Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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LIST books you abandoned?
Just abandoned Oblomov. Boring & rambling & not interested in the character. It was funny at first & a bit interesting, but when it turned into long dream chapters, I abandoned ship. Should have stayed a short story or novella in my opinion
Rebekah wrote: "Just abandoned Oblomov. Boring & rambling & not interested in the character. It was funny at first & a bit interesting, but when it turned into long dream chapters, I abandoned ship..."Funny - I gave this one 5 stars.
I like your idea, Kim. I have actually come across certain topics in some of the books on the list which I find mentally painful to read, e.g. animals getting hurt. Using this technique I can get through certain parts without abandoning the book. I actually abandoned House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski because of this.
Really good idea Kim, I never thought of doing that, usually when I abandon a book it's because I can't bear the thoughts of spending another x amount of days reading it, skimming would get through it a lot quicker, might even finish it that day, then I can move on happily to the next read!
Kim wrote: " It's a great way of dealing with a difficult to read book and it's only semi-"cheating"! "Cheating whom? Do you read for anyone else's benefit?
Interesting... but if trying to Read the all the books list... I am going to reading ..the whole book. Today I did think of Abandoning... Tale of The Tub... aughhhh uck... but, if I could get through Ulysses and One Hundred Years of Solitude I can keep going on. I read word for word and page for page and I do not skim, if I want to say I have ..Read.. the book. I figure there must be a reason the book is on this list, although I wonder at many of the choices. I have not looked into the "Who" and "Why" these books were chosen. On many of these books I would like to see a couple of pages written on the argument on why they are on this list.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War I just couldn't get into it. I am not much of a sci-fi/zombie reader as it is, but I do read some but this one just didn't work out for me. Maybe one day I will try again.
Mod
This is not a LIST book anyway.
My bad!! I did a search at the top of the list and "assumed" (LOL)it was a search on the List only. Thank you Ellinor. Right now I'm not really reading anything; I have over 5000 books in my Dropbox that I am sorting and putting into files. I was adding them on here as I did, but I think it was too time-consuming so I will do that AFTER I get done with the sort.
one of the things I love about this thread is to see how one person's abandoned book is another persons absolute favorite. It very interesting to see what makes one person like one and one not. I haven't been reading too many list books as yet so haven't officially abandoned any- but I'm currently reading Absalom, Absalom!and am having a very difficult time with it. I've been reading it on ebook so I hit my local library and got a physical book- I notice sometimes all I need is a change of media and that can help- so I'm going to keep trying to make my way through it. I hate abandoning books it makes me sad lol
Kayla..I loved Absalom, Absalom. I suggest a reading guide for that one. Faulkner uses a lot of symbolism. I read it in college, so I had a professor as a guide.
Christina wrote: "Interesting... but if trying to Read the all the books list... I am going to reading ..the whole book. Today I did think of Abandoning... Tale of The Tub... aughhhh uck... but, if I could get th..."
I agree with the idea of hving some information on why books made the list. Sometimes it's easier for me to get into a book if I know why others appreciate it.
Kim wrote: "I have a tool that I use for books that I would otherwise abandon - I just read the first sentence of every paragraph properly and then quickly scan the rest of the paragraph. It works for even the..."Kim - I just tried this method on a terrible YA book I was reading! It worked great! Thanks! I might go back and power through some of my abandoned books this way
Yes, it is so interesting to see what people don't like. Amazed that someone could not like Love in the Time of Cholera.. that person probably would never make it through his One Hundred Years of Solitude. How can Moby Dick not be liked? Passage Through India I guess since I had seen the movie first and thought it a wonderful movie. The book just flowed for me. I don't give up on Any book. I read it through to the end. Now if I could give up it would have been on Ulysses and How Is It come to mind. Maybe good for an English major, but not the ordinary reader... uck.
I tried to read Moby Dick and finally put it down. I decided that I'm too old to take the time to read a book I don't enjoy.
The only list books I've abandoned so far is The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. Picked it up before I knew it was on the list or what it was even about. Found it was extremely boring and dusty, but also really beautiful sentences. Will return to it some day, just didn't have the energy for a slow read at that time. Sometimes I only read a couple of pages in a book before returning it to the library or my shelf, but if it's a classic or on the list, it will be read at one point unless it was too disturbing. Different times in your life will make you enjoy different kinds of books, so why force yourself to read one at the wrong time?
Just let A Tale of a Tub go, about 25% of the way through. I had absolutely no idea what I was reading :P I love satire, but this just wasn't making sense to me. Looking at others reviews of it, it seems to be a case of a very specific piece for a very specific time, and a lot of the references are obscure now.
Vicky wrote: "I tried to read Moby Dick and finally put it down. I decided that I'm too old to take the time to read a book I don't enjoy."When I read it in college, as an English major, my professor told us to, and encouraged us to, skip all of the chapters that were devoted to whaling and not the actual plot of the story.
Emily wrote: "When I read it in college, as an English major, my professor told us to, and encouraged us to, skip all of the chapters that were devoted to whaling and not the actual plot of the story. "Too funny! A friend tells me she enjoyed reading this in college, particularly because of the whaling chapters.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Emily wrote: "When I read it in college, as an English major, my professor told us to, and encouraged us to, skip all of the chapters that were devoted to whaling and not the actual plot of the sto..."I didn't skip the chapters because I wanted to read all of what is supposedly the greatest American novel. However, I kind of wished that I had skip
ed those chapters.
Emily wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Emily wrote: "When I read it in college, as an English major, my professor told us to, and encouraged us to, skip all of the chapters that were devoted to whaling and not..."Those were what killed me. I'm having another go as it's a book that has a lot of people who love it. Because of the huge numbers of people who do I am trying a revisit; this time I'm taking it slower and treating it more like a literary exercise rather than a straight read ie I'm looking at themes and religious tie ins as and when they show up in the text.
One of the people I follow just finished the Norton Critical Edition of Moby Dick. (This was a several times re-read for him, I'm thinking he just wanted to get more and more out of it.) Anyway, it made me wonder if I should try Norton for those harder books.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "One of the people I follow just finished the Norton Critical Edition of Moby Dick. (This was a several times re-read for him, I'm thinking he just wanted to get more and more out of it.) Anyway, it..."I've often thought the same. I borrowed a penguin copy of Moby Dick from the library though and while I haven't gotten to it yet, it looks really good with a bunch of maps, glossaries and drawings of whaling ships and tools with the words next to them for easy understanding of all the technical stuff.
Emily wrote: "When I read it in college, as an English major, my professor told us to, and encouraged us to, skip all of the chapters that were devoted to whaling and not the actual plot of the story.""I didn't skip the chapters because I wanted to read all of what is supposedly the greatest American novel. However, I kind of wished that I had skipped those chapters."
When I read it in high school, they told us the same - skip the whaling chapters. I also decided I was not going to do that because, come on - it's part of the book! I don't want to read an abridged book! ..... yeah, I ended up never finishing it.
Just Dnf'd The Swimming-Pool Library. Watching my tea kettle come to a boil was more exciting than this book :/
I think I'm going to give up on The Savage Detectives. I feel like it's a list of instances with the character going somewhere, seeing someone, and then those people going somewhere else. I'm into the second section and still feel like I'm waiting for it to start.
The Remains of the Day - got to page 45. For me it was meaningless drivel about what it means to be a butler on top of a travelogue of Britain. Just completely not interested.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "The Remains of the Day - got to page 45. For me it was meaningless drivel about what it means to be a butler on top of a travelogue of Britain. Just completely not interested."Remains of the Day was much more about the choices you make in life, how they affect your life, and how you live with yourself and sort of continue on towards the "evening" of your days. I ended up really liking it a lot, but I do agree the beginning was slow. I'd honestly recommend trying to pick it up again and skipping through some of the beginning to get to the "meat" of the book.
Kaycie wrote: "Remains of the Day was much more about the choices you make in life, how they affect your life, and how you live with yourself and sort of continue on towards the "evening" of your days. I ended up really liking it a lot, but I do agree the beginning was slow. I'd honestly recommend trying to pick it up again and skipping through some of the beginning to get to the "meat" of the book. "Must have been written for readers younger than those of us who are already close to the evening of one's days.
Haha, that could be true! :-) In fairness, the book didn't get into that stuff until later, though. It did have a lot of set-up that had to do with being a butler in England.
Since my goal is the complete list (1305), I don't want to abandon any. If A Clockwork Orange wasn't a list book, I might have though. I'm not fan of gangstories and I don't like too much slang.
Sofia wrote: "For me, Gulliver's Travels and Moby Dick.Can't remember if Foucault's Pendulum is part of the 1001 list but if so, that one too.."
It is unfortunately. I wish Baudolino was there instead, I have a beautiful version and want to read it :P
Winter wrote: "If A Clockwork Orange wasn't a list book, I might have though. I'm not fan of gangstories and I don't like too much slang."I read this last year and had expected to dislike it because of what I had heard about it. I was positively surprised, despite the topics it was enjoyable to read. I'd pick this over 1984 any time.
You would? Hm well I am getting used to the language, it's not bad, just not what I expected. Looking very much forward to 1984 though ;)
Winter wrote: "You would? Hm well I am getting used to the language, it's not bad, just not what I expected. Looking very much forward to 1984 though ;)"1984 is a great read, and if you like it, I'd highly recommend The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and also Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, both of which are also list books as far as I remember!
cool,thanks :) I'm doimg My own challenge in reading the 100 books from the norwegian series verdensbiblioteket (world library), gonna read them all in that version, so have to wait for it :) it's beautiful binding and most of them feature an introduction of a qwell known author. :)
Kaitlyn wrote: "Gargantua and Pantagruel was taking years off my life."Do you think it should be classed as a known carcinogen?
Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "Kaitlyn wrote: "Gargantua and Pantagruel was taking years off my life."Do you think it should be classed as a known carcinogen?"
It honestly should be. I was literally appalled at his lines of just gibberish.
So far, the only one I absolutely will NOT read is Blood and Guts in High School but then I haven't read very many. :)
Good for you. I could have easily died without having read that one.
What about Crash. That book was gross!
Crime and PunishmentGreat Expectations (failed to finish twice)
I'm sure there are others, but I don't have my book with me...
I may try again at a later date. Sometimes books gain appeal after sitting on the shelf awhile. (So glad the Executioner's Song is not on the list... made it to around page 700 before finally giving up... only had around 450 pages to go, but it was SOOOOOO tedious.)
Oscar and Lucinda the start was so dull, that I just gave up. Maybe I'll try it again some day, but now I just took it back to library.
Ulysses: Just too much I did not get or understand. I felt I was wasting my time.Read about 1/3 of Catch-22. Too much the same. It wasn't really funny.
Cloud Atlas: I don't really know why I gave up. Too much too keep track on. Later saw the movie, and now I don't really feel I need to read the book.
I sometimes think that it would be better to try more books and abandon more, but many years ago I was reading the The Time Machine. I wanted science-fiction not the social/evolutionary-philosophy, and was near giving it up. I finished it, and later I have been very happy about having read it.
List books I abandoned:Catch-22 - just couldn't get it
Infinite Jest - probably one of the most overrated books in literary history
Naked Lunch - ouch!
On the Heights of Despair - I have all intentions of going back to this, though
Queer - I think I abandoned this. Not sure, though
Remembrance Of Things Past - I was too young
The Book of Disquiet - I want to go back to this, too
The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr - ditto
The Satanic Verses - wtf?!
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - not my cup of tea
Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
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I have a German translation waiting on my bedside table. What did you not like about it?"
Too many cooks! I only made it through the first few chapters (first 100 pages or so) and I found that while there are a lot of characters I couldn't distinguish them from each other so I kept having to backtrack. The tedium of having to persisitantly reread entire sections go to me in the end :/.
It just felt like like a poor imitation of Dickens to me - although this may be due to the translation as I believe mine is the British version.