Unreadable books - your top picks

[Del.Monte]

All the hype around Joyce's Ulysses at this time of year got me thinking about books that I can't get into and don't want to. Ulysses is definitely one such and add to that anything by William Golding (Lord of the Flies), Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot), John Banville (The Sea), Joe Duffy (Children of the Troubles), David McWilliams (The Pope's Children), Shane Ross (The Bankers) and you see where I'm going..

What are your pet hates when it come to choice of reading?

[490808]

Joseph Conrad - Heart of darkness.

The title says it all but, doom and gloom in Africa could have been an alternate title, worst book I've ever been made to read (school).

[95438756]

Victims of Yalta. By Nicolai Tolstoy. About the Soviet Union's genocide against POW's because they surrendured and faught on the other side in WW 2.
A Serious crime yes, but the tome gets really bogged down half way in with the ultimate 'talkshop' that took place and no other outcome in Downing Street with Anthony Eden as British Prime Minister and Soviet diplomats. I stopped reading the thing half way.
If it had been laid out properly, it could have been a very good reference, but unfortunately falls in the middle.

[95438756]

The Charwomans' daughter. What career a charwoman in 1910's Dublin imagines her young daughter will embark upon.

A handful of dust.

The Grapes of Wrath. Utter America Depression era MISERY PORN

[Mr Daniel F. O'Leary]

Dune (Frank Herbert).

The book has a lot of great ideas and concepts in it, but it's also very long and the writing isn't great, with the characters leaving something to be desired.

But to be fair, I'm not massively into reading fiction these days, so might not be in the mindset to enjoy it.

[95438756]

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

The basic moral of the story is that well, if you're born poor and simple, be just like Stephen Blackpool.

Bit like Forest Gump, except a more realistic end than Gump living happily ever after.

[490808]

For anyone that wants to cheat I found this https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/827 ... ult_Novels

Good to see my Conrad choice is up there at number 10. Of course Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are at the very top.

I think with a lot of those on the list it depends on your motivation and the genres you like. I'm not much of a reader but did read what my mates were also reading when I was at school so didn't find Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (at 21) that difficult. Surprised to see that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy makes the list (at 237). The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell is a book I've read and have listened to as an audio book. but deserves its place on the list. Like Douglas Adams what Terry Pratchett Pyramids (at 306) is doing on the list at all I find strange. Possibly because for Pratchett fans Pyramids is often their least favourite of the Discworld series.

[nlgbbbblth]

Joseph Conrad - Heart of darkness.

The title says it all but, doom and gloom in Africa could have been an alternate title, worst book I've ever been made to read (school).

Lord Jim is worse.

One of the most unreadable ever.

I got through Ulysses ok but Finnegans Wake is a serious endurance test.

[nlgbbbblth]

The Charwomans' daughter. What career a charwoman in 1910's Dublin imagines her young daughter will embark upon.

A handful of dust.

The Grapes of Wrath. Utter America Depression era MISERY PORN

A couple of those were Modern Novels on the Leaving Cert English Paper II.

A question best avoided.

The Greatest Of These was another - awful rubbish.

As was The Shrimp & The Anemone - crap.

Steinbeck's The Pearl, The Old Man & The Sea, The Great Gatsby, Animal Farm were the good ones.

[Del.Monte]

A couple of those were Modern Novels on the Leaving Cert English Paper II.

A question best avoided.

The Greatest Of These was another - awful rubbish.

As was The Shrimp & The Anemone - crap.

Steinbeck's The Pearl, The Old Man & The Sea, The Great Gatsby, Animal Farm were the good ones.

The Old Man & The Sea and Animal Farm are books that everyone should read before they shuffle off this mortal coil and join the choir invisible.

[Del.Monte]

For anyone that wants to cheat I found this https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/827 ... ult_Novels

Good to see my Conrad choice is up there at number 10. Of course Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are at the very top.

I think with a lot of those on the list it depends on your motivation and the genres you like. I'm not much of a reader but did read what my mates were also reading when I was at school so didn't find Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (at 21) that difficult. Surprised to see that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy makes the list (at 237). The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell is a book I've read and have listened to as an audio book. but deserves its place on the list. Like Douglas Adams what Terry Pratchett Pyramids (at 306) is doing on the list at all I find strange. Possibly because for Pratchett fans Pyramids is often their least favourite of the Discworld series.

"The Siege of Krishnapur" is superb and like you I have both book and audio - nothing like as good as "Troubles" but that would be difficult. I cannot see why Animal Farm is a hard ask but I was lucky enough to have it read to me at primary school.

A lot of Shakespeare is an awful struggle to read and I gave up English at 16 because of "As you like it" but in the theatre it is epic stuff. I saw King Lear on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon 40+ years ago and still remember it.

[95438756]

ANY adult paperback novel fiction or biography which has too many sentences featuring the main character or characters eating a sticky bar of chocolate / ham sandwitch / food and describing how delicious, yummy it is, while slobber drips down their lips.

[JayZeus]

Any edition of the bible.

Worst collection of short stories ever printed in the genre of fiction. A terrible read too. From the beginning through to the end, the storyline is all over the place. Mad stuff altogether.

I tried a few times when I was a kid. Watched a few movies based on it. They weren’t any better.

I reckon Harry Potter is more realistic and definitely easier to read.

[nlgbbbblth]

A lot of Shakespeare is an awful struggle to read and I gave up English at 16 because of "As you like it" but in the theatre it is epic stuff. I saw King Lear on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon 40+ years ago and still remember it.

King Lear is brilliant; did it for the Leaving.
33 years on, me and a school friend still text each other random lines from it every few months.

Enter Lear fantastically dressed in wild flowers

[nlgbbbblth]

King Lear is brilliant; did it for the Leaving.
33 years later - every few months, me and a school friend still text each other random lines from it.

Enter Lear fantastically dressed in wild flowers

[Peregrinus]

I hated Kerouac's On the Road; just one long reminder of how tedious and boring people are when they're drunk and/or high and you're not. Just awful.

No fair putting Shakespeare or Beckett on these lists; plays are not meant to be read, but performed. If you want to criticise Waiting for Godot as unwatchable, you can do that, but only on the basis of having attended a performance. "Unreadable" is not really a meaningful concept in this context.

[Mirabeau]

Catch 22 by whatever the ballbag was who wrote it.

It reads like a bad vaudeville gag.

Same gag, same perspective, same style, same monotony.
Over and over again.

Probably the only book I threw away.
I put it in the recycling bin with hopes it with get made into something useful. Toilet paper perhaps.

[Cyclepath]

James Joyce - Ulysses, John Banville - The Sea, and Hunter S. Thompson - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

These are the only authors where I've put the book down and said "ain't nobody got time for dat sh1t"

[Fratello]

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?

[95438756]

Roy Keanes autobiography.
where
Alec Ferguson was supposedly persecuting poor Roy 24/7 while Roy played for Man U

[95438756]

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?

No but I'd like to have a go at reading the sinarillion.

[DeletedUser]

Roy Keanes autobiography.
where
Alec Ferguson was supposedly persecuting poor Roy 24/7 while Roy played for Man U

Bollocks, they're both excellent reads - lose the chip on your shoulder.

[DeletedUser]

King Lear is brilliant; did it for the Leaving.
33 years later - every few months, me and a school friend still text each other random lines from it.

Enter Lear fantastically dressed in wild flowers

Won';t hear a word against Shakespeare - I was Second Witch in a school play, should have been Lady Macbeth but someone was blowing the Drama teacher to get the part.

38 years ago - am almost over it ...!!!!

[nlgbbbblth]

Won';t hear a word against Shakespeare - I was Second Witch in a school play, should have been Lady Macbeth but someone was blowing the Drama teacher to get the part.

38 years ago - am almost over it ...!!!!

Were you the year of Macbeth and the missing OR on the Leaving Cert paper II?

[DeletedUser]

Were you the year of Macbeth and the missing OR on the Leaving Cert paper II?

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