Books We Never Finished

[Zola]

"The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Following on from the wonderful "The Hobbit" and "LOTR" books, I was expecting  much the same with The Silmarillion, thinking it would be some form of sequel to LOTR. 

But alas after negotiating my way through the first few pages it became apparent it was more a book of historical anecdotes and short essays covering the highlights of Middle Earth during the Eldar Days. The book is much like trying to piece together a jigsaw,  or painting-by-numbers, but without the aid of a final picture to give you some guidance.  

But I guess my impatient teenage mind at the time (ten years ago), just couldn't see the wood for the trees; I was desperately looking for a story within all the fables, songs and poems etc, for me to hang on to. But I just gave up and put the book back on the shelf.

I have gone back to it three or four times with fresh perspectives over the years, but try as I might I still can't get past the first few pages. Which is unfortunate because from what I have read on Goodreads, it is an excellent book by and large, but requires a lot of patience and determination to get through it.

I will probably try again next year, but I have a sneaking suspicion it will end up back on my bookshelf ready for another coating of dust!

[Haleth]

It's not an easy read by any means and really does need to be read several times to be understood.  Tolkien deliberately used archaic language to suggest the book is a translation of an ancient text.  Plus it doesn't help that all the names are so similar so the casual reader can't tell his Fingon from his Fingolfin.  It does have a larger storyline though that connects all the individual tales.  After a lengthy setup, once the various races are in place it's a beautiful epic of good striving against evil, and some of the stories are glorious.  If you do manage to get through it, reread LOTR and see how much of the backstory now makes more sense.

5 hours ago, Zola said:

The book is much like trying to piece together a jigsaw,  or painting-by-numbers, but without the aid of a final picture to give you some guidance.  

The final picture is LOTR.  It all leads to the destruction of the ring.  (Spoiler, heh.)

All that said, I do get that it's not for everyone.  (My personal favorite though.  My avatar is a minor character.)

[Zola]

1 hour ago, Haleth said:

It's not an easy read by any means and really does need to be read several times to be understood.  Tolkien deliberately used archaic language to suggest the book is a translation of an ancient text.  Plus it doesn't help that all the names are so similar so the casual reader can't tell his Fingon from his Fingolfin.  It does have a larger storyline though that connects all the individual tales.  After a lengthy setup, once the various races are in place it's a beautiful epic of good striving against evil, and some of the stories are glorious.  If you do manage to get through it, reread LOTR and see how much of the backstory now makes more sense.

The final picture is LOTR.  It all leads to the destruction of the ring.  (Spoiler, heh.)

All that said, I do get that it's not for everyone.  (My personal favorite though.  My avatar is a minor character.)

 

Thanks for clarifying. I have read elsewhere that this particular book is perhaps Tolkien's finest and most complete work, while at the same time being the least accessible to the average reader. And you're right with the name similarities don't exactly help either. I recall on a failed second or third attempt at reading the book, I started making notes of places, names, dates etc, just so that I could keep everything in note form to help me along. But alas I still gave up. 

However, all is not lost, because I have noticed on Amazon.co.uk an audio CD version, which would certainly help (sometimes listening trumps reading, and this could well be one of those moments)

[OtterMommy]

Hamilton by Ron Chernow.  I have no problem with biographies and history, but I realized I'd rather just listen to the cast album.

[Neko]

The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James.  I tried, but I just couldn't get through it.  Maybe it was just too Victorian for my personal taste.

[surreysmum]

Back in the late '70s, my Women's Literature prof assigned the entire "Pilgrimage" novel sequence by Dorothy Richardson. It's stream-of-consciousness of the most dire, dense kind. I wasn't nearly old enough or patient enough to cope with it then, but I've periodically come back to it to try to fight my way through to the end. My falling-apart 4-volume paperback edition (with risible pictures of 70s blonde-haired models on the covers) has been read to the end of volume 3...  Well, maybe after I retire volume 4 will finally be defeated!

[SlovakPrincess]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:  just too violent and grim for me.  Tried to get through it for a book club, finally just said "nope, I'm out" after the second graphic rape scene.  Just ... why do I need this in my life?

 

The Count of Monte Cristo: this isn't a book you can put down for a while and easily get back into.  The problem for me is the transition part after the Count escapes the Tower d'If, and starts plotting his revenge ... but he puts his plan in action by going through all these random young noble men, who are kind of boring and frivolous, and who are only tangentially connected to the people he really wants to take down.   Which is fine -- except that I would hit a busy period in my life, put the book aside for a month, and then realize I'd forgotten who all the young noble men were and why the Count was sending them calling cards and whatnot.  

 

I very nearly gave up on Dracula in the last quarter of it, but stuck with it.  The characters spend an insane amount of time trying to track down boxes of dirt near the end of the book ... like, seriously a lot of chapters devoted to talking to various workmen to find Dracula's boxes o' dirt.   And the whole book is written in the different characters' journal entries, so it's like: "Dear journal, alas we did not find the dirt again today.  Tomorrow we will ask the workmen on the next street over if they've seen big boxes of dirt.  Oh, and Mina still looks pale today ..."   Pages and pages of this.  

Edited March 22, 2018 by SlovakPrincess

[blueray]

On 10/29/2017 at 2:53 AM, Zola said:

"The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Following on from the wonderful "The Hobbit" and "LOTR" books, I was expecting  much the same with The Silmarillion, thinking it would be some form of sequel to LOTR. 

But alas after negotiating my way through the first few pages it became apparent it was more a book of historical anecdotes and short essays covering the highlights of Middle Earth during the Eldar Days. The book is much like trying to piece together a jigsaw,  or painting-by-numbers, but without the aid of a final picture to give you some guidance.  

But I guess my impatient teenage mind at the time (ten years ago), just couldn't see the wood for the trees; I was desperately looking for a story within all the fables, songs and poems etc, for me to hang on to. But I just gave up and put the book back on the shelf.

I have gone back to it three or four times with fresh perspectives over the years, but try as I might I still can't get past the first few pages. Which is unfortunate because from what I have read on Goodreads, it is an excellent book by and large, but requires a lot of patience and determination to get through it.

I will probably try again next year, but I have a sneaking suspicion it will end up back on my bookshelf ready for another coating of dust!

Same here. My brother got it for me for my birthday knowing that I loved reading/watching LOTR's. But I could make it through the first couple of pages. Seriously it felt like it was written in Elivish lol. I still have it on a book shelf but I never attempted to read it again.

Edited March 29, 2018 by blueray

[Joe]

Yeah, the start of the Silmarillion is pretty tough going. I've read it twice, but kind of let it just wash over me. Further on it eases up a little.

[Zola]

13 hours ago, Joe said:

Yeah, the start of the Silmarillion is pretty tough going. I've read it twice, but kind of let it just wash over me. Further on it eases up a little.

So do you think its worth reading in full? I feel rather guilty letting it sit on my bookshelf gathering dust, but try as I might I really just don't have the inclination to go back to that book again

[Joe]

1 hour ago, Zola said:

So do you think its worth reading in full? I feel rather guilty letting it sit on my bookshelf gathering dust, but try as I might I really just don't have the inclination to go back to that book again

The whole thing is essentially a story summary that the author never finished. The prose is a little stiffer than LOTR the whole way through. But it's easier by the time  the elves pop up. I feel it's worth another shot, but I can see how it would be unappealing.

And there's one chapter that just made me incredibly sad. After finishing it, I didn't touch the book for a few days, and I haven't been able to reread it. If anyone is all GRRM! Grimdark! I say, Turin.

[Zola]

On 30/03/2018 at 4:44 PM, Joe said:

The whole thing is essentially a story summary that the author never finished. The prose is a little stiffer than LOTR the whole way through. But it's easier by the time  the elves pop up. I feel it's worth another shot, but I can see how it would be unappealing.

And there's one chapter that just made me incredibly sad. After finishing it, I didn't touch the book for a few days, and I haven't been able to reread it. If anyone is all GRRM! Grimdark! I say, Turin.

Okay, thanks for the summary. I will try to summon up enough interest to give it another try now that I know this isn't a straightforward A-B story-arc. Although I doubt its the kind of book that grip my attention for more than perhaps an hour at a time. But I owe to Tolkien to stick with it to the very end. 

[HawkeyeLo]

Ah, I've found my people! I was just thinking about this and wondered if there was a thread, and of course there is. :) The Silmarillion is great if you like world-building, but I think it's one of those where you need a chunk of time to get into it before you get rolling.

Glad I'm not the only person to struggle with Wilkie Collins. My friend lent me The Moonstone several years ago, and it was the first book I ever failed to finish. I can push through almost anything, but it was just so boring.

But I don't think I've ever hated a book as much as I hated Michael Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White. Can't figure out why Emily Gilmore liked it so much! The writing, the characters, the length--all terrible. I say this as someone who read an 800-page bio of Edith Wharton and found War and Peace delightful, but it needed to be half the length to be remotely palatable. I quit 300 pages in and didn't even care what happened.

[Mindthinkr]

5 minutes ago, HawkeyeLo said:

Glad I'm not the only person to struggle with Wilkie Collins. My friend lent me The Moonstone several years ago, and it was the first book I ever failed to finish. I can push through almost anything, but it was just so boring.

My fiend and I have been passing back the Woman in White back and forth. Such wordage that goes on and on. Funny how he admired and had counsel from Dickens yet makes it so much tougher. MMV 

[Zola]

4 hours ago, HawkeyeLo said:

Ah, I've found my people! I was just thinking about this and wondered if there was a thread, and of course there is. :) The Silmarillion is great if you like world-building, but I think it's one of those where you need a chunk of time to get into it before you get rolling.

Glad I'm not the only person to struggle with Wilkie Collins. My friend lent me The Moonstone several years ago, and it was the first book I ever failed to finish. I can push through almost anything, but it was just so boring.

But I don't think I've ever hated a book as much as I hated Michael Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White. Can't figure out why Emily Gilmore liked it so much! The writing, the characters, the length--all terrible. I say this as someone who read an 800-page bio of Edith Wharton and found War and Peace delightful, but it needed to be half the length to be remotely palatable. I quit 300 pages in and didn't even care what happened.

It certainly is a challenging read, and to be honest I have read similar opinions on other forums, particularly Tolkien forums, where a lot of fans came in open eyed and bushy tailed thinking "The Silmarillion" would be another epic storyline that would somehow bridge gaps between The Hobbit and LOTR, or act as prequel or sequel to either respectively.

So I am not alone in my frustration , but I will persevere (although I have said that previously and failed) 

[WritinMan]

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Both are too damned long and in serious need of a good editor. I even tried the audiobooks for both.

More recently Freedom(TM) by Daniel Suarez. The first book in this series--Daemon--was very good, but I thought this was just pretty silly.

Edited April 3, 2018 by WritinMan

[MaggieG]

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. I only made it 60 pages. I did not like the characters and it felt pretentious.

The Girl in the Spider's Web. I liked The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. I read the next two books as well, I didn't enjoy them as much as the first one but they were ok. TGWTDT was more contained and even though it was violent, I did enjoy the mystery/investigation storyline. For some reason I could not get through the Spider's web. 

[OtterMommy]

3 hours ago, MaggieG said:

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. I only made it 60 pages. I did not like the characters and it felt pretentious.

 

I did finish this, but I wish that I hadn't.  Admittedly, the last 40% is better than the first 60%, but the it was so much better that it made reading the first part worth it.

[Haleth]

On 4/11/2018 at 3:31 PM, MaggieG said:

The Girl in the Spider's Web. I liked The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. I read the next two books as well, I didn't enjoy them as much as the first one but they were ok. TGWTDT was more contained and even though it was violent, I did enjoy the mystery/investigation storyline. For some reason I could not get through the Spider's web. 

I absolutely agree.  I did finish it but thought the new writer did the series no favors.  It was terrible.

[Athena]

For me, the new writer of The Girl in the Spider's Web and the series does not have Larsson's pacing and ability to integrate the character and plot. The original trilogy is very character and plot driven; the two are intertwined. The new series feels like the protagonists are less involved which is more typical of murder mysteries, but it removes a lot of what made the original series so addictive and interesting. I say that as someone who also liked the first book, didn't enjoy the other two as much, but I understood why those books sold as well as they did.

[Danny Franks]

I got halfway through The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar, before I just gave up. All the 'literary' writing quirks apparently fooled critics into thinking this was some deep, powerful, important story. It wasn't. It was paper-thin characterisation, garbled plot and a bunch of pulp fiction tropes thrown into a terribly designed framework.

[Bill1978]

After finally succumbing to the TV show, I thought I might try reading A Game of Thrones. It was going alright until 2 things occurred. The first was me realising the author had no intentions of finishing the series before the TV show concluded and secondly I wasn't interested in reading many of the character's chapters. I had like maybe 3 characters I cared about learning what they were thinking and the rest just did not interest me. So I stopped halfway through the book and have yet to pick it back up 2 years later.

[Minneapple]

1 hour ago, Bill1978 said:

After finally succumbing to the TV show, I thought I might try reading A Game of Thrones. It was going alright until 2 things occurred. The first was me realising the author had no intentions of finishing the series before the TV show concluded and secondly I wasn't interested in reading many of the character's chapters. I had like maybe 3 characters I cared about learning what they were thinking and the rest just did not interest me. So I stopped halfway through the book and have yet to pick it back up 2 years later.

George RR Martin will never finish Game of Thrones. If we’re lucky we’ll get a sixth book, but there is no way the seventh book is happening. 

The first three books of the series are good, but the fourth and fifth really draaaaag on. Like, a lot. Like I would find myself skimming and then reading a plot point and being all “wha?” and having to go back and reread to find out how he got there.

[Bill1978]

4 hours ago, Minneapple said:

The first three books of the series are good, but the fourth and fifth really draaaaag on.

I do wonder if I had read the books before watching the TV series if I could have at least finished the first book. By the time I started reading I had already formed opinions on all the characters and had those I was invested in regarding their stories and others I didn't give two hoots about, so if I went in reading the book clueless maybe I would have enjoyed more of the characters POVs

[DearEvette]

8 hours ago, Bill1978 said:

I do wonder if I had read the books before watching the TV series if I could have at least finished the first book. By the time I started reading I had already formed opinions on all the characters and had those I was invested in regarding their stories and others I didn't give two hoots about, so if I went in reading the book clueless maybe I would have enjoyed more of the characters POVs

I am one of the ones who read the books first and can probably say this might be the case. But then again, I read the first three books years before there was even a thought of the tv show and had always counted the series as one of my favorite epic, military fantasy series.  So I had the opposite problem.  I had a fair amount of investment in the book characters and  couldn't really get into the tv show.  I will say, I think the first season came the closest to it's corresponding book and the casting is so spot on that I actually watched most of the first season.  And I did watch the Red Wedding just to see how that'd translate on screen. 

[Brn2bwild]

Struggling through Hamilton... I'm more than halfway through, but at the moment, it's just a list of things Hamilton did after he stopped being a Secretary of the Treasury, and it's tedious.  If this were the musical, I would be at the point between "The Reynolds Pamphlet" and Phillip's death.

(Btw, I was expecting TRP to be a much bigger deal, but the author's treatment was almost dismissive, aka "Oh, no big deal, Eliza forgave him.")

[proserpina65]

On ‎10‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 10:44 PM, Minneapple said:

George RR Martin will never finish Game of Thrones. If we’re lucky we’ll get a sixth book, but there is no way the seventh book is happening. 

The first three books of the series are good, but the fourth and fifth really draaaaag on. Like, a lot. Like I would find myself skimming and then reading a plot point and being all “wha?” and having to go back and reread to find out how he got there.

Oh god, yes.  I got to the point with book 5 and Tyrion's endless travelogue where I saw his name and sighed, knowing it would be a struggle.  Book 4 had a couple of characters whose stories I found worth following, but there were also plenty of dull spots there, too.  The man desperately needs an editor who actually does their job.

Edited October 4, 2018 by proserpina65

[Hanahope]

On 10/2/2018 at 10:44 PM, Minneapple said:

George RR Martin will never finish Game of Thrones. If we’re lucky we’ll get a sixth book, but there is no way the seventh book is happening. 

The first three books of the series are good, but the fourth and fifth really draaaaag on. Like, a lot. Like I would find myself skimming and then reading a plot point and being all “wha?” and having to go back and reread to find out how he got there.

I have no intention of buying the sixth book.  at most, i'll borrow from a libary.  it still pisses me off that I paid near full price for the 5th.  at least I had gotten 1-4 via a kindle sale shortly before the tv show.

[Joe]

The Dragon's Legacy, by Deborah A Wolf. Interesting premise, decent back cover blurb. However, it's just incredibly boring. As with many books, it has a decent opening chapter. Have to trick the readers into thinking it's good. But then the pace slows down, she shows off all her worldbuilding. Very little happens in the next few chapters. Then the pace picks up from glacial to sloth. Nearly makes it all the way to snail. Perhaps by the end it reaches tortoise, but I don't bloody care.

One to avoid.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Joe

[Mystery]

On 4/2/2018 at 5:48 PM, WritinMan said:

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Ditto. And the friend who recommended usually has tastes that are extremely similar to mine. 

 

On 10/2/2018 at 7:44 PM, Minneapple said:

George RR Martin

I dropped out halfway through the second book, simply because it was killing me to go through all those misused semicolons. 

[Cherry Cola]

The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer. 

Very very boring.  

[SmithW6079]

Do book series count?

I liked the first three books in the Song of Ice and Fire series by Martin, but I couldn't finish  Feast of Crows, the fourth book. To be fair, I was reading it on a Kindle, and there are some books I absolutely hate reading electronically -- generally those with maps or family trees or casts of characters (anything that I like to refer to constantly). It was infuriating to try and "flip" back and forth on the Kindle to check on which character was which and then head back to the narrative.

I stopped reading the Harry Dresden series, because I found that while Butcher seemed to write "evil" female characters very well, he was not as proficient at creating "good" female characters, and that bothered me.

I never finished the fifth book in The Expanse series because I thought it was awful, and it reintroduced a character I absolutely despised. I have no interest in reading the rest of the books.

[scarynikki12]

I think book series totally count, especially since anyone who read any of the Song of Ice and Fire books qualifies.  If he'd just let a damn ghost writer take over and act as consultant the series could be done next week.

[Haleth]

On 10/27/2018 at 5:28 PM, SmithW6079 said:

Do book series count?

I liked the first three books in the Song of Ice and Fire series by Martin, but I couldn't finish  Feast of Crows, the fourth book. To be fair, I was reading it on a Kindle, and there are some books I absolutely hate reading electronically -- generally those with maps or family trees or casts of characters (anything that I like to refer to constantly). It was infuriating to try and "flip" back and forth on the Kindle to check on which character was which and then head back to the narrative.

...

I never finished the fifth book in The Expanse series because I thought it was awful, and it reintroduced a character I absolutely despised. I have no interest in reading the rest of the books.

That's ok.  Martin couldn't finish ASOIAF either.  Dammit.

I haven't gotten around to the final (?) Expanse book but I believe there's a time jump and the characters we know are not so much in the forefront anymore (which is why I haven't read it).  I could be wrong, but I think that's what I heard.  I KWYM about the despised character in the fifth book and totally agree.  It was hard to read that one.

For a truly outstanding series, read Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Cemetery of Forgotten Books.  I recently finished the fourth (and final) book and can say they are all exceptional atmospheric mysteries, full of witty dialog and interesting characters.  The way the author tied everything together at the end was mind blowing.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Haleth

[proserpina65]

On ‎10‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 8:50 AM, Haleth said:

That's ok.  Martin couldn't finish ASOIAF either.  Dammit.

LOL

 

From a review of A Dance With Dragons in the Christian Science Monitor: "Martin's prose is concise but pithy,"

Did she read the same book I did?

Edited November 1, 2018 by proserpina65

[annzeepark914]

I'm sure this will be unpopular but I got one chapter into Harry Potter and that was all I could take. It was the silly, childish sounding names (e.g., Dumbledore) that made me roll my eyes & slam the book shut.

Violence against women and/or children is another book slam for me. There is a book I closed after a couple chapters but intend to finish. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance had me so confused by the descriptions of the author's many redneck relatives (& their antics), that I was exhausted early on. However, a friend raved about this book. She said once you get past his early years, his life becomes very interesting.

[Brookside]

4 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

I'm sure this will be unpopular but I got one chapter into Harry Potter and that was all I could take. It was the silly, childish sounding names (e.g., Dumbledore) that made me roll my eyes & slam the book shut.

I did a little better than you in that I also read the last few pages.  I think my daughter still hasn't forgiven me for my hatred of it, despite my efforts to deconstruct its dreadfulness to her.

Edited March 30, 2019 by Brookside

[blackwing]

I am proud to say I made it through both Bleak House and Middlemarch and I consider them two of the most difficult books I have ever read.  Not surprised to see them mentioned in this thread, I get it completely.  I remember a professor saying that many considered Middlemarch to be perhaps the greatest novel in English literature, so I resolved to one day read it.  I typically bring a book into the steam room at the gym, the purpose is 1) to pass the time and 2) so I don't have to talk to anybody.  There was a time somewhere between 20 to 15 years ago that I remember that the books I chose were classics.  How I made it through both Bleak House and Middlemarch reading perhaps at most 10 pages a day, I have no idea.  In any event, I am sure I couldn't tell you anything about either of these books now.  I don't even remember the names of any of the characters.

I couldn't finish Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  I know she won the Man Booker prize and people rave about this book.  I am big on Tudor history and I really thought I would love this book.  I thought the writing was terrible.  Nothing really happens, it was seemingly just a bunch of conversations between people, half of whom were seemingly named Thomas and Mantel had this bad habit of never truly identifying which particular Thomas she was talking about.  She would just say "he" and I'd be flipping back trying to figure out which "he" she was referring to.  Couldn't stand it and it was really cathartic when I threw in the towel.

I couldn't finish Varina by Charles Frazier.  I loved his "Cold Mountain" which I read before the movie came out.  I remember loving the imagery and scenery and in particular the descriptions of the food.  I was about halfway through "Varina" when I realised I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on.  I couldn't even remember the characters or any details, it was just reading for the sake of reading.

On 4/26/2015 at 12:29 AM, Brn2bwild said:

Waverley by Sir Walter Scott.  Never heard of it?  Consider yourself lucky.  It was the only time I ever wrote a paper based on skimming a few passages here and there, because I absolutely could not stand to read it straight through.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens.  This is one that I do intend to finish because everyone says it's one of his best, but I've read about 100 pages and it's starting to drag.  I've never been a Dickens fan, even though I like Victorian lit in general. 

I loved "Ivanhoe" and I have always meant to read "Waverley".... hmmm.

On 10/3/2018 at 11:40 AM, DearEvette said:

I am one of the ones who read the books first and can probably say this might be the case. But then again, I read the first three books years before there was even a thought of the tv show and had always counted the series as one of my favorite epic, military fantasy series.  So I had the opposite problem.  I had a fair amount of investment in the book characters and  couldn't really get into the tv show.  I will say, I think the first season came the closest to it's corresponding book and the casting is so spot on that I actually watched most of the first season.  And I did watch the Red Wedding just to see how that'd translate on screen. 

Hah.  I don't think I had that problem by the time the TV show came out because I read the first book like 20 years ago and then it takes like at least 5 years in between the release of each book, so by the time the new book comes out I have forgotten everything that happened in the previous book.  I know over on the GoT threads there are people that were always comparing the events in the show with the events in the book and I couldn't even remember what happened in the books.  The only thing I recall with distinction that was a main difference from the books was that in the books after Catelyn was killed at the Red Wedding she got revived as a zombie.

I have a lot of hate for George RR Martin at not finishing the books, and I am pretty sure I have ranted on this in the appropriate GoT thread, but if he doesn't want to finish the books because he is too distracted with making money on other projects (the time he spent putting together this current "Fire and Blood" book could perhaps have been spent finishing the sixth book????) then he should just let someone else finish them.  Screw you George RR Martin!  

[Katy M]

10 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I am proud to say I made it through both Bleak House and Middlemarch and I consider them two of the most difficult books I have ever read.  Not surprised to see them mentioned in this thread, I get it completely.  I remember a professor saying that many considered Middlemarch to be perhaps the greatest novel in English literature, so I resolved to one day read it.  I typically bring a book into the steam room at the gym, the purpose is 1) to pass the time and 2) so I don't have to talk to anybody.  There was a time somewhere between 20 to 15 years ago that I remember that the books I chose were classics.  How I made it through both Bleak House and Middlemarch reading perhaps at most 10 pages a day, I have no idea.  In any event, I am sure I couldn't tell you anything about either of these books now.  I don't even remember the names of any of the characters.

I loved Bleak House. I loved the first half of Middlemarch, but the second half was just boring.  Adam Bede was much better, IMO.

Edited March 30, 2019 by Katy M

[CletusMusashi]

I love "Game of Thrones" but I will never even try to read another "Ice and Fire" book. After watching the first two seasons, I had the clever idea to buy the first two books. I'd read Martin before and liked his work, so what could go wrong?

Well, for one thing, he obviously doesn't believe in editing. In the first appearance, Tyrion's sitting on a table talking to Jon Snow and does a flying somersault off of it. Then Martin changes his mind and decides for the rest of the series that Tyrion is so deformed that he can hardly walk, but he never goes back and edits out the acrobatics. Or, in the early chapters, he uses the word "gambeson," (a thick linen piece of cheap medieval body armor, worn either by itself or under metal armor,) when he obviously means "surcoat," (a sort of over-the-armor uniform displaying the colors or symbols of one's army, order, or family.) That would be fine if he just kept on using the same terminology. I mean, it's an imaginary fantasy world. We're lucky they speak English at all. But toward the end of the first book, he's using the terminology correctly, which means he's learned he was wrong but doesn't fix it anyway because he doesn't really care. I could give other examples, but most of them are as pedantic as that one, so I'll move on.

Every single person who is fat, tall, or ugly is the fattest, tallest, or ugliest person that the character describing them has ever seen. All fat people are over five hundred pounds, and every newly-introduced tall person is fully a head taller than anyone else in the room. So by the time you've had like six tall guys walk into a big hall, apparently you've got characters who are like eleven feet tall or something, because GRRM does not remember or care how tall he's already made everybody else. And every minor character, every time they appear, has to have the history of their noble family and sigil explained, over and over and over again. And then when you get to the end of the book you see that there's a few pages that give you all that information anyway. Why not just put that shit at the beginning so I don't have to keep hearing about where Lord Karstark's grandfather bought his first pair of socks?

Every feast has to list every single item they eat, even though it seems to be the same two or three hundred items at every feast. And the tone itself is just... bad. A normal writer will say "Bob went to the market because he wanted to buy a new sword." A bad writer will say "Bob, son of Larry, son of Guido, son of of Egbert, son of Wilbur, son of Gilligan, son of Todd, son of Norman, went forth unto the great market square of Westopolis (because GRRM sucks at place-names) so that he might find a sword with which to uphold the honor of House Blahblah, whose symbol was a manatee smoking a cigar because of a long boring story that I will now spend eleven or twelve pages telling you about... When GRRM writes like a guy from the 20th century, I'm fine with him. I fucking love the "Wild Cards" series. But you know how stilted and fake a lot of actors get if you stick them into a sword and sorcery movie? That's what happened to GRRM in ASoIaF. Some writers just can't go medieval.

Edited March 30, 2019 by CletusMusashi

[dubbel zout]

12 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I am proud to say I made it through both Bleak House and Middlemarch

Middlemarch is taunting me in my tsundoku pile. Someone told me if you can get through the first hundred pages or so, it gets a lot easier. I'm not quite there yet, though, and as an English major I feel like I should read it, but I also slogged my way through War and Peace for that same reason. I didn't find myself any the better off for it. (I mean, it was an accomplishment simply because of its length, but that's not really something to crow about.)

15 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I loved "Ivanhoe" and I have always meant to read "Waverley".... hmmm.

Oh, I loved Ivanhoe, too. 

[festivus]

I read all the Ice and Fire books but I'll admit to skipping entire chapters if they were about the Greyjoys (except for Theon). Don't feel like I missed anything either. So technically that means I didn't finish the books so this post belongs here!

Edited March 30, 2019 by festivus

[peacheslatour]

I actually consigned The Crimson Petal and The White to the recycling bin. It was too sordid even for a horror fan like myself.

[Snow Apple]

58 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I actually consigned The Crimson Petal and The White to the recycling bin. It was too sordid even for a horror fan like myself.

I didn't finish either because I thought it was boring and the writing a bit twee. I had look forward to reading it too. I don't even remember the sordid or horror which shows how memorable it was for me. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Snow Apple

[peacheslatour]

30 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

I didn't finish either because I thought it was boring and the writing a bit twee. I had look forward to reading it too. I don't even remember the sordid or horror which shows how memorable it was for me. 

I agree, it was a bore. I couldn't bring myself to give two shits about any of the characters. 😪

[hanny isabel]

I'll reserve it and finish it after a long long time 

[Archery]

On ‎3‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 10:49 AM, blackwing said:

I couldn't finish Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  I know she won the Man Booker prize and people rave about this book.  I am big on Tudor history and I really thought I would love this book.  I thought the writing was terrible.  Nothing really happens, it was seemingly just a bunch of conversations between people, half of whom were seemingly named Thomas and Mantel had this bad habit of never truly identifying which particular Thomas she was talking about.  She would just say "he" and I'd be flipping back trying to figure out which "he" she was referring to.  Couldn't stand it and it was really cathartic when I threw in the towel.

I am honestly baffled about Wolf Hall.  I couldn't tell who the characters were at any given time -- and I love Tudor literature.  It was given to me as a gift when I was recuperating, and I ended up donating it to charity.  I finally did watch the miniseries, and it's probably the one time I can think of that the film/TV show was worlds better than the book. 

[rab01]

On 3/30/2019 at 1:07 PM, festivus said:

I read all the Ice and Fire books but I'll admit to skipping entire chapters if they were about the Greyjoys (except for Theon). Don't feel like I missed anything either. So technically that means I didn't finish the books so this post belongs here!

That's a good choice -- one of the Greyjoy scenes was why I stopped reading the series in the middle. 

[ilovethedark]

China Rich Girlfriend. I liked Crazy Rich Asians well enough, but Nick’s mom Eleanor continues to be insufferable in the worst way and her parts are such slogs to get through. Eleanor doesn’t  like Rachel since she’s not stupid rich but then suddenly she is but not really. Then there was the stupid car accident sub plot. I got to the point where I found everyone to be totally clueless or total assholes and it wasn’t fun anymore. 

It’s a bit like the Queen of Babble books, the first one is fun but each following book is just a retread of the first and you’re wondering way these people continue to make the same mistakes from the previous book. 

[Athena]

1 hour ago, ilovethedark said:

China Rich Girlfriend. I liked Crazy Rich Asians well enough, but Nick’s mom Eleanor continues to be insufferable in the worst way and her parts are such slogs to get through. Eleanor doesn’t  like Rachel since she’s not stupid rich but then suddenly she is but not really. Then there was the stupid car accident sub plot. I got to the point where I found everyone to be totally clueless or total assholes and it wasn’t fun anymore. 

Yeah that was a slog. I will say that the third book Rich People Problems is better and shifts the attention back to Singapore. I definitely preferred it over CRG. The books are fluff so I don't expect too much from them other than food and fashion descriptions.