[Misc] Books you gave up on

[vegster]

Read the first couple of the " Dune " series, by book 3 I could not figure out what was going on and lost the ability to care.

 

[Hamilton]

I’ve read it. Not bad but a predictable ending

Does he make it?

 

[Gwylan]

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.

But that's the point of writing surely? Any detective story could be summarised as A killed B, detective C found out how and why. The End.

George Orwell is excellent on this. His essay on Dickens is well worth a read. He explains how Dickens can take a simple story, first told by the ancient Greeks and consisting of about 30 words and expand to a thousand word discourse by Sam Weller, full of comic detail. He presents memorable characters - look at the way that Scrooge has become a universal word for an old miser. Or the way that a truly horrible school is Dotheboys Hall. Or a gangleader who exploits children is a Fagin. These have all become part of everyday speech and it's because of the pictures that Dickens has created, because, yes, he's a brilliant wordsmith.

 

[Professor Plum]

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.

No, that isn't what I meant.

 

[Comrade Sam]

I don't want to come across all Ricky Gervais, but the Qur'an. Lots of mates and students kept telling me I should read it. I got three quarters of the way through and could take no more. It was as boring as the Bible. I've been told it's beautiful poetry in Arabic, but my knowledge of other languages is limited to cusses and food purchasing. I'll stick to history and political books.

 

[Seagull]

Mrs Seagull says Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is absolute dogsh*t and that she would prefer a slow painful death to finishing the Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

 

[Bakero]

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 - 4 attempts haven’t got past page 50ish.

Catch 22 is excellent. Laugh out loud funny.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

American Psycho. Just got more and more disturbing and depraved with each "murder", and I just couldn't be bothered to continue. I like a bit of horror and gore, but this seemed gratuitous. Eventually watched the film years later and really enjoyed it.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

But that's the point of writing surely? Any detective story could be summarised as A killed B, detective C found out how and why. The End.

George Orwell is excellent on this. His essay on Dickens is well worth a read. He explains how Dickens can take a simple story, first told by the ancient Greeks and consisting of about 30 words and expand to a thousand word discourse by Sam Weller, full of comic detail. He presents memorable characters - look at the way that Scrooge has become a universal word for an old miser. Or the way that a truly horrible school is Dotheboys Hall. Or a gangleader who exploits children is a Fagin. These have all become part of everyday speech and it's because of the pictures that Dickens has created, because, yes, he's a brilliant wordsmith.

No, the point of writing is not to pad out the page with so much inconsequential dross that any memorable line begins to seem less the product of a writer's imagination and more the inevitable product of random chance.



And Orwell's writing's an ideal example to illustrate that it's possible to be interesting and memorable and widely quoted while being economical.

I don't have an issue with the characters or the stories themselves, I've enjoyed plenty of adaptations, but with his writing on the page. So no, I wouldn't agree with the description of him as a brilliant wordsmith. "Paid by the word hack" would be my summation.

Dickens can take a simple story, first told by the ancient Greeks and consisting of about 30 words and expand to a thousand word discourse

Somehow, I struggle to imagine Dickens ever making a story shorter.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

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

Candide by Voltaire is wonderful! In English or in French…… in my opinion.

 

[Pavilionaire]

'Ulysses' by James Joyce and "A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess, both for the same reason - incoherent verbiage.

 

[Gwylan]

Candied by Voltaire is wonderful! In English or in French…… in my opinion.

I'm not sure how anyone can be defeated by Candide: it's very funny and very short - there are NSC threads that have a longer word count than Candide

For stating such an opinion, perhaps Seagull should be banned, pour encourager les autres.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

But that's the point of writing surely? Any detective story could be summarised as A killed B, detective C found out how and why. The End.

George Orwell is excellent on this. His essay on Dickens is well worth a read. He explains how Dickens can take a simple story, first told by the ancient Greeks and consisting of about 30 words and expand to a thousand word discourse by Sam Weller, full of comic detail. He presents memorable characters - look at the way that Scrooge has become a universal word for an old miser. Or the way that a truly horrible school is Dotheboys Hall. Or a gangleader who exploits children is a Fagin. These have all become part of everyday speech and it's because of the pictures that Dickens has created, because, yes, he's a brilliant wordsmith.

1984 is one of my favourite books and Orwell was a great author, but I disagree about overly detailed writing, stripped to it's absolute minimum is true art on the page imho. Thriller writer Gregg Hurwitz, my literary hero, is a master of this, never uses an 'and' or 'said' if he can get away with it, Hemingway another advocate, although I don't particularly like his stuff. Good descriptive writing, whether characters or scene setting can be achieved succinctly, Lee Child isn't bad at it either.

 

[JBizzle]

The third book in the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series... I read ~1,200 pages over 2.5 books but the 3rd was so, SO dull that I just couldn't face finishing it

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I gave up reading Dickens in the original text. I have read and really enjoyed abridged versions. I put it down to the originals being written for periodicals and so the cliff hanger element called for multiple characters and plots which for me didn’t make an enjoyable read. Perhaps it’s time to give it another go.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

1984 is one of my favourite books and Orwell was a great author, but I disagree about overly detailed writing, stripped to it's absolute minimum is true art on the page imho. Thriller writer Gregg Hurwitz, my literary hero, is a master of this, never uses an 'and' or 'said' if he can get away with it, Hemingway another advocate, although I don't particularly like his stuff. Good descriptive writing, whether characters or scene setting can be achieved succinctly, Lee Child isn't bad at it either.

Hemingway of course is notorious for using "and" as often as possible.

Some of the winners of the "Bad Hemingway Competition" are good fun if you're vaguely familiar with the style.

Bad Hemingway

Full-page ad in The New Yorker magazine

www.kenbash.com

PEN Center Imitation Hemingway Award Winner Scott Stavrou

Stavrou wins the 2000 PEN Center International Imitation Hemingway Award

www.scottstavrou.com

 

[Gwylan]

This has been a really interesting thread - despite three of my favourite writers (Dickens, Hardy and Joyce) featuring prominently.

A few surprises though. Amazed at the mentions for Catch 22, a very funny book that grabs you from the first line and, as mentioned, surprised to see Candide there.

It's the writers omitted that are more interesting. Only one mention for that prize bore, Henry James. And no mentions at all for Proust. I really like his work but nine volumes to say not much in particular can lead some people to distraction.

 

[bhafc99]

This has been a really interesting thread…

You think so? I gave up ages ago.

 

[Brovion]

This has been a really interesting thread - despite three of my favourite writers (Dickens, Hardy and Joyce) featuring prominently.

A few surprises though. Amazed at the mentions for Catch 22, a very funny book that grabs you from the first line and, as mentioned, surprised to see Candide there.

It's the writers omitted that are more interesting. Only one mention for that prize bore, Henry James. And no mentions at all for Proust. I really like his work but nine volumes to say not much in particular can lead some people to distraction.

I agree on Catch 22 and Candide; really surprised to see them mentioned. Dickens is also one of my favourites, but I can see why modern readers might find him a bit heavy going.

However maybe there's another possible thread: "Books you think you should read but haven't even started" All of Joyce's work would be in there for me, also Henry James, Proust, Chekhov, Dostoevsky .... actually maybe not such a good idea as I think for a lot of people the list would be too long. I have wanted to tackle Joyce (not so much the others), but I've never felt up to it. Maybe when I retire.

EDIT: In other words I think the reason a lot of people haven't mentioned Henry James is that they're put off starting because it IS Henry James and they've heard he's boring.

EDIT 2: I have been to his house though, Lamb House in Rye. That was boring too!

 

[Stato]

Linking up two current threads. I never got very far with Nick Cave's first novel. 'And The Ass Saw the Angel.' I did finish 'The Death of Bunny Munro', but felt like I needed a bath afterwards. (The same goes for Jonathan Meades' 'The Fowler Family Business', but then a lot of that is set in Norwood).