Books People Can't Finish

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

IThere are a lot of books that I can't finish [...] books that are so excessively footnoted to the point that the author has managed to destroy any interest that I might have had in the topic because the rhythm of the books is constantly broken up by them.

Have you ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke? I have been meaning to read this book for years--I even have an autographed copy--but I keep putting it off in part to the copious footnotes. It's a thick book, and some pages are almost entirely footnotes. Footnotes, mind you, not endnotes, so they can't be easily ignored. I like editions of classic books with footnotes that I can consult if needed, but in this case, I am given to understand that the footnotes are very important to following the plot.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

Have you ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke? I have been meaning to read this book for years--I even have an autographed copy--but I keep putting it off in part to the copious footnotes. It's a thick book, and some pages are almost entirely footnotes. Footnotes, mind you, not endnotes, so they can't be easily ignored. I like editions of classic books with footnotes that I can consult if needed, but in this case, I am given to understand that the footnotes are very important to following the plot.

Yes. I've read it. I admit that footnotes have never put me off; for years, when I was doing litigation, I was a research freak, so for whatever reason, footnotes seem perfectly normal to me.

I mostly enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but it's very odd. I read it some years back (wow, thinking about it...quite a few years back, now), and it's....well, it's a comedy of manners, missing the more obvious comedy elements. If you're familiar and comfortable with writers of the Dickensian age/style, you'll get the comedic elements; if not, it mayn't work for you. It's a book that is not easy to categorize.

The historical fiction part was well-researched. I just felt that in places, there was a disconnect with the readers, or more likely, it's that (for me) so many plot elements were left hanging, as if a "volume II" were in the offing that, to the best of my knowledge, never appeared. It's NOT "Harry Potter" for grown-ups, nor LOTR. Neil Gaiman liked it immensely, which is what moved me to pick it up, but...I'd have to know the prospective reader better to be able to recommend it or not. It most certainly isn't a fast-moving "page-turner" in that modern sense of the word. No big cliff-hanger endings, etc.

I will say, without a doubt, this was a book written by an author who wrote for her own delight, without a real nod toward the mass market. That's always interesting to me, so I'm definitely glad I read it. I remember that I liked it well enough to gift one to a close friend of mine--so I must have liked it at the time quite a bit better than I recollect now. :-)

Hitch

[HarryT]

I thoroughly enjoyed "Jonathan Strange". Not an easy read, but very rewarding.

[issybird]

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.

I think for books like Don Quixote, i.e., honking huge pre-20th century works not written in English, the quality of the translation is critical. The public domain translations can be impossible, translating archaic language and form into archaic language and form. If you're going to do it, it's worth spending the money on a current translation.

[mikemc2]

"Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace. I take a run at it every so often but never finish it. EDIT: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a slog for the first 100 pages but it gets better after that. That's one book where I'm glad I stuck it out.

[Barty]

I got through about 80 pages of Infinite Jest. Couldn't handle it.

But, DFW's essays are fantastic. Also, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

[Froide]

A Daughter of the Snows, by Jack London. The racism sticks in my craw, e.g.,

"We are a race of doers and fighters, of globe-encirclers and zone-conquerors... All that the other races are not, the Anglo-Saxon, or Teuton if you please, is."

- [swiped the quotation from Wikipedia: A Daughter of the Snows]

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I mostly enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but it's very odd. I read it some years back (wow, thinking about it...quite a few years back, now), and it's....well, it's a comedy of manners, missing the more obvious comedy elements. If you're familiar and comfortable with writers of the Dickensian age/style, you'll get the comedic elements; if not, it mayn't work for you. It's a book that is not easy to categorize.

Read Dickens? Yes. Truly familiar with Dickens? No, probably not. I'm more encouraged to read the book after your comments.

Originally Posted by issybird

I think for books like Don Quixote, i.e., honking huge pre-20th century works not written in English, the quality of the translation is critical. The public domain translations can be impossible, translating archaic language and form into archaic language and form. If you're going to do it, it's worth spending the money on a current translation.

Seconded. The money you save with a public domain translation may become time wasted in frustration. PD translations aren't necessarily bad but they often read differently from anything modern.

Originally Posted by Froide

A Daughter of the Snows, by Jack London. The racism sticks in my craw, e.g.,

"We are a race of doers and fighters, of globe-encirclers and zone-conquerors... All that the other races are not, the Anglo-Saxon, or Teuton if you please, is."

- [swiped the quotation from Wikipedia: A Daughter of the Snows]

That reminds me of another book I couldn't continue reading: Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad
. The narrator's judgments of his fellow travellers were very off-putting to me. It was too long ago for me to give specifics but I don't think I made it even 50 pages into the book.

[ebusinesstutor]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Interesting--I did read LOTR in its entirely quite a few years ago, never tried Ayn Rand at all. I can't think, off the top of my head, of any book which I started and then failed to finish.

[/I]

If a book doesn't grab me in the first few chapters, I dump it and read a better one - even if it is a best seller or award-winning.

My time is too valuable to waste it on books I don't like. I am in charge of what I consume.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

My time is too valuable to waste it on books I don't like. I am in charge of what I consume.

True. But sometimes I can't. I don't know why and I hate that about me, but I feel guilty for quitting a book and so I force myself into finishing it.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by Froide

The racism sticks in my craw, e.g.,

"We are a race of doers and fighters, of globe-encirclers and zone-conquerors... All that the other races are not, the Anglo-Saxon, or Teuton if you please, is."

Don't get me wrong, but this would rather be a plus point for me than a reason to abandon a book. Not that I'm sharing these opinions, but reading them helps me to better understand past times.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by Billi

Don't get me wrong, but this would rather be a plus point for me than a reason to abandon a book. Not that I'm sharing these opinions, but reading them helps me to better understand past times.

That is the very reason why I started to read Mein Kampf. I have been struggling through it for several months.

[missimpossible]

I think I got about 100 pages into The Crimson Petal and the White before giving up. I just hated that book so much that I couldn't read on. Everything about it just felt obnoxious and pretentious.

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I agree with Harry on this one. LoTR is wonderful. I'd urge anyone who enjoyed The Hobbit to give it a go, but bear in mind that it's not really written in the same style at all.

The Silmarillion is another thing altogether - much more like the LoTR's appendices than a novel. Only for those who really want to read more about the first and second ages.

I read LoTR when I was about 12. I was so enamored with Middle Earth that I immediately started The Silmarillion. It was a slog. I think I got about 50 pages into it and gave up. I tried it again a year or so later and it wasn't any better.

That was many years ago. Maybe as an adult it'll go better?

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

Have you ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke? I have been meaning to read this book for years--I even have an autographed copy--but I keep putting it off in part to the copious footnotes. It's a thick book, and some pages are almost entirely footnotes. Footnotes, mind you, not endnotes, so they can't be easily ignored. I like editions of classic books with footnotes that I can consult if needed, but in this case, I am given to understand that the footnotes are very important to following the plot.

It's one of my favorite fantasy books. Very unique.
I "read" it as an audio book. Narration was wonderfully done by Simon Prebble, footnotes included. It's unabridged version.
Even though you have autographed copy I recommend that you consider audiobook.
You can have a listen at the sample: here.
Footnotes are important here, but with an audiobook, you won't even think about them as you do now.