Currently NOT reading

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Some of the nonsense contained herein may be very loosely related to The Sisters of Mercy, but I wouldn't bet your PayPal account on it. In keeping with the internet's general theme nothing written here should be taken as Gospel: over three quarters of it is utter gibberish, and most of the forum's denizens haven't spoken to another human being face-to-face for decades. Don't worry your pretty little heads about it. Above all else, remember this: You don't have to stay forever. I will understand.
Post Reply
User avatar
Erudite
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1982
Joined: 24 Apr 2002, 01:00
Location: Lost In Space

We're all good at putting down the titles that make us seem hip, groovy and smart. But it's time to 'fess up - which books have you failed to finish?

Dull?
Overrated?
Dated?
Waiting for the film instead?

I've just given up on Hardy's "Jude The Obscure".
Don't quite know why - it's not difficult to read or understand, but it completely failed to hold my attention.

Had a similar experience with MacBeth a few years back and I've yet to attempt the Bard again.
You are what you drink - I'm a bitter man!
Top
User avatar
itnAklipse
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1541
Joined: 09 Jun 2003, 08:12
Location: set adrift
Contact:
Contact itnAklipse

Not all of us.

But a couple of weeks ago i tried reading some fantasy books, apparently they were supposed to be 'good ones', something by some guy called Bakker. It was dreadful, i couldn't read 10 pages. If the best sci-fi/fantasy books are those by Tolkien and Frank Herbert, then god help us.

Well ok, Mythago Wood series by Holdstock is better than either of them.

And btw, i hate Shakespeare. i don't think there's a more irrelevant writer, there are 'as irrelevant' writers, but not 'more'.
we've got beer and we've got fuel
Top
User avatar
Pista
Cureboi
Posts: 17759
Joined: 25 Jun 2006, 15:03
Location: Lost In A Forest
Contact:
Contact Pista

Got half way through Fingerprints of the Gods, before I put it down for a hi fi magazine.
Still there with the same page marked 3 months later.
Cheers.
Steve
Just like the old days
TheCureCommunity
Top
User avatar
Planet Dave
Underneath the Rock
Posts: 6830
Joined: 22 Apr 2003, 23:51
Location: Where the streets fold round

Pista wrote:Got half way through Fingerprints of the Gods, before I put it down for a hi fi magazine.
Still there with the same page marked 3 months later.
Took me ages to get through that, but well worth the perseverence.
'This is the water and this is the well...'
Top
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21182
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:
Contact markfiend

I've still not finished that biography of Lord Byron that's under my bed...

...three years after starting it.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
Top
User avatar
6FeetOver
Childlike Empress
Posts: 7683
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Uncanny Valley
Contact:
Contact 6FeetOver

Never got past halfway through Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Just really stopped giving a rat's arse about the main characters *and* the plot lines...
I left my heart in Ballycastle... :cry: :cry: :cry:
Top
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21182
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:
Contact markfiend

SINsister wrote:Never got past halfway through Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Just really stopped giving a rat's arse about the main characters *and* the plot lines...
From what I've heard about Ayn Rand, that's hardly surprising; her characters are just thinly-veiled cyphers for her own loony political beliefs.

About the only good it's been is as the *ahem* "inspiration" for Atlanta Hope's Telemachus Sneezed
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
Top
User avatar
James Blast
Banned
Posts: 24699
Joined: 11 Jun 2003, 18:58
Location: back from some place else

Espedair Street
Ulysses
"And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere".
~ Peter Steele
Top
User avatar
Planet Dave
Underneath the Rock
Posts: 6830
Joined: 22 Apr 2003, 23:51
Location: Where the streets fold round

Well reminded, Blasty...

Excession...yawn....hmm, nice doorstop.
'This is the water and this is the well...'
Top
User avatar
canon docre
Overbomber
Posts: 2529
Joined: 05 Mar 2005, 21:10
Location: Mother Prussia

A book everyone told me is the best and I really really wanted to like it. I started about three times with Lord of the Rings (in my childhood) but never came past the passage, where Gandalf produces smoke rings for this elderly Hobbit. :|
Put their heads on f*cking pikes in front of the venue for all I care.
Top
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21182
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:
Contact markfiend

Planet Dave wrote:Well reminded, Blasty...

Excession...yawn....hmm, nice doorstop.
Really? I must have read it 7 or 8 times.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
Top
User avatar
Obviousman
Outside the Simian Flock
Posts: 7090
Joined: 22 Aug 2004, 12:14
Location: Soon over Babaluma
Contact:
Contact Obviousman

They've done an enquiry about that in Flanders a while ago, Hugo Claus' The Sorrow of Belgium was voted the book nobody read. Shame, tis really a good one, actually, not even all that dull!
James Blast wrote:Ulysses
That one on the other hand, I have never reachd its end either :(

And Dante's Divina Comedia, but that's probably because it's a translation which actually rhymes, so a bit old fashioned :lol:
Styles are a lie.

My Facebook/My Flickr
Top
User avatar
boudicca
Sister Midnight
Posts: 7427
Joined: 15 Sep 2004, 16:15
Location: embrace the margin
Contact:
Contact boudicca

Obviousman wrote:
James Blast wrote:Ulysses
That one on the other hand, I have never reachd its end either :(
:lol: I knew someone would be in with that one!
Obviousman wrote:And Dante's Divina Comedia
In Florence at new year I went into the little church where he got married :eek: ... I never usually get "starstruck", if that's the word to use in reference to someone who's been dead hundreds of years, but I was quite in awe :notworthy:
There's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets
Top
User avatar
Obviousman
Outside the Simian Flock
Posts: 7090
Joined: 22 Aug 2004, 12:14
Location: Soon over Babaluma
Contact:
Contact Obviousman

boudicca wrote:
Obviousman wrote:And Dante's Divina Comedia
In Florence at new year I went into the little church where he got married :eek: ... I never usually get "starstruck", if that's the word to use in reference to someone who's been dead hundreds of years, but I was quite in awe :notworthy:
Another fun fact about it: There is (or probably used to be in the meanwhile) a restaurant near Florence whose innkeeper knew and recited the whole of La Divina Comedia by heart :eek: :notworthy:
Styles are a lie.

My Facebook/My Flickr
Top
User avatar
Izzy HaveMercy
The Worlds Greatest Living Belgian
Posts: 8844
Joined: 29 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Long Dark Forties
Contact:
Contact Izzy HaveMercy

itnAklipse wrote:Not all of us.

But a couple of weeks ago i tried reading some fantasy books, apparently they were supposed to be 'good ones', something by some guy called Bakker. It was dreadful, i couldn't read 10 pages. If the best sci-fi/fantasy books are those by Tolkien and Frank Herbert, then god help us.
Try, among others: Terry Pratchett (deffo!), Weis & Hickman, Marion Bradley, David Eddings, Tad Williams, Mercedes Lackey, Robin Hobb, Raymond E. Feist.

And on topic, I started in a book by Tom Holt, because every called him the 'New Pratchett'... Forget it... it's dull writing :| (I just took the bait because I ran out of Pratchetts to re-read ;) )

IZ.
.
.
For Greater Good - Ambient Music for the Masses...
.
.
Top
User avatar
weebleswobble
Underneath the Rock
Posts: 5877
Joined: 09 Feb 2006, 06:57
Location: The Bat-Milk Cave
Contact:
Contact weebleswobble

Pratchett


waits for mass rebuttal :innocent:
‎"We will wear some very loud shirts. We will wear some very wrong trousers."
Top
User avatar
6FeetOver
Childlike Empress
Posts: 7683
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Uncanny Valley
Contact:
Contact 6FeetOver

weebleswobble wrote:Pratchett


waits for mass rebuttal :innocent:

Not from me - I've never read any... :oops: :lol: :von:
I left my heart in Ballycastle... :cry: :cry: :cry:
Top
User avatar
scotty
Overbomber
Posts: 4880
Joined: 10 Jun 2005, 23:03
Location: Behind the Door.........

The Catcher in the Rye, I've tried Half a Dozen times but just can't be bothered to finish it.
Being brave is coming home at 2am half drunk, smelling of perfume, climbing into bed, slapping the wife on the arse and saying,"right fatty, you're next!!"
Top
User avatar
6FeetOver
Childlike Empress
Posts: 7683
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Uncanny Valley
Contact:
Contact 6FeetOver

scotty wrote:The Catcher in the Rye, I've tried Half a Dozen times but just can't be bothered to finish it.

...which happens to be my favorite book of all time. And it's not even a very long book! Dang. :lol: :P :von:
I left my heart in Ballycastle... :cry: :cry: :cry:
Top
User avatar
Quiff Boy
Herr Administrator
Posts: 16827
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Lurking and fixing
Contact:
Contact Quiff Boy

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

just couldnt get into it :|

Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

just too goddam big :urff: :oops:
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
Top
User avatar
boudicca
Sister Midnight
Posts: 7427
Joined: 15 Sep 2004, 16:15
Location: embrace the margin
Contact:
Contact boudicca

scotty wrote:The Catcher in the Rye, I've tried Half a Dozen times but just can't be bothered to finish it.
Ah, I tried that one when I was 13, and I got about halfway through before losing interest. I should probably try again, from what I hear I think I'd like it a lot better now...
There's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets
Top
User avatar
Obviousman
Outside the Simian Flock
Posts: 7090
Joined: 22 Aug 2004, 12:14
Location: Soon over Babaluma
Contact:
Contact Obviousman

boudicca wrote:
scotty wrote:The Catcher in the Rye, I've tried Half a Dozen times but just can't be bothered to finish it.
Ah, I tried that one when I was 13, and I got about halfway through before losing interest. I should probably try again, from what I hear I think I'd like it a lot better now...
I read it a while ago and found it too much like a kid's book, actually. Was not convinced at all.
Styles are a lie.

My Facebook/My Flickr
Top
User avatar
6FeetOver
Childlike Empress
Posts: 7683
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Uncanny Valley
Contact:
Contact 6FeetOver

boudicca wrote:
scotty wrote:The Catcher in the Rye, I've tried Half a Dozen times but just can't be bothered to finish it.
Ah, I tried that one when I was 13, and I got about halfway through before losing interest. I should probably try again, from what I hear I think I'd like it a lot better now...

I *am* Holden Caulfield. :wink: :von:
I left my heart in Ballycastle... :cry: :cry: :cry:
Top
User avatar
6FeetOver
Childlike Empress
Posts: 7683
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Uncanny Valley
Contact:
Contact 6FeetOver

Obviousman wrote:I read it a while ago and found it too much like a kid's book, actually. Was not convinced at all.

Interesting... I don't find anything childish about it - quite the opposite. It's written from a teen's perspective, of course, but the themes are most definitely adult. The protagonist is childlike, which may be a reason why you find the book juvenile..? Just my take on it, your mileage may vary, of course! :wink:
I left my heart in Ballycastle... :cry: :cry: :cry:
Top
User avatar
Planet Dave
Underneath the Rock
Posts: 6830
Joined: 22 Apr 2003, 23:51
Location: Where the streets fold round

Gormenghast - got to the third book and sacked it about 10 pages in, never to return.

Sinnie - I was reading this thread when in walks Ethan, and promptly pipes up 'That doll looks well scary and wierd' about your avatar. Cheers mate, he's probably gonna grow up to be a goth now. :urff: :lol:
'This is the water and this is the well...'
Top
Post Reply

Return to “General Chat”