I feel like such a failure...

lookingglass

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For the 6th time in my life I've attempted to read Pride and Prejudice and I can't get through it.

Here's what happens, I decided that it's something that I really need to do, so I go pick up a copy. I'll start to read and then I find my mind drifting. It's not the book, I know this because the prose is written beautifully. It's not the characters, I know this because I like them. I think it's the subject matter. I simply just don't find an emotional connection with women striving to get married.

I've deiced to never go back this time. I'm going to sell my copy, and just move on with my life.

 

theimp98

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some books are just like that,
i have a copy of the stand , that i have started 6 times, the most i have gotten in is like 200 pages, and i just lose it.
 

natalie_ca

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I was like that with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novels. My eyes glazed over after a couple of sentences and I would fall asleep. It took me 5 months to read 97 pages of FoTR! And I couldn't remember anything of those 97 pages. I tossed the books aside for several years and then when I was really sick and couldn't get out to the library to borrow or buy books and I had no books here that I hadn't read other than the LoTR books. One day I pulled them out and started to read FoTR and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it. I quickly read through that first book and the 2 others and then started from the beginning again.

There are just some books that are very hard to get into for one reason or another. Sometimes changing your mindset and instead of trying to relate to the characters, just reading the book in its intended context helps.

If you enjoy the story and the writing, then perhaps you should finish reading it. Don't try relating to the characters, just accept the story for what it is.
 
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lookingglass

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

I was like that with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novels. My eyes glazed over after a couple of sentences and I would fall asleep. It took me 5 months to read 97 pages of FoTR! And I couldn't remember anything of those 97 pages. I tossed the books aside for several years and then when I was really sick and couldn't get out to the library to borrow or buy books and I had no books here that I hadn't read other than the LoTR books. One day I pulled them out and started to read FoTR and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it. I quickly read through that first book and the 2 others and then started from the beginning again.

There are just some books that are very hard to get into for one reason or another. Sometimes changing your mindset and instead of trying to relate to the characters, just reading the book in its intended context helps.

If you enjoy the story and the writing, then perhaps you should finish reading it. Don't try relating to the characters, just accept the story for what it is.
Perhaps I should wait another few years and try again. I think I just get too frustrated with the theme of the book and toss it aside.
 

MoochNNoodles

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That is my best friend's absolute favorite book. She reads it several times a year. I know parts of the story only because she's told me about it. I bet she has most of the book memorized. I think she read it the first time in Junior High.

The book sort of fits her though......
 

denice

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I've never even been able to stay interested in any movie version so the book was really hopeless.
 

mcat

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Don't torture yourself. There is no award for reading books you don't enjoy. Reading is pleasurable, not punishment. Try Cat-House Sonnets, my book. It's short, fun and about cats. You can get an autographed copy if you just let me know.
 

lunasmom

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Don't worry about it. I read Sense & Sensibility and although loving it (as well as the movie) I had to use a magnifying glass to read the tiny print and I would get migraines.

I also got migraines from reading Tolkien books, but I figured out how to read Tolkien about 1/2 through the first book - skip a few paragraphs...you don't really mis much except the detail of the flowers on the hill they were running up.
 

cata_mint

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Maybe its because I'm a...
I get like that too.
I try really hard to read 'good' books- the unbearable lightness of being, love in a time of cholera, the three musketeers, but i still end up re-reading terry pratchett's and mary janice davidson's trashy trashy novels


For some strange reason its my bf's favourite book. Not exactly Jane Austin's target audience i'm guessing
 

snickers80

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oh no!!!!!




Pride and Prejudice is the best. It is however a little hard getting into the first couple hundred paages.


I cannot for the life of me finish Jane Eyre. I can't even think about it, it just makes me angry. So don't feel bad, maybe you just weren't meant to read it




but it is a beautiful book.


just incase anyone else was wondering
 

snickers80

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Originally Posted by Denice

I've never even been able to stay interested in any movie version so the book was really hopeless.
Even the new one with Kiera Knightly???
 
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lookingglass

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Originally Posted by Snickers80

oh no!!!!!




Pride and Prejudice is the best. It is however a little hard getting into the first couple hundred paages.


I cannot for the life of me finish Jane Eyre. I can't even think about it, it just makes me angry. So don't feel bad, maybe you just weren't meant to read it




but it is a beautiful book.


just incase anyone else was wondering
I love the prose and the way the book is designed, but I just don't connect to anyone in the story. I think it's because I'm too.... I don't know if I'm going to say this right.... modern?
 

pookie-poo

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Life is too short to waste it trying to read a long book that just doesn't grab you!

I'm that way about The Lord of the Rings books. I tried for months to read "Wicked" too. Finally I just took the darn book to work and left it on the bench in the locker room until it disappeared!
 

clairebear

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I love to read, but there are some books that I've started that I just couldn't force myself to finish. Ive never read that particular book, but if it doesn't really interest you, I wouldn't feel bad about not finishing it. No need to waste your time reading something that isn't entertaining.
 

swampwitch

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I agree with everyone else, it's not failure, it's knowing what you like and what you don't want to waste time on. Like my husband says, "You'll never get those hours back."


I felt the same way with James Joyce's Ulysses. I was, unfortunately, taking a class on James Joyce and this book was the focus. I thought my head was going to spin around and explode! What a horrible "book" and I use the term loosely.

Wow, so many people didn't like Lord of the Rings? I read the trilogy when I was 13. Then I read it two more times. To each his own, right?
 

moonlights mom

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Oh I do the same thing. I keep attempting to read Pride & Prejudice, and I can get 200 pages in and then the story just goes way over my head. However my favorite movie is Pride & Prejudice. It's sooo romantic!
 

katachtig

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Originally Posted by lookingglass

I love the prose and the way the book is designed, but I just don't connect to anyone in the story. I think it's because I'm too.... I don't know if I'm going to say this right.... modern?
It could be our current views make it difficult. I tend to look at it as a survival book. This is the way women survived at that time. It wasn't a time for love but marriage was the most important business transaction there would be for a woman. Her reputation was a very important asset. Mrs Bennett was a silly woman at times, but she did know that a good marriage was the only way her daughters could be provided for after her husband's death. Austin's wit showed the unfairness of this.

The first time I read it was in junior high and it took me a year. Now I can re-read it with no problem.

Now LOTR - got to page 10 several times and just had to give it up.
 

catnip

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I don't think you should feel like a failure at all. Some books are hard to get into, even though you have been told that you just HAVE to read this. While I enjoyed P&P when reading it in school, it is not the kind of book I would have gone back to. With LOTR, I found it at times difficult to keep my interest but I thoroughly enjoyed it by the end. I think I'll go back to it in a couple of years as I envisage it being something more enjoyable the second time round.

Someone mentioned Jane Eyre as a book they found difficult to get into. I have to say I'm a big fan of not only that but especially Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I find the Bronte sisters' books much more ground-breaking than the Austen books; I think that is why I haven't gone back to Austen.
 

denice

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Jane Eyre was the first of the classics I really enjoyed reading. I used to try to read and like the books that are considered good literature. Of the American authors of the last century that were considered writers of good literature I really liked Hemingway, I know probably a bit unusual for a woman. A friend of mine who was an English major thought he was horrible and shouldn't even be considered a good author. She liked Faulkner and Steinbeck. I tried to read Faulkner. His short stories were okay but I thought his books were horrible. I thought at times in his books he sounded like he was mentally ill but since she thought he was really good I must be missing something. I meant a woman at work who was also an English major and she also disliked Faulkner. She also told me that he was known to have periods where he was delusional so there was probably some kind of mental illness beyond the moodiness that goes along with being very creative. It's also about personal taste even with the work that is considered great literature.
 

lunasmom

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Originally Posted by SwampWitch

Wow, so many people didn't like Lord of the Rings? I read the trilogy when I was 13. Then I read it two more times. To each his own, right?
I really enjoyed LOTR...just not the migraines that came from reading it.
Once I figured out how to read it without getting a headache, I was fine.
 
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