We all have them, the book everyone raved about and loved and you couldnt understand the big deal. So fess up which is yours?

I have to admit that if I still hate a book after about 50-100 pages I put it down. Too many good books too little time. With that said I do NOT get or enjoy She's Come Undone. I thought the main character was so whiney and full of self pity. I know people love it like their favorite aunt Betty so I always feel like I'm insulting someone's aunt Betty by admitting it but ugh are my feelings to that book. I've also tried to read 2 different Jennifer Weiner books and I'd sooner lay in a pile of fire ants than try that again. I thought it was just the first book I tried because everyone was raving so much about them so when I didn't like that I tried another and it was worse than the first. Too chicklit for me.
Now no one hate me for my confessions. What's yours?

I also wasn't really a fan of "She's Come Undone." But I LOVED Wally Lamb's other novel, "I Know This Much Is True."

I honestly didn't like "Julie and Julia" which was written by a woman who blogged about cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I really wanted to clobber this woman after reading the book. She was an absolute slob and a whiner. She wrote about her dirty, cat hair covered apartment and body odor a little too much for my taste. I guess her blog had a fanatical following. I just thought the writing was awful.

OK I know I am going to sound really unpopular but I didn't like Eat Pray Love. I thought it was boring as hell.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (SP?). It came sooooooo highly recommended that I for sure thought I'd love it. I loved the concept but I
really disliked the characters!

I think A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux was a much better love/time travel story.

Anything by Barbara Kingslover ~ I've tried & tried to read her books and I just can't finish a single one! (Fiction or non!) (I loved She's Come Undone though I've never been able to read it again since the 1st time because it was too emotional for me!)

i have more than one i have to admit. and i am traveling through time to ask for forgiveness now before i have said what they are.

i didn't love the twilight series. i thought it was an okay B movie type quality where you see it once on tv when you are REALLY bored and it entertains you briefly for the time but you really never think of the movie again. i DO NOT understand the hype around it.

i really really REALLY hate the great gatsby. the writing was great but the characters stink. it was like i was being made to read a PEOPLE magazine from the 1920's.

i can not and i mean CAN NOT get through middlesex. i have tried and tried and tried again. but can't do it. i really don't think it will ever happen.

I was not a big fan of The Secret Life of Bees. It was such a big success, and so many people I know have said that it's so wonderful. It was an OK story, OK writing, but just not worth the hype in my opinion.

I really did not like Wicked and especially its sequel Son of a Witch. They both took forever to read because I would quickly nod off. I forced myself through them because they were gifts and I felt obligated to read them. Does anyone else feel like that with gifts?

Joanne-------I did the exact same thing with Wicked. Read it cause it was a gift and came highly recommended but good lord it killed me to do it LOL

I can't get into Middlesex, didn't like The Red Leather Diary, couldn't finish The Wind Done Gone, hated The Girl With The Pearl Earring. I think The New Earth is boring and doesn't tell me a damn thing I didn't already know. I'm probably gonna get skewered for that one huh? ;) Their Eyes Were Watching God has been sitting in my pile to read for about 2 years now. Just can't make myself read it.

Oh thank GOODNESS there are other people who didn't like "Wicked!" We read it for our book club because one of the girls in the club just LOVES the musical, and hence, loved the book.
I still want to see the musical, but I just found the book very weird. I'm not much for fantasy. There were just too many things that I didn't understand going on.

how closely does the musical follow the book? There were some "racey" bits in the book and I had heard the musical was family friendly so I wasnt sure how they pulled that off?

MIDDLESEX!! Never got into it.

Oh, and THE RED TENT and THE POISONWOOD BIBLE.
yuckie.

I haven't finished them because I can't make myself:

Middlesex
This Much I Know Is True
Memory Keeper's Daughter

I couldn't finish Memory Keeper's Daughter either.....that's another one for me!!

I really enjoyed Memory Keeper's Daughter! I think I even recommended it to you Holli, right after you finished Glass Castle!!

I have tried to read "The Client" by John Grisham. I've read most of his books and just cannot get into that one. I've tried several times and have finally just given up on it.

I hated "The Devil Wears Prada" but for some reason I still finished it. I don't understand why people liked that book.
I loved The Red Tent!

I finished the memory keepers daughter because i kept hoping it would get better. It didnt!

I have a catagory on my bookshelf just for books I cannot finish. If I am not liking I cannot force myself to keep reading which means a slap on the wrist when its a bookclub selection.

I agree with a few listed above....
WICKED - sooo disappointed because I'm a big Wizard of Oz fun and I thought it was a great concept. Hated the writting. MY book club selection, was so close to the end when it was time to meet but didn't bother to finish.

MEMORY KEEPERS DAUGHTER - DNF. Found it boring. Movie was pretty blan too.

BELONG TO ME - just finished for book club. everyone else loved it, wants to read previous book from auther. Me.....toooo overly discriptive about minor stuff, seveler "main charaters that were only mildly connedt, thought the stories were alright but was annoyed she did just break it up into 2 seperate novels so as to spare me the torture.

I am that way with Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy, basically he can write the landscape (literally speaking here not metaphorically) but he is horrible with people. Everyone just raves about what he has written and I think that its a waste of ink & paper. Not to mention precious shelf space at the library. So far everything he has written makes me pissed off and bitter. I sometimes feel like I wish I could strangle him if he was still alive.

I really did not like To Kill A Mockingbird. I found it a bit dull for my taste. And I definatly agree with Wicked. I was so dissapointed in the book after seing the musical.

I absolutely loathed Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Yes, it was beautifully written. And I read it right to the end, because I kept thinking SOMETHING has to happen. It doesn't. It was an expensive and boring way to get really depressed.

Give poor Mr.McCarthy some Prozac is what I say!

Cyndi-----couldn't get into Memory Keeper's Daughter at all. I tried like 3 times too!! Just didn't hold my interest and it disturbed me. :)

How could I forget?! "The Secret"! Total bogus, fluffy crap! And I tried "A New Earth" and started having the same reaction, so I never finished it! And then there's anything by Candace Bushnell except "Lipstick Jungle." (Thank God those who make the tv series based on her books have better creative vision than she does or Sex and The City would've sucked like the book!)

LOL Elizabeth you nearly made me snort my orange juice!

looking over this list, i'm being reminded of more books I didn't like. I didn't like Memory Keepers Daughter either. Friends kept raving about how amazing it was, and honestly the book ticked me off. I couldn't relate to a single one of the characters and thought they were all horribly horribly selfish. I know, I know, different time and place, but if I can't relate to the characters even in some small way, I end up not liking the book.

I don't like anything by Libba Bray or Jennifer Wiener. I like them so little, I don't even bother listing and rating them here.

The Great Gatsby
Grapes of Wrath
Lord of the flies

I don't like Nicholas Sparks...there I said it, it's out in the open. When I lived in Georgia I was in a live book club and we seemed to be reading him constantly. I love the movie The Notebook, but Sparks' writing is just not my cup of tea.

Yeah, the only book by Sparks that I truly loved was "Three Weeks With My Brother" and that one was non-fiction. I hate how he always has to throw a gut-wrenching twist into every story. They end up being quite formulaic. I'm done with his novels... unless they come in my real life book club again.

Hear hear on Gatsby. Ick!

Ok, don't hurt me, but...
Little Women! I just despise that book. Oh, geez, now I feel evil! Am I the only person on earth who hated Little Women?

(Wait a sec, wasn't Christian Bale in the movie? He's getting lots of attention these days! haha)

I cannot stand anything by Nicholas Sparks. I dont get why everyone likes them so much. I dont even like the movies.

I can't say I hated these books but I certainly didn't like them as much as I thought I would from all the hype and they just seemed very "two stars" for me:

The Lovely Bones - there was just something about this book that was lacking, good concept but hm, I don't know, I'm just not sure what all the fuss was about.

The Glass Castle - same, not sure what all the fuss was about, good on her for writing her story but all I can think is there are many, many people in that situation and worse, oh, I don't know, it just wasn't something I'd read again.

mandy- i also disliked Lovely Bones. and Prep, by Sittenfeld.

It's nice to know I'm not alone :)

Meg, you and I have very similar tastes! ;) This was also one that I disliked (Eat, Pray, Love). I just don't understand the hoopla about it. So, I guess I'm going to be unpopular, too!

brittany- i didn't like "prep" either!

I didn't like "The Blind Assassin". I couldn't get past page 13. Although the rest of book club had pretty much the same reaction, I hear that Margaret Atwood has quite a following...

I'll probably get slack for this but I didn't like My Sisters Keeper. The story line had potential but the end was a total cop out. I usually enjoy Jodi Picoult books but this and Vanishing Acts were not my cup of tea. They were both written using the same format also. Where each chapter was narrarated by a different character. I guess some people thing it's cool to get everyone perspective, but I found myself having to flip back to remember who was narrarating now.

Don't hate me!! :)

Amen, Jo! I really dislike Barbara Kingslover. I could not read anything she had written. It was just boring to me.

And I had serious issues with the Savage Detectives. NY Times Book of the Year. Ugh.

The 'Da Vinci Code'. Got through a few chapters and had to put it down. I think it's the only book besides 'Catcher In The Rye' that I couldnt read all the way through.

Little Children by Tom Perrota. Hated it the entire way through. The Abstinence Teacher was better, lol.

You didn't like the Blind Assassin? Oh, I'm so sad! It did take a while to get into.

Sheila, no on DaVinci Code and Catcher??? I'm sad again! HAhahahaha

Thank god we all have different tastes. Otherwise, it would be a little too Brave New World around here...

Ugh speaking of Brave New World I hated that book!!! Id rather sit naked on a pile of fire ants with honey drizzled over me than have to read that book again.

OW!!! Ok, I swear I will NEVER EVER make you read Brave New World!!! Too painful. :)

Middlesex (What's the big deal here?)
The Secret (Not terrible - Just not such a secret)
The Alchemist (See above - equally pretentious)
Both Eckhart Tolle (see above -ditto)

I had my existential "aha" moment years ago when I started reading Dr. Wayne Dyer and Marianne Williamson. These recent remakes don't come close, IMHO. (please don't jump me, anyone)

"Secret Life of Bees" - What's with the sudden, hurry up and wrap it up in a neat bow ending?

"A New Earth" - Ekhart is a pontificating dweeb.

"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" - I hated this book and everytime I see it, I throw it across the room. What a complete waste of time.

Memory Keeper's Daughter has been mentioned several times. That being the case, who the heck liked the book!? LOL

I'll put my hand up to that (she says whilst ducking). I really liked it, I'm not sure exactly why but I did.