As you mentioned, I'd imagine it's because of the subtleties. Fitzgerald isn't a particularly 'tight' writer. He usually meanders and takes his time with description and characterization. Once you know what the actual plots and basic themes are of his novels, you can start appreciating the intricacies and detail of them.Originally Posted by mal4mac
On the Road. So very dull.
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
柳暗花明又一村
Crime and Punishment. Yuk.
I think the most boring author I have ever read is Immanuel Kant. I've heard people praise him as the greatest thing ever, and while I admit the jargon is a slight pita to get down, his writing style is so damn dull I had to stop reading it entirely. Sometimes a work will be good, and then slog a little, so I'll carefully skim until something interesting is being mentioned. I only do this if it gets REALLY boring. I repeatedly had to do this with Kant's work until I couldn't take it anymore. The difficulty of the text was far secondary incomparison to the sheer tediousness of the writing style. That's sad considering I read his lectures were quite entertaining and alot more relaxed. Too bad he didn't use that kind of style in his writing.
It’s so subjective, age, education, gender, required reading, current emotional state, blah, blah, blah.
The book that you found the most boring?, would be a better title, or better still, ‘The book you found the most challenging’. or better, better still, ‘The book you found the most challenging, that scout’s honour, you read properly all the way to the end?’
5 books off the top of my noggin’ I found the most ‘challenging’:
Remembrance of Things Past, Pale Fire, Lord of the Rings, Moby Dee, Nausea
Remembrance: tough reading because the protagonist is such a weedy b*stard who needs a good kicking. Yes, everyone gets to the ‘Madeleine cake’, it takes true grit to get to the ‘water lily’! To anyone who got to and pressed on beyond the ‘water lily’, pm me and I’ll send you a case of Worthington Pale Ale.
Pale Fire: I remember thinking, well this isn’t a particularly thick book. It shouldn’t take long to get through this…………..Vladimir!
Lord of the Rings: Fantasy, what a second rate genre compared to it’s mighty cousin, Science Fiction. Science Fiction, a possible future for mankind. In. Fantasy, a long, long time ago in a distant galaxy. Out (Yaaaaawn). Hands on hearts, how many of you can honesty say they enjoyed reading this manure all the way to the end scene of scaling that slag heap to toss the ring away?
Moby Dee: Herman Melville was neighbors with Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘nough said.
I’ve said this before, the book starts off like a rip roaring adventure tale and then Melville must have had a change of heart and decided to write a very, very different book. It all depends on how much time you have to invest in biblical referencing, U.S democracy, maritime history, and psycho-analysis. (Oh, and the fella who commented on this great work of genius on the strength of having read ’the children’s edition’ earlier in the thread needs life banning)
Nausea: Nausea? The only motion sickness from this outing by Sartre comes from the movement of page turning at a rate of one page every hour or so.
I didn't bother to read any of them but I bet all of the Harry Potter books, and all of the vampire books belong on the list.
It wasn't painfully boring, but Turn of the Screw was kinda tough for me to get through. I was hoping for a more intriguing ghost story. I do really like Henry James. It just seemed like it took forever to get through it.
Heart of Darkness was required reading for me in high school. I recall it making me sleepy and my classmates didn't seem to like it much either. Of course, opinions do tend to change over the years, so I hope to reread it one day and see if I can bring something new to the reading.
La felicidad es interior,
no exterior; por lo tanto,
no depende de lo que tenemos,
sino de lo que somos.
- Pablo Neruda
Heart of Darkness, as with all Conrad requires commitment. If you find you would like more narration by Marlow try the earlier (1900) Lord Jim for kicks. it weighs in at 300 pages are apposed to HoD's under 100.
It amazes me students are asked to read HoD at high school. Yes, it has the adventure element that would appeal to teenagers, but the in depth psychological inquiries are not something teenagers can easily relate to.
It's the same with Lord Jim. Conrad could have written that book Ala Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, pure adventure fiction, and it would be widely read as Treasure Island. It has a lot of action and as many exotic locations as an Ian Flemming novel, but one as to commit fully to the deep psychology with the book and have a slow pace of reading to fully appreciate Conrad's descriptive genius. Conrad would not have been Conrad if he had taken the straight forward story telling route though.
Other texts that are 'prescribed' in high school to youngsters who perhaps don't have the life experience to appreciate the content fully: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Gatsby, and The Catcher in the Rye.
Maybe I a wrong, and kids need to be exposed to this great literature as an early age. On the other side of the coin, my cousin's daughter was reading Harry Potter at community college a few years back. It took all I could muster to not literally burst out laughing in front of her!
5 books off the top of my noggin’ I found the most ‘challenging’:
Remembrance of Things Past, Pale Fire, Lord of the Rings, Moby Dee, Nausea
I have to agree with Moby Dick and Remembrance. I am reading Moby Dick right now and it is just not wrapping me up into that world.
Years ago I told myself "well you have to read some Marcel Proust," and I chose Remembrance. I still haven't read Proust.
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. I know a lot of people who love this book but I just don't know why. The entire book was so boring and the end so anticlimactic that I was just disappointed.
Don't knock Harry Potter till you read it!
Joyce's Portrait of the artist. Oh god I ****ing hate you James Joyce!!!! His works, along with Proust's Remembrance, hang over the head of every pseudo-intellectual (like me). I know it's my limitations as a reader that are to blame, and I do bow humbly to the superior taste and intellect of the professors who assure me that Joyce was a genius, but life is too short, Joyce is too long and there are far too many other books full of wisdom and beauty.
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