[Misc] Books you gave up on

[The Clamp]

Oh yes, Tolkien’s stuff. Can’t get past the Shire.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Which Dickens book is it that opens with an intensely detailed, lengthy and tedious account of…

Every. Single. f***ing. One. Of. Them.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Ulysses is better if you listen to it.

Ulysses

Naxos AudioBooks - Ulysses (unabridged)

naxosaudiobooks.com

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Books still on the shelf where forever they shall remain, include:

Michel Moorcock - Byzantium Endures.
Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho
Anthony Burgess - A clockwork Orange
Umberto Ecco - Foucault's Pendulum
Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse
Albert Camus - The plague
Ian McEwan - First love last rites

I got through most of the first two, but got bored with (i) everyone addressing everyone else by all 4 of their names, O Northus Standicus Chatvichenko Cognoscentovic and (ii) the egregiously grotesque violence that was either meant to be real or meant to be psychosis (in the end I lost the will to find out, as my tits caught fire).

Of the rest I'm not sure I made it past page 2. 'To the Lighthouse' was a particular f***ing annoyance on account of the pointlessly long sentences that lacked punctuation as they tumbled on and on without so much as a pause for breath in pursuit of what I can only imagine to be the desire to bore the reader to death in a mountain of hot and eager nothing. My ex wife was a massive fan. Says it all really.

 

[Stato]

Which Dickens book is it that opens with an intensely detailed, lengthy and tedious account of the narrator's own birth?

Because I f***ed that off and it can keep right on f***ing off as far as I'm concerned.

Also - Lord of the Rings. Never made it out of the Shire.

David Copperfield starts with his birth and his aunt Betsy Trotwood storming off because he's not a girl. Dombey and Son starts with the birth of Dombey's son and the fussing around of the doctor.

 

[Skaville]

Catch 22
American Psycho
Prophet Song

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho...

the egregiously grotesque violence that was either meant to be real or meant to be psychosis (in the end I lost the will to find out...

Oh yeah, this as well.
I gave it to some guy I lived with who apparently really dug both the excessive and seemingly pointless violence, and the lengthy digressions on f***ing Genesis.

I did pay attention to the bit about shaving around the sides of the face first to give the tricky chin bits longer to soften. It may well be bollocks though. And I don't shave often anyway because since most of my hair dissappeared I get nutty women from Blackpool coming up to me and insisting that I not merely resemble Prince William but am in fact actually him, unless I have some sort of beard.

 

[Goldstone1976]

I finished Les Miserables, but it took me about five years, putting it down with a bookmark in, reading something else and picking it up again every year or two. I've never got to the end of the musical though.

I read The Lord of The Rings in a similar way. An absolute chore. I'd seen Ralph Bakshi's film as a kid and wanted to know how it ended. It's a good story, but JRR's a terribly dull and long winded writer, most of it seems to be descriptions of landscapes.

I did finish LotR, which i absolutely hated, having loved the Hobbit.

Didn’t finish War & Peace though.

Huss, btw.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

David Copperfield starts with his birth and his aunt Betsy Trotwood storming off because he's not a girl. Dombey and Son starts with the birth of Dombey's son and the fussing around of the doctor.

Pretty sure it was David Copperfield. I picked it up from the shelf in Lewes train station waiting room while waiting for the train to Seaford.

Somehow, the wait for the train seemed to last longer than it would have done if I'd spent the time setting my watch by the station clock.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Oh yeah, this as well.
I gave it to some guy I lived with who apparently really dug both the excessive and seemingly pointless violence, and the lengthy digressions on f***ing Genesis.

I did pay attention to the bit about shaving around the sides of the face first to give the tricky chin bits longer to soften. It may well be bollocks though. And I don't shave often anyway because since most of my hair dissappeared I get nutty women from Blackpool coming up to me and insisting that I not merely resemble Prince William but am in fact actually him, unless I have some sort of beard.

Christ.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Christ.

I got a free whisky from the sympathetic barman at least.

 

[chickens]

Every. Single. f***ing. One. Of. Them.

An interesting thing about Dickens is that his works were often designed to be serialised, and he would be paid by the word for turning in his 20,000 words every month.

A Tale of Two Cities is a work for which he wasn’t paid by the word, and looking along a shelf full of Dickens at a bookshop, the significant difference in length stands out.

 

[Bry Nylon]

For those who have listed Wolf Hall, I too made multiple failed attempts. Then one day I persevered, it suddenly clicked and I was rewarded with the most stunning piece of literature I’ve ever read. (And when I make that claim, you have to bear in mind that I’ve read Kev the Ape’s account of his time working at KFC, so I know what I’m talking about).

Simply, if you’ve given up on Wolf Hall previously, it’s worth at least one more attempt of anyone’s time - it’s an absolute masterpiece.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Catch 22
American Psycho
Prophet Song

You reminded me.

Catch 22
Fahrenheit 451.
Brave new world
Margrave of the Marshes (loved the Peel programmes but what a bumptious writer!)

It seems I have put quite a lot of books on ignore. Who knew?

 

[hart's shirt]

I can't remember much about it other than the caterpillar being very hungry.

 

[chickens]

Pretty sure it was David Copperfield. I picked it up from the shelf in Lewes train station waiting room while waiting for the train to Seaford.

Somehow, the wait for the train seemed to last longer than it would have done if I'd spent the time setting my watch by the station clock.

Hardy’s good for that as well. He’s a great writer, but when you come out of one of his novels you’re measuring time in epochs. You can almost feel the continents bouncing off each other and the implosion of nearby stars.

 

[Weststander]

Hardy’s good for that as well. He’s a great writer, but when you come out of one of his novels you’re measuring time in epochs. You can almost feel the continents bouncing off each other and the implosion of nearby stars.

I remember my Dad in the late 1980’s reading some of the Thomas Hardy novels. I got the impression it was totally unenjoyable chore, the writing had really dated and was heavy going …. but Dad saw it out as a personal point of principle.

 

[ken tiler]

But are highly rated

Ulysses, Wolf Hall, Paradise Lost and Captain Corelli‘s Mandolin for me

Yes I know I am a peasant/philistine

I know some people who NEVER give up on a book, my wife is one of them, you?

Probably only Ulysses-Portrait of An Artist As A Young Man was great - maybe should give another go.

 

[Stato]

Pretty sure it was David Copperfield. I picked it up from the shelf in Lewes train station waiting room while waiting for the train to Seaford.

Somehow, the wait for the train seemed to last longer than it would have done if I'd spent the time setting my watch by the station clock.

I've read quite a few Dickens and really enjoyed them. David Copperfield is my favourite and I loved the birth scene. Like Hugo, he was a bit of an old windbag though. If you think that was dull, don't ever read the beginning of Bleak House. That really is a slog. I didn't start reading them for pleasure until I was in my forties. It took me that long to get over being forced to read him as a teenager.

 

[Lewes Punk]

But are highly rated

Ulysses, Wolf Hall, Paradise Lost and Captain Corelli‘s Mandolin for me

Yes I know I am a peasant/philistine

I know some people who NEVER give up on a book, my wife is one of them, you?

I'm a bit like your wife I never give up on a book once I've started. But having finally waded through the tedium of 'Wings of The Dove' I swore a blood oath at midnight on All Hallows Eve that I would never again pick up anything by Henry James again. He's a tedious old bastard.