Okay. So this is the THIRD time I've tried to read Wolf Hall ....

I really enjoyed all 3 and now reading the Samson series. But if you don’t enjoy it give up! To my shame I have never finished a Charles Dickens except Christmas Carol.

I found Wolf Hall heavy going, but Bring up the Bodies definitely picked up the pace. The Mirror and the light was - for me - tedious beyond belief and felt as if the editor was so in thrall to the amazingness that is Hilary Mantel, that they couldn't do their job, book would have been much better with a few chapters taken out.

I read LOTR as a teenager and loved it. I can’t imagine reading it again now. I think partly it’s because when I was a teenager in the 70’s there was not a lot to do, and long complicated books filled the time . Maybe when I retire there will be long afternoons to while away on books again. I tend to read only in bed now and in short bursts, which make complex plots and large numbers or characters difficult to follow and remember.

I tried and failed. But it was on the kindle so going back to check bits was tricky. I might try again.

DH is reading LOTR to our 10 year old. They started when she was 9..... I feel sorry for her. But she’s determined to see it through 😅. We read other things too!

I've given up once, but planning to try it again at some point this year! Love the tip about 'he' being Cromwell, that actually probably will help a lot.

I think it seems boring because it is very factual. We've seen a trend of Tudor history being sexed up for tv . We just want to get to the bit where AB gets her head chopped off but the background is years of political back and forth .

I've actually been putting off reading The Mirror and the Light because I can't bear to see Cromwell fall. The flashes of hubris and moral compromise that emerge through Anne Boleyn's execution were so worrying and foreboding.

If it’s not for you, it’s not for you. I thought it was brilliant.

I liked Wolf Hall and the sequel very much, and will be looking to read #3 in due course. Whether you finish it or not, please try and find something that you don't find a chore to read next before you embark on something else you've struggled with. I read LOTR when I was quite young and thought I was really into it at the time but I can't remember why and I have far too many books I want to read or reread at the time to think I'm ever going to find out. My DS1 got completely bogged down in it at some point after March last yaer, and I've been trying to persuade him to read other things instead. He appears to have finished a different book and gone back to Volume 1 of LOTR though.....

I cant stand fantasy fiction . No interest in it at all. Not books or films . But that is OK. I do like James Joyce , disclaimer, Irish. Does that make me a superior reader or a lesser one ? Who cares ! I am all for being open to new genres and things to try. Try it , dont like some , like others. Luckily there are thousands of books to read .
Reminder: Fifty Shades of Gray - pure shite . Millions sold .

[quote FleetwoodRaincoat]@LunaHeather Because I want to have read one of the "greatest books of all time". But haven't been able to stick with it before. I suspect that, compared to Wolf Hall, it will be a breeze now [/quote]
Honestly, @FleetwoodRaincoat, I don't know anyone other than diehard Tolkien/fantasy fans who would consider LOTR one of the 'greatest books of all time', so let yourself off the hook! I mean, it's a highly influential fantasy trilogy with some excellent parts, but it's also a lot of slightly monotonous and elaborately detailed twaddle about Elves.

[quote FleetwoodRaincoat]@LunaHeather Because I want to have read one of the "greatest books of all time". But haven't been able to stick with it before. I suspect that, compared to Wolf Hall, it will be a breeze now [/quote]
Reading shouldn’t be a form of self-flagellation for the sake of it, to feel that you’ve read what you’re supposed to. Do you force yourself to eat foods you don’t like because they’re popular with other people? (lighthearted)

I didn't get confused, but I certainly got bored. I plugged away for two thirds of it before wondering why on earth I was bothering and gave up.

[quote FleetwoodRaincoat]@LunaHeather Because I want to have read one of the "greatest books of all time". But haven't been able to stick with it before. I suspect that, compared to Wolf Hall, it will be a breeze now [/quote]
There must be a different one that you would enjoy?

I absolutely love Wolf Hall. It's one of my favourite books. At the risk of sounding twattish, you can lose yourself in the half-light, shadows, fire smoke etc. It's a view of Tudor life through one shrewd, wily, competent man's eyes. It's also about class, political (male) power, probity, rationalism, loss, death. But it's narrated in the present tense through a prism of smells, sounds,feelings (some remembered, some current) , fleeting thoughts, conversations, observations and impressions. Isn't that how we all experience life? I think I found it fairly easy to go with the flow of it because I lve in my head most of the time, whereas my very lovely but quite literal friend couldn't get on with it at all. I think it helps to know some basic Tudor history before you read it, but equally remember there is no pure historical "truth" as such but a collection of differing movitations, opinions. and memories or "ghosts" as Hilary Mantel would call them.

But, you know, there isn't a test so if you aren't enjoying it, don't read it.

This is very true. If you are not enjoying it, well then stop. I am not a fan of Dickens, have read several and found them confusing and frustrating (invest heavily in a character only for them to disappear and never come back!). An English teacher mate told me I had read the wrong ones and should try Bleak House and Martin Ch but I'm all right actually.

Interesting about people liking Beyond Black - I read that a while ago and didn't like it. Agree very very different.

OP "Am going to attempt Lord of the Rings for the third time too, but not holding out much hope."

Third time? Why bother?

I love all three of those books, but it would be a boring old world if we all liked the same things

I find most Hardy novels the same, and they’re great literary classics too. (I’ve tried three of them!)

I read a lot and I couldn't stand it. I tried so hard to like it but I just could not for the life of me get into it. Life is too short to read books you're not enjoying!

I don’t understand people saying it’s slow, though. The first page is him as a boy being eaten up by his violent drunk father after he killed another boy in a fight, the he’s off on his continental adventures with only a keepsake from his older sister and his wits, and then we leap ahead years till he’s back in London as a rising man, married with children, and already Cardinal Wolsey’s right hand man as he’s engaged on trying to get Henry VIII a divorce, and, then, after Wolsey’s downfall, as an increasingly powerful royal advisor on the project of getting rid of Katherine of Aragon in favour of Anne Boleyn.

There’s enough plot there for about ten novels!

I am currently plowing through Mirror and Light . It does force me to concentrate . I love this period of history , so I do know the characters .

Maybe it would be too much hard work , but maybe scribble down characters on a bookmark to refer too ? I did this with a French book that had multiple people called Jacques!

BBC Sounds have dramasisations of CJ Samson and Merdoc that are good listening too.