Books you cannot finish

[Shannon]

THere are several books that I haven't finished, some I will never return to adn others I pick away at.

Ones I won't return to include: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. I could not get past the first 2 chapters and I forced myself to go that far with it. The Eagle's Throne: A Novel I got most of the way through this for a book club but it was tortuous. Perhaps it was the translation but I don't know. It could also be that it was better in its day. I understand that the ending was pretty good and made the rest of the book make sense. Another that comes to mind is Franny and Zooey (gasp) I know, I just couldn't read it. There are others in this pile as well but I don't remember which ones.

Ones that I keep plugging away at include:
Soul Mountain I have been reading this for 3 years and am only half way through! Three Men in a Boat 2 years and it is a tiny little funny book that I have a hard time getting into but some twisted part of me likes. And again, there are probably others here too but I can't remember off hand.

I have a third pile too, ones that I finished that I wish I hadn't bothered....

[Sam]

Well I am pleased to announce I managed to finish War and Peace and gave it the full 5 stars, it was well worth the effort and not as difficult to read as I thought.

How you getting on with yours Emma?

[Molly]

Sam wrote: "Well I am pleased to announce I managed to finish War and Peace and gave it the full 5 stars, it was well worth the effort and not as difficult to read as I thought.

How you getting on with your..."

Good to know. I am starting a group read with another blogger in about a week and a half - we are each going to blog about our thoughts on it each week as we go by dividing up the characters. We want to show people that Tolstoy is nothing to fear!

[Sam]

Sounds like a good plan Molly, and he definitely isn't I can certainly atest to that :-)

[Molly]

Sam wrote: "Sounds like a good plan Emma, and he definitely isn't I can certainly atest to that :-)"

I think you were addressing me - Molly - not Emma?

[Sam]

Oops my apologies got distracted by my previous post sorry :-)

[[deleted user]]

I had a huge problem trying to get through the Narnia eries but that was mostly to do with time rather not liking it... Alice in Wonderland is another one and I think that I mainly because the copy I had belongs in this whole set of classic stories that once belonged to my Grandparents and they gave them to my mother who gave them to me... I'm worried that they are going to fall appart and that will be the end of them!

[Molly]

Molly wrote: "Good to know. I am starting a group read with another blogger in about a week and a half - we are each going to blog about our thoughts on it each week as we go by dividing up the characters. We want to show people that Tolstoy is nothing to fear!..."

Sam & Emma (and anyone else for that matter) - our War & Peace intro. post just went up today - to continue weekly until we finish!

[Jim]

I am about half way through Gormenghast and may make it (but maybe not). I would add Gödel, Escher, Bach to the list of books I could not finish.

[Carey Devine]

Emma, I have not read any of those books but I do have a list of my own. If I cant get into the books within the first few Chapters I just put the book down for a later date. I do also skip between books sometimes if I can't seem to get into one in peticular. I hope you enjoy your books :D

[Cecily]

Jim wrote: "I am about half way through Gormenghast and may make it (but maybe not)."

Blasphemy - that's my favourite book. LOL. How can you not love a book that describes lightning like this: “a light like razors. It not only showed to the least minutiae the anatomy of masonry, pillars and towers, trees, grass-blades and pebbles, it conjured these things, it constructed them from nothing... then a creation reigned in a blinding and ghastly glory as a torrent of electric fire coursed across the heavens.”?

However, I realise it's also a rather strange book and not to everyone's taste. Can my review of it win you over, I wonder: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... and http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Jim]

Cecily - I did not say that I did not like the book. I think the language is amazing. The descriptions are so cinematic that I can easily imagine a director saying the same things when setting up a shot (I think particularly of the "christening" of Titus on the raft. The scene starts with the rain and gradually zooms in to a single drop of water falling off a leaf and the surrounding images as seen through the drop of water). The man was well before his time.
I am having trouble getting through the density. It is as if I have become narcoleptic - I read 2 pages and fall asleep. I cant get through a 1000+page book at that pace!

[Cecily]

I would love to fall asleep with Gormenghast - I might dream of it. But I understand how the richness of the prose might be soporific. Maybe you could read it a few pages at a time, but in tandem with something else?

And it isn't necessarily 1000+ pages (only about 700 in mine) because the first two parts (Titus Groan and Gormenghast) make a complete story, whereas the third part (Titus Alone) is utterly different in every way and easily omitted or postponed (I've reviewed that too: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...).

[Carol]

Jim wrote: "I am about half way through Gormenghast and may make it (but maybe not). I would add Gödel, Escher, Bach to the list of books I could not finish."

OMG! I didn't know anyone else in the world (except my two brainy friends who (did)work at JPL in Pasadena) knew about this book! (Godel, Escher, Bach)I'm a big fan of MC Escher, so when I saw this book on their bookshelf I borrowed it, and they moved before I could return it. I have to admit, most of it was so obscure to my level of comprehension, and I didn't try to struggle through those parts, but I found some, perhaps small, parts within my grasp and therefore interesting.

One of my fondest memories (from about 15 or so years ago) was dinner in a Chinese restaurant with these two friends and our choral director (we all sang together) and discussing space, mathematics, and other scientific things, with the conversation just understandable enough to me to prod me to sharpen my thinking by extrapolation...if it had been really over my head, I would have withdrawn my attention politely, but it was so stimulating by having to reach for understanding.

I would hope that something comes into your life to inspire your curiosity.

[Jim]

Carol - I, too, enjoyed the parts of the book I could understand. I have also read and enjoyed a book on Pi and another on Zero and one on the Golden Ratio(not bad for an Eng Lit major). I like the math books that explore the history of the concept, not just the math part.
The Pi book was particularly interesting because it tied in with what I had read about the Knights Templar and the Masons (the BIGGEST conspiracy theory of all time)and Foucault's Pendulum - but I digress and should probably find the right posting to pursue this.

[Karen]

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell I haven't given up yet although I am going to put it aside for a while and read other things but I am struggling with it

[Carol]

Karen, I had to do that too, with JS&MrN, especially the middle part. Later in the book it gets good again. This is almost the first book I have read that was over 700 pages, and that in itself makes it seem indomitable. It's not light reading, but not so heavy that you have to think a lot. I liked very much her explanation of 'magic' itself, how the so-called magicians of early England liked to talk about it and perform sleight-of-hand 'tricks' but no-one really knew how to actually do it, so to them 'real magic' was forbidden. Her presentation makes the premise plausible for Jonathan Strange when he comes on the scene. He seems like a really good guy, doing magic for good, if a bit naive. The plot and premise of the book seems realistic to me, and later in the book he has a nemesis which makes the storyline interesting, too.

[Carol]

Jim wrote: "Carol - I, too, enjoyed the parts of the book I could understand. I have also read and enjoyed a book on Pi and another on Zero and one on the Golden Ratio(not bad for an Eng Lit major). I like t..."


I'm interested, too, in dabbling in things that I can understand with a modicum of struggle, but that promise to open my world up to something new and different. What was the name of the Pi book you mention? I'm also interested in Knights Templar.

I also notice that you are a Dr Who Lover...another thing I can relate to. I have been watching the episodes of Season 4, with David Tennant and Catherine Tate...I just adore her. Him too. I especially liked The Library, both episodes.

[Jim]

Carol - I will try to dig up that book. It is a small one, a quick read. You might also like the movie Pi although it is not one to watch with the kids.

[Carol]

I just Googled Pi on IMDB to get the story. Sounds like SciFi-Noir, but a good story. There is another book called The Life of Pi...but I don't think that's the same thing, is it?

[Jim]

Yes - SciFi Noir is about right. It is not the best movie but fits in with the Templar/kabbalah theme.

[Carol]

Have you seen the mini-series 'The Lost Room'? It was on the SciFi channel last year I think. My sister had the dvd's so we watched it last summer, I think it's about ten hours long. It's probably on the verge of SFNoir...some violence at the very beginning, and if you can get through that it gets very interesting...about artifacts that have certain powers, and a key that will open any door...

[Larry]

Frank Herbert's Dune-booooring!

[Carol]

Larry said: "Frank Herbert's Dune-booooring!"

Good to know, Larry...I loved the movie (original with Kyle McLaughlan(?) but then it wouldn't be the first time a good movie was made from a boring book. I thought the remake was boring, and people said it more resembled the book, so maybe I'll take a pass on reading it.

[John]

Didn't like A Reliable Wife, I only lasted 30 pages.

[Ally]

I just couldn't get through In Siberia. I only got about 80 pages in before I gave up - it's the only book I've ever not finished. I'm not sure if it was the writing style, or the fact I didn't know much of the history of the area so that made it more difficult, but I just couldn't get into it.

I may go back to it at some point, but we'll see.

[Karen]

I couldn't finish The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood and I also couldn't finish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (I made it to page 178)!

Karen

[Shannon]

Karen wrote: "I couldn't finish The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood and I also couldn't finish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (I made it to page 178)!

Karen"

I haven't even been able to open the cover of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, somehow it just doesn't appeal to me.

[Sharon]

I had a very diffiecult time getting into Girl With Dragon Tattoo. I did finish it but I'm not sure I'll read the other two. There was too much financial stuff in it.

[Max]

I'm glad I'm not the only one... I only read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo halfway through for a book club, and then had a friend tell me how it ended, and was so glad I didn't finish reading for that. Such shabby writing, I'm surprised so many people enjoyed it.

And I'm not sure if I have a short attention span or what, but books I couldn't finish:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. (I only read it about 20 pages in, so I definitely plan on picking it up again.)
Atonement by Ian McEwan. (I saw the movie first, heard the book was better so tried it... and failed. I'll probably come back to it, but only because I own it and hate to see it go to waste.)
The Pact by Jodi Picoult. (I think I just really dislike Picoult.)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. (I'll come back to it, I swear.)
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. (Again saw the movie first, but I didn't read nearly enough to form an opinion of the book, so I'll try it... for the third time, mind you. What is wrong with me?)
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. (It's not terrible, I just have so many great unread books on my shelves, I had to abandon it at like page 100.)

There are many, many more, but I don't want to overwhelm you guys. ;)

[Gitte]

Carol wrote: "Larry said: "Frank Herbert's Dune-booooring!"

Good to know, Larry...I loved the movie (original with Kyle McLaughlan(?) but then it wouldn't be the first time a good movie was made from a boring..."

I've been struggling with that one too, and now I'm waiting for a group read to finish it - just can't do it alone!

[Cheryl]

Michelle, you said you want to try again several books you've started and put down - despite having plenty of other books available. I'm sincerely asking - why? I mean, I struggle through some books, and give up on others... but I don't understand trying again?

Is it because sometimes you've gone back to a book and been glad you did so?

(and of course anyone who has something to say please do, not just Michelle :)

[Shelli]

Michelle wrote: "I'm glad I'm not the only one... I only read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo halfway through for a book club, and then had a friend tell me how it ended, and was so glad I didn't fin..."

I loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattooalthough I can see how people got turned off in the beginning...the next two books were even better for me. I really enjoyed this series a lot. I read The Roadand just don't get why eveyone loves it so much...I thought it was one of the most depressing stories ever, and I just don't get the beautiful part...that's just me!
I could not finish Middlemarch,The Poisonwood Bible(tried twice!)Midwivesor A Clockwork Orange. I plan to read Dune with Gitte!(or at least try!)

[Emma]

I've had a three month break whilst I forced myself to read Wolf Hall. Horrible evil book which has been banished to the cupboard where books I didn't like go to die. I'd have given it to a charity shop but I left it out in the rain after an afternoon of suffering with it in the garden and the chickens ate a few chunks out of it too.

War and Peace is being started tonight. Am determined.

[Chris]

The Lovely Bones
Time Travellers Wife
I tried both several times and gave up in spite of so many people recommending them. At the moment I'm reading Ravens by George Dawes Green, and I'm ready to give up unless anyone can convince me otherwise!!

[Gemma]

Normally I'm so stubborn that if I start something, I have to finish it, no matter how painful it is.

The two that have eluded completion so far though are Something Happened and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I'm determined to go the whole hog at some point... just not right now... :)

[Gitte]

Shelli wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I'm glad I'm not the only one... I only read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo halfway through for a book club, and then had a friend tell me how it ended, and was so ..."

Let's see if we can finish it if we help each other! I really liked parts of it, but sometimes I just didn't know what they were talking about! Perhaps I accidentally skipped some pages...?