# 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:** 3
**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, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/41 "2009-01-09T20:33:59Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > [_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: > > 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: > > Tragic. Note that Mark Twain managed to correctly show several local dialects without resorting to bad spelling that makes your head hurt. Mark Twain was _brilliant_, this guy ain’t no Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/42 "2009-01-09T20:34:38Z")
In my free time I read a fair chunk of _Moby Dick_ during my senior year of high school, maybe a third of it. I never got around to finishing it once I got busier. Among books I’ve actually finished, I present _An American Tragedy_ by Theodore Dreiser. That thing was a slog for 450 or 500 pages, and I kept going only so I could cross it off my list. The last 100 pages actually got more interesting but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/43 "2009-01-09T21:09:07Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > 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. Thanks. I still have it sitting on a bookshelf somewhere, and I expect I’ll pick it up and try again in the not-too-distant future. _Baudolino_ was a difficult read for me, too, but I ended up loving it, so I’m hoping for a similar experience with _Queen Loana_. Another one I’ve had to put down recently is _Catch 22_. I’ve heard such good things about it, but I got about 100 or so pages in and realized that I just didn’t care about what was happening. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it at the time [shrugs]. Like _Gravity’s Rainbow_ and _The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana_, though, I will likely give it another shot. I’m trying to think of a book that (1) I couldn’t finish when I started and (2) have no intention of trying again, and the only one that springs to mind is _The Fourth Crusade_ by Jonathan Phillips. I don’t remember much about it, other than that I picked it up because I wanted to learn more about that crusade after reading Eco’s _Baudolino_, but set it down pretty early on. I’ve since read other non-fiction books about the Fourth Crusade, though, so I don’t really see any need to read anymore about it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/44 "2009-01-09T21:15:22Z")
I abandoned _TekWar_ by William Shatner halfway through and took it back to the library. I’ve never been able to get a grip on _Ulysses_ by James Joyce, though to be fair the last time I tried it, I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/45 "2009-01-09T21:21:48Z")
_Making Money_ by Terry Pratchett. Normally I devour his books, but this one was a struggle. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/46 "2009-01-09T21:29:12Z")
> [@I'm Not Dennis Bergkamp](#): > > _Baudolino_ was a difficult read for me, too Yeah, I’m still working on this one too. > [@](#): > > _but I ended up loving it_ Good to know. ---
**Author:** ![Elyanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@Elyanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elyanna)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/47 "2009-01-09T21:31:35Z")
\*Out Stealing Horses. \* I’ll get back to it. Someday. _Emma,_ Jane Austen. I’ve been coming back to it every few months for maybe a year, now. ---
**Author:** ![Clivas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clivas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clivas)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/48 "2009-01-09T22:18:55Z")
Great expectations. Tried about 4 or 5 times without any luck. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/49 "2009-01-09T22:26:14Z")
_The Lord of the Rings_. When I was in elementary school, I polished off and loved _The Hobbit_, and both my siblings read and recommended LOTR, so I gave it a try. I got about 2/3 through _Fellowship_ and couldn’t take it any more. A couple years later, I thought being older might help and gave it another try. Got about 3/4 through _Fellowship_ and had to put it down. Finally a couple years ago when the movie was going to come out, I decided to give it another go. Being much older, and having enjoyed other lengthy, detailed sagas, I read again. This time I did complete the set, but still had to slog through that first book. It did get better at the end, and the second book, but the first is long and slow. All those years in the shire are boring. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/50 "2009-01-09T22:51:36Z")
\*The Illuminatus! Trilogy \*… by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. It’s one long conspiracy theory trip full of sex and drugs and rock & roll and mythology and giant submarines and Discordianism and fnords … Chapters jump back and forth in time and to different characters and settings, sometimes within a single paragraph. You don’t read it as much as you absorb it. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Mama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Atomic\_Mama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Mama)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/51 "2009-01-09T22:54:58Z")
Moby Dick. Again. Again. And Again. Will It Never END??? Ditto The Bible. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/52 "2009-01-09T23:00:26Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > For my 45th birthday I gave myself permission to not finish “Ulysses.” Twenty-five years of trying to read a book is too much. He enjoyed words so much, but there were just too many of them going on and on. Yeah, I quit on that one too. Michner’s **Iberia** wandered onto the unfinished bookcase for me. It is well written but perhaps too much about too little. For some reason I had trouble finishing **Catch 22**. I loved it, but had trouble finishing it. Maybe I found it too accurate. I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/53 "2009-01-09T23:09:10Z")
I usually love anything dark and twisted, the more depressing and disfunctional the better. I mean, I even liked the movie **Happiness**. :eek: So with high hopes I started reading The Kiss by Katherine Harrison and for some reason, I couldn’t move much past the first couple of chapters where she talks about, as an adult, choosing to begin an affair with her father. Yes, I realize she’s screwed up, but even just the kissing parts was too oogy for words. \< shudder \> And that’s the only one I can think of conclusively off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/54 "2009-01-09T23:27:00Z")
In literature, I was defeated and stomped into the dirt by _Absalom, Absalom!_ God, I hated that book. I never finished it and I threw away my copy. So there, William Faulkner, you bastard! There’ve been some seriously bad books I couldn’t finish. One good book I struggled with recently was _The Bastard of Istanbul_. I just couldn’t get into the swing of it, but I finally did and enjoyed the read. ---
**Author:** ![SpasticKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@SpasticKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpasticKitty)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/55 "2009-01-09T23:33:05Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > [_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. Ugh, Wideacre. I am someone else who loves Phillippa Gregory, but Wideacre was awful. I managed to finish the whole book, but the whole thing actually made me nauseous. I’ve seen two other books from the Wideacre series at my library, but I refuse to read them. ---
**Author:** ![nevermore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@nevermore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevermore)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/56 "2009-01-09T23:44:02Z")
Bram Stoker’s _Dracula_. Oh, GOD, that book took a million lifetimes. I think I was literally reading it for five months, and it’s only like 300 pages. I don’t know what it was about it… the story was alright, though it crawled along at a sorrowful pace; the prose was sometimes impressive and sometimes overwrought. It just… the whole thing was so fucking dull I could feel myself aging as I read it. I think I’d just about rather eat it than read it again. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/57 "2009-01-10T00:44:21Z")
I’ve started _Middlemarch_ twice, and both times I gave up on it in confusion. I may pick it up again one day, but I’m going to insist on a good annotated version and possibly Cliffs Notes so I’ll have half a clue about what’s going on. I got five chapters in to _The Painted Bird_, realized that there was a brutal, unnecessary torture/death in every chapter and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. If I hadn’t been so disgusted I would have thrown it across the room. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/58 "2009-01-10T01:22:16Z")
I guess it isn’t Great Literature, but I’ve read most of Dick Francis’ mystery novels. Some are better than others, but all are interesting and not put-down-able. Until the last one I bought - don’t remember the title, but it was the first he wrote after his wife died (she gets considerable credit in some quarters for helping out on his books). I got this novel to read on vacation, and it was so dull that I got only about two-thirds of the way through and wound up leaving it behind in the motel room. Never thought that would happen with one of Francis’ books. He’s still writing them, in collaboration with his son now. I have had zero interest in reading any. Ya gotta know when to fold the franchise. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/59 "2009-01-10T01:36:33Z")
I like a lot of big complicated books, a lot of which have been mentioned (Pynchon, Infinite Jest, Moby-Dick, etc.), but here’s some I haven’t been able to get through yet: 1. For those of you complaining about Ulysses, that’s kid’s work compared to Finnegan’s Wake 2. I really liked Danielewski’s House of Leaves, but I couldn’t understand what his follow-up, Only Revolutions, was trying to to do (only made it through the first few pages) 3. JR, by Gaddis. It’s probably my fault, but I just never could slog through it. 4. Women and Men, by Joseph McElroy-- Who knows, it might be easy to read, but it sure looks daunting. I haven’t even started it, so maybe one day…anyone know if it’s worth it? 5. On a completely different level, I love Bucky Fuller a lot, but his two-volume math/philosophy/science/everything book Synergetics is tough-going ---
**Author:** ![Convict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Convict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Convict)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/60 "2009-01-10T01:52:47Z")
_The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar: The Truth Behind the Romanov Mystery_ by Shay Mcneal. The most fiction I’ve ever read in a non-fiction book. Instead of a plot to save the tsar I wish there had been a plot to save me from this book. It’s the only book I’ve never finished. Thankfully I got it from the library and didn’t waste any money on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531.md?page=4)