Heartland

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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

...three years after starting it.

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...

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

Espedair Street
Ulysses

Well reminded, Blasty...

Excession...yawn....hmm, nice doorstop.

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.

Planet Dave wrote:Well reminded, Blasty...

Excession...yawn....hmm, nice doorstop.

Really? I must have read it 7 or 8 times.

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

Obviousman wrote:

James Blast wrote:Ulysses

That one on the other hand, I have never reachd its end either

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 ... 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

boudicca wrote:

Obviousman wrote:And Dante's Divina Comedia

In Florence at new year I went into the little church where he got married ... 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

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

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.

Pratchett


waits for mass rebuttal

weebleswobble wrote:Pratchett


waits for mass rebuttal

Not from me - I've never read any...

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

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.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

just couldnt get into it

Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

just too goddam big

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...

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.

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.

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!

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.