Books highly prized you couldn't finish

Harper K

here's to the girl on the go
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
543
Reaction score
102
Location
Atlanta
Website
weirdquietgirl.wordpress.com
I've attempted Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace, about five times now. I haven't made it past page 50. I guess I'll keep it around to use as a freeweight.

I've taken Carson McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter off my shelf many times over the years and read the first few pages, but so far it hasn't clicked with me enough to keep me reading. I figure that one of these days I'll get back to it. It's like that with books I own: I'm much more lax on forcing myself to get interested and stay interested. With books I get from the library, I'm more likely to soldier on through a less than exciting first chapter as long as I'm fairly sure that the book is something I'll eventually like.
 

aruna

On a wing and a prayer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2005
Messages
12,862
Reaction score
2,846
Location
A Small Town in Germany
Website
www.sharonmaas.co.uk
What about "Books highly prized you can't even get past the first page?"

I bought "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai for a friend a few months back; we always exchange books and I knew that I would get it sooner or later, and looked forward to it. I would never buy a new book for myself.

Anyway, this book one the last Mann Booker prize among much acclaim, so it was bound to be good, right?

Wrong. Even the first paragraph was so turgid I had to read it a few times to get myself to focus. I read on a little bit more and finally put the book down,. That was a few days ago. I am trying to gather the motivation to read on but find it difficult.

I read several negative amazon reviews and I now believe I will not like this book at all, so I may not try again. Should have read those reviews before buying the book.

My friend by the way did not finish it either. She just couldn't get into it.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
47,985
Reaction score
13,245
Oh dear. The Inheritance of Loss was one of the most recent books I bought.

Ne'ermind. I shall take that as a personal challenge to read it, cover to cover!
 

gerrydodge

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 1, 2007
Messages
449
Reaction score
99
Location
Finesville, New Jersey
I could not read James's THE TURN OF THE SCREW. I've probably began that short novel ten times and just can not do it. I have trouble with Henry James.
 

aruna

On a wing and a prayer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2005
Messages
12,862
Reaction score
2,846
Location
A Small Town in Germany
Website
www.sharonmaas.co.uk
Oh dear. The Inheritance of Loss was one of the most recent books I bought.

Ne'ermind. I shall take that as a personal challenge to read it, cover to cover!

I picked it up today again, and read a few pages. It seems to be written froman omnicient POV or is it just plain head-hopping? With some sentences she seems to be trying very hard to be literary. Oh well. At least she mentions Guyana on page 22.
 

Sandy J

In a state of denial...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
343
Reaction score
52
I meant to say, "I've probably begun that short novel..." Yikes!!!


I don't think anyone is grading on spelling or grammar. :tongue I make the teacher in me take a break when I'm here. I hope no one points out all the errors I make. ;)
 

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
17,864
Reaction score
4,638
Location
dunking doughnuts at Dunkin' Donuts
I'm another who's tried Tolkien. I thought Frank Herbert was verbose; the same blade of grass Herbert describes in 4 paragraphs gets 4 chapters in Tolkien.

I also tried ...And Ladies of The Club when it came out (anybody else remember that one?). Working at a library at the time, I'd heard so much about it, how good it was, what an instant classic, blah blah blah fishcakes, I couldn't wait to throw it across the room finish the first 100 pages. It was a looooooooooooong sucker, too.

Moby Dick was a crashing bore. Think I'll become a sailor. Oh, noez!!!11!eleventy-one!! The captain's insane! He's after the whale that done et his leg! Oh, noez!!!11!eleventy-one!! The whale that done et the captain's leg done et the rest of the ship and crew! The end. There were 8 or 9 of us passing around the Cliffs Notes so we wouldn't actually have to read the thing.

I can't get through anything by Isaac Asimov, either. He just bores the snot out of me.

And Eats, Shoots & Leaves was just too "preshus" for its own good. I thought the author was incredibly snotty and condescending.
 
Last edited:

gem1122

We can pickle that
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
279
Reaction score
24
Location
US
I love The Shipping News. One of my all-time favorites. I also really enjoyed Lovely Bones. I think "that scene" that others have mentioned is so emotional and, well, lovely. I didn't see it as icky at all. Anyway, onto the unfinished list...

Life of Pi. The first several pages is an info dump! What is this? Danielle Steele?

Wicked. Wicked boring.

Moby Dick. Tried several times, but can't get past the super-detailed whale descriptions.

On the Road. Pointless, which I suppose is the point, but annoying as hell.

Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance. ?!?!

Though I enjoyed The Stand, I could never finish other King books. Interesting stories, but the writing is just plain bad.

Harry Potter. "You'll love them! They're not just for kids, really!" Ugh.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. I finished Looking for Alaska, which was okay, but not the great YA novel everyone seems to think it is. Katherines is awful. Whiner.




Boy, that felt good! :D
 

Harper K

here's to the girl on the go
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
543
Reaction score
102
Location
Atlanta
Website
weirdquietgirl.wordpress.com
I also tried ...And Ladies of The Club when it came out (anybody else remember that one?). Working at a library at the time, I'd heard so much about it, how good it was, what an instant classic, blah blah blah fishcakes, I couldn't wait to throw it across the room finish the first 100 pages. It was a looooooooooooong sucker, too.

Oh, I remember that one! I had a friend in high school who lived and breathed that book. She wouldn't rest until she got me to read it, and she even lent me her much-loved copy. I couldn't get interested in the beginning and eventually turned to the middle and read about 100 pages, which was about 1/10 of the novel's heft, if I remember correctly. It was enough for me to be able to "discuss" the book with my friend (read: listen to her gush about it).
 

gem1122

We can pickle that
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
279
Reaction score
24
Location
US
It verges on sacrilege I know, but I couldn't get through Heller's Catch 22 or Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. And Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow? Fahgeddaboutit.

You know, reading this thread gets me to wondering who are all these people who we apologize to who say "You have to read this or that book. It's one of the greatest books of all time...." Critics? Teachers?

Obviously, there are a lot of folks who claim to love hefty, complicated, critically-acclaimed books simply to sound smart. So are we apologizing to a bunch of uppity people with low self-esteems?
 

Melanie Lane

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
169
Reaction score
10
Location
Pluto
Heh. I have several repeat books that I've picked up and wasn't able to finish, and a few new ones as well.

Lord of the Rings. Didn't make it past page three. And I love fantasy.
Eragon. Forced myself to finish it and wondered why I bothered.
The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax. I read the first two pages in a Reader's Digest compilation, and kept wondering why they called it a spy novel.
The Wind in the Willows. I don't know why I couldn't read this one.
Gossip Girls. I was forced to read the first five pages, duct taped to a chair.
One for the Money - Evanovich. (sorry). I forced myself through this one, and thankfully was eventually rewarded. The next books were better.
Lovely Bones. Another three pager.
The Odyssey.
Johnny Tremain.
Across Five Aprils (eye twitch).
Anything by Mark Twain
On Writing.
The Great Gatsby.

And the biggest disappointment - Wicked. Loved the musical to bits, lived, breathed, and ate it for a year because we did mostly Wicked songs in choir that year and went to see it. The book was... I don't even know what to say...

And most things deemed 'classics'. In my opinion, just because they're classics doesn't mean they have to appeal to me...
 

BlueTexas

Back from self-exile land.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
1,159
Reaction score
220
Location
Aledo, TX
I made it through about 60 pages of On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I loved her first book, but this one was just dull.
 

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
17,864
Reaction score
4,638
Location
dunking doughnuts at Dunkin' Donuts
It verges on sacrilege I know, but I couldn't get through Heller's Catch 22 or Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. And Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow? Fahgeddaboutit.
(bolding mine)

I didn't even finish 50 pages of Dunces. I've just met too many people that I can't stand in real life like the main character, so why would I want to read a book about them?!

Oh, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was a putter-downer-really-quick-like. The first third of the book was spent talking about Savannah and the people who lived there and the people who live in Savannah and Savannah and its people and *headdesk* so much, I didn't care when the book's fabled murder finally occurred (I labeled it a mercy killing.)
 

cooltouch

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
59
Reaction score
6
Location
Bubba City, TX
Website
michaelmcbroom.com
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, soon to be a Major Motion Picture (!) was so incredibly boring, I could put it down. And I left it there.

Anything by Umberto Eco.

Most Victorian era "literature."

Best,

Michael
 

CatSlave

Mah tale iz draggin.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
3,720
Reaction score
620
Location
Paradise Found: Bradenton, FL
It verges on sacrilege I know, but I couldn't get through Heller's Catch 22 or Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. And Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow? Fahgeddaboutit.
You abandoned Ignatius ??
He improved as the story got along. The uprising he led at the Levy Pants Factory was...:roll:

My "refuse to read" list is headed up by any of the Anne Rice vampire disasters, although I loved Cry to Heaven and Feast of All Saints.
 
Last edited:

aruna

On a wing and a prayer
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2005
Messages
12,862
Reaction score
2,846
Location
A Small Town in Germany
Website
www.sharonmaas.co.uk
It verges on sacrilege I know, but I couldn't get through Heller's Catch 22 or Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.
Hey there! Those are two books, books I BOUGHT becuase they had been so highy recommended - and I never read past the first few pages! I was especially disappointed with Catch 22, beause everyone says it is so great. But I just could not get into it - it's the whole style that grated on me.
 

sadron

Writing Dark Fantasy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
4,861
Reaction score
1,475
Location
Where am I?
Lord of the Rings I bought and I haven't finished reading it. Someday I will read it to the end.
 

Tifferbugz

Doing Pirate things...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
5,256
Reaction score
1,326
Location
...on my pirate ship.
I enjoyed The Lovely Bones and Anne Rice's first couple of books in her vampire series, but like someone mentioned earlier in the thread once Lestat became a rock star it seemed too hokey. I tried to read the first book of her witch series (can't remember the name offhand) and couldn't make it halfway through. =(

Of all the perfect titles, Insomnia by Stephen King. I could not get into that one to save my life. I'm a fussy reader and that one had me wondering if I'd fertilized the lawn that day. Bad indication. I'm sorry to say that I also had to force my way through Dracula. Can't explain it, but it just didn't do anything for me.

I loved Insomnia, but couldn't get into many of Steven King's books like The Stand and It. I mostly like his older novels like Desperation and some of his Bachman books. I did like The Cell. Although I finished it, I was more fond of the movie The Green Mile than I was of the book. It's hit or miss with his books for some reason.

I made it through The Fellowship of the Ring and halfway through . . . Man, I can't even remember the title of the second one, shame on me. Anyway . . . It's hard to believe that someone with such grand, creative ideas could put together a book so boring. Too dry, too much description, and too much elven poetry!

I loved The Hobbit, though.

I also made it through the first book and halfway through the second! I love fantasy/sci-fi books but I just couldn't get into these. :(

Maybe I'll try The Hobbit.
 

kristin724

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 12, 2005
Messages
677
Reaction score
32
Age
43
Location
NJ
Website
kristinbattestella.blogspot.com
Hee. I hardly ever buy a new book outright for the full price. I usually go the used or second hand route. Mostly books are a buck tops. I did pay $3 for Mists of Avalon awhile back, but the jury is still out on my opinion of the book. I was tempted to pay full price for it at first, but now I wouldn't recommend it.

I paid 5 dollars for The Three Musketeers. I love the movies and the book The Count of Monte Cristo, but 3M is one of the few books I've willing put down rather than finish. I just paid the same price for the unedited Lady Chatterley's Lover and zipped through that one as one of the better books I've read.

Go figure!