Books you just could not finish...

Infinite Jest. The author thought that it would be cute to write two books and put them together. Here's the catch, the second book is told in footnotes in 8 font! I had such a headache after the first 40 pages I couldn't go back.

oh boy how could you skip Tom Bombadil i am still mad he was not in the movies for at least a second or 2. I loved lord of the rings

in war and peace i skipped the love part the first time to get to the battles.

I agree the davinci code, got about half way into it. and could not finish it. I only think they made a big deal about it cause of the subject matter, (got talked into going to the move and i went to sleep during it)

I have yet to finish a Stephen King book, i keep getting them as gifits from people, which i think try to read, get bored and then give to someone else.

oh yea, i have also never been able to finish any books from updike.

PS anyone wnat a copy of the stand? i have like three copies that people have given me in the last 2 years

Originally Posted by theimp98

oh boy

how could you skip Tom Bombadil i am still mad he was not in the movies for at least a second or 2. I loved lord of the rings

in war and peace i skipped the love part the first time to get to the battles.

Click to expand...

I warned you that I'm no fun!

I've made it thru War and Peace, all the Stephen King books, and Lord of the Rings at least 3 times. And if you want to try a book that is challenging simply because of the archaic language, try the Last of the Mohicans or anything by Shakespeare.

That said, I absolutely love biographies/autobiographies of political figures. I found an autobiography of Herbert Brownell, who was the attorney general under Eisenhower. I bought it because I found out he was a cousin of my Grandfather. You would have thought I could have made it thru that one, particularly because I was related to the man. Sorry Uncle, your book was BORING!!

Ok, yall are probablly going to kill me, but I could not get through the 5 Harry potter book. Read the first four in practically one sitting. LOVE the movies. But the 5th could not hold my attention. I really need to give it a go again. I think it was so long between the fourth and 5 book, that I just lost intrest???

I have no clue. But maybe now that the Goblet of Fire is a movie, and I have seen it, I can try reading the 5th book again since I am caught up.

I tried reading war and peace as a teenager, I was addicted to the mini-seriese North and South. I thought war and peace would be along the same lines. I was wrong. lol

I have tried over and over again to read the Bible and Book of Mormon all the way through. I have also failed miserable on those accounts. *smirk*

I love John Irving's work, but I absolutely could not finish Until I Find You. It's semi-autobiographical, and I find some of the subject matter just too unpleasant and unsettling for me to read. (Which is funny, because I'm neither sensitive nor squeamish: I studied aberrant psychology and serial murderers in university!)

I tried and failed to read Lord of the Rings, but I wasn't very surprised by that, as I had been forced to read The Hobbit in high school and detested it. I want to give LOTR another go, however; I'm a fantasy writer and I really feel I should read as many of the classics as I can. Not classics: anything by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. My boyfriend loves their books, but I just can't get past how poorly edited they are, especially the earlier volumes. They had two people talking in the same paragraph, misplaced punctuation, things were misspelled ... (and the books weren't terribly well-written to begin with). Oh, and don't get me started on A'nne Mc'Caffr'ey, she of the excessive apostrophes and giving names to random nobody characters ... She drives me batty!

Originally Posted by maverick_kitten

I agree!

I think she is too overly in love with Lestat (based on her husband Stan. Lestat was actually a typo, his name was meant to be LestaN)

And i hate the way his charachter does a complete u-turn in the later books.

Click to expand...

That's interesting to know. I don't like Lestat at all...even before he became a vampire.
B likes her books, and kept trying to get me to read more (i.e. when I was done with Interview with a Vampire he told me to read The Vampire Lestat because it fills in where IWaV doesn't. So I read it and basically said I was done with Anne Rice.
She does write a interesting book set on Sleeping Beauty though...

I'm determined to finish reading anything I start...no matter how much I have to force myself. But the one book I absolutely could not finish was Constantine's Sword. It was one of our book club selections. It's about the history of the Catholic church, which I would usually find interesting. It's so poorly written, though, that I ran screaming about half way through. It really ticked me off, too, because the book was about $40.

I saw the Da Vinci Code and I absolutey loved it - got the book out and it's still sitting on my desk. I've tried time and time again to read it but it just puts me to sleep!

Same with the Hobbit.

Dracula. It's not that I don't like the book, but I keep getting about 200 pages in and then find a different book to read.

The only book I can remember not finishing was Lord of the Rings, and I attempted it at least three times. I'm not a big Fantasy fan (though I love the whole HP series). I was disappointed in The DaVinci Code, too. I suppose it was just hyped too much.

I know. i cant finsh my books too.

Originally Posted by WellingtonCats

I saw the Da Vinci Code and I absolutey loved it - got the book out and it's still sitting on my desk. I've tried time and time again to read it but it just puts me to sleep!

Same with the Hobbit.

Click to expand...

You know Sam, its funny you should say that. I am a huge, devoted LOTR fan and yet it took me four tries to actually finish The Hobbit. I was very young, only about 13, and yet I couldn't understand why I was struggling so much. I left it until I was a bit older and then did get through it and loved it, and then I went on to The Lord of The Rings.

One day you'll do it!!

Very very rare this happens, can't remember a recent occasion, although I can remember not being able to get through Interview with a Vampire when I was younger - but love it now. And I think I struggled with Dracula and Frankenstein. And anything like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens I can't do. I am trying to get through some really boring true life ghost type books my boss lent me at the moment - even my neighbour said they were boring, but as I have been lent them, I feel obliged to finish them. Need to go and get some decent fiction next week to help me through it though!! And I agree with Isle of Dogs, I hated that book, but it was a holiday book, so I didn't have much choice, I had limited stuff with me!! Dont think it came back of hols though!!

Anything having to do with history, or any Stephen King books. He just drones on and on about one single thing for paragraphs and it totally loses me.

Non-LOTR fans -

Don't worry those books are hard to read. Somehow I made it through them despite the headaches I would get.
My downfall when reading is I picture everything in my head while I read and then read every word. When I read LOTR, Tolkien would describe every single little flower that was on the hill that Frodo and Sam were running up and away from the dark knights/kings. I would get headaches from the image overload. So I really wanted to finish the books, so I began to skip over paragraphs which helped generalize things more.

Originally Posted by Yarra

Ok, yall are probablly going to kill me, but I could not get through the 5 Harry potter book. Read the first four in practically one sitting. LOVE the movies. But the 5th could not hold my attention. I really need to give it a go again. I think it was so long between the fourth and 5 book, that I just lost intrest???

I have no clue. But maybe now that the Goblet of Fire is a movie, and I have seen it, I can try reading the 5th book again since I am caught up.

Click to expand...

Not at all - but I will say, while it is very different in style from the first four (and it is) - the book could have been a lot worse - I still would love it for the last 100 pages. Do try it again. Skim if you have to. The ending - that's where it's at.

I'm a pretty avid reader, so I usually don't have trouble getting through anything I want to read, but I just couldn't get through LOTR. I loved the movies (and I loved them for the story, not just the good-looking actors) and I love fantasy (including Anne McCaffrey, sorry Mirinae) but I just couldn't get through them, no matter how hard I tried.

Maybe someday.