# Books You've Started More Than Once **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182 "2016-01-15T01:21:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/41 "2016-01-15T22:53:29Z")
> [@journeyman\_southpaw](#): > > Another vote for Lord of the Rings. I’ve started it three or four times, I get a little further every time, but I never get even close to halfway. Yeah, that’s another of mine. I like the Hobbit well enough, but I just can’t get through Lord of the Rings. I’m not entirely sure I’ve even gotten through the first third. While I’m not much of a fantasy genre person, it does seem the type of book that would interest me, especially with all the mythology, world building, invented languages, etc. But it just bores me to tears. Maybe MTV has addled my brain. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/42 "2016-01-16T00:31:03Z")
I’ve tried to read Infinite Jest about 20 times, but I don’t think I’ve ever made it past a few dozen pages. I continually swear to myself that I’ll read it cover to cover, even if I just do so in a daze, but never pull it off. I’m not convinced anyone else has ever read it, even though it makes it on most top 100 lists. For christ’s sake, I made it fully through both of Robert M. Pirsig’s novels, yet I can’t get through this book. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/43 "2016-01-16T01:17:50Z")
_War and Peace:_ about 200 pages 1st try 300 2nd try. Or maybe it was 100 and 200. There were some parts that I enjoyed, but it was over 50% tedium, and 600 or so dull pages was not going to make up for 400 or so middling to pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/44 "2016-01-16T02:21:08Z")
Kerouac, _On the Road._ I tried three times in my mid-teens, when I could read _anything_, books to me were the equivalent of food to a teenage jock\*, but each time, I’d stop at the end of a chapter, and just never pick it up again. - For example, I read the first Stephen R. Donaldson _Thomas Covenant_ trilogy, even though I hated it. And the whining hero. And most of the other two dimensional backdrop pathetic excuse for characters. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/45 "2016-01-16T02:33:47Z")
Some of the Discworld books by Pratchett. I keep hearing how wonderful the series is and have tried several times to read one or more of the books, but they just didn’t grab me for some reason or other. There are some books which you know from the first page are going to be great and some take a few pages, but I was just never to get into Discworld. Maybe my loss. Bob ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/46 "2016-01-16T02:49:45Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > The Simarillion. I think I’ve tried four times. I love _LOTR_ and like _The Hobbit_, but have never had much of a wish to try _The Silmarillion_ – having gathered from others’ reports that it’s both heavy to tackle, and extremely depressing. A few months ago, I happened on a book sale where _Silmarillion_, and other items, were on sale for 50 British pence each; and on impulse, purchased the “Elder-days” epic. Have not yet opened it; but anything’s possible. > [@OffByOne](#): > > But in the interim, something had changed inside me. I started reading “The Two Towers”, and I just could not stand that every other page was some song that someone just had to sing for the others. I remember thinking, “If there’s another song, I’m outa here!” I turned the page, saw the song and never read another word of that again. Very many people seem to find the songs and poetry in _LOTR_, a total killer re the cycle, and Tolkien as a whole. I started a thread in “Cafe Society” on this topic a couple of months ago. Felt a little relieved to find from the responses, that I’m not a total freak in actually _liking_ the verse material: that readers’ sentiments on same, variously run the whole gamut from pleasure, to “meh”, to loathing as with yourself, **OffByOne**. A matter, I reckon, of “the world would be dreary if everyone liked and disliked all the same things”. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/47 "2016-01-16T03:26:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Kerouac, On the Road. > > I tried three times in my mid-teens, when I could read anything, books to me were the equivalent of food to a teenage jock\*, but each time, I’d stop at the end of a chapter, and just never pick it up again. Ah, I think I can explain that. It’s shit. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/48 "2016-01-16T05:51:24Z")
Can’t stand Tolkien, or Fantasy in general. Rand, I enjoyed the first two-thirds of\*\*\* Atlas Shrugged \*\*\*but wanted to throw the book away afterwards. _ **The Fountainhead** _ I could never get into. One book that starts out slow but _really, really_ picks up after the first few chapters is _ **The Virtues of Hell** _, by Pierre Boulle (the guy who wrote\*\*\* Planet of the Apes\*\*\*). It took two or three tries before I could get into it, and I’m glad I did! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/49 "2016-01-16T05:53:43Z")
I had to read a lot of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, etc., when I was in grad school. Now, I just watch the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Lebodnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/fbc32d/32.png) [@Mr.Lebodnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Lebodnik)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/50 "2016-01-16T07:16:02Z")
Joseph Conrad’s “_The Heart of Darkness_”. I don’t know why (certainly not it’s length), but I just can’t seem to get through it for some reason. Tried several times, all years ago, though. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2016, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/51 "2016-01-16T12:01:16Z")
I don’t know if I ever finished Dante’s “Paradiso”. I know I tried reading it at least twice. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/52 "2016-01-16T12:13:39Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs _Lost on Venus_. Tried three times and couldn’t get past the first few pages. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/53 "2016-01-16T15:25:01Z")
Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers. At that time, I had read everything he had ever written, several times. And then came The Tommyknockers. I tried, I swear I tried. At least 6 times I tried to read it. Made it a little farther each time, but… I just couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/54 "2016-01-16T16:20:23Z")
I know it has a lot of fans, but for me it’s **Stephen King’s 11/22/63**. I’ve tried at least 3 times, and each time I’ve become more flabbergasted at how poor the writing is. It’s a cool idea, but King’s phrasing is so damn clunky that I can’t get past it. Mind you, I’ve read works of Joyce, Rushdie, and Pynchon to completion. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/55 "2016-01-16T19:33:18Z")
G is for Gumshoe. Whoever told Sue Grafton she could write was demented. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/56 "2016-01-17T20:27:38Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > I’ve tried to read Infinite Jest about 20 times, but I don’t think I’ve ever made it past a few dozen pages. I continually swear to myself that I’ll read it cover to cover, even if I just do so in a daze, but never pull it off. I’m not convinced anyone else has ever read it, even though it makes it on most top 100 lists. > > For christ’s sake, I made it fully through both of Robert M. Pirsig’s novels, yet I can’t get through this book. I managed, although I haven’t waded through all the footnotes completely. I think it might have helped that I grew up reading SF. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182/57 "2016-01-17T20:33:27Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Are you kidding? It really picks up around _dasein_! > > Okay…no it doesn’t. I bailed on it too. One sentence summed up that work for me: “Nothingness lies coiled in the heart of being, like a worm.” THAT I comprehend. When he starts into a long-winded attempt to explain that which isn’t is—and also the opposite–I close the book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-youve-started-more-than-once/743182.md?page=2)