books youve never finished

[Sister Jennifer]

I once heard of a stage version of Anne Frank that was so bad that when the German guards came on stage, someone in the audience shouted "She's in the attic!"

That's so good. People are unforgiving aren't they? And funny.

The 5th book in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I think it was mainly that I'd started reading that series 15+ yrs ago and it was just too long between books. I'd forgotton bits and I just couldn't be bothered with it anymore.

Jane Eyre I tried reading mainly because of the references to it in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. I like the classics but I just couldn't get into it.

[Paranye]

Nobody seems to finish poor old Catch 22! I read it all and loved it, but I've always felt a little sorry for it as a book (if that makes any sense) because the very first line is the best. Talk about peaking early.

It's pretty rare that I don't read something all the way through, and usually it's because the book in question is some unutterable tat I've picked up by accident, but there have been a couple of notable exceptions.

One I remember well was Crime and Punishment, because I didn't just put it down and never get around to picking it up again - I slammed it closed about a third of the way in and thought "No power in the 'Verse could make me read another page of this." All the anguishing and angsting and sturming and dranging - Raskolnikov is the original emo. I have a pretty high tolerance for misery in books - heck, I loved Middlemarch, and that was a gloomfest if ever there was one - but there is a limit.

[deldaisy]

My favourite book of all time is one that I put down ten times (or more). It was so heavy, so boring.... but I kept picking it up every time I ran out of something to read and would have to start from the beginning again and again and it was still so boring..... then one night it just "clicked" and I have loved the book ever since. And reread a few times too.

Independant People by Halldor Laxness

It gives me hope that I may one day read Lord Of The Rings.... or something by Jane Eyre..... (sorry Jan).

[Quatermass]

or something by Jane Eyre..... (sorry Jan).

You mean by the Bronte sisters. Sorry, Del. You know I'm a pedant. Jane Eyre was a book by Charlott Bronte.

God, I hated seeing what I did see of the miniseries versions, if only how utterly abysmally Jane is treated.

[Tonyblack]

Nobody seems to finish poor old Catch 22! I read it all and loved it, but I've always felt a little sorry for it as a book (if that makes any sense) because the very first line is the best. Talk about peaking early.

It's pretty rare that I don't read something all the way through, and usually it's because the book in question is some unutterable tat I've picked up by accident, but there have been a couple of notable exceptions.

One I remember well was Crime and Punishment, because I didn't just put it down and never get around to picking it up again - I slammed it closed about a third of the way in and thought "No power in the 'Verse could make me read another page of this." All the anguishing and angsting and sturming and dranging - Raskolnikov is the original emo. I have a pretty high tolerance for misery in books - heck, I loved Middlemarch, and that was a gloomfest if ever there was one - but there is a limit.

I had that problem with Crime and Punishment.

I think my problem with Catch 22 was that, as a young man, I was into war books at the time. Catch 22 is more of an anti-war book, which I suspech I'd appreciate now.

[LilMaibe]

Twin-Pryx, by John asht.... I got curious about the book because of a tantrum the author threw when someone gave it a bad review. So i went and got it from the library (not buying books I know are effing bad) to see if it really is as bad.
What can I say?
It was much much much worse.
The reviewer that caused the author to throw a tantrum said she barely made it 90 pages for (the book has 900) and only on the second run. I didn't even made it 10 pages far....
Seriously, STAY AWAY from that book

[Paranye]

I think my problem with Catch 22 was that, as a young man, I was into war books at the time. Catch 22 is more of an anti-war book, which I suspech I'd appreciate now.

I know just what you mean, I've had that happen to me before! Sometimes a book just comes along at the wrong time of your life.

That said, I've known plenty of people who are very into their anti-war literature who never took to Catch-22. I think Joseph Heller is literary Marmite

[Antiq]

Ghormenghast - Mervyn Peake. It's a difficult read, but I do really like it and I ought to just knuckle down and finish it I've hardly ever not finished a book, even if I didn't like it.

[pip]

Ghormenghast - Mervyn Peake. It's a difficult read, but I do really like it and I ought to just knuckle down and finish it I've hardly ever not finished a book, even if I didn't like it.

Finished it and its a long slog. Even managed to read the fourth part published last year as thrown together by his wife. Not as good as Mervyns on set as its missing the Artistic descriptions i love.
Tried to read AS Byatt The Childrens Book due to the nice cover catching my eye constantly. But it was just pretentious rubbish and i couldn't get into it.

[Antiq]

Ghormenghast - Mervyn Peake. It's a difficult read, but I do really like it and I ought to just knuckle down and finish it I've hardly ever not finished a book, even if I didn't like it.

Finished it and its a long slog. Even managed to read the fourth part published last year as thrown together by his wife. Not as good as Mervyns on set as its missing the Artistic descriptions i love.
Tried to read AS Byatt The Childrens Book due to the nice cover catching my eye constantly. But it was just pretentious rubbish and i couldn't get into it.

I adored the TV series, and I think that kinda makes the book easier to read.

[pip]

Ghormenghast - Mervyn Peake. It's a difficult read, but I do really like it and I ought to just knuckle down and finish it I've hardly ever not finished a book, even if I didn't like it.

Finished it and its a long slog. Even managed to read the fourth part published last year as thrown together by his wife. Not as good as Mervyns on set as its missing the Artistic descriptions i love.
Tried to read AS Byatt The Childrens Book due to the nice cover catching my eye constantly. But it was just pretentious rubbish and i couldn't get into it.

I adored the TV series, and I think that kinda makes the book easier to read.

It does but remember the series actually only covered the first two books . The third book will seem like a wild Tangent because of that. The third book becomes more Sci Fi than fantasy

[Antiq]

Ok, now I really do want to finish it.

[pip]

Its worth it

[stripy_tie]

The last third of "Slaughterhouse 5"; I just couldn't bear to read one more pretentious overwrought sentence. The main character's monologue was so pathetic, whiny and boring that it shared no resemblance with anything an actual human being might think or feel.

He has no desire or love for anything whatsoever, not his job, his wife and children, his own continued existence, nothing. The plot just skips left and right from the stupidly bizarre to the horrifyingly dull.

It's the only book I've ever failed to finish and I once made it all the way through a purported spy thriller that turned out to be almost entirely a detailed analysis of industrial economics in post WW2 East Germany.

That "Slaughterhouse 5" is even compared to works like Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet On the Western Front" makes me want to throw up.

[Bickaxe]

Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy
I think I just got bored of his stuff, never read any of it since, that was 10 years ago I think.

Ghosts of Sleath? By James Herbert
My dad has all of his books so i read a few, only got halfway through this before it was tidied onto the bookshelf and forgotten about. Not my thing anymore.

Have an originalish Robinson Crusoe text but the language is so different that I'm struggling to take it in as it doesn't flow right in my head. Will get there eventually though....maybe