Question 46 - Intimidating Books

[Faye, The Dickens Junkie]

Is there a book (or books) that you want to read someday but always seems too intimidating? Will you be putting it on your to-read list for 2015?

[Kassandra]

I've always wanted to read Atlas Shrugged but it has always seemed just a little too daunting to actually add to my reading list. I'm not sure that this will change in 2015, but we'll see how the year progresses. I don't want to get bogged down not making progress toward my other goals if I get stuck on this one.

[dely]

Yes, Les Miserables! I hope to read it next year and I hope to be able to read it in French for a new challenge I want to do for 2015: to read in the original language.

[Melissa]

Middlemarch by George Eliot and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The latter I've started but have not read any farther than page 44.

[Roseanne]

War and Peace and this time I mean it! I am starting on January 1st. I am forever squeezing something shorter in first.

[dely]

Iasa wrote: "That's a great ambition dely to read in the original language, I wish I could do that!"

I hope I will be able to read such a long and difficult book in French. It's a long time I don't read or speak French.

[Tracey]

Roseanne wrote: "War and Peace and this time I mean it! I am starting on January 1st. I am forever squeezing something shorter in first."


^This is exactly my sentiments. I will hold you to it Roseanne, if you hold me to it.

[Roseanne]

Definitely Chase. No starting anything big before year end. I am just finishing stuff now.

[Alessandra]

I'm with dely on this. Les Misérables :)
It won't be on my 2015 reading list 'cause I already have a massive book on the list (A Game of Thrones).

[Faye, The Dickens Junkie]

dely wrote: "Yes, Les Miserables! I hope to read it next year and I hope to be able to read it in French for a new challenge I want to do for 2015: to read in the original language."

That's one of my goals in life!

[Faye, The Dickens Junkie]

Chase wrote: "Roseanne wrote: "War and Peace and this time I mean it! I am starting on January 1st. I am forever squeezing something shorter in first."

^This is exactly my sentiments. I will hold you to it Roseanne, if you hold me to it."

Now that you've said this publicly, we'll all be holding you both to it! :P

[Happy]

James Joyce. But he gets put off another year at least because of my 2015 Diversity Challenge.

[Marina]

There are a few: War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov and, perhaps most of all, The Man Without Qualities, which I have in German on my Kindle. I will never ever have the courage to start it.
Another one was Don Quixote, but now I have decided to read it as a Buddy Read in another group, which might prove to be a good way to start reading it.

[Deborah]

Das Kapital is pretty intimidating, even in translation. Marx was not a gifted writer. I already read some of it but failed to plough through the lot. Handy hint to anyone feeling the same way - flick through any chapter and you'll come to a place where he writes 'In summary' or similar; at that point he reiterates what the chapter has said but less wordily. Alternatively, read Engels - he's a gifted writer and The Communist Manifesto is an easy read. I note, as I added the title there, that it is attributed to Marx - this is not true; Engels wrote it. Had it been Marx, we'd never have heard of Socialism or Communism!

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*]

Les Miserables, War and Peace, any huge classic really.

I must say that when I finally dug into Gone with The Wind (my copy was over 1100 pages) and Lonesome Dove, I fell in love with them both.

[[deleted user]]

Any of the classics that I wasn't assigned to read in school. I am hoping to one day reading them but I am not sure.

[Sam]

I have tried to read The Dice Man by Luke Reinhardt several times since my teens (20+ years ago) and just can't manage to finish it as I find it challenging on many levels I can't quite identify. Maybe I should add it to my 2016 list, but there are so many much higher priority books that I think I should just move on.

[Sinead]

Anna Karenina...it's been sitting on my bookshelf a long long time!

[Lindsay]

War and Peace. And I doubt it lol. I vow no clunkers next year.