“particularly with all of the nonfiction digressions about whaling”
Double particularly the nonfiction digressions resolving the debate in favor of the argument that whales are fish.
Wolf Hall is pretty good as an audio book. No issue with quotation marks.
I feel like an uncultured bozo because I came here to rant about the first Twilight book, but you all are ragging on much classier tomes.
^^ Well, the title does say “bestselling book,” and since Moby Dick was published in 1851, it may no longer qualify… (and I say this as someone who was complaining about James Patterson.)
I agree with you about Twilight. I never read it until I took an “Adolescent Literature” class at a local university. The whole class hated it, including the instructor. Team Edward? Team Jacob? How about Team Neither? (Or Team Throw It?)
Oh my, I did like the twilight series. I also brought first book to library Bookclub. We never had so many college kids come to a meeting. I did background on the author, how her Mormon beliefs influenced virginity on marriage. We compared to Romeo and Juliet , West Side , and other classics. I honestly thought it was important for mothers and grandparents to know what their teens were reading. We discussed vampires vs wizards.
I know a lot of people love Wuthering Heights, but I have never been able to get through it. This lack of seeing it through to the end has haunted me for the past 30 years, because I generally LOVE to read. I never finished it when I was a senior in high school and I couldn’t get into as a midlife adult. Maybe I should try again. sigh
@3rdXsTheCharm, I’m with you, and I finished it. Just Google the end and save yourself the time. 
“I agree with you about Twilight. I never read it until I took an “Adolescent Literature” class at a local university.”
Can Twilight really be considered “literature”? 
I tried reading Wuthering Heights as a teen and gave up pretty quickly. I recently watched the miniseries as I’m a big Tom Hardy fan and, boy, the storyline is as sucky as I remembered. I felt like shaking all the characters. They are all so mopey and melodramatic. @3rdXsTheCharm I wouldn’t try again. If you feel you must be exposed to it, watch the series. At least you can get Tom Hardy eye candy.
I’m confused @doschicos . Thomas Hardy didn’t write Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte* did. Maybe that’s why you didn’t like the book. I’m a big Hardy fan too, as attested upthread.
- I can't figure out how to put an umlaut over the "e" in Bronte. Ach.
@whatisyourquest Tom Hardy (handsome, contemporary actor) not Thomas Hardy (old, dead writer who wasn’t eye candy). Both english, though. 
Ah! I get it now. Ha. I like Tom Hardy (the actor) too, especially in Legend and Lawless. Thomas Hardy (the writer) though could be considered eye candy, if one considers twirled mustaches really attractive
Not really a twirled mustache fan but I’m sure Tom Hardy could pull off that look well, too. He came close in Bronson.
I find the easiest way to put an umlaut in something is to go to google and then copy past the word into my post.
Brontë 
Töm Härdy.
Hey, it works! Thanks, @mathmom.
@doschicos - I certainly didn’t consider it literature! But “Twilight” was/is a big teen phenomenon, and the class was a survey of adolescent lit for those who were planning to teach English in the secondary schools.
Actually, it was a great class, and I read some really good books. It was the first time I read any Neil Gaiman, and now his “The Graveyard Book” is one of my favorites.
Also, the words of Moby Dick are what make it great.
I have one to add to the list. Not sure if it was a best seller, but it was long listed for the Man Booker prize this year. Called “Reservoir 13” – I felt completely conned by the end (and after finishing went and read online reviews, I was not the only one). Lyrical prose, but – argh. The ending. I would have quit halfway through had I known. I think I literally threw it on the floor next to the bed when I finished it last night.
I took Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah out of the library recently, primarily because the two best friends in the book are exactly my age, and it progresses through the early 1970s to today. Or I should say “inches through.” It is so slow, repetitive and predictable, I know I’m not going to waste my time finishing it.
When my daughter was little, she was given a lovely Reading Rainbow retelling of the Swan Lake story. I read it to her before bedtime. We got to the end. She looked up at me, shocked and dismayed: “They DIED? You read me a story where they DIED? That’s a terrible story! I hate this story!” She was very mad at me. She didn’t throw the book across the room, but she refused to touch it for years afterwards. The moral here: gauge your child’s maturity level even with Reading Rainbow classics!
^My kids and I have talked about why kids books start getting overwhelmingly depressing at a certain reading level (4th-6th grade??). I get that kids need to start learning that the world isn’t all unicorns and butterflies at some point, but man, a lot of them (and many of the classics) go a bit overboard. The Yearling gets my vote for the most unnecessarily sad book for children. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/74185.The_Saddest_Children_s_Books