Books you tried to finish but just can't

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Books you tried to finish but just can't

I got this idea from an email listing of articles I receive from LewRockwell.com. A link went to an article called Books readers could not finish. Here are the fiction and nonfiction lists for England given in the article:

Top ten books Britons cannot finish - fiction (% of readers)

1 Vernon God Little, D.B.C Pierre 35

2 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling 32

3 Ulysses, James Joyce 28

4 Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres 27

5 Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell 24

6 The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie 21

7 The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho 19

8 War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy 18

9 The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy 16

10 Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky 15

Top ten books Britons cannot finish (non-fiction)

1 The Blunkett Tapes, David Blunkett 35

2 My Life, Bill Clinton 30

3 My Side, David Beckham 27

4 Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Lynne Truss 26

5 Wild Swans, Jung Chang 23

6 Easy Way to Stop Smoking, Allen Carr 21

7 The Downing Street Years, Margaret Thatcher 18

8 I Can Make You Thin, Paul McKenna 17

9 Jade: My Autobiography, Jade Goody 15

10 Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?: And 114 Other Questions, Mick O'Hare 13

It might be fun to see which books OL members could not finish, despite trying hard to do so.

I'll start with The Holy Bible. God knows I have tried to read the full thing, but alas! I am a failure at it.

Some of it holds my attention and some parts are so unexpected that they are delightful. But some of the books in it are really, really boring. The public records type sections are killers. So are the building and ritual instructions. So are the Psalms and Proverbs. Also, I have specifically tried to get through Revelation many times, but in addition to getting bored, I have not been able to find how to do the imagery so that it works for me. When I try to imagine it real, some parts get too weird and it starts becoming a cartoon in my mind. If I go into symbolism, it starts coming off like a crossword puzzle, and that bores me.

I'll mention some other books later.

Anybody else can't finish a book?

Michael

[PalePower]

It disturbs my soul to ever leave a book unfinished - I feel guilty for weeks - unless it is a PARTICULARLY horrible book.

"Sometimes a Great Notion" by Ken Kesey.

?!??! No comment.

Other books are just so HORRIBLE that you HAVE to finish them, just out of a morbid fascination at the human race - you are boggled over how (1) someone could ever come up with this idea (if that's what it can be called) and think it's GOOD; (2) someone actually took ALL THAT EFFORT to write it; (3) a publisher thought it was good (?!) enough to publish; (4) readers actually bought it, liked, it and made a success; and, in this particularl astonishing case (5) it WON A PULITZER PRIZE?!

Worst book I have EVER read: "Rabbit is Rich" by John Updike.

*tries to explain, is overcome by a wave of nausea, runs to the bathroom to vomit for the next five hours*

WHY?!?!!

[mespie74]

The Lord of the Rings series. I got through the Fellowship of the Ring, but for some reason, I put The Two Towers down and didn't pick it up again. I might try again though, and I thought the movies were pretty good.

Michael, I've read through the entire Bible, mainly in school (I spent a little bit of time in seminary) but also on my own. I think the Law books (especially Leviticus and Numbers) are very difficult, partly because they repeat the same phrases over and over. I found it helpful to have a good commentary nearby when reading the prophetic books (Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel, etc.). The imagery is strange and a lot of it is based in ancient Near East culture.

Rokki

[Rich Engle]

"Clan of the Cave Bear"

Good, but too much description for me or something. Got me in a spot of trouble with (my) Kat, who loves the series. A book I liked but not enough for critical mass.

[Chris Grieb]

Moby Dick. I suspect a lot of people had trouble with that one.

[Laure]

I also couldn't finish the Lord of the Rings series or Moby Dick. I'll add Stranger in a Strange Land. I just couldn't get into it, though I think I've read some other Heinlein books.

[Dragonfly]

I had no problem with Moby Dick. The Lord of the Rings I wouldn't even open.

[Danneskjold]

I've finished Lord of the Rings and Stranger in a Strange Land. I like them both. Books I can't finish...all of that acclaimed Christian literature that is only acclaimed because it's Christian. I've tried, I really have. It just sucks.

[PalePower]

I've read LotR three times. I was OBSESSED with those books. When I was homeschooled I opted to stay home and hang out in LotR chatrooms, dissing Orli fangirls and playing miniscule-detail-trivia, instead of going to the mall with "real" people.

Now I'm obsessed with Atlas Shrugged and opt to stay home on Objectivist forums instead of going to the mall to hang out with "real" people. Big improvement, in my opinion!

I got through Stranger in a Strange Land, but it was kind of tough. I wasn't a big fan of the unnecessary dialect, all those "Uh-hunh Jubal"s. I've yet to read a sci-fi book I really like. The ones I've encountered, (Stranger among them, The Carpet Makers is another) all seem to be trying to make some really profound statement about life, which ends up either being really obvious or just totally retarded.

[Dragonfly]

Now you mention science fiction: I find nearly all science fiction completely unreadable, with a few exceptions. The older ones are Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and in the previous century Heinlein and John Wyndham. The latter two are completely different, but I've read every book of them and liked them all, although some of them are better than others. I like especially some of Wyndham's short stories, they have a kind of charm that I find irresistible, like the wistful Stitch in time.

[Reidy]

Everyone is citing novels. I've been off and on for about 10 years, currently on, with a book about Gothic cathedrals. I try to make allowances for the difficult subject matter, but I think with the best will I can muster that the author is a dull stylist addressing scholarly readers who think this is normal. Have to finish it now so that I can check out his subject matter onsite later this year.

One of the characters in Boys in the Band says "I've been trying to read Atlas Shrugged since about 1910."

Edited March 13, 2007 by Reidy

[Judith]

I've finished the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "Moby Dick" easily. "The Fellowship of the Ring" is one of my favorite books.

I've never been able to read anything by Victor Hugo. The prose is simply unreadable for me. In "Les Miserables" I get about as far as the bishop, and then I simply can't get any farther. I'm seriously motivated in view of Ayn Rand's raving about him. I've tried "Ninety-Three" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with similar results; just can't get far beyond the first few chapters.

I've never read far beyond the first few pages of Tolkien's "The Silmarillion".

I finally managed to read Lew Wallace's "Ben-Hur" all the way, but it was tough going. I love the movie, but again, that prose is nearly unreadable. Wallace's two-volume autobiography is similarly unreadable.

I tried reading "Jean-Christophe" after reading Nathaniel Branden's memoirs in which he said that it influenced him heavily, but couldn't get far beyond the beginning. Again, the prose....

Judith

[Dragonfly]

I've never been able to read anything by Victor Hugo. The prose is simply unreadable for me. In "Les Miserables" I get about as far as the bishop, and then I simply can't get any farther. I'm seriously motivated in view of Ayn Rand's raving about him. I've tried "Ninety-Three" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with similar results; just can't get far beyond the first few chapters.

Did you read them in a translation? I can imagine that this will make a difference.

[emb021]

The Lord of the Rings series. I got through the Fellowship of the Ring, but for some reason, I put The Two Towers down and didn't pick it up again. I might try again though, and I thought the movies were pretty good.

Hmmm. I read the trilogy and the Hobbit.

HOWEVER, what happened is I read the Hobbit straight thru. Started into Fellowship of the Rings and got about 2/3rds of the way and gave up. Later came back, finished it, got partway into Two Towers and again gave up. Again, came back, finished it, got partway into Return of King, and gave up. Again, came back and finished Return.

Bought Silmarilion. Tried to read it, never could get into it. I've bought many of the tie in books (other by Tolkein, the stuff his son edited, etc).

I keep meaning to re-read the trilogy, but haven't.

[BAMF]

Other books are just so HORRIBLE that you HAVE to finish them, just out of a morbid fascination at the human race - you are boggled over how (1) someone could ever come up with this idea (if that's what it can be called) and think it's GOOD; (2) someone actually took ALL THAT EFFORT to write it; (3) a publisher thought it was good (?!) enough to publish; (4) readers actually bought it, liked, it and made a success

That reminds me of quite a few songs.

One book I just couldn't finish was Vittorio the Vampire by Anne Rice. Also, the rest of her books...bleh. The worst book I've ever read is Animal Farm. As short as it is, I still didn't finish it. These are the only books that I just haven't been able to finish, but something tells me they're not really worth my time anyway.

One of my English teachers said that she couldn't get through The Fountainhead. Actually, I've had a few people tell me that they just couldn't make it through The Fountainhead and I've even had one freak out at the mere sight of the book. Those blasphemers!

EDIT: Here's another...The Satanic Bible. I read the first part of it easily, but then it started getting into rituals and other such bullshit, so I just stopped reading it.

Edited March 13, 2007 by Kori

[Judith]

I've never been able to read anything by Victor Hugo. The prose is simply unreadable for me. In "Les Miserables" I get about as far as the bishop, and then I simply can't get any farther. I'm seriously motivated in view of Ayn Rand's raving about him. I've tried "Ninety-Three" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with similar results; just can't get far beyond the first few chapters.

Did you read them in a translation? I can imagine that this will make a difference.

Yes, of course. I had eight years of French, but that's not enough to tackle Hugo in the original French.

Regarding the Tolkien trilogy, "The Two Towers" is definitely the slowest of the three books; much skimming might be called for if people are having trouble getting through it.

Judith

[Dragonfly]

Yes, of course. I had eight years of French, but that's not enough to tackle Hugo in the original French.

Eight years of French should be more than enough to read Hugo. His French isn't that difficult to read.

[PalePower]

I love Victor Hugo!! But I wouldn't say I obsess over him, as did Rand, though I get what she was talking about - his characters are pretty friggin awesome.

He's got great storylines, but they're all interspersed with this INSANE unnecessary essay-long descriptions, like in Hunchback describing the church and Paris. I've read Miserables, Hunchback, and The Toilers of the Sea - loved them all but they all had their difficult parts. Ironically, Toilers was my favorite and also the hardest to get through. There is - I'm completely serious - about 250-300 pages of USELESS prose in there, talking about the history and associations of octopi and little stone engravings and shit like that. But MY GOODNESS I cried at the end. It's worth the struggle. I skipped over a lot of the rambling at times.

Judith, I'd say his prose (in English - I'm not a French expert) just takes some getting used to. He has a very distinct, interesting, and effective style when you get past the occasional flowery-ness. Specifically, he'll stick in these very succinct, staccato, right-to-the-point sentences that kick all the previous run-ons in the face and reach into your chest to twist your heart around a couple times - almost like he's mocking his own style, showing what he's REALLY capable of. I'd definitely give it another go.

Kori, you didn't like Animal Farm!? Gasp! It's so fascinating!

[Judith]

Eight years of French should be more than enough to read Hugo. His French isn't that difficult to read.

Maybe, but that eight years was fourth through eleventh grade, none of it college level. I'm now middle-aged, and haven't used any of it since then. My vocabulary is nearly non-existent and I've forgotten most of the verb tenses. I have trouble struggling through the basic meaning of a technical instruction manual or a record sleeve in French now, let alone Hugo!

Judith

[Judith]

One of my English teachers said that she couldn't get through The Fountainhead. Actually, I've had a few people tell me that they just couldn't make it through The Fountainhead and I've even had one freak out at the mere sight of the book. Those blasphemers!

Funny how different different people's responses are. I find Rand's prose crystal clear and her books difficult to put down. I've heard people say similar things about "Atlas". I can't comprehend it.

Judith

[galtgulch]

My wife is in the book business. She is presently the President of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration (HSEAD) which is comprised of skillful artists who teach, paint, do research and master the creation of works of decorative arts originally designed by early Americans.

I would accompany her as she sought out of print books which might be of value to the members of her society. Naturally I took advantage of the opportunity to explore dusty old book shops all over New England to find gems of books of all kinds which now reside in bookcases I built. Since I still work full time most of the books have gone unread which makes them all the more precious to me as I hope to find the time someday to read them all.

I learned about one particular book in The Objectivist Newsletter and found it at the Strand Book Store in Manhattan on Broadway and 12th Street. It is a two volume work by Andrew Dickson White entitled The History of the Warfare Between Science and Theology in Christiandom. He compiled his lectures on the subject as he raised money to found Cornell University with Ezra Cornell and they sought out the best minds to head each department. In those days most colleges and universities used clergymen to head departments. White instead found the best minds in each field. His lectures supported that approach by showing how Science was more rational than Religion when it came to every imaginable issue about the nature of reality throughout history.

The book is readable but I have yet to read it through.

I love to read Victor Hugo who is a marvelous story teller. I have found oversized illustrated copies of Hugo's major novels which I treasure as well.

Who doesn't love books?

galt

[BAMF]

One of my English teachers said that she couldn't get through The Fountainhead. Actually, I've had a few people tell me that they just couldn't make it through The Fountainhead and I've even had one freak out at the mere sight of the book. Those blasphemers!

Funny how different different people's responses are. I find Rand's prose crystal clear and her books difficult to put down. I've heard people say similar things about "Atlas". I can't comprehend it.

Judith

Same here, dudette. It's effin' riveting! Her non-fiction, however.... :shocked: I have a difficult time with it after reading such magnificent fiction.

[Barbara Branden]

If I live to be 1,000 years old, I will never have enough time -- or interest -- to finish Ulysses.

I suspect I should hide somewhere so no one can find me when I say this, in order to avoid the stones that surely will be thrown at my head, but I have been unable to finish almost all the the science-fiction novels I''ve started -- and there have been many. About once every couple of years, I'll happen to mention to someone that I don't like science fiction; horrified, the person will say I must have tried the wrong ones, that there is one special novel that he knows as an absolute I'll love; I must try it, it's unlike most science fiction, it is wonderful. I try. . . for about a chapter.

I don't like -- and find it difficult to impossible to read -- Shakespeare's comedies, although no one loves his dramas more than I. But he's not funny!

Anyone who can read Chaucer deserves a medal. I've tried. . . and tried. . . and tried. I will not receive this year's Culture Medal.

At one time, I felt that if I started a book, I somehow had the moral obligation to the author to finish it. For the same reason, I didn't walk out of movies or plays. Fortunately, I changed my mind about this before I discovered The Satanic Verses -- or I'd still be struggling to finish it. In fact, having already looked through it, I bought it only as a gesture of protest against the Moslem fanatics who threatened the author and every reader.

There are many more boring books I've started and not finished -- but it's boring even to talk about them.

Barbara

[Rich Engle]

Barbara, don't feel a bit bad about not finishing "Ulysses." I forced myself to do so years ago and I'm still wondering why. It was excruciating, and even though I'm awfully familiar with Joyce, I still wonder why he bothered, and for that matter, what it's really supposed to be about.

I always feel a twinge of guilt when I disengage from a novel, but if it's not getting it for me, it's not, and it's better to make a quick end of it. There so often seems to be this pesky sense of "obligation" involved.

rde

Free At Last

[emb021]

I've always been a 'book nerd' (you should see my condo...).

when growing up I always had a book I was reading. Usually SF (that's science fiction. NOT to be abreviated sci-fi), sometimes fantasy, rarely something else. I'd read in bed before going to sleep. I'd read on the bus going to school. I'd read in between classes and at lunch. Sometimes in class if class was borrying and I could get away with it.

Every so often I had a book I couldn't get into. Usually had problems the first couple of chapters. I'd usually put it aside. Sometimes I came back to it and was able to get into it and finish it. Some I never did. I was also in the habit of getting into a particular author, getting most (if not all) they wrote, and reading everything. Ex: Burroughs (except Tarzan), Heinlein, Niven.

Some authors (very rare) I would get so into that I get books about the author, etc. Ex: Tolkein, Lovecraft, Rand.

Sadly, I'm not as big a reader as I used to be. More, because there is less out there I like. There are a few authors I keep an eye out for their next work (Cussler, Asprin, Rowling, F Paul Wilson, a few others). I find my reading to be SF, some techno-thrillers, some mysteries, some horror.