Hardest Book to Read?

[Judith]

Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabbelais

Could not get into the raunchy humor, and that is about all there is to the book!

[Chel]

Judith wrote: "Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabbelais

Could not get into the raunchy humor, and that is about all there is to the book!"

That's interesting as I have zero concept of what the book is about.

[Hannah]

For me, definitely Great Expectations. I have tried four times and only got up to page 100.

[Anthony]

Hannah wrote: "For me, definitely Great Expectations. I have tried four times and only got up to page 100."

Interesting. Great Expectations is one of my favorite books.

[P.]

Drew wrote: "Zee, I totally agree about Kundera, although I've only read T.U.L.O.B, so I'm not sure I'm qualified to judge.

Ulysses is definitely a lot different from Dubliners, but the main difference is that..."

Wow Drew, thanks for your insightful recommendations. I really liked 'Midnight's Children', especially the idea that he wasn't even born yet.

[Drew]

No problem. Sometimes I get carried away on this site.

If you liked Midnight's Children, you're probably fine to read The Satanic Verses, though you may not like it quite as much. BUT, I'd recommend The Moor's Last Sigh first, just because it's awesome and slightly less well-known.

[Bea]

I am having a hell of a time getting through The Case of Comrade Tulayev. I picked it because it was the highest ranked book from one of the Lists available on Audible. I'm a lover of Russian literature and have read almost all of Solzhenitsyn's novels, which deal with the same themes.

I just loved the introductory biography of the author, Viktor Serge, written by Susan Sontag. I thought the first chapter was great, too. The writing style is good throughout.

Then my trouble began. It's the story of various unrelated people in Stalin's USSR who are (falsely) accused of conspiracy to murder the title character. The chapters are episodic and each one comes with at least 5 new characters. I'm having a hard time getting engaged but I figure one chapter at a time. Also, I keep getting distracted by Dickens.

Now, however, all these people are meeting up in various ways and I have no idea who they are. I will, however, listen and knit my way through this book by December 31 or die trying.

Lessons learned:

1) A high average rating may be misleading when the book has been rated by only 114 people.
2) Some books are not meant to be listened to on audio.
3) I can't do justice to more than one or two books at a time.

[Marialyce]

Bea, I have a very hard time with Russian literature and I admire anyone who takes the time and effort required to read one of these novels. I am bogged down right now with Notes from Underground and am at a point where I am considering dropping it.

[Bea]

Well, I was past the point of no return so I finished it. I'm so excited about starting the Brontes.

[Kelsey]

It took me nearly two months to finish reading Satanic Verses, I was also about ti graduate high school around the same time so it was a balancing act but once I made it through I loved it!

A Tale of Two Cities was slow going for the first half, while the second half was a page turner, I never would have continued if it hadn't been a school book though.

[Keri]

I recently finished The Brothers Karamazov, which was pretty tough going. It would have benefited greatly from a really stern editor - "Now, Dostoyevsky, this super long chapter where the monk tells an irrelevant story is not really helping your plot to advance," etc.

[Keri]

Although, to be fair, I did think it was worth it...just not for the faint of heart.

[Annina]

Most hardest to read has been American Psycho and Interview with the Vampire.

But I have read only 35 books from the list, so I'm sure that there will be harder books than those two.

[Marialyce]

For me the hardest book I read was War and Peace. After awhile I just felt like I just don't care what happens.

I also had difficulty with The Name of the Rose because of all the Latin which I had for four years in high school...little good it did me!