Books You Never Finished

[CessnaDriver]

I'll probably get shot for admitting this but "Stranger in a Strange Land."

 

[The Schlitzie]

Wow,I just realized Cryptonomicon is on the list as well. I've owned the book for years,read a couple pages,and then put it in the bookcase to collect dust.I think someone bought it for me thinking it had something to do with Lovecraft,hehe.

 

[corranhornjje]

I could never finish "Catcher in the Rye". It bored me to tears. I only tried because you always hear that its such a classic. I don't get it.

Same here. Wanted to read it for the same reasons, and I was going through the list of 'banned' books because if someone wants to ban them then they must be interesting in some way. Gave up pretty quickly.

 

[Solo4114]

I haven't read Snow Crash (though it's on my list) or The Diamond Age (I'll have to check that one out).

Crypto is a hard one. If you don't like math or history it's going to be a non-starter. It also took a long time to "get going". I wanted there to be a "point" but it didn't start coming together until about a quarter of the way through the book. After I got about a quarter way into it, though, I didn't want to put it down. I got REALLY into it (though the ending still bothers me). It's a book that I only recommend to certain people that I know REALLY well.

Interesting. I love history, but I'm not really big on math. I think that was a big part of the issue. That and it seemed to just sort of meander around for the stuff I read. I think I might've gotten about 50pp in or so and just couldn't keep myself interested. I kept saying "I'll get back to it" but I never did.

Same here. Wanted to read it for the same reasons, and I was going through the list of 'banned' books because if someone wants to ban them then they must be interesting in some way. Gave up pretty quickly.

Catcher in the Rye is a book that's better when taught to you than if you just pick it up and read it. And then it has to be taught at a particular age. What makes the book good is that it's pretty much an encapsulation (albeit an odd one) of the universal teenage experience. Of course, this prompted idiots in my 9th grade English class to say things like "It's like Salinger wrote this book JUST FOR ME," but...eh...teenagers.

 

[Probe Droid]

I’ve read Catcher numerous times over a 25 or so year period and my perception of it has changed greatly. I’ve always enjoyed it, but I went from thinking initially that Holden was great to finding him to be a pretentious a-hole. Now that I have kids I can’t read it without putting myself in his parents place. One child dead and this one a total nut.

 

[Solo4114]

Yeah, I'm not disclaiming its merits or its capacity to be re-interpreted by the reader. What I'm saying is that, I think it's easier to approach it the FIRST time if you do it in, say, 9th grade English class. Just picking it up and reading it, though, would be tough.

 

[Probe Droid]

Agreed. It's quite easy to miss that Holden is in a sanitarium telling the story after cracking up, so some professorial guidance is quite helpful.

Although I finished it because of its brevity, just listened to The Wizard of Oz as an audiobook. What a snore. The Wicked Witch of the West, who is so deliciously evil on screen, does nothing worse than hit Dorothy with an umbrella. Although the basic plots, characters, etc., are the same, the movie is vastly superior. And it's not just the songs, which add a lot to the overall enjoyment, the characters and dialog are much more interesting on film. The screenwriters really ran with it.

 

[NakedMoleRat]

The house of the seven gables

Dune

The Stand

I tried to love them, just couldn't.

 

[Flagg]

The house of the seven gables


The Stand

Really? That's just about the only book I have read multiple times. I even burned through the unabridged version that took two people to pick up and carry around for you.

 

[jackdoud]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever. (There are like a dozen of these cursed things, Google it if you're too young to remember but they were HUGE in the 70s.)

MOST UTTERLY ****ING FRUSTATING AND DEPRESSING GARBAGE I HAVE EVER READ. Uggh, still haven't got the bad taste out of my mouth.

I was recommended that series by a close friend years ago. I somehow made it through the first book but have no desire to read the rest. Every time it looked like the main character was finally going to do something it pulled back and made me hate him.

I started Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence at one point and couldn't get through it. Gave it a second try about 10 years later and made it through. Some interesting ideas but is definitely better as a group discussion book.

The only book I've officially given up on is That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis. I slogged my way through the previous two books of his Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra) but had to call it quits halfway through the third. He basically made up his own language and then wrote three books in it.

Along the same lines there are many books that I will just never read because I know I won't finish them. I doubt I'd make it through Moby Dick, War and Peace, Ulysses or many of the other "classics" so I won't try without good reason. Similarly I've been finding that older sci-fi is getting way too clunky to enjoy. There's a lot of old Heinlein, Asimov and Piers Anthony I'd like to read but I can't get past the rocket ships and radiowaves technology. It's truely amazing how much BAD sci-fi is out there. I've read books that have made me wonder how they ever got published much less allowed the author to write multiple large series.

Oh, and if you guys think Cryptonomicon is hard, don't try reading his Baroque cycle. I loved it but it can be opaque and confusing at times.

 

[Duette]

Like most others on this thread, I found it difficult to make it through all the LotR books. I loved the Hobbit though. I remember loving Bilbo so much that I didn't want to start all over again with a whiny Frodo.

Pretty much every single textbook I was supposed to read in college.

Never started the Twilight books because I couldn't stomach it, but it was all I could do to get through the Hunger Games. I was so disappointed in the rushed ending I almost wanted to stop reading the actual book and head over to read some fanfiction that had an ending I could fathom.

Favorite book of all time: The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway

 

[jlee562]

Catcher in the Rye. Thought it was awful. Actually, maybe I did finish it, because I was reading it for school.....

 

[tamplain]

I made it into the second chapter of Moby Dick before calling it quits. I tried reading Interview with a Vampire in high school but couldn't make it through. Everything that followed it I had no problems with. I eventually went back and read it after I had seen the movie and can't for the life of me remeber why I had such a hard go of it the first time through.

 

[Probe Droid]

I couldn't get through the big Melville the first time either. Since then I've read it a couple of times and loved every word of it. For serious books like that I think the timing has to be just right. It''s hard to explain.

 

[Ray22]

Started World War Z but haven't finished it.

 

[bleyd]

I'm not going to list HIgh School reading list stuff as I passed with flying colors using my method of only reading the first 4 chapters and the last 4 chapters of any of those books.

"The Witching Hour" by Anne Rice. Made it 100 or so pages in and couldnt do any more. I was surprised too as at that point I had read all her Vampire books and liked them all.

"Koko" by Peter Straub. I read about 15 books in the time it took me to almost finish that one. I dont like to give up on his stuff as it usually pays off in the end but this was a snoozer.

Does it count if someone steals the book from you when you are part way through and never got to finish it? If so, then "Under The Dome" by Stephen King. I have since reacquired it but haven't gone back to finish.

I couldn't get through Witching hour either. Loved the Vampire Chronicles and was averaging a book every three days.

Couldn't get through Don Quixote even though it's a classic.

Catch 22 I never completed.

Lord of the Rings I'm able to breeze through and retain most of it but the Simarillon was drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry. The Hobbit I can read in an afternoon.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

I'm surprised Moby Dick has come up a few times. Loved that book.

 

[Sean Hebein]

The Hobbit

 

[Justover6]

I couldn't finish Something Wicked This Way Comes and Red Badge of Courage.

I stay far away from books like LotR and Moby Dick unless I have too. There too old and the other needs a class room. Like with Shakespeare, for years I could not finish one play of his until I took a philosophy class and we used a court room set up were each of us were a character on trail. After you understand everything you realize that man is a Jedi Master of storytelling and his work becomes so much more interesting. Same thing with The Scarlet Letter, everyone knows that books sucks story wise, even the people that do like it knows that, people enjoy it because the writing is suppose to be extremely well done.

... I'm kinda thinking of dropping this Anne Rice book Called The Mummy Or King Ramses the Damned. I don't think I can deal with another female playbook book.

 

[Laspector]

All Tolkien stuff. I can get through Fellowship and by then my enjoyment of it is over.

All Anne Rice stuff. I've tried reading all those Lestat books. Was only able to read all of Interview With the Vampire after I saw the movie.

All Dune books--hate 'em. Most boring gobbledegook I've ever read.

Have only made it through three Stephen King novels. Christine, Dead Zone and the Green Mile. All the rest were discarded after about 100 pages.

Tried reading Asimov's Foundation trilogy--gave up on it after about 50 pages. It held no interest to me.