The book you like most discussion
Give me a book that made you feel too stupid while reading it (you are not alone!)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Annika
(new)
Jul 18, 2025 01:41AM
For me it was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The talking walls, the way he was constantly writing in metaphors or wasn't he? I just didn't get it and it really put me out of it.
reply
|
flag
I have been waiting for this.This is how you lose the time war, I was pissed that I'm not the only one who get it and N.K Jemisin duo on the city we became.
@Annika.Sometimes it takes me reading classic 3 times and the themes to understand a book.
so yeah Fahrenheit 451 was kind of complicated
I got lost so many times whilst reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson. I'm really bad at remembering names of people and places, and the constant swapping between different groups and places with individual plots confused me so so so much.
I am reading one now. Italo Calvino: Eros and Language. The author is getting into her stride discussing Calvino, E. H. Gombrich and Freud's opinions on the connections between humour, laughing and sex. For Calvino, "laughter is a pure defense mechanism of human fear in the face of sexual revelation. It is mimetic exorcism - through the minor upset of hilarity - for mastering the total upset that sexual relations can trigger." My thoughts exactly.
Beowulf, I felt like it was just rambling
La Nausee by Jean Paul SartreThe Unbearable Lightness of Being
Anything by John Le Carre, because I can never follow the plot.
Hp lovecraft. The old style writing is hard for me to understand.
WAR AND PEACE. Please ssy I'm not alone 🫥🤦♀️
When the Moon Hits Your Eye
John Scalzi
I feel that this book cheated me.
I was looking forward to an interesting story that would explain how our moon was turned into cheese (and possibly how they would fix that) - but it was never explained. 😭 So I feel bad that I read the whole thing but the author cheated. Instead it was a very boring book with a plot that wondered all over the place!
And the worst cheat was at the end!!! 😡
@thecursed_Reader for sure! A lot of canonical considered classics here
The three body problem - it was fascinating but very very confusing
Trista wrote: "Beowulf, I felt like it was just rambling"I totally agree
A Clockwork Orange. I don't know if I was too young when I tried to read it but I found the writing so confusing and I was constantly struggling to put together what was actually happening.
I tried reading Don Quixote in Spanish since it’s my first language, but I still couldn’t understand half the words, so I ended up putting it down.
Fahrenheit 451 It took me a bit to get it but I did love the book. Liked the old movie and new version of the movie as well. Mhmm I might read it again now that I’m thinking about it.
@sarah. Yess Fahrenheit for me too but I didn't like it. Glad you did
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.Got the best of me!
Ghosts of New York by Jim Lewis - completely stupid
Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley. Obviously it’s his experience on psychedelics but that essay was almost incomprehensible to me, you’d have to go way slower or have some other reference to piece it together cause I was lost.
Most books written before the 1900's are hard for me to understand, the language they used; just I can't stand it 💀
Anna Karenina, and it's not that it's difficult to understand but the themes it explores and single lines powerfully capturing a whole new aspect of human nature is just insane, 2ndly the book is long so for those who set aside a book for sometime try something else and then come back all the names can be confusing bcs they are in Russian.
Mmmm so many books that I don't understand to varying degrees. I feel like it's possible that every book I read, I misunderstand to some extent. I remember having so much trouble with Dostoyevsky or other Russian authors.
Europe Central William Vollman, and Name of the Rose Umberto Eco. Vollmann is fantastic, but Europe Central is very very hard in a lot of parts. Id read so much about Eco I was just intimidated and Rose isn't really easy but its not as hard as I thought.
I once read a Sci-fi book called Symbosis - Episode One: Poiesisthough I did understand the basic themes of the book I just couldn't seem to get my head around the rest of it.
I don't know why.
I can't seem to figure out if it was just me or if Sci-fi is just a genre that I don't get along with.
Game of freaking thrones. I couldnt get past page two hundred something
@Nathaniel. Did you make it through the name of the rose? I tried reading it as a teenager after watching the movie but couldn't make it past page 100
@evlove uh game of thrones. I will read it later on this year. I'm sorry it didn't work for you
@Annika i hope you enjoy it 😊 the show kinda slaps
Project Hail Mary. I couldn't get through the science stuff at the beginning, I was just so confused by it all. Gutted, though. I really liked the writing style and the sound of that one, but I just couldn't do it.
Bleak House, Charles Dickens.I believe, he used every word in the 'Old English, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary' in the first five chapters...twice. You want to talk about lost and brain numbing. Stop at about the 400 page mark, set it down for a month...and then tackled it again. 1300 pages later...same conclusion. Granted, second time around l found my mistakes made early in my first attempt.
Brian wrote: "Bleak House, Charles Dickens.I believe, he used every word in the 'Old English, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary' in the first five chapters...twice. You want to talk about lost and brain numbing. Stop at ..."
I remember studying Bleak House at school. It took two years to get my head around the plot. No novel needs that many characters!
@Annika, It was an audiobook, so yeah, I made it through, but I listened to a few parts twice. Eco is amazing. @Brian @Judith Speed I love Bleak House, but I agree with you Dickens is a wordy SOB. Dickens essentially didn't have an editor cause BH was a serial (that ran for 18 months). There is a lovely recent adaptation with Gillian Anderson, Carey Mulligan and Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones) that is totally worth watching. Im sure its on Hulu, and I think its free on Amazon.
We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriever.I needed a dictionary next to me to look up all the ‘big’ words. Amazing book, well worth the slog. But as always, the film was rubbish, don’t watch it. It doesn’t capture the horror and the emotional struggle the mother goes through. Whether you agree with the mum or not, it really makes you think about the nature vs nurture argument and is it okay not to like your own child. It has stayed with 20 years later.
Nathaniel wrote: "@Annika, It was an audiobook, so yeah, I made it through, but I listened to a few parts twice. Eco is amazing. @Brian @Judith Speed I love Bleak House, but I agree with you Dickens is a wordy SOB..."
Thank you, l'll have to check it out.
Judith Speed wrote: "Brian wrote: "Bleak House, Charles Dickens.I believe, he used every word in the 'Old English, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary' in the first five chapters...twice. You want to talk about lost and brain num..."
And some characters were introduced for no known reasonable or beneficial reason.
Lovecraft. literally anything by him. a close second would be Ethan Frome
thecursed_Reader💫📖📚 wrote: "I have been waiting for this.This is how you lose the time war, I was pissed that I'm not the only one who get it and N.K Jemisin duo on the city we became."
I read this is how you lose the time war after hearing people RAVE about it and the whole time I felt like I was missing something that everyone else saw, it was so annoying 😭😭
The book you like most
Books mentioned in this topic
When the Moon Hits Your Eye (other topics)Italo Calvino: Eros and Language (other topics)
The Road (other topics)
