I’ve been reading Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin for a few months now. It isn’t because it’s tedious or difficult – it’s actually a gorgeous book, so far. In fact, it’s one of the few books I can dip in and out of without losing the threads of the plot. Problem is, I own the damn thing, it’ll always be there, unlike the time sensitive library books that keep coming in for me.
I’ve been reading a page or two of *The Odyssey * every night at bedtime. I’m almost finished after about six months.
Rats, Lice and History
It is a delightful history of the black death (the plague) and how rats and lice enter into it.
True story - I began reading it in 1972 and didn’t finish it until 1978. The locals on the island where I was a Peace Corps volunteer used the last 70 or 80 pages of the book for cigarette papers and smoked them, and I had no way to get another copy until I returned to the States which turned out to be six years later. Even then, it took me about a year or two before I could find it and finish it. I had to have the Denver Public Library do an inter-library loan before I could finish the book.
I remember the first part was better than the last. Probably because the last did not live up to the anticipation of finally finishing the book.
TV
Pity you had that “no starting over” clause. I started The Two Towers in late 1989 and didn’t finish it until 2001, but I started over, so it doesn’t count.
I’ve been reading Stranger In A Strange Land for a couple of months and I have gotten less than half way. I like the book, I want to know what happens, and I want to have read this acclaimed work, but I can’t seem to get through it.
Many times it has taken me several months, even occasionally more than a year to finish a book. I’m always reading at least a half dozen books at once. When I read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson over a period of about eleven months, I was giving monthly updates on my progress (several pages a day) to a science fiction group I’m in.
Try finding a copy as it was originally published. Most of the recent print-runs have been an “extended” version that supposedly doesn’t add anything useful. I wouldn’t know because I’ve only read the extended version, but this is what I’ve heard.
I have a book that I started in the early 80’s, which I haven’t read more than about 20 pages (of 300). I don’t know if that qualifies. I don’t expect to ever pick it up again.
It ttok me forever to get into Harlot’s Ghost by Mailer, mainly because of that fucking alpha-omega prelude. I think I was working on it for a couple of years, until a friend adviced me to skip that part and get on with the story. I did. It’s a great read, but I still haven’t read the prelude.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein took me at least a decade. I identified with the monster, and it was deeply depressing. I had to stop. Then I saw Young Frankenstein, which was more loyal to the original than most of the movies were. It also took the monster’s side, which was refreshing. After that, I could finally finish the book.
Yes…<groan> but only the first time through.
I’ve been reading Rememberance of Things Past off and on for about 12 years, and I’m not close to finishing it. I know if I want to understand the novel as an art form, I have to read this, but, man, after about a dozen pages I just can’t keep going on.
Fortunately, if you just want to enjoy the novel as a form of entertainment, this ain’t a requirement.
Thing hit the wall after about 80 pages.
I bought a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in high school from a thrift shop for about, as I recall, fifteen cents.
Over 15 years later, I still haven’t finished it. 
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
I started this when it came out in 1998. I have it in hardcover, which means I can’t take it anywhere. This bad boy is over 1380 pages! I keep it by the bed and read a few pages whenever I don’t have another book to read, which isn’t very often.
26 years and counting. I started reading The Silmarillion when I was 15, and got bored with it and put it down. I almost never do that – I can recall only a few other books that I have done that with, and I almost always come back and give them another shot. I’ve found myself slogging through books that I thoroughly dislike, just so I can fing finish them and move on… and I love the Trilogy and have read it multiple times. But The Silmarillion* just bored the crap out of me, and I have no interest in even trying, at least so far.
Ulysses…I started reading it in about 1977 after a friend raved (he read it about 10 times.)
I still have the book on my shelf - I am on about page four.
I don’t read a lot. Some of the ones listed here I have read or put down. Several, like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, all 4 LOTR, several Stephen Kings, I read in marathon sessions in just a day or two. The Silmarillion, I got thru about 5 pages and never tried again. I had to read Quo Vadis in Latin class, back in high school. I can’t remember if I actually read it all… but it took me all semester to get thru enough to pass.
The one that took me a long while, but kept my interest, and that I got thru (several times actually) was The Bible. About five months the first time. Several chapters or books a day. The first time I started on the New Testament and then went thru the Old.
Hah! I borrowed this from a guy in 1974 and spent two years working on it, and then pretty much gave up, except every five years or so I try again. I do NOT start at the beginning, I pick it up and try to find someplace I haven’t read yet.
I usually read pretty fast.
The Unnameable by James Joyce
I picked up the trilogy packaged together in a single volume about 10 years ago. I sped through Molloy, slowed down a bit for *Malone Dies *but when I got to The Unnameable things really began to get difficult.
I enjoy James Joyce and I’ve always had a bit of a thing for stream-of-conciousness but that one just did me in. I made it through about half the book but after that fatigue set in too deep. Over the years I violated the OPs rule a couple of times and started over but I figure since I’ve never actually gotten all of the way through it still counts. Nowadays I’ve stopped starting over and just slog through a page or two every few months when the mood strikes me. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the entire “stream” part of stream-of-conciousness so it’s a joyless effort.
I fly across the Pacific fairly often and I keep telling myself that I’ll take it along but even when I do I just end up watching the movies or reading some schlock I pick up at the airport.
Dubious Weasle writes:
> The Unnameable by James Joyce
Samuel Beckett, actually.
A lot of what people are mentioning aren’t really cases of taking a long time to finish a book. They’re examples of giving up on a book. I’ve done that a few times, but I wouldn’t include this in this thread. I also wouldn’t include the times when I started a book, gave up on it, and years later began again and finished it. I only count the books I’ve read over a period of months, alternating reading it with other books. I’ve done this many times. I am always reading several books at a time and often take months to finish a book. Quite a few times it has taken me more than a year to finish a book.
I felt that way with Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chaos and Order when I stopped reading half way through in spring of 2004. The suffering that he inflicted on his characters was so severe that I had to quit. I finished it in fall of 2006.