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CommentAuthorbrittanica
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
i am so going to get kicked out of here for saying this, but...
neuromancer- william gibson.
i've tried three times, but the farthest i've made it is half-way. something about it confuses me, and i don't get confused when i read that often. i just feel like i've been thrown into the universe of the book without any explanation at all.
i do plan on trying some of his other stuff though; maybe it's just a fluke. -
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Lord of the Rings I did make it through, but it was a task. When I saw the first film there was much talk of 'they left out Tom Bombadil!'. When I saw the last film there was a lot of 'I can't believe they left out The Scourging of the Shire!'. Then I read the books, and it was immediately obvious why they had done both. I get the impression that people who complained about those things being left out did so mainly just to show that they had read the books before the films came out. Seriously, I mean, the whole book is an excercise in how long it is possible to drag out a story with useless side-stories and overlong endings (case in point, when the Hobbit's ponies run away, we get told their life story after that point). Tom Bombadil is annoying, I can see why they left him out. The Scourging of the Shire... I mean, when you've followed the characters on an epic journey to cast the most powerful object in existence into a pit of molten evil, it's a bit crap to then follow them as they go home to encounter a band of mildly troublesome 'ruffians'.
Dan Brown is bad, but I had no trouble finishing The Da Vinci Code. I was looking for the phrase 'the famous man looked at the red cup', which isn't there, but there were plenty of other fine examples of bad writing. The English character was pretty excruciating though.
I think the thing that sums up Ayn Rand for me is that in Dirty Dancing, a copy of The Fountainhead is used as shorthand for 'this character is a very nasty person'. From what I've read about Ayn Rand I'm inclined to agree. -
I think the book I had the most trouble with was The Last of the Mohicans. I read it in high school for a book report, and I remember frequently picking it up having no clue what happened the last time I tried reading it.
I also agree with the Dune Prequels. I stopped halfway into the first one and never looked back. -
@heil_brittanica
I actually know what you mean about Neuromancer. The first time I attempted it I gave up, I tried again years later and got through it, but it was still pretty difficult. You're right, it's like you're just thrown into it with no explanation. And it's not just the beginning of the book, there'll be scenes where suddenly everyone is on a ship or somewhere else and you feel like you've missed something completely. I would like to read it again some time though. -
@ ScottS - Strange & Norrell starts veerry slow, I'll grant you, but it really picks up.
@ Greg SBB - I'm glad someone else couldn't read On the Road! I tried reading it while actually on the road and even that couldn't persuade me to finish it .. -
Well, let's see.
How about <em>A Farewell to Arms</em> by Hemingway.
Always hated the man's writing, got about half way through it, rented the movie (Was for a class and am still ashamed of it to this day) and found that to be utterly intolerable as well.
<em>The Scarlet Letter</em> had the same effect on me as well, but I knew well enough to stay clear of the film and winged the test on the material. -
"Gravity's Rainbow" is the only book I've ever started and not been able to finish. I've read plenty of BAD books that I didn't WANT to finish (and in fact didn't), but that's the only one I've simply been UNABLE to get all the way through.
It remains on my bedside table, beneath a pile of other books yet-to-be-read, taunting me.
Someday Pynchon, I'll beat you. Someday... -
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CommentAuthoralwayscrashing
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
I managed On The Road fine but I've had three attempts at Desolation Angels so far.
I think it is more a state of mind thing than anything with me, I can't read Kerouac unless I am in the mood to go along with him.
I also cannot physically read The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice, despite enjoying the earlier novels. For some reason when I came to that one my eyes just tried to dig through my frontal lobe to escape. Rather annoying as I had already bought about four books ahead in the series by this point.
Another one I have trouble with is some old Art History texts I have to read for my university course. Giovanni Belori and William Hogarth are two of the main offenders. I have to follow with my finger and read outloud to myself to force my brain to concentrate and take it in. -
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I was the same when I first read Neuromancer, the second time around I got it more. On The Road, I gave up half way once and tried again later. I remember starting again and thinking, "think of it like a journal". Still a bit disappointed when I finished, and I dont know if I'll ever read it again though.
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I could never get very far into Confederacy of Dunces without getting angry and impatient.
I had a similar problem with the first half of Fellowship of the Rings. And Tom Bambidil. Christ. Save me, please. However other portions of the books I find completely stunning.
Here's one that might upset some people. Tried three times to read The Golden Compass. I just couldn't get into it. It's some lovely writing, and it's an interesting world.
And I just didn't care at all about any of it.
It's an emotional response, we can't always control these things. -
At least once a year I get it into my head I should read 'Ulysses' by James Joyce. I have never managed to get past page nine.
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CommentAuthorradicaldoubt
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
Dune. I just couldn't do it. -
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CommentAuthorRootfireember
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
I keep on working on Moby Dick, putting it down for months before reading a few pages and dropping it again. I seem to make most progress when I imagine it as a homo-erotic tale of love on the high seas, what with all the 'mates', but even that amusement doesn't last long. -
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Moby Dick is a hard one for me, too. And I can't stand anything by any of the Bronte sisters. Wuthering Heights made me want to claw my damn eyes out.
I tried Jonathan Nasem's The World On Blood a few months back, tossed it, and tried again. Gave up a few weeks later.
I'll try again in a few months, I'm sure. Maybe even finish it eventually. -
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CommentAuthorCorey Waits
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
I choked my way through Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude and wished I hadn't bothered, but otherwise a few books I'm struggling with:
Schismatrix Plus - A few chapters in and it just hasn't hooked me yet. I don't know what the universe is all about yet and I don't know how many more pages I'm going to have to read before I find out...
Infinite Jest - Parts of it are fucking brilliant, but on the whole it's written too obliquely for me to stick with. It would also help if the Endnotes were footnotes instead as I hate having to constantly flick between where I'm at and the back of the book, and usually lose whatever flow I'd managed to get up to that point.
Underworld (Don De Lilo) - It's just a big ass book. Probably got a quarter of the way through it and put it down so I could read something else a little easier and then get back to it... Still haven't gotten back to it. -
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CommentAuthorMagicSword!
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
In the past I couldn't get through on the road too, but I tried it about 12 years ago so I should give it another bash.
At the moment I find I can get through anything, because I'm living in Japan and I've got to be reading something and beggars can't be choosers. So basically I'm often inheriting books that I don't have much interest in. I just burned through Lee Child's The Visitor which was an unimaginably wretched book but I still finished it, next up: The Elegant Universe.
Oh also I couldn't finish Dianetics. I tried on a whim because we had a copy of mysterious provenance lying around, but it was just too hokey. Kinda like one of my friends who couldn't finish The Bible because it was too preachy. -
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CommentAuthorAtomicSloth
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
The Bourne Identity.. Not so much that I couldnt get through it, it just had EXACTLY THE SAME plot as the two other Robert Ludlum books I'd read so I just gave up a quarter in.
I very nearly finished A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. Like a 30 pages left to read but I just can't make myself. I couldnt even tell you what happens in it now..
Also I tried to read the Ghost In The Shell manga.. Had no idea what was going on there.
Oh and the first (or maybe it was a prequal) Foundation book my Asimov, but I blame that on trying to read it off the computer. -
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CommentAuthorsybil.dysobedience
- CommentTimeMar 4th 2008
Shortest book ever I can't seem to finish:
Atom by Steve Aylett
It's less than 150 pages, but I keep putting it down. I loved his other books Slaughtermatic and Shamanspace, but my attention seems to wander with this one. -
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Those of you that can't get through Neuromancer I feel your pain, I can't get through Waste Lands (y'know, Tark Tower 3). I stopped caring about Stephen KIng, so no big loss to me.
One of these days I'll finally get around to Moby Dick. -
i got through wastelands and enjoyed it -- it was the next one that derailed me: Wizard & Glass. The one after that -- Wolves Of The Calla is a slight return to form but is basically The Magnificent 7 recast. I am kind of jammed on that one and I know that something of that is due to the fact that there is one thing I am dreading about the last book and that is a certain someone appearing in it. I ate up the first 3 but the shadow being cast by the last book is a real block.