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

[Sonmi]

I want to reread La Sombra del Viento, but I fear my Spanish might have rusted a bit too much for that at the moment.

As far as things that I haven't completed in the past go, I want to go back and finish Dream of the Red Chamber, but holy shit is it unreadable. I feel exhausted after a mere 5 pages.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I want to reread La Sombra del Viento, but I fear my Spanish might have rusted a bit too much for that at the moment.

It hasn't been translated?

 

[Sonmi]

I want to reread La Sombra del Viento, but I fear my Spanish might have rusted a bit too much for that at the moment.

It hasn't been translated?

It has, but I prefer to read books in their original languages if I can, and it's been years since I've had serious discussions/reads in Spanish while it was always my weakest spoken language.

 

[Frezzato]

Harry Potter, anything Hobbit-related, and Twilight.

Just kidding. I don't want to read any of those.

 

[Queen Michael]

As far as things that I haven't completed in the past go, I want to go back and finish Dream of the Red Chamber, but holy shit is it unreadable. I feel exhausted after a mere 5 pages.

I finished it last year, and enjoyed it a lot. The Swedish translation is very readable.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I really want to read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and I had a chance to do that! I found an English-language edition a few years ago and sat in a Border's (remember those?) for about an hour reading it. It was just...I just couldn't get into it. My understanding of RotTK is based almost entirely in Dynasty Warriors so I understand it's going to be historic and it's going to take place over hundreds of miles and center around dozens of characters but I guess it just didn't hit me how dense the actual content was going to be. I want to read it but I feel like it would be the equivalent of me bashing my head repeatedly into a literary wall...I've done that once before with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and came out on the other end hating that; I don't want to hate Romance of the Three Kingdoms! Another book that I'm worried about is Sogo Nihon Minzoku Goi which is going to be freaking huge considering it's a compendium of Japanese Folklore stretching back hundreds-upon-hundreds of years.

 

[Dalisclock]

"Berserk", the Manga, Oh so very much.

Love the anime, love the Golden Age remake films (think I even liked them a little better, more streamlined) and I REALLY want to see what happens after the Eclipse but....... just no. I am not generally a fan of Manga vastly preferring western comic books and also, most importantly: Berserk is LOOOOOONG, like really long, like still going on today long. Way too intimidating for me to actually buy the books and sit down with them. One day I might just read the cliffnotes version.

I know how you feel on that. Part of it is that he's been writing that series for years, it's a long time between releases and there's still no end in sight.

So on one hand, I want to get into it to see more of Guts vs. Demons that the anime never quite gets to(because the Golden Age is all that matters apparently) but I also hate the idea of getting into a series that may never be finished(at least for a very long time).

For myself, either Atlas Shrugged(just to see what the fuss is about) and Shakespeare. I own the books. I just haven't actually gotten around to reading them.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Lord of the Rings. I'm a HUGE fan of the movies, which honestly is part of the reason why I avoid the book. Other than the fact that it is very long and I've never been an especially avid reader, I also feel like the book will somehow make me enjoy the movies less. Like, I see the book snobs turn up their noses at the films relatively minor-sounding changes like they're some kind of unholy sins against nature, and even though I doubt I'd ever get to that point, I just don't want to chance sucking any of the joy out of watching those amazing films.

I even know, more or less, what is different between the films and the books, but somehow I feel like actually reading the book will make those changes matter more. I dunno. It's a weird hang-up, I know.

 

[rosac]

War and peace and Sun Tzus art of war.

Classics, but long as fuck.

 

[Thaluikhain]

(Weird thing is? David Eddings Belgariad is one of my favourite series of books, despite being nothing but Standard Fantasy Cliches. At least he's honest with 'em, or something.)

You read his other stuff? All the Belgariad again, but with new nametags.

From what I've heard from friends, Moby Dick is an absolute fucking slog, so your hesitancy is far from unfounded.

Can confirm. Every other chapter isn't about the hunt for Moby Dick, it's a digression onto the technicalities of whaling, or the location of some nice paintings of whales, or whale anatomy, or somesuch.

 

[sageoftruth]

Atlus Shrugged.

My father and my some of my friends have read it, and their opinions of it differed immensely. I tried to read it myself, but Ayn Rand's conceited attitude bled through it so thoroughly that I didn't get further than three or four chapters.

Still, with everyone around me either praising or denouncing it, I feel kind of left out. I feel stuck between two extremes. I'm not the sort of person to dismiss something outright, so it feels uncomfortable having to choose between calling it a literary masterpiece or an emotionally stunted woman's ego trip.

 

[sageoftruth]

I really want to read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and I had a chance to do that! I found an English-language edition a few years ago and sat in a Border's (remember those?) for about an hour reading it. It was just...I just couldn't get into it. My understanding of RotTK is based almost entirely in Dynasty Warriors so I understand it's going to be historic and it's going to take place over hundreds of miles and center around dozens of characters but I guess it just didn't hit me how dense the actual content was going to be. I want to read it but I feel like it would be the equivalent of me bashing my head repeatedly into a literary wall...I've done that once before with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and came out on the other end hating that; I don't want to hate Romance of the Three Kingdoms! Another book that I'm worried about is Sogo Nihon Minzoku Goi which is going to be freaking huge considering it's a compendium of Japanese Folklore stretching back hundreds-upon-hundreds of years.

Don't be discouraged. Playing Dynasty Warriors is actually a bonus in this case. There are so many characters with so many names that can easily blend together, so it's really handy to have some faces to attribute to those names while doing the reading. Also, it's about as historically accurate as an seriously upscaled Illiad. It's definitely more of a drama than a history book, thank God.

Watching the movie: "Red Cliff" might also help break you into it, since it has the excitement and spectacle of the games without the interactivity.

 

[sageoftruth]

Harry Potter

I may read it one day. I've heard about how the series grew up with its fanbase, which sounded pretty neat. Unfortunately, I missed that train, so I'm having hangups about having to slog through some kiddie books to get to the good stuff.

 

[Queen Michael]

War and peace and Sun Tzus art of war.

Classics, but long as fuck.

...No. No. Sun Tzu's Art of War isn't even close to long. It's almost a pamphlet. You'll finish it in one afternoon. If you read slowly you'll need the evening too, but that's it.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

(Weird thing is? David Eddings Belgariad is one of my favourite series of books, despite being nothing but Standard Fantasy Cliches. At least he's honest with 'em, or something.)

You read his other stuff? All the Belgariad again, but with new nametags.

Yeah, and honestly I like the Sparhawk series moreso since while it's all the same tropes, it's written a lot better than the Belgariad/Mallorean. The Dreamers series, on the other hand...

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Don Quixote. I almost had a chance to read it in Middle School for an assignment, but my Teacher said it was too long and forced me to pick a separate novel (even though it was on the approved list of books), and I haven't seen a Copy of it since.

I also hear that it's incredibly long.

 

[Remus]

Lev Grossman's The Magicians series. Bought the books after season 1 of Syfy's show ended, haven't touched em yet. I'm just not much of a reader. If I get started, can't put a thing down. But I'm a HUGE procrastinator.

 

[sageoftruth]

Harry Potter

I may read it one day. I've heard about how the series grew up with its fanbase, which sounded pretty neat. Unfortunately, I missed that train, so I'm having hangups about having to slog through some kiddie books to get to the good stuff.

Honestly pal I'd say its only the first 2 books that are really like children's books, and even they are a fun and easy read, you can have both finished in a fortnight.

As for me I'm gonna say Lord of the Rings, man I've tried to love this book. I've attempted to read through it several times over the years, getting as far as starting the Two Towers but it was such a slog to get there. I've tried several times since then and just can't. I really want to read the book and enjoy it though, I like the story of LotR, I like the films, I like the radio play BBC did years ago, I like the history and lore of middle earth. I love this world that Tolkien has created but just can't get through the books.

I think it's about time I went back to LotR myself. I read it back in early college along with my mother since both of us were caught up in the LotR movie craze, but I barely have any memory of it and wonder if I was even paying attention as I flipped through the pages. I have a feeling I'm going to end up in the same boat as you though. Up till now, I've been reading The Witcher Saga and Terry Pratchett books, both long books, but very fun and often more character-focused than world-focused. We'll see if my mind is ready for something this thick.

 

[sageoftruth]

Hey now, I liked reading all those old books back in school - it was just doing the assignments on those books I didn't want to do.

But, serious answer now - most fantasy books, honestly. I love fantasy novels, but... fuckin' christ, are so many of them just riddled with 100-year old cliches. Nothing takes the wind out of my sails faster than picking up a fantasy novel, reading a chapter of it and going 'Ah, Heroes Journey #1137, excellent. And I'm guessing Lord DeathMurderSkull is the bad guy nobody suspects, right?'. I remember a friend loaning me a bunch of fantasy novels to read and I didn't even get half-way through any of them, since I could tell exactly what was going to happen from the get-go because of how cliched they were.

It's incredibly frustrating, since I'm always excited whenever I see a new fantasy series is out and about but have zero desire to actually read any of them since odds are they're probably not actually going to do anything interesting with all the old tropes and cliches that've been banging around since The Lord of the Rings.

(Weird thing is? David Eddings Belgariad is one of my favourite series of books, despite being nothing but Standard Fantasy Cliches. At least he's honest with 'em, or something.)

Yeah, that can be a real pain when tackling the older stuff. I've got a friend who has been trying to get me into very old movies and I run into the same problem. So many tired cliches. They may have broken new ground back then, but that ground's been broken and re-treaded repeatedly for years now.

Some of them still prove worthwhile though if they have some strength to them that has been forgotten and left unappreciated for many years. For example, Night of the Living Dead was actually made scarier by being in black and white rather than color. I'm not much of a fan of zombies or horror, but it's the first example that came to mind.