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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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”.
Ah, I think I can explain that.
It’s shit.
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!
I had to read a lot of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, etc., when I was in grad school. Now, I just watch the movies.
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.
I don’t know if I ever finished Dante’s “Paradiso”. I know I tried reading it at least twice.
Edgar Rice Burroughs Lost on Venus. Tried three times and couldn’t get past the first few pages.
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.
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
G is for Gumshoe. Whoever told Sue Grafton she could write was demented.
I managed, although I haven’t waded through all the footnotes completely. I think it might have helped that I grew up reading SF.
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.