I'm surprised anyone had an allergic reaction to Of Mice and Men. Or Zen for that matter.
Two books I remember not finishing. The Crow Road by Iain 'whatever' Banks first. But the prize winner must be The Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock. How that tripe gets a foreword by Lord Rees is beyond me. My problem is not with the science though, I'm a fully paid up climate change believer, and as such this book should have been easy for me to digest. But the Lovelock-as-prophet theme, and the earth as a religion thing fully switched me off. If the book is a crusade to convert people to believers it wont work, it'll alienate people, as many people including me gag on any religious aping ideas or themes. Some of the images are laughable too – lifeboat earth my arse.
And then, to top it off, Richard Branson gifts Lovelock a flight into space. Can't believe he accepts that. Over consumption of resources with a capital O, C, and R.