What is the most boring book ever?

[Pecksie]

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.

Hmmmm... I found it very, very interesting. Gripping, actually.

I'd say the most boring novel I read of late is 'Austerlitz', by W. G. Sebald. I know he's something like a cult novelist, but for the life of me I couldn't make heads or tails of it

[The Comedian]

I'm going to sound like a barbarian here, but most marriage plot novels bore me to distraction. I remember having to endure Emma as an undergraduate. . . .probably the boring reading experience I've ever had. But I was much younger then; I might have a different view now.

But generally, if the plot of the novel is "the course of true love never did run smooth" I'm going to be looking for something else to read quite quickly.

[Emil Miller]

I don't read boring books, because I check them out beforehand and buy accordingly, and that is why I have managed to avoid wasting time on Beckett, Joyce and other writers who seem to be presenting a philosophical view of life when there are already many books on philosophy for those who are so inclined. I prefer writers who inform me about the human condition without people sitting in dustbins or holding interminable interior monologues on their totaly uninteresting lives.

[The Comedian]

I don't read boring books, because I check them out beforehand and buy accordingly, and that is why I have managed to avoid wasting time on Beckett, Joyce and other writers who seem to be presenting a philosophical view of life when there are already many books on philosophy for those who are so inclined. I prefer writers who inform me about the human condition without people sitting in dustbins or holding interminable interior monologues on their totaly uninteresting lives.

I do like reading your posts Brian Bean -- They're not boring.

[blp]

I don't read boring books, because I check them out beforehand and buy accordingly, and that is why I have managed to avoid wasting time on Beckett, Joyce and other writers who seem to be presenting a philosophical view of life when there are already many books on philosophy for those who are so inclined. I prefer writers who inform me about the human condition without people sitting in dustbins or holding interminable interior monologues on their totaly uninteresting lives.

Sorry, but that's silly. You can't 'check a book out beforehand' because you can't know what it's going to be from someone else's description - which is probably how you've managed to get Beckett and Joyce so wrong. (Reading either of these two and reading philosophy are entirely different things.) The only way to know what a book is really like is to read it. You can't, unfortunately, even really do it by reading bits of it. There are quite a few books I didn't really get while I was reading them, or even disliked, but at some point, during the reading or after, something changed and I became very glad I'd read them.

[norman931]

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.

[Emil Miller]

Sorry, but that's silly. You can't 'check a book out beforehand' because you can't know what it's going to be from someone else's description - which is probably how you've managed to get Beckett and Joyce so wrong. (Reading either of these two and reading philosophy are entirely different things.) The only way to know what a book is really like is to read it. You can't, unfortunately, even really do it by reading bits of it. There are quite a few books I didn't really get while I was reading them, or even disliked, but at some point, during the reading or after, something changed and I became very glad I'd read them.

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.
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.

[PoeticPassions]

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.
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

[Emil Miller]

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

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.

[sixsmith]

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.

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.

A couple of people have mentioned Crime and Punishment and i have to concur. Utterly dull.

[Phangirl7]

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.

[j.k.taylor]

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.

[Jack Fields]

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 don´t 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.

[Babyguile]

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.

[Emil Miller]

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 don´t 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.

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.

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.