Books highly prized you couldn't finish

Sarita said:

Never give up on Russian literature! Give some of Gogol's short stories a try. He was just brilliant (and okay, okay, Ukrainian, but...) And Chekhov? Please! Russian literature is so dismal and stirring.

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I love Chekhov's works. One of the best, as you say, "dismal" authors Ive ever read..

Couldn't finish and can't care any less:

Huck Fin by Mark Twain
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Walden by Thoreau

Eventually finished:

Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley (I have a fairly active loathing for this book)
Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan (It's a special, special book that I can put down for the moment, walk away, and forget about it for days on end.)

Have yet to finish reading, but I just keep going back and re-trying for several years now

Desolation Angles by Jack Kerouac
Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney
God of Clocks by Alan Campbell

Debating whether I should just give up on Dhalgren. I like what I've gotten through of Desolation Angles, it just keeps losing my attention when it jumps around as much as it does. God of Clocks, I just keep picking up at bad times, and it's been so long since I read Scar Night and Iron angle that I'm kinda thinking about just starting over and reading them all over again.

The Secret Life of Bees. Tried three times. Have no idea why, I don't think it was boredom but I did not, could not want to read it.

Imajica was another one -- three times and at about seventy-five percent through I had the same reaction.

I didn't even go to the end to see what happened on either book. I just did not care.

I really struggled with The Name of the Rose. I love medieval history and some of the wordy bits were actually interesting and informative, but it just got so boring and dense at times – most of the architectural descriptions were just guh. The only reason I finished it was because I was staying with family at the time and had literally nothing else to read.

On a less “literary” level, The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss was probably the only fantasy book I ever picked up and just couldn’t finish. The story sounded interesting, the setting and creatures and magic system all sounded very interesting, but that main character... he’s just too smart and too talented and too handsome and too brave and too, well, perfect. Gave it a few tries, but never made it past page 50 or so.

Right now I’m struggling a bit with ASOIF. (slight possible spoiler alert) It’s just a bit hard to engage in a story when every character you start caring about ends up dead.

On a side note, it’s absolutely fascinating reading through some of these posts and seeing how tastes can differ so widely. One’s person’s book-that-changed-their-life is another's meh, I’ll read later.

I gave up on 'Don Quixote'. I can't remember if I actually gave up on '100 years of solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I was a teenager when I read it, but I do distinctly remember being so bored that I was contemplating it.

I did struggle to the finish line of 'Atlas Shrugged', but my god, that woman could wibble on, couldn't she? And it's about as subtle as a boot in the testicles.

So many people in this thread have grumbled about Atlas Shrugged. I really wanna try it now

clee984 said:

a boot in the testicles.

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Ouch!

"The Book Thief". I don't even remember the author. It was my local book club pick a couple of months ago. Y'all. It is so rare that I do not finish a book. But this was one of them. I just could not get past the way it was written. And the narration. And well....everything.

"House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende. I hate that book. In fact, it's the only book I remember seriously hating.

I've been trying to finish the original, un-edited scroll of "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. I really want to love that book, but so far, no dice...

Re: On the Road:

Never could get into that book, period. No matter how he tries to market Moriarity as being all cool and badass, I found him a pain-in-the-ass drunk who needed a good boot to the head.

Oh my goodness I was nearly bored to death by Catcher in the Rye back in high school. That's one of like three books in my entire life that I've never finished.

aprettytruestory said:

Oh my goodness I was nearly bored to death by Catcher in the Rye back in high school. That's one of like three books in my entire life that I've never finished.

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I actually was too--15 year old me just couldn't care less. 18 year old me? Loved it. I think at 15 I was too busy trying to grow up really fast, and at 18 I was ready to put on the breaks. My mindset was totally different, and I got something out of that book that I never thought I would.

I couldn't get into American Gods. I said it. I read and write speculative fiction, and I don't like Neil Gaiman.

I'm trying so hard with The Knife of Never Letting Go. So hard. I think I've tried... 3x???? now, and I just can't do it.

Emermouse said:

Re: On the Road:

Never could get into that book, period. No matter how he tries to market Moriarity as being all cool and badass, I found him a pain-in-the-ass drunk who needed a good boot to the head.

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Right? That and for the first half of the book he doesn't actually seem to be going anywhere...

aprettytruestory said:

Oh my goodness I was nearly bored to death by Catcher in the Rye back in high school. That's one of like three books in my entire life that I've never finished.

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Aw, I loved that. I think I read it three times in a row (in high school). It's always creeped me out though that, historically, it's not a good book to like...

I don't know if it's won any prizes, but John Green's YA book THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is a bestseller, phenomenally popular and I hated it. The love interest was a pretensious wanker and the only saving grace was a secondary character called Isaac.

'scuse my language

Sense and Sensibility or anything else by Jane Austen. It's just so very boring.

I swear she spent 3 pages describing this hill that the Dashwoods were passing on their way to their new home.

I love the movie adaptations of her books though.

I agree. Anything by Jane austen... while the plot is good in some the prose is just dull.

So many of the books on this page are books I haven't finished ha. I still have hope for most of them though.

I absolutely love Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass) and The Subtle Knife from Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I have described both of them, at some point in my life, as my favourite book.
The Amber Spyglass? Never got more than 2/3rds of the way through. I've tried maybe 5 times. It was a mess, from what I can remember.

I'm pretty certain now that I'll never know how it ends.

Frankenstein - just frustrated me from the beginning. The pose was flowery and unnecessary at least for me, and I could go an entire page without anything happening. Blah.

The Book Thief - I actually liked the character of death, but I've never liked war stories they're almost more predictable than YA love triangles. Things blow up, people die, the end. Not really my cup of tea, and I could never really get in touch with any of the actual characters in the story (the physical ones anyway).

Anything Tolkien - Flowery prose and pages of nothingness, kill me now.

And on another note; books that I like but I can't finish would be Game of Thrones by GRRM (A Song of Ice and Fire no. 1). I adore the TV show, and I adore all of the characters... except Sansa and Catelyn (I cannot stand spending even two minutes with their thought processes). Whenever their PoV comes up I just put the book down for weeks at a time. Currently I've been reading it since Christmas and counting, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

Eheteredactyl said:

And on another note; books that I like but I can't finish would be Game of Thrones by GRRM (A Song of Ice and Fire no. 1). I adore the TV show, and I adore all of the characters... except Sansa and Catelyn (I cannot stand spending even two minutes with their thought processes). Whenever their PoV comes up I just put the book down for weeks at a time. Currently I've been reading it since Christmas and counting, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

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Ugh. I actually grew to like Sansa, but Catelyn? Seriously, her first chapter in GOT got me to put down the book for *years.* I tried to read the books in high school--some adorable Borders employee sold me all three books that were out in paperback. Sixteen year old me had a major weakness for good looking salesman. I didn't pick them up again until winter break my sophomore year of college, potential conversations with adorable Borders boy and all. Thus is my hatred for Catelyn Stark.

UndergoingMitosis said:

Ugh. I actually grew to like Sansa, but Catelyn? Seriously, her first chapter in GOT got me to put down the book for *years.* I tried to read the books in high school--some adorable Borders employee sold me all three books that were out in paperback. Sixteen year old me had a major weakness for good looking salesman. I didn't pick them up again until winter break my sophomore year of college, potential conversations with adorable Borders boy and all. Thus is my hatred for Catelyn Stark.

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You got a bookstore salesperson to recommend a book. All the ones at my bookstore don't even read.

Grrarrgh said:

I'm trying so hard with The Knife of Never Letting Go. So hard. I think I've tried... 3x???? now, and I just can't do it.

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Reading that as we speak.

I don't read fantasy/sci-fi but was recommended it.

I have to say I'm having trouble putting it down.

VeggieChick said:

Life of Pi. I hated it. I always finish ALL books I start, even if it means skimming 80 percent of it, because I need to know the end. Life of Pi was one of the most painful reads of the last few years.

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I keep trying to finish this one, and I believe I will eventually finish it, but I just find myself totally non-motivated to.

Crème de la Gem said:

I put down Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy. It was funny, but funnies couldn't keep me reading.

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yep, me too.

Crème de la Gem said:

Cool, The Heart is a lonely Hunter is on my to read list, though i know nothing about it. The rest, ahem, haven't heard of... I'll check them out.

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loved this book, though it was definitely a slow read.

jonereb said:

I tried reading A Tale of Two Cities on three occasion. The third time was the charm. Even then, it took three chapter or more for me to get in the mood. I had no idea what was going on. Then magically, everything clicked. I understood. Now it's one of my all time favorites. But I must say, I haven't attempted any other Dickens novels. He is a difficult read. I'm glad I made the effort on A Tale of Two Cities...great story!

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Another one I started, restarted, keep restarting.

Rizdrah said:

Crime and Punishment. I actually quite enjoyed it, but for some reason put it down halfway through and never picked it back up. I might give it another go soon.

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same

EraUmaVez said:

So many people in this thread have grumbled about Atlas Shrugged. I really wanna try it now

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I'm glad I read this when I did, which was on a backpacking trip through Europe during my formative years. I don't think I could have/would have read it at any other time in my life.

U2Girl said:

"The Book Thief". I don't even remember the author. It was my local book club pick a couple of months ago. Y'all. It is so rare that I do not finish a book. But this was one of them. I just could not get past the way it was written. And the narration. And well....everything.

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loved Book Thief. One of my top favorites.

Okay, I don't wanna say anything by John Green because I haven't read his entire ouevre but I've been distinctly unimpressed with what I have read. The Fault in Our Stars was okay but I didn't really see what everybody was crowing about. I had the same reaction to Looking for Alaska. I barely made it through Paper Towns. I couldn't see why the main character was obsessed with Margo given that while we're supposed to see her as funny and charming, I kept wishing someone would smack her around. And I could not make it through An Abundance of Katherines. Someone wanna tell John Green to get over his Manic Pixie Dream Girl obsession?

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Didn't get too far. But I'm determined to give it another shot. One of these days.