Books highly prized you couldn't finish

Zelenka

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I've had the same problem with American Gods. I got as far as chapter three in that, I think.

I also got halfway through The Historian and could never get any further. There was a female character introduced and I disliked her so much it put me off, even though I'd enjoyed it until then.

I hate to admit it but I'm also having trouble with A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin. I bought it on account of the rave reviews it's had from everyone else I know, and I can't get beyond the prologue for some reason.
 

Azraelsbane

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How do people feel about The Scarlet Letter? I read this book in one sitting and I absolutely fell in love with it.

Everyone else in my junior English class (high school) detested it. So far I don't think I've met anyone else who loves that book as much as I do.

I'm with you on this. It made me an instant Hawthorne fan. Some of his short stories are frickin' amazing, too.
 

nerds

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Someone earlier mentioned P.D. James. I always go into her books wanting to like them, and aware that most of the world does, but I have a hard time getting through them. Usually when that happens I can identify why but can't quite pin it down with her. Something about her writing style makes me feel as if I'm on an endless treadmill, puffing away and getting nowhere.
 
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wee

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absalom, absalom :faulkner
great expectations :dickens

put both down happily. f* dry classics where the narrator waxes in a lofty voice his characters wouldn't even understand. if you're writing about poor, simple folks write in poor, simple language. ...imo. (pet peeve, sorry)


Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh!

Dickens* & Faulker are scourges of literature! Bah! Bah! Don't say Great Expectations in my presence, please! It makes me shudder involuntarily and bark like a seal. ~Hoark!~

wee

*A Tale of Two Cities excepted.
 

wee

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Also for some reason I stopped halfway through Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' despite absolutely loving it. Strange enough... It's now in my TBR pile until I get back to it. But it's a huge pile.


How ... WEIRD! I did the same thing. Reading right along, thinking, "Yes, hrm, this is a good book," and then one day I just stopped somewhere in the middle, put it back on the bookshelf and never picked it back up.

Huh.

wee
 

gingerwoman

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Also for some reason I stopped halfway through Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' despite absolutely loving it. Strange enough
I did that with The Crimson Petal and the White.
 

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boy do I hate to say this...

I absolutely loathe and despise To Kill a Mockingbird.

I know! I know! I'm supposed to love it...but I can't. so there! nyah!
Didn't you know it is a crime to hate this book?

Seriously though, when I found out we were reading that book in class, I just laughed. If they want to teach about racism in America, why not get a book written by a black person (I.E. Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, etc.) Perhaps then we can talk about the struggle imposed on African Americans instead of glorifying the white man who stood up for one as he was being shot.

Couldn't stand The Sound and the Fury.
 

jennifer75

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I've started The Red Tent, The Liars Club and On Writing with Stephen King and can't seem to continue. They're great stories I've been told, but I just can't focus.
 

General Joy

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Maybe this one's not quite so well-known or "highly prized" in the first place, but I couldn't finish Lie Down in Darkness. After reading Sophie's Choice and absolutely loving it, I had high hopes for LDID, but ended up pretty bored and disappointed.
 
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Remember to bend the spine all the way through, though, so it looks like you've finished it. Dog-ear a few pages as well.
 

gingerwoman

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I've started The Red Tent, The Liars Club and On Writing with Stephen King and can't seem to continue
.
Wow I loved "On Writing" by Stephen King. I could not put it down and I have a HUGE libarary of writing books and his is by far one of the best in that it really gets down to the nitty gritty things that most books don't touch and does it fast. He doesn't repeat himself like most writers about writing do.
But I've never been able to get far into Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont which so many people rave about.
 

Joycecwilliams

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The Great Gatsby... I had to read it for a literature class. I tried to read it, but disliked most of characters... Maybe not so much disliked as could not identify with them.
 

brittanimae

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I hate to say it and I do so only with the understanding that nobody here actually knows my real name and address.

Pride and Prejudice. *cowers, covering head with hands*

Seriously, why don't those girls stop "turning about the room" and get lives??? I know, I know, that's the whole point--oppression of women and whatnot--but I find it quite dull.
 

hermit authoress

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Wow I loved "On Writing" by Stephen King. I could not put it down and I have a HUGE libarary of writing books and his is by far one of the best in that it really gets down to the nitty gritty things that most books don't touch and does it fast.

I'm with you on that opinion. I like his frankness and a lot of what he discussed just made sense to me. I've invested a large amount of money and time reading books on writing and that had to be one of the best yet.
 

bluntforcetrauma

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Everything's Eventual and The Shining made me want to hurt myself for wasting time reading half of each one.

I have To Kill A Mockingbird, but the print's too small for me to make out.
 

eyeblink

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Maybe this one's not quite so well-known or "highly prized" in the first place, but I couldn't finish Lie Down in Darkness. After reading Sophie's Choice and absolutely loving it, I had high hopes for LDID, but ended up pretty bored and disappointed.

Oh well. That was the first William Styron novel I read, and it had a big impact on me at the time (late teens). I've read all of them - not admittedly too difficult as he only wrote four, plus The Long March which is a novella.

I presume you spotted that Lie Down in Darkness is the novel Stingo is writing in Sophie's Choice?

I tend to stick novels out once I've started them. One I did leave unfinished was Nicola Griffith's Ammonite, which disappointed me greatly as I'd liked some of her short fictiion a lot.
 

jessicaorr

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Lets see.... I usually finish any book regardless of how terrible. But there is the occasional special book I just can't get through:

Foucault's Pendulum - I couldn't get into this one at all- and I normally adore Eco's writing

The Lovely Bones - yeah, ick. All I can say is ick.

Life Before Man - the characters were all incredibly unlikable, and there was very little plot to speak of. Reading even half of it was a weary task.

I'm sure there are others, but I can't remember them because they were well... unmemorable :p
 

HeronW

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Last of the Mohicans...BOOOOOORRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGG, Cooper may have been a writer but jeez louise, pacing sux.

Iberia...same old same old rehash of Michener's one trick pony.
The Red Tent kept me wondering how the MC lived, who she loved, really enjoyed it.
On Writing by King had some great tips.
I enjoyed Cold Mountain but found the author's lack of quotes kept pulling me out of the story to figure out where the hell the dialogue ended. Was the man lazy, thought he was too good to use quotes or didn't know how?
 

slcboston

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Don't know if it's still considered a must read amongst the English departments, but "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" did NOTHING for me. First book I ever read where I was totally apathetic about the main character. I simply couldn't connect with it.

Also, "A Tale of Two Cities" ... skipped it, watched the movie. It may have been the best of times but it was the worst of Dickens. :)
 

Diana W.

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I tried 2 or 3 times to read through the first book of the Lord of the Rings. I can never seem to get past the scene where Frodo and his friends are first fleeing the wraiths and they get to the ferry. It's a classic story but Tolkien was overdescriptive with everything and slowed the pace down to the extent it was unreadable...to me anyway. Even after watching the first movie I STILL couldn't get through the book!
 

oneblindmouse

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Lets see.... I usually finish any book regardless of how terrible. But there is the occasional special book I just can't get through:

Foucault's Pendulum - I couldn't get into this one at all- and I normally adore Eco's writing

The Lovely Bones - yeah, ick. All I can say is ick.

I agree with the above. I couldn't get into Foucault's Pendulum either and gave up. Finished Lovely bones though, but didn't like it.

I also found Dr Norell and Mr Strange (or the other way around?) ten times too long, too boring and too obvious. I ended up giving it away to someone living in the back of beyond, who is starved for books. She probably used it as a doorstop!

I also found Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth one of the most boring and badly written books I've ever read. Which says a lot for bestsellers! I read today that it's the number one seller in Spain (where I live) for the past five years!!!!!!!!!
 

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Not only could I not get through Dune, I threw it on the floor and stomped on it. I took that as proof I shouldn't consider writing S/F. (Oh I made the MOST amusing typo in the title--now corrected. Talk about freudian slips!)

Read Ulysses in college so I was forced to finish that or else I was gonna flunk the class so it doesn't count. Found Lovely Bones to have a substantial ick factor and boring, but finished it. I have to really HATE a book not to finish it. :)