Terminalcoffee discussion
Books / Writing
>
What are the most difficult books you've ever read, and were they worth the effort?
date
newest »
newest »
That all depends on what one means by "difficult." When I think of Gravity's Rainbow, I think of how difficult it can be to read that novel, considering it's not a novel that can be read casually; there's a time commitment required in reading that novel.
RA, you mentioned The Road yesterday. While I think The Road, as a novel, is a fairly easy novel to read, the subject matter - a man and his son traveling through a dangerous wasteland in search of a promise for a better future, all the while evading cannibal raiders and all sorts of dangers - is itself very difficult. I know some people who had a hard time reading that novel because it's so grim and grisly, almost as if it's too easily imaginable.
Then again, I found The Davinci Code difficult to read. No, scratch that, difficult to swallow that a novel so awful could be such a massive best seller.
RA, you mentioned The Road yesterday. While I think The Road, as a novel, is a fairly easy novel to read, the subject matter - a man and his son traveling through a dangerous wasteland in search of a promise for a better future, all the while evading cannibal raiders and all sorts of dangers - is itself very difficult. I know some people who had a hard time reading that novel because it's so grim and grisly, almost as if it's too easily imaginable.
Then again, I found The Davinci Code difficult to read. No, scratch that, difficult to swallow that a novel so awful could be such a massive best seller.
Alaska by Michener was the first novel by him that i had read. it was tough at first due to being intimidated by the size of it and how he begins (a kablillion years ago). totally worth it and now Michener is one of my favs. i collect his books and reread them occasionally. LOTR i couldn't even do. too many words (you know what i mean?) not in word count but more in sensory overload. too much to remember and too much remembering who and what is who. not worth it to me
i will say that Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire were not easy reads for me due to the foreign locations, references and setting. but both were totally worth it and ended up being great stories
A Tale of Two Cities - I had to read it for school in 7th grade and was never able to get through it. I've been holding a grudge against Dickens since.Anna Karenina - Another one I couldn't finish.
LOTR - I did finish that but it took over a year. I would take a break between parts. The Two Towers was the worse. But I really did enjoy Fellowship of the Ring and I'm glad that I can say I read LOTR (even if I decided to skip parts of the Appendixes).
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - If you've ever seen this book you'll understand why. It doesn't really have normal left to right text. There are pages with one sentences, backwards text, and footnotes upon footnotes upon footnotes. If you can get through it it is an amazing read and it's the scariest book I've ever read. So scary that I hated having a copy in my house and I finally gave it away.
The Mists of Avalon, and Dune is rather hard to get through though i really like the both of them, some books that i read in high school i would've been harder if i didn't read them in class because i probably wouldn't have gotten the symbolism..
I'm having trouble coming up with a book that was a difficult read because of content. The joy that some of my friends found in the Savage Detectives eluded me. What keeps popping into my head is examples of books that I couldn't get into because of something physical. I still haven't read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell because it doesn't seem to have chapter breaks or line breaks or anyplace good to stop. It's also too big to carry to work.
I opened The Left Hand of Darkness dozens of times before finally reading it - and loving it. Something about the font and the first page kept telling me to stop.
what about kerning? that a prob too? (i don't like footnotes. i could care less about the sources)
House of Leaves is staring at me right now, on my bookshelf. I do want to read it, but I need to make the effort - meaning, time and dedication - in reading it through. I've been compelled to read it ever since hearing Poe's album Haunted, which referenced the novel frequent. No coincidence, considering Mark Danielewski is her brother.
Sarah Pi wrote: "I'm having trouble coming up with a book that was a difficult read because of content. The joy that some of my friends found in the Savage Detectives eluded me. I hear ya. Hard to think of a more "love/hate" book on GR...
I hated it.
I slogged through LotR, but I didn't enjoy it much. Not like I enjoyed The Hobbit. It was so long, and full of details that didn't move the story forward, and gee, a few important female characters with actual character development would have been nice. I really prefer the movies!As for tricky, I don't know. Maybe Catch-22? I read it for class in high school, and we mapped out the battles on the board to keep track of the timeline. But I don't remember having any difficulty following it.
I put Anna Karenina down after page 200 something. I didn't regret it at the time, but now I sorta do. It means I have to read those 200 pages again to finish the novel. It was the detailed scenes of Russian farming (if I remember correctly) that got me.Moby Dick was hard to get through the first time. My copy is torn to pieces from the times I'd throw it across the room. I've read it twice since then, and it was totally worth it. I could get lost in that novel.
Gilead was difficult because it was not my cup of tea at all. I had to read it for class.
Why the Dalai Lama Matters was a difficult book, mostly because of the lack of editing, the horrible prose, and the ridiculousness of some of the arguments. (We should give Chinese President Hu Jintao a Nobel Peace Prize after he allows Tibet to become autonomous? Tibet, once fully autonomous, should BOTTLE and SELL the water that runs through their country, even though the author is for Tibet being environmentally protected?)
There have been other books that were difficult just because I'm stupid to the subject matter, like novels based on Hinduism.
You know, these are good clarifications. I can see what people mean by "difficult" as defined by "not very good and hard to read" and "emotionally difficult subject matter". In this case I meant books that were intellectually exhausting and required a lot of effort, but any of the definitions will do.Aristotle's Ethics was another extraordinarily rewarding work that comes to mine. St. Augustine's Confessions, even with all the problems associated with the author, was excellent but tough, althought City of God was way too much effort.
I think a fiction example might be Infinite Jest, which seems to be hard for a lot of people...some people love the novel, some don't.
Sarah Pii and I, by the way, are "freaked out by The Road" buddies:)
oh, i didnt even consider non-fiction, in that case, the hardest thing to get through in recent memory was On Human Nature by E.O.Wilson i had to read it for a philosophy class on the origin of human behavior (using the example of suicide terrorism as the main question).. (i seriously wanted to do a book burning after i read it, and i dont usually go for things like that) i've read others that were hard on terms of disagreement.. but i just couldn't deal with this one.. seriously i'd rather read Dawkins.. its even harder to deal with then the gnostic stuff i've read.. but i guess it wasn't rewarding so much as at least i know a different perspective.. other philosophy would go on the difficult but worth it side.. like Descartes.. a lot of good debate about his stuff..
Some of the classic we head in high school I found hard to read. Perhaps now I would have no trouble.Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native sticks out as I had trouble reading. I did not like the reading style and read it only because we required to for class.
In fact, requring me to read a book usually results in my finding it difficult to read. I hated having to read or finish a book I did not like.
Now, as an adult, I usually give a book fifty pages or so. If I do not like it all by then, I can stop. I have too many good back in the TBR pile to waste time on ones I do not like.
The Horse Whisperer for example, I don't feel like I gained anything but a desire to hunt the author down and shake him. Bunny if you find him, I want a turn.
Bunny and I are often mistaken for each other. It's our shared northern, semi-rural appearance.:)
whew, i thought maybe it was the Joe Dirt mullet from the profile pic
RandomAnthony wrote: "Bunny and I are often mistaken for each other. It's our shared northern, semi-rural appearance.:)"Once you're wearing northern semi-rural winter wear, everyone looks the same. This is known as the Kenny effect.
I'd have to say War & Peace. I read it in the first half of the year...it took me 7 months (w/ a 2 month hiatus.) It was worth it though. It was really frustrating because it took me about an hr to read 20 pages. I did enjoy it though and I am glad that I read it.
I'd have to say Don Quixote, I still haven't finished it to this day, I got about 3/4 of the way through. I like the book, but it just kept going and going, and I finally couldn't remember what I had read previous days so I just shelved it. The other would be the Odyssey. It took me a few tries at first, but I really dig mythology and have read it more than a handful of times.
Ok so we have a Jaime, a Jamie, and a Jaimie, all female. I feel like I'm back in elementary school! LOL!
Gus wrote: "House of Leaves is staring at me right now, on my bookshelf. I do want to read it, but I need to make the effort - meaning, time and dedication - in reading it through. I've been compelled to read ..."Is it staring at you like that stack of money with the googly-eyes that you could be saving with Geico? :-P
I bought the Haunted, cd after I read the book. It doesn't do much for me but I love the title song.
Jaimie wrote: "Ok so we have a Jaime, a Jamie, and a Jaimie, all female. I feel like I'm back in elementary school! LOL!"hahaha!! same here, but there were two that were female and two that were male in my class!! And 3 of us spelled our names the same. That's were the stupid ass nick names came into play..
Jaimie wrote: "Ok so we have a Jaime, a Jamie, and a Jaimie, all female. I feel like I'm back in elementary school! LOL!"
I'm really a James, can I play?
I'm really a James, can I play?
Jim wrote: "Jaimie wrote: "Ok so we have a Jaime, a Jamie, and a Jaimie, all female. I feel like I'm back in elementary school! LOL!"I'm really a James, can I play? "
Ok, here's some creepy info on me, I was supposed to be James Jay Jr., but oops, I'm a girl so that's how I got my name... so yes, James can play too! But the role playing thread is elsewhere.. you have to be a girl to play!!
The Grapes of Wrath. I don't know why but I can't make myself to continue and finish it. I am sure it must be a good book,(I am on page 40 for a month already, so it is too soon to form an opinion). Maybe it is the wrong font.
I think it's a good book, Knarik. It's been quite a while since I read it.Is it windy where you are?
I agree with Larry Knarik, it is a good book, sometimes you just have to be in the right mood for certain books.
yes, it is! I haven't taken a jacket with me in the morning and I was shivering!
Wait right there, K. I'll bring you a jacket.
The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli)
(Absolutely worth the perseverance)
I fall in love with The Prince from the first page and wasn't able to put it down!
Mod
Unquestionably.
Mod
Kerning is very important too.
I like having footnotes. What bugs me are endnotes, because I often like to see what the source is and HATE having to flip back and forth. I have to use two bookmarks!
Mod
For fiction, I can't think of anything truly mindnumbingly difficult, probably because I haven't attempted the most mindnumbingly difficult. The Magic Mountain took me forever to get through but was very much worth the effort.
Paradise Lost was intense...ten pages at a time, really, with notes, but I loved that book. And I felt like a better person for reading it. Not that, um, I want to read Milton again soon...
I want to write about some others...but now...what about you?