"The Most Boring Book" I read or tried to read

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Kralik

If you want digressions, try Don Quixote!

I'm not trying to be argumentative, so sorry about all that. I just don't think that boring means it's a bad book -- each person has his or her own tastes.

I'll agree with your opinion. Try "Finnegans Wake," for starters.


Don

[BlackVoid]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

They're not descriptions though, they're digressions - great wads of tedious verbiage that contribute nothing to the story, and just get in the way.

Sometimes this is what makes the book great. There are many authors where the story is secondary...

[pking36330]

This will seem odd, but two of the most boring books I've read are also two of my favorites.

The first 800 pages of Neal Stephanson's Cryptynomicon is painfully boring. But after thinking for the longest time "when will this be over" the last 350 pages draw it all together and you just can't turn the pages fast enough. His 2700 page Baroque Cycle, though divided into three volumes it is really one book, and it was an easier quicker read than Cryptinomicon. Even so, now that I know the twist at the end, I can't subject myself to wading through Cryptinomicon again, though ultimately I thought it was a great piece of storytelling.

Similar experience with Charles Palliser's The Quincunx. Very, very slow for the first two thirds but thankfully I didn't give up because I've ended up re-reading and and enjoyed it again.

[Mrgauth]

I too have tried to read a Clancy book and have never been able to do it. I finally just gave up on him. Great movies, booooorrrrriiiiinnnngggggg books.

Also, ANY old classics with old english style prose. Just to wordy and the customs and whatnot are so far removed from my life that I just can't relate at all.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by pking36330

This will seem odd, but two of the most boring books I've read are also two of my favorites.

The first 800 pages of Neal Stephanson's Cryptynomicon is painfully boring. But after thinking for the longest time "when will this be over" the last 350 pages draw it all together and you just can't turn the pages fast enough. His 2700 page Baroque Cycle, though divided into three volumes it is really one book, and it was an easier quicker read than Cryptinomicon. Even so, now that I know the twist at the end, I can't subject myself to wading through Cryptinomicon again, though ultimately I thought it was a great piece of storytelling.

Similar experience with Charles Palliser's The Quincunx. Very, very slow for the first two thirds but thankfully I didn't give up because I've ended up re-reading and and enjoyed it again.

Thanks for this post. I wil remember it next tme I try to read Neal Stephenson. It did put me off at first, and I'm not sure I would have had the stamina to read 800 pages I found boring - there'd have to be something, some kind of payoff. Right now I'm reading "Seven Gothic Tales" and it's slow, but also very, very nice. Wonderful observations of the human state and a lovely, low-key, humour.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'll agree with your opinion. Try "Finnegans Wake," for starters.


Don

Or "for finishers"
You must be brave - and have a LOT of time & patience (IMHO) for this one!

[richough3]

For me, Ben Hur. The other one that took me 5 tries before I read it all the way through was Le Morte d'Arthur.

[oncdoc]

believe it or not, i got bored in middle of dan browns angels and demons. all that stupid running around was getting to me. i just went to the last chapter to be done with it.

[oncdoc]

Originally Posted by RWJ

Oh yes! Dan Brown novels fill this niche for me. They're execrable on a number of levels, but at the cottage a few years ago I went through all of his novels. They're amusing, but the prose is hammy and purple, the characters two dimensional when not one dimensional, the history is ghastly, and the basic premise is usually ridiculous. Terrible, but oddly not at all boring.

boring for me.

[melbournian]

I feel like an uncultured turd for saying this but I could not finish The Quiet American when we read it at school. I think I read the first half and the last chapter. I just couldn't get into it at all, although I'm willing to blame that on actually having to study it which has killed the fun of every book I've enjoyed (except for Pride and Prejudice) and maybe give it another shot when I receive my ereader and can get it online.

Also I had a bet in Year 10 with my English teacher that I could finish Ulysses and didn't get past page 13 in 4 concerted efforts.

[pking36330]

Originally Posted by melbournian

Also I had a bet in Year 10 with my English teacher that I could finish Ulysses and didn't get past page 13 in 4 concerted efforts.

That's why a major hotel change used an image of an open copy of Ulysses on the floor beside the bed as their theme for selling 'get-away and rest' weekend packages.

I used to read the a few pages of the dictionary during bouts of insomnia hoping it would induce sleep, but occasionaly I would come across and interesting word which would make me look up another word, and then another. I switched to Ulysses and didn't have a problem getting to sleep. Abandoned it completely when my insomnia went away.

[WT Sharpe]

Contrary to many here, I find the Bible to be enormously fascinating.

Of course, some parts are more interesting than others. The countless genealogies – page after page of who begat who – are for the most part boring, but far from meaningless if you’re a student of the Bible and are interested in how the writers justify the relations between the various tribes.

And some of its authors are better writers than others. I consider the Yahwist (according to the "documentary hypothesis" one of the four main authors of the Pentateuch) to be an excellent storyteller; rarely equaled, never surpassed. The Adam and Eve Creation Myth is so simple a child can relate, yet so subtle that scholars are still debating it’s depths.

In the New Testament—in the letters nearly universally believed by scholars to be genuinely his—Paul displays a remarkable outlook for a first century man that is both cosmopolitan in its scope and enlightened in its view of women.

In the later Deutero-Paulines (the books having a secondary standing because of the serious doubt as to their authorship) the beginnings of the subjugation of women by the Church can be traced as it begins to take shape. I find it mesmerizing to have such a ring-side seat, so to speak, at historical developments that still affect our lives today.

In the final analysis, however, not every book — or collection of books — is everyone’s cup of tea. And that’s OK.

What I really find mind-boggling is how anyone can NOT like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! Starships powered by Improbability Drive? A book that begins with the destruction of the Earth — on a THURSDAY? C’mon, people — what’s not to like about that?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Contrary to many here, I find the Bible to be enormously fascinating.

So did I.

I credit actually *reading* the Bible for much of my conversion to Paganism. (Or at least, away from Christianity. I suppose I could've become a Buddhist; it was a near miss.) The difference between what was in the book, and what the various priests and ministers said, was just astounding.

The Adam and Eve Creation Myth is so simple a child can relate, yet so subtle that scholars are still debating it’s depths.

Heh. Mentioning the concept of "Christian Mythology" is a good way to get into raging flamewars on some sites. A great many people can't deal with discussing the Bible as work of literature, or comparing it equitably with other cultures' scriptures.

What I really find mind-boggling is how anyone can NOT like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! Starships powered by Improbability Drive? A book that begins with the destruction of the Earth — on a THURSDAY? C’mon, people — what’s not to like about that?

It's, ahhm... a bit whimsical & scattered? Plus, there are aliens? Ugly aliens. And bad poetry.

I suppose there must be people who don't like HGttG. I've never (knowingly) met any in person, but since it doesn't outsell Da Vinci Code, it must not appeal to everyone.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

... Mentioning the concept of "Christian Mythology" is a good way to get into raging flamewars on some sites. A great many people can't deal with discussing the Bible as work of literature ...

Well, I wasn’t trying to stir controversy. I was attempting to use “myth” in the sense that scholars often use it; not to denote something as being necessarily false, but rather as referring to a traditional narrative that seeks to shed light on some aspect of the world’s mystery. In this sense, a myth may be a story whose literal truth or untruth is not ultimately the most important aspect. What is important is the truth the myth conveys about the human condition.

I wasn’t attempting to critique the metaphysics of the Bible, only to defend its literary value.

[Dr. Drib]

We're all too intelligent to get into any flame wars; and, as we all know, MobileRead is very quick to deal with this kind of situation.
___________

Another boring book: The Tommyknockers.

What was this wonderful storyteller thinking when he wrote this stinker?


Don