a book you never understood

[cacian]

so which book had you kicking because it simply is/was inexplicable?

[Nebogipfel]

I have a collection of stories from Kafka and I really can't say what the stories are about. Think I'm not clever enough to "get" it or it's just too obvious for me to actual see the meaning.

[kev67]

My father gave me a book called The Metaphysical Club for Christmas. It was a Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction book about four American philosophers. I understood about one word in ten, which I suspect is typical for political philosophy.

The end chapters of The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose got pretty tricky. He was explaining why the brain is not like a computer, but went through most of physics and logic to support his argument. I understood quite a bit though.

I read a book called A History of God by Karen Armstrong, which was a history book about Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It was not what I was expecting. I could not keep track of the different personalities, largely because the Moslems, in particular, had unfamiliar but similar sounding names.

Another book I had trouble with was The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomassi Di Lampedusa. I didn't know it was a classic when I picked it up. I could understand all the sentences, but I could not really remember anything that happened in it, or really understand what it was about.

[Maria May]

''Jonathan Livingston seagull'' by Richard Bach...

[WICKES]

Most science books!! A Brief History of Time by the British physicist Stephen Hawking was just incomprehensible. It's strange, but I find I can understand most works of literature, even those I find very hard, if I put in the time. For example, Ulysses, though I often found it dull and hard-going, made sense to me- I mean I felt I understood what Joyce was getting at. But I will never understand what an atom is, no matter how many times people explain to me that electrons whizz around the protons and neutrons and blah...my mind just doesn't work that way.

[cacian]

Most science books!! A Brief History of Time by the British physicist Stephen Hawking was just incomprehensible. It's strange, but I find I can understand most works of literature, even those I find very hard, if I put in the time. For example, Ulysses, though I often found it dull and hard-going, made sense to me- I mean I felt I understood what Joyce was getting at. But I will never understand what an atom is, no matter how many times people explain to me that electrons whizz around the protons and neutrons and blah...my mind just doesn't work that way.

lol welcome to the real world I feel the same about science too. an atom is just a word with no definit meaning in my mind haha.
I guess it is because literature and science just don't go hand in hand and when it is tried sifi is created and it does read alien such is life ;)

[cafolini]

lol welcome to the real world I feel the same about science too. an atom is just a word with no definit meaning in my mind haha.
I guess it is because literature and science just don't go hand in hand and when it is tried sifi is created and it does read alien such is life ;)

Ask the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki if an atom has no meaning. Roflmao. One of these days we might have to EnolaGay you. Welcome to reality.

[PeterL]

The only ones I haven't understood are ones that I haven't read, but there have been a few that were so poorl;y written that I couldn't read them, The Last Immortal comes to mind - utterly horrible..

[lichtrausch]

Most science books!! A Brief History of Time by the British physicist Stephen Hawking was just incomprehensible. It's strange, but I find I can understand most works of literature, even those I find very hard, if I put in the time. For example, Ulysses, though I often found it dull and hard-going, made sense to me- I mean I felt I understood what Joyce was getting at. But I will never understand what an atom is, no matter how many times people explain to me that electrons whizz around the protons and neutrons and blah...my mind just doesn't work that way.
Some science really does push the limits of human understanding. If you don't believe me, spend a couple hours immersing yourself in the mathematics of relativity or quantum mechanics. But plenty of science is very accessible if you start from the fundamentals and work your way up. Anyone with some interest and motivation can become scientifically literate.

[SFG75]

Not a book, but Henry James and his "The Real Thing" messed with me. Haven't re-tried it due to the emotional scarring and whipping it gave me. ;)

[Sweetgirl]

Somebody posted about Kafta earlier...I agree! I read 'Metamorphosis' and as much as I wanted to understand it, I couldn't. It is one of the weirdest books I have read. If anyone has any comments on it, do let me know. It would be interesting to see what you guys think!

[cacian]

Ask the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki if an atom has no meaning. Roflmao. One of these days we might have to EnolaGay you. Welcome to reality.

true however an atom is not visible to the naked eye and so it is anyone's guess what it comes to look like.

[cacian]

Not a book, but Henry James and his "The Real Thing" messed with me. Haven't re-tried it due to the emotional scarring and whipping it gave me. ;)
sorry to hear it SFG75 it sounds rather like a whiplash if you ask me. 'The Real Thing' is not so real after all.

[Xayna]

There was a book I read when I was a child called JustIn Case. The book was about a young man named Justin Case but I never could really understand WHAT was going on.

Another one was Toni Morrison's Beloved. Granted, I read it a couple of years ago before I was able to grasp abstract concepts very well, but I had a hard time following what the narrator was feeling. I didn't finish it, regrettably. Perhaps I ought to.

As for those of you confused by Kafka, I'm going to attempt to read some of his work sometime soon, possibly in the next week. I'll let you know what I think! :)