A poll of sorts...

[jadis]

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

Comments

[tabby_of_doom]

The Time Traveler's Wife . I realize that so many people love that book, but the only pleasure I got from it was throwing it across the room and kicking it a few times.

[jadis]

TTTW is one of those books that I loved, but I will probably never read again. I thought Niffenegger did an excellent job handling the age issues, which could have been sort of icky but weren't. As for why I loved it so much...I relate (probably on an unhealthy level) to themes of abandonment and loss, particularly involving someone you love beyond all comprehension (which is precisely why it's unlikely I'll ever be able to bring myself to give it a second run). Niffenegger's characterizations resonated with me, I cared about Henry and Claire as if they were my best friends...or, more accurately, as if it could have been me and [mumble]. *sigh*

[bibliophile26]

How far did you get into the book? I found the first 100 pages to be rough-going, but was engrossed after I had gotten into it.

[kitsu]

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. No matter how much I try I just can't make it all the ay through.

[jadis]

I hear you. This is one that I've tried several times to get through, and I keep hearing people talking about how knee-slapping hilarious it is and so clever...and I just don't get it. I felt the same way about Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend by Christopher Moore. It had it's chuckle-inducing moments, but that was it. Maybe my religious education/experience is lacking to a point where I just don't ken the hilarity.

[cteare]

I made it through Neil Garman's Good Omens. It was a bit difficult at first, but once I started imagining the characters from Monty Python (John Cleese as the demon, and Eric Idle as the angel) in the roles, it became much easier.

[crowyhead]

I've tried to read Little, Big three times and have yet to succeed.

Vanity Fair by Thackeray has also defeated me.

Also, even though I know I will love Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog if I can just sit down and read it, thus far I have failed.

[jadis]

I asked for Little, Big for Christmas a few years back, because I'd read somewhere (probably in one of those lists of books that you should OMG READ BEFORE YOU DIE, because I'm a total sucker for those lists) that it was a must-read in the fantasy genre. Oddly enough, it was offered along with Crowley's other novel, The Translator, which is not in the fantasy genre at all. I liked The Translator very much, but L,B has defeated me at least twice. I might give it another shot later this year.

[mdyesowitch]

The Pilgrim's Progress. I practically have the first bits memorized I've started it so many times. And I want to finish it, but....I just can't, or haven't.

Trilby. I started it, but it just make me sick to read it. I read Oliver Twist and I made it through that, so it's not just the embedded anti-semitism. I'm not sure what it is, but I put it down and have never gone back. It's a classic and I feel like I should read it, but I just couldn't.

[cteare]

Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings. I think it's the only book I've tried and failed to read. I ended up selling it at a garage sale, I just couldn't get into it at all. I normally enjoy books set in ancient settings.

I don't know that it counts, but Fred Saberhagen's Book of the Gods was also a difficult read. The book I had was a combination of two or three books. I think I read the first one or two and just couldn't get back to it for the last one.

Other than that, I tend to slog through books even when they're terrible. It takes me longer to read them, but I keep at it until I get them read eventually.