What book(s) did you finish even though you didn't like it?

[thibaulthalpern]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

I really don't care when a book was written, so long as I find it interesting, enjoyable or otherwise worthwhile to read. So yes, as well as modern authors such as Neal Stephenson and Thomas Pynchon I also like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. I liked them before they were available for free on the web, too...

Well, when a book was written does influence style, flavours, topics, and so forth. I'm not that fond of Charles Dickens and many of those classic English authors. I find a lot of their work tedious and drawn-out. Of course, authors like Charles Dickens actually wrote their novels in serial form in the newspaper and it could have been more interesting to read it as such rather than as a book.

[phenomshel]

Ok, y'all can crucify me, but I LIKED The Da Vinci Code. I liked Angels and Demons, too.

I forced myself to finish The Hobbit. I know, it's brilliant and a classic but I had to force myself to finish it. I was glad I did, though.

[RCR]

I battled through both "The Turner Diaries" by William Pierce and "Left Behind #1" by Tim La Haye.

I was hoping to learn about the mindset of terrorist/supremacists in the first book and the Christian Rapture in the second.

Both books were a huge disappointment. I guess I was treating them as "Dummies Guides" to those subjects. But they were badly written duds. I had to force myself to work through them. I learned nothing.

[Andybaby]

Every Book Read in HighSchool
The Doomsday book by connie willis
Saturns Children by Charles Stross, though, I didnt think it too bad, I took a long break, it takes a long time to digest this, after a 2 month break i finished the book in less than a day from the midpoint
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Slaugterhouse 5

[GeoffC]

Kate Elliot's "Kings Dragon".

Silmarillion

I like Anne McCaffrey's books - but I could not enjoy "The Changelings" ...

[montsnmags]

The Sea, The Sea, by Iris Murdoch. I believe I managed a cold, apathetic loathing of every miserable, whining character (that is, all of them) in that book, and finished it with exasperation that no redemption was forthcoming for the effort.

Cheers,
Marc

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

An interesting question. I have to think: honestly how many people here actually do like reading the "classics" or rather more accurately the copyright free texts? It seems to me that the primary reason people talk about digital readers and "classics" is because those are free books. If there were not free, probably more than 50% of digital reader users would not bother with them.

I can quite honestly say that Dickens is my favourite author, with Austen not far behind. Dickens writes with absolutely biting wit and social satire (eg his representation of the working of government in the "Circumlocution Office" in "Little Dorrit"), and probably no writer in history has given the literary world as many memorable characters as did he.

As a scholar in the social sciences myself, I admit to not being attracted to the so-called classics literature and much prefer to read contemporary texts.

It doesn't have to be an "either/or" thing, of course. I'm a big SF and fantasy fan as well as loving Dickens and Austen.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

An interesting question. I have to think: honestly how many people here actually do like reading the "classics" or rather more accurately the copyright free texts? It seems to me that the primary reason people talk about digital readers and "classics" is because those are free books. If there were not free, probably more than 50% of digital reader users would not bother with them.

I enjoy reading the classics.
A primary motivation for me getting an ereader was to be able to enjoy the freebie texts in a convenient format.
If they hadn't been available, I probably wouldn't have bought one.

[astra]

I forced myself through:

1. Earthsea 5 books by Ursula Le Guin - horribly borring
2. Although I liked some of books in Crown of Star series by Kate Elliott, the last two books were so lame that I believe it was a big waste of time on my part to read the series, waaaaaaaay too much of religious rant and horrible ending
3. The Book of the New Sun 1 - The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe.
I even read half of the The Claw of the Conciliator before I gave up
4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
5. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (I have an excuse here. I loved the book, until I reached the horrible ending.....)
6. The Redemption of Althalus by D&L Eddings, parody on fantasy
7. Any Russian classics I had to read in school, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Chekhov, Sholokhov. Absolutely hated them. Stupid books.
8. The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
9. Lord of Light by R. Zelazny
10. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
11. The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
12. The first 2 out of 4 Hyperion books by Dan Simmons. I liked the last two though.


Hey, I am learning from my mistakes. I don't force myself anymore.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco are the latest examples. No more than 1/3 of each, then off they went to Recyle bin.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by astra

I forced myself through:

1. Earthsea 5 books by Ursula Le Guin - horribly borring

"Earthsea 5"??? There's only four books in the series - and the fourth was a drawer project that were only published much later (also by far the weakest book).

I had a hard time getting through "The name of the rose", too, but then I was only 17, and I ended up skipping much of the pholiospy/theology. I think if I read it today, I'd get more out of it, and I do like Eco.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Ea

"Earthsea 5"??? There's only four books in the series - and the fourth was a drawer project that were only published much later (also by far the weakest book)

The Other Wind? Don't remember what it was about.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra

Hey, I am learning from my mistakes. I don't force myself anymore.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco are the latest examples. No more than 1/3 of each, then off they went to Recyle bin.

May I ask what it was about "The Name of the Rose" that you didn't like? I found it one of the most absorbing books that I've ever read!

[Ea]

Originally Posted by astra

The Other Wind? Don't remember what it was about.

Ah, yes, here they are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Le_Guin#Fiction
Never read the last one, and I'd consider the first three to be the 'orignal' trilogy.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

May I ask what it was about "The Name of the Rose" that you didn't like? I found it one of the most absorbing books that I've ever read!

2-3 pages only to describe an entrance to a church?

[Ea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

May I ask what it was about "The Name of the Rose" that you didn't like? I found it one of the most absorbing books that I've ever read!

For me, I can say that I found the philosphy and theology sections were tough to read, so I skimmed and skipped them. I was 17 and I think that I just knew too little and was too immature to digest it. I woudl guess that those sections could be stumbling blocks.