Unreadable books - your top picks

[nlgbbbblth]

double post

[nlgbbbblth]

Was still in the UK then so no, but that sounds like there's a story there ... do tell ?!!

As per above, the three sets of questions in the Fiction section (relating to the two prescribed novels & the general modern novels) failed to include the word OR between each of their two options. End result was that the exam was marked very easily and people who wouldn't ordinarily have done well got high marks.

Separately - I did the Inter that year and had this nightmare to contend with in my English paper - you might enjoy
https://wheresgrandad.wordpress.com/201 ... -nebulous/

[8760976543]

Edward Snowden's book. Found it a bore and I work in IT..

[95438756]

HH hh by Laurent Binet

Biography of Reynhardt Heydrich.

Reading this scutter my attitude about Binet is that he is the most unsuitable type of author to author such manuscript.
Binet is an emotional mess and he reminds me of a college classmate who became very upset and angry if you asked him on his own take on characters like Hitler, Josef Memgele Pol Pot, etc.

[678904673]

Finnegan's Wake. A total mess of a book. Its only redeeming feature is that part of it is set in an area of Dublin I grew up in. And pretty much anything by Thomas Pynchon

[Fugue]

Agreed on Catch 22. There are a lot of sacred cows in literature.

Animal Farm is a beautiful read. I read it in about two hours when I was 15. What I love about Orwell is he wrote in plain English.

[678904673]

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is very tough going

[CelticRambler]

Completely missed "season 1" of this thread; don't know how ...

"The Island of the Day Before" by Umberto Eco. Thought it had great promise as a science-mystery crossover (main character finds himself alone on a ship 180° from Greenwich, looking at an island that's on the other side of the international date line (as yet undermined at that point!) ... but oooooohhhhh dear. Maybe it read better in Italian.

I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose by the same Umberto (read it after seeing the film) so the Island ordeal was a big disappointment.

[isha]

I'm struggling to read anything at the moment and it's been going on for a while. Bought all of Iain M Banks books and ran out of damns to give half way through Excession. Bought a load of Philip K Dicks books, started with A Scanner Darkly, and just couldn't dig it at all. I'm having slightly better luck with The Man In The High Castle, but it's touch and go, frankly. I bought Cormac McCarthy's recent book The Passenger, was very excited to read it, got two thirds of the way through and have not gone near it since a month ago. It's got all the great writing etc but I just don't give a damn about the characters. I've a load of other nonfiction books by the bed that I've read one or two chapters from and then got bored. Yikes. Me no like this.

[CelticRambler]

Haven't read the book, but found the video/film version of the The Man in the High Castle got progressively more disappointing as it went on. Another one where the initial premise sounded really intriguing, but as the plot unfolded it descended into banality.

[Fugue]

Haven't read the book, but found the video/film version of the The Man in the High Castle got progressively more disappointing as it went on. Another one where the initial premise sounded really intriguing, but as the plot unfolded it descended into banality.

I could not get into that book at all. And yes, premise seemed fascinating.

[95438756]

ALL those sh|tty "Complete Guides" in A5 size in magazine type paper for Raspberry Pi Arduino Linux.
Print is too small, and the projects too dense.

[678904673]

Moby Dick. One chapter on the history of Whaling is fine but a third of the book is dedicated to it

[678904673]

Completely missed "season 1" of this thread; don't know how ...

"The Island of the Day Before" by Umberto Eco. Thought it had great promise as a science-mystery crossover (main character finds himself alone on a ship 180° from Greenwich, looking at an island that's on the other side of the international date line (as yet undermined at that point!) ... but oooooohhhhh dear. Maybe it read better in Italian.

I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose by the same Umberto (read it after seeing the film) so the Island ordeal was a big disappointment.

I loved The Name of the Rose. Although are moments when Eco goes off on tangents but he reigns himself in fairly quickly. But The Island of the Day Before was just a total mess. That's where you need a good editor who just says NO

[Bishop_Brennan]

I gave up on Tolkein's The Children of Húrin. I'll try again at some stage. It's first few pages are hard going and the story is a bit grim.
I never attempted The Silmarillion but have heard it's hard going. Anyone read it?

I am halfway through, it's good , but print out a character map and have it by your side when reading, makes it a lot easier

like this one



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/523 ... c725_k.jpg

[Bishop_Brennan]

I'm struggling to read anything at the moment and it's been going on for a while. Bought all of Iain M Banks books and ran out of damns to give half way through Excession. Bought a load of Philip K Dicks books, started with A Scanner Darkly, and just couldn't dig it at all. I'm having slightly better luck with The Man In The High Castle, but it's touch and go, frankly. I bought Cormac McCarthy's recent book The Passenger, was very excited to read it, got two thirds of the way through and have not gone near it since a month ago. It's got all the great writing etc but I just don't give a damn about the characters. I've a load of other nonfiction books by the bed that I've read one or two chapters from and then got bored. Yikes. Me no like this.

Have you read The Algebraist?

That was an excellent read.

[Diamonds of Frost]

I used to feel guilty for not finishing a book but why continue with something that is a misery.
My list:
One Thousand Years of Solitude - I'm going to give it another shot. It's been a number of years since I last picked it up and I think I could get on to it. Marquez' other book Love In The Time of Cholera is one of my favourites.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
That They May Face The Rising Sun
On The Road
A Suitable Boy
Cloud Atlas
The Fountainhead
The Golden Notebook
Crime and Punishment


I would like to give Infinite Jest a go.

[Del.Monte]

I used to feel guilty for not finishing a book but why continue with something that is a misery.
My list:
One Thousand Years of Solitude - I'm going to give it another shot. It's been a number of years since I last picked it up and I think I could get on to it. Marquez' other book Love In The Time of Cholera is one of my favourites.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
That They May Face The Rising Sun
On The Road
A Suitable Boy
Cloud Atlas
The Fountainhead
The Golden Notebook
Crime and Punishment

I would like to give Infinite Jest a go.

"That They May Face The Rising Sun" is an absolute classic and an easy read - it probably helps that I served my time in County Leitrim and can relate to the characters and places. I've never heard of any of the rest - except Crime and Punishment.

[isha]

I gave a loan of A Suitable Boy to my mother in law almost two decades ago, but she is obviously not finished it yet.

[Apelles]

Anyone else tried reading 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert Pirsig. A friend pushed it on me in the 80's. He kept going on and on about it, nearly insisting that I read it so we could discuss its philosophical narrative. Believe me . . I tried, I really did try but I simply couldn't get into that book.
Perhaps after all this time I should give it another shot . . . If I can read it without falling asleep.

[isha]

I liked Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. But his book Lila completely lost me. And then the caster fell off the foot of one of the legs of my very old kitchen table and I used my hardback copy of Lila to prop it up for....yikes.... years. I'm not proud of that. But in my defense I had several small noisy children and it was the perfect size.

[678904673]

Anything by William Faulkner. As much as I enjoy work, his constant use of stream of consciousness makes his books difficult to get through. Also I'm not sure he'd even be published due to his frequent use of the N word

[Diamonds of Frost]

"That They May Face The Rising Sun" is an absolute classic and an easy read - it probably helps that I served my time in County Leitrim and can relate to the characters and places. I've never heard of any of the rest - except Crime and Punishment.

The style was certainly easy but I remember being bored to tears.

[Bishop_Brennan]

Has anyone read The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov ?

My brother read it and he said it was a rollercoaster, some chapters were like the best book he's ever read, other chapters were like the worst and he just wanted to chuck it away...

[678904673]

Has anyone read The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov ?

My brother read it and he said it was a rollercoaster, some chapters were like the best book he's ever read, other chapters were like the worst and he just wanted to chuck it away...

Its a brilliant book. But yes. Some of the chapters a bit off the wall. But still well worth a read. It was the inspiration for the Rolling Stones song Sympathy for the Devil.