Latest book you just couldn't bring yourself to finish

[Mabouya]

In my case it's "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith. My sister gave it to me a while back, saying that she really liked it. Usually our tastes coincide, but not this time. I made it about 15 pages in, but I've given up and don't plan on trying again - there's too much stuff I want to read, to waste my time with that.

What about you?

(I bring this up because I just noticed a list of the "21st Century's Greatest Novels" on the BBC web site, and "White Teeth" was #11. )

BBC - Culture - The 21st Century’s 12 greatest novels

[alexstar]

Haha... Funny you should mention this.

I started White Teeth two months ago... Finally finished it last week. Excruciatingly slow story. I'm usually a fast reader and would have finished such a book in seven days, but this one just dragged. Lots of English jokes and references, some of which I got and others I inferred the meanings. Perhaps it would be more entertaining if I was English.

The last third of the book picks up the pace, if the reader can make it that far. Ye gods, she's a talented writer but I find myself reaching for something lighter, like Dickens' "Bleak House" ...

Just started Kathryn Bertine's "The Road Less Taken", very interesting. I recommend it to any cycling fan.

[zetroc]

The Maltese Falcon. I realize that it's a classic, but Hammett's writing is full of so many clichés that I had to stop. Sorry.

Also: The Casual Vacancy. Harry Potter never showed up and I just lost interest.

Both of these are still on my shelf on goodreads, which torments me. I'll finish them eventually but have read plenty of books since starting those so it may be a while.

[monadnocky]

Infinite Jest.

I was halfway through a 16 page stretch without a page break, about 50 pages through this 2.5 million page book, when I gave up.

I just don't get the love for it.

[oopfoo]

Infinite Jest.

I was halfway through a 16 page stretch without a page break, about 50 pages through this 2.5 million page book, when I gave up.

I just don't get the love for it.

"It's complex and difficult, so I must like it, in order to appear intelligent."

That explains a lot about literary criticism. Now go try Pychon's Gravity's Rainbow. I've been a hundred or so pages into that book FOUR TIMES in the past 10 years. I gave it away last year.

[monadnocky]

oops, meant "paragraph break," not "page break."

Yeah, I do get the impression that there's an emperor-has-no-clothes quality about the book.

[devlin]

What's a book? My attention span these days can't do it. I can't even get through a magazine article. The internet has ruined me.

Sorry to interject. Carry on.

[Philster]

What's a book? My attention span these days can't do it. I can't even get through a magazine article. The internet has ruined me.

Sorry to interject. Carry on.

Same here. It would be a lot easier to name the last book I finished.

[TTX1]

The Goldfinch. Hard to get past the 1st chapter.

The Martian, while hardly Pulitzer material, I read in day.

[Jonathan]

Zealot. I'm struggling with it now. It's a very interesting and thought provoking alternative biography of Jesus. I'm just not that motivated to make time for it. It's work. I've also never finished a Michener novel.

[monadnocky]

The Goldfinch. Hard to get past the 1st chapter.

The Martian, while hardly Pulitzer material, I read in day.

I felt the same way about The Martian. That book was a ton of fun, especially if you're a science geek. Not a great work, mind you, but neat.

[Britishbane]

East of Eden. Just couldn't get into it.

[summilux]

The Goldfinch. Hard to get past the 1st chapter.

Say it isn't so! I'm crushing on Donna Tartt.

Each Xmas season, I try to finish one of several Umberto Eco novels I have. Never been able to get past 30 pages.

[robin3mj]

I'm generally a le Carre fan, but Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was nigh on unreadable for me.

[David Tollefson]

I've tried to read The Silmarillion (JRR Tolkien) at least 4 times. I just can't get through it.

[spopepro]

I may have mentioned it before, but my wife and I keep a "shelf of literary defeat".



Not pictured: The Autobiography of Mark Twain. Vol. 1. Which would be the most recent addition.

[monadnocky]

I've tried to read The Silmarillion (JRR Tolkien) at least 4 times. I just can't get through it.

One of the biggest problems with The Silmarillion, at least from a readability perspective, is that Tolkien, as a linguist, couldn't help himself and would often call characters by different names, sometimes in the same narrative. It made sense to him (for instance, if the speaker of the name was one type of elf, that speaker would identify the character in Qenya, while if he was a different type of elf, Sindarin would be used, and so forth), but few others.

The Silmarillion is basically unreadable.

[davids]

Holy hell, I loved White Teeth. The rivalry between the two elderly Jehovah's Witnesses is one of the most charming things I've ever read.

But The Name of the Rose? Nope. It lost me somewhere deep in a description of the carvings on an enormous wooden door. Also, not Ulysses or Gravity's Rainbow. (Get the Fagels translation of the Aenied [and the Iliad and the Odyssey] and you might love it as much as I did...) More recently there's Tristram Shandy (sorry Doof) and some biography of John Coltrane that required a much deeper knowledge of his music than I brought to the table.

[davids]

Zealot. I'm struggling with it now. It's a very interesting and thought provoking alternative biography of Jesus. I'm just not that motivated to make time for it. It's work. I've also never finished a Michener novel.

I sat next to someone on a plane yesterday who is reading this on her iPhone. She tells me she wants to read even more biographies of Jesus the historical figure.

[Jonathan]

I sat next to someone on a plane yesterday who is reading this on her iPhone. She tells me she wants to read even more biographies of Jesus the historical figure.

I think you would enjoy it and since you dont live in the South it's physical presence will not condemn you to hell. Aslan is a credible researcher and that's made all the difference. I wish I had more enthusiasm to finish it.