Books that have defeated you

[Queenoftheharpies]

Middlemarch.

I've tried reading it three times now, and enjoyed it right up to the point where Dorothea gets engaged to Casaubon. And then, for no reason hit a stumbling block.

It's always the same point in the story as well. I think it's when there's some protracted discussion of the corn laws / agricultural practice.

Has anyone else encountered this? A book you really want to finish but that just defeats you?

White Teeth; Zadie Smith - I read about half of it and couldn't force myself to continue it was so rubbish. I think that is the only one... oh, except the random Krishna book that I found and started reading - but even that was better than White Teeth

minesacheeseandpicklesandwich well maybe... but my TBR pile is 30 or 40 books high at the moment, and growing by the week

Babbity Then, whilst you're waiting to get around to it, may I recommend you don't watch the film, thinking it might help - it's awful!!!

Am glad it's not just me who failed with Cranford

I got about 2/3 way through and then couldn't be arsed

American Psycho - just could not turn the pages.

Anything by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Can't you skip a couple of chapters (and yes the agri-bits of Middlemarch are dull) and get on with the rest of the book?

There are books that have defeated me but tbh they were never books I wanted to read - only those I had to read for courses etc. Clarissa, for instance. And just about EVERY eighteenth century novel apart from Gulliver's Travels.

Libra, it is written by someone with the initials CS- I assumed it was you (because you mentioned you gave lectures on this topic and it's pretty specialist)- then again, I might be confusing you with another libra on here?

I read more than anyone I know, but the majority of 'good' books I don't bother with as they hold no interest for me.
Stuff I have actually given up on incudes:
Tolkien (far too twee and fusty)
Dune (managed about a page)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (it's blatantly obvious from about page 2 that nothing intersting is going to happen).

LOTR

Crime and Punishment

Hemingway

THE FAMISHED ROAD by Ben Okri - even though I was supposed to read it for professional reasons, I'm afraid I just couldn't.

I gave up on THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James.

Haven't even attempted ULYSSES. It has a reputation for this, doesn't it?

crime and punishment. I have now definitively given up trying to read to the end.

The Hobbit (any of those Tolkein books)

I am defeated as soon as I see those maps and explantions in the opening pages.

I thought 'great they made a film instead..' But then all that yackety yack about middle earth and rings for hours. Nah.

Oh, that's a shame re CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. I found it gripping. Very chilling. G'wan, give it another go!

Haha, yes, I hate LOTR. I only finally knuckled down and read it just before the film came out. But I did, at least, finish it, grumbling throughout about the turgid prose, ludicrous plot and trite characterization.

I guess if I can tackle umpteen pages of tom fecking bombadil, the corn laws ought not to be that much of a stumbling block...

Fahrenheit 451... just.... boring
Schindlers Ark - just couldn't be arsed, but I tried (a bit)
Catch 22 - yawn
Googlewhack Adventure - bought based on the reviews, got to about 1/3 of the way through and decided it was the most pure unadulterated tripe and gave it away

ha, QotH - I just saw your thread title and clicked through to say "Middlemarch" myself. I read a lot and am a literary type, but I just couldn't get past the first 100 pages. Glad it's not just me

PfftTheMagicDragon - I agree with Coupland. Why o why do I keep buying the latest one?

And Salleroo - everyone I know who has read Hitchhikers ... has raved about it. I'm with you I just don't get it.

Right, I must think of my own ones now.

I loved Middlemarch! But I had to do it for A level, so I guess it was kill or cure.

Have tried to read Captain Corelli's bloody Mandarin 4 times now and can't get past the first 2 or 3 chapters. Affected, pretentious twaddle.

Captain Corelli does get much better though.

A Dance To The Music Of Time (part 1 - it horrifies me to think there are three more to go).

It's not that it's badly written - it's well written. I just fundamentally can't give a fuck about it. I'll put it down and then have no urge whatever to pick it back up again.

Oh and Ulysses, obviously.

Anything that's been written by Jodie Picoult. I know she's a bestselling author, but crikey, she writes shit.

Don Quixote.

Took me over a year to get 2/3 of the way through, before giving up in sheer desolation at the repetitive-ness.

Tried to read the Hobbit years ago and gave up, but recently read LOTR and enjoyed it so gave Hobbit another go.

Nope, still can't get into it.

Agree with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance - just didn't get it.
Managed Rushdies last one The Princess of Wotsit. Had to force myself though, terribly wordy.

Tristram Shandy, by Lawrence Stearne