I began ANANSI BOYS by Neil Gaiman. I love all his comics work, but his novels are kind of off and on. (AMERICAN GODS was severely flawed.) This is the first one I simply could not get into. The hero seemed whiny and passive, in need of a good slap upside the head. Returned it to the library after reading about 20 pages.

Brenda

well, Cold Comfort Farm didn't resonate with me. (my new favorite-hate business buzzword saying.)

The Virgin Knot-written by a local girl, Holly Payne- and it too got excellent reviews from scholarly critics-it was written with no quotation marks-was she talking? Was she just thinking it? Is this a conversation or a dream? Drove me nuts!

The Historian ! Reserved it at the library under the false impression that it was really about some sort of historical research into Dracula folklore, but the meaningless and unnecessary way the father kept drawing out his story, seemingly just so the author could build suspense, added insult to injury, and I didn't read very much of the book. I did skip ahead to a few places near the end and found it even less to my liking, with unsatisfactory and unlikely explanations--in particular, the one about what happened to the mother, and why. (I put it in this cryptic manner so as not to spoil things for people who can stomach the book.) Ick!

There have also been a number of books that I thought, from their reviews, I would enjoy, but which turned out to be written all in the present tense (Ansay's Vinegar Hill being the most recent one), and I quickly got rid of them. (Sorry for railing against this pet hate in two recent posts!)
I know, though, that plenty of people loved The Historian, and, strangely enough, BookMom, I loved Memoirs of a Geisha! Well, to each his own!

And I was stunned by Never Let Me Go...

Ah well.

Blue Horizons - can't remember the author - about Captain Cook and such-like. I used to LOVE tracing the voyages of Cook, Magellan and such-like on the atlas. I was really expecting to enjoy this. And the author of this managed to make the whole thing seem tedious. I think there was too much about the writer and his journey, and not enough about Captain Cook.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace. Well, in my case, it's read anything else by this author. I'd heard that the guy was brilliantly funny and an excellent writer. Hmmmm....clever-clever, unfunny, and a ridiculous trick of writing long footnotes, some of which had footnotes of their own. Yeurghhhh.

There are stacks more, but those two spring to mind.

biwako - if you can get over your hatred of the present tense, then A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow is marvellous - the use of the first person present historic (which I believe it's technically called) gives a real immediacy to the writing.

I expected Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island to be a sharp, witty and funny outsider's view of Britain (that's how it was reviewed). While there were some very funny bits, his observation on Britain were cantankerous and petty, and no different from any other middle-aged grump's 'things ain't what they used to be'. You really cannot travel to Wales in the offest season of all off-seasons and then complain that most of the tourist attractions are closed!

The worst disappointment ever was probably The Horse Whisperer. My favourite radio presenter raved about it, but I found it sentimental and contrived.

Most recently, the fifth - and for me, final - Harry Potter. I had enjoyed the first three so much that I did not foresee Rowling's descent into whininess and bad writing.

Another Never Let Me Go fan here too. One book I really wanted to like but just couldn't get into it was One Hundred Years Of Solitude. I tried several times because of all the raves from people I highly respect but it was a no go.

For me, it was Gone with the Wind. I thought it would have been much better had an editor cut its length in half. I didn't find any of the characters sympathetic or--worse yet--interesting. To this day, it is the only case I can think of where the movie is much better than the book.

Russ

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Based on so many great reviews on RP, I ordered all four of the books that existed at the time all at once because I knew I would love them. After barely making it through Outlander I took it and the other three, unread, to the library for their book sale.

For me, it was Donna Tartt's "The Secret History." I thought I'd love this book, but never made it past the first chapter. I often think it was just a case of right book, wrong time and perhaps I should pick it up again, but... too many books are already in the TBR pile right now.

All you great readers, does it seem sometimes to you that it's so much easier to dislike a book than to really like one?

I'm another who thinks Memoirs of a Geisha is a dud. No, it's worse than that. I viscerally loathed it the first time I read it, but when I heard that so many other readers liked it I thought I better give it another chance. No luck. It left a dent in my wall. I don't think I'll bother with the film, either.

Whereas I adored "The Secret History...." There's no accounting for taste.

I truly expected to like Phillippa Gregory's "The Virgin's Lover" but could not get interested in it.

I had long wanted to read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" because I'd heard how comprehensive it was and from my interests, it seemed "right up my alley." Quel disappointment! The style was just too long-winded and dry for my taste. I kept getting bogged down and finally returned it to the library, having learned a little about Vikings in Greenland.

Likewise "Never Let Me Go" and "Cold Comfort Farm." Both failed to grab my attention.

I bought into the JS & MN hype and it fell out of my hands at 80 pages.

Couldn't finish A Confederacy of Dunces and The Reivers. Both were pegged as extremely funny (not to me), but I hated the style.

After LOTR, was prepared to love The Chronicles of Narnia, but was extremely repelled by LWW, in addition to finding it badly written and gave up at number two.

Never read Memoirs of a Geisha or The Historian, or The Red Tent, because I sensed I would hate them, and generally try to stay away from overhyped book club books.

I have managed to avoid many of the books mentioned above because I knew they wouldn't appeal to me-the Historian - Geisha etc. I do have the Jonathon Strange book sitting here-managed to get to page 160-barely.

I did not care for Passage by Connie Willis-never understood why people thought it was so good...I have the pback sitting here if anyone wants it? (I did enjoy the Red Tent!). I didn't like The Three Junes either!

Pat

The Secret Life of Bees

Ok, where do I start? I'd say most of Umberto Eco's books. I loved his The Name of the Rose and his Foucault's Pendulum was intriguing. His Baudalino was such a disappointment that I never finished it. And his Island From the Day Before seemed incomprehensible. I really tried but ... I just couldn't get myself to like it or even FINISH it.

I've pretty much given up on him.

Oh, and some of the Thieves' World series were good and I really wanted to enjoy the later books but I just couldn't.

Several years ago, our book club read The Lovely Bones. I was so disappointed with the book after so many people said they loved it.

I couldn't finish Lovely Bones and that is so rare for me. I thought I was the only one.

Hee, brenda, we are exact opposite. I started reading Gaiman with Good Omen, written with Terry Pratchett, and have read and loved every novel since. So after Anansi Boys, I decided to try the comic books. Um no. I think its the reading style more than the writing, actually.

>The hero seemed whiny and passive,

Yeah, but he was supposed to be, in contrast to his smoother brother.

> "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Another was "Memoirs of a Geisha

Ditto. I read the first for a reading group and hated every second of it. The second one I expected to like, and found it dull beyond imagining

And I so agree about Historian. This book was so up my alley - history, Europe, books - and I think I stopped reading at the 3rd or 4th story within the story...Another book that I should have loved was Outlander, yeck! What dreck! And Red Tent - if I was told one more time what the red tent was for I was going to toss it through a windowless wall.

>(Ansay's Vinegar Hill being the most recent one),

I loved her first one "Midnight Champagne", so bought this in hard cover thinking it would be as good. Gack - Vinegar is the perfect title for it.

Two others that I thought would be great coz I loved the author's previous books were Specimen Days and City of Falling Angels. What disappointments!

Because I'd liked "Secret Life of Bees" I expected to like "Mermaid's Chair." I was terribly disappointed and barely could read her second novel. It was wildly improbable and schmaltzy, IMO.

"It was wildly improbable and schmaltzy, IMO. "
That's how I felt about The Secret Life of Bees
but I was the lone dissenter in my book club.
I really enjoyed Girl With Pearl Earring but have not been able to finish any of her other books.

I have given up on book reviews. Not really, but at least paperbackswap.com allows me to indulge without too much guilt.
Our library doesn't carry many of the books I read about here so I have another outlet.

Big time recent disappointments: Never Let me Go, Three Junes, Cold Comfort Farm and Notes from a Small Island.

I did love the Historian, however!

I still write down books that are praised but with a jaundiced eye. I probably will read Cloud Atlas someday.

Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. Sob, and I had so looked forward to it. I found the style of writing tedious and difficult to follow.

The Lovely Bones

William Faulkner
Philip Roth

I know there are more.

Ain't diversity great? Because I loved "Never Let Me Go" and the earlier "Remains of the Day" I picked up "When We Were Orphans" with great anticipation. What a disappointment--I never did understand what it was about, which is not necessarily a deal killer if the read is fun. It wasn't.

Now Tangerine, I don't see how anyone could help but love Roth--every word he writes, but totally agree that Faulkner is inscrutable. One of the great joys of maturity is not having to pretend you like Faulkner. Next decade I will try again. That's when I will try Joyce and Proust again.

I was so disappointed in "Marrying the Mistress" by Joanna Trollope. Enjoyed other of her books but this one was very poor. I am the same age as the wife in the story so disagreed with the premise that she had to give up work on marriage and became just a housewife. Rubbish! I worked in the Civil Service and a lot of the women in good positions were married, so were teachers etc.
I was so cross that I posted a review on a website about it! I seem to recall that the focus was not on any one character and the plot hopped all over the place.

"Six Wives" was another which disappointed me. I saw it in the library on CD and thought about giving it another try, then thought why bother?

Strangely enough, I did enjoy "The Historian" despite it using the same device of keeping the reader in an artificial suspense, sort of like not talking about the elephant in the room, as did "Never Let Me Go" which I disliked. Well, I never claimed to be rational or consistent.

I read Never Let Me Go, too, but must not have been impressed, because I can't recall a thing about it now.

mine disappointment was "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" by Albon Mitch.
I read a good reviews made by readers in on line bookshop here in Italy and both the cover and the title intrigued me, but what a letdown it was.
In short the author explains how each ours act can effects, even years later, other lifes and fates. But it was told in a very banal way. (in my humble opinion)
Lion King when explains about the circle of life to his son Simba, is much deeper.
The only merit I found reading the book was; that it is a very short one

grelobe

I was expecting better as well, but after a few pages I tossed it aside. Then I learned the guy was a sports writer. Ok, that makes sense.

The only Trollope I liked was Spanish Lover. Tried some others and they just didn't click for me.

Any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. I thought they would be right up my alley and they weren't. They just never charmed me. Pleasant enough, but not special. I suspect it is because for the most part, Piers Anthony told me similar stories earlier.

Oh, yes, Chris! Pratchett is another author I thought, from the way people raved about him, that I would love, but I couldn't stand his brand of humor.
I can't even say his Discworld novels were "pleasant enough"!

Count me in on the Pratchett disappointment. A couple of people whose tastes I usually share are big Discworld fans, so I was sure I'd enjoy the novels too. 'Reaper Man' was very funny (death takes a holiday), but the other two or three I tried seemed very formulaic and just too plain silly.

Oh, I so love Discworld. I got my first taste of Pratchett in the book he wrote with Neil Gaiman Good Omen, and fell in love, and later got hooked on his others. Lately Pratchett's Disc books have been less enjoyable - he has a tendency to want to hit you over the head with his message - but his first ones were great fun. But like you, I know other folks who just can't take him, but love the same sci/fantasy stuff that I do.

Piers Anthony was like that for my DH. When we were first going together, he was browsing through my books and wanted to know what this one shelf was all about. Well, it was Xanth. I told him how I devoured them in college, and that he'd no doubt love them. So he took the whole shelf home with him. It was a while before I asked him what he thought, and he sheepishly said 'will you hate me if I tell you I couldn't stomach passed the first?" Well of course not - but then I decided to have a re-read. Oh my gawd. Pretty horrid. But wonderful memories.