# What's the Longest It's Taken You to Finish a Book?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-its-taken-you-to-finish-a-book/388072>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 15, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-its-taken-you-to-finish-a-book/388072 "2007-01-15T15:27:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-its-taken-you-to-finish-a-book/388072/61 "2007-01-20T20:32:05Z")

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I’ve been stuck on page 293 of Marquez’ _Cien Años de Soledad_ (432 pages total) for about three years now. I swear I’m gonna finish that baby before this year is through.

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**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-its-taken-you-to-finish-a-book/388072/62 "2007-01-21T08:31:42Z")

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as a kid, having read and enjoyed _The Hobbit_, i was eager to start on _The Lord of the Rings_. it took me a year to get through chapter one of the first book before completing the trilogy in a month.

re: the _Silmarillion_. i flipped through the book first and decided no, it’s not worth the effort.  
\*Last edited by shijinn : 01-21-1999 at 03:16 PM. Reason: for taking so long to post? i dunno. \*

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**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-its-taken-you-to-finish-a-book/388072/63 "2007-01-21T08:38:05Z")

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Ok, I can’t say that I’ve counted days or what have you, but the hardest I’ve ever worked to finish a book was **catch 22** my senior year of highschool. It wasn’t an assignment and I didn’t have any warning going in about the abstract linearity, and I was a stoner at the time, and there was a lot of vocabulary I had to figure out. It was about halfway before it all fell into place, TOTALLY worth it.

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**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2007, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-its-taken-you-to-finish-a-book/388072/64 "2007-01-21T09:35:01Z")

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[QUOTE=JohnT]  
No matter how hard I try, I just cannot complete **Godel, Escher, Bach** , though I _like_ Godel, Escher, and Bach. ☹

It’s not a case of “that guy is way smart” in regards to the author, it’s more “that guy is way smart in a way _I’m not_.” 😉  
[/QUOTE]

Almost two years now. I’m _maybe_ a quarter of the way through. I have to rest for several months in between each chapter. Ugh.

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