Anna Karina.
I have tried reading this book 5 times(the last time was when oprah put it on her reading club, cause hey, if Oprah read it you know it's got to be good)
My problem is I am not a very devoted reader. By this I mean that I like to read many books at the same time, and this is the type of book that must be read alone, in all fidelity. Plus Russian lit. is just hard for me all around with the given christian name, the name given by friends, the pet name, and the surname... all these different names for one person, too confusing.

Sandra wrote: "Life with Pi. I kept trying but could not stay interested. Everyone else likes it so much. "

I also gave up on the Life of Pi. I tried it at least three separate times, and never felt compelled to read more than the first quarter

I almost always finish a book once I get started. It sometimes takes me quite a while to get into a book but once I do I generally stick with it if for no other reason than to understand, from a writing perspective, what I don't like about it.

I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and loved it as much for Irving's writing style as for the story itself so I thought I'd try another of his. Three different times I've started The Cider House Rules but have never made it past the third chapter and I'm not sure why. I'll get it read someday.

Perpendicularandi wrote: "I stopped reading:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Bridge of Sighs
Northanger Abbey
A Wrinkle in Time
Something Wicked This Way Comes
An Irish Country Christmas

I read at least 100..."

Donna wrote: "Have you ever started a book and just hated it so much that you tried and tried but just could not finish it? How far would you actually go until you said "To Hell With IT!!!!"?

There are quite ..."


I can see why you gave up on Bridge of Sighs. I read (and finished it) but it was a close thing. Let me tell you -- you didn't miss much by throwing in the towel.

I am so glad I found this thread. I had to stop reading Vampire Academy. I have read such great reviews, but I can't seem to get into it. Has anyone here read it? Is it worth sitting and trucking through it?

I'm sorry to hear that Sandra. I was one of those that loved it. I also totally BELIEVED it until the last few chapters!

Life with Pi. I kept trying but could not stay interested. Everyone else likes it so much.

the tale of genji- i'm attempting to read it again

the lord of the rings- i will try to read it again

eldest- i dunno yet...

=p

Allison wrote: "I just put down Anybody Out There? by [a:Marian Keyes|6104|Marian Keyes|http://www.goodrea..."

I really enjoyed this book. Different strokes for different folks.

Richard wrote: "sorry you got bored with Franny and Zooey Shannon-was it just that one or do you not like the whole Glass family saga?"

Hmm, well hard to answer that question as that is the only one I read. Sometimes, with books (and movies) it is also about timing and what else is going on in my own life, so, I would have to say that I would try again at some point - although I wouldn't try Eagle's Throne again, although I may try another by Fuentes.

Because I have a Sony Reader, I have a LOT of free public domain books, that I paid nothing for (paper book, I would have aid $3.00-7.00). With the Reader, I have paid, $0 to cheap for non public domain current books, and other classics are free.

Thus, I'll jettison a freebee like Nathaniel Hawthorne before giving up on, say, Chris Bohjalian. If I paid for it, I'll stay with it a little longer. If I paid for it, I'll give it a little (or much more) time for the story to develop.

On edit: I haven't read Chris Bohjalian, he's in my queue, but because I paid for him, I'd give him more consideration than Tolstoy. OTOH, I would try to stay with a classic, because, well, it's a classic.

I could not get through The Eagle's Throne by Carlos Fuentes and I got bored and did not finish Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger. I know that there are others (and some that I wished I had stopped but valiantly continued to the end only to realize that it did not get any better!).

Tricia wrote: "I stopped reading Anna Karenina ... " Yeah, A very long time ago I stopped reading that one, too. That's a tough one! There are some books like that which I feel I 'should' read but once I start they just seem like work.

Thanks to this thread, I have added a "could not finish" shelf to my booklist. Some others are "Caramelo" and "The Queen of the South". Couldn't finish either one, but for entirely different reasons.

I stopped reading Anna Karenina and Catch 22. I just couldn't get through them, but I still have a plan to tackle them again. Maybe someday I'll be in the right state of mind and I'll enjoy them.

Beth A. wrote: "Anita,

I'm listening to The Historian. I'm a little over half way through. I was really ..." Hi Beth, I know what you mean. For a vampire story it just seemed dull and even the attacks were somehow muted where they should have been building suspense. btw, once I decided to give up on it, I did read the ending and it was so dumb it made me laugh!! Seriously, I was glad I hadn't wasted any more time on it.

I just put down Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes. I read Part 1 and really enjoyed it, then got to the END of part 1 and found out what had really happened in the story (the character's mind was confused after being in a terrible car accident), and I now have no desire to continue with it...and am going to return it to the library.

I had to put down New Moon, the second of the "Twilight" books. I had enough of that to last me for a while; I'll try to pick it back up later, but I don't have much hope for it. It seems to just go on and on and on without relating anything of substance to the reader.

I did love Pillars of the Earth and was surprised to love something from Ken Follet that much. I usually find his books more shallow than I found Pillars. I was understandably upset when I had to force myself to continue reading its sequel, World Without End. I read about half of it thinking it would get better, and then plowed through. I am not sure I finished it, really; if I did, I sure don't remember the ending. It should have been titled Book Without End.

And, Richard, I completely agree with you about what one considered "best" being subjective. Good taste is the same way. Two people who love Harlequin Romances agree that the other's taste in books is wonderful, when in reality, it is actually just similar to their own.

This is such a good question.
Only two come to mind right now though.

The Prophecy of the Gems Three Girls, Three Stones, One Destiny &
Of Mice and Men

Anita,

I'm listening to The Historian. I'm a little over half way through. I was really enjoying it, but the last little bit I hit a wall, where it's starting to feel like work.

I'm pretty new to goodreads and I liked this question because I agonize quite a bit when it comes to putting down a book before it ends. However, life is short and sometimes ya just got to. I usually make it about 1/2 way. I've been told to read at least 100 pages but I usually go further. I couldn't stand "The Historian" (Kostova) after awhile. I know it was a huge seller and I really wanted to like it, but I found it boring and weird. Sometimes I just lose interest. They're not bad books, I'm just not in the mood. The last one that lost my attention was "Mr Clarinet". Ah, I feel better already!

I could not force myself to finish Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Thank goodness Fiona gave me permission to quit! I always feel guilty about giving up on a book. It's worse if others seemed to love it, but since GR's it become easier.

I see now, that some of my all time favorite books were completely unreadable to others. How can I feel bad about hating a book? I don't have to anymore, with the upside of being able to quickly move on to a book I CAN enjoy.

Perpendicularandi wrote: "I can now add HP & the Sorcerer's Stone to the list of books I didn't finish."

that hurts. Really. It does.

Anna Karenina is my all time beast. Perhaps I'll give it another go one of these days...I have never been able to get through much of it at all.

More recently, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster is one I couldn't finish. I read the first two stories, but could NOT make myself go on to read the 3rd.

Ha Ha. OK. I'm done now. Sorry. I meant no offense.

>:)

LOL Richard! Salty and sand-filled tears, for sure!

Richard, yes ALL Beat writing. Every last letter. It is not for me. But I grant everyone their own opinions as I hope they will grant me my own. The world would be a dull place indeed without diversity.

Perpendicularandi wrote: "I can now add HP & the Sorcerer's Stone to the list of books I didn't finish."

You make me cry. :(

:P Not really.

I want to put IT down but after 1000 pages and 375 to go I can't really.

I have a pretty strong obssesion about finishing the books I start reading however, by choice I could not finish A Million Little Pieces and Chicken Soup for the Women's Soul ... the horror!

I can now add HP & the Sorcerer's Stone to the list of books I didn't finish.

What a hilarious thread.

Richard reminded me that I detest all Beat-era writing, Kerouac included. Spontaneous and/or drug-induced nonsense is intolerable. The only thing I'll grant that generation of writers is the courage to break from tradition, quite violently, I may add.

I read snips of Twilight in the bookstore because everyone said it was THE book to read. Well, perhaps it is if you don't read good books. I'm accustomed to better writing and couldn't justify wasting my time on something so vacuous.

I'm also not a fan of Wizard of OZ, but I think the underlying concept has some merit. I include it among sappy movies/books of that era, including Sound of Music and all those creepy Disney movies like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Boomsticks. Eeew.

I also can't read Hemingway or Faulkner. Yuk yuk yuk.

Recently I had to put down The Jane Austen Book Club. A good friend said she loved it and handed it over to me. I havn't the heart to give it back and say I couldn't get past page 30.

Aw I really liked Lolita. It's funny to see what books people hated and others loved.

Clickety wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Yes, Lolita. I could not stand him one more moment.."

Oh, YES! Thank you SO MUCH! Everyone talks about how Lolita is brilliant because Nabokov gets you to identify with HH and I jus..."

Ditto! I didn't like it either, though I did finish it to the end. I might have brushed over a few words and paragraphs. Very beautiful writing, I guess, but candy floss in the end.

Sandra wrote: "Yes, Lolita. I could not stand him one more moment.."

Oh, YES! Thank you SO MUCH! Everyone talks about how Lolita is brilliant because Nabokov gets you to identify with HH and I just DIDN'T. He just came off as a condescending, self-absorbed ASS.

Richard wrote: "a "friend" once told me "the wizard of oz" was a hidden hallucinatory treasure-i don't know what he was smoking but it was as lame as the movie-worse-3 chapters was enough for me to donate it to th..."
Would you believe me if I told you some of the best writing today is written for children? Had a wonderful seminar on best of Childrens' lit recently.
but it IS written for children.

Stef wrote: "Over the years I gave up on several books. The last one I didn't finish was ABSOLUT UNWIDERSTEHLICH ( don't know the english title, it was first published in 2004 ) by Sarah Harvey. It wasn't the f..."

Donna wrote: "Have you ever started a book and just hated it so much that you tried and tried but just could not finish it? How far would you actually go until you said "To Hell With IT!!!!"?

There are quite ..."
Yes, Lolita. I could not stand him one more moment..

If I have to force myself to pick up a book, when reading it becomes an obligation instead of a pleasure, that's one way I know I should give up.

I think it depends on the individual case - the author etc on how willing I am to give them a chance.

If it's an author I've read and enjoyed already I'm more lenient, but if it's an author I'm not then I don't.

Also the length, I suppose I will give a fat book a bit longer then a shorter book to warm up - not much because I shouldn't have to. A book should grab you from the get go and if it doesn't the author did a bad job.

Books I will carry on with even if it isn't terrific, will be books which are readable at least - easy to read usually - or books that I have read a lot of.

Some books though just make me depressed and I start skimming, missing out passages. Books like For Whom the Bell Tolls and Atomised - FWTBT I got half way through, Atomised 3/4 through before I just stopped. It wasn't worth it, it wasn't readable and I'd only read so far out of vain hope it would improve.

When the book becomes mere words and I no longer can derive meaning from them, I give up.

As I read through the responses, I have to admit that I've been wondering - how much of a gap is there between "not terrific" and "have to stop"?

At what point do you stop hoping it gets better, and why?

While I find continuing this train of thought a bit pointless, at the risk of unleashing another 72 bar solo of passionate rebuke, I find myself unwilling to be bullied. The only thing here which is unfounded is Richard’s supposing, one way or the other, what I know or do not know, other than what I have stated. I clearly said that although I liked reading Kerouac, I thought he wasn't a good writer, a proposition with which Richard clearly disagrees. Further, although I am sorry he finds my comment concerning Woolf glib and unworthy, I find his commentary to the contrary overly wordy and contentious, as well as superciliously affected by style. In addition, I think his desire to browbeat this conversation unworthy of one who professes the enjoyment of literature.

Despite the fact that he says that Kerouac edited very carefully, I find that the result is much like results of nouvelle cuisine: some interesting combinations, but generally without a great deal of substance. I do not find that passion, with which both of them were heavily imbued, is a substitute for good writing and I find many of the run-on word combinations tiring and trite. I do find Kerouac’s books interesting on occasion, but hardly in the realm of great literature.

As to the improvisation and beach comparison, I had supposed it would be clearer than it appears that it was, for which I apologize. I had thought it mildly humorous. All I will say in explanation is that love at the beach is better left in one's mind rather than practiced. This is also an opinion.

As to my dismissal of Woolf, I am sorry anyone found it glib, but I found reading Mrs. Dalloway an unbearable bore and stopped. This is what the original topic was about. Elsewhere I say that I struggled through Orlando, but other than an interesting concept, I found it poorly executed.

It's a comment, not a review. Why are you so certain it's unfounded?

Gaiman! And Goldman. Christie from the last century. And there's horse manure ALLLLL over the place, Richard. You don't have to go looking for a stable. ;D

You do mean the last century, right, Richard?

I also loved your description of Woolf, Rhonda.

Richard wrote: "Oh Rhonda-first Joyce-then Virginia Woolf-even a comment "as bad as Gertrude Stein"-now my beloved kerouac-will you leave me no heros at all?"

Not as long as you spell them without the e.

Besides that, Joyce was merely difficult to read, but not without more than balanced reward. Woolf, on the other hand, wrote like the impressions from inside a woman's head spilled out onto a waxed wooden floor... and the interesting and coherent bits rolled out of sight under the divan.

Richard, I find it most interesting that you appear to be a stickler for the rules of games, and yet you have no respect for the Sacred Rules of Punctuation!

I can see that we won't be able to stifle your form of expression, but right now I'd settle for paragraph breaks in long posts. Would that compromise your Kerouackian spontaneity too terribly?

Ah, so many books to dislike and so little time! I do wish to point out that to truly appreciate The Wizard of Oz, one must have at least driven through Kansas: If I lived there, I would have invented Oz too!
As much as I like reading Jack Kerouac, I think that he is just an awful writer... and I think the spontaneous prose stuff is just so much horse manure, an excuse for not editing. Yes, I know, I don't understand the beauty of spontaneity, but there's a difference between listening to jazz improvisation and love on the beach: the former at least has a chance of getting it right depending on the virtuosity of the player, the latter a romantic idea condemned to the pain of discovery.
One book which I cannot read but have never really started is Gone With the Wind... and by saying this I realize that I am in danger of being drummed out of society altogether, at least the half that doesn't belch openly and boast about gas mileage and oddly fictitious liaisons. The worst part about saying this is that my aunt was a nut about the book: one night she was at a party in Atlanta (probably in the 70’s) and she gravitated to a room in this apartment house. The hostess, worried about her, found her sitting at a desk saying that she felt very comfortable there. It turned out to be the supposed place where Mitchell wrote the book. I must have listened to that story a thousand times!
The whole story was bad history and romantic nonsense…and I can finally admit that I preferred Ashley Wilkes too. I did have to sit through the movie a few times over the years.

Look what you've done, Richard! It's contagious!

Richard wrote: "but am instead following the principles outlined and developed in Kerouac's Essentials Of Spontaneous Prose"

But but it does make your replies very hard to read and I really am afraid I can't read your posts and so I only skim through.

On groups at least where we're all having a conversation it is important to be clear to read especially if you would like people to read what you have to say. No matter how much I want to, the lack of punctuation makes it rather difficult.

although maybe i should try this lack off full stop or period thing maybe it is releaseing? i already feel the need to put on in though my finger is itching to do so there i almost put one in just now and a few commas also slipped in without me realising - is this where i am supposed to put a dash in how very interesting but it is quite hard for me to write like this in fact i think i am running out of breath how do you keep this up for such a long time i must admire you perhaps i should take this up more often although at the moment i have no idea what to say or talk about and so this is all becoming a lot of wind-oops no paragraphs. now what shall i say? well marsha i can understand with wizard of oz how it must have been quite amazing with the colour-i remember watching it quite often as a kid-i never really liked it but something did make me watch it-perhaps the lack of anything else being on tv or just wanting to torture myself-i guess though as well oops comma that i don't really like such old films very much-not that i like modern or new ones either-but i never liked that stupid scarecrow or that silly tin man nevermind that irritating lion-i wonder they have not yet made a new one as they do like making re-makes don't they? are apostrophes allowed? i have seen you use a question mark richard so i suppose they are allowed oops full stop (PERIOD!) i hadn't realised that you had a different word for it over there how very confusing i mean who would know? i think i have had quite enough of writing in this way although i think it is a lot more interesting to write in this flowing consciousness thingywotsit then it is to read oops bugger another full stop there-anyway so richard i think i forgot about the dashes and i hope you do not hold your breath as you read otherwise you might have died from lack of oxygen by now-but i definitely quite enjoyed myself here vanquishing that wretched PERIOD! but it is very hard for people to read when you're in a conversation such as this-although one could get rather addicted to writing in this way so maybe i will continue to do so ha ha ha!

I'm with Fiona and Marsha.

It's funny how The Wizard of Oz has such an importance in American culture. I think I saw part of it as a kid but got scared and I've actually never seen it or read the book... I've been thinking about both seeing and reading it because I feel that a lot of American culture points to it and I don't always grasp the meaning of these pointers, having no real knowledge about it.
Richard, I agree with the others that what you write is hard to follow because it just flows and you can't really see where you're at - but I like what you say and I agree that we don't all have to do things the conventional way so I read your posts with interests. Also, to hear how you're doing with your Proust project!
I've read one book by Coetzee (Disgrace) and I liked it but I found him a bit of a challenging writer. I plan on reading more by him (I plan on reading a lot later on, huh?) but I would like to read him with someone else do discuss as I go along - kind of like what it seems you're doing with Proust...