# 50 tough books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2013, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126 "2013-11-05T04:34:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/41 "2013-11-06T04:32:07Z")
Looks like it’s a mix of “hard to read due to wording/length/density” and "emotionally draining. So it has _Dhalgren_ but not _Hogg_ :dubious: The only one I have read is _Gravity’s Rainbow_. It’s not the longest page/word count book I have read, but it was the hardest. I have also read Pynchon’s _V_, which was almost as hard. I own _House of Leaves_, didn’t get around to it yet. I listened to some of the text in his sister’s song :dubious: I did not get far in the _Silmarillion_. I saw both _Battle Royale_ movies, that’s got to count for like 1/4? And I watched them like 10 years before _the Hunger Games_ was a thing. _The Castle_ - I read some Kafka back in the day, I don’t remember if I picked this one up or got through it. I have read two of **Little Nemo** ’s books (well one is 4 or 5 books, read them all). Presumably listed because of the weird language (WTF is fulgin? Moloko?) ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/42 "2013-11-06T04:38:41Z")
Don DeLillo’s Underworld was long and dull. Wasn’t horrible. I slogged thru a bunch of the classics in the 1980’s when there were no other books I did 3-5 day long train rides in China. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey was one I just couldn’t finish the first time. Good intro and setting but then complete crap. I picked it up a couple of years later on one of those really long Chinese train rides of the past and finished it. It was pure shit. Gawd, it was horrible. That stupid fucking drowning scene. Then the ending. Gah, what shit. Kesey definitely dropped too much acid. Sometimes a Great Notion could have been on this top 50. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/43 "2013-11-06T06:10:54Z")
The only one I’ve read (or attempted to read) is _Heart of Darkness_. I found it captivating and read through it really fast. I have no idea why it’s on this list. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/44 "2013-11-06T06:29:19Z")
I’ve only read _Johnny Got His Gun_, _Pet Sematary_, and _The Divine Comedy_. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/45 "2013-11-06T07:06:30Z")
_The Year of Magical Thinking_, while not my favorite by Joan Didion, was not especially “difficult.” _To the Lighthouse_ by Virginia Woolf is delightful, not tough at all. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/46 "2013-11-06T12:39:29Z")
I’ll finish reading a book as long as (a) it has an interesting plot, or (b) it’s funny. The ones on that list that I gave up on were The Divine Comedy (Paradiso has very little plot and it’s not funny) and Gravity’s Rainbow (the plot moved slowly and I didn’t think it was funny, although I thought The Crying of Lot 49 was both interesting and funny). I liked Pet Sematary, Moby-Dick and War and Peace, and I was lukewarm on Heart of Darkness, Sophie’s Choice and Tristram Shandy ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/47 "2013-11-06T13:19:53Z")
Looks like clickbait with a thin veneer of legitimacy to me. See: All of [cracked.com](http://cracked.com) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/48 "2013-11-06T13:25:50Z")
Heck, I’ve read at least eight of those for fun: \*\* Moby Dick Per Sematary\*\* (Stephen King is “tough”? Really?) **The Silmarillion** (twice. And I didn’t even like it that much) **War and Peace** (After I started reading it I signed up for a class on it. Figured I might as well get academic credit, if I was going to do it anyway) **Canterbury Tales The Divine Comedy A Tale of a Tub (and other satires) The Gulag Archipelago** (all the books) I didn’t read it myself, but **Johnny Got His Gun** was required reading for several of the courses in my high school. There were always copies around. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/49 "2013-11-06T13:26:04Z")
Am I the only one who has read _The Faerie Queen_? I don’t think\* FQ\* is harder than any other poetry of the period, and easier than some. I never made it thru _War and Peace_, or the\* Silmarrillion\*. > [@elbows](#): > > I think I peaked with The Alexandria Quartet! It was awesome. You’re braver than I am. I plowed my way thru the first one, and gave up. If you want to talk about a difficult read, ask me - I read every book in the Left Behind series out of sheer stubbornness. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/50 "2013-11-06T20:14:19Z")
The Joan Didion one is certainly emotionally intense, so I suppose that’s the criterion that puts it on the list. The language of it is not difficult. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/51 "2013-11-06T21:06:28Z")
> [@thisishowwepray](#): > > . . . > I do find Bolano difficult! Also Tolstoy. Russian novels are hard for me because I would rather really get into the head of one character than try to remember the names of 100 characters. The problem for me is when I’m struggling to track 100 characters, then suddenly realize there are only 47 - but in Russian literature everybody has 2-3 different names, and which one the other character uses is supposed to give us multitudes of information about the relationship, and whether the speaker is an upstart or a snob, etc. I always end up needing to make a chart. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![jayrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jayrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayrey)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/52 "2013-11-06T22:17:10Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > **War and Peace** was not too tough, just overlong. It’s not that great a book, in my humble opinion. Brothers Karamazov, another lengthy Russian book, is far, far better. > > **Johnny Got his Gun?** Not hard to read at all. 😕 I agree completely about **War and Peace**. Not tough but long and tedious. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/53 "2013-11-06T23:36:25Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > . . . no wonder we never bothered covering all of Paradiso when I took a class on Dante in college: nothing happens! . . . One thing happens… The Eagle. The Eagle, which is really a whole bunch of angels flying around in formation to make up the shape of the eagle. Sort of like a college marching band making the shape of an eagle on a football field. Okay, it ain’t much…but it is remarkably “modern” in concept for something from that long ago. Did they have image-formation marching in the 1300s? Still, yeah, you’re right: one cool thing in a book that long is pretty thin gruel. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/54 "2013-11-07T02:29:04Z")
The books listed in the OP are not difficult. Hegel’s \*Phenomenology of Spirit \*–that’s difficult. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/55 "2013-11-07T03:08:03Z")
I still think H.G. Wells books are for English majors. ---
**Author:** ![diggerwam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/919ad9/32.png) [@diggerwam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggerwam)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/56 "2013-11-07T03:16:54Z")
Infinite Jest is very good. Finishing is one of my proudest accomplishments. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/57 "2013-11-07T15:22:49Z")
I didn’t find **The Conservationist** tough in any sense of the word. Not my favorite Gordimer, but not that difficult. I can’t believe **Pale Fire** (or something by Nabokov) isn’t on the list. Another I’d put out for consideration is **At Swim-Two-Birds**. Couldn’t get through it on a couple of tries. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/58 "2013-11-10T00:35:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Does reading the entire _Twilight_ series count? If only because I can’t understand how I managed to make it through that crap. That was fucking painful. I wish it were possible to unread a book. 😉 > > I read _Wuthering Heights_ and absolutely loathed it. Ditto _Atlas Shrugged_. (I even managed to get through “The speech”) > > Mary Shelley’s _Frankenstein_ > Thackery’s _Vanity Fair_ is one of my favorites. i remember _Frankenstein_ being a fairly easy read, actually. _Dracula_, on the other hand, was tedious. i hated, hated, HATED _Heart of Darkness_ so i don’t mind it’s inclusion. _Pet Sematary_ is weird, though. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/59 "2013-11-10T21:48:12Z")
I read four - well, three and a half - of the books on the list. _The Sound and the Fury_ - read it in college and, as with all Faulkner, it left me with a shrug at the end. Just don’t care for his stuff, but it’s not exceptionally difficult. _The Silmarillion_ - I’ve actually read it four times. Each time I like it more, and can better see how it all fits together. It’s the Book of Genesis/Bullfinch’s Mythology for Middle-earth, and is wonderfully detailed and lyrically mythic. But I can understand how it’s not for everybody. _Heart of Darkness_ - I’m interested generally in the Age of Imperialism and thought I’d like the book more than I actually did, but again, didn’t find it a very tough book to read. _The Canterbury Tales_ - I read substantial excerpts from it in high school and was neither wowed nor repelled. To each their own. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126/60 "2013-11-10T22:49:50Z")
I do like a ball-breaking novel now and again (although it has to deliver). Read 16 on that list and several others by the listed authors. With a lot of them I’d say it’s a case of the reader needing to toughen up - get work-hardened with this type of literature and it becomes accessible. There’s a distinct subsection, though, that is just off the scale. e.g. Pynchon (sometimes) and the two WGs, Gaddis and Gass (always), are really demanding. Not only do you have a dense, challenging prose style to wrestle with, you’ve got wildly fantastical stories, often in an unusual structure, that can be really hard to understand. I doubt it’s possible to read something like Pynchon’s _Mason and Dixon_ and really feel like you’ve grasped a majority of the book. Not in a single sitting. I can see people enjoying and finding it a rewarding read (on balance). But to really get to grips with it would take several read-throughs IMHO. Interpreting a big book in this fashion is not really what most of us are interested in, although credit to those who take their literature seriously enough to do this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-tough-books/673126.md?page=4)