Books you couldn't finish.

[hansoloist]

Years ago I'd finish a book no matter how much I disliked it, especially if it was a "classic." Now, if I'm not diggin' it, classic or not, I put it down. Here's a list of a few I couldn't get through.

Dhalgren - Samuel Delaney
Made it 250 pages into it, realized I had aged 7 years, cried for a bit, and donated it to a local 2nd hand book store.

Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
I was told I really had to read this book by several people. 150 pages later, I realized I really didn't...and should never have tried. I loaned it to a friend about three years ago just so I could make room on the shelves, and i haven't heard from him since (in spite of numerous apologetic emails).

The Dream of Scipio - Ian Pears
Incredibly beautiful writing about the most dreadfully boring characters I've ever encountered. I never managed more than a page and a half a sitting...fell asleep every time. I don't think I got 100 pages into it.

Neuromancer - William Gibson
Yes, I know it's part of the SF canon, won the "Triple Crown," started the cyberpunk genre, blah blah blah, but I could not bring myself to get wrapped up in this one. I gave up after 125 very drab pages.

Finnegans Wake - James Joyce
Reading should not be this much work. Read 50 pages and realized I didn't understand an effin' thing. Had a drink and picked up The Magus...good move!

The Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall
I actually enjoyed the first 300 pages, and was crushed when it suddenly turned to utter shit. I'm still angry about all the time I invested in this one.

The Sun Also Rises - Hemmingway
Yawn. Writing was dry, characters were flat, and nothing happened. Put it down after 100 pages.

House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski
Very cool and fun...for about 200 pages. After the style wore off, there was little to find in the way of substance.

Slowness - Milan Kundera
Ok, the encomium of a woman's asshole chapter was interesting, but otherwise this one dragged. The longest short book I never finished.

peace
-jeff

[tedzepplin]

Books! There are threads I can't even finish!!:o:o

[doublee]

Great thread. There are thousands for me, Remembrance of Things Past being just one, love it but...just cant find the time...

[Frankee]

The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie.....Started off ok, then, meh.
Don't feel bad about Finnegan's Wake, Han. I believe it was purposely written gibberish in order to see what some highbrow avante garde types or lit critics would comment.

[90wreck]

I always finish them...I don't know why.:dunno
My interest in reading has waned a bit since I have young kids and silence is a thing of the past.

Here is a book that I would like everyone here to pickup/read if your interested in early America.
It involve early frontiersmen/pioneers and thye stettlement of the early g frontier.
Very long and tough book to read.
The subject matter is based upon written facts.
Simon Kenton/Daniel Boone and Gurty.
Written by Allan Eckart.
He is a Historian and there is a series of these books.
Start with "The Frontiersman".
Friends of mine who don't read had a hard time putting this one down.
It's a 10 out of 10.

BTT.
I like them all and would have to say that I have put down very few in my life.
SciFi is one of my faves..

[57special]

Ghormenghast Trilogy.
The Bible.
Anything by Steven King.
Anything by Margaret Atwood. Edible Woman starts out really well.
Sword of Shannarra(sp?).
Dhalgren.
GRavity's Rainbow.

[pfflam]

The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie.....Started off ok, then, meh.
Don't feel bad about Finnegan's Wake, Han. I believe it was purposely written gibberish in order to see what some highbrow avante garde types or lit critics would comment.Finnegans's Wake is an ubelievably constructed work, there are discernible layers, discernible plot-lines characters and everything, just like a regular book. but it is by no means a regular book. It truly is not for the casual reader.
I have found that reading it can be a very engaging and worthwhile endeavor, in fact, I have read the whole thing! I even took a seminar on it, my daughter is even named Anna Livia. I love that book, in fact I love Joyce's work in general, Ulysses too, but I also understand why others don't get into it.


Gravities Rainbow - I read it twice - Loved it both times

The Recognitions I read it . . .

Brothers Karamazov - my favorite book ever!!

the strange thing is, despite all those feats of endurance I was unable to finish Moby Dick.

[The Last Rebel]

Finnegans's Wake is an ubelievably constructed work, there are discernible layers, discernible plot-lines characters and everything, just like a regular book. but it is by no means a regular book. It truly is not for the casual reader.
I have found that reading it can be a very engaging and worthwhile endeavor, in fact, I have read the whole thing! I even took a seminar it, my daughter is even named Anna Livia. I love that book, in fact I love Joyce's work in general, Ulysses too, but I also understand why others don't get into it.


Gravities Rainbow - I read it twice - Loved it both times

The Recognitions I read it . . .

Brothers Karamazov - my favorite book ever!!

the strange thing is, despite all those feats of endurance I was unable to finish Moby Dick.
I'm starting my endeavor on Dostoevsky's novels. Reading The Double right now. I'm not too far in, but it's been fairly engaging so far. To be honest, though, it's probably the toughest thing I've ever read. I plan on reading Brothers Karamazov next then Crime & Punishment.

Now to the topic. Anything by Dickens. I understand that he is loved the world over, and more power to you if you like him. But I never have and never will understand or like his writing. He loves going into anal retentive detail over the smallest things that have no bearing on the scene at hand or any later scene.

[duckbunny]

Any Clancy after Red October.
Technophilic, reactionary claptrap. He's writing by formula at this point, and doing that to your audience is unforgivable -especially since he's practically printing money with those insipid video games.



-db

[Frankee]

Finnegans's Wake is an ubelievably constructed work, there are discernible layers, discernible plot-lines characters and everything, just like a regular book. but it is by no means a regular book. It truly is not for the casual reader.
I have found that reading it can be a very engaging and worthwhile endeavor, in fact, I have read the whole thing! I even took a seminar on it, my daughter is even named Anna Livia. I love that book, in fact I love Joyce's work in general, Ulysses too, but I also understand why others don't get into it.

I've never read it, so maybe I'm speaking out of school. My comments are based on "what I've heard/read about "Finnegan's Wake" Maybe I'll give it a stab soon.

[recto-robbie]

Moby Dick is the only book I remember not finishing although I knew the story before hand and actually did enjoy reading what I finished.
I believe I grew tired of reading paragraphs 2-3 times to finally understand them.

[nsureit]

Anything by James Joyce!

[Dave Orban]

Faulkner: Mosquitoes.

[rhinocaster]

Tolkien. After 3 pages they fly across the room. Just can't to it.

The Air Conditioned Nightmare. Just couldn't take it.

[Boobala]

Any Clancy after Red October.
Technophilic, reactionary claptrap. He's writing by formula at this point, and doing that to your audience is unforgivable -especially since he's practically printing money with those insipid video games.
-db

"The Hunt For Red October" was his first book, so you're ruling out quite a few.

I think he started down-hill with "Rainbow Six", though it wasn't bad.

[michael.e]

Michener's "Alaska"

[DrSax]

Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner. I love most other Faulkner.

In Search of Lost Time, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, Gravity's Rainbow---loved them all and have re-read all of them.

[StratManKudzu]

Clancy is a hard read, He's a bit too descriptive reminds me too much of Dickens in a less Victorian way.

I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton and saddened by his passing

Also enjoyed Brian Jacques novels in middle school, he wrote Redwall and similar books. Knights and duels but with animals.

[Greggy]

Alan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. I have a strong distaste for reading philosophers. After the first 50 pages or thereabouts I called it quits. Even though I was in total agreement about his observations re the German influence on American education and its effects. Still, enough is enough. LOL.

[devilrob1979]

Clancy is a hard read, He's a bit too descriptive reminds me too much of Dickens in a less Victorian way.

I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton and saddened by his passing

Also enjoyed Brian Jacques novels in middle school, he wrote Redwall and similar books. Knights and duels but with animals.

I was a huge Clancy fan when I was a kid. I had read Red October, Patriot Games, Red Storm Rising (possibly my fave), Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears by the time I was 12. I have never been more disappointed with a movie as I was with Clear and Present Danger. The fact that they deleted the entire Zimmerman story pissed me right off. I read everything up to The Bear and The Dragon which I never got around to. I also read SSN, Airborne and Marines. I was quite the fan-boi as a kid. The only book I gave up on was The Thorn Birds. I absolutely adore Colleen McCollough's First Man in Rome series but the Thorn Birds was just too damn depressing. I also never made it through Anna Kornina or David Copperfield in seventh grade. I may try them again. I just got done reading The Count of Monte Cristo and frickin loved it.

[phishmarisol]

I can't think of anything that I started reading and didn't finish although I tend to find authors I like and stick with them.

Oh, if we are counting stuff in high school then I guess there are several that I ended up reading the Cliffs Notes instead of the book. Stupid J. Gatsby.

[claudel]

"See Spot Run"

[jcoloccia]

Boy, I'm a pretty voracious reader...and fast too. There's very little that I can't finish, if for no other reason that by the time I'm bored with it, I've finished it already.

That said, I just could never finish "The Count of Monte Cristo". I've tried many times, and it just bores me to tears.

Now, because I hate being negative, I'll tell you a book I've read over and over and over and over again. I mean, I see something new every time I read this book.

"The Manhattan Project" by Stephane Groueff
There is no way you can go through life without reading this book. This is by far the best written book I've ever read. Stephane is a genius. He wove together a narrative that is both technically correct (mostly) and emotionally gripping. He makes you wish you were a physicist during WWII, just so you could have had the opportunity to participate in that magnificent, and horrific, thing we unleahsed.

...AND it's back in print. WOOHOO! I have an original hard cover from...uhm...1967, I think. It was my dad's. READ THIS BOOK.

[Tritone]

Getting back into sci-fi recently, I picked up what many consider a classic: Larry Niven's "Ringworld". The writing was so cliched and the ideas so old-hat I couldn't bring myself to reach page 100. It was like Tek Jansen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tek_Jansen), without the irony or awesome theme song.

After really enjoying "The Fellowship of the Ring" I had to put down "The Two Towers" about halfway into it. I've tried to pick it up again a few times, with no luck. I will probably finish it eventually in the hope that "The Return of the King" will be better.

On the other hand there are some good books that take a while to get up to full speed, but are very rewarding if you stick to it. My experience reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon was like that. I was bored for the first 100 pages, but by the book's halfway point (around p. 450) I couldn't put it down.

[bluesjunior]

I can only think of two books I never finished. Joseph Hellers Catch 22 is my all time favorite book and 13yrs later when he wrote his next one called Something Happened I was at the bookstore on opening day to buy my copy. I needn't have bothered I tried a few times to read it but just couldn't get into it at all. To this day I don't know what happened.

Years ago in the 70's my best friend was a huge fan of Tolkeins Lord of the Rings and gave me a loan of his copy. I tried but couldn't get into it so he said it is because you have to read the Hobbit first. I still never got it. Yet when the films came out a few years ago I loved them so went round to the local library and loaned the both and found that I still couldn't get into them. Usually I believe that a film can never be as good as the book due to the detail in the book but I think there is too much detail in Tolkein and the film to me is better than the books.

[Smakutus]

The Source by James Michener. A friend recommended it to me and the premise of the story is interesting but it was just too slow and I just couldn't get through it.. I've tried twice so far. Some day I'll make it.

And the Steven King book where a guy has died of a heart attack during sex with his wife who is handcuffed to the bed in a cabin with no one else but wild animals around. The premise was stupid to me because I've never seen a bed that I couldn't break to get loose of if handcuffed to it.

Lord Of The Rings and the book after Forest Gump. (Gump & Company?)

It's one thing to read English on the page and think of how Gump would sound having said the sentence in your mind. It's quite another to have to actually read how Gump would say it on the page. It's like reading a Star Trek book in Klingonese. No thank you.

Jeff

[davecan]

Any Stephen King written after 1990. If someone gives a newer book of his I'll read the first 100 pages, then the last 20, leaving out the 8,000 pages in the middle.

[jcoloccia]

And the Steven King book where a guy has died of a heart attack during sex with his wife who is handcuffed to the bed in a cabin with no one else but wild animals around. The premise was stupid to me because I've never seen a bed that I couldn't break to get loose of if handcuffed to it.

That was Gerald's Game, I believe.

[PA Woody]

Moby Dick is the only book I remember not finishing although I knew the story before hand and actually did enjoy reading what I finished.
I believe I grew tired of reading paragraphs 2-3 times to finally understand them.
+1... Billy Budd was my introduction to Herman Melville. Required reading in Eng 101. I couldn't get through it.

[BarryJ]

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (one of his Baroque Cycle books). I've loved everything he's done up to that point - but man, that thing was just ponderous.....

I'm almost afraid to try his new one (Anathem) for that reason.

[scottlr]

I don't know why, but the only book I ever read are tech stuff for computer graphics, and guitar related. I just never read novels at all.

[Motorhed]

I can only think of two books I never finished. Joseph Hellers Catch 22 is my all time favorite book and 13yrs later when he wrote his next one called Something Happened I was at the bookstore on opening day to buy my copy. I needn't have bothered I tried a few times to read it but just couldn't get into it at all. To this day I don't know what happened.

Years ago in the 70's my best friend was a huge fan of Tolkeins Lord of the Rings and gave me a loan of his copy. I tried but couldn't get into it so he said it is because you have to read the Hobbit first. I still never got it. Yet when the films came out a few years ago I loved them so went round to the local library and loaned the both and found that I still couldn't get into them. Usually I believe that a film can never be as good as the book due to the detail in the book but I think there is too much detail in Tolkein and the film to me is better than the books.


I really enjoyed the LOTR movies and thought I'd try the books. I did finish The Fellowship but I found it to be more like reading an encyclopedia than a novel. I think the stories are spectacular and for that I think Tolkien was a genius but I'm not sure I can get into his writing style. One of these days I'll try the other 2. I also read The Hobbit first, that I did enjoy but I don't see how not reading it first would have made The Fellowship any easier to read.

[The Guy]

I'm starting my endeavor on Dostoevsky's novels. Reading The Double right now. I'm not too far in, but it's been fairly engaging so far. To be honest, though, it's probably the toughest thing I've ever read. I plan on reading Brothers Karamazov next then Crime & Punishment.

Now to the topic. Anything by Dickens. I understand that he is loved the world over, and more power to you if you like him. But I never have and never will understand or like his writing. He loves going into anal retentive detail over the smallest things that have no bearing on the scene at hand or any later scene.

make sure to read the idiot. . . my favorite dostoevsky novel. . .

100 years of solitude. . . came highly recommended, but i just could not seem to get through it

[jay42]

The Odyssey (Lattimore translation)
Ulysses -- I intend to get back to it at some point

[rickd]

I think he started down-hill with "Rainbow Six", though it wasn't bad.
Rainbow Six was AWFUL!

My buddy, an ex-army guy, gave it to me, but I couldn't take it.

[A-Bone]

Remembrance of Things Past being just one, love it but...just cant find the time...

My sentiments exactly. I own it. I stare at it. I tell myself every fall that I will make the time to read it. Occasionally I start it, but I have not ever gotten past the first book in the series. Proust is a phenomenal writer, but I look at those thousands of pages, and...what's funny is that I have undoubtedly read more than the equivalent of this series multiple times since my first exposure to Remembrance of Things Past, and yet...

[pfflam]

I've never read it, so maybe I'm speaking out of school. My comments are based on "what I've heard/read about "Finnegan's Wake" Maybe I'll give it a stab soon.
One thing to make sure you are aware of is that you don't just 'read' FW, you have to kind of work with it . .. (you can just read it too, after all its fun on the level of just sound alone, but chances are you won't get far) It is a kind of text that kind of demands using other texts along with it . . . that's what I mean by not for-everyone. There are lots of books that accompany the text and explicate it and work with it, these are not authoritative and each one uses FW as a point of departure to talk about what Joyce is doing in different ways - its a cottage industry. . . some of these books are themselves fantastic reads, like my favorite called Joyce's Book of The Dark - FW, and to a lessor extent Ulysses, is like a generator of dialog, there is so much in that book, in every word, that it generates philosophies, and it does so because Joyce wasn't messing around, there are reasons that one of the smartest people ever spent 17 years writing one book -but you have to be willing to work with that book to find those reasons. Reading it will lead to reading other fantastic works, it lead me to Vico, Hayden White, Norman O Brown, Buddhism, histories and on and on. It is what is called by critics, and encyclodedic work, it is epic in scale and address our collective history in a grand scale, as well as simply telling the story of the few minutes between wakefulness and falling asleep for one man. IMO his vision is worth the effort.


Absolom Absolom is one of my favorite books that I never managed to finish - tried it twice and both times got to about 50 pages to the end and just gave up . . . even though I absolutely loved it, I like hte style of that book the best of his that I have read . . . and I've read a lot.
Man some of Faulkner's later stuff is just plain bad, I started a Fable and that is just plain kitschy prose . . .

Even though I love Gravity's Rainbow I couldn't finish V - got to about 50 pages to the end and decided that it wasn't worth it.

The thing about Gravity's Rainbow is that you have to plow past page 230-something before the narrative starts to gel . . . that can be pretty hard if you're not up for that sort of thing . . . I don't think I could do it these days . . . but in me youth!

[eBay]

Eric Fromm's The Art of Loving. I tried but it just bored me silly. I know more about relational issues than he does by what he talks about in that book. We've come a long way.

[pfflam]

My sentiments exactly. I own it. I stare at it. I tell myself every fall that I will make the time to read it. Occasionally I start it, but I have not ever gotten past the first book in the series. Proust is a phenomenal writer, but I look at those thousands of pages, and...what's funny is that I have undoubtedly read more than the equivalent of this series multiple times since my first exposure to Remembrance of Things Past, and yet...
Here's a funny story: My mother was French and was a big reader. One Christmas I found a nice 12 volume French edition of Proust and gave it to her for Christmas. As she was opening the package she said 'as long as it isn't Proust' :worried

Anyway, it turns out that since I gave it to her she worked her way through it and told me that it was worth it.

[John H]

I'm currently reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (critiqued as "the thinking man's DaVinci Code"). Maybe, it's my current state of mind, but, this may be the most dense, most convoluted novel I've ever read. It's interesting enough, so I'm still plodding through...

[Greggy]

Eric Fromm's The Art of Loving. I tried but it just bored me silly. I know more about relational issues than he does by what he talks about in that book. We've come a long way.

Regarding the often hilarious roles that "intellectuals" fulfill in western culture, have you read Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals"? It is still available in paperback, I believe. A great read.

[Smakutus]

I was a huge Clancy fan when I was a kid. I had read Red October, Patriot Games, Red Storm Rising (possibly my fave), Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears by the time I was 12. I have never been more disappointed with a movie as I was with Clear and Present Danger. The fact that they deleted the entire Zimmerman story pissed me right off. I read everything up to The Bear and The Dragon which I never got around to. I also read SSN, Airborne and Marines. I was quite the fan-boi as a kid. The only book I gave up on was The Thorn Birds. I absolutely adore Colleen McCollough's First Man in Rome series but the Thorn Birds was just too damn depressing. I also never made it through Anna Kornina or David Copperfield in seventh grade. I may try them again. I just got done reading The Count of Monte Cristo and frickin loved it.

Cardinal of the Kremlin is my favorite book by him.. The more popular he got the longer his books got and they needed editing as far as I'm concerned.
Same thing with the Harry Potter books..

Jeff

[fruvai]

Anything by James Joyce!

'Dubliners' is an enjoyable and easy read

[Jon Silberman]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Main points are expressed early on, preachy tone becomes insufferable after 200 pages.

[John Hurtt]

"The Hunt For Red October" was his first book, so you're ruling out quite a few.

I think he started down-hill with "Rainbow Six", though it wasn't bad.


Lot's of great Clancy (IMO) after Red October. Patriot Games is really good, and differs greatly from the movie (which wasn't bad, actually). But, if you don't like the technology part of his stories I can see not digging it. Some of the later books (especially as his character Jack Ryan becomes President) are difficult to get into. Takes some investment time...

[wstsidela]

The Easton Press' 100 Greatest Books Ever Written [that I'll never read because I'm a workaholic and a procrastinator]

[gkoelling]

Faulkner: Mosquitoes.

Faulkner: As I Lay Dying three times and Light In August once that I remember.

[bjjp2]

I read a lot of long books, so my attention span is fine, but I just couldn't get through "The Corrections." Relentlessly dreary.

[Brad Gregg]

"Lamb; The Gospel Acording To Biff (Christ's childhood friend)" - Christopher Moore.

I read another one of Moore's books...I think it was called "A Dirty Job" which was goofy and hard to swallow at times but still a decent read. Lamb, however, was just terrible. I read over half and refused to continue. It's just too damned hoakey!!

There's too many great books out there to stick with a crappy one.

I had the same reaction to "Lamb," but I thought (and still think) "The Stupidest Angel" by Christopher Moore is one of the funniest books I've ever read.

[FlyingDutchman]

A Confederacy of Dunces...I dont know why, I just lost interest in it. Ive finished a few books since. Maybe I'll pick it back up again.

[michael30]

Dostojevski: Crime and punishment
- tried several times, could never get past page 50

Bulgakov: The White Guard
- The Master and Margarita is one of my favourite books. This was a huge disappointment.

Anton Szandor LaVey: The Satanic Bible
- I asked myself "why am I reading this crap" after two chapters and couldn't think of an answer.

Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf
- the worst writing ever. Nothing in this book made any sense or gave an answer to the question "what was he really thinking?".

[Frethog]

I love Tolkien but "The Simarilion" was illegible.

[antojado]

Moby Dick is the only book I remember not finishing although I knew the story before hand and actually did enjoy reading what I finished.
I believe I grew tired of reading paragraphs 2-3 times to finally understand them.

This is on my all-time list of most boring books. I stopped when Melville took what seemed like 400 pages to describe the contents of his desk. Shear torture!

[antojado]

I really enjoyed the LOTR movies and thought I'd try the books. I did finish The Fellowship but I found it to be more like reading an encyclopedia than a novel. I think the stories are spectacular and for that I think Tolkien was a genius but I'm not sure I can get into his writing style. One of these days I'll try the other 2. I also read The Hobbit first, that I did enjoy but I don't see how not reading it first would have made The Fellowship any easier to read.

I'm the opposite! I've read the books 4 times, but I don't really care for the movies. Movies of books I've read usually end up irking me anyway. I agree that I don't think The Hobbit makes the LOTR any easier if you already don't like it.

[Hamertoe]

Dianetics- L. Ron Hubbard, simply brutal. I'm unsure how many pages I was in to but it was quite a few. Complete rubbish.

Prey by Michael Crichton- I prefer non fiction so it just wasn't for me.

[MightyGuru]

The Hobbit...no thanks.

[Kingbeegtrs]

1984

[wstsidela]

Dianetics- L. Ron Hubbard, simply brutal. I'm unsure how many pages I was in to but it was quite a few. Complete rubbish

You will finish the book!!

http://www.amazingpartyproductions.com/hypnotic.gif

[denver.p]

Absalom, Absalom! - Faulkner

I will finish it one day, but that day is not today.

[phishmarisol]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Main points are expressed early on, preachy tone becomes insufferable after 200 pages.

Totally forgot about this one. Not sure how far I got but I did stop reading it. Oh, and On the Road. I tried about 3 times but whatever other people "got" I didn't.

[Josh O]

Battlefield Earth.

[daddyo]

Brothers Karamzov
Dune