Most boring/difficult books you've ever read.

[Talshere]

If I read a book that I was meh about on buying, and bought it more cos I had nothing to do than it actually looked good and cant get into it in the first few chapters AT ALL (maybe 25% of the book) I put it down. If I read a book that looked like it had promise when I bought it or came on a recommendation, I give it till about 50% then if it hasn't caught me I put it down.

Bad books aren't worth reading. I honestly cant tell you the name of a book I've read that is genuinely bed because I stop reading them long before I ever get to the point I feel like I've wasted time. Tell a lie, one book, "Storm Glass". I bought it cos the back made it look ok, got about 3 pages in and the writing style was doing my NUT! Couldn't read it. At all. 2 maybe 3 pages of largish text in a small paperback and I just couldnt do it.

 

[helldragonX]

A Tale of Two Cities....god I hate that book.

 

[Ask]

To kill a Mockingbird. I slept through the book AND the movie.

Not to be offensive, but I fear for you.

Hahahaha. No offense taken. Well some books/book films appeal and some don't. This just happens to be a don't for me.

 

[Ask]

To kill a Mockingbird. I slept through the book AND the movie.

I despised that book. I can't understand why everyone loved it so much. I know I probably shouldn't admit to this, but out of all the books that we were to read my freshman year, I only actually read three of them and they were all awful. I still despise Romeo & Juliet.

And more recently, Ethan Frome. Awful awful awful book. We were to choose from a list of three books and it was only about 100 pages long so I just thought why not and decided to read it. It was torture. The book was seriously only 100 pages long but I had to do anything to keep myself from getting distracted by my walls. I could only read one chapter at a time and even that was a struggle.

Alas the sad thing is and has always been that, high school will never have reading material you care about or find yourself jumping up and down for. Its not that the material isn't good, its just they often pick the worst example of prominent writers to drill into your head. That's why college English and literary courses were so much more engaging. A lot of authors I hadn't liked in high school, I really appreciated when I got a broader spectrum of their work. I know high school teachers don't have all the time in the world but, perhaps choosing different works from time to time would make their student body more interested. Like you said, I can't count how many time I've read Romeo and Juliet, or the Odyssey. (Both were good, but some new examples of work would be nice)

 

[SovietSecrets]

War and Peace. My mom made me read that during Freshman year. Just the sheer size of it scared me.

 

[chainer1216]

i think the most boring book i ever read ws the catcher in the rye, i hated every second i spent with that book.

the hardest to read was a huge King Arthur and the knights of the round table, book that was completely written in ye olde english. during the time i was reading the book i would sometimes slip into that way of speaking without realizing it, most of the time it was funny, other times it was quite embarrassing.

 

[LogicNProportion]

When Things Fall Apart pissed me off so much.

I'm an avid reader, and stick to any story to the end, and so I did. I think I counted the word 'yams' 67 times in that book...

 

[Asparagus Brown]

Without looking at this thread, I can accurately predict most of the responses:

Response Type 1: Books you were forced to read as a student and never tried to actually enjoy, rather you were forced to study and analyze them. (IE Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath)

Response Type 2: Books that literary critics have labeled as 'classics' that you wanted to read just so you can say that you did, but you couldn't finish them because you were never really interested in the premise in the first place. (IE The Great Gatsby)

Response Type 3: "Important" books that were relevant and changed society at the time of publishing, but the language use and situations do not translate well to modernity so you have no idea why people think highly of them. (IE anything by Jane Austen)

Response Type 4: Books that heavily influenced or created genre fiction. Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror are all about pushing boundaries, and the boundaries of 100 years ago aren't as scintillating to today's reader. (IE Dracula, Frankenstein, Lovecraft)

Response Type 5: Literary fags raging about today's reader not enjoying classic works of fiction in their own context.

That seems about right. If I were to post on topic, I'd probably be "Response Type 5." Then I'd list some kind of book that's considered difficult even by "literary fag" standards just to reinforce my unwarranted feeling of superiority.

ULYSSES! Do I win?

EDIT: No, even better: Finnegan's Wake.

Close with Ulysses! It's on my "to read" list! No, I was actually going to say Tristram Shandy! It's very funny, but I can certainly see why even my grandmother, a poet and English teacher, couldn't finish it.

 

[Jekken6]

Gotta be The first 2 Bourne books for me. Absolutely fucking piss poor pacing and too much focus on things that aren't the main story.

 

[TheKagestar]

The Bible. It was quite boring to read. But I did read the whole thing.

 

[Lionsfan]

Brave New World sounds interesting, my older brother read it and told me a little about it, was interesting but then again he's a really good story teller.

I don't really remember it too well, I had to read it in High School but I remember just kinda struggling through it. I might revisit it, who knows? But it seems like one of those interesting concepts but that just couldn't deliver.

 

[HerrBobo]

The Republic by Plato. Not hard to read, and not really that dull. Fully of a load of bullshit ideas though. Philosophers sould rule, eh? Well, THATS convenient!

 

[dex-dex]

the bible (for school mind you)
and of mice and men so short but so boring it feels like a 1200 page book.

 

[Jessica Dunlap]

Worst book ever? Bartleby, the Scrivener- a novella by Herman Melville about a copyist who refuses to do his job. ?I would prefer not to? read this horrible drivel ever again!

 

[Breaker deGodot]

To kill a Mockingbird. I slept through the book AND the movie.

Not to be offensive, but I fear for you.

Why? From what I understand about the book its pretty boring. I imagine the films is pretty much the same.

Because, To Kill a Mockingbird is both one of my favorite books, and one of my favorite movies. There isn't much of a story to it, but for me it's all about the interactions between the characters. Also, I think it made a big difference for me to see the movie first.

Well then. That's your opinion on it/them. To fear for someone would suggest that not liking it makes you some form of human reject.

His opinion was that the book and film are boring. That's nothing to hold someone in contempt for.

Yeah, I was pretty harsh.

 

[9NineBreaker9]

This. I couldn't make it through the whole book as I was so damn bored and tired of the whole thing. That class also introduced me to two other books which I despise: The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome.

THE PICKLE DISH. OH GOD THE PICKLE DISH.

Fuck that Pickle Dish and everything about it. Did you ever see the movie?

OT: Probably Ethan Frome and anything by Ayn Rand. Brave New World was pretty bad too

The movie made it somewhat bearable, if only because the opening scene set the mood of the entire film for our class: "OMG ZOMBIE!" We also plan on visiting that teacher (who retired that year) one day with a red pickle dish of cookies.

Also, I've attempted to read Atlas Shrugged three times now, and I've only made it to the second part on one occasion. xD

 

[Firetaffer]

The Cay. Bleagh

 

[Pocotron]

Its probably been said, but we've started The Scarlet Letter. 10 PAGES TO EXPLAIN WHY SHE SOWS. HOLY SHIT! Just tell me who the dad is! Everything in it is totally out of the way and way too detailed. Not to mention it is boring as all hell. I can only read three pages before dozing off...

 

[Beffudled Sheep]

Catcher in the Rye. I know its a really short book and uses simple language but it was just terrible. I finished both Crime and Punishment and the Brothers Karamazov twice before I was able to get through Catcher. I Hated that book with such a passion that I burned a few copies once.