The top-ten books that go unfinished by readers

dante76 · Post by **dante76** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:43 pm

"english public buy booker award winners - disappointed by lack of titties, fighting and lads named "-azza" was what a wanted this topic to be called but theres a limit.

quote:
The fourth Harry Potter novel and David Beckham's autobiography are among the books least likely to be finished by Britons, according to a survey.

Booker winner Vernon God Little was the least-finished fiction title, followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Autobiographies by David Blunkett, Bill Clinton and David Beckham topped the non-fiction unfinished list.

A Teletext survey of 4,000 Britons found that almost half of the books they bought remained unfinished.

Some 35% of those who bought or borrowed Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre's story of a US high school massacre, admitted not finishing it.

The figure was 32% for the fourth instalment in the Harry Potter series, while 28% said the same for James Joyce's Ulysses, third on the list.

The fiction top 10 also included Louis De Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin (27%), made into a film starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz.

Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, over which a Muslim fatwa was issued ordering the writer's execution, was unfinished by 21%.

On the non-fiction list, former home secretary Blunkett's The Blunkett Tapes was too much for 35% of readers, followed by Clinton's My Life (30%) and Beckham's My Side (27%).

The average Briton spent more than Â£4,000 on books during their lifetime, the survey found.

Less than a quarter of people found time to read every day, with 48% saying they were too tired.

The top ten unfinished fiction titles are:

1 Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
2 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
3 Ulysses, James Joyce
4 Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
5 Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
6 The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
7 The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
8 War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
9 The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
10 Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Personally:

1 Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre not read
2 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling not read
3 Ulysses, James Joyce not read
4 Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres not read
5 Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell not read
6 The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie not read
7 The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho read
8 War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy read
9 The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy not read
10 Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky read

meu02136 · Post by **meu02136** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:45 pm

Personally, The Brave Little Tailor is my favourite. He managed to beat 2 giants. How cool is that?!

MikeHaggar · Post by **MikeHaggar** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:45 pm

Same as my not read list then.

Chinzon · Post by **Chinzon** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:15 pm

meu02136 wrote:Personally, The Brave Little Tailor is my favourite. He managed to beat 2 giants. How cool is that?!

Having recently played Shadow of the Colossus, not very

ZappyMcZap · Post by **ZappyMcZap** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:16 pm

I finished Vernon God Little... it's great!

SwitchThe Munky · Post by **SwitchThe Munky** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:22 pm

ZappyMcZap wrote:I finished Vernon God Little... it's great!

I loved that book, total cliffhanger all the way to the end, did you get round to his new book, Ludmilla's Broken English, it wasn't as good. Look into it if you were a big fan of Vernon.

Bobble · Post by **Bobble** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:22 pm

I think the thing about that list of books is that they're either books people think they "should" read or books that have been nominated for or won literary awards.

I consider myself to be well read but the only book that is in that list that I have read is Ulysses though I do have War and Peace in the house and may actually get round to cracking it open one day...

The last book I bought and did not finish was Lionel Shriver's "We Need To Talk About Kevin". The lengthy descriptions of the title character as a baby were well-written so unfortunately they were just as excruciating to read as the situation would have been to live through. Picked up a Dean Koontz instead...

chixiethepixie · Post by **chixiethepixie** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:11 pm

One of the few books that ive left half read was one of tom clancys novels-it was so hard work to read mainly because i have no military knowledge and he is so detailed and indepth that im way outta my league

Also 'trainspotting' was really hard to read as its written as it is spoken in the film and about 10 pages in i was so peed off that i lobbed the book in the corner and never got any further

Im always on the lookout for good books as reading is a huge passion of mine so any recommendations please pm me with them

rumblecat · Post by **rumblecat** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:27 pm

Bobble wrote:The last book I bought and did not finish was Lionel Shriver's "We Need To Talk About Kevin". The lengthy descriptions of the title character as a baby were well-written so unfortunately they were just as excruciating to read as the situation would have been to live through.

Yeah, unfortunately the novel remained fairly one-note throughout, although the last two chapters picked up considerably. I read it on holiday, dobut I would have made it through if I hadn't been away.

*** MASSIVE SPOLIERS****

Turns out the husband she's writing to is dead, not divorced as the book leads you to think- a victim of their son, along with the daughter and new baby.

On a TV interview special about Kevin, he slags off his father and everyone else, but sticks up for his mother, saying it truly wasn't her fault.

She visits Kevin in jail and he seems a little less secure about himself. Although he professes to still hate his mother, she sense he wants her to keep visting him.

Uh... that was about it.

******* *****************

dangerboyjim · Post by **dangerboyjim** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:16 pm

The last book I couldn't read all the way through was Something happened by Joseph Heller. I'm a big fan of Catch 22, but this book bored me to tears, he just keeps going on and on about his sodding family and the guilt and the family. Arrgh!

If you want something a bit interesting to read get Carter beats the Devil. Amazing book, hard to put down and in places very funny.

ScotsWahey · Post by **ScotsWahey** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:12 am

Gaming and TV have ruined my attention span. So when I read a book I never get past chapter 3 regardless of how good it is. So pretty much every book I've picked up since 1999 has gone unfinished.

Bobble · Post by **Bobble** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:16 am

rumblecat wrote:
*** MASSIVE SPOLIERS****

Turns out the husband she's writing to is dead, not divorced as the book leads you to think- a victim of their son, along with the daughter and new baby.

I had worked out the husband was dead - I'd read another book (whose title I can't remember) that had the same 'letters to the dead' format.

rumblecat wrote: Uh... that was about it.

So I didn't miss much by bailing out then

radiofloyd · Post by **radiofloyd** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:50 pm

I've read the first 3 books of that list. To be honest i love reading. I've read for around an hour every night since i was about six or seven...or so.

Carling · Post by **Carling** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:59 pm

I slugged through Robert Jordan's 'Crossroads of Twilight' (book 10 of the Wheel of time). When I say slugged I mean fucking almost broke my eyes trying to get to the end. I'm never reading another book of his.

MikeHaggar · Post by **MikeHaggar** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:56 pm

Heh. I gave up after book 3 of Wheel of Time.

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The top-ten books that go unfinished by readers

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