Which book has defeated you?

[xsquared]

Inspired by the top 100 thread, I thought I'd start a thread about books that you've tried reading, perhaps more than once, but given up on.

For me it's bloody Middlemarch! I'm 39 now and I started reading it around 15 hopefully in time to do an English essay about women's roles in 18th century literature, which was met with a "whoo" from my teacher at the time. She was right though.

Tried reading it again in my early 20s but was distracted with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Tried again at least twice more, probably on holiday somewhere and I think I've got to admit defeat. I don't seem to get much further than shortly after Dorothea marries Casauban.

I got half way through War and Peace when it was televised but lost interest when the series finished. I may try it again this year!

A Pilgrim's Progress. I just can't.

I took about four run ups to get through LotR, and think my eyes skipped some paragraphs in self defence. I had one of the versions with all three books together and a typeface designed for ants.

I won't read Les Mis again unless I buy an abridged version. I don't need that much knowledge of the sewer system of Paris. I liked the idea behind Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel but didn't think that there was enough plot for the amount of pages!

When I was a young child I sometimes had trouble getting to sleep. My grandmother used to read Pilgrim's Progress to me. It always worked.

I quite liked most of these mentioned but not Ulysses

Lord of the Rings. Shadow of the Wind. Sarum. I just couldn't be bothered.

And For whom the Bell tolls.

I loved Middlemarch but have to agree that the first 300 (in my cheap Wordsworth edition!) pages are deadly boring. A lot of it is scene setting and musing about a young Church of England clergyman’s way of life.
The first actually serves a purpose because it makes the characters’ hidden, private lives all the more shocking. The second IMO, is just the writer reflecting on her father’s (?) life experience. I may be wrong about that, though!

So once you have a clear idea of who’s who, skip a large chunk of the book!

My nemesis?
I give up so easily on books that I can’t say. Life's too short.
Or maybe it’s my attention span...