Wuthering Heights. I just can't read it. Doesn't bode well for my upcoming English Literature degree.
Most boring/difficult books you've ever read.
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What he said. Children of Hurin was awesome, and the only thing by Tolkien I didn't find impossible to readNightmonger said:
And after countless hours of asking myself "Why the hell am I reading this", I have finished The Fellowship of the Ring and it was fucking awful. I would read pages and then ask myself "What happened on page 245?" and my mind would be blank. Atleast in most pieces of literature I can remember what happened a few pages before.
Silmarilion: I read about 20 pages and I couldn't read anymore.
I don't read books that bore me, but the hardest to read? It's a tie between the Republic by Plato and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
Being a college student, I have read quite a lot of boring and difficult textbooks, so I think it carries a lot of weight when I say that the most boring and difficult book I've ever read is Modern Control Systems by Dorf and Bishop. It is, by far, the most obtuse and least helpful textbook I've ever read.
It's like D+B made a point of skipping 80% of the necessary steps in all their examples, and virtually all of the homework problems, particularly those in the first couple of chapters (go figure), seem to be under the impression that you have already finished the course and that you are able to tap into the cosmic source of clairvoyant wisdom from beyond the bounds of time and space.
Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but Modern Control Systems is the one textbook that virtually all of my student colleagues can agree is the worst textbook evar. This is the problem with letting Ph.D.'s write instructional textbooks: most Ph.D.s are people that are smart enough and have enough breadth of knowledge in their field to be able to pick up a textbook like MCS and get a lot of information out of it. They don't bother to think to themselves; "Hmm, I might not have given these students enough information to complete this problem" or "Maybe I should expand this example on simplifying block diagrams just to make sure that people get the concept. This is going to be used in an introductory course, after all."
In short, the problem with MCS is that it is written as a reference and not as an educational tool, in spite of the fact that it was INTENDED TO BE USED AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL!
It's like D+B made a point of skipping 80% of the necessary steps in all their examples, and virtually all of the homework problems, particularly those in the first couple of chapters (go figure), seem to be under the impression that you have already finished the course and that you are able to tap into the cosmic source of clairvoyant wisdom from beyond the bounds of time and space.
Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but Modern Control Systems is the one textbook that virtually all of my student colleagues can agree is the worst textbook evar. This is the problem with letting Ph.D.'s write instructional textbooks: most Ph.D.s are people that are smart enough and have enough breadth of knowledge in their field to be able to pick up a textbook like MCS and get a lot of information out of it. They don't bother to think to themselves; "Hmm, I might not have given these students enough information to complete this problem" or "Maybe I should expand this example on simplifying block diagrams just to make sure that people get the concept. This is going to be used in an introductory course, after all."
In short, the problem with MCS is that it is written as a reference and not as an educational tool, in spite of the fact that it was INTENDED TO BE USED AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL!
Man I've got a couple of these.
Lord of the Rings
As much as I love the books and everything to come from them, the whole thing is a real drag sometimes. I have a friend who tries to re-read them every year, gets to the same point in Two Towers and just can't make it past it due to sheer boredom.
Brave New World
I liked the ideas the book presented but couldn't stand the story or characters. I remember reading a criticsm of the book from one of Huxley's peers that basically said it felt like he took a speculative essay and gave it a plot, and that's honestly how I felt while reading it.
The worst though? I read the first two Twilight books because my then-girlfriend thought I would like them. I've never been so bored/dumbfounded in my life.
EDIT: How the hell did I forget Atlas Shrugged? Most pretentious and unenjoyable thing I've ever read.
Lord of the Rings
As much as I love the books and everything to come from them, the whole thing is a real drag sometimes. I have a friend who tries to re-read them every year, gets to the same point in Two Towers and just can't make it past it due to sheer boredom.
Brave New World
I liked the ideas the book presented but couldn't stand the story or characters. I remember reading a criticsm of the book from one of Huxley's peers that basically said it felt like he took a speculative essay and gave it a plot, and that's honestly how I felt while reading it.
The worst though? I read the first two Twilight books because my then-girlfriend thought I would like them. I've never been so bored/dumbfounded in my life.
EDIT: How the hell did I forget Atlas Shrugged? Most pretentious and unenjoyable thing I've ever read.
Just be glad you didn't have to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It's almost literally 300 pages of nothing but going down the Missouri River on a raft. I think the only reason they made us read it anyway was because the author was from my home state.
quoted for truth. i have no idea how but the most boring people on the planet read and analyzed every book in the world and picked the most boring books ever written and decided it was a requirement for us to read them. Fuck all those books and their boring ass morals and symbolism.Stryc9 said:
This is why, much though I enjoy The Lord of the Rings, I'm very reluctant to defend it when people say they don't enjoy it. As an exercise in world building, it's without equal; as a novel in its own right, it's lacking. The main issue is that, as you've said, it takes 100 pages to get good; it has absolutely crippling pacing issues.the Dept of Science said:
Atlas Shrugged is probably the most painful book I've read. 1160 pages of "Socialism is teh Evals RAAAARGH!" It's very difficult not to fling the bloody thing at the wall when one of the characters gives a 90-page long speech about why capitalism is awesome. I actually agree with some of her ideas, but Atlas Shrugged is a complete failure as a novel; a novel ought to convey its themes and ideas naturally, by the way its characters act, not by having one of them recite a fucking thesis on the matter. "Show, don't tell" is a very basic rule in fiction, and Ayn Rand seems unable to grasp it.Xpwn3ntial said:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck bored me. Saw the plot twist coming. Might have been better if I was part of the target audience and ad some connection to "The American Dream" business rather than being a 15 year old Irish boy at the time.
Also Macbeth wasn't that good. Was fine enough until the end, which can only be summarised with the word "cop-out."
Why can't schools give us something decent to read, or at least let the class choose what book to read?
Also Macbeth wasn't that good. Was fine enough until the end, which can only be summarised with the word "cop-out."
Why can't schools give us something decent to read, or at least let the class choose what book to read?
Guns, Germs and Steel was absolutely the most dry and boring book I have ever read.
I also absolutely hated the Odyssey. Come to think of it, any ancient literature I hate because it isn't written realistically. In modern literature, someone "goes to bed with a sigh" or "speaks with an angry demeanor" where old stories just seem to list events rather than describe them.
I also absolutely hated the Odyssey. Come to think of it, any ancient literature I hate because it isn't written realistically. In modern literature, someone "goes to bed with a sigh" or "speaks with an angry demeanor" where old stories just seem to list events rather than describe them.
I recently finished The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, which is only about 130 pages. On the other hand, its by far the densist thing I've ever read. In those 130 pages, there is a whole host of characters, conspiracy, plot twists, a play, detailed alternative histories and the underlying sense that large parts of it are hallucinations or complete red herrings.
Le Morte d'Artur. I should never have to study up in order to read what essentially ammounts to an anthology. Worth it, though.
The Blood Ravens Omnibus by C.S. Go-- Multilaser. 40k fans know this one.
Weird plot, lack of consistency (Razorback to Land Raider gogo), and overall pretty tacky writing. I mean, it's just awkward and boring.
Weird plot, lack of consistency (Razorback to Land Raider gogo), and overall pretty tacky writing. I mean, it's just awkward and boring.
Most boring: Anna Karenina
Most difficult: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Reason: Anna Karenina has damn near 900 pages mostly filled by descriptions and boring feelings and stupid things like that.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has some pretty obscure descriptions and the story was, at least for me, very hard to follow.
Most difficult: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Reason: Anna Karenina has damn near 900 pages mostly filled by descriptions and boring feelings and stupid things like that.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has some pretty obscure descriptions and the story was, at least for me, very hard to follow.