Most difficult book you've read?

[Batfred]

The Lord of the Rings just trudged on, and on, and on.
It was a difficult read at the time, when I was eleven or twelve years old.

I tried 3 times between 19 and 23. I got stuck once at Tom Bombadil and once at Rivendell. Those chapters are just sooooo dull! However, on the third attempt I started again and once past Rivendell, I loved every minute of the rest.

 

[Madman123456]

Bible. This is repulsive and so ridiculously violent that it would fail the first part of the "Miller test" (the average Person would find this material to be offensive) if there weren't so many christians out there who like this book and therefore don't find it to be offensive.

Necronomicon. Hauntingly similar to the Bible, but actually less bloody. There is a story where someone summons a demon to free his People from slavery. Sounds familiar?
Well, instead of decimating an entire army and torture a country, the demon manipulates the mind of the nations leader to think that he can do that, so he doesn't have to.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.

What...the fuck. The first Dune was an enjoyable challenge, required some pondering to figure some of the messages out, but the next two, especially Dune Messiah was just one big ball o' esotheric what-the-fuck-ery. I'll probably have to read it 2 or 3 more times to properly understand it.

I read the entire saga. I went through it like a knife through butter. I found it so amazing and so easy to comprehend and it just felt so made for me. And it was weird that it happened that way, because i had never read anything SF before, but i guess it was just right. But that was 5 years ago. I should reread the entire thing, see if i have the same feeling.

In hindsight I 'get' Dune Messiah too, the whole seeing-the-future-and-being-encaged-by-it-and-wanting-to-escape spiel, Children of Dune is still rather fresh in my mind. God Emperor of Dune will be read as well, I wonder how that is.

 

[philosophicalbastard]

Atlus shrugged

It took me an entire school year to get through that shit, and I barely forced myself to read through John Galt's 100 PAGE SPEECH on objectivism.

I really wish I had that year back to read something with more entertainment value.

 

[SckizoBoy]

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Longfellow translation). And...

Catcher in the Rye...

I hated the main character because he was a elitist brat who was masquerading as as a deep realistic character with complex thoughts and emotions when he was just a total douche, and he was nearly impossible for me to connect with on any level.

this. For those reasons. I've gotten to page 30. I want to finish this book, but every page is excruciating. I can't stand that kid.

It's funny, I've always had the impression that we were *supposed* to feel this way about him. I think he's supposed to be an unreliable narrator and we're supposed to feel sorry for his naivete. No one ever agrees with me.

Two things... I found the Divine Comedy a complete headfuck as well...

And yes, we are supposed to pour the hate on the narrator in Catcher in the Rye, that way we miss the fact that he's distracting us from what he's trying to do... which I've forgotten because I actually found the book very boring...

On a different note, my old man found the Count of Monte Cristo a difficult read, then I gave it a go and finished it in about 16 hrs (total reading time, in 6 sittings). Fucking awesome is all I got to say about...

 

[Chani07]

Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.

What...the fuck. The first Dune was an enjoyable challenge, required some pondering to figure some of the messages out, but the next two, especially Dune Messiah was just one big ball o' esotheric what-the-fuck-ery. I'll probably have to read it 2 or 3 more times to properly understand it.

I read the entire saga. I went through it like a knife through butter. I found it so amazing and so easy to comprehend and it just felt so made for me. And it was weird that it happened that way, because i had never read anything SF before, but i guess it was just right. But that was 5 years ago. I should reread the entire thing, see if i have the same feeling.

In hindsight I 'get' Dune Messiah too, the whole seeing-the-future-and-being-encaged-by-it-and-wanting-to-escape spiel, Children of Dune is still rather fresh in my mind. God Emperor of Dune will be read as well, I wonder how that is.

God Emperor of Dune is very interesting, easier to read and follow, but there is a particular scene that will make you wonder who was under Frank Herbert's desk when he wrote it. You'll understand when you'll get there.

 

[NintenTim64]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I was 11 at the time and it was the first novel my class studied... I could not grasp it... at all

 

[norwegian-guy]

The Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel. That is some heavy sh/&!

 

[Mad1Cow]

Gonna have to say Lord of the Rings...seriously I'm glad they got rid of Tom Bombadil in the movie, to summon him to help you, you have to chant like 5 pages of rhyme and lymrics...HOW IS THIS HELPFUL!?!
The hobbit I have to say I got through quite easily though and I enjoyed a lot more...which is weird because many people would disagree...PHOOEY to them I say =P

 

[Leon Last Lord Shyle]

well not knowing whether you would consider them books considering they are actually "epic poems" but I am gonna have to go with homers Iliad and the Odyssey.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

'The Quantum Theory of Fields' by Steven Weinberg. Read it on a friend's dare and I still don't understand about 99% of the stuff in it. Did finish it though.

As for fiction, it's a tossup between 'War & Peace' by Tolstoy and 'Crime And Punishment' by Dostoyevski

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

"Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs. It was the most disgusting, perverted and simply random thing i have ever read. I know that Burroughs was on drugs when he wrote it and it does show. Still... it had it's moments, even though i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Well... then there was Twilight. It wasn't a difficult book but whenever i tried to read it i thought of all those things i would rather do than reading it. You know, like clean up my room, take a walk, dig my heart out with a spoon...

 

[Wrann]

Catch-22 its not that the wording is hard but that it changes in timeline and from person to person so fast and rapidly it can be hard to follow it.

 

[L4WLI3T]

I'd say A clockwork Orange. The author quite literally created his own slang that he used in almost every sentence. I didn't know what the hell he was talking about for a while (malchick? What the fuck is that?) But once you pick it up by the context then it becomes a bit easier, if you can get that far. Good story though.

If you're wondering, malchick means "male-chick", essentially "a guy". Needlessly complicated slang for the win!

Damn you! stop ninja-ing me DX Im currently reading it right now. i can't read it for too long or else i get confused thanks to the eastern-european words.

 

[Saippua]

Roadside picnic was really confusing and I've ever managed to finish lord of the rings.

 

[Toriver]

The Lord of the Rings just trudged on, and on, and on.
It was a difficult read at the time, when I was eleven or twelve years old.

I tried 3 times between 19 and 23. I got stuck once at Tom Bombadil and once at Rivendell. Those chapters are just sooooo dull! However, on the third attempt I started again and once past Rivendell, I loved every minute of the rest.

Precisely. It took me two attempts to get through it myself. The first time I got stuck at Rivendell too. But then on my second try it just opened up and now it is my favorite book (series) of all time.

As for difficult books...
A lot of the books I had to read for my political theory class would be in the list. Aristotle's Politics and Hobbes' Leviathan are two that particularly stand out to me. I haven't finished it yet, but I am currently reading through the Confessions of St. Augustine, and it's also proving to be a challenge. But I'm more than halfway through, so I should be able to trudge on to the end eventually. I also read an English translation of the first third of the Tale of Genji, and the language used took a lot of getting used to. Not only that, but the original author, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, filled the book with references and allusions to ancient Chinese poetry, because such allusions and references were the common speech and writing conventions in the Heian-period Japanese emperors' court. It would be like a guy from 500 years in the future digging up old copies of Family Guy and trying to watch them. Luckily, the translator provided the original lines from the poems being referenced so we could at least make some attempt at the implications in the allusions. It wasn't so bad once I caught on to it, but after that, I really have no desire to dig up a translation of the rest of it, though.

 

[CJMacM]

Manifold Space. It was a complicated sci-fi book that was pretty good but way too much for my 11-year-old mind to handle. My dad did not know how to pick out good chapter books for kids.

 

[Meestor Pickle]

Battlefield Earth; terribly boring but I wanted to know what happened in the end where it got good, for the last 100 pages or so. Gah