# Famous novels you just couldn't get through **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 29, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027 "2008-05-29T16:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![paffinity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@paffinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paffinity)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/1 "2008-05-29T16:23:15Z")
We all know there are some novels that just about everybody is supposed to enjoy. But a lot of times when reading a classic I have to try so hard to see what people liked so much about it. Two times especially I disliked a book so much that I just couldn’t get through it, despite its appeal: ``` -I spent an entire afternoon reading *Grapes of Wrath*, but by the end I was just so bored by the book that I never picked it up again. I just had absolutely no desire to read it. Strangely, Steinbeck's *East of Eden* had me hooked, I finished it in just a few days. -After reading (and sort of enjoying) *The Fountainhead* I tried to pick up Ayn Rand's most famous work. I soon realized that *Atlas Shrugged* was the exact same book. The discription of one of protagonist sounded the same as Howard Roark, and I could tell from the start which characters would be "good" and which would be "bad." I didn't get to that rediculous monologue before dropping it and forgetting about it. ``` How about you guys? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/2 "2008-05-29T16:26:09Z")
I tried to get through _East of Eden_, I really did, but it was tough, boring and dense. By the end I was just skimming. Likewise Joseph Conrad’s _Lord Jim_. YMMV. Usually, if a book hasn’t hooked me in the first 50 pages, I set it aside guilt-free. Before I adopted that rule I forced myself to read all the way through far too many books that just weren’t worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/3 "2008-05-29T16:31:08Z")
Bonfire of the Vanities. Couldn’t get past the first few pages I hated it so much. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/4 "2008-05-29T16:36:10Z")
Anna Karenina ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/5 "2008-05-29T16:43:41Z")
[QUOTE=Missy2U] Bonfire of the Vanities. Couldn’t get past the first few pages I hated it so much. [/QUOTE] Hey, that’s my answer, too! Don’t know why, it just rubbed me the wrong way. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/6 "2008-05-29T16:47:31Z")
Oooo. Loved Bonfire of the Vanities! Try it again if you’re in a particularly snarky mood. Anyway, Heart of Darkness for me. I was told by someone I respect that it’s his favorite book, so I’d figured it would be at least readable. Blergh. I skipped to the end just so I could read the “The Horror!” part and get half the jokes made about it. I can’t read The Sound and the Fury. Can’t. _Can’t_. I cannot make my eyes stay on the page, nor transmit meaningful information to my brain. I’ve tried numerous times over the years and I cannot do it! I also tried And the Ladies of the Club after hearing (here, I think) how marvelous it was. Gah! I kept wondering when it would start having a point. Never even attempted Atlas Shrugged, though I pick it up off the shelf and look at it every once in a while and hold it in my hand, as though I could gauge its digestibility that way. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/7 "2008-05-29T16:49:11Z")
_Moby Dick_ - it has a chapter about **white** , Chapter 42 _The Whiteness of the Whale_. A guy at work was reading it - for many, many weeks; bringing it to work each day. I used to pick it up mid morning and read from it, everyone except the owner of the book would laugh at the turgid, boring crap. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/8 "2008-05-29T16:54:57Z")
1. _Atlas Shrugged_ 2. All of the _LOTR_ books. Sorry, I’ve tried and failed miserably 3. _Gone With The Wind_. God, I wish it HAD gone with the wind. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/9 "2008-05-29T16:56:27Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Likewise Joseph Conrad’s _Lord Jim_. [/QUOTE] I tossed Lord Jim back into the library return last night. If Marlow was telling me this story in real life, I’d have kept interrupting him with “excuse me, you were telling me about this guy who abandoned ship, not the necktie worn by the first mate of the guy who commited suicide soon after sitting on the board of inquiry.” ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/10 "2008-05-29T17:12:37Z")
**Gravity’s Rainbow** I’ve tried. Lord knows I’ve tried. I’m fairly well educated. I have an attention span that is longer than 10 minutes. **Gravity’s Rainbow** is one of the books I feel like I should be able to read. I cannot do it. I get a splitting headache and it becomes a war between me and Pynchon. He wins every time. I actually faired better with **Finnegan’s Wake** but it took me about a year to make it through (and that was with a concordance and skipping some fairly big sections that were just completely undecipherable). ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/11 "2008-05-29T17:15:54Z")
Anything Faulkner. It harms my brain. P.S. **plnnr** : It’s _finnegans wake_, it’s imperative and plural, not possessive and singular. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/12 "2008-05-29T17:18:03Z")
_Tom Jones_. The only book I was ever assigned to read for class that I did not finish. I actually quit halfway through and bought the Cliff’s Notes, something I’d never, ever done for any book. Not even _Tess of the D’Urbervilles_ or _Daisy Miller_. Lord, that book was boring, and it managed to be annoyingly boring. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/13 "2008-05-29T17:19:48Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] Anyway, Heart of Darkness for me. I was told by someone I respect that it’s his favorite book, so I’d figured it would be at least readable. Blergh. I skipped to the end just so I could read the “The Horror!” part and get half the jokes made about it. [/QUOTE] Me too. Also, I couldn’t finish Wuthering Heights. I got about 100 pages in, lost all of my interest in it, and quit. Both books were required reading in high school. Needless to say, I didn’t do too well on those tests. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/14 "2008-05-29T17:24:19Z")
[QUOTE=Lionne] Anna Karenina [/QUOTE] Thank og I’m not the only one. I tried to read this and just couldn’t get into it. Didn’t help that there were some many characters that I couldn’t keep them straight. I also couldn’t get through Moby Dick at all. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/15 "2008-05-29T17:25:13Z")
I hate to admit this, but I’ve tried a few times to read the Lord of the Rings straight through, and the farthest I’ve been able to get is about 1/3 of the way into The Fellowship. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/16 "2008-05-29T17:29:41Z")
Charles Dickens. I may have spoiled myself on his works by trying to read one too early but his plodding style drove me nuts. Hell I couldn’t get past how dead Marley was and how dead a doornail actually is. It makes sense that he was paid by the word. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/17 "2008-05-29T17:31:35Z")
[QUOTE=FinnAgain] Anything Faulkner. It harms my brain. P.S. **plnnr** : It’s _finnegans wake_, it’s imperative and plural, not possessive and singular. [/QUOTE] I stand corrected as long as I never have to pick that thing up off the nightstand again. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/18 "2008-05-29T17:33:38Z")
Jane Eyre. It’s my mother’s favorite book, but bleh. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/19 "2008-05-29T17:35:39Z")
_Look Homeward, Angel_. I couldn’t make it through the first chapter. I live in Thomas Wolfe’s hometown, so I really felt obliged to read it, but _damn_. Life’s too short, you know? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/20 "2008-05-29T17:36:20Z")
I intend to finish reading Moby Dick eventually. It didn’t bore me to tears or anything, I just lost interest or got busy somewhere near the middle. I could never get more than a few pages into The Fountainhead, though, and since I think Rand is a psycho - I got the book as a college gift and wasn’t familiar with her at the time - I don’t think I’ll bother making another effort. I usually finish books even if I don’t like them. I think the toughest slog I’ve made in the last few years was An American Tragedy. Pretty damn boring for the first 500 pages, although to my surprise it did pick up at the end. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027.md?page=2)