Worthy books you have started but never finished

vitriol · May 18, 2020

"No Logo" by Naomi Klein, I tried 3 times but at some point this book becames boring due to too many reports/data analytics. Not gonna give it a second chance,

"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons, in sci-fi it is widely regarded as top notch novel, well.. for sure author has created a very complex and (probably) complete universe but his writting style makes a plot so slow, slacking. I may give it a second attempt in 5-10 years.

sonicosa · May 18, 2020

Heart of Darkness has been sitting on my nightstand 1/3 read for close to a year now.

Catch 22 took me quite a while to get through, but I kept going back to it and eventually finished.

Like many others, I’ve yet to succeed at Moby Dick, and while I’ve finished Great Expectations, that was enough words from Dickens for this lifetime.

amfalconer · May 18, 2020

I'm quite a reader generally, and probably read 2-3 books a week. I did manage to get through Catch 22 without issue some years back, didn't see what all the fuss was about personally, thought it was an average book. I haven't had the urge to re-read it though, especially since the mini-series aired last year in the UK, which was worth a watch.

The only one I've not finished, and mocks me with its "% read" on my Kindle at the mo, is The Count of Monte Cristo, it goes on for ever, been so long since I started, that I evenreven remember what I've read, guess I'll probably never finish it.

ejj · May 18, 2020

War and Peace is quite good. Many of the books mentioned have merit—both in the canon of literature and difficulty in readability. Some people don’t like the syntax of a translated poem like the Odyssey—that’s understandable—but it is an important text.

My vote for modern readable text that I’ve yet to finish is Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Really good and clever, but just too much. More of a “look at me” than a story.

chunkythebulldog · May 18, 2020

The Sun newspaper, can never seem to get past page 3.

p4ul · May 18, 2020

Ulysses and The Iliad as above - just can’t get past 20 pages, however Catch 22 is my favourite book and I must have read it 15 times. Love Dickens too, we’re all different and this thread proves it.
Never tried Moby Dick but now feel I need to, thanks guys!

timoss · May 18, 2020

ejj
War and Peace is quite good. Many of the books mentioned have merit—both in the canon of literature and difficulty in readability. Some people don’t like the syntax of a translated poem like the Odyssey—that’s understandable—but it is an important text.

My vote for modern readable text that I’ve yet to finish is Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Really good and clever, but just too much. More of a “look at me” than a story.

Agreed! Had Infinite Jest been half as long.... Yet I had no trouble with Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, its spiritual precursor. Who here has made it through Karl Ove Knausgaard's six-book series My Struggle?

Tony C. · May 18, 2020

🙄

vbrad26 · May 18, 2020

I was an English major, so I was FORCED to read what a lot of you were willing to try on your own, so props to you all for that lol.
Beowulf in Old English? Hah forget about it.

The most recent book, and actually one of the only books I could not manage to finish was one that is always on a list of must reads:
William Gibson's Neuromancer.
I made it about half way and just couldn't get into his writing style.
Guess I'm just not a fan of the cyberpunk genre.
But it bothers me that it is unfinished, so I may get around to finishing it one of these days...

llvhhui · May 18, 2020

Same on the Moby Dick. Gotta get back to it this weekend.

MRC · May 18, 2020

vbrad26
I
Beowulf in Old English? Hah forget about it.

The Seamus Heaney translation to modern english of 20 years ago is good though.

igatomic · May 18, 2020

llvhhui
Same on the Moby Dick. Gotta get back to it this weekend.

I've read the first 1/3 of Moby Dick 2 or 3 times over the past 30 years. Always on a vacation, always foiled by the open bar, sunshine and napping.

ejj · May 18, 2020

If you want to read Melville, skip Moby Dick and read Billy Budd--it gives you the basics of what Melville did with language in a more concise package. But most readers these days don't care as much about language-- (?)

Andy K · May 18, 2020

ejj
My vote for modern readable text that I’ve yet to finish is Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Really good and clever, but just too much. More of a “look at me” than a story.

+1
I've started Infinite Jest at least 4 times without getting more than halfway through. Last year I picked it up and read the last 100 pages or so. Next time I'll pick it up about 100 or 200 pages before that. It is overwhelming but I just keep coming back to it.

Professor · May 18, 2020

MRC
The Seamus Heaney translation to modern english of 20 years ago is good though.

I've read this and other versions and to me at least The story reads like an exaggerated retelling of an ancient hunters adventure. Stretched by a thousand retellings.
Grendels mother is described as a sea wolf. The Norse considered bears and wolves to be much the same creatures and "Beowulf" translates as "Bee Bear" or "Honey Bear". A sea wolf was probably a term for the polar bears.
The scene of Beowulf's fight with Grendel's mother sounds much like ruins of ancient island fortresses found along the Scandinavian coast lines. Many of these have been temporarily uncovered by drops in local sea levels. They sit on mound like islands surrounded by small lakes.
A mostly submerged fort could be entered through a submerged gate way and a treasure chamber just above the water line sounds likely.

I'm thinking Grendel was a young adult polar bear crippled by a dead fall trap and forced to become a man eater because he could no longer hunt.
It has long been common for man killing predators to be anthropomorphized by hunters and story tellers.

MRC · May 18, 2020

Fritz
but Dickens! What is that guy’s problem... why use three words when fifty seven will do! Impossibly wordy over detailed and just plain impossible to read. Oi!

I once had to write an essay on The humour in Dickens' writing. Mine was one sentence, roughly :- "Humour is supposed to make you laugh or possibly smile, I have never done either of these when reading Dickens".

Stephen Leacock is the only competitor to Jerome K. Jerome for humour that I know. Oh, and Spine Millington of course.

roman9662 · May 18, 2020

Reading this thread has made me think back to the books never finished and why.Here's two notables for me.
Canterbury Tales in Middle Englush. I was probably half way through. I had gotten into the rhythm of the language. Though I was enjoying it I took a break. It took me six months to get back to spelling correctly. I never went back to it.
Gilgamesh, I have never gotten past the endless explanations of how the text fragments were interpreted. Every translation I have started has been that way.

Canuck · May 18, 2020

I started out several times, to read Don Quixote, but I found the grammar to be beyond me. I did read Moby Dick, by Melville, and also The Foundling, by Henry Fielding. But that was only after seeing the movie Tom Jones, more times than I can count. It took me months to do it, many years ago, to read Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, but I did get through it.

Larry S · May 18, 2020

Foundation series read many times, Moby Dick..for fun, Iliad was tough going, Odyssey twice, Beowulf loved it, Shrugged and Fountainhead no worries. This is presented on my shelf to remind me to suck it up and dig in. It’s just so sad.

BrianPankow · May 18, 2020

MRC
May I offer two?

Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (in english translation) -- in a transatlantic flight I managed 7 pages.

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick -- I get about halfway then my head spins too much trying to keep up. with the subtleties.

I did get all the way through Catch 22. Once. A long time ago. A newly purchased copy is looking at me now but I'm avoiding its gaze.