# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/81 "2009-01-10T18:11:08Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > _Greyfax Grimwald (Circle of Light, Book 1)_, Niel Hancock - The Worst Book I’ve Ever Tried to Read™ This. I’m a big fantasy/science fiction fan, and I’ve read some _painful_ examples of both sides of the genre, but the Circle of Light books were like literary meatloaf…it’s full of bits you don’t really want to recognize, dense as a brick, and seems to never get close to the end no matter how much you shovel in just to attempt to get rid of it. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/82 "2009-01-10T18:14:11Z")
> [@Lucky\_13](#): > > One Christmas my ex gave me **Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell** in hardback. I was too intimidated to even open it. It’s still on the bookshelf, taunting me. Ha! This, too. I did start it, but stopped reading about 1/3 of the way in. The concept was interesting, and could very well have been the foundation of an incredible book, but this isn’t that book. It wasn’t horrible…it wasn’t good, either. It just…was. I didn’t really care about any of the characters. I really didn’t care how things turned out. I didn’t find the book’s version of London a compelling setting…it didn’t feel like it was set in a real place at all. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/83 "2009-01-10T18:29:36Z")
Tried really hard with **Crime and Punishment**. Read over 100 pages and NOTHING. HAPPENED. There wasn’t yet even a hint (or maybe a brief, vague hint) of the murder I knew was coming, and by then I didn’t care. Reminds me of a description of another book I read once: “Some stuff happens, then some people die. The end.” It was like reading the blog of the most boring person in the world. Also tried hard with **The Echo Maker**. This was released a few years ago to rave critical reviews and awards, and I really wanted to like it because it’s set in a really small town that a lot of my mom’s extended family is from, but it was absolute shit. Even my wife, who can get through any book, couldn’t get through it. I don’t think either one of us made it more than 100 pages, and it was over 400 pages IIRC. Also, nothing happened. And the writing sucks. Seems like a book that critics love and everyone else hates. And to show I’m not just the type of person who gives up on everything: I’ve read Moby Dick, and Walden, among other generally considered boring and hard to finish books. I actually loved Moby Dick and plan to read it again someday. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/84 "2009-01-10T18:35:12Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > “Wheel of Time” by Robert Jordan (?) - tried it twice. Couldn’t get into it. > After giving up on the “Anita Blake/Vampire Hunter” series because of Hamilton’s bizarre decision to write porn instead of interesting novels, I checked one of the latter ones out of the library recently. Can’t remember which one, but the cover was lovely. Anywho, about 3 pages in, Anita had already screwed two men, so I returned it to the library. It takes real talent to transform sex into something repititious and boring. Well, I enjoyed WoT up until the author started milking it, around #8 or 9. Yes, the “Anita Blake/Vampire Hunter” weren’t too bad too start, then turned into poorly written vampire porn. I can only assume advanced “Mary Sue” disease set in. ---
**Author:** ![Elyanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@Elyanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elyanna)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/85 "2009-01-12T17:37:56Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Another famous book I started but never finished was _Lolita_. I was 15 or 16 and was making a deliberate effort to read famous novels. I got up to the point where Humbert had Lolita sitting on his lap and decided that I was too creeped out to continue. > > Facilitating this decision was the fact that I went to school on the other side of town and had a long commute on the city bus. This was when I did a lot of my reading, but as a young (and even younger looking) girl I was very uncomfortable with reading _Lolita_ in public this way. I got enough attention from drunks, creeps, and lunatics on the bus as it was, and I felt like just holding this book was basically painting a big target on myself. Lolita was.. difficult. I was older than you were when I read it, but I too felt uncomfortable. The cover had a quote of somebody saying it was the “greatest love story of all time!” and I kept thinking it was more smut than love. This is another one I finished mostly because it was short. I appreciated it a little bit more after I had read a little about it, but still–blech. Never will pick up again. Lord of the Rings starts off quite slow.. I think it took me several tries to get through it. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/86 "2009-01-12T18:34:08Z")
**Stranger in a Strange Land.** Tried twice. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/87 "2009-01-12T18:53:36Z")
> [@Elyanna](#): > > Lord of the Rings starts off quite slow.. I think it took me several tries to get through it. I almost listed LotR among the “difficult” books I’ve finished, because A LOT of people (including me) have trouble with the prologue and first few chapters of _Fellowship_. I finally finished it about 10 years after I started, all due to the first little bit. I was so enthralled once I got past that part that I finished all three books in the next couple of days. ---
**Author:** ![Fiona\_Greenlee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@Fiona\_Greenlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiona_Greenlee)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/88 "2009-01-12T21:03:21Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > \*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. The person who recommended \*The Illuminatus! Trilogy \* told me that if I re-read it, it would start to make sense. It’s been over two years and I just can’t imagine _wanting_ to slog through that book again. ---
**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 12, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/89 "2009-01-12T21:10:33Z")
> [@Fiona\_Greenlee](#): > > The person who recommended \*The Illuminatus! Trilogy \* told me that if I re-read it, it would start to make sense. It’s been over two years and I just can’t imagine _wanting_ to slog through that book again. (you were supposed to look for the fnords) ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/90 "2009-01-12T21:18:55Z")
Oh yeah . . . Illiminatus . . . I felt pretty much the same as Jack Batty. I actually kind of liked parts of it but it’s like they wrote a good story and then went out of their way to sabotage it and make it shitty. At times I felt like I was reading an Andy Kaufman joke. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/91 "2009-01-12T21:27:33Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > I couldn’t finish “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski. The premise was interesting, the first 100-odd pages were subtly creepy, but the gimmicky formatting and the fact that it just went on, and on, and on, and _on_ made me shelve it. Maybe forever. I assume you never made it to the bit where you go through sixty pages in under a minute? > [@Scumpup](#): > > **Stranger in a Strange Land.** Tried twice. Only tried once, but still. Everyone’s raving about it, but I just could not get into it. I liked the first book of Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, but after spending weeks with the second and not getting a quarter into it, I returned it to the library and got on with my life. Pity. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/92 "2009-01-12T21:28:26Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > (you were supposed to look for the fnords) Fnords? What fnords? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/93 "2009-01-12T21:33:40Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Oh yeah . . . Illiminatus . . . I felt pretty much the same as Jack Batty. I actually kind of liked parts of it but it’s like they wrote a good story and then went out of their way to sabotage it and make it shitty. At times I felt like I was reading an Andy Kaufman joke. I barely finished that one, but it was work and brought me no pleasure to speak of. I have deep suspicions that the acclaim for the trilogy is akin to the “No soap. Radio,” joke. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/94 "2009-01-12T21:38:34Z")
Did you hear about the Discordian blue parrot? He was pining for the fnords. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/95 "2009-01-12T21:39:47Z")
> [@Fiona\_Greenlee](#): > > The person who recommended \*The Illuminatus! Trilogy \* told me that if I re-read it, it would start to make sense. It’s been over two years and I just can’t imagine _wanting_ to slog through that book again. It helps if you’re a teenager. . . . and it’s the mid-1970s. I ate that book up in 1976, when I was 15. Fascinating for the sex alone, at that age. Now it seems like an incredible mound of self-indulgent crap. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/96 "2009-01-12T21:55:31Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > 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. I loved it, but I’ve only ever had it as an audio book. I can well believe I might have had trouble just reading it. The last book I tried and failed to force myself through was Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I was within a few pages of the finish line when I conclusively decided it wasn’t ever going to get good. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/97 "2009-01-12T21:58:29Z")
Hey, question for anyone who didn’t finish _Crime and Punishment_… Did you guys finish/like _Catcher in the Rye_? _Catcher_ has always been my favorite book of all time, and _Crime_ jumped right into number two as soon as I read it. I love the book with a passion, and one of the reasons is I think of the book as _Catcher_ in Russia. So I am curious as to the people who didn’t finish it if they read and/or finished _Catcher_ ---
**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 12, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/98 "2009-01-12T22:05:16Z")
> [@Fiona\_Greenlee](#): > > The person who recommended \*The Illuminatus! Trilogy \* told me that if I re-read it, it would start to make sense. It’s been over two years and I just can’t imagine _wanting_ to slog through that book again. Nah, not so much. This is, however, true of the _Schroedinger’s Cat_ trilogy by one of the _Illuminatus_ authors. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/99 "2009-01-12T22:06:25Z")
Dostoevsky’s **The Idiot**. Every time a thread like this pops up, I have to post and mention it, because it’s still sitting by my bed, taunting me. I’ve been trying to read it for years, and I’m only about 100 pages from the end, but I just. Can’t. DO IT. I fucking loved **Crime and Punishment** – it’s on my top 10 books ever read – and I love Russian history, Dostoevsky’s style, his themes, and so on. I should love this book. It has moments of brilliance – Ippolit’s long “explanation” is totally enthralling, I loved Nastasya’s letters to the Prince, I loved moments like the Prince seeing Holbein’s painting in Rogozhin’s house and the description of what it was like just before an epileptic fit. Brilliant moments in literature, all of them. But the rest! I swear to God, no one acts like a human being. Every Epanchin female is an extreme manic depressive – one moment they’re furious, and then the very next line has them laughing in delight, and then they’re storming off in tears by the next two sentences. What the hell is going on? Why do they act like that? Why does the Prince put up with this bullshit? I can’t deal with it. And the real reason I don’t just gird my loins and read the last 100 pages is that I know I’d have to re-read the first 500 just to remember who everyone was, and I’d rather eat the book than do that. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531/100 "2009-01-12T23:54:48Z")
Little, Big Animals in Translation by Temple Gardin Foucault’s Pendulum (though I’ve read other books by Eco and finished them quite easily) The Dante Club: This one time? At Harvard? I ate some sushi? And it was good? JFC, my bf and a bevy of friends went there, I already have too much “This one time? At Harvard?” in my life as it is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-you-just-couldnt-finish-or-almost-couldnt-finish/480531.md?page=6)