10 Books The Whole World Loves But Didn’t Do It For Me
You know that thing where you read a book and think “This is garbage” and then go to Goodreads or Amazon to look at other reviews and realize, “Oh, apparently I’m on my own here.”
Or the extremely awkward thing where someone recommends a book that is the best book ever and so you read it and you think it is really awful but. . . you have to pretend it was great (or possibly avoid that friend for the rest of your life).
Anyway, here are ten of those books for me, where everyone is constantly recommending them to me and I have to either smile and nod or admit that I couldn’t even make it through the whole book.
And they are probably your favorite books in the whole world, so you are welcome to tell me that I am a complete idiot.
Books That Are Not for Me
- 50 Shades of Gray. Okay, this one is a joke. I haven’t read any of this book (although I laughed my head off at Dave Barry’s take on the book – warning that there is some slightly sexual content in his essay, which is to be expected considering the subject matter). I promise the next ten books I’ve actually read or attempted to read.
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (the Flavia de Luce series). I know! Everyone loves these books so so much. And I didn’t hate it. I just had zero desire to read any after the first one. And it took me about 10 years to get through the first one (in all fairness, I was listening to it, and the problem could have been the narrator).
- Out of the Dust. My mom bought this for me right when it won the Newbery and I could barely make it through – the whole thing freaked me out so much. Five years later, someone did a piece from it at a speech and debate tournament, and I almost couldn’t even sit through it. It’s just too much, too graphic for me.
- Jacob Have I Loved. I absolutely love Bridge to Terabithia, so I was super excited about this one. And then it wandered on for ages. I liked the premise, just not the actual book. Too bad.
- Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children. I don’t even have really bad things to say about this book; I just couldn’t get into it and eventually gave it up.
- The Night Circus. This book is approximately ten thousand CDs long. Even Jim Dale narrating couldn’t save it for me. I got to the end and wasn’t entirely sure what had even happened or, frankly, if there had even been a plot.
- The Maze Runner. I always hear this one recommended as a great, fun read. But I felt like absolutely nothing happened in the entire book. I don’t get the appeal at ALL.
- Eat Pray Love. This one is probably in the top spot for bestselling books I could not stand. I wrote more about my distaste for this book here.
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I get that it’s supposed to be heart-warming and beautiful. But by the end of the book I couldn’t stand any of the characters, and I was just relieved it was over.
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I just went back and re-read the review I wrote of this back in 2009 and it enraged me all over again how STUPID this book is. I don’t feel only apathy toward this book, I feel actual rage over how bad it is. Even after five years.
- We Were Liars. I wanted to love this one. I love The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks more than is normal, and I was thrilled to see another book from her, but. . .this was not the book I was hoping for. I never got into it, and it was one step above a slog for me. (By the way, lots of people who didn’t like this book disliked it because they guessed the twist. I did not guess the twist, and I still thought it was lame).
I also hate Nutella (I know. It’s practically a crime, but I try it about once a year to see if I’ve changed my mind and every time it basically burns my mouth with its chemically taste), so feel free to think I have the worst taste in everything ever.
If you’d like a printable copy of this list of books that weren’t for me that you can take to your library or screenshot on your phone for easy access, just pop in your email address below and it’ll come right to your inbox!
And of course, feel free to tell me about the popular or beloved books you couldn’t handle – we can all enjoy our bad taste in books together.
Ha ha, I had to go back and read your reviews for eat, pray, love and the boy in the stripped pajama. Haven’t read the latter(won’t bother now), can’t remember a thing from eat, pray, love. Other than the fact that Julia Roberts starred in the movie and I didn’t like her in it. Lol. My 2018 book that I hated was, the devil in the white city. Heard so many good things about it, but was a total drag.
Ha! I loved reading your list! Isn’t it funny how different people can read the same thing and have such different reactions? You had a few on here that I 100% agree with and a few that are really on my favorites list. To each his own. 🙂
JANE EYRE. He’s seriously creepy and disturbing. And all the long tirades where he calls her all the weird names and blah blah blah. I don’t get it at all.
I really don’t like the Twilight series. Such bland writing and the use of the same adjectives used over and over. The children’s picture books that I loathe are: Where the Wild Things Are, and The Grouchy Ladybug.
I hated the Twilight series! I only read it because all of the young people around me were reading it, and I wanted to be able to discuss it with them. I thought it was boring, and portrayed women as weak and obsessed with men. Yuck!
Nutella bums me out because chocolate and hazelnut together are magic and it does them such a disservice. Have you tried Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut butter? Expensive but worth it! As for books, it’s a kids book that is on so many lists and I just can’t stand it: Giraffe’s Can’t Dance. Uuuuugh.
The Giver. I’m not a fan of dystopian settings. And the euthanasia of one twin really bothers me, especially as an infertility warrior.
The Hunger Games series. It was just kind of…meh. Same with Divergent and Matched.
Frankenstein. I’ve started it about a dozen times and never been able to finish this tiny book. But! My husband bought me a really cool edition that I can make notes or write definitions of words I don’t know/can’t figure out from context. It also includes the original manuscript.
Wuthering Heights is one I don’t care for (but I love Jane Eyre). Another one people raved about was Ender’s Game, and I just couldn’t get into it. Maze Runner and Miss Peregrine were okay, but I had no desire to read the rest of those series. And I’m a fellow non-lover of Nutella. I’ll take the chocolate but not the hazelnut.
It’s “Grey” ftr. 😉😆
I couldn’t stand some of these as well. A few made for good movies but the books weren’t enjoyable for me.
I just have two hates. Educated. Hated it. Hated all the characters and the situations described in the book. I also hated The a life of Pi. I listened and the cds got out of order, and I didn’t even miss any important things.
So glad to see someone else hated Educated. It was impossible to put down but awful. There was a lot I didn’t like about it, but based on the book, her mom, dad and brother belong in jail.
I couldn’t bring myself to read “Eat, Pray, Love” after seeing Elizabeth Gilbert on Oprah. Dimly-lit center stage, alone, on a stool. As though she were holding court or about to preach to the masses. The latter, I guess. And then my book group selected another of her books “The Remembrance of All Things”. So I read it, reluctantly. And loved it! Who would have guessed? I thought the writing was magnificent and my opinion of Gilbert did a complete turn-around. There have been lots of love/hate selections in my book group and it’s always fun. The most divisive was probably “Confederacy of Dunces”, one of my all-time favorites. We read all 3 of Tartt’s novels and enjoyed them all, finding much to discuss. We’ve also enjoyed several Rushdie.
I totally agree with you on Eat Pray Love and The Maze Runner (although the movie for the latter was pretty good). I thought The Night Circus was beautifully written, but super long and boring. And then having to reread it for another book club after we moved was rough. Some that I haven’t enjoyed are Little Fires Everywhere (hated all the characters) and anything by Kate Morton (super depressing).
I’ve read so many books that I’ve loved, and plenty of books that were meh. I have very few books that I actively disliked.
But let me just tell you. I HATED “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake”. I cannot emphasize enough how much I hated it. It was bizarre and pointless.
I didn’t hate it but I definitely didn’t like it! It was so weird!! I think I’m just not into magical realism. Also–turning into a chair?!! WTF!
I hate Nutella too 🤮
The two big ones I hated were The Book Thief (stupid plot devices and horrible writing), and A Discovery of Witches (NOTHING HAPPENS!!!!!). Also My Beautiful Friend was terrible!!
Yes yes yes!! The Book Thief is absolutely horrendous, and yet everyone raves about it. It just made me want to read All the Light We Cannot See again!
I never finished The Night Circus or Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Both of them I picked up on audio because I had heard great things about them as audiobooks, but I found my mind wandering. I also 100% agree about not knowing what the plot of the Night Circus, hence the reason for stopping it about 1/3 of the way through.
Girl, Wash Your Face.
Did nothing for me. Can’t believe how many people find it inspirational. Felt like I’ve already discovered all the advice she had to offer for one, and I was really hung up by the way her terrible boyfriend-turned-husband treated her. People change, but that did not sit well with me at all. Have no desire to read the sequel.
Totally agree with you on 9 of the 10 books. I remember liking Jacob I Have Loved when I was a teenager but I haven’t reread it since then so I might agree with you on that book too.
Yessss I HATED The Night Circus! And had real problems with Eat Pray Love. So glad I’m not alone with The Night Circus!
I enjoyed The Night Circus but I have never read any of the other books you listed because none of them even sounded good to me, even Eat Pray Love. I think I liked the Night Circus because it was like modern magic realism, but I can totally see why people don’t like it.
I hate the Diary of Anne Frank and I never finished it. I know it’s real so I shouldn’t hate it, and of course I think she is incredible and her story is tragic and we should know about it. But the diary became unbearable for me and since I knew how it ended, I jetted. I remember taking the bookmark out in order to put the book in a garage sale when I moved out of my parents’ house.