance.

Check out some of Goodkind's Youtube interviews. The man's insufferable. I even remember reading once that he claimed that his books aren't fantasy (not in the sense that he thinks magic really exists, but in the sense that he's so high up on his thematic interests that labeling his work 'fantasy' is a disservice to his wonderful ideas).