Books you don't want to read, but do want to have read

[Queen Michael]

Reading takes time. Books can be long, and many of the really long ones are part of a series of equally brick-like novels. And that's not all. Reading takes effort. You can follow a TV series by simply sitting down in front of the TV and looking at it for an hour, but you need to actively read a book. You need to keep track of where things are taking place, you need to imagine the characters and the events, and you need to keep doing it for hours.

With all that said, it's no suprise that we sometimes encounter books that seem interesting, but not worth the time and effort. I've been curious about the Wheel of Time series for years, but I can't bring myself to read a series that's so long when even a substantial amount of the fans say that book 10 was a downright bad book. There are lots of science-fiction novels that handle very interesting ideas, but the actual writing seems too boring to make reading them worth it. I'd really like to have read these books, though. I'd like to know what's in them and be familiar with the stories they tell; I just don't feel that the process of actually sitting down and reading them would be fun enough. I'll gladly read long books -- in April last year I finished In Search of Lost Time, which the Guiness book of world records classifies as the longest novel ever published -- but I want to feel certain that I'll enjoy myself all the way through.

So how about you? What books do you want to have read but don't feel like reading?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The "brick-form classics" I suppose. The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Don Quijote, etc. I read a little of each back in school/college. That would've been a good time to get them over with. Not that I haven't read those kinds of books out of sheer will before (I'm particularly proud of having read The Divine Commedy "just because") but these days 300 pages is my limit.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I would definitely recommend that you read The Wheel of Time books. I'm re-reading them for the 15th time now since I recently bought the latest book in the series.
There is only one niggling thing that bothers me about that series. The Fate aspect, oh, and some gender related issues. Otherwise it's a great read.

I would and wouldn't want to read Mein Kampf (just so see what it's about), Tolstoy's War and Peace and ..hmm.
I bet there lots more books considered classics that I should read, I just can't think of any more.

For me, reading is not onerous at all. Quite the opposite. I could start a bookstore with my collection probably.
My problem lies in the material itself. If it deals with gritty reality drama it's out of my perception entirely.
I could probably digest some historical books, maybe some political ones too, maybe.

 

[SirDerpy]

The classical ones, naturally. I've finished Machiavelli's The Prince and The Art of War already, and, while fascinating, they were rather difficult to read. David Copperfield is another one, I have some kind of special desire to have read it, except I somehow fail to get past the first chapter every time I do read it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

As mentioned, anything that's a "classic". Strong overlap with the sort of book that they make kids read at school, because nobody would actually want to read them under normal circumstances.

 

[Elfgore]

Lord of the Rings really come to mind. Reading those books is one of the biggest chores I've ever encountered. I finished the first one, only to groan cause I had two more to go. But I really want to read them to get a better understanding of the lore and get the nerd cred.

 

[shootthebandit]

I want to read Mein kampft. Dont go assuming im some sort of neo-nazi but I think it would be incredibly interesting to get an insight into his thoughts and really see what motivated him to do what he done

One the other hand I dont think I could bring myself to read it. For starters I cant really see it having any narrative and I can imagine it would be obviously a bit dry and political. Then theres the obvious reason for not wanting to read it and finally can you imagine sitting on the bus or on your lunch break reading mein kampft when anyone (especially is they arent a straight white protestant) asks what you are reading.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I want to read Mein kampft. Dont go assuming im some sort of neo-nazi but I think it would be incredibly interesting to get an insight into his thoughts and really see what motivated him to do what he done

One the other hand I dont think I could bring myself to read it. For starters I cant really see it having any narrative and I can imagine it would be obviously a bit dry and political. Then theres the obvious reason for not wanting to read it and finally can you imagine sitting on the bus or on your lunch break reading mein kampft when anyone (especially is they arent a straight white protestant) asks what you are reading.

I can understand that. Apparently it's mind numbingly dull as well. Anyone can write a book in prison, but people are much more likely to read it if you can invade Poland once or twice.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

Nearly all books that interest me.

School destroyed the idea of reading for fun for me. So sitting down to read is a chore since in school I either didn't like the book, or if i liked it I had to micro analyse everything in order to do the assignment on it. So even when I choose to read a book that genuinely interests me I get stuck because my mind goes to the place where its "oh crap I have to rip apart this wall of text and find some deep symbolism or other crap like that that I just have to take the teachers word for that its there and then bullshit some paragraph on how and why."

 

[JoJo]

Classics in verse, for example Beowulf, Paradise Lost or the Divine Comedy. I've got all three of those on my kindle, managed at most 20% through any before I got bored of the writing style. Same with the Bible, I got through a whole third of that before succumbing to the dryness of the text and the repetitiveness of the Old Testament in particular. Might try the new one some time, if I ever feel up to it.

 

[fenrizz]

The more important works of classic writers like Tolstoy, Hamsund and Hemingway.

Basically any true and tested classic I'll want to have in my collection.
I've read some and will probably read a few more, but I really can't be arsed to read a lot of them.

 

[Silence]

Classic Russian Literature. I swear, if you start "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky you will be lost as soon as you pause one time if you didn't make a flipchart about the characters before.

Most Philosophers. Many have unbearable writing. Many have clearly written in a manic or depressed state of mind.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

My family's Dickens collection takes up a whole shelf (2 metres). I'll get around to it sometime but can't help thinking I won't exactly find it enthralling. I haven't had the best experiences with English literature, save for Shakespeare and a few others.

I think I'm almost done with philosophy, as in being fed up with it. I spent a lot of time with those guys. There are no ultimate answers to be found there but I can't say it wasn't worth it for me personally. Now for some lame quote about the journey being more than the destination...

Classic Russian Literature. I swear, if you start "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky you will be lost as soon as you pause one time if you didn't make a flipchart about the characters before.

I find Tolstoy is a better introduction to the structure of Russian society, and knowing that helps a lot. But Crime and Punishment can be read by anyone so maybe Dostoyevsky is better approached chronologically except maybe Notes from the Underground. I haven't read all his stuff, despite owning it.

 

[Dalisclock]

Atlas Shrugged. Mostly because of Bioshock.

Unfortunately, I just know I'm going to hate it because everything I've heard about it makes it sound like a advertisement for pure, unrestrained capitalism(because anything else is communism and thus EVIL). Also because apparently John Galt just WON'T! SHUT! UP!

Maybe I'll just read the wikipedia summary and then go play bioshock again.

Someday I will actually read through "Thus Spake Zarathustra" again. I've tried twice and keep getting lost because eventually lose track of what he hell he's trying to argue.

 

[Vault101]

Hunger Games

I want to read it but since its such a big thing in of itself now I feel I'll inevitably find them disappointing

I don't shy away from classics...just weather or not I read them might depend...

I also really want to read cloud atlas but worried if I stop I'll lose track

School destroyed the idea of reading for fun for me. So sitting down to read is a chore since in school I either didn't like the book, or if i liked it I had to micro analyse everything in order to do the assignment on it. So even when I choose to read a book that genuinely interests me I get stuck because my mind goes to the place where its "oh crap I have to rip apart this wall of text and find some deep symbolism or other crap like that that I just have to take the teachers word for that its there and then bullshit some paragraph on how and why."

I think symbolism in texts gets a bad rep...but then I like to read sparknotes. I mean I don't think it matters if its "there" or not, its what it adds to the text (if at all)

that said I was always terrible at figuring out symbolisms/meanings in school, but I like to analyse characters and storys and how they work and WHY they work

OT: what prevented me from reading more was just the books, I liked reading but didn't often come across something I wanted to read

 

[Piorn]

Moby Dick and the Silmarillion.
Both had their cool moments, and both I dropped about 1/3 through, because they just drag on and on. They also both feel like they've been written without any Narrativium, like some history book. No story arcs, no structure, just... history.


Also anyone else feel like reading feels really weird when you think about it, but at the same time you can't do it properly when you think about it? Like you don't remember ever seeing the words, but raher the events. Like manually writing memories.
It's like when you space out on the bus to music, and look at things in your head. You still see the world because your eyes are open and unfocused, but you're seeing something else in your head. And when you then try to think about it you can't do it anymore, because you are aware at what you look with your eyes.

 

[jademunky]

Hunger Games

I want to read it but since its such a big thing in of itself now I feel I'll inevitably find them disappointing

You will. My wife bought the collection when the first movie came out (and I found myself reading them for some reason) and they are really bad. The first one is readable enough but, even by young-adult fiction standards, the sequel books really are just very poorly written. No sense of location, no decent world-building, the author does not really know what to do with her protagonist besides throw her into situations against her will.

This is one of the situations where the films are much better than the books (and the films kinda suck)

 

[Vault101]

You will. My wife bought the collection when the first movie came out (and I found myself reading them for some reason) and they are really bad. The first one is readable enough but, even by young-adult fiction standards...

uggghhh I hate YA...or at least I hate what YA is from a marketing standpoint, this is what makes choosing books harder, a YA tag might as well say "nope"

but then I look at the categories on goodreads, and more often than not the users there don't know what the fuck theyre doing

don't mind me I'm just bitter everything I hate is the more popular form of books

 

[Blow_Pop]

The Fountainhead because it was partly an inspiration for Bioshock (I've already read and own Atlas Shrugged).
Mein Kampf which I have on my kindle and just haven't started it because literary porn.
Finishing off reading Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I have almost all of them and I left off with Queen of the Damned (which I had to read twice).
Re-reading Crime and Punishment because I didn't fully get it the first time I read it.
Roots by Alex Haley
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (need to finish Hunchback first and I'm still at the beginning of that)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea and Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
finishing Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
All of the stuff by Marquis DeSade that I own (and finishing what I started)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
12 Years a Slave by Soloman Northup
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Arthurian Legends edited by Mike Ashley
All of the Isaac Asimov/Glen Cook that I own and haven't read yet
The Brontë sisters
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Piers Anthony books I haven't read yet
The Austen books I havent read
the Sound and the Fury/Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
and
actually finish Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

I should mention I own every single one of these books. Except the last which I'm borrowing from a friend.

And really it's just lack of motivation to read them right now because I LOVE books. And reading. (I have 892 books so I'd hope I like books/reading)

uggghhh I hate YA...or at least I hate what YA is from a marketing standpoint, this is what makes choosing books harder, a YA tag might as well say "nope"

but then I look at the categories on goodreads, and more often than not the users there don't know what the fuck theyre doing

don't mind me I'm just bitter everything I hate is the more popular form of books

I get a lot of shit because I tend to read a lot of stuff that's technically classified as YA. Some of it is actually good. And some of it is just classics and the only copy is in the YA section of the library..... SOME of it is enjoyable but others of it is just fluffy crap (which is nice when you don't want something too terribly heavy to read but want/need to read).

And part of your problem is actually looking at categories on goodreads. i use goodreads mostly just to keep track of books I've read or want to read because my brain sucks. But I don't do reviews unless it's something so godawful terrible that I feel the need to do so. or something good enough that has no reviews or that I just really want to profess my love for. I read things regardless of genre or popularity (though sometimes it's a matter of I hear about it so much that I wind up reading it anyway just so I know what the fuck people are talking about). Long as it catches my eye I'll read it. And I think that's how people should approach reading (the "it catches my eye and looks interesting so i'm going to read it" approach)

 

[Vault101]

And part of your problem is actually looking at categories on goodreads. i use goodreads mostly just to keep track of books I've read or want to read because my brain sucks.

yeah its hard not to fall into the downward spiral of obsessing over genre tags, I use it as an organiser too and also for reviews but I don't always trust them because often they will be skewed to what people like