Don't want just a list, would like to see your reasons.
For me:
The Red Riding Series. Interesting, but there's a lot of British (and regional at that?) slang, inner monologues, stream of consciousness writing. Also about a hundred different characters to keep track of over the course of 4 books. Plus I'm not sure I even like the books...
Cormac McCarthy's The Road - Had to read it for school I haven't been so bored by a novel since the Lord of the Flies or The Giver. The man's prose is awful its all like 5 word descriptive sentences. It reminds me of reading a shitty epic poem the way his sentences are worded.
In addition, they never actually say what the disaster was but imply it was a nuclear war and they essentially describe a nuclear winter. And being a huge nerd, scientifically the language the boy is using to speak to his father makes me believe the boy is between 5-9 years old. In addition to the fact that the boy was born AFTER the disaster. Most of the research I've read on nuclear winter estimated the period of cooling between 3-5 years until a large portion of the ash has settled. So if that is the case the descriptions of the world around them are absurd.
The Occult By Colin Wilson.
It Was Very Tedious. Just having to stop and look up a word every other page tedious. But It could have been worse(a translation)
That reminds me of reading A Clockwork Orange.
Worst experience I've had was with McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
I think, for me, it's just his style that wears me down. Very little in terms of punctuation and the run on sentences just kind of blur together and the imagery is lost. Besides that fact, I didn't like any of the characters very much so it made it difficult for me to have much investment in anything that happened to any of them. The plausibility of situations was often contrived and much of it rang very hollow with me.
Quote from: deaner33 on April 15, 2011, 07:47:25 PM
That reminds me of reading A Clockwork Orange.
funny i read A Clockwork Orange when i was 19, from start to finish, and understood it. i guess i was in love with Alex, especially Malcom McDowell from the movie well enough to want to read the whole book.but yea that Nadsat slang can throw you off. i had to re-read some of the paragraphs.the book is way more violent than the movie,and has a different ending tho.
One book that's hard for me to read is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. someone loaned that to me awhile back. i remember thumbing through the chapters thinking what a bunch of nonsense! Who is John Galt??? like who gives a crap! next thing i know i'm using it as a door stopper.
I have 3 of Ayn Rands books sitting in box. I've tried reading them all but after a page my eyes can't take it anymore.
It shouldn't be difficult, but I have always tried to read the Lord of The Rings series to no avail. I start the first book, get bored and quit, every time. I liked the Hobbit though. ???
james joyce's ulysses. i've begun it 5 or 6 times and never made it more than 30 or 40 pages in. i guess i'm just not that smart. after my last attempt i decided life's too short and i'm done trying to climb that particular fucking mountain.
Quote from: 74000riffs on April 25, 2011, 02:45:33 AM
It shouldn't be difficult, but I have always tried to read the Lord of The Rings series to no avail. I start the first book, get bored and quit, every time. I liked the Hobbit though. ???
I've read the first 2 books twice, never made it through the 3rd.
My dad read the Hobbit to me and my sister when we were kids. A chapter or two every night until it was finished.
Somewhat recently I tried to read Heller's Catch 22, and found it utterly impossible. What is I guess ironic & funny to smarter people than myself came across as simply frustrating & disjointed to me.
i tried reading Lord of the Rings too and got bored really quick. It's that same feeling i had while trying to read the Player's Handbook for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,just really makes me sleepy.
Same with Dune. tried reading that and gave up very quick. just seems incredibly boring.
Quote from: isabellacat on April 25, 2011, 11:05:02 PM
Same with Dune. tried reading that and gave up very quick. just seems incredibly boring.
I found Dune really exciting, probably because I played the old PC game before reading the books, so I was already into harvesting spice and sand worms and all that. 8)
I am finding Philip K. Dick's book Valis extremely hard to read. I actually like almost all of his work but this one is a little more...Incoherant then his other works. I would recommend Ubik or The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch way over Valis so far.
I finished Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco and Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson's The Illuminatus Trilogy and I'm actually quite proud of that. Those were some tough motherfuckers.
I once started in Tolkien's The Hobbit but I gave up after a few chapters. I love horror and some SF but the fantasy genre is obviously not my thing. I'm not gonna bother myself with his LOTR trilogy.
Another book I just couldn't get into was The Catcher In The Rye. I found it to be boring and dated.
Other books I had some difficulty with but which I'm going to re-attempt one day:
Joseph Heller - Catch 22
Herman Hesse - The Steppenwolf
Herman Melville - Moby Dick
Thomas Pynchon - V.
By the way, I'm a big Cormac McCarthy fan and yes, his style takes a bit of getting used to. I've not only read Blood Meridian, I've read it twice and will give it a third time someday. Once you're used to his style his imagery is pretty striking.
moby dick was tough for me as well. there's something about the writing style of alot of the mid-nineteenth century americans that i don't dig at all. melville, hawthorne, edgar allen poe, et al. they write these long convoluted passages. extremely long sentences. weird diction. it comes across as pompous and unnatural. certainly people didn't talk like that. where did these guys get this bizarre, unnatural style? i don't know. and then you look at mark twain who was a contemporary of theirs. he wrote concise, witty, beautiful stuff. much more natural. much easier. much funnier. i don't know but i've wondered about those guys from time to time (poe, melville, hawthorne, others). melville is worth the trouble in my opinion. i can do without hawthorne and poe is truly terrible. 2 cents.
Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show On Earth. I understand and fully endorse the "theory" of evolution just fine, but this book is a whole lot of scientific talk. I heart Dawkins' The God Delusion, but this one that came out after it had a cold mechanical feel to it. Still got through it though. Will try going back to to it.
Quote from: lowdaddy on April 26, 2011, 05:01:56 AM
moby dick was tough for me as well. there's something about the writing style of alot of the mid-nineteenth century americans that i don't dig at all. melville, hawthorne, edgar allen poe, et al. they write these long convoluted passages. extremely long sentences. weird diction. it comes across as pompous and unnatural. certainly people didn't talk like that. where did these guys get this bizarre, unnatural style? i don't know. and then you look at mark twain who was a contemporary of theirs. he wrote concise, witty, beautiful stuff. much more natural. much easier. much funnier. i don't know but i've wondered about those guys from time to time (poe, melville, hawthorne, others). melville is worth the trouble in my opinion. i can do without hawthorne and poe is truly terrible. 2 cents.
yea Charles Dickens also comes to mind with that unnatural style. try reading David Copperfield....i got so bored with that book i just skipped over to the chapter about Uriah Heep. not only is that shit hard to read but the words are soo tiny and like 500 + pages long .
Edgar Alan Poe was drugged out of his mind when he wrote most of that stuff. Absinthe and opium. interesting stuff but i think you have to be in the right mood.
Lewis Carroll too. tried reading Alice in Wonderland in 5th grade and while it was interesting it was kinda tough to read. much rather watch the cartoon.
I liked Moby Dick, but I'm into books about the sea. Easier to read if you're way into the subject.
More evidence that Deaner is my brother from another mother. I couldn't agree more on both counts.
Quote from: GodShifter on May 03, 2011, 09:38:25 AM
More evidence that Deaner is my brother from another mother. I couldn't agree more on both counts.
Love you man, don't forget Everest/mountain climbing books...
Right on. Also true crime!
Quote from: GodShifter on April 15, 2011, 08:08:43 PM
McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
I think, for me, it's just his style that wears me down.
+1
Others that I had to fight, or gave up on:
Infinite Jest
Gravity's Rainbow
The Pope's Rhinoceros (never finished)
Three Trapped Tigers
mostly due to dense style, the infante book because of word-play, and double meanings (in a translated book!)
Most of the philosophy I read was very dense and obscure.
I think I always had the same problems with Thus Spoke Zarathrustra that any young pseudointellectual had when I was in college for the first time - I took it as a nihilist manifesto, rather than one of the most profoundly beautiful spiritual journeys ever documented by a human being. Nietzche was one of the most spiritual writers, ever, and far from a nihilst...
Another one that has always been difficult is Kierkegaard...who was he writing to? Who is the "one person who will someday understand him"? Some think it was his lost love, and that is obviously a part of it, but there's more to the story...
Quote from: isabellacat on May 03, 2011, 04:56:29 AM
yea Charles Dickens also comes to mind with that unnatural style. try reading David Copperfield....i got so bored with that book i just skipped over to the chapter about Uriah Heep. not only is that shit hard to read but the words are soo tiny and like 500 + pages long .
Try reading "Pickwick Papers". It was originally a serialised story in a men's magazine and moves along at a cracking pace. It's a pretty good introduction to Dickens and was the one that motivated me to read the rest of his stuff again after having been forced to study David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities in highschool and hating it.
Catch 22 is a fucking awesome book, but took several reads to "get it". One of my all time favourites, I'll just open my copy at random and start reading, even after having read it many times.
The one book I've never been able to get into is "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth. It's not hard to read, it's just super-detailed, long and as boring as bat-shit. Imagine if you wrote down everything you did for 20 years, padded it out with everything everyone you knew did for 20 years and published it, and you'd be pretty close to the mark. It's a pity, because I have a little book of fable style prose by V.S. with his own illustrations and it's fucking awesome.
The first book in the Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger. I plowed through it because I thought it was boring. I realized it needed to be boring, because the desert is fuckin' boring. I've probably read it 3 or 4 times, now, though. Those books = masterpieces. Not so much 6/7, but the rest are GODLIKE.
I've never understood why Stephen King spends so much time focusing on his horror writing, which is...adequate and sells well, but he's never going to be a Lovecraft or a Poe, his true vision/will lies elsewhere, and his endings/resolutions are often times unsatisfying. His fantasy, however, is close to the best. Eyes Of The Dragon? The Talisman? Those are some of the best pieces of modern fantasy that I can think of, and I really should read all of The Gunslinger novels, as what I have read has been spellbinding.
So many books, so little time...
the talisman, eyes of the dragon, and the gunslinger were three of my favorite books when i was a kid. i haven't read any of that stuff in close to two decades though. i would like to revisit them but am afraid that, if i read that stuff now, i would see how poor a writer king really is and ruin the memory of those books. i think i read everything king published up through needful things or somewhere in there. he was my favorite as a kid. i haven't read anything of his in a very long time now. i picked something of his off the shelf at the bookstore a while back and read a couple of paragraphs. stilted. jagged. bad writing. once you've read enough truly great writers, gods who could throw down the line smooth and with power it's tough to go back and read a second rater like king. when, occasionally, i pick up something of his and read a few lines i find myself thinking, "jesus, couldn't he have found a better way to say that?" my two cents and it's certainly not a shot at those who still enjoy him so please don't take it that way. in fact i probably will revisit one of the three books mentioned above at some point. the memory of reading them the first time is really powerful for me. i just worry that rereading one of them now will tarnish that memory.
Seven volumes of Proust's 'In Search of Lost Times' which used to be called Remembrance of Things Past.
Should I bother? I can get Vol 1 and have at it.
I clearly missed this thread the first time around and its an interesting read. I've always found Joseph Conrad's books to be heavy-going, if ultimately worthwhile. I find his writing very dense, for want of a better word, and requires ALOT of concentration to follow. Perhaps because he learnt English quite late in life his use of language seems less 'natural' to a native English speaker? I'm not sure.
Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Crime & Punishment are tough. I almost finished The Idiot, C&P I only got as far as a chapter or two.
I found Crime and Punishment to be hard work as well, but I couldn't really tell if that was because of Dostoyevsky or the rubbish 19th century translation I was reading. I subsequently read a newer translation of the Brothers Karamazov and it was much easier to follow.
Those Stephen King short stories are among the best in his oeuvre (Mrs. Todd's Shortcut!)
I have the complete set of 2nd edition (uncut pages and vellum protected illustrations) Charles Dickens novels and they can be an insufferable read, although, it can be said that he basically invented the way in which celebrate (a victorian) christmas. Reading CD is like picking up a Ric and trying to play like Chris Squire.
(http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/180918_154454467942445_100001336774423_258896_1490868_n.jpg)
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. A great, very deep concept, but fuck me did I find it hard reading a book with no dialogue or characters. Maybe reflects badly on me, but really had to grit my teeth to get through it, glad I did in the end, as the overall feeling is good to look back on, but has put me off reading any more of his work, even though I may be missing out.
QuoteStar Maker by Olaf Stapledon. A great, very deep concept, but fuck me did I find it hard reading a book with no dialogue or characters. Maybe reflects badly on me, but really had to grit my teeth to get through it, glad I did in the end, as the overall feeling is good to look back on, but has put me off reading any more of his work, even though I may be missing out.
I'll second that. Stapledon's books are really impressive for the sheer number of staple sci-fi plots he anticipated, but they aren't a whole lot of fun to read. I wouldn't worry about not reading his other major book, First and Last Men, as it covers pretty similar ground to Star Maker.
(http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/reviews/hiram_key.jpg)
Yet another historical interpretation of Jesus Christ, his works, life, etc. by 2 admitted Master Masons from the UK. I really enjoy spec non-fiction like this. Tough cuz alot is hard to digest and some is a bit difficult to swallow, but it is entertaining and dove-tails with alot of other like-minded reading i've done from quasi-academia and/or "researchers" on the subject. If i owned my own business (or had something to gain from having shared interests with Masons) i could see myself being a Blue Lodge Mason by now. Would sooner that than go the church. But since i'm a Union wage slave, it don't make alot of sense to bother.
I'm a third into 1Q84 and loving it - I'm going to tackle White Teeth next if I can't get into Infinite Jest yet again.
http://www.amazon.com/White-Teeth-Novel-Zadie-Smith/dp/0375703861/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1 (http://www.amazon.com/White-Teeth-Novel-Zadie-Smith/dp/0375703861/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1)
all books are tough reads for me..i hate to read..it puts me to sleep, not out of boredom..but it fucks up my eyes and makes me tired..i can only read magazine and newspaper length articles..i know book people blow through a good book in a matter of hours..more pages than i could read in a month..
Shit, most philosophy is tough to read...but usually worth it. The first time I tried to read The Brothers Karamazov was confusing...there are so many characters, and they are referred to by multiple names/nicknames. One moment he's Dmitri Karamazov, and two sentences later, he's referred to as Mitya. I was going to actually write them all down to make it simpler to follow, but somehow I've managed to keep up on this 2nd attempt.
Quote from: black aspirin on December 27, 2011, 07:13:21 PM
Shit, most philosophy is tough to read...but usually worth it. The first time I tried to read The Brothers Karamazov was confusing...there are so many characters, and they are referred to by multiple names/nicknames. One moment he's Dmitri Karamazov, and two sentences later, he's referred to as Mitya. I was going to actually write them all down to make it simpler to follow, but somehow I've managed to keep up on this 2nd attempt.
This is on my radar to read even though I'm not much for Russian society books but it's interesting how obsessed they were with French, English ,and Viennese culture. Try reading Anna Karenina.
And the nickname thing Stepan=Stiva,Konstantin=Kostya,Darya=Dolly,Ekatarina=Kitty.
And it seems to change is someone if referring to someones wife formally and etc....
The Possessed s an excellent bio on tackling Russian lit, and funny.
http://www.amazon.com/Possessed-Adventures-Russian-Books-People/dp/0374532184/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1325337035&sr=8-7 (http://www.amazon.com/Possessed-Adventures-Russian-Books-People/dp/0374532184/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1325337035&sr=8-7)
Thought of the joke finally.
Tough reads & why they're tough for you?
I was holding the shit upside down.
ggod luck with this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Rising-Up-Down-Set/dp/1932416021 (http://www.amazon.com/Rising-Up-Down-Set/dp/1932416021)
Have you attempted to read those? Not me ever.
I've tried to read Growth of the Soil twice now by Knut Hamsun both times got to about page 40. A very slow and boring read.
I'm having trouble with We Need to Talk About Kevin. Interesting subject matter, but the entire novel (so far) is written as a series of letters from Kevin's mom to Kevin's dad. Interesting style in theory, but actually reading it kind of sux.
Has anyone read The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe? I read the Book of the New Sun first and while it's not exactly easy going nothing prepared me for the vast swathes of impenetrable text that make up this novel. Thing is, Wolfe is such a genius I actually enjoyed not knowing what the fuck he was talking about for page after page. I believe there are companion texts by other writers explaining the book, I definitely need to get hold of one.
I picked up the "Severian" or something in a charity shop a while ago, think it is the whole 3 of the series in one book. Was looking forward to it after reading the 5th Head of Cerebus and being blown away by his writing style. Hopefully, as you suggest, the confusion is enjoyable, will let you know when I get round to it.
(http://www.abduct.com/symbols/_sympix/s09.gif)
Quote from: deaner33 on January 10, 2012, 12:19:44 PM
I'm having trouble with We Need to Talk About Kevin. Interesting subject matter, but the entire novel (so far) is written as a series of letters from Kevin's mom to Kevin's dad. Interesting style in theory, but actually reading it kind of sux.
Sounds like an epistolary novel, which I've never really liked. The style was pretty popular in early American and British lit. Some modern writers use it with great effect, but it's nothing new or interesting (for me at least).
The ME text Piers Plowman by Langland is quite a daunting read, very difficult to understand without a good understanding of the Bible, medieval allegory, and basic Middle English lexicon. It requires patience to read also. For those who like Chaucer, this is pretty much just the opposite. Very weighty and not much humor. Still, it's a must read if you're into medieval literature.
Friend recommended "Quincunx" to me as one of his favorite books, and it sounds great...but it's 800 pages of tiny print and has a labrynthian plot - feel like I need to wait for a time I have a week off work to even start it!
"An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary--a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th century -- London itself."
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WhSloYuEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Cool - that sounds interesting, no Kindle edition though, the fuckers. I will suffer purchasing it. People must really hate it - I just bought it used on Amazon for a penny.
I'm on a medieval to victorian literature kick now - I should be done with the two Sir Richard F Burton travel to mecca books soonish, the I've got Tristram Shandy to plow through and maybe tackle Swann's Way again. I'm trying to resolve that it's okay just to dip in and out of tough reads, rather than the daunting task of thinking you need to read the whole thing. The free books app has 1000s of classics so it's a cheap mission too. It's okay to let the language wash over you in a way, instead of deciphering it like there's a test later. I know I should read The Brothers Karamazov and fucking Kafka before I die, but ... eh....
This came in the post today: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream by
Francesco Colonna from 1499
Read it? I can't even read the fucking title!
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/614HGLs7uVL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Also, Danny G really would like to express that he hopes you come back
Francesco Colonna is a linguist's dream (or nightmare, for more grammatical readers); what a great find!
Medieval literature is a favorite era of mine - so many medieval books started life as ballads that had been handed down through the centuries and were finally committed to paper, and the best of them retain that musicality and free-ranging feel - and most often, a great, riotous sense of humor. You are right about dipping into a tough read and not feeling you need to read from page 1 to the end. With something like medieval lit, many modern readers find it hard to get past old English when they see it in print because they immediately assume that it is formal and scholarly in tone and subject (when it may be all about fart jokes and monster-slaying).
Always wanted to read the Sir Richard Burton Mecca books, and the African ones too, but haven't yet. I need to get on the ball. When you're done with the Mecca books I'd love to hear what you think.
Now excuse me; I need to go stalk Danny G's fan pages on Facebook.
In the Burton he finally got to Mecca at 50% through vol 2 - I've watched that Nat Geo documentary on The Haj which is helpful to decode what is going on.
He just got the haircut and threw the pebbles at the devil rock, and I thought 'ah ha, I remember that from TV'
Quote
Posted by: MadJohnShaft
Insert Quote
Cool - that sounds interesting, no Kindle edition though, the fuckers. I will suffer purchasing it. People must really hate it - I just bought it used on Amazon for a penny.
I'm on a medieval to victorian literature kick now - I should be done with the two Sir Richard F Burton travel to mecca books soonish, the I've got Tristram Shandy to plow through and maybe tackle Swann's Way again.
I've very nearly finished Tristram Shandy (onto the 8th volume out of 9), and it's been a bit of a slog. It's definitely funny in places, but my overwhelming thought is that it was probably much more amusing in the 1760s than it is now.
QuoteI've very nearly finished Tristram Shandy (onto the 8th volume out of 9), and it's been a bit of a slog. It's definitely funny in places, but my overwhelming thought is that it was probably much more amusing in the 1760s than it is now.
Whew! Never finished it, or Rabelais' "Gargantua & Pantagruel" which has been mocking me from the bookshelf for a decade. You guys are better men than I am. :)
On a completely different note, my brother gave me Michael Ondaatje's "Divisadero" a couple of weeks ago, and I just can't make headway with it. Have really enjoyed many of his other books, and figured I'd love this one since it is set in Northern California where I live...but I just don't like any of the characters enough to care about them. Too bad; I don't know if I'll ever finish this one.
Any book that's not printed in large type is a tough read for me these days.
Gotta get some reading glasses.
You got that right - I hate wearing glasses and my initial main reason for loving the Kindle/iPad so much is being able to make the font as big as you need to, and the back-lighting on the iPad for reading at night.
Tree of Codes is a tough read but I don't think you're really suppose to read it...
(http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/TreeOfCodes.jpg)
Which reminds me - Vol 5 of A Humument comes out this week....I guess he added this slide show of the 4th edition in celebration
http://humument.com/gallery/slideshow.html (http://humument.com/gallery/slideshow.html)
I bought a signed vol 4. cause I am a dork.
Quotehttp://humument.com/gallery/slideshow.html
That's really stunning; I'd never seen these or heard of them! Damn it, this thread is going to be bad for my wallet.
My Quincunx arrived today and looking at it sitting on top of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - it seems like I've finally lost it and someone should call Belview.
I will get through this and read those instead of that Steve Jobs book and that stupid girl with the Dragon tattoo thing.
Quote from: MadJohnShaft on May 25, 2012, 11:44:49 PM
My Quincunx arrived today and looking at it sitting on top of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - it seems like I've finally lost it and someone should call Belview.
I will get through this and read those instead of that Steve Jobs book and that stupid girl with the Dragon tattoo thing.
Shaft you have inspired me to start a new thread, no BS.
Those two books are on paper. The kindle on top might hit the floor so I can't get at them
Just got ahold of "Riddley Walker".
Only two chapters in. Had to read them twice already. My cuz who passed the book on to me swears it gets easier and the book is really good. Anyone else?
Maybe that complete and unabridged version of Moby Dick wasn't such a hot idea. I mean damn...
Skip the whaling industry shit in Moby Dick, and it's awesome.
That is indeed what I meant. The whaling shit is pretty tiresome...
There are so many land locked classics.
Quote from: frobbert on June 11, 2012, 05:02:23 PM
That is indeed what I meant. The whaling shit is pretty tiresome...
I found it fascinating... Then again I read a lot of technical manuals and am always amazed what lengths people will go to for energy sources, be it solar, nuclear, or clean-burning whale oil.
/nerd
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Pygmy by C. Palahniuk. That broken english shit was hard to get used to, but once you figure out a handful of his phrases that repeat often and the structure he uses it becomes much easier.
For those that struggled with Atlas Shrugged but are interested in her thoughts/philosophy, I recommend reading her non-fiction book The Virtue of Selfishness. The beauty of Atlas Shrugged is that she demonstrates with a fictional story how liberal economics fail human kind and don't achieve their touted goals and simultaneously show how a selfish, capitalistic ethos can be not only successful, but more moral than its self-sacrifice lauding nemesis. However, if you're capable and willing to hear the arguments directly instead of having them wrapped in a (very) long story, her non-fiction is the way to go.
The book that has cursed me is Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. I've told myself more than once that, "Fuck it, this is the time I'm going to get through this damn book," out of pride more than anything. But I can't. I don't care how wonderful of an achievement it is that he wrote the first third from the perspective of mentally retarded person. It is slow, uninteresting, and not worth it. When your reader is 60 or more pages in and still has no clue what the hell is going on or what the sentences are even saying, you have failed. Piss on Faulkner.
Quote from: AgentofOblivion on June 14, 2012, 10:45:18 AM
The book that has cursed me is Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. I've told myself more than once that, "Fuck it, this is the time I'm going to get through this damn book," out of pride more than anything. But I can't. I don't care how wonderful of an achievement it is that he wrote the first third from the perspective of mentally retarded person. It is slow, uninteresting, and not worth it. When your reader is 60 or more pages in and still has no clue what the hell is going on or what the sentences are even saying, you have failed. Piss on Faulkner.
Yeah, Faulkner in general for me. Had to read "As I Lay Dying" in school and fucking
hated it. All the characters were awful people and I didn't care about them or any of their stories. "I should've beveled the edges becuase a beveled edge is vastly to superior to a square edge becuase blah blah fucking blah."
Quote from: I,Galactus on June 12, 2012, 09:35:08 AM
Quote from: frobbert on June 11, 2012, 05:02:23 PM
That is indeed what I meant. The whaling shit is pretty tiresome...
I found it fascinating... Then again I read a lot of technical manuals and am always amazed what lengths people will go to for energy sources, be it solar, nuclear, or clean-burning whale oil.
/nerd
as a science nerd, i always think all the moby dick natural history sections are hilarious, because it's clear he's pulling shit out of his ass.
:D fooled me I guess.
I didn't find it that difficult and absolutely loved it; but lots of people have mentioned Ian M Banks Feersum Endjin as a tough read, mostly because the main characters dialogue is spelt phonetically throughout the book.
Banks' vision of a far future society is as bizarre as a great piece of sci fi should be, and his description of the cybernetic afterlife "the Crypt" is stunning.
Currently reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Interesting but I am doing an awful lot of re-reading and it is long.
I can't get anything started. I'm thinking of trying Middlemarch and hope I can get into on a flight to Vegas on Friday
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Quote from: MadJohnShaft on June 19, 2012, 07:54:36 AM
I can't get anything started. I'm thinking of trying Middlemarch and hope I can get into on a flight to Vegas on Friday
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Never heard of it, but that looks boring as shit. Maybe try something relevant to your culture and lot in life?
That's the other 5 books I am reading, this thread is about stretching out and challenging yourself, skippy.
I settled on The Recognitions instead. It's from the 50's and ultra revered.
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QuoteI didn't find it that difficult and absolutely loved it; but lots of people have mentioned Ian M Banks Feersum Endjin as a tough read, mostly because the main characters dialogue is spelt phonetically throughout the book.
Banks' vision of a far future society is as bizarre as a great piece of sci fi should be, and his description of the cybernetic afterlife "the Crypt" is stunning.
I'd forgotten about Feersum Endjin, I loved that book alothugh the phonetic spelling does make it hard work in places. One of the very few books I've started and not finished (despite trying several times) is Banks's
Against a Dark Background. I love all of his sci-fi, but that one always struck me as really half-arsed.
Quote from: frobbert on April 26, 2011, 04:45:34 AM
I finished Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco and Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson's The Illuminatus Trilogy and I'm actually quite proud of that. Those were some tough motherfuckers.
I once started in Tolkien's The Hobbit but I gave up after a few chapters. I love horror and some SF but the fantasy genre is obviously not my thing. I'm not gonna bother myself with his LOTR trilogy.
Another book I just couldn't get into was The Catcher In The Rye. I found it to be boring and dated.
Other books I had some difficulty with but which I'm going to re-attempt one day:
Joseph Heller - Catch 22
Herman Hesse - The Steppenwolf
Herman Melville - Moby Dick
Thomas Pynchon - V.
By the way, I'm a big Cormac McCarthy fan and yes, his style takes a bit of getting used to. I've not only read Blood Meridian, I've read it twice and will give it a third time someday. Once you're used to his style his imagery is pretty striking.
If you haven't read Illuminatus! you have no fucking inkling of how the world really works. Wake the fuck up sheeple!
omg this forii used to have some actual threads before it deteriorated into "I like sausage and hot dog"?
Quote from: lowdaddy on April 25, 2011, 03:24:58 AM
james joyce's ulysses. i've begun it 5 or 6 times and never made it more than 30 or 40 pages in.
thats about twice as far as most people got. and about 37 pages firther than this thick cunt got
Quote from: frobbert on April 26, 2011, 04:45:34 AMI finished Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco and I'm actually quite proud of that.
odd book, after he'd spunked out an entire thesaurus in the opening 30 pages he kind of ran out of puff and seemed to think "fuck, a story then"... and realised he was a science guy and didnt really have one
Quote from: NCR600 on May 14, 2011, 11:12:36 AM
Catch 22 is a fucking awesome book, but took several reads to "get it". One of my all time favourites, I'll just open my copy at random and start reading, even after having read it many times.
shit yeah, it is great fun. Sowing the seeds for M*A*S*H
Quote from: StonedAge on June 17, 2012, 04:47:26 PM
Currently reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Interesting but I am doing an awful lot of re-reading and it is long.
he is a pain. "Against the day" is a hoary great doorstop of a thing. All that "chums of chance" bollocks can suck it
I haven't done Gravity's Rainbow, but Infinite Jest is really awesome
Infinite Jest took a few attempts before I was able to finish it. Great book, no question, but tough. The hardest thing for me about it was that DFW was already dead by the time I got around to trying it and because so much of it is clearly based on his own life, I sensed I was digging into something really personal and intimate that I almost felt like I had no business reading. It's brilliant, but, man, does it get dark sometimes. Also, all those footnotes...
William Burroughs - Word Virus.
A mindfuck of hell and back with exquisite inner human amazement. Work of art.
I had trouble reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road for a class a couple years ago. His writing is too dry for me, there isn't enough exposition to paint a mental picture. I also felt like his dialogue was heavy handed and it felt like it had ultra-violence just for the sake of having ultra-violence that didn't seem to serve the plot much. There wasn't really any character development either it just felt like a series of events that were described in very short sentences. I feel like that was a sci-fi book for people that don't actually read any sci-fi. Everyone kisses this guys ass for Blood Meridian which I admittedly haven't read but after reading The Road I don't want too because I think he's a shitty writer :(
I also had a lot of trouble reading anything by Nietzsche and Von Clauswicz's On War because I feel like German doesn't translate that well into English. It may have been the translations I've read but I didn't feel like I was understanding the ideas on the same level as I have philosophy books from other cultures. On War was absolutely brutal and I couldn't finish it despite having some interesting ideas.
I haven't read The Road but yeah, love Blood Meridian and mainly because of the way it's written. How is this not utterly badass? The line I have underlined is maybe one of the most thunderously awesome things I have ever read.
QuoteThe captain smiled grimly. We may see a little sport here before the day is out.
The first of the herd began to swing past them in a pall of yellow dust, rangy slatribbed cattle with horns that grew agoggle and no two alike and small thin mules coalblack that shouldered one another and reared their malletshaped heads above the backs of the others and then more cattle and finally the first of the herders riding up the outer side and keeping the stock between themselves and the mounted company. Behind them came a herd of several hundred ponies. The sergeant looked for Candelario. He kept backing along the ranks but he could not find him. He nudged his horse through the column and moved up the far side. The lattermost of the drovers were now coming through the dust and the captain was gesturing and shouting. The ponies had begun to veer off from the herd and the drovers were beating their way toward this armed company met with on the plain. Already you could see through the dust on the ponies' hides the painted chevrons and the hands and rising suns and birds and fish of every device like the shade of old work through sizing on a canvas and now too you could hear above the pounding of the unshod hooves the piping of the quena, flutes made from human bones, and some among the company had begun to saw back on their mounts and some to mill in confusion when up from the offside of those ponies there rose a fabled horde of mounted lancers and archers bearing shields bedight with bits of broken mirrorglass that cast a thousand unpieced suns against the eyes of their enemies. A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained weddingveil and some in headgear of cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.
Oh my god, said the sergeant.
That excerpt is better written then the entirety of The Road. I wonder if maybe he was trying to do something arty and minimalist with the way he wrote The Road because that clip from Blood Meridian doesn't even read like the same author wrote it to me.
Like here's a dialog clip from The Road below and all the dialog in the book is these kind of short run on sentences. People don't really talk like that consistently all the time and the whole book is like this. Here's a blurb between the man and the boy speaking, in the book the boy is much younger and in the movie its a teenager BTW, and yes children ask lots of weird short questions like this boy does but the child's choice of wording doesn't actually match what a child would say, like when he says "later in the darkness: Can I ask you something?" Children aren't very good at delaying gratification until they get older then the boy in the story is portrayed and in the almost complete absence of stimuli all day described by the author I find it unlikely a kid would be patient enough to be thinking about asking future questions. That and a kid using the phrase "later in the darkness" go find me a real 5-7 year old that wouldn't just say night. What dialog there is doesn't really match the point of view to me and I feel it distracts from the story. It's a post-apocalyptic future its not like the boy is a child prodigy that is reading all this stuff to get exposed to a fancier vocabulary and the man/dad/whatever clearly isn't teaching him anything like that along the road.
"He was a long time going to sleep. After a while he turned and looked at the man. His face in the small light streaked with black from the rain like some old world thespian. Can I ask you something? he said.
Yes. Of course.
Are we going to die?
Sometime. Not now.
And we're still going south.
Yes.
So we'll be warm.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay what?
Nothing. Just okay.
Go to sleep.
Okay.
I'm going to blow out the lamp. Is that okay?
Yes. That's okay.
And then later in the darkness: Can I ask you something?
Yes. Of course you can.
What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you.
Okay."
When you read eventually read it renfield I'd be curious to know your thoughts.
Sometimes conceptual stuff is hit or miss with me, like I really enjoy almost all of Philip K. Dick's work but I had a lot of trouble following VALIS and a lot of people that's their favorite book of his. If I read VALIS first I probably wouldn't have read any of his other works. I probably should revisit McCarthy.
Anyone who calls The Road sci-fi either hasn't read it or doesn't get it. It's not sci-fi. What causes the apocalypse in the book is of no importance whatsoever. If you read the book, read it as a father's love letter to his son and as a message that no matter how bleak things can get, sometimes hope is the only thing that gives you a chance to survive. That's it.
If you don't like McCarthy's style, I can't help you there. That's just a matter or personal taste, I guess, but I think people focus way too much on the lack of punctuation they're used to. It may throw you off at first, but soon you realize he's constructed the prose in a way that little punctuation is needed.
Be that as it may, just looking at these two excerpts, The Road definitely seems lame compared to Blood Meridian ;D
does anyone read fucking books here?!?
I'm reading TALISMAN by Stephen King, kind of a depressing start but it's picking up.
I've never read a Stephen King book before. I don't know why. Probably because I'm not really into horror. Which book of his would you recommend to someone who hasn't read any of his stuff?
Quote from: renfield on January 04, 2020, 04:13:39 PM
I'm reading TALISMAN by Stephen King, kind of a depressing start but it's picking up.
Is that the one where him and another author wrote alternating chapters?
Kind of a cool idea. Don't remember anything about the book.
It's co-written by one Peter Straub, but I didn't know they did an alternating chapter thing.
Quote from: Josh on January 05, 2020, 01:33:12 AM
I've never read a Stephen King book before. I don't know why. Probably because I'm not really into horror. Which book of his would you recommend to someone who hasn't read any of his stuff?
In my opinion King is an astounding writer. You can pretty much pick something with a concept that appeals to you and it's likely to be really well written, although his plots often fall apart or never really existed in the first place.
Salem's Lot and The Dead Zone are quite beloved. Dead Zone has my favorite film adaptation of all his books, by Cronenberg. The Stand is a unique trashy apocalypse/fantasy epic, although people hate the conclusion. Eyes of the Dragon is straight sword and sorcery fantasy, it's not considered one of his best but I liked it. I haven't read a lot of his staples like Misery, Carrie, and The Shining.
IT is different than you would think from the movie or the miniseries. It's a cocaine addled mess of a book; the battle against Pennywise is basically a loose framing device for King to jump backwards and forwards in time and do scene after scene of balls out horror, some of which involve the main characters but many of which are just records dating back hundreds of years demonstrating how this evil force has always been terrorizing this town. It's a hugely self indulgent affair but it's also sort of King at his most primal and unhinged. You will likely want to skim over the infamous preteen gangbang if you give this one a go.
Pet Sematary and Cujo are both unbelievably grim, nihilistic, blackhearted works, especially Cujo which doesn't have the faintest glimmer of redemption or hope. I read several of his books before Cujo but nothing prepared me for how bleak that shit was. Unlike say IT (which to be fair has like 1000x the body county and gore factor of Cujo), there's no cosmic evil to rise up and fight against, no coming together of downtrodden misfits for a greater purpose. It's just hateful, banal people grinding towards an inexorable doom. That poor fucking dog man, he just wanted to be a good dog and never wanted to hurt anybody. Fuck.