Which you couldn't wait to get to the end of, slogged through page by mind-numbing page, can't believe you wasted money buying and time reading & are astonished that something that bad could have been recommended by someone for whom you in most other situations have great respect and affection...

What do you do with the damn thing?

Personally, I give it a very prominent position on my bookshelf & stop to look at it wryly from time to time. Occasionally, I take it down, read a paragraph or two to remind myself how awful it is, shudder, and feel intense relief that I won't have to go through the terrible experience of reading it again.

'The History of Henry Esmond' by Thackeray springs to mind. I was urged to read it by a friend who described it as 'better than Vanity Fair... unusual, intriguing, very much its own book'. I'm wondering whether I was victim of a practical joke there.

If I'm finding a book really not to my taste, these days I just don't finish it. I've decided life is too short and there too many other books I could be reading instead. The book will then go to the local charity shop, and I also give them books I did finish and enjoyed but know I won't ever read again.

I've not read that Thackeray one but I've read Vanity Fair three times and love it. My most recent left unfinished book was The Island by Victoria Hislop, which was a Richard & Judy recommended read and topped the bestseller charts for weeks. I just couldn't get on with it, although it seems thousand and thousands of people loved it.

THis is probably why I get them from the library rather than waste good money on the dross. Although I do rack-up large over-due fines on the occassional nuggets found amongst them.

My last dead-beat was Vinyl Cafe. Great review in the weekend papers which claimed it was very funny, but proved to be a complete wash out.

- NaomiM

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Previous one was Book of Lost THings by John Connolly. Beautiful prose, 7 communist dwarves were excellent, but the stories left a bad taste in the mouth so I gave up half way through.

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In consolation I can recommend Kyffin William's two autobiographies, and Pengiuns Stopped Play. Oh, and The Devil Wears Prada.

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Ok, just given up on Fatty Batter by Michael Simkins. It is good/funny but I'm just not that mad about cricket.

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Books I've bought and given up on usually go on to lead perfectly useful lives as Christmas and Birthday presents.

Can't really do the Christmas & birthday recycling thing, since most of my books are dog-eared paperbacks bought secondhand. This also ensures that my reading remains about fifty years behind the times...

Yes, I agree, Vanity Fair is great & that's what made it surprising that Henry Esmond is so - I wouldn't say bad, but just immensely dull. I've since read that Thackeray was making a bid for respectability by writing an edifying and tasteful period novel & find it surprising that a writer of such comic vitality should be capable of misunderstanding the nature of his own talent so completely. Still, it's said to be a common phenomenon.

7 communist dwarves were excellent

Ah, so we see how it really is so subjective. I loved the Book of Lost Things apart from the communist dwarves. I thought that whole piece didn't fit with the book at all!

JB

Well I would have chucked it in about then, JB, if they hadn't cropped up. There was a complete lack of humour up 'til that point. All in all a bit of a downer, and I have no wish to be a part of someone else's depressing nightmares

- NaomiM

Yes, but it is a dark fantasy novel. They're rarely cheery! I thought the tone was excellent myself, really conjuring up the sinsister aspect of childhood nightmares. The Snow White bit was just silly, imho, and although you enjoyed it, it totally jarred with the rest of the book. I was surprised it had made the edit.

But there you go, we're all different, aren't we?

JB

I read a book on holiday by Nicholas Coleridge, entitled A Much Married Man, which was so bad, I was weirdly furious about it. He is the MD of Conde Naste and wrote a couple of very funny/bitchy ones about the glossy magazine business but this one was shocking. Everyone involved ought to be ashamed!

Oh dear, am I allowed to say this? His army of fashionista contract killers may come and hunt me down and murder me with their XXX small tights.

The last book I failed to read (I think I managed to slog through about 20 pages) was Eragorn. It was so cliched, and it really irked me that whenever he introduced a character he mentioned their eyebrows! Luckily, it was a library book, so I just gave it right back

Rachel

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Of course I mean Eragon, not a strange amalgamation of Eragon and Aragorn from LOTR!

I thought that was crap too, Rachel!

I haven't read Eragon, but I bet it's not as crap as Shadowmancer!

Eragon was extremely cliché and derivative, but then it wasn't all that bad, considering it was written by a 15 year old boy.

JB