Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy - Tried it twice. It starts off well, but then just goes way up its own arse.
Dune, by Frank Herbert - I have no idea what all the fuss is about with this one. It’s just a dull, dull book to me.
Hyperion. I started it on paper several years ago, got a couple of chapters in, and just didn’t pick it up again. Then I tried it on audiobook while walking the dog. I got about a third of the way in, and just couldn’t maintain the interest to keep going.
I don’t necessarily subscribe to Brotman’s Law
but if nothing draws me in during the first three chapters, I find it difficult to force myself to keep going in hopes that something will in the next three.
It doesn’t always have to be a gripping page-turner, but there has to be something.
Regards,
Shodan
Until I Find You-Irving
Huge fan of John Irving, read everything else, some multiple times, cannot get into this one
I attempted to start Game of Thrones three times before the TV series began and had a hard time with it. The names and multiple characters were hard to keep straight so each time I gave up. I have watched every episode of the series and know all the characters now but feel like I don’t need to read the books anymore (even though I know they are different and contain more).
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It’s not that I don’t find it interesting, it’s just depressing, and I can’t ever make it more than about halfway through before I set it down.
Dune is an honorable mention for me. On my second try, I forced myself to see it through to the end. Looking back, I don’t know why I did that; it didn’t take for me. I even got about 10 or 15 pages into the second book before I thought “why am I torturing myself like this?”
Doctor Zhivago.
When I pick up my copy of that book, I know it is time to head to the library.
OTOH, for me I go with what my English professor said: Read 100 pages before making up your mind to quit. Gravity’s Rainbow took 200 pages (which is about the same percentage of pages of most other books) and was worth it.
House of Leaves. It’s a tough read. I swear I’ll get through it one of these days.
The Simarillion. I think I’ve tried four times.
Aw, let yourself off the hook.
Lord of the Rings was one for me, though I did finally get through it, and then years later, got through it again. I just don’t like it either, Lsura!
I quit Heart of Darkness just a few pages from the end, when I realized nothing could redeem it and I’d wasted too much time already.
If I ever feel any guilt about laying a book aside, I say to myself, “I’m just not* ready* for this yet.” And it’s true. 
Gone with the Wind. I really like the opening, before the war, when everything is happy and full of promise, but I can’t seem to get past that part.
This.
I was 15 when I read “Fellowship”. I liked it at the time, but the other Fellowship novels were not available to me (1965). I read “The Hobbit” and liked it, but I really wanted to know what happened to the Fellowship.
Finally, sometime in 1966 or '67, the other two books were published, and I bought them as soon as I could.
But in the interim, something had changed inside me. I started reading “The Two Towers”, and I just could not stand that every other page was some song that someone just had to sing for the others. I remember thinking, “If there’s another song, I’m outa here!” I turned the page, saw the song and never read another word of that again.
Pretty much put me off of all fantasy, too.
The Harry Potter books, well one of them. Just could not do it and I felt bad about it at the time as I was 13 aND wondered what was wrong with me when most all kids loved it, even the grown ups?
For me, it’s One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Now, it’s not necessarily a case of boredom or anything like that – it’s a beautiful book, so much as I’ve read of it. But the problem was that I’d read two hundred pages in a couple of sittings and then put the book down for a week or two, being distracted by life and all that, and then forget or get confused by all the family names/lineages, that I’d just give up.
Until I Find You - John Irving - Took two tries, the second time I got sucked in.
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand - Took two tries but after the second try I finished it and have read it since
The Baroque Cycle books by Neal Stephenson - Good god are these dense and meandering and ion need of an editor. I finally finished all three after having to try each multiple times.
Another vote for Lord of the Rings. I’ve started it three or four times, I get a little further every time, but I never get even close to halfway.
Are you kidding? It really picks up around dasein!
Okay…no it doesn’t. I bailed on it too.
This one is mine…
In Spanish.
The following is sacrilege.
**Mort **by Terry Pratchett
I keep thinking Discworld is right up my alley, but I keep getting stalled. I also read Colour of Magic all the way through, though.