Books We Resisted Reading

auntdodi: If I want smut I’ll read the real stuff. From everything I’ve heard this is lackluster at best. Toned down for mainstream titillation. I read the Flowers in the Attic series way too early in defiance of parental orders. Then Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty Trilogy in my teens. Spare me your sadistic asshole boss.

Ennas: Resisted and still didn't read it because I don't like spicy books.

kaulsu: Too strait laced? Absolutely no appeal.

Porua: From what I have heard, the book, and the entire series, is badly written smut. I have never read the book(s) or watched the movies.

elorin: Have not been interested since a friend I trust gave her personal review of the writing style.

Ennas: Overhyped. Read it, and sequels in a weekend. Badly written dumb fun.

knerd.knitter: I figured I couldn't criticize it unless I had read it, and even though it's not great, had I read it as a teenager, I'm sure I would have been obsessed.

kaulsu: Too old? I’m sure I would have read decades ago…

Porua: By the time this series and the subsequent movies became popular, I was too old to get into "popular" romance novels. I never read the books, nor have I watched any of the movies. I am absolutely certain I will not enjoy them.

elorin: From what I have heard they are poorly written and I can't bring myself to read about vampires who sparkle in the sunlight.

namfos: Too sprawling a tale, too many characters, never caught the bug for this one as I don't subscribe to HBO. I prefer to watch HBO programming when it's at least 10 years old and has proven its worth.

theeclecticreview: I suggest listening to the audiobooks if you don't want to tackle the print books.

mlfhlibrarian: Colleagues raved about this, eventually I tried it. Too many characters, too far fetched.

Porua: The popularity of the show just turned me off for some reason. I never got into it and I don't think that will change any time soon.

daisyfly: I gave in on this because so many people said it was great. I wish I had stick to my guns. I thought the writing was terrible.

BookDoc16: I prefer to read "nonfiction" books that really ARE nonfiction, not some clown's bid for money and popularity.

kaulsu: The author. Need I say more?

perennialreader: Never did read it. Still resisting...

msoul13: I was mildly curious about this after it was released, when so many colleges were adopting it as a common read and hearing people say "This book explains why T***p won!" Given the direction history has taken it's a hard pass for me.

phantasmbunny: Never read. Never will.

se71: I read half of it on a holiday, and really like it, but when I got home didn't have time. Now I would have to start all over again.

kaulsu: Ouch. I tried, about thirty years ago. Probably a good book to listen to, given a good narrator, but I should live that long—audible books take much longer than actually reading them.

okeres: still resisting; may read one day if ever stranded on a desert island with it

daisyfly: Russian writing depresses me to no end. I had to read one or two in college. I gave in on Anna Karenina. I just can't do this one. I even tried to watch the movie and couldn't get past 30 minutes.

elahrairah: avoided it for years, but when i read it, wow!

auntdodi: Got caught in a bout of snobbery. Thought it bore me. I was wrong. But now can’t stand JKR and won’t support future works or add any money to her war chest for bigotry.

Ennas: Overhyped. Read the first chapter standing in a bookstore waiting for a friend. Was hooked immediately and bought all three available books on the spot. Love the books, but not the author. :(

konallis: Never desired to read Harry Potter; the story sounded derivative and the marketing and hype were weirdly aggressive. Eventually read this book as part of a swap, a few years after it first came out. My opinion was reinforced.

slimikin: The only book I've included here that I've actually read: I saw the movie during a very intense part of my college career, and it felt like a vacation. After that, all resistance to reading the series disappeared, and with the exception of the last book (which I read immediately because you don't mess with spoilers when you work in a bookstore), I read each one—but only after its movie came out.

mariesthilaire: Resisted because it was so popular and thought it sounded like a kid's book. I did eventually read it and enjoyed it, but not enough to read the other books.

slimikin: I found Throne of Glass frustrating enough to read that it put me off trying anything else by Maas.

cindra-cat: Romantasy is not my cup of tea

phantasmbunny: I resisted this one because I'd already read Throne of Glass (also by Maas) and didn't think much of it. Eventually swayed by the promise that ACoTaR is more mature. And while I do think that ACoTaR is better than ToG, they're both overhyped.

foggidawn: I know what it's about, and I just don't want it in my brain.

CarltonC: I started this book, as so highly recommended, but couldn’t take the subject matter. Style couldn’t overcome subject.

hey_judy: On so many best lists so I have been tempted but I can’t put aside what it actually is.

apothecarytales: I can't get past the subject matter

aprille: As I read it, I was angry at how difficult it was, but now I see echoes of it in lots of other works which I kind of love.

kaulsu: Another ouch. A book I’m sure I ought to have read, but it will go to the bottom of my list, which grows ever longer.

EMS_24: Too hard / tough

gypsysmom: It was so big and so daunting but I finally talked some friends into doing a read along with me and got through it. Not planning on reading any other works by Joyce!

kaulsu: Ayn Rand? Never! I’d lose my membership as a true philosopher!

MicheleWhis: I have heard too many crazy things about Ayn Rand.

EerierIdyllMeme: I often get tempted to hate-read things, but I figure it's better to spend my limited time and energy reading something that's actually interesting and insightful than something by a con man with a fake PhD. The podcast If Books Could Kill (which is great for cutting down your TBR pile) covered it, and it turns out it's even worse than I'd inferred from interviews and such. I guess it could be useful to better understand how people like him think, but learning that no matter how factually, logically, and gently a woman presents her case, many people (those like the author) will simply reject it as a formless emotional outburst is only moderately useful, especially if it's hardly going to give you anything you can do about it.

kaulsu: Stupid waste of reading time.

Bookmarque: Should have kept resisting. Not bothering with the rest of the series. See my review for reasons.

elkiedee: I was a bit suspicious of the hype but thought it was a fun read.

BookDoc16: I listened to the first third of this book (audio) on a road trip and bailed! I've loved & admired the character Atticus Finch since I was a boy; hearing him spout "state's rights" garbage was simply too much for me. I refuse to sully my memories. And there were GOOD reasons why Ms. Lee refused to let this be published while she was still alive. The publishers did this simply to make money!

bjappleg8: STILL resisting -- I don't want to spoil my love for To Kill A Mockingbird

MicheleWhis: I am somewhat bothered by the publishing of the book after the author's death.

JalenV: I watched documentaries pointing out that the book's premise was absurd. Years later, I read a review of one of Mr. Brown's books that was supposed to be parodying his style. I still have a very decided No, thank you, for all of his books.

Jim.Shine: Avoided this for many years because everyone said it was badly written rubbish. Eventually read it. It's badly written rubbish! Still kind of entertaining though.

TheAmpersand: Not all nerds are the same. Lots of people assume that all nerds are into swords-and-sorcery stuff, but I'm a I'm a 20th/21st century punk rock/complicated novel/noisy techno nerd type. I actually considered reading this one way back in the day before the movies came out, but I eventually gave the box set I bought away. Life is just too short to plow through a thousand pages of whatever's going on with the hobbits and elves and orcs of Middle Earth. I've got other books to read and other tunes to blast. In case you're wondering, I enjoyed the movies very much. But they were really enough for me.

Lilirose_: I know, I know, it's a masterpiece and all that, but I simply cannot find in me the strenght to start this book after a failed attempt when I was 17 (now I'm 42).

mistressofmuses: As a kid, there was an attempt made to not allow me to read any other fantasy novels until I'd read Lord of the Rings. (I recognize that this was out of a desire for me to read some really excellent work, to understand where so many genre standards originated... but at the time it turned into "well, now I'm not gonna.") I have read the trilogy now, and I'm glad that I have, but it took a while to get over it feeling like a chore I'd been assigned.

msjudy: I'm uncomfortable with competition and the whole premise of 'win or die' puts me off completely. There are so many other books to read. I can do without this series.

Lilirose_: The whole "battle royale" concept doesn't appeal to me, it gives me anxiety; furthermore now with the movies and the global success I feel like I know the story anyway

namfos: Very popular among the professional HR types; caused nothing but mischief among fellow employees at the county government where I worked.

themulhern: Someone at my workplace offered to send it to me by mail during the derangements of 2020, when it was being pushed on everybody. This never happened, and I have never felt any subsequent wish to read it. I think I read a review at the time: https://www.city-journal.org/article/black-fragility

clipper12: I avoided it because the title appears to seek to spark anger rather than draw people in for a meaningful discussion about race.

themulhern: It was in my parents library and I read part of it when I was a child and it freaked me out. Then, in middle school, we were forced to read an excerpt, and it freaked me out again. There were rats, I think. That was a crazy pedagogical decision! I have held that course, avoiding that book, although I've read other things by Orwell and I love his essay "Politics and the English Language".

Yuki-Onna: I detest dystopian books.

BonnieJune54: People I knew loved it. I read it years later because I was reading books off a list of America’s favorite books. Meh

cindra-cat: nice movie - don't want to read the story

mariesthilaire: Saw the movie and wasn't impressed. Still haven't read the book.

Siphumelele: I have watched a movie based on this book, as much as it was a good movie I would love the story in depth. Thank you.

Yuki-Onna: I do not like dystopian, and being made to read The Handmaid's Tale as required reading was enough for me, thank you.

apothecarytales: The Handmaid's Tale taught me that I'm not a dystopian fan. I wasn't willing to risk trying this one.

merrystar: This book was recommended to me quite frequently for awhile, but the summaries I read just did not appeal to me. I did eventually give it a try, but I disliked it and stopped reading after a chapter or two.

vwinsloe: Hard to get by the domestic violence for me.

slimikin: I enjoy romances with time travel elements, but this series has always struck me as more painful drama than romantic adventure.

oceancat: i thought i knew from pop culture what this book was about- horror with a creepy dark romance, no thank you. but it turns out they added that for the movies and the book is horror and the power of friendship and working together, no dark romance at all. i loved it.

paulmdh: I first read this in 1979 after seeing John Badham's movie which, though excellently cast, changed several of the characters - even swapping two of them around for no apparent reason. The book was a revelation. I loved it for its epistolary narrative and its central message.

mistressofmuses: This book kept lingering toward the bottom of my TBR. A lot of people loved it, and I suspected that I would, but the way fans tried to explain it turned me off every time. (I love lesbian necromancers in space, but when that becomes the only thing anyone is saying, it started to feel like that meant it didn't have anything else to it.) Finally read it with my younger sibling, and I absolutely loved it! Wish that the type of hype hadn't turned me off for so long.

EMS_24: The cover doesn't help to try

BookDoc16: I prefer to read "nonfiction" books that really ARE nonfiction, not some clown's bid for money and popularity.

MicheleWhis: Just not that interested in drugs.

msoul13: The infamous 1986 train-automobile collision happened near where my mother grew up. Everyone who lives there thinks this guy is an @$$hole. Also, in high school I saw a classmate I hated carrying this book around. This was after the interview on "Oprah" so I wondered why the heck she would still be interested??!

foggidawn: The more I hear about Lovecraft, the less I want to read his works.

Cecrow: I read Joyce up to Ulysses, but turned back from this final step. I believe I could read the whole thing and it would not form any clearer an impression on me than it does right now.

okeres: loved Ulysses but i've let the rep of this one deter me... so far

MicheleWhis: I read Ulysses.

perennialreader: I am not an Oz fan, I only read this because my book group chose it. Loved it!

slimikin: I think if I liked The Wizard of Oz more, I'd want to read this, but I'm only a little curious about how that story might be retold, and there are other ways to access Maguire's particular reinvention than reading the book.

cindra-cat: Grew up on the classic - don't want a wrench in the story that I know

EerierIdyllMeme: On a book pocast I listen to, someone mentioned disliking this book. They said they liked it until basically the last page which ruined it, but didn't want to give spoilers in explaining why. So now I'm really curious what could ruin a book in the last page, but I don't want to read something just to find out why one wouldn't like it. Actually I don't even remember for sure it was this Patchett novel.

namfos: I like the movie. Why bother reading this?

TheAmpersand: This one could stand in for any number of Palahniuk's books. Some authors of fiction are more interested in systems than people. Some great writers have been notorious misanthropes. But everything I've read about Chuckie Fightclub's books seems to suggest that he's utterly uninterested in what goes on inside of people. Liking this guy seems to correlate with mild sociopathy or just general jerkitude: I've gone out of my way to avoid people who've declared themselves big fans of his. There are so many good books out there, and I've only got so much time. I'm not picking any of these up.

aprille: When I first picked it up there was something about the first three chapters that just seemed clumsy.

missizicks: I had loved The Secret History but not got on as well with The Little Friend, so I resisted buying The Goldfinch. When I eventually gave in, it sat unread for a decade. I think I was scared to invest time reading something so long if it wasn't going to be great. I read it this year and whipped through it because, guess what, it is great.

auntdodi: I plan to read it. I just never seem to have the emotional bandwidth to start an epic novel these days. I like westerns, have heard great things about it. I just can’t seem to commit to starting it.

vwinsloe: I'm not a fan of Westerns as a genre. I know that McMurty tried very hard to avoid certain tropes, but I don't think that he succeeded. A good yarn, but not for me.

aprille: I was afraid it would be too violent and put off reading it for years. When I did read it I loved it.

Cecrow: I think I'll just absorb its message about criminal punishment without subjecting myself to the demonstration.

gypsysmom: I just don't get the fascination with vampires but I thought this seminal work might change my mind. It didn't.

paulmdh: I had tried starting on this several times but never got further than a few pages. The breakthrough came when I was without a car for a few weeks and read the book on the train to and from work. Since then, it has become a firm favourite

hey_judy: In high school, the synopsis didn’t sound great and I read the first few pages and stopped. I finished it many years later and don’t see why people like it so much.

foggidawn: A victim of its own popularity. A friend of mine refers to it as Heckin' Crawdads -- she orders adult fiction for a library system, and had to reorder this so many times.

auntdodi: When I reread Little Women I feel curiosity, but think I wouldn’t actually enjoy reading it.

Cecrow: It keeps popping up on lists of must-read classics, which I'm generally disposed to complete, but this title is always a pass for me. I'd be unable to tolerate the moralizing.

vroni: After watching the movie (the 1984 one) debated reading it, decided against. Tried years later and gave up very soon.

perennialreader: It was in my husband's library when we married and it didn't appeal to me. Still doesn't.

missizicks: I received this as a Xmas present and its cover, the mass of celebrity and author endorsements and the blurb made me think I would hate it. How wrong I was.

hey_judy: Over saturation of the cover. I was tired of seeing it everywhere. Then I read a review about how corny and unrealistic it was and am put off ever reading it. (I have been burned by hype before)

foggidawn: Another victim of its own popularity.

themulhern: This was one of the two books pushed on people most during the derangements of 2020. It's still being pushed, in various derivative editions. I read this review, I'm sure: https://www.city-journal.org/article/how-to-be-an-anti-intellectual

Jim.Shine: I'd enjoyed Harry Potter but had no interest in JK Rowling's books for adults, until the mob came for her. Bought this out of a kind of solidarity, and the series is now one of my favourites. Thanks, mob!

msoul13: I'm not into this genre and I don't feel like giving JKR any more of my money.

gypsysmom: I had to read Victory by Conrad in high school and disliked it so much that I resisted reading any others for decades.

msjudy: I'm grateful to Dave Pilkey. My son was not the only boy who overcame a reluctance to read with these books. But, not being an 8 year old boy I drew the line on reading them aloud.

BonnieJune54: My doctor recommended for better eating habits. It took a couple years to read it. Jury is still out on if it will help.

BonnieJune54: There was a poster in the school library of the cover. I read it as an adult as part of my remedial science fiction phase.

msoul13: I remember reading this in 4th Grade so I could take the Accelerated Reader (AR) Test and get points to spend at the prize box at my school's library. It was a bit above my reading level at the time and I failed the test! I was so upset that I told myself I would never read the book again, until my teacher assigned it the next year. I gave it another chance (because I had to!) and it ended up being one of my all-time favorite books.

mlfhlibrarian: The world and his wife seemed to be reading this when published. Popularity puts me off. Did eventually read it many years later…and read all his books within a month!

CarltonC: This was a set book in English, and I just couldn’t empathise with it, or it was too anthropomorphic, or something.

namfos: Fiction or non-fiction, I've no interest in any works about the JFK assassination. I associate it with the last time I saw my father before he succumbed to pancreatic cancer in December 1963.

book58lover: I remember it all too well. I was in 7th grade in Catholic school and you can imagine the nun's announcement that day. Hard to relive.

Bookmarque: Heard so much, all of it good, but as sci fi isn't my go-to genre I put it off. Glad I eventually read it and the rest of the series.

oceancat: it’s my favorite book *now* but my friend tried to get me to read it for ages before i gave in. i just didn’t like the cover!

skid0612: Recommended by people I respect, I have attempted to read this novel multiple times, never getting past page 45. It is simply awful.

slimikin: On the one hand, there's my brother. His taste is reliably similar to mine, so his disgust for this book holds weight. But on the other hand, there's the Alan Rickman READ poster on my wall, where he is gently smiling over the top of this book, as if hinting at the delights within. The stalemate continues.

okeres: never wanted to read it but did eventually do so after reading Melville's Bartleby. Loved the book, though admittedly skimmed over some hunting descr

igorken: My elementary school religious education class did just about everything to dissuade me from ever reading the bible. I don't doubt there are lots of things in our culture I would better understand if I'd actually read it (and not just seconday sources), though I'm not sure I'll ever actually be able to find the motivaton to do so.

slimikin: I want to read this. I've heard good things. It's just long. And I know it's going to be convoluted and weird, and I'm going to have to sustain my enthusiasm for that convoluted weirdness while I sloooooowly work my way through the whole thing. I'll get around to this eventually. Maybe.

Cecrow: I saw Oprah's movie version and was so confused/dismayed, I had no wish to read the novel. Decades later I finally have, and now I'm wanting more Morrison in my life.

elorin: Required reading for high school AP English, but I hated it. I did eventually finish it.

namfos: Oh, how I hated reading this book in 10th grade. Fifty-odd years later I decided to reread it in 2025. And I actually enjoyed it!

foggidawn: One of my mother's favorite classics. She recommended it to me when I was a teenager. So, of course, I never read it.

baaic: Not so much reluctance to start, but reluctance to finish. I think it took me more than a decade to finish this series. I just kept putting it down and would then resist picking it back up again. Glad I finished it though.

BonnieJune54: I couldn’t get through it in school. I read it as an adult.

EGBERTINA: If only she had left it at Scotland and time travel and left out all the sex and rape. Will never read these.

EerierIdyllMeme: I am lying. I have never resisted reading this book, because it is amazing. I just thought it would be a funny choice because the whole time Grover is telling you not to. If you don't get what I'm talking about, you should read it. Despite what Grover tells you.

Cecrow: There's a monster at the end. Why would anybody read this??

JalenV: It wasn't one of the books I had to read for a class, so I didn't bother. A few years ago I decided to listen to classic novels from my local libraries' audio collection. I checked it out and actually enjoyed it.

hey_judy: I usually stay away from historical fictions because I want the truth, especially about WWII and other tragic events. Also, the hype was off-putting. HOWEVER, I loved this book and am now a Kristin Hannah fan. (except The Great Alone) The Women is a fascinating book.

mariesthilaire: So many people recommended it, but I disliked the MC/didn't buy the premise so DNF. Still resisting.

Bookmarque: It came out in 2004, was huge, read it in 2020. Can't remember it at all. Gave it 3.5 stars so it wasn't horrible. I guess.

missizicks: Woolf is a literary giant that I struggle with. I enjoyed Orlando and read Mrs Dalloway shortly afterwards, but hated it viscerally. To the Lighthouse was recommended to me as something I might enjoy more. It took a while for me to think I would read it. When I did, I hated it almost as much as Mrs Dalloway.

EMS_24: Too much (heroic?) war

Tess_W: probably a biased, sanitized version of politics

Cecrow: I'm curious about Sade and this is his best known work, but something tells me I should keep resisting.

gmathis: I'm sorry. I've tried. Multiple times. Just can't.

Lilirose_: I was so sure that this wasn't the book for me... fortunately I was wrong and when I finally read it a couple of years ago I really enjoyed it.

msjudy: I tried. I really tried several times, but I never managed more than 300 pages. It was not the excellent writing that put me off. I just didn't want to spend that much time with people that I didn't like. I gave myself permission to quit.

saskia17: We had a 2 volume Harvard classics copy of this novel that took me 12 years to read. I kept starting, stopping, and having to restart from the beginning. It solidified the fact that I'm not a Dickens fan.

Bookwomble: I couldn't find anything in the characters to sustain my interest. Beautiful writing, though.

paradoxosalpha: Couldn't live up to the hype from my friends. Didn't. But it was still a lark.

thesmellofbooks: I tried to read this when it had been out for a few years, as so many people were raving about it and I thought the subject matter was interesting. As a young person I had enjoyed many of her books, but when I started reading this she shrugged off any ethical considerations of an adulterous relationship (not consented to by the third-party) by saying that they had been lovers in a previous life and that made it all okay. The fact that she didn't give a toss about the other person really pissed me off so I stopped reading the book.

baaic: Two times difficulty starting, two times difficulty getting more than a quarter into it.

vroni: Three family members cried while reading the book. No, thank you, something more upbeat please.

Jim.Shine: I've read everything in this collection except the unfinished title story. Every few years I make a start and then get filled with unbearable sadness that there's no more Douglas Adams.

AbigailAdams26: We had the Ace Books mass market paperback edition of this in my childhood home, and I resisted reading it for a few years, because I thought the cover was cheesy. Then I read it, and it became a lifelong favorite.

themulhern: There was a lot of social pressure to read that book at one time. I can not imagine what made me try it anyway, but it turned out to be a great book, and I read several more by that author.

dara85: Everyone said this was so good. I am not much of fantasy reader, so I did not think I wanted to read it. Then a friend gave me a copy and it sat on my shelf for about a year. I finally read it and loved it.

gypsysmom: I did not like Disgrace by this author but someone online suggested I read this book and it was better.

bjappleg8: Even though I'm a big fan of mysteries, I resisted Dick Francis for years because of the stylized horses on the covers - yes, I judged these books by their covers! Once I broke down and read my first, I was instantly a fan & read my way through his entire oeuvre (but spare me the books written by his son in his name).

namfos: This has been promoted to me by fellow fly fishers as a "must read" on the order of Norman MacLean's A River Runs Through It. I've tried to read this 4 times, but I just don't get it. As for giving it another try, "what's the point?"

merrystar: The combination of the title and the older yellow cover really creeped me out as a child and I refused to read this, even though I enjoyed other books by the author.

elorin: I have tried to read this tome multiple times and can never get more than 50 pages in.

clipper12: I tried reading it, but it felt like it was written by a drunk toddler. Never again.

dara85: I read a book by this author and really liked it. I got a copy of this and the longer I had it the more I was sure I did not want to read it. It was a long book. I belong to a book club where someone else picks a book from your TBR list and you have to read it. Someone picked this for me. I finally read it and it was long, and the characters were not likeable. It also took a long time to get to the point of the story. I would say it was okay. I was glad when I finished it.

elahrairah: loads of my friends read this book when we were kids but i never got round to it, wasn't avoiding it, just never got round to it. when i finally read it, as an adult, i discovered that it made no sense and was dull.

missizicks: References to this popped up in other books I read. Well-read people said I should read it. I stubbornly refused. Then I watched A Cock and Bull Story and decided that I would read it. It took me three attempts to get into it, twice putting it back on the shelf after only a dozen or so pages. On my third attempt I loved it. I don't know what changed.

paradoxosalpha: I kept seeing Peters' Egyptological titles and cover art, and then rejecting them because I wasn't looking for mystery novels. But they're really fun mystery novels!

msjudy: I resisted all of the books in this series. They were sometimes useful to the kindergarten teacher, but I can't stand the illustrations or the contrived moral lessons. I know I'm in a minority in my personal distaste.