5 Books I Didn't Like Reading

Yes, there are books that I did not like reading. Even though I say that I enjoy all books and that books are pretty much of equal value in my eyes, some books are more equal than others. But jokes aside, there are books where my experience of reading them was so bad that I did not even want to look at them again. I will explain my processes of reading and then trying to re-reading some of them, but mostly just reading them that put me off wanting to read anything about that particular book ever again.

My reading process is simple. I like to think "maybe it'll get better" and so, I end up finishing the books that I didn't like reading as well as the ones I love. I hope for the best outcome and sometimes, though rarely, I am disappointed. I have learnt over time that not every single part of a book can be perfect (except for probably the works of Oscar Wilde, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and yes, Anne Rice). But I have also learnt that my good intentions aren't often respected by some authors and their individual books. Here they are:

5 Books I Didn't Like Reading

5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

I'm not going to lie to you, I have tried to read this book over and over again. The first time I read it some years ago, I was only actually reading it because someone else was and I wanted to get involved with the conversation - but that book was so boring that when I finished it, I practically gave away my copy so I wouldn't even have to look at it again. When I was twenty-three I thought about the situation of the years before and my conclusion was 'maybe I was just in a bad mood, or having a bad day...' so I got a copy from the library and read it again.

I was not having a bad day.

That book is just awful to me.

And so is the film... sorry Sir Daniel Day-Lewis.

4. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

I have never been able to read Anthony Trollope, his books are boring and overtly Victorian middle class. I hate his writing style and I cannot stand his storylines. This book was pretty much the entire reason why. "The Way We Live Now" was a BBC Series back in 2001, and I only read the book when I was thirteen - in about 2008/9 because I saw that Cillian Murphy was in the TV Show and obviously, because he's my childhood hero I probably should've watched the show first because my god was that book boring.

Since then, I have simply avoided everything written by Anthony Trollope. Nothing about his books remotely interests me.

3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

First of all, I apologise immediately - don't write me a letter, don't tweet me and don't tag me in your Instagram post.

And here we are. When I was fourteen, I was in my emo/scene phase and I hated everything about this stupid book when I first read it. I thought it was the worst book ever. Then I read it again once I'd grown a little bit and honestly, it is not all that bad. When I was eighteen, I re-read it for a third time and again, it improved a little. By the present, I can honestly say that it has improved a little bit more. My theory is that if I re-read it once every four years or so, I'll end up liking it by the time I die. But as a first read, I could not help myself, I felt like throwing the book across the room. It was a horrible first experience.

2. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Do I really need to explain myself here?

When I was eighteen, I took up the challenge of reading "Atlas Shrugged" (which was probably a bad idea since I was about halfway through Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" during that). But the one thing that I thought of throughout my reading experience of "Atlas Shrugged" was 'does this author truly believe what she's talking about?' the answer was, unfortunately, yes. That really did just horrify me and even though I made it to the end, I never picked up that god awful book again. But as a nice surprise, everyone I met who had read it hated it too.

1. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

So, I probably have to explain myself here don't I?

I first read "Finnegan's Wake" just before I started university. I was nearing the end of being eighteen and I wanted to read something challenging. Remember, I said challenging, not impossible. I picked up "Finnegan's Wake" to see what all the fuss was about. Having already read "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and "Ulysses" and pretty much having average thoughts about them both, I thought that "Finnegan's Wake" was the next logical step. But honestly, when I tell you that I had no idea what the hell I was reading the vast majority of the time, I had less than no clue what was happening. It is the only book, to this day that has taken me over a month to complete. I read "War and Peace", "Atlas Shrugged" and "In Search of Lost Time" in less time than that and all of those books are longer.

Yes, I know there's no apostrophe in "Finnegan's" but I hate the way it doesn't have one.

Conclusion

So as you can see, there are books that even I don't enjoy. There are books I have come to appreciate over time as well. There are even books that I vowed never to pick up again because of the way they made me feel. But I can tell you, there are many, many more books being published every single day and even if you haven't found yours yet - you soon will. You can't like everything but spending a lifetime searching is well worth it.