What books did you not finish that you want to finish? [Archive]

spookymulder93

05-08-2010, 03:35 PM

I was reading "Please Kill Me: The uncensored oral history of Punk" but so far the main theme is everyone is a gay drug addict bum and it's getting old fast

It just got me to thinking about some of the books that I began reading, but never finished. This one I can understand because I'm finding it to be boring, but there have been others in the past that I've started reading and just stopped due to life and just never attempted them again.

I think I'm gonna try and read one of them now. "100 years of Solitude". My Spanish teacher gave me that book to read senior year in high school which was 3 years ago and I got far, but if you've ever read that book everyone has the same name or some version of it and I just got lost.

The other was Don Quixote. It was a great book I think other things just started popping up and I never went back to it.

Desolation

05-08-2010, 03:57 PM

I've started, at some point, most of the books on my bookshelf, but have yet to finish most of them for various reasons. Here's a shortlist of the ones that I will definitely get back to at some point:

Moby-Dick, started it, got 200 pages in, loved it, but just wasn't in the mood for what it had to offer at that point. I'll come back around to it eventually.
War and Peace, got 350 pages in, hated it, hated it, hated it, but it's one of those essential books, so I'll come back around eventually.
Don Quixote, got 81 pages in, loved it, but like Moby-Dick, it just wasn't what I was looking for at the moment.
The Castle by Franz Kafka, got 120 pages in, loved it, don't really remember why I put it down.
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, got 133 pages into it, but had mixed feelings about it and put it down, I'll probably be getting back to this one in the not-so distant future.
Ulysses by James Joyce, read the first chapter, loved it too much to continue, I'm planning on reading it very very slowly.

PeterL

05-08-2010, 04:19 PM

spookymulder93

05-08-2010, 04:24 PM

I think that a better question would be: What books have you finished that you wish you had thrown away instead.
I don't think that I have given up on any books that were worthy of reading, but I frequently give up on a book after reading part, and sometimes I finish a book that is painful to read. I usually have some reason for thinking that it would be worthwhile to finish it, but they have seldom been worth the trouble.

I think about that all the time too. It's like I want to finish the book not because I enjoy, but because I don't want to feel like a quitter and I don't wanna feel like I wasted my money.

dfloyd

05-08-2010, 04:47 PM

plays of Shakespeare and have only given up on two books: To the Light House (Virginia Woolf, who's afraid of her?) and Ulysses. I wont go back to Virginia Woolf, or at least to the lighthouse. In reading Ulysses, I tried it after having read Potrait of the Artist .... and Dubliners. I took a dvd course of about 20 lectures on the book, and the instructor didn't lose me. But he warned his students that Chapter 3 was a quitter. In other words, more people quit reading the book on or after Chapter 3 than any other chapter. I quit after Chapter 3, but I hope to go back ti it this coming winter. Not that I think the novel is so good, but I don't want to quit on this one, although Joyce designed his writing to manipulate readers to drop by the side of the road like victims of a dearh march.

Emil Miller

05-08-2010, 05:26 PM

I'm afraid this answer negates the question, but the only books I recall having given up on are Gogol's Dead Souls and Kafka's The Trial, both of which I found tedious in the extreme. Not having been taught literature as part of my education, I never had a teacher to explain why I should like either of these novels although I doubt that anyone could change my mind about them. I do not, therefore, intend to complete my reading of these books as there are too many others that I would find more interesting.

ktm5124

05-08-2010, 05:31 PM

Ulysses. I've started it three times but haven't managed to finish it! I intend to do so this summer.

Jozanny

05-08-2010, 06:16 PM

I learned about ten years ago that it is permissible to abandon a book, though I try not to make too much a habit out of it; semi-unwittingly, I downloaded a free Christian genre text, struggled about five minutes asking myself if I should finish it so I could scathingly mock the paradigm, and decided life is too short for juvenile morality, but texts I may have to restart include

Foucault, Discipline & Punish
Woolf, Orlando
From The Margins, an interdisciplinary anthropology study
and Sherman's memoirs--which are not badly written--I just drifted away

Dark Muse

05-08-2010, 10:13 PM

When I first started reading Lord Jim I just could not get into it at all and I ended up almost throwing it against the wall, and ended up giving up on it. But since I have been involved here on Lit Net I have let myself be persuaded into giving it another try though I haven't yet been motivated enough to pick it up again.

And once upon a long time ago when I was still quite young I attempted to read Watership Down, but I couldn't get into it, and I found it quite confusing to follow at the time, so I gave up on it, but I would like to revisit it and attempt to read it again now that I am older.

The Comedian

05-08-2010, 10:13 PM

Dark Muse

05-08-2010, 10:15 PM

SnibblesNBits

05-08-2010, 10:45 PM

Well, I felt bad about giving up on Anna Karenina after I slogged through 3/4 of it. But I couldn't take any more "Woe! Woe is me! I'm getting what I deserve and you should feel bad for me because it's so hard to be me! Woe! Woe is me!" I felt I should have finished that tedious text for the virtue of finishing what I started. . . . maybe I'll return to it. But I doubt it.

Hi! My first post...yay! ^_^ I also gave up on this book. I got through 1/4 of it and I got real annoyed....I forced myself to make it a little over halfway through, but I just couldn't do it. I love some of Tolstoy's work and it's written very well, but I just can't get into this book and the characters made me so frustrated. I more than likely will not finish this book either....

spookymulder93

05-08-2010, 10:55 PM

I didn't finish Frankenstein either. It was really good up until page 75 and then it just got pretty boring. I forced myself through 30 more pages and finally just gave up.

I think I'll attempt it again though. I mean if the first 75 pages of it was good then maybe the last 75 pages will be good too.

Do I have any reason to make that kind of assumption. lol.

hellsapoppin

05-08-2010, 11:02 PM

I was reading (and enjoying) Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift but had to put it down. I was half way through when someone was killed in my presence in the NYC subway. To this day, I just have not been able to finish out the book.

kiki1982

05-09-2010, 04:42 AM

Let's see... I rarely give up on anything.

I think there are two in total:

Dostoevsky's Crimead Punishment, almost 9 years ago. It was probably the translation. Tried it again a few months later and stranded again. I have decided to learn Russian and read it properly instead.

The Autumn/Fall of the Dictator (is that the right title?), Marquez. Also possibly the translation, but it was written in such an incomprehensible style with sentences of 5 pages long (I do not exagerate), that it was just plainly incomprehensible. But maybe his other books are not like that. I might try some or the same one later when I find another translation. Maybe I should try English instead of Dutch because it has a richer vocabulary.

MANICHAEAN

05-09-2010, 05:44 AM

mal4mac

05-09-2010, 06:46 AM

Ulysses - I'm planning another attempt soon, using the Oxford classics version which has lots of notes! I keep on putting it off, almost subconsciously, by starting easier novels (every other novel?) and saying to myself, "after this one..."

Proust, In Search... - I gave up about half way through the series as i got bored with the never ending, incredibly subtle, incredibly drawn out, affairs of the heart that had little to do with my life (I've never been that bothered by sexual jealousy...)

The Bible - not another mad fight in the desert!

Goethe, Faust - I got though part I but stopped before part II

I keep on wanting to finish these because all the critics I most admire rate them very highly. I trend to think that if a work is truly rated a classic then not finishing it is my fault, not the classic's. This attitude had led me to finishing Montaigne & Don Quixote, after previously 'giving up'. And it was worth it... I'm also getting through Shakespeare and Dante, now, and *will* complete them, even though they present difficult obstacles to reading. It's a hard fact of life that many worthwhile things are not easy...

Non-classics I will probably finish:

Darwin, Origin of the Species. I now have a really nice illustrated version. I remember the writing as being rather tedious, and I gave up to read a novel. But it's surely a 'book everyone should read'. And it's easier and shorter than the Bible...

The Fabric of Reality, Brian Greene - I've read too many physics books so I know 90% of it, and it's not very well written (physicists spend too much time doing hard sums to attain a reasonable literary style...) But he introduces enough interesting new concepts that I think I should finish it .. sometime.. maybe after Ulysses...

Non-classics I will not bother to finish:

Heidegger Being and Time - I got about half way through, then thought beating my head against a brick wall might be more enjoyable & enlightening, so I stopped. I had a similar experience with the Bible, but I suspect it has a better ending...

Kant - Critiques. I read, with total understanding :), the Critique of Pure Reason. That's enough suffering for the sake of philosophy, so I gave up after a few pages of the second critique.

Aristotle - Physics. This is not physics as I know it. Also, I read his Ethics, that's enough Aristotle for one lifetime (except his Poetics, maybe, that's quite short ...)

TurquoiseSunset

05-13-2010, 03:20 AM

Hm, let's see...

Don Quixote - I liked it, but I sort of drifted to another book I was reading at the time and then it had to go back to the library. I just haven't tried again.

1984 - I wasn't in the right mood for it, so I got bored and struggled to connect with the characters, but I know I'll probably enjoy it.

Anna Karenina - Same as 1984...although I'm not sure I'd like it because I only got 100 pages in and after what The Comedian said I have the feeling I might not like it at all. I'll try anyway...eventually :D

blazeofglory

05-13-2010, 11:39 AM

About a year & a half ago I decided to start reading wider in the range of Russian literature. As a student I'd enjoyed the usual fare like "War & Peace" & Solzhenitsyn's; " One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" & "Cancer Ward".

The results on extending the boundaries were mixed. Some were a fresh delight like:
"Dead Souls" & "Taras Bulba" by Gogol.
"A Hero of our Time". Mikhail Lermontov.
"The Fateful Eggs". Mikhail Bulgakov.
"Count Cagliostro". Tolstoy.
"Roadside Picnic". Arcady & Boris Strugatsky.
"Crime & Punishment"

However I stumbled on:
"The Master & Margarita" by Bulgakov. It disturbed me. It gave me nightmares. In the end, however hard boiled I thought I was, I had to abandon it.

Now, bit by bit I'm still plugging away at "The Brothers Karamazov". Its great writing but the length is still daunting.

The one and only book I cherish is Ulysses and yet I failed to comprehend it. Flipping through a few pages I got tired yet the flame of desire to complete the book was not extinguished within me yet I withdrew. I refrained thinking that I am immature and maybe I will never be to read that book. I idolize the writer of this, James Joyce. As a writer I try to simulate him.

I have read most of his stories but the novel is such a powerful light that the rest become dazzled.

PeterL

05-13-2010, 01:12 PM

When I first started reading Lord Jim I just could not get into it at all and I ended up almost throwing it against the wall, and ended up giving up on it. But since I have been involved here on Lit Net I have let myself be persuaded into giving it another try though I haven't yet been motivated enough to pick it up again.

Don't worry about that one. Conrad was not a good writer, and the book is not well written. I'm not all that surprised that many people read it to the end, but I am surprised that there are a few people who like it.

mal4mac

05-14-2010, 10:04 AM

Hm, let's see...

Don Quixote - I liked it, but I sort of drifted to another book I was reading at the time and then it had to go back to the library. I just haven't tried again.

The same happened to me, first time. Second time I found a more amenable translation (Edith Grossman) and bought the book. Then I dedicated myself to reading a chapter or two each day, every day. Once I got over the slight difficulties (mainly, some of the early tales seem a little too drawn out) I really enjoyed it, eventually finding it difficult to put down. The second half was even better than the first so there was no problem finishing... I now plan to re-read it.

1984 - I wasn't in the right mood for it, so I got bored and struggled to connect with the characters, but I know I'll probably enjoy it.

Having read Orwell's "Complete Novels" (not recommended!) I think that's a general problem Orwell has - his characters aren't very interesting and you don't really want to connect with them. Still, 1984 is worth reading, just don't expect to connect with the characters and concentrate on the political allegory (and don't expect Orwell to be as funny as Cervantes...)

Anna Karenina - Same as 1984...although I'm not sure I'd like it because I only got 100 pages in and after what The Comedian said I have the feeling I might not like it at all. I'll try anyway...eventually :D

I think Tolstoy is a *much* better novelist than Orwell and I really connected with the characters, especially Levin. What translation did you read? I'd recommend the Maudes. I've read all his novels and think he really is a master (up there with Dickens, Cervantes & maybe a few others)

cgrillo

05-14-2010, 01:17 PM

At one point I was reading Varney the Vampire, a penny dreadful along the lines of Wagden the Werewolf, etc. It was interesting to see where all of today's vampire cliches began, but the editing was too bad and I couldn't finish it. I got close to fifteen chapters into it and then just stopped. A novel that's over 1000 pages long really needs a little more excitement than 50 pages of people wondering whether what attacked their sister was a vampire. It's a dizzying book; at one point a doctor describes how it was certainly not a vampire that inflicted the wounds that were being discussed, while saying that the vampire theory does fit everything perfectly; later, I read, after Chapter 38 or something, a major character never appears again, nor is he ever even mentioned again.

...I think I've lost track of the original question...

EDIT: In my haste I forgot to say that I would still like to finish it, though. :p It really is an interesting book.

RaoulDuke

05-14-2010, 01:31 PM

The only book I can remember not finishing at the first attempt was Naked Lunch. I did eventually give it another go and actually ended up enjoying it second time round. Just like several of the posters above me once I've started reading a book I like to see it through even if the opening hasn't really grabbed me, just for some warped sense of achievement or value for money.

I think that a better question would be: What books have you finished that you wish you had thrown away instead.

Atlas Shrugged. After the first 100 pages I thought it was repetitive in the extreme with annoying black or white (or rather evil socialist or heroic free marketeer) characters and considered giving it up. I really should have done.

Page Turner

05-14-2010, 05:20 PM

Dante's Divine Comedy. I'm 2/3 of the way through it but just can't find the time to wrap it up.

grace86

05-14-2010, 07:41 PM

There are a few books that I've not finished, and they virtually jump out at me from the shelves - yet I AM starting to realize that life is too short, and that there are too many books out there - to worry about all that I don't finish. However, these are some that I would like to pursue again:

Gone with the Wind - It was really easy to get into, and I was enjoying it, but perhaps the timing wasn't right. It was put down and forgotten in favor of other novels.

Sense and Sensibility - By the time I got halfway through this novel, I couldn't help but feel I'd learned nothing about the main characters except "so and so was in love with this guy, and now he's in love with someone else, and her sister loves this one man...." Austen's humorous thoughts on courtship and love I am sure are worthy of another try.

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Not a hard read, but I just wasn't enjoying it. Happened to stop reading right after the scene where the two lines of people were bludgeoning villagers to death. Hemingway....I'd like to enjoy him. It's an optimistic thought that I shall get back to this one. Perhaps too optimistic.

Reading Lolita in Tehran - Took a History of Iran course at university and read this as one of three books on a paper I was doing. Got halfway through it and finished the paper. Never touched it since. Nafisi was highly criticized from her community for writing this book, so it'd be interesting to finish it and gather my own insights as to why.

Ceremony - Novel for Native American Religious Studies course. Just plain ran out of time and had to move on to other coursework.

There are more surely, but I am having trouble remembering them. See, I tend to be a person though who believes that there is a right time to read some novels. Some books, in personal opinion, are better read after some life experience in which the reader can relate to the plot/characters.

kilo

05-14-2010, 08:46 PM

The first book I put down was Gravity's Rainbow, lord knows that book is difficult. A friend told me to read it, and I have an inkling he knew I couldn't finish it. I'll get back to it though and prove him wrong.

Then I tried Something Wicked This Way Comes, and it was alright, but I couldn't pay attention very well because it was really a book for kids. Or at least it seems that way...

1n50mn14

05-14-2010, 11:08 PM

I never did finish "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I MUST, because the place I live was founded by a man named 'John Galt', so it could make an excellent in joke...

I never finished many classics I have started... Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Picture of Dorian Gray... and many others. I have always intended to, but my library fines are overdue, and I can't seem to find enough time to just sit in the library to finish a book...

blazeofglory

05-15-2010, 05:21 AM

Another book I really left half-read is War & Peace. Now -a-days I cannot fix myself with a single book for long. I have to switch. I read several books at a time and never read them religiously. I am an insincere reader and of course unjust to the writer of the book. I can not stop from commending Tolstoy but never completed his war and peace. I know this is the greatest novel ever written. In fact we cannot make a perfect judgment. This is the most difficult thing to do in life. And now I find War and Peace the greatest novel in the world and I do not mean it can be anybody else's too.

Yes the latest book after Ulysses is war and peace half-finished

mal4mac

05-15-2010, 05:59 AM

Another book I really left half-read is War & Peace...

If you admire War & Peace so much why don't you commit to finishing it? Try setting yourself a regular time when you will read a chapter every day. I managed to complete it this way, although I read more than one chapter at a time as I found it a real page turner.

blazeofglory

05-15-2010, 06:22 AM

If you admire War & Peace so much why don't you commit to finishing it? Try setting yourself a regular time when you will read a chapter every day. I managed to complete it this way, although I read more than one chapter at a time as I found it a real page turner.

In fact i have many dreams in life. I love hiking, chatting, reading newspapers, watching soup operas on TVs, seeing movies, listening to songs. I am a professional as well. I have so many personal of course interpersonal too as a family member assignments and if if I get hooked to it all the time I will have to miss so many things.

You may be right I can read it part by part setting myself a regular time. Maybe I will do it. But I am not the type who can take that patience. So many other books will come in

bouquin

05-16-2010, 04:50 AM

Don Quixote.

Tournesol

05-16-2010, 08:33 AM

PeterL

05-16-2010, 09:33 AM

I'm very sure this one will shock you guys - I never finished reading 'THE ALCHEMIST'!

It's sitting on my bookshelf right now, looking at me. :frown5:
The thing is, when I had started reading it, in October 2008, there were many other things occupying my life at that time. Things that were more demanding of my time and my emotions.

I have every intention of finishing it though...I'm sure I'm the only person who's never finished it!

Same here, I got it on the advice of someone; I read part of it and put it aside. I hope that I got rid of it.

Zach J.

05-17-2010, 01:06 AM

I've been reading bits of pieces of Don Quixote for the past year now. I've just now reached the second half so you can tell how slow it's been. I'd really like to finish it, but I'm afraid I'll have to restart the entire novel as I'm having trouble keeping events straight now. I suppose I'll just have to find a time when I really want to read it.

Joreads

05-17-2010, 01:30 AM

Lord of the rings - I tried

spookymulder93

05-17-2010, 02:11 PM

Seems like a lot of people here have had a problem finishing Don Quixote. I don't think it's the length though, because I read Stephen Kings The Stand in like 1 1/2 months and it's 1100 pages.

freudianslip

05-21-2010, 09:42 AM

I could not finish The Brothers Karamazov, much to my regret.

On the other hand, I do not regret not finishing Les Miserables. Now I know why there are several abridged versions of this one. Ulysses is in the same vein. After Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I was ready, or so I thought, to tackle this tome. After about 25 pages I concluded that Joyce is one of the two most overrated writers in the English language. The other is Kerouac. I've even read all of JK's novels hoping for some kind of Beat Generation epiphany (sorry JJ). Alas, to no avail.

Snowqueen

05-22-2010, 09:50 AM

Tom Jones and Villett. I really tried but couldn't finish these books.

wokeem

05-22-2010, 11:04 AM

I've been attempting to read The Sound and The Fury and I just put it back on the shelf to try again at a later date. It's obviously no reflection on the work itself, but I just have too much going on at the moment to give the narrative the amount of time and effort that it deserves. So now I'm reading American Psycho by Brett Easton-Ellis, which I'm enjoying quite a bit and when I feel like giving Fury another try I'll probably read Light In August beforehand so I'm more comfortable with Faulkner's style.

victorianfan

05-22-2010, 11:57 AM

Babyguile

05-22-2010, 04:49 PM

There are quite a number of books I abandoned half-way (or earlier) through. Even genre novels by my absolute favourite authors. I think back on them and think 'why on earth did I quite reading it' and I simply don't have any good answer. I know I'm going to enjoy it and I get a feel for how it is going to develop and I guess that 'insight' removes any motivation for continuing to read it.

wokeem

05-22-2010, 11:39 PM

I have Light in August on my shelf and planning to read it soon.

I'm really looking forward to Light in August honestly. I understand it's many people's favorite Faulkner novel.

lallison

05-24-2010, 11:54 PM

Gravity's Rainbow. I was enjoying it, but also had to force myself through a number of parts, and do a lot of rereading. I don't usually quit on books, but this one got drenched in a storm when I was camping, so I had a decent excuse.

TheFifthElement

05-25-2010, 04:46 AM

I'll add to the Don Quixote list. It's an enjoyable book, but for some reason it's an effort to pick it up and read it. I have to really force myself. There's no rational reason for it.

mal4mac

05-25-2010, 06:23 AM

I'll add to the Don Quixote list. It's an enjoyable book, but for some reason it's an effort to pick it up and read it. I have to really force myself. There's no rational reason for it.

The first time I read it, I had to force myself. I was up against a library deadline and it was a bad translation, with useless notes, so I didn't finish it. When I tried again, a few years later, I bought Grossman's superb translation, which has excellent notes, and I took my time over it. "Anyone can read a chapter a Day!" I thought,"and it is a classic, so I should try, even if it's a big effort." But it turned out to be no effort at all!

As you say, it's an enjoyable book and that probably glints through any translation, however bad. (I mean, tilting at windmills, throwing Sancho in a blanket, what's not to enjoy!) But possible, rational, reasons for it being difficult are (i) bad translation - reading badly written Victorian English is a pain (ii) bad notes - it's an effort and a pain using dictionaries & wikipedia every few minutes.

If you have Grossman and it's still difficult, look for other factors - one might be 'repetition'. ("What not another daft adventure!") I knew to expect the repetition after my first reading, which is why I planned to read a chapter a day, and something entirely different at the same time. But I quickly got used to, and enjoyed, the repetition, and so read several chapters a day ("Hurray another daft adventure!")

Also note, the second half is even better than the first. Some of the adventures in part 1 perhaps drag a bit, but that's not true about the second half. So it's worth persevering! (Although with Grossman it wasn't persevering, really, just moseying along happily until the next *really* good bit.)

victorianfan

05-25-2010, 12:02 PM

I'll add to the Don Quixote list. It's an enjoyable book, but for some reason it's an effort to pick it up and read it. I have to really force myself. There's no rational reason for it.

I read it few years ago. Both volumes. It left me completely cold. I really don't know why some people are so thrilled with it. An acquittance of mine reads this book every single year during Christmas holidays.

mal4mac

05-25-2010, 12:12 PM

I read it few years ago. Both volumes. It left me completely cold. I really don't know why some people are so thrilled with it. An acquittance of mine reads this book every single year during Christmas holidays.

Don't you talk to your 'acquittance'? (Another great Freudian slip!) Why does he find it so interesting? Why not read it with him chapter by chapter next Christmas and you tell him why you don't like it, and he can tell you why he does? You can be Sancho to his Don :)

TheFifthElement

05-25-2010, 04:30 PM

Yeah, it's not a poor translation (or at least I don't think it is, I don't speak Spanish. Perhaps it is better to say I'm having no problems with the translation) and it's not the length and it doesn't leave me cold, when I read it I enjoy it but I just can't motivate myself to pick it up again after I put it down. I just can't be bothered. Don't know why.

victorianfan

05-26-2010, 02:05 AM

Don't you talk to your 'acquittance'? (Another great Freudian slip!) Why does he find it so interesting? Why not read it with him chapter by chapter next Christmas and you tell him why you don't like it, and he can tell you why he does? You can be Sancho to his Don :)

It isn't that I don't like it. I simply DON'T CARE! I'm INDIFFERENT!

mal4mac

05-26-2010, 06:41 AM

Fair enough. Some people are tone deaf, others may be deaf to Cervantes' humour. That's my only explanation for you reading the whole thing and being left cold. Do you like Dickens' humour? Pickwick Papers? I think this is wonderful, with a similar humour to Cervantes. Twain as well - Huck Finn.

victorianfan

05-26-2010, 10:26 AM

Actually, I like The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek.

TurquoiseSunset

05-27-2010, 03:49 AM

The same happened to me, first time. Second time I found a more amenable translation (Edith Grossman) and bought the book. Then I dedicated myself to reading a chapter or two each day, every day. Once I got over the slight difficulties (mainly, some of the early tales seem a little too drawn out) I really enjoyed it, eventually finding it difficult to put down. The second half was even better than the first so there was no problem finishing... I now plan to re-read it.

Actually I did start on the Edith Grossman translation. It is a library book and after I drifted to another book I had to take it back to the library anyway. I'll probably buy it one day and give it another go.

Having read Orwell's "Complete Novels" (not recommended!) I think that's a general problem Orwell has - his characters aren't very interesting and you don't really want to connect with them. Still, 1984 is worth reading, just don't expect to connect with the characters and concentrate on the political allegory (and don't expect Orwell to be as funny as Cervantes...)

This one I will definitely try again (eventually)! I just have to be in the right mood and force myself through some of the more boring bits.

I think Tolstoy is a *much* better novelist than Orwell and I really connected with the characters, especially Levin. What translation did you read? I'd recommend the Maudes. I've read all his novels and think he really is a master (up there with Dickens, Cervantes & maybe a few others)

I have no idea what translation I have...I think it's a Wordsworth Classics, but that is all I know. I bought it years ago without thinking to research which translation would be better...although I can't remember that the writing bugged me. I think I just didn't give it enough time...100 pages of Anna Karenina is not enough, me thinks :)

Dante's Divine Comedy. I'm 2/3 of the way through it but just can't find the time to wrap it up.

I didn't read the rest of the thread beofre replying to this, so mal4mac has probably beat me to it to tell you that you should try reading only one or two Cantos a day, and for the rest of your daily reading time read something different. :D

TurquoiseSunset

05-27-2010, 03:59 AM

I'm very sure this one will shock you guys - I never finished reading 'THE ALCHEMIST'!

It's sitting on my bookshelf right now, looking at me. :frown5:
The thing is, when I had started reading it, in October 2008, there were many other things occupying my life at that time. Things that were more demanding of my time and my emotions.

I have every intention of finishing it though...I'm sure I'm the only person who's never finished it!

Ooo, I've forgotten about The Alchemist! I started it as well while on vacation, last year April. I actually loved the bit I did read, and can't for the life of me now remember why I never finished it. I remember reading it, but not the point where I put it down and decided to read something different. So I'll add that to my list :D

mal4mac

05-27-2010, 06:29 AM

I have no idea what translation I have...I think it's a Wordsworth Classics, but that is all I know.

There are so many highly-rated translators of Tolstoy it's worth some investigation to see which ones suits you best. The Wordsworth Classics War & Peace is by the Maudes. Wordsworth Classics usually use the Maudes or Garnett for their Russian translations. I like these translators, and they would be my first choices, especially Maude for Tolstoy. But they are "late 19th century British", which might grate in young American ears (I'm an old Brit. so they are spot on for me!) Also, sometimes, the notes aren't very good in Wordsworth, so if you really want to know every reference to obscure Russian matters then a version with better notes might help.

http://readingthegreats.com/2010/01/tolstoys-anna-karenina-garnett-vs-maude-plus-a-tip-on-finding-the-best-translation-of-any-book/

TurquoiseSunset

05-27-2010, 09:10 AM

There are so many highly-rated translators of Tolstoy it's worth some investigation to see which ones suits you best. The Wordsworth Classics War & Peace is by the Maudes. Wordsworth Classics usually use the Maudes or Garnett for their Russian translations. I like these translators, and they would be my first choices, especially Maude for Tolstoy. But they are "late 19th century British", which might grate in young American ears (I'm an old Brit. so they are spot on for me!) Also, sometimes, the notes aren't very good in Wordsworth, so if you really want to know every reference to obscure Russian matters then a version with better notes might help.

http://readingthegreats.com/2010/01/tolstoys-anna-karenina-garnett-vs-maude-plus-a-tip-on-finding-the-best-translation-of-any-book/

Thanks!!

_JadeRain_

06-04-2010, 11:45 PM

A Tale of Two Cities -Charles Dickens

The Book

06-05-2010, 01:35 AM

Catcher in the Rye -JD Salinger

PrimordialBeast

06-05-2010, 10:25 PM

Last fall I got about half way through Moby Dick and have no idea why I put it down. I'd like to put it back on my list for this summer

lalalauren

06-06-2010, 01:20 AM

Atlas Shrugged. I will finish it someday. I hear that once you get to page 500 you can't put it down..hm, not there yet.

Jazz_

06-06-2010, 04:28 AM

I can think of a few that I intend to finish someday:
Jude the Obscure
Villette
Lord of the Rings
The Grapes of Wrath

There are more that I can't think of right now - I'm the kind of person who reads several things at once (and then forgets a couple)...

dicer

06-06-2010, 06:28 AM

Same problem with Moby Dick. I got about half way through and just put it down for some bizarre reason. I think I'd enjoy it more now, though, so I'll read it over summer I hope. I also started 'The Great Gatsby' on a re-read but I had to put it down to focus on exams. However, I then started American Psycho, got half-way, and put it down because I realised I had stopped reading The Great Gatsby to focus on exams yet I was now reading a far thicker book. I don't know if I'll read American Psycho over summer, although I did like it (murder scenes are a bit much for me, I think), but The Great Gatsby and Moby Dick are two I certainly want to read and finish.

Kafka's Crow

06-06-2010, 12:37 PM

John Cowper Powys A Glastonbury Romance: Excellent book. Prof. Jerome McGann was very found of it and taught it as a part of his Modernism course that I atteneded 11 years ago. It is a huge book and I could not finish it in time for classroom discussion and we moved on to Ulysses, another biggy which I managed to finish within the given week as I had read it many times before. All this left me with no time to go back to Glastonbury.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Glastonbury-Romance-John-Cowper-Powys/dp/0140286462/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275841607&sr=8-2

The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor by John Barth:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Voyage-Somebody-Sailor/dp/0340555521/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275842056&sr=8-4
Excellent book. I will go back to it one sweet day.

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. I just couldn't read this one beyond a few pages although I know that this is a massive hole in my knowledge of Russian Literature which I will have to fill sooner or later.

Bloomsy

07-13-2010, 07:50 PM

Finnegans wake...if you can call reading 1/2 the first page not finshing it:smile5:

Bloomsy

07-13-2010, 07:54 PM

Atlas Shrugged. I will finish it someday. I hear that once you get to page 500 you can't put it down..hm, not there yet.

i've just finished it today. When i got to 500 pages it became a chore to finish it.I even tried to reconcile myself to jackin' it in after the first 1000 pages :smile5: but I ploughed on. I love the premise but the plot got a bit silly and the hero's are insufferably superior.

Kyriakos

07-14-2010, 07:45 AM

When i was 17 i had read 3/4 of the Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann.
Then i decided to take a break, with... The Brotherz Karamazov. I never returned to the Magic Mountain, and im not sure i ever will.

bouquin

07-14-2010, 08:05 AM

Don Quixote.

and . . .
The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
The American - Henry James (again!)
Une Vie - Guy de Maupassant
The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne

I'm currently on Salman Rushdie's THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET which I had attempted to read several years back then ended up abandoning it. This time I'm doggedly determined to finish it!

mal4mac

07-14-2010, 08:46 AM

Finnegans wake...if you can call reading 1/2 the first page not finshing it:smile5:

Any you still want to finish it? Or did you just read half of the thread title? :)

minstrelbard

07-14-2010, 11:51 AM

I actually managed, with a mighty effort, to make it through the first two pages of Finnegans Wake. I'd love to finish it someday, but I'd need thirty more IQ points and fluency in about six more languages before I think I could approach it.

Bloomsy

07-14-2010, 11:56 AM

Any you still want to finish it? Or did you just read half of the thread title? :)
yeah. Touche.

Or So I Read

07-15-2010, 09:13 AM

I've started "Man without Qualities" (Robert Musil) twice but never finished it. I really want to get back to it again and FINISH it - and its second volume. It's so long, hard reading, and often depressing. But I think it's something that needs to be read - offering much, much insight.

and . . .
The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
The American - Henry James (again!)
Une Vie - Guy de Maupassant
The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne

I did finish Portrait of a Lady and Seven Gables, but it took A LOT of effort. They weren't favorite reads by any means. With Portrait I think one of my main problems was my dislike for the main character.

I've also discovered Henry James and I don't mesh well together (still need to finish Wings of a Dove) I would like to give American a try though (not sure why though - lol).