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I teach High School English, and, to my students, everything is boring.
I have to say a word or two in defense of Moby Dick. I quite enjoyed the book, as well as most of Melville's other work. Of course, I was a sailor for 4 years, so I had more of an interest in the seafaring bits.
One of the things I enjoy about this forum is that there have been some lengthy extracts from readers commenting on authors that they like. In reading them I have been able to decide whether I would like to read that particular author and, in the cases I have mentioned, I have decided not to.Quote:
Originally Posted by blp
Some years ago I tried reading Kafka's The Trial, and I just could not finish it .The story just did not interest me enough to continue past the half-way mark and the premise of the book was already known to me from reading various criticis over a number of years. I have not read Kafka since but I doubt if my view would be different now.
I think Kafka has a lot more to offer than most people give him credit for... I would suggest that you read some of his parables, such as "The Hunger Artist." I used to have a dislike for Kafka, but over the years, and as I have gotten to know his works better and have contemplated them and interpreted them in many ways, I feel a certain draw to him. In any case, I think that obviously we all have our likes and dislikes, and I am not here to change anyone's opinion, just merely offering a recommendation :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
Thanks for the recommendation but I think that there is a style of writing that I am temperamentally unsuited to. The likes of Joyce, Becket , Kafka etc, who seem to be the literary equivalent of abstract painting, do not conform to my idea of what constitutes readability. I don't say that they are without literary merit but they are just not my type of writers.Quote:
Originally Posted by PoeticPassions
I tend to hold a similar view though i find Kafka far more accessible than either Beckett or Joyce. Mind you The Trial was aptly named.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
A couple of people have mentioned Crime and Punishment and i have to concur. Utterly dull.
I am currently reading a Science Fiction anthology. I've read 13 of the stories, and have only liked 2. I either don't understand the rest or just don't like them. I'm not a huge fan of SF. One of the stories was in Space and it was just boring with a capital B. It just dragged on and on and I kept thinking,'when is this going to be over?'
P.G.7.
honestly, i can't stand Dickens. i can't understand his appeal, nor how his books
can be read for pleasure. i've only read oliver twist, a tale of two cities, and the christmas carol. maybe i've missed the 'good' ones, but i doubt it.
I think, that the most boring book which was ever written is Mein Kampf (My Struggle) by Adolf Hitler. Seriously it is very chaotic and some whole paragraph are completely nonsense. And I donīt mean only in ideological way, but he was not able to avoid skipping from one thought to another, or skipping in time, like from his childhood back to the future without explanation.
To threadstarter - I completely sympathise. I really dislike authors who digress far too much and loose the essence of a story. We can lecture ourselves through various ways, we want to read a good story. Because that's what a book must first be. It is insulting for an author to be so tactless in their digressions and not realising that a good book combines them with an involving plot.
Spies by Michael Frayn. Absolutely heinous. Left a bitter taste in my mouth with a C in my A-level exam. Damn him and his book.
This a book that I have been meaning to read for some time. For many years it was banned in Europe but it has been available for about thirty years in the UK. The other book that would be interesting to read is Hitler's Table Talk: a collection of reminisences from Martin Borman and others among Hitler's circle. Apparently, Hitler was a great conversationalist who would spend much time during the early hours of the morning discussing the events surrounding the rise to power of the Nazi party, and his comments were noted and recorded by certain members of his entourage.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Fields
It is important to note that Hitler did not sit at a desk to write Mein Kampf, it was dictated to Rudolf Hess while Hitler was serving a prison sentence in Landsberg Prison, Bavaria. Hence the well-known disjointed style of the writing.
agreed!Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert E Lee
Going to agree here regarding Joyce. My reading is purely for enjoyment & relaxation (have no real interest in examining language or literary techniques) as a result if a books storyline doesnt catch me I will generally put it aside and grab something else instead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
I have tried Joyce a few times but he has always bored the hell out of me (same with Ms Austen)
Moby Dick gets my vote
Without a single doubt: Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
I didn't like "The portrait of a lady" by Henry James. Too wordy, way too confused sentences and with a stupid heroine presented as clever. The end also was so disappointing and kind of masochistic. I've also read "The turn of the screw" (also in translation-I was too bored to read him in English). It was a little better because it was much more brief but still, I didn't like his characterizations nor his general style.
I used to think Hemingway boring too, but I am starting to get a better opinion about him after his "To have and to have not". "The old man and the sea" was a little boring, since fishing is not to my taste :p and "For whom the bells toll" was too heavy for my age then. I must give it a try again :).
I understand how Dostoevsky can be difficult or dull, but at least he had a point to make. "The portrait of a lady" had none.
I also find Dickens boring. I never liked "Oliver Twist" because of the false sentimentality, Copperfield was a little better and "Great expectations" (which I also managed to read only in translation) was interesting due to his female characters Estella and Mrs Hawisham (sp?). The fact is the man uses too many secondary characters to the point you get lost (I remember searching for a quarter who was the gentleman that took David for a walk to find out in the end it was a servant of his aunt 50 pages back!). So although I like his themes I never managed to like his writing.
The Old Man and the Sea was VERY boring. I couldn't finish it.
Not To Kill a Mockingbird?Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
:p
God, why did she bother with Part 1? Or at least the majority? I couldn't care less about kiddies rolling around in tyres. Maybe many a Southerner can identify but hell, I don't come from there, and I didn't care.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!!!
It's the most boring book ever!!
Seriously, though, a book which starts with a statement like (I quote from memory) "A man in a suitable position in life has need of a wife," is bound straight for the trashcan.
It's great! That's sardonic ironic humour, silly. Anyway, everyone knows the first line:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in posession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
I could do with one of them!
well, i think it was 'wuthering heights'. i did not make it further than the 50th page i think. i don't know why, but for some reason i found it boring when i tried to read it. and the language was also difficult- i was reading it in english. maybe i will try to read it again some day.
the most boring book... ??? really is there such a thing?? i mean when you read you always find a way to make it lively. reading isnt boring.. only when you hate it (an i dnt see how people can) i love to read.
but is there really such a thing as a boring book? 'wuthering heights' yes it is a hard book to read even to americans. im in the tenth grade an i have read it all through within two days. 'to kill a mocking bird' yes it has its borign times. but dont all books? even the most literate books by the most famous writers EX. Laurell K. Hamilton; has some boring parts in her books. you cant blame writers or yourselves for saying there are books that are boring. for there really is no such thing as a boring book. i have read books on cival wars an true accounts on peoples lives an i found them fascinating. you learn more an more with each book you read. no matter how 'boring' you may say. for i believe there really is no such thing as a boring book.
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Originally Posted by Wilfred
Not everything that is written deserves to be called Literature...
As odd as this probably sounds, I can't seem to get through Three Musketeers. I always find myself falling asleep haha
quote: Not everything that is written deserves to be called Literature...
that is true.. but it doesnt mean that they are boring does it???
I've read Beloved Country several times, and I can't get through the first page without tears coming to my eyes. I love it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zooey
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Originally Posted by I hate Jane Austen
Wow.
See it's beliefs like that which give Pride and Prejudice the title "chick lit"
Mr Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship is only a minor component of that entire novel.
It was brilliant. Not only was it brilliant but it was interesting and so enjoyable to read. In fact i'm reading it now. Winter nights, hot tea, Pride and Prejudice = ah yes please.
Says the person who has probably yawned on numerous occasions whist reading literature.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilfred
Don't lie, i know it's true!
Yes, but I've read that the unpublished sequel to Mein Kampf, which I think was written rather than dictated, was also desultory.Quote:
It is important to note that Hitler did not sit at a desk to write Mein Kampf, it was dictated to Rudolf Hess while Hitler was serving a prison sentence in Landsberg Prison, Bavaria. Hence the well-known disjointed style of the writing.
R e m i n d e r
Please keep in mind that it is ideas that we discuss, not the people behind them.
If you feel unable to refrain from personalising arguments, please feel free to ignore this thread.
Posts with inflammatory message will be deleted without further notice.
That may be true but, as the book wasn't published, it may not. You shouldn't believe everything you read about Hitler.Quote:
Originally Posted by A Siege
Personally, I love Dickens. There is something very realistic and honest about the way he writes. His commentary strikes me as being heartfelt and never pendantic. His work is never cold and never void of any meaning. Oliver Twist is great. I really love the characters. you cannot EVER forget people like Fagin, the artful Dodger, Oliver himself, Mr. Bumble etc...Quote:
Originally Posted by ksotikoula
Some of his books are better than others: I didn't like The Old Curiosity Shop and A Tale of Two cities was not exactly as good as his other works. (though, it certainly wasn't bad).
I really hope that someday I will come to like Dickens too or some of his work. So far his style has not appealed to me, but in the future I intent on trying to again to see if there will be any change :). He is not a classic writer for nothing, I just hope to find that something in him to intrigue me.
I think there's an argument to be made for either Steinbeck or Tolkien having churned out some of the most stupefying prose in the English language, though Melville runs them pretty close.
But just when you think that you've managed to decide between them, you realise that the choice is irrelevant because the winner, once you remember him, is clear.
He romps home by several lengths, not simply because he wrote a dull book, and not even because he wrote an entire string of dull, dull, dull books - but because, despite their apparent intention to explore every facet of the human condition in all its myriad aspects, the novels and the short stories - yea, even the poetry - in short, the entire oeuvre manages to avoid expressing the slightest glimmer of wit, the faintest echo of any sense of humour, irony, fun or even light-heartedness. It's all unrelenting and self-indulgent gloom. It's adolescent and sulky and petulant, and you just want to send him to his room until he gets over it.
I speak, of course, of the work of DHLawrence, the po-faced old miserymonger.
Interesting description of Lawrence there! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
I have never ever had a reason to change my mind about Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Would have the death of soap opera if it had ever been made a TV presentation. Now on a particularly gloomy day I would add Wuthering Heights to the list except I have never been able to finish it. Perhaps the fact I was reading it while visiting my father-in-law in which it turned out to be the last time I ever saw him this side of the grave has an impact on that evaluation. Got about half way through and I have to like a character in order to car and Heathcliff just didn't do it for me.
As of right now I have to say All the King's Men. That book was near torture to try and read. When I first started it I thought to myself, I do not think a person could write a book more boring if they were trying to.
It moves very slowly, and virtually nothing really happens, and it has long rambling passages that serve no true purpose.
In my humble opinion, there are books for male and female readers. I am sure there are exceptional males and females who do not belong to my generalization. There are also exceptional books that attract both males and females or that dispel both males and females. The perfect storm by Junger was obviously well-written. But, when he started describing details of fishing tools, I could not go on. It was equivalent to reading sports magazines. The same way many great books are lost to me, a female.
Here are some that drive away female readers: Mobydick, many of Hemingway except his short stories, all of James Joyce, hardcore science fictions
Here are some that put male readers to sleep: Jane Austen, Henry James , recent Cohelo books like the Witch of Portobello
The Shadow of the Wind is the most boring book I've ever almost read. It's not the worst in terms of writing, but it's been the most boring for me.
no-one said 'it' is boring- we are talking about particular novels that are boring. the only simple way to define what you mean by 'literature' or 'a novel' as opposed to a 'prose work of fiction' is to talk about which works have been called 'literature' or 'novels' by their authors- if literature and boredom are mutually exclusive, then boring 'novels' are not novels.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilfred
I agree with your statement about literature while it pertains to literature as a whole, but I think novels can be very literary, or work as literature in very complex ways, and still not interest one or other particular reader
I can see your point about its not deserving to be a classic, but I think its the satire in it that makes it good literature. It is quite indulgent- I think novels considered 'classics' ought to be innovative, either in a literary way, or in their treatment of a particular subject matter- Jane Austen isn't innovative in either way, but I would argue that it can boast being an excellent social critique of regency societyQuote:
Originally Posted by I hate Jane Austen
can I ask you what you liked about it?Quote:
Originally Posted by PoeticPassions
because I was going to mention that as one of the most boring books I'd ever read
the most boring book of all I've read that claims to be a novel is Bonjour Tristesse- that was the most self-indulgent, air-headed drivel I have ever read- and it really makes me despair that that book is generally considered literature!
I don't think there's anything indifferent about calling a book 'the most boring I've ever read'Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilde woman
I think there is passive boredom, where the reader for whatever reason has not understood the merit of a book, and boredom that is the result of a considered opinion that a piece of literature is pointless, nonsensical or void of meaning.
ps: I have to agree with you about Dickens
I think Kafka really has to be read in german. I find the way german works in literature the most interesting aspect of reading german literature- I would argue that most great works of german literature (Mann, Brecht, Goethe) are the same- lose the language and you lose the essence- they are usually purely intellectual- the story tends not to be interesting in its own right- it is a means to an endQuote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
I'm not sure it was the most boring, but just finished it and well..... it was boring lol
The Immoralist - Andre Gide
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Originally Posted by pinkkdaisy
I was reading it in German but I never found Mann or Goethe boring in the original language.