I'd have to go with Moby Dick. Oh God, that was dreadful. I've already posted my thoughts about it on this board.
Herman Melville tries to be interesting and avant-garde by giving us gigantic passages about how to hunt whales and scientific stuff (which is all dated by now) while he leaves the story dangling.
I really hated this book.
Agree. I read the children's illustrated version, actually, just so to know what the story is all about without torturing myself too much. But even that had me killed for awhile. I don't think the first-person narrator is even necessary!
I read the Robert Freeman biography of Robert E Lee, and that just about sapped all my life's ambition right out of me. If you think Moby Dick is dated, heh . . . reading about Robert E Lee will make you appreciate the avante garde in Melville's art, and then make you want to cut your own balls off and flush them down the toilet. Really, it's not a pleasant read.
I meant to say "...most boring novel."Originally Posted by AbdoRinbo
Well... the most recent borefest I tried to get through was Russell Banks' The Sweet Hereafter. Holy crap, couldn't stand it. I thought I would read the book before seeing the much vaunted movie. :-? A case of TMI and poor/lame/cliche/trite character development.
My vote goes to "Crime and Punishment". I know a lot of people love this book, but I think that the author tries to be more intelligent than he is.
er.... was.
Told by a fool, signifying nothing.
Try reading the complete Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. The book spends an entire chapter explaining the geography of the American continent, and he's not even right. Or for an even more engrossing read try Bryce's The American Commonwealth.
I'd go with Imthefoolonthehill, I haven't read more boring book yet (I even couldn't make myself to read the book to the end, but still, the two thirds I've read weren't nice). It's the only book I didn't finish.
I have a plan: attack!
I've read Continental Drift and Affliction by Russell Banks, and I didn't find either of them boring. In fact, he's probably one of the five best authors out there today.
Oh, and what's TMI?
Too Much Information... :oYou know, when your lonely neighbour corners you and starts telling you about their recent stomach stapling procedure. :-?
Ok well maybe I'll check out some of Banks' other works, I can be open-minded sometimes.
There is no boring pieces of literature. Literature is the essance of our soul and to say that it is boring is the utmost insult to our essance as a supurerior human race.
Wilfred
Did you just say 'superior human race'?
I'll take the lesser human race for $800 Alex!
Heh . . . you've got character, you know that?
Yes, you say things in a very characteristic sort of way . . . I can't quite put my finger on it.
Of course nothing I've ever written is boring.
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