Books People Can't Finish

[HarryT]

You actually said that "ten years ago, there was nary an ebook that wasn't just a print-copy torn apart and quick-scanned, OCR'd and published without an even cursory glance at the resultant mess." I'm simply pointing out that Baen have been publishing decent eBooks for a lot longer than 10 years.

As you say, not worth arguing about . We can both agree that the current situation of being able to get pretty much every newly-published book as a pretty decent-quality ebook is a very good one to be in!

[bearymore]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

The one book I can think of that has so far defeated me is Don Quixote, another mammoth classic. I bought it in around 1994, when I was buying a lot of generously-proportioned cheap classics to try to feed my reading habit cheaply. That's also when I bought and read War and Peace, The Three Musketeers, and some of the Sherlock Holmes books, all as Wordsworth Classics for £1 each. I just couldn't get started on Don Quixote, though. I don't really even know why. I think it was the size of it, coupled with the narrative tone. I didn't think I could face a whole book in that style.

I kept hold of the paperback until very recently, when I finally donated it to charity. If I ever decide to make another attempt, I'm sure I can get a free ebook version.

It's all in the translation. I had problems with Don Quixote until I came upon the Edith Grossman translation.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

I am in charge of what I consume

I could live on a diet of chocolate and candies alone and proudly die early

[glnnjnsn]

Thinking about this topic, I've come to the conclusion that I'm fairly good/lucky at choosing books to read I think I'll be interested in. Since I only read a couple of books a month, that's probably an important skill as well - as others have commented, it's depressing to spend time doing something you don't like for the sake of completeness. I'd add to it though, that some books while not necessarily a good "read" were very thought-provoking and I was glad to have read them.

As for my record of finishing books, the only ones I've never finished were school/course assignments that I usually couldn't finish within the time constraints - usually because I'd keep falling asleep from boredom, or had to read slowly because of comprehension/translation issues. My lack of interest in some of those makes me unsure exactly which ones I haven't read! But I do know that my record is far from perfect.

As far as Tolkien's TLOTR, I finished that as a teenager (and again later as an adult) and I think the turn-offs that many people cite were actually half of what I liked about the book. I think of myself as very detail-oriented (sometimes losing track of the forest for the trees) and given the completely novel and fantastical setting (or at least what seemed so to me at the time) each new character mentioned or tangential meandering from the main storyline made me feel like I was being let in on some secret knowledge.

Regarding Ayn Rand, I read (and finished) The Fountainhead my senior year in high school and by the time I reached the rape-but-not-really-a-rape scene, I had a fairly clear understanding of the basic ideas Rand was trying to convey. Finishing the novel was not a problem, as it was the way of finding out what exactly she was trying to say in her allegorical work. Of course, not really agreeing with most of her views, I've never had any inclination to start Atlas Shrugged.

There was one work that I was extremely surprised was not on the list: The Bible. I know a LOT of people (mostly Christians, of course) who start out intending to read it cover to cover but start losing steam around the "Begattitudes", start wavering around Leviticus/Numbers and then usually give up before Psalms. And that's not even including people who stop reading because they find something that contradicts what they were taught or believed.

As for books that I have finished, the ones I've had the most trouble with finishing were Hugo's Les Miserables (his digressions make Tolkien's look like hiccups) and a collection of works, The Slave being the longest, by Isaac Bashevis Singer. I don't think it's coincidence that translated works such as those tend to slow down my reading a lot.

[ApK]

LOTR: I've been stuck in Tom Bombadill's forest since grade school, never got passed it.
I liked Peter Jackson's movies.

Atlas Shrugged: It's on my TBR list. The movies are OK (2 of three parts out so far...don't bother looking in theaters for the third...I'm counting on Netflix) as for the "whys" of people despising her, that's better left to others in the P&R section. Despite some claims to the contrary, I don't think it has anything to do with literary matters. Suffice to say, I don't like many of those who claim not to like her.

Catch-22, I think I was assigned to read it, along with some Ayn Rand book, in high school. I don't think I ever did.....

Another book that would have made my top ten: Dune.
Never got past page 64. Gave up trying. Nothing special about page 64, just bored to tears by then. Didn't like the movies either.

[Alfy]

Originally Posted by ApK

LOTR: I've been stuck in Tom Bombadill's forest since grade school, never got passed it.
I liked Peter Jackson's movies.

Oh yes, it took me years of getting through the first book, to the dismay of my friends. And when I finally managed to complete the trilogy after maybe 4 different tries, I ended up not liking it very much...

I found that recently I am much more likely to drop a book I don't like. I usually give them a fair chance (for me, that's going though about a third of a book), but I don't push if I don't get it by then. Easy access to books is definitely the main factor in this change of habits.

[CharredScribe]

Originally Posted by Alfy

I found that recently I am much more likely to drop a book I don't like. I usually give them a fair chance (for me, that's going though about a third of a book), but I don't push if I don't get it by then. Easy access to books is definitely the main factor in this change of habits.

I think this is a good point. As a child and teenager, and even in my early 20s, I almost never abandoned a book. We didn't have many books in my house, and I wasn't always near a public library, so I was more reluctant to a stop reading something, and leave myself with nothing to read. Rather slog through a book, hoping it will improve. In the last couple of years, as I have been able to afford more books, and also borrow books from friends, I have found myself more inclined to abandon something, though I still feel that sense of dread I have been feeling for 20 years when I do so. I could probably count on one hand the number of books I have given up on.

[cHex]

Les Miserables, Dhalgren (I can't believe I gave it as much time as I did), and more recently, Shelley's The Last Man.

[JAcheson]

I read The Hobbit in my early teens, liked it, and received a paperback box set of that and LOTR soon after. I remember that it took me several tries to make it through LOTR. The first time I gave up shortly after the end of Fellowship, and I think I tried a second time and still didn't make it through Two Towers. When I finally made it to Return of the King, I finished that book in a single day!

I remember that as children, my peers and I viewed LOTR as a difficult read, and an accomplishment once you finished it.

I read Catch-22 in college, but I didn't really like it. I still have the book, maybe I should reread it. I have enjoyed a lot of books that were inspired by Catch-22, like some of Harry Harrison's sci fi farces.

It took me about 20 years to finally make it through Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island. I bought the book in high school because I enjoyed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but I wasn't able to get through it. Still, I kept it around because I felt it was a book that I should read. Finally finished it in my 40's. It honestly isn't that great of a book.

I've also read the first half of The Count of Monte Cristo numerous times. I always get to the part where he escapes from prison, which is a good stopping point, but then I never restart it.

[rem736]

the bible, start, stop, start over, stop...repeat.
the odyssey and the iliad...same situation.

[Joykins]

Catch-22 - it was sporadically amusing (Major Major Major Major still gives me a giggle) but I lost interest around the middle. Catch-11.

Atlas Shrugged - I finished this, but Rand's messaging is so heavy-handed I did skim Galt's 23892894793297034790 page speech near the end a bit because I GOT THE POINT ALREADY.

Lord of the Rings - I prefer to think of this as 3 books, 2 of which I have read. This is a series I've picked up and put down sporadically since I was 11 and had chicken pox and a lot of time on my hands. I plan to read _Return of the King_ without being feverish one of these days.


The Casual Vacancy, Fifty Shades of Grey , Eat Pray Love, Wicked, Ulysses, Moby Dick - never started these so haven't had the opportunity to abandon them.

War and Peace - I read an abridged translation (likely an abridgment of the Garnett translation, given the age of the book, which was busy gathering dust on my parents' bookshelf). It was so good I literally could not put it down. Finished it in a matter of hours. I haven't really tried an unabridged version, although I plan to try someday when I have a LOT of time to kill.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - another reading experience (along with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) I was kind of enjoying but interrupted by a library due date. I do hope to pick it up again someday, even though it was kind of slow going.

I do have a "DNF" shelf at goodreads, I keep it for books I don't finish within a few months.

[rollei]

Books People Can't Finish

The Price of Vigilance: Attacks on American Surveillance Flights by Larry Tart and Robert Keefe

It is a great book but didn't finish it. Will get back to it someday.

[Gazella]

That's strange. If you liked it why didn't you finish it?

[rollei]

It is a 600 page book about Soviet attacks on American Surveillance Flights. There were numerous accounts about the missions, the plane taking off, what they were doing in mid-air and finally the attack. After a while it gets repetitive, and I wanted to read something else for a change.

[Gazella]

Ah ok. That's understandable.