A poll of sorts...
Not an official poll, because I think the subject is too broad to limit to a text box, but I was reading the comments on an entry yesterday where people were talking about The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and how it's a love it/hate it type book and that some people just find it blah and can't get through it. Then I was organizing my library on LibraryThing.com and I was tagging everything in my library that I've attempted to read, but stopped for whatever reason...not in the mood for the subject matter, wasn't grabbed by the characters, what have you.
So, I though it might be interesting to see what books other people in the community have had a hard time with. Mine tend to be the classics, things I think that I *should* read, but just can NOT get absorbed in. I've sworn to myself that one of these years, instead of setting a 50 book goal for myself, I'm going to set a "Finish reading everything you started and abandoned" goal.
Here's the list of books I own that I started and stopped (sometimes multiple times)...
Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, Mark Twain
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde
Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays, David Foster Wallace
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Danzig Trilogy: The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years, Gunter Grass
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
The Engineer of Human Souls, Josef Skvorecky
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Little, Big, John Crowley
Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
The Once and Future King, T. H. White
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
The Satanic Verses: A Novel, Salman Rushdie
Shardik, Richard Adams
The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran, Kahlil Gibran
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels, Henry James
So, what about you guys? What books stymie all of your efforts to get through them?
If you see someone mention a book s/he can't get through that you love, can you try to explain to us what it is that you love about it? Maybe understanding what other people see in it might help others connect to it and enjoy it as well. :)
So, I though it might be interesting to see what books other people in the community have had a hard time with. Mine tend to be the classics, things I think that I *should* read, but just can NOT get absorbed in. I've sworn to myself that one of these years, instead of setting a 50 book goal for myself, I'm going to set a "Finish reading everything you started and abandoned" goal.
Here's the list of books I own that I started and stopped (sometimes multiple times)...
Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, Mark Twain
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde
Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays, David Foster Wallace
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Danzig Trilogy: The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years, Gunter Grass
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
The Engineer of Human Souls, Josef Skvorecky
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Little, Big, John Crowley
Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
The Once and Future King, T. H. White
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
The Satanic Verses: A Novel, Salman Rushdie
Shardik, Richard Adams
The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran, Kahlil Gibran
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels, Henry James
So, what about you guys? What books stymie all of your efforts to get through them?
If you see someone mention a book s/he can't get through that you love, can you try to explain to us what it is that you love about it? Maybe understanding what other people see in it might help others connect to it and enjoy it as well. :)