# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/21 "2008-05-29T17:38:17Z")
Dracula. I’ve tried to read it several times, but always get too mentally fatigued by the time I get to the logbook of the Demeter. ---
**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, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/22 "2008-05-29T17:41:14Z")
Quick hijack: [QUOTE=Marley23] 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. [/quote] It’s an awesome, awesome book. I don’t get the hate that’s directed at it, tbh. It’s certainly amazingly dense with symbolism, but it also deals with the concept of unity-in-duality and duality-in-unity. Oddly enough, the previously mentioned chapter on whiteness is probably the single best part of the book if you’ve an eye for such things. Any author who can describe the very color white as the “colorless all-color of atheism” is okay in my book. Or, I suppose, I could say that the book has both teh Hodge and the Podge dancing around each other all the time. Oh, and: [QUOTE=Marley23] 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. [/quote] Don’t. Aside from the book being summed up in nine words: “man has creation taken away, destroys it, that’s good” it also casts rape in a _positive_ light. Rand was one sick bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/23 "2008-05-29T17:43:11Z")
[QUOTE=BaneSidhe] All of the _LOTR_ books. Sorry, I’ve tried and failed miserably [/QUOTE] Same…I always give up at about the same point on my attempts, too - when the Hobbits are in the inn and the Ringwraiths try to kill them. By which point I think the page count was higher than the Hobbit. \>\_\> Another one is Dracula - I read and loved the first 2/3 of the book, but eventually, it started to lose my interest…I was within spitting distance of the ending when I just decided I didn’t care enough to go on. I’m STILL not sure how it ended. Frankenstein - I gave up around the creation of the Monster. I’m still frustrated with it. Like LotR, it’s a book where I like the story, but can’t get past the style. War of the Worlds - had a book containing it and The Time Machine. Time Machine was assigned reading, so I did it first. Devoured it in a night. One of my favourite books, still. So, then I turned to War, just because I wanted to read it. Gave up in the early stage of the invasion. Occasionally consider trying again, but I don’t actually know where my copy is, and I’m gunshy about buying a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/24 "2008-05-29T17:45:22Z")
Dune. I couldn’t do it… all of my friends raved about it so much that I figured there MUST be something there. I tried 3 or 4 times in high school and gave up. I actually bought it again a couple of years ago and _forced_ myself to read all the way to the end… it wasn’t worth it. ☹ Also Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I’d had people tell me was good. I got about a third of the way through it before giving up. Nothing happened! Boooring. ---
**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, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/25 "2008-05-29T17:49:29Z")
[QUOTE=FinnAgain] Don’t. Aside from the book being summed up in nine words: “man has creation taken away, destroys it, that’s good” it also casts rape in a _positive_ light. Rand was one sick bitch. [/QUOTE] Her name came up on Fresh Air with Terri Gross a few weeks ago, but I can’t recall the context. Has someone recently written a biography? I’ll agree she was certainly loopy. For what it is worth, Alan Greenspan was a major disciple. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/26 "2008-05-29T17:50:04Z")
Quite a few, since I’ve tried everything I could get my hands on. Sense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice War and Peace Grapes of Wrath Lady Chatterley’s Lover (isn’t this supposed to be about sex? God how boring) That horrid book with the leper rapist - Thomas something or other Jane Eyre I know there are others. And I loved East of Eden, and Dune, and Dracula, and I even…read Gone With the Wind in a night\*. I won’t say I loved it, but it kept me reading, even as I was getting mad at it. I’ve read all of the LOTR book but I can’t read any of the Silmarillion crap. Oh! Treasure Island. Have never been able to get through the first chapter. \*For various reasons I was in a place I was not allowed to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/27 "2008-05-29T17:50:23Z")
The key to reading many of these books is to do it at work. Get a PDF version, change the filename and doc properties to something believable for your job (just in case someone’s logging what you open) and then keep the book displayed in a small window at the bottom corner of your screen. You’d be surprised how much more interesting these books are when the alternative is actual work. Twenty or thirty pages a day will just fly by. But don’t let it cut into your SD time. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/28 "2008-05-29T17:52:38Z")
[QUOTE=Lunar Saltlick] The key to reading many of these books is to do it at work. Get a PDF version, change the filename and doc properties to something believable for your job (just in case someone’s logging what you open) and then keep the book displayed in a small window at the bottom corner of your screen. You’d be surprised how much more interesting these books are when the alternative is actual work. Twenty or thirty pages a day will just fly by. But don’t let it cut into your SD time. [/QUOTE] But I HATE reading online. I mean, I have done it - the first time I read Count of Monte Cristo I did online, and loved it, as well as the Frank Baum Oz books, and also Fanny Hill. But it isn’t pleasant and not anywhere near as enjoyable as reading at home. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/29 "2008-05-29T17:59:35Z")
I still have not read _Moby-Dick_, though I got an A on the test just by listening in class. I also got an A on \*A Tale of Two Cities \* without reading it, though I have read it many times since then and it is one of my favorite books (and movies). ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/30 "2008-05-29T18:01:13Z")
Add me to the _Moby Dick_ list. I gave up when he started on that fifty-million page chapter on the breeding habits of whales, or whatever it was. Also never could get through any Tolstoy; I tried _Anna Karenina_ and _The Brothers Karamazov_ and part of my problem was that all the names were long and Russian and incomprehensible, so I never knew who was who. After awhile I didn’t care. Hated _Grapes of Wrath_ too. There’s a bit early in the book about a wad of spit landing on dust and rolling through it…IIRC correctly it’s like a paragraph long. I threw the book across the room and never picked it up again. I did love lots of classics…all of the Bronte sisters books, most Dickens, George Eliot, all of Jane Austen, etc…I even liked _Atlas Shrugged_, so if I just hated a “classic novel,” I gave myself a pass. At least I tried! ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/31 "2008-05-29T18:03:50Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] Oh! Treasure Island. Have never been able to get through the first chapter. [/QUOTE] That’s the one I came in here to mention. I don’t get it! It’s supposed to be about _pirates!_ How can it be so boring? ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/32 "2008-05-29T18:06:53Z")
I agree on War and Peace… all those names! And would like to add Gormengast (if it counts as famous enough?) Really wanted to like them both, but just couldn’t get into them. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/33 "2008-05-29T18:09:58Z")
[QUOTE=Justin Credible] 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. [/QUOTE] The prologue and first few chapters of Fellowship are horrible and not representative of the rest of the book, IMO. It took me 10+ years to get through that and then another ~3 days to finish the series. > [@Tengu](#): > > Same…I always give up at about the same point on my attempts, too - when the Hobbits are in the inn and the Ringwraiths try to kill them. By which point I think the page count was higher than the Hobbit. \>\_\> I _could_ be mistaken, but I don’t remember any of the individual LotR books being as long as The Hobbit. They’re certainly not beyond the Hobbit’s page count at the Prancing Pony. Re: **Moby Dick** - there are plenty of classics that bore me to tears, but this ain’t one of 'em. I was enthralled from the very first page. I knew this book would come up as soon as I saw the thread title, but I don’t understand why. There are so many offenders in the snoozer category, especially from the 19th century, I don’t get why this one gets brought up the most. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/34 "2008-05-29T18:11:33Z")
[QUOTE=don’t ask] _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. [/QUOTE] Heh, I love _Moby Dick_. It is a novel of obsession written in a self-conciously obsessive manner, and chock full of symbolism. Admittedly not for everyone. The chapter on “Whiteness” is one of the best - the whole point being that the symbolism isn’t always obvious (in the West, “White” = “good”, at the time in matters racial as well as in other ways; but it also symbolizes “death”). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/35 "2008-05-29T18:12:03Z")
[QUOTE=Audrey Levins] Also never could get through any Tolstoy; I tried _Anna Karenina_ and _The Brothers Karamazov_ and part of my problem was that all the names were long and Russian and incomprehensible, so I never knew who was who. After awhile I didn’t care. [/QUOTE] Yes! Hunt for Red October turned me off because of this. Everyone was Dimitri Federov Dosteysky Kuparo Singh. No nicks, either. Here’s a note, authors: If you introduce too many people with too many long names too fast and don’t give them any kind of nicknames, and don’t take time out to establish their personalities, _no one will ever care_. No one will empathize with your characters. Names should be simple, and distinguishable. I should not have to make notes on a work of fiction. I agree with you, **Kyth**. I keep thinking, “Ok, this time I’ll get to the pirates and find out what all of the hubbub is” and then…nope. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/36 "2008-05-29T18:14:13Z")
Heh, the list so far includes _many_ of my favourite books - Gormenghast, Lord of the Rings, Moby Dick, Treasure Island … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/37 "2008-05-29T18:16:27Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Re: **Moby Dick** - there are plenty of classics that bore me to tears, but this ain’t one of 'em. I was enthralled from the very first page. I knew this book would come up as soon as I saw the thread title, but I don’t understand why. There are so many offenders in the snoozer category, especially from the 19th century, I don’t get why this one gets brought up the most. [/QUOTE] I suspect it is because there are still lots of people who love Moby Dick and recommend it or attempt to teach it - a lot of the 19th century snoozers don’t have a devoted following. So people who hate Moby Dick are more likely to encounter it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/38 "2008-05-29T18:17:10Z")
**Pride and Prejudice**. I had to read the dsmned thing for a college course, and it was painful every step of the way. I also loathe Henry James. **The Turn of the Screw** – how can you make a damned _ghost story_ boring? By making every sentence two pages long, with lots of subordinate clauses. And with nothing going on. **The Beast in the Jungle** - a novel where Nothing happens, and the whole point is that Nothing Happens. But it takes so damned long to not happen! ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/39 "2008-05-29T18:18:01Z")
**Malthus** , does Gormenghast get any better once Whatshisname grows up or is it more of the same? By which I mean, should I give it another chance? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027/40 "2008-05-29T18:19:38Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] I _could_ be mistaken, but I don’t remember any of the individual LotR books being as long as The Hobbit. They’re certainly not beyond the Hobbit’s page count at the Prancing Pony. [/QUOTE] It sure as hell FELT like it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-you-just-couldnt-get-through/451027.md?page=3)