I don't like conceding defeat, but I gave up on Bulgakov's Master and the Margarita, Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Ayn Rand's two 'classics' Atlas Shrugged, and The Fountainhead.
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[Misc] Books you gave up on
- Thread starter Flounce
- Start date
I have read various interpretations of what it's about, however these were presumably all invented by people mad enough to have both started it and read to the end.
- Oct 17, 2008
- 14,359
Anyone can make up an interpretation though. I find it funny when scholarly people make up convoluted, intellectual interpretations of text, or lyrics, or movies, “explaining” what they mean - only for the author to turn around and say it’s bollocks.
I could do a well-written 2000 word essay on how “She’s Electric” by Oasis is actually a damning indictment of Norwegian politics in the 1920’s, but it’d be pretentious shite of course.
Never got to the appendix! I was young and it was back in the 1970s, and I wanted to be the only Marxist I knew who had actually, shock horror, read Marx. (I did manage The Communist Manifesto)
Fignon's Ponytail
Well-known member
I was just 20 when I read it, and still have a copy now - great book imo.
Also read a couple of others by Dee Brown - heavy going, but a good auther / historian
Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,856
My record is about 380 pages into a 400 page thriller, could not be arsed to finish it as the dénouement was some 'cobbled together to make everything fit' shite.
- Oct 17, 2008
- 14,359
Should’ve got to the point.
- Jul 27, 2024
- 583
Dickens is a truly brilliant wordsmith. You might dislike his plots or be minded not to read him for any number of reasons but his actual skill with words is immense. Mind you, I hated his stuff at school. It was only much later, in my 40s, that I went back to him and loved it. Great Expectations the pinnacle for me. It helps if you’re interested in social history.
Seagull
Yes I eat anything
Moby Dick, 200 pages in where’s the frigging whale?
Catch 22, just couldn’t face another page of utter drivel
And ones I dragged myself to the end of out of sheer willpower
The Famished Road by Ben Okri - just very weird, born in the wrong continent probably
Candide by Voltaire - dire, born in the wrong century I guess
Catch 22, just couldn’t face another page of utter drivel
And ones I dragged myself to the end of out of sheer willpower
The Famished Road by Ben Okri - just very weird, born in the wrong continent probably
Candide by Voltaire - dire, born in the wrong century I guess
As I like autobiographys have learned most are very poor when put together when youngish or at height of fame and just put out by agent to make money while they have public awareness.. Certainly several I have not finished. Best ones are those that have a passion to put life story down. Last three were excellent the inventor of Nike, Steve Jobs and Kieth Richards. The latter one surprised me how good it was
Dave the OAP
Well-known member
The bible
BBassic
I changed this.
- Jul 28, 2011
- 13,035
In a similar vein I read through almost the entirety of Stephen King's seven book Dark Tower series but gave up when SPOILERS King wrote himself in as a character. Awful.My record is about 380 pages into a 400 page thriller, could not be arsed to finish it as the dénouement was some 'cobbled together to make everything fit' shite.
Doonhamer7
Well-known member
- Jun 17, 2016
- 1,452
Catch 22 - 4 attempts haven’t got past page 50ish.
If by "brilliant wordsmith" you mean "verbose bore who never says anything once when he can say it 50 times using as many words as possible", then I'd be forced to agree.
I’ve read it. Not bad but a predictable ending
pocketseagull
Well-known member
- Dec 29, 2014
- 1,360
Seem to remember it took a couple of attempts for Catch-22 to click but definitely worth it, incredibly funny book.