Great books that you have never finished reading

[belgo]

Three books that I just cannot finish:

Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Freakonomics
Politics of Breastfeeding.

The second two I feel contained so much information that I just could not digest any more, but I certainly took a lot out of both of those books.

I don't know why I never finished the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it was great.

Which books have you never finished reading and feel vaguely guilty about it?

I just cannot get into Wolf Hall, have tried taking it on two different holidays to no avail. It has now travelled a total of over 12,000 miles with me and the sparks still ain't flying.

Cloud Atlas sat on my shelf for about 3 years but then I read it and loved it.

I never finished The Famished Road (not sure why), The Lord of the Rings (just got bored in the middle of vol. 2), or Dorothy L. Sayers' The Nine Tailors (loved it but had to abandon it in the holiday cottage in which I found it and would now have to start again).

Midnight's Children . After about six attempts I got to the end of chapter 1 and decided that was as good as finished. I. Just. Couldn't. Go. On.

White Teeth - too many exclamation marks and brackets and just too long.

The Time Traveller's Wife - dull and a little creepy.

Labyrinth - Nonsense.

Girl with a Pearl Earring - too hyped.

White Teeth was lent to me by my SIL, I haven't even opened it.

I loved Birdsong so I must be in a minority.

Birdsong, what is it about that book, i loved it, have read it twice now - well, i have read half of it twice now!!! I think its beautifully written too, so why cant i finish it.

The idiot by dostoyesky - that goes without saying that i could only get half way through that, again, loved the writing but too complicated with Russians seeming to have about twenty names they interchange randomly :)

Loved the Historian, just started "the swan theieves" by the same author but im not loving it yet.

I read anotehr book by sebastian faulks : human traces, about schizophrenia - that was brilliant and really easy to read, i just dont get what it is with Birdsong, i might give it anotehr go - i find i lose my engagement when it gets to the war bit, its a bit graphic for me

Loved Birdsong, but definitely liked the first half more.

Could never get more than a few pages into Catch 22, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and probably many more.

Never finished (and really want to) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, because I was house-sitting and kept lifting it off the bookshelf.

I have 13 books waiting to be read - because I haven't read anything other than pregnancy books for at least a year. Baby now 7 months and I have yet to find time or energy to indulge.

This thread has inspired me to make more effort.

The Finkler Question - really tried hard over Christmas as DH gave it to me, but I just cannot get into it at all and how I wish he'd bought me Jonathan Franzen's Freedom instead - I am way down on the library waiting list for that.

The Women's Room.

I started reading this when I was pregnant with ds1. He is nine now.

Lord of the Rings.
Just kept falling asleep everytime I tried to read this on my way home on the Tube.

I couldn't finish The Magus either, or The Historian (which I gave up because I thought it was just tripe and overly melodramatic)
Birdsong I liked, loved Midnights Children and 100 years of solitude.
Gave up on a Xmas pressie book too - The Santaland Diaries.
Anyone struggling with 'the Childrens Book' - my advice would be to put it to one side and read something else.
One 'serious' novel that I cannot finish though is Moby Dick.

War & Peace - the use of the patronymic names thoroughly confused me. I spent most of chapter 1 flipping back to see who was who, and in the end gave up out of sheer annoyance.

Catch 22 is a really overrated book. I found it incredibly dull and never bothered finishing it.

MayorNaze - I disagree that Hitchhikers Guide is cliched. It may seem that way - but only because it came out 30 years ago and has been hugely influential. At the time it was incredibly fresh and different.

Jane Eyre. I've tried reading it so many times yet have never finished it. Maybe one day!

Wuthuring Heights
Brick Lane
Anna Karenina
Atonement

Never finished Cancer ward by Solzhenitsin or however he spells it - went on the run and left it behind. Still never got beyond the bit in Captain Corelli's mandolin where the doctor fishes a pea out of an old man's ear. Loads of people have said it gets better 3 chapters in, but I can't find my copy of it - should I bother searching?

I barely started it too. Life too short for books I don't enjoy. Ditto anything by Virginia Woolf, miserable 'real' life books or recommended by Oprah!

Has anyone anywhere here managed to get all the way through Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace? I started it some time before DS was born (he is now 12), but I think only managed to get about 100 pages in - the book is 981 pages of very small print and then has another 100 pages of notes...

Then when the author died a couple of years ago the papers were full of articles about how he was one of the great writers of the 20th century, and this was his masterpiece, etc etc, and I couldn't help wondering how many of the writers of the articles had actually read the whole thing .

Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections.

To all those who didn't get through Wolf Hall, I completely understand. It's tough going - I got lost a number of times. I forced myself to finish it.

lalalonglegs - 'Midnight's Children . After about six attempts I got to the end of chapter 1 and decided that was as good as finished. I. Just. Couldn't. Go. On.'

I. Couldn't. Agree. More.

Unbelievably turgid, up-his-own-arse tosh.

Quite liked Birdsong, though.

I really, really want to get into War and Peace but can't get beyond the first chapter.

Never finished Vanity Fair.

Oh I liked Vanity Fair. And Birdsong. And A Suitable Boy. I can't bear not finishing a book, but ones that have taken longest were Doris Lessing's Briefing for a Descent into Hell (what an apt title!) and one by Virginia Woolf (can't remember which). I have subsequently vowed never to touch either of these authors again!

One of these days I am going to rewrite War and Peace with the names of the characters changed to Bob and Sue and Humphrey etc. I think it has actually got the potential to be a very good book.

The Mortdecai Trilogy I got because it was recommended on here, but the hero annoyed me so much that I've only read the first book.

Jayne Eyre - you must go back to it!!

Wolf Hall was lost on me. Won't try again

The Way We Live Now - Trollope - didn't get much through - will try again.

Midnights Childen - fab, but was in India that year it came out so it was a must.

Vikram Seth - The Golden Gate. Just before Suitable Boy. Fab book/poem.

overthehill - sorry you are editing out Lessing. the Canopus in Argos books are fabulous. Shikasta is dated and contemporary at the same time.

The Children's Book - I love AS Byatt but it got to the scene where she was about to have an affair and I thought from there on it was just going to be a bog-standard decline and fall

This is tough though, a lot of these I have read and loved and want to tell people to keep reading... Have not even mildly liked any of Sebastian Faulks stufff though (and have been persuaded to try about three) urghh

MrsMc I like your thinking! I loved war and peace but did write a list of characters and all the variants of their names in the front cover!