# Books you just couldn't finish, or almost couldn't finish **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531 "2009-01-09T15:29:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/21 "2009-01-09T18:12:07Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I’ve temporarily shelved _Little Big_ I’ve tried [_Little, Big_](http://www.amazon.com/Little-Big-John-Crowley/dp/0060937939) about four times now. Never even got to him arriving at the house. (He does arrive, I assume?) I love scifi, I love fantasy…heck, I even love modern urban fantasy (Charles DeLint is my secret boyfriend). I should love this book. But I just can’t get into it. [_Wideacre_](http://www.amazon.com/Wideacre-Novel-Philippa-Gregory/dp/0743249291), by Phillipa Gregory. Now, I LOVE P.G. I adore her bodice ripping historical fiction. (Well, _The Constant Gardener_ was kind of dull, but I’ve loved everything else I’ve read.) Wideacre just…it just…speechless. I’m speechless. I’m no prude, I think we all know that, but the sheer volume of the depths of depravity of…ugh. Poisonings, incest, manipulations, sexual sadism, children born of a brother and sister…it was just too much. I was literally sickened by it and chose not to finish it. I think I’ve read the first four pages of _[Foucault’s Pendulum](http://www.amazon.com/Foucaults-Pendulum-Umberto-Eco/dp/0345368754)_ about 523 times. Maybe someday I’ll get to the fifth. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/22 "2009-01-09T18:13:52Z")
_Marley and Me_. Really, allowing your dog to act like that is animal abuse. It’s not funny, it’s tragic. _The Faded Sun…_ by around the 6th page, you had to know about 40 words of an alien language, all taken entirely from context, not a glossary to be seen. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/23 "2009-01-09T18:15:29Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Oh, I know what happened as a result of the accident. I was, however, under the impression it was in more like the first quarter of the book - with everything else in the book that I think happens before that event, I wouldn’t suspect it would be the last straw. (Haven’t read it but did read a fairly detailed plot summary.) Nah, there was plenty for a middle-aged conservative woman to hate long before that. If I’d gotten that far (presumably because John Irving is a good writer), I could add to the stack o’ hate without abandoning the rest of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/24 "2009-01-09T18:35:54Z")
> [@I'm Not Dennis Bergkamp](#): > > I’ve tried three times - and failed - to get through _Gravity’s Rainbow_. I’ve been told by people I trust that it’s worth the effort, so I’m sure I’ll keep trying. Yup, this is the one. I think I’ve started it 5 times at least. One time I even got maybe 40% of the way through. It’s not the length either - I first tried it after I read _Infinite Jest_ (quickly and loving every page) and someone described David Foster Wallace as Pynchonesque. It took me 3 tries to finish Ulysses, but finally did. Some great writing, but a lot of incomprehensibility too - I had to read some chapters just for the poetry without trying to grok too much of the literal meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/25 "2009-01-09T18:56:43Z")
One of the _Dune_ series, I think maybe the 4th one…where the guy turns himself into a sandworm. I like to think my literary pain threshold is fairly high…I read several of L. Ron Hubbard’s _Mission Earth_ series. If I’m wrong about the whole atheism thing, I figure slogging through that drek oughta buy me some time out of purgatory. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/26 "2009-01-09T19:04:03Z")
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb was something I just couldn’t get through. I tried, but I was absolutely unable to get past the first quarter of the book. It will be going with me to my next paperback swap. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/27 "2009-01-09T19:10:05Z")
I had trouble with Shogun and Musashi. I can’t imagine what people see in it (although the miniseries is excellent) - it’s trite, stereotyped to a disgusting degree and frankly dull. Musashi I liked, but the damn book was long, like the old 18th-19th century serials that were paid by the word. ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/28 "2009-01-09T19:11:21Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I barely finished Neal Stephenson’s enormous _Cryptonomicon_, and even then I had to skip the long sections about code-breaking. There are some interesting stories in there, but it’s meandering and turgid, and his dialogue frequently tends toward speechifying. I like Neal Stephenson quite a bit, and read all of the Baroque Cycle on problem. A couple of years later, I found myself reading Quicksilver again, and I just could not do it. Too much theoretical Daniel Waterhouse stuff. Also, my mom got some book from the library called “The Little Book.” She read a bit (less than 50 pages, I think) and decided she didn’t care for it. I got about 10 pages in before I decided I didn’t care for it. (It’s some time traveling story, but I couldn’t stand the writing style). ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/29 "2009-01-09T19:12:03Z")
_Death Comes For The Archbishop_, Willa Cather. It did not come soon enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/30 "2009-01-09T19:12:13Z")
I liked _Outlander_ & _Voyager_ by Diana Gabaldon, they had their faults but were at least fun and entertaining. But I only got halfway through _The Fiery Cross_ and just lost interest. Then someone spoiled part of it here on a thread about books that make you cry, and it really bothered me that the writer would do that to one of my favorite characters, so literally threw the paperback away (granted, I left it in my truck and it was becoming unbound anyways). ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/31 "2009-01-09T19:22:22Z")
For my 45th birthday I gave myself permission to not finish “Ulysses.” Twenty-five years of trying to read a book is too much. I presume this is supposed to be about “good” books we never finished, since I could insulate my garage with the crappy books I put down once and never opened again. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/32 "2009-01-09T19:24:16Z")
There was one book recently that I did not finish. I can’t even remember what the name was or who wrote it. (I wish I did so I could avoid any future books I may come across) The very first chapter a child is molested and killed in DETAIL. I immediately tossed it in the trash. I was truly horrified. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/33 "2009-01-09T19:32:14Z")
The only one I memorably couldn’t finish was L. Ron Hubbards Mission Earth. Memorable because I got a couple of chapters into book one and thought WTF, there’s no way I’m slogging through ten books of this drek. Fortunately I had only borrowed it instead of paying good money. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/34 "2009-01-09T19:35:34Z")
Brief Hijack: When the movie of **Garp** came out, I was dating a girl that refused, refused, no way in hell, you’ll never get that from me, nope no way was going to get her face anywhere near “that thing” “It has one use as far as I’m concerned and that’s not as a feeding tube” Great girl, horny 25 hours a day, but not for that. Now, I had read the book, so I knew what was coming up. She didn’t. As the scene unfolded and the front seat activity got underway, I reached for her hand - she gave me a nasty look as if to say “smart ass, it’s still a no”. Car crash - she screams. Yells out (really loudly, when I say loud, it was loud) “SEE! That’s why you don’t get your blowjob, a car would drive up our trunk and I’d bite your prick (can I say that in CS? ) off!!” Brief total silence followed by massive laughter. Guy in front of me turns around and attempts to console me. End of hijack I forget the name, but it was Sammy Davis Jr.'s autobiography. No mistake, I love Sammy, even pre Rat Pack. Massive talent. But he had to be to carry the chip on his shoulder over the fact that he was black and that he his dad and uncle never got to work big stages. I swear, no less than four times a page for at least the first couple chapters. Put me in the **Dune** line too. Just. Did. Not. Get. It. ---
**Author:** ![schnuckiputzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@schnuckiputzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schnuckiputzi)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/35 "2009-01-09T19:41:56Z")
At our local used book store they have ‘grab bags’ of mysteries, sci-fi, romance, etc., 10 for $5.00. You can’t see what’s in them, but I usually end up buying a mystery one once in a while. And usually end up throwing 3/4 of them in the trash after a chapter or two. I can’t stand the alcoholic former police detective who’s divorced, running from the mob, etc. ack. Or political spy thrillers. I just can’t manage to care enough what happens to any of the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/36 "2009-01-09T19:58:59Z")
[_Riddley Walker,_](http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/riddley.html) by Russell Hoban. A prize-wining book, a brilliant achievement, an exploration of language, oral tradition, and the resonance of myth. AND it’s important science fiction. I _should_ eat it up. I _want_ to like it. But…it makes my head hurt to read it for comprehension. The author himself says writing it ruined his spelling: > [@](#): > > “I was a good speller before I wrote that book; I no longer am but can live with that.” The spelling and “folk etymology” of the book were creative and fascinating at the time of publication – 1980. However, nowadays it looks simply too much like standard Internet idiot output for my comfort: [QUOTE=Riddley Walker] Lorna said to me, ‘You know Riddley theres some thing in us it dont have no name.’ I said, ‘What thing is that?’ She said, ‘Its some kind of thing it aint us but yet its in us. Its looking out thru our eye hoals. May be you dont take no noatis of it only some times. Say you get woak up suddn in the middl of the nite. 1 minim youre a sleap and the nex youre on your feet with a spear in your han. Wel it wernt you put that spear in your han it wer that other thing whats looking out thru your eye hoals. It aint you nor it don’t even know your name. Its in us lorn and loan and sheltering how it can.’ I said, ‘If its in every 1 of us theres moren 1 of it theres got to be a manying theres got to be a millying and mor.’ Lorna said, ‘Wel there is a millying and mor.’ I said, ‘Wel if theres such a manying of it whys it lorn then whys it loan?’ She said, ‘Becaws the manying and the millying its all 1 thing it dont have nothing to gether with. You look at lykens on a stoan its all them tiny manyings of it and may be each part of it myt think its sepert only we can see its all 1 thing. Thats how it is with what we are its all 1 girt big thing and divvyt up amongst the many. Its all 1 girt thing bigger nor the worl and lorn and loan and oansome. Tremmering it is and feart. It puts us on like we put on our cloes. Some times we dont fit. Some times it cant fynd the arm hoals and it tears us a part.’ [/QUOTE] Tragic. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/37 "2009-01-09T20:07:41Z")
> [@Mr Bus Guy](#): > > I forget the name, but it was Sammy Davis Jr.'s autobiography. No mistake, I love Sammy, even pre Rat Pack. Massive talent. But he had to be to carry the chip on his shoulder over the fact that he was black and that he his dad and uncle never got to work big stages. I swear, no less than four times a page for at least the first couple chapters. _Yes I Can_ is the first one. I read it (and enjoyed it) when I was still young and somewhat naive. I read his follow-up _Why Me?_ many years later (it was published in 1989). It is remarkable that a person as successful as Sammy was could write two autobiographies and retain such a total lack of insight into his own character. My unreadable book was _Confederacy of Dunces_. Maybe my expectations were too high - the guy who recommended it to me said it was the funniest book he ever read. I got about a third into it without even cracking a smile, shrugged my shoulders, and gave up. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/38 "2009-01-09T20:19:02Z")
Also! Thomas Covenant whatever the first one was called. I got a little further than where he raped the girl and the reader was supposed to sympathize with him before I just said, “Oh, fuck this.” ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/39 "2009-01-09T20:24:36Z")
\*\*Time Enough for Love \*\*by Heinlein. I’ve enjoyed quite a bit of Heinlein’s works (and some others, not so much) but lord this book was a chore. I tried. Got past the “Tale of the Adopted Daughter” story, which was mentioned as a good part. It was ok. Then we got back to the incest and the kiddie-diddling and that was enough of that for me. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/40 "2009-01-09T20:28:46Z")
Umberto Eco’s been mentioned several times here, and upon first reading I always have trouble finishing his novels. They go much more quickly upon re-reading. This is because he always seems to have a good chunk of the novel devoted to information that, while it may be interesting in and of itself, doesn’t seem to have much to do with the main plot. For instance, there’s a lengthy theological debate in _The Name of the Rose_ that doesn’t contain any hints about who is committing the murders in the abbey. There are two ways to deal with this, depending on why you’re reading the novel. You can either push through it or skip ahead. I prefer the former, but I’ll admit it sometimes takes weeks and I wouldn’t blame anyone for doing the latter if they find it boring. > [@I'm Not Dennis Bergkamp](#): > > Also, despite a great affection for Umberto Eco’s other works, I have not been able to finish _The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana_. Just too dense and dull. It took me quite a while to get through the section where the narrator is listening to old records and reading old books, and I was afraid for a while that the whole book was going to continue like that. But if you either push through or skip ahead then it picks up a lot as the narrator finds clues about his personal past and begins to learn (and later remember) about his own life. The VERY end of the book is ambiguous and I found it rather frustrating, but after thinking about it I realized the ending was similar to his other novels so I really should have expected it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531.md?page=3)