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?

Some truly awful thing called Christopher Unborn, can't remember who it was by. Totally unreadable, gave up on page 2.

Otherwise, I find Dickens boring, and James Joyce annoying and mannered, but I have forced myself managed to read through to the end of their stuff.

Sort of got halfway through The Alexandria Quartet and even that was a struggle.

Middlemarch for me too,but in my case it was that I just couldn't seem to care what happened to any of the characters. Perhaps I should try again...

One of the few books I didn't finish was Vernon God Little. found it tedious but DH and DS loved it.

If you gave up on Captain Corelli - do try again. I almost gave up after a couple of chapters but DH persuaded me to keep going and it was well worth it.

I suffer from the Curse of Mastermind - 'I've started to I'll finish....' which has meant I have spent too long on awful books expecting them to get better. Stand up dave Eggers !!

captain Corelli - you have to get about 1/3 of the way in before it gets fab.

But as get older I agree with whoever said life it too short.. so I gave up on

Cloud Atlas

I can't agree with Captain Corelli, I struggled through and didn't enjoy a bit of it.

Mine would be Ulysses, managed half I think, then lost all momentum.

The Silmarillion, I'm pretty sure there's virtually no punctuation, but I could be wrong. That's how interesting it was.

Crime and Punishment, I nearly made it through, but surely that book should be 10 chapters shorter anyway? I just wanted to shout 'I GET THE POINT' at the pages after a bit.(Not advisable in a public place I can tell you....)

Currently limping through Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, but may finally be cracking it as have staggered to just over halfway. Bookmark is train ticket from last year's summer holiday... Other impenetrable volumes were Doris Lessing The Syrian Experiments and something by Woolf (can't even remember what). I can't get over the feeling that I have to struggle on to the bitter end, but I've never picked up another Lessing or Woolf, and Angela Carter may be going the same way - when I do finally finish this marathon. Wouldn't touch LOTR, but did read Ulysses some years ago, also Crime and Punishment, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Middlemarch - and The Hobbit when I was 8 and off school because I sprained my ankle!

I'm reading Middlemarch ATM. I started with story tapes and then am finishing with the book!

Cannot get into Diana Gabaldon - have some book the size of a brick DH bought me because I like reading and he thought the bigger the better. Is not the start of the series and makes no sense.

I'm thinking of audio books for middlemarch. I 'read' loads of unabridged novels when I had a really long drive to work.

Ulysses by James Joyce - I hate giving up on books but this one was just beyond me. Life is too short!

I gave up on "100 years of solitude". I think it'll be another 100 years before I attempt it again.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is soooooo bleak and nothing actually happens.

News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (sp no doubt ) - I made it to about 50 pages from the end but it's so impenetrable I couldn't get over the line.

Surprised at the number of votes for Catch 22, I read it when I was a teenager and really loved it.

for the most part, I found "The Road" compelling, but also a bit monotonous at times, wondered whether that was intentional? Thankfully it was short enough to get through whether the repetitiveness was intentional or not!

can i nominate an audio book wuthering heights narrated by martin shaw threw a book at it 2 minutes after it started yes i do get the irony

Talking of Marquez, I have also given up on 'Love in the time of cholera' but may make another attempt on that.

When I've finished Middlemarch.

Oh, I loved 'The Road'. And Middlemarch. And pretty much anything by Marquez.

I bloody hated Tristram Shandy, though. I had to study it for my degree and it was a struggle, I tell you. I still shudder at the thought of it. Pretentious, unfunny guff.

I find most Ian McEwan a struggle to get through. As a rule, I throw Martin Amis novels down a third of the way through in disgust. I tried reading a few 'Richard and Judy reccomends' books once as an experiemnt. That bloody Cloud Atlas and The Time Traveller's Wife.

Whatdda loada shit.

Oh god, is Mumsnet discreet?

Oh, and there is one that I really wanted to like, called 'Blonde Roots' by the lovely Bernadine Evaristo. But I just cannot get past the first third or so. Really hard work.

There should be an uncaught by Catch 22 club - I couldn't get on with it either, and quickly abandoned. Also had big problems with Heart of Darkness and Underworld, although I intend to return to both (someday).

oh no, I've just bought Blonde Roots

Catch 22 is BRILLIANT, but you really need to stick with it

Ulysses
Orlando

Loved catch 22 and loved Captain corelli from the first page.

Catch 22

White Teeth - absolute rubbish. what was all the fuss about?

another White Teeth here....

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

With all it's awards and glittering reviews, I got completely bored of it. I found it very hard going and tedious. I would like to finish it one day though..