[Misc] Books you gave up on

[jcdenton08]

“Finnegans Wake” (no apostrophe, by the way!) was mentioned once in a Jonathan Creek episode and described as practically unreadable. I took this as a challenge and sure enough, absolutely impossible.

Got about 30 pages in and bowed out with my tail between my legs.

 

[bhafc99]

Spotted a few books on here that struck a chord, one way or the other.

James Joyce, Ulysses - done, wasn’t easy, but worth the perseverance.

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest - done, and really enjoyed. It’s an incredible work of art.

Thomas Pynchon, Mason Dixon - also for me the only Pynchon I couldn’t get on with. A bad book from a legendary author.

Hilary Mantell, Wolf Hall - done, though felt a bit of a slog. Never tried any of the following books.

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life - tried, got bored, figured I’d try again another time, never have.

The one book that I’ve read all the way through, despite it being staggeringly bad, is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The disbelief that something so crap could be so popular drove me to the end. One small lifetime achievement is that 468 people to date have liked my 1-star Amazon review, so at least I may have saved a few people from wasting their life on this travesty.

 

[jcdenton08]

Spotted a few books on here that struck a chord, one way or the other.

James Joyce, Ulysses - done, wasn’t easy, but worth the perseverance.

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest - done, and really enjoyed. It’s an incredible work of art.

Thomas Pynchon, Mason Dixon - also for me the only Pynchon I couldn’t get on with. A bad book from a legendary author.

Hilary Mantell, Wolf Hall - done, though felt a bit of a slog. Never tried any of the following books.

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life - tried, got bored, figured I’d try again another time, never have.

The one book that I’ve read all the way through, despite it being staggeringly bad, is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The disbelief that something so crap could be so popular drove me to the end. One small lifetime achievement is that 468 people to date have liked my 1-star Amazon review, so at least I may have saved a few people from wasting their life on this travesty.

Loved your review! Tempted to read the book now though

 

[Albion my Albion]

although none of it was Dickens

One weekend Charles Dickens' son was in a story telling contest and finished in second place. Many who attended thought Edward Dickens should have won. When one judge was asked who was really the winner he said "Fairleigh Dickenson"

Homepage

www.fdu.edu

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

The one book that I’ve read all the way through, despite it being staggeringly bad, is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The disbelief that something so crap could be so popular drove me to the end. One small lifetime achievement is that 468 people to date have liked my 1-star Amazon review, so at least I may have saved a few people from wasting their life on this travesty.

We were going on a touring holiday and my darling had thought the time in the car might maybe easier listening to this. I anted to switch it off by the top of the M23 but we got as far as Leicester. Absolute codswallop to me.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

My sister in law used to buy me the Booker Prize winner each year for Christmas. I didn’t read Wolf Hall (not more from the well mined Tudor seam) and was about to give it and Bring up the Bodies to the library (unread hardbacks) when I thought it seemed a bit ungrateful not to give them a go. Both absolutely brilliant from the first page. Really felt you were there. Highly recommended. I’d lost interest in the delay for the third. We went to Stratford and saw the theatre production. Also brilliant. I think I’d overdosed by time it was on TV.

 

[Brovion]

Lord of the Rings. (Boring)
Gormenghast. (Maybe I should have read Titus Groan first?)
Das Kapital. (Volume 1. Never even got onto the other volumes)

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

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.

I did the Woodlanders for O-Level - pre GCSE - in 1968/9 and loved it. Another book I loved, reading it for my degree course in French, was Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, but I can imagine plenty of others wouldn’t get very far…. Even in English.

the book recently that I started and didn’t get past chapter 2 was Richard Coles’ Murder before Evensong. I‘ve always liked his music and his radio etc work, but he just seemed to be trying too hard and also intent on showing off his knowledge of how the Anglican Church works. Very tedious. But I think I have an inherent cynicism about celebrity novelists.

 

[Bakero]

The one book that I’ve read all the way through, despite it being staggeringly bad, is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The disbelief that something so crap could be so popular drove me to the end. One small lifetime achievement is that 468 people to date have liked my 1-star Amazon review, so at least I may have saved a few people from wasting their life on this travesty.

I've also read Shantaram and must say your review is better than the book.

 

[Gwylan]

I don't recall the start being that great either. I got as far as the children on coat hooks ...

That's the end of the book. So when you say you gave up, you read 99% of it

 

[Swegulls]

Spotted a few books on here that struck a chord, one way or the other.

James Joyce, Ulysses - done, wasn’t easy, but worth the perseverance.

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest - done, and really enjoyed. It’s an incredible work of art.

Thomas Pynchon, Mason Dixon - also for me the only Pynchon I couldn’t get on with. A bad book from a legendary author.

Hilary Mantell, Wolf Hall - done, though felt a bit of a slog. Never tried any of the following books.

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life - tried, got bored, figured I’d try again another time, never have.

The one book that I’ve read all the way through, despite it being staggeringly bad, is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. The disbelief that something so crap could be so popular drove me to the end. One small lifetime achievement is that 468 people to date have liked my 1-star Amazon review, so at least I may have saved a few people from wasting their life on this travesty.

Haha, you really didn't like that book!

 

[CHAPPERS]

Also gave up on Crime and Punishment and Wolf Hall (BORING).

The book I've got furthest into, but had to give up on, is A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. I really tried with it but found the patois impenetrable.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

“Finnegans Wake” (no apostrophe, by the way!)

I'm not going to concern myself with whether Joyce thought he should have an apostrophe in Finnegans, having seen his ideas on what should be in that bloody book.

That said, on some levels it is hilarious and quite entertaining. But more in a "let's open a random page and see what he's writing now" sort of way.

 

[jcdenton08]

I'm not going to concern myself with whether Joyce thought he should have an apostrophe in Finnegans, having seen his ideas on what should be in that bloody book.

That said, on some levels it is hilarious and quite entertaining. But more in a "let's open a random page and see what he's writing now" sort of way.

I’m only going off what David Renwick wrote in Jonathan Creek

He has Jonathan asking Maddie “have you ever read Finnegans Wake?” and Maddie shakes her head, so he says paraphrased “nobody has, it’s practically unreadable. But everyone is always adding an apostrophe in, where Joyce deliberately didn’t in order to leave it ambiguous. Did he mean a funeral wake for multiple Finnegans, or one Finnegan awakens, or what”.

It plays a part in the solution to the mystery if anyone is interested, episode “Ghosts Forge”.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

And who can think Dickens boring?

I'd rather read every page of Jack Torrance's "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" than put myself through any Dickens ever again.

 

[BBassic]

I've abandoned loads. If a book hasn't got me within 50 pages or so, to the charity shop it goes.

 

[Machiavelli]

Lord of the Rings. (Boring)
Gormenghast. (Maybe I should have read Titus Groan first?)
Das Kapital. (Volume 1. Never even got onto the other volumes)

The appendix to V1 of Capital is really interesting, and points to a different understanding to the development of capitalism than the one normally taken from Marx (ie, productive industry consolidating, falling rate of profit, increasing class homogenisation and conflict, revolution)

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I’m only going off what David Renwick wrote in Jonathan Creek

He has Jonathan asking Maddie “have you ever read Finnegans Wake?” and Maddie shakes her head, so he says paraphrased “nobody has, it’s practically unreadable. But everyone is always adding an apostrophe in, where Joyce deliberately didn’t in order to leave it ambiguous. Did he mean a funeral wake for multiple Finnegans, or one Finnegan awakens, or what”.

It plays a part in the solution to the mystery if anyone is interested, episode “Ghosts Forge”.

Quarks (the sub-atomic partical) are apparently named after the line "three quarks for mister Mark" in Finnegans Wake.

I just had a look on wikipedia and the scientist who named them described coming across the phrase in "one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake", which makes me think he was either a psycho or he never bothered reading it cover to cover either.

Also, for some reason he pronounced it quork, which I've never heard any actual human being do.

 

[jcdenton08]

Quarks (the sub-atomic partical) are apparently named after the line "three quarks for mister Mark" in Finnegans Wake.

I just had a look on wikipedia and the scientist who named them described coming across the phrase in "one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake", which makes me think he was either a psycho or he never bothered reading it cover to cover either.

Also, for some reason he pronounced it quork, which I've never heard any actual human being do.

As I say, I did try it myself but unreadable doesn’t really do that “novel” justice. Pretentious shite from a man who was going through a mental health crisis at the time post-Ulysses, and high on cocaine and morphine. It can’t be understood because it’s meaningless.

 

[Peteinblack]

Crime and punishment.

Not sure what the crime was but the punishment was reading the book.

I persevered, but struggled with the fact that some characters had more than one name, which made it even harder to follow.

I've just started Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, so am braced for more of the same.