Most difficult book you've read?
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I'm reading the whole Lord of The Rings. Started with the Hobbit, and I just finished reading what is technically the 1st book, since there is really 6 books but the compress it into 3, so alot to go. (They're almost to Rivendal) And more than hald the books gone so.... alot to go.
I stopped reading King in grade 9 when it really started to feel as if I'd outgrown him.Jaeger_CDN said:
Also, I tried reading Gunslinger, but threw the book down in disgust when the inbred father starts engaging in sexual acts with one of his inbred daughters. Really, there was already a dearth of theme in that thing, and I found that just another pointless rubbing-your-nose-in-it session of King's fetish for venting his thoughts on sexual perversities.
I took this off my mother's university bookshelf when I was 11 and read through it. At the time, and for a long time, I thought it was a children's book. o.0Ohhi said:
The hardest book I never finished? Gravity's Rainbow. I have no idea why Pynchon decided to write the book that way - his other books aren't like that. With GR, virtually every sentence is incredibly dense, and it isn't helped by the fact that he loves to use archaic words that send me scrambling for my dictionary at times. Plus, the story makes very little sense, it jumps all over the place and it's purposefully bizarre. It's unique, I'll give it that, but little else recommends it. Which is a shame because Pynchon is a good writer.
The Hardest book for me to get through, emotionally, was "Humanity" by Jonathan Glover. It's a history book... but it's a history book concerning humanity's worst actions. It covers all the worst atrocities, how they happened and how otherwise normal people could be convinced to carry out atrocities against their fellow human beings. The book spares nothing - The Holocaust, Stalin's GULAG camps, the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero" revolution, My Lai, Rwanda, Battle of the Somme, The Serbian-Bosnian wars, the treatment of Allied Prisoners in Japanese Camps, the Rape of Nanjing, the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the treatment of Russian POWs during WWII, and the treatment of German Civilians at the end of WWII. I was left pretty badly shaken after reading that. And I was about 13 years old at the time. It's still one of the most important books I've ever read, but you'll gain a new insight into how evil and how good humans can be. At the end, it does offer up a bit of hope by providing examples of people who, despite all their brainwashing, tried to help the innocent. But it's a mostly horrific glimpse into what people, ALL people, are capable of.
The Most disgusting book I've read has got to be "Dice Man". I know, a lot of people like that book. I didn't - the main character was a psychopath. Being a "rebel" shouldn't give you license to hurt others.
The Hardest book for me to get through, emotionally, was "Humanity" by Jonathan Glover. It's a history book... but it's a history book concerning humanity's worst actions. It covers all the worst atrocities, how they happened and how otherwise normal people could be convinced to carry out atrocities against their fellow human beings. The book spares nothing - The Holocaust, Stalin's GULAG camps, the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero" revolution, My Lai, Rwanda, Battle of the Somme, The Serbian-Bosnian wars, the treatment of Allied Prisoners in Japanese Camps, the Rape of Nanjing, the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the treatment of Russian POWs during WWII, and the treatment of German Civilians at the end of WWII. I was left pretty badly shaken after reading that. And I was about 13 years old at the time. It's still one of the most important books I've ever read, but you'll gain a new insight into how evil and how good humans can be. At the end, it does offer up a bit of hope by providing examples of people who, despite all their brainwashing, tried to help the innocent. But it's a mostly horrific glimpse into what people, ALL people, are capable of.
The Most disgusting book I've read has got to be "Dice Man". I know, a lot of people like that book. I didn't - the main character was a psychopath. Being a "rebel" shouldn't give you license to hurt others.
You know, of all the classics nerds might like and stumble over after stumbling upon, I see no mention of Lovecraft. Because spirochetes make for hard-to-follow logic. Pretty and insane logic, but hard to follow.
It was a French book called "Au Bonheur Des Dames" by Emile Zola. It was very difficult for me because it's written entirely in French, and it also uses very advanced French vocabulary and grammar. It's pretty much a French version of any Charles Dickens novel.
I'm not proud to say, there's a load of difficult and/or long books I've never finished.
But of those I have finished, I'd name T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land - unending metaphors, literary allusions and, if that wasn't enough, Sanskrit. I still don't know what it was about, to be honest.
A more pleasant example is J.K. Huysmans's À rebours. A fun novel, and not too long, but I have a theory that if you read more than two chapters at a time, your eyes will burst. It's The Picture of Dorian Gray times a hundred, without the plot; it drips decadence.
But of those I have finished, I'd name T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land - unending metaphors, literary allusions and, if that wasn't enough, Sanskrit. I still don't know what it was about, to be honest.
A more pleasant example is J.K. Huysmans's À rebours. A fun novel, and not too long, but I have a theory that if you read more than two chapters at a time, your eyes will burst. It's The Picture of Dorian Gray times a hundred, without the plot; it drips decadence.
Except waxing has a clear goal and you feel a sense of accomplishment, reading 'Only Revolutions' is bogged down by the concept that you only feel frustrated and confused. ^^Judgmentalist said:
Fiction: Am I the only person who didn't find LOTR that hard to read? Anyway, I'm currently reading a massive H.P. Lovecraft Anthology and it can be pretty tough at times. Its not that I don't like Lovecraft, its just that his writing style is 99% wall of text description and 1% dialogue. It can get a bit heavy. Also some licensed books that I have read have been terrible, then again some Licensed books that I have read were actually very good so you pays your money you takes your chances really.
Non-Fiction: About 75% of the History books that I have read for University were difficult to read. Historians seem to have this insane talent for making History sound more boring than it actually is.
Non-Fiction: About 75% of the History books that I have read for University were difficult to read. Historians seem to have this insane talent for making History sound more boring than it actually is.
The Road. Good god, that took me like a year to trudge through like swamp water. To start with, there is almost no punctuation. All the is, at best, is full stops and commas. Not even speech is marked out with anything other than a new paragraph. That and the story is bleak as all hell, so any good mood you have is instantly destroyed with visions of cannibalism and wasted landscapes.
Other than that I must agree with Lord Of The Rings and A Clockwork Orange, which have been mentioned a lot, with the same reasons.
Other than that I must agree with Lord Of The Rings and A Clockwork Orange, which have been mentioned a lot, with the same reasons.
Stream of consciousness?Koroviev said:
Apparently, your consciousness does not translate well into the communication texts! I'm torn between arguing "books as art" and "books as communication mediums". Confusing! Delightful! Mostly confusing!
