Comments | jrittenhouse: Stuck on reading:

jrittenhouse

Stuck on reading:

Mar 31, 2009 10:25

Sometimes, you end up with a movie or book or story that you just get stuck on - as in, you’re at page 138, and the early part of the book is good, but the author has just gone off on a tear with some weird artsy material that passes all rational understanding, and you just put the darn thing down and you don’t pick it up again for a while.

Other ( Read more... )

science_fiction, racism, pro_writing, lbj, prodom, sidewise, dominican-republic, history, books, ah, kindle

Comments 13

scarfman March 31 2009, 15:31:40 UTC

I started Lord of the Rings several times before I finally got all the way through.

jrittenhouse March 31 2009, 15:37:32 UTC

I've forgotten how long it took me the first time. I read the Hobbit quickly, and then went for LOTR. I think it was a straight-through sort of thing.

I wore out two sets of the paperbacks rereading LOTR; it's certainly my favorite fantasy book by a wide margin.

kalimac March 31 2009, 16:24:56 UTC

A lot of people have trouble with the opening chapters of The Lord of the Rings, even ones who find they're enjoying the book once they finally get further into it. Colin Wilson said it reminded him of Enid Blyton.

My guess is, that people with that problem probably don't like The Hobbit very much. How say you?

jcw_da_dmg March 31 2009, 17:13:35 UTC

I waded through The Hobbit first, survived, and then proceeded to get thoroughly stuck on about the halfway point in the first LOTR book.

I did eventually get through Dhalgren, although I didn't get it.

Also had a similar experience with Dune.

Thread 7

princejvstin March 31 2009, 16:10:43 UTC

Deadhouse Gates.

It's Erikson's second novel, and extremely dark. I couldn't blast through it. I could only take it in moderate doses.

War and Peace lsanderson March 31 2009, 16:15:50 UTC

Was one I could not get going in. I'd crash lost in the multiple names of the characters. Then I saw the BBC TV version, and tore through the book. I've still not seen a TV adaptation of the Cryptonomicon...

Re: War and Peace jrittenhouse March 31 2009, 18:08:07 UTC

I never read it; I did see the Russian adaptation some 30-40 years ago when it came out, the REALLY long one, and it was pretty good. Windy Russian novels bore the pants off of me.

kalimac March 31 2009, 16:27:46 UTC

In some circumstances, Sturgeon's Law is iterative. Eliminate the 90% that's trash, and 90% of what's left is still trash. This can go on for several iterations.

Wasn't Sammy Sosa the player traded away by the team that GWBush owned, way back when? That should have been a marker of his judgment right there.

acmespaceship March 31 2009, 20:27:14 UTC

I never made it through The Hobbit and hence never started LOTR. I've been told that was a mistake and I should go directly to LOTR, do not pass Hobbit, do not collect $200.

I have bogged down twice in A Distant Mirror at the point where Tuchman, who says this book is about cultural history and not about who-fought-which-battle-when, breaks down into a long stretch of exactly that. Apparently my brain is incapable of processing the military history of the Papal States. It's a shame because I adore Barbara Tuchman.

I am currently wretchedly, miserably stuck on Page 106 of Mason & Dixon. I can handle 18th-Century prose. I can handle Pynchon. But Pynchon imitating 18th-Century prose requires getting used to. So I start reading, get into the zone, love the book... and life interferes and I have to put it down for a couple of weeks. After which it takes me a while to get back in the zone. Alas, I have now committed the fatal error of waiting too long, so that I have forgotten too many details and I'll have to re-read ( ... )

bibliofile March 31 2009, 20:54:16 UTC

I have that same problem of putting a book down for too long and then losing the thread/details/zone/all of the above. Some books I just note the page I got to and then take them back to the library.