I thought Wolf Hall was a slog, though I did finish it. I keep thinking I should read the sequel, but I’m pretty sure it will be more of the same. I tried to reread War and Peace a few years ago which I had loved in high school. I just couldn’t seem to get into the story this time, and I kept forgetting who characters were. I put it down, and now, I’d really have to start all over if I wanted to know who was who. I have started* Catch 22 * multiple times and One Hundred Years of Solitude . I really hate giving up on books, but sometimes it’s just not worth sticking with one.
Not all Booker Prize winners are hard going.
I will finish every CC book club book, because I love the discussions and I especially for books I disliked, or didn’t get, I find I like them a lot better after the discussion.
@Whistlingal and @mathmom I had a hard time with the beginning of Wolf Hall but then I got involved in it and loved it! Loved the sequel Bring up the Bodies even more.
Sometimes a book just isn’t for me. But sometimes it is the timing. Not in the mood, or not in the right phase of life (which is why some of the things they make you read in high school should probably not be forced down teenager’s throats.)
I was assigned to read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court twice - once in high school, and once in college. I couldn’t get through it either time.
I was reading 3-5 books a week during those years, but I couldn’t stand anything remotely fantasy/science fiction-ish. Didn’t like medieval stuff either. I have a hard time keeping track of the characters if there are a lot of them or if they have strange names.
I try to give a book 50 pages. If they haven’t hooked me by then, they aren’t going to and I quit. Occasionally I quit sooner — I think I got to page 14 of Gone Girl and quit — hated them all, didn’t care if they all murdered each other.
That’s my litmus @intparent - if I don’t feel a connection with the characters, that’s the end of the book for me. I usually wait a few chapters but sometimes I can tell sooner.
I recently read The Emperor of All Maladies, and happened to be hospitalized overnight for a non-cancer reason while doing so. I think that every doctor who saw me commented that they had tried to read it but got bogged down.
My oncologist, on the other hand, commented that the author was great, which I suppose makes sense, given the subject matter. He also mentioned that they had had him up to speak a few years ago. I’m sorry to have missed it.
@mathmom , I think I’ve read the first 150 pages of War and Peace three times, LOL. I gave up on The Brothers Karamazov because I was driven mad by Alyosha and his constant crying. I did make it all the way through Anna Karenina, though. Two non-Russian tomes that I recall as agonizing reads that I finally gave up on are The Magic Mountain and Nostromo. On the other hand, my son’s favorite author is Dostoyevsky, and he read War and Peace the summer before 8th grade. He also found Nostromo extremely interesting. I fear that I am his intellectual inferior! B-)
In my defense, he read the Volkonsky and Pevear translations, while I had to plow through the turgid Constance Garnett. I’m going to try the V&P version of TBK one of these days.
Lol — adored Wolf Hall (remember a slightly slow start, but couldn’t stop thinking about it when I put it down) and The Emperor of All Maladies (although I haven’t liked his other books). Glad there are so many books in the world, we can all find stuff we like!
Thanks for starting this thread. It’s a great question. Our student is at Trinity College for her Junior semester abroad. We moved her in, and so of course after taking a tour of Dublin I have to read Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s slow going. Why not put it down, because it’s tauted as one of the masterpieces of its time. I’m going to continue to slog. Wish me luck. I’m sure others will chime in and say it was the best thing they ever read, but I admittedly am having trouble following it.
I start keeping track of unfinished books in Goodreads a few years ago. Otherwise, I will reread the same books because they sound promising, then after 50 pages or so, I remember why I put them down first time around!
I read Ulysses several times when I was younger, once while in Dublin. I don’t think I could now. I used to be able to read Pynchon, can’t now. And I tried to reread Crime and Punishment a few years ago.
I guess it’s my brain, or age, or something.
OTOH, I can reread Middlemarch or Pride and Prejudice a thousand times over. I want to reread some Dickens, too–my favorites are Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. But I don’t know that I’d get through any of the longer ones that aren’t rereads.
I went on a Henry James binge when we lived in Germany, I was doing fine until I got to the novel with the four page sentence, (I think it was in The Ambassadors). never finished it or picked up another Henry James novel.
I read a lot of crap I wish I weren’t - for work. I have no time or patience to slog through crap for pleasure. Therefore, I am picky about what I read.
LOL. I recall doing very selective reading (basically reading around the battle scenes which I found to be not as exciting as the other stuff) of War and Peace.
Talking about a 4000 word sentence - have you tried WG Sebald? I actually love him - one of my authors in my degree - but long sentences, he’s a master. But I was more amazed at how I could follow everything that was going on. ‘Austerlitz’ is not a book I’d say ‘don’t bother’ but I know it is an acquired taste.
Never tried Ulysses but again Joyce was one of the authors we had to study - not a fan.
Loved Middlemarch but couldn’t finish Mill on the Floss!! Though don’t think I’ll be re-reading Middlemarch in a hurry.
Another book I started but couldn’t finish was ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ - Lionel Shriver. Just didn’t like the narrator’s voice. When I mentioned it to a friend she loved it and knew immediately who the narrator was. She told me and then I thought ‘Oh I might have enjoyed it more if I had guessed that’ but now don’t want to re-start it as I feel that i know what is going on!!
Never read the blurb on the back - hate any inkling of what is coming.
Read a modern book about Achilles and the battle of Troy. His side-kick was the narrator - can’t remember his name now - but he’s the one that gets killed. All the way through the book I kept thinking but you are going to be killed soon. How is this going to work? His ghost talked to us at the end. Ruined it for me!!!
