[Misc] Books you gave up on

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I've read that four times of my own free Willie, and I'm not even sure why.

Wolf Hall
To Kill a Mockingbird (utter gash, 4 serious attempts)
Trainspotting (just can't read the Scotch stuff.)
Peter James (managed two pages)
Harold Potter first book (managed four pages)

Four times?!


I genuinely struggled toreas four pages at a time!


Each to their own though. I personally thought wolf hall was a really good read but I see you're not alone in not enjoying it.

 

[Professor Plum]

Crime and punishment.

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

Crime and Punishment ranks with Great Expectations as one of my favourite novels though I read it as a student, a long time ago. I’m not sure I’d have the will to do so now.

I’ve tried and failed to finish Ulysses three times but I’m determined to get through it before I spark out.

 

[Professor Plum]

Catch 22

Loved Catch 22!

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Let’s face it, for a Moulsecoomber that left school at 14 with no qualifications. Victor Hugo’s a bit of a challenge.

 

[Stato]

PBOBE's Programme Notes

Overambitious. Start with Ulysses, move on to Infinite Jest, A Brief History of Time, read Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' collection in the original French, have a bash at Finnegan's Wake, then you might be ready for Barber.

 

[Mancgull]

Crime and punishment.

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

I loved Crime and Punishment, although I admit it’s very dark. However, his other ‘masterpiece’ The Brothers Karamazov, just got the better of me.
Also failed on The Count of Monte Cristo.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Crime and Punishment ranks with Great Expectations as one of my favourite novels though I read it as a student, a long time ago. I’m not sure I’d have the will to do so now.

I’ve tried and failed to finish Ulysses three times but I’m determined to get through it before I spark out.

Funnily enough I tried reading it as a student too.

I think I'm very much in a minority with my opinion on it, I just found it interminably dull and arduous to read.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I loved Crime and Punishment, although I admit it’s very dark. However, his other ‘masterpiece’ The Brothers Karamazov, just got the better of me.
Also failed on The Count of Monte Cristo.

Ha, I love the count of Monte Cristo! But then again the three musketeers might be my all time favourite book so I was primed for the count.

 

[The Rivet]

In trying to understand and failing (in disgust) two definitely spring to mind.
Mein Kampf
The 120 days of sodom.

 

[raymondo]

The Glass Bead Game.
I did finish it I think, just,..a bit of a thing for students to accomplish in the early 70s. Didn't enjoy it though...

 

[pocketseagull]

Infinite Jest, although that's so notorious for people giving up there's support groups for reading it! The footnotes just make it a chore. Also struggled with the few Thomas Pynchon novels I've tried.

 

[The Lemming Stomper]

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Let’s face it, for a Moulsecoomber that left school at 14 with no qualifications. Victor Hugo’s a bit of a challenge.

Can't picture it but his name rings a bell...

I can't get past the first chapter of anything by Will Self...Southend Comprehensive education never taught us long words !

 

[Professor Plum]

Funnily enough I tried reading it as a student too.

I think I'm very much in a minority with my opinion on it, I just found it interminably dull and arduous to read.

It’s understandable if you wanted to push the whole idea out of your head but one thing I’d suggest if you ever did toy with the idea or trying again is to listen to the audiobook instead. As I said, I read the book when I was young but about 12 years ago, before going on holiday to Russia, I listed to C and P on audiobook and found it very easy to get through.

In St Petersburg I visited the Dostoyevsky museum, which is the house he lived in, and where he wrote the book. After the tour guide had moved on with the tour party, I surreptitiously crept back to his study and briefly sat in his chair at the desk he used to write the book. It’s by a big window overlooking the canal and the little alleyways where the book is set. Incredibly atmospheric and a powerful experience. But you’d have to be a fan to enjoy the vibe the way I did.

Anyway, sorry, this thread isn’t supposed to be about favourite books but the very opposite.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Infinite Jest, although that's so notorious for people giving up there's support groups for reading it! The footnotes just make it a chore. Also struggled with the few Thomas Pynchon novels I've tried.

Two fails on that one. His biography is well worth a butcher's though, I settled on that as a substitute for IJ, which I was never going to get through. Very complex individual.

 

[Weststander]

More Than A Carpenter.

Gifted to me by a Kings Church lay preacher, who I used to work with. Just not for me, I gave up a chapter and half in. Consigning me to hell .

 

[DJ NOBO]

At the time I loved Dan Brown’s da Vinci code and angels and demons.
The Lost Symbol was stunningly dull though. I finally succumbed at 82%.

Alastair Cook’s autobiography is dry fare . Got through it second attempt by skipping large chunks.

 

[chickens]

I've read every de Bernierès book except CCM. I've just never had the inclination to even start it, probably due to the associations with the film, which i haven't actually seen.

Your instincts are absolutely correct.

 

[Stato]

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Let’s face it, for a Moulsecoomber that left school at 14 with no qualifications. Victor Hugo’s a bit of a challenge.

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.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

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.

 

[The Mole]

Crime and punishment.

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

I even tried this twice but never got very far either