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Most readers like to finish their books, and will try and try again to finish them. What are the books you just had to give up on? I'll probably have to add to mine as they come to mind, but here are some.
The Devil in the White City
I Am Charlotte Simmons
Foucault's Pendelum
The Name of the Rose
Anna Karenina
Playing for Pizza
The Corrections
There have been dozens of books where I've read a 20 or 30 pages and decided they were crap, but of the books I actually wished to read there was only one which almost defeated me.
The Gorilla Hunters (arthursclassicnovels.com/arthurs/ball/gorilh10.html - broken link) by RM Ballantyne was written in 1861 and the prose style was just nasty to plow through. I believe I started that book on five different occasions before finally going cover to cover.
Where do I begin....
I too have tried Anna Karenina several times (not in the last 20 years or so, it might be time to try again - esp. since I am fascinated by Russian history)
Angle of Repose
Anything by Tolkien...finally gave up.Just not my thing
Confederacy of Dunces
a slew of others. I was better at sticking with things I wasn't necessarily "into" when my bookclub was active. I am deadline oriented.
Last edited by maciesmom; 01-25-2010 at 10:58 PM..
The Hobbit is the only book I have never been able to read. I tried it a few times and never made it past 5 pages. I think it has something to do with the names.
Stephen King - read one, thought it was OK, tried to read two others and fell asleep each time I tried. No more SK.
Joyce Carol Oates - thoroughly enjoyed her elarlier books, tried to read one called We Are the Mulvaneys (I think), and just couldn't get into it.
Don Delillo - Great Jones Street was an uneven reading experience, but when I was finished, I thought - yeah! Tried The Names, and I can remember feeling that it was so forced and pretentious that I began to laugh at it and threw it out.
And numerous non-fiction books have been left by the wayside.
I have given up totally on the I-was-my father's-sex-toy, prisoner-of-the-bottle, rock-star-drug-trip......and other "survivor shlock" as I think of it. Whatever hell most of these people have gone through it has not endowed them with above average writing skills nor attracted craftsmen ghost-writers.
I have to say that there are books that are not "crap" in my estimation that I am simply not capable of understanding or appreciating.
I am now in my 70s, most fiction fails to interest me, but I read history, biographies and memoirs the way I used to devour novels. My favorite aunt was an avid reader, and her reading took the same turn in old age.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant....couldn't get past the first 75 pages. (I just saw that it's on several posts for one of the "single worst book/author you've ever read" thread.)
Anna Karenina but not because it isn't good; it's just so complex and difficult to keep the characters straight. I wish I could take a class or discuss it in a group while reading it.
I give up on books quite readily if I'm not enjoying them. I don't know why so many people slog through books they don't like. My general feeling is that a book should be good enough that I look forward to getting in bed at night and reading it. Unfortunately I buy plenty of books that end up failing that test, but oh well... The last two books I quit on were The Stand and I, Claudius.
when I quit a book..I quit a book! I don't even remember their names. I will comment on "the devil in the white city" if you can go back to it and try to finish, the "white city" part of the book is excellent. really gives you a lot of insight into the development of the chicago lakefront. I wasn't all that thrilled with the devil chapters of the book.
I won't try to struggle through a book if I don't like it. I know I put The Notebook and The Pilot's Wife down after a few pages--ugh. I tried hard to read Pillars of the Earth because so many posters on CD who like the same books I do said they loved it, but I thought it was awful and stopped after about 100 pages. One book I kept going back to was The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I think I tried to read it about 4 times and for some reason, it clicked for me the last time and I loved it. Weird.
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