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I was thinking about those books that you try to get through and read for one reason or another, but in the end abandon. You could be trying to read it because its a literary classic, or came highly recommended by a friend who really wanted you to read the book, but you just could never get interested and ending up stopping part way through.

For me the book is Anna Karenina. I have tried to read it many times because i was told again and again how it was a classic, a must read, and i was shamed by friends for not loving it. But try as i might i get around a quarter of the way through the book and i can't force myself to read any more. I have friends who loved hte book and rave about the reasons why its so amazing, but try as i might i could never get even a little interested in the story.

Every time i see one of those "100 books you must read before you die" type lists Anna Karenina is almost always on the list, and so every few years i try to get interested in it again but fail.

So what book or even book series did you really try to get interested in or finish, but in the end abandoned because you never got interested by it?

I'm gonna hear crap from this, but Dune. I've never read the series, because the first book is so slow and convulated that I can't get through it. Everyone keeps saying how much they love it, but I can't do it :\

05/16/2011 12:56 PMPosted by Drësden

I'm gonna hear crap from this, but Dune. I've never read the series, because the first book is so slow and convulated that I can't get through it. Everyone keeps saying how much they love it, but I can't do it :\

I love Dune, but I can see why someone might have trouble getting into it. Sometimes a story just doesn't click with everyone.

Erickson's Malazan series.

I just keep hearing how the next book will be better...How many boring books does one need to read before a series lives up to the hype?

Dune I liked, at least the first three books.

Got no problem with the Russian novels.

Not familiar with the Malazan series.

The ones I was supposed to like and couldn’t were:

Catch-22
Read it when I was very young, perhaps I would like it more now.
Parts of it were hilarious but much of it struck me as simply pretentious at the time.

Lord of the flies
The actual main premise is BS, and that made it hard to take seriously.

The great Gatsby
A story about people I could not care about even if they were real, sort of the same way I disliked Seinfeld; I know asses and jerks in real life, I see nothing funny about them and don’t need to see any more of them when I’m looking for entertainment.

The Name of the Wind. I keep hearing how it's the best thing since sliced bread but it's just so slow and boring.

Frankenstein.

The Giver.

Should probably try both again since it's been years since I took a look at them; the way Frankenstein is presented as a series of letters is fascinating, but for the love of SANITY I could not slog through it when I tried.

The first third or so of Name of the Wind is slow and boring, but when it picks up it REALLY picks up--after Kvothe gets out of Tarbean, really. If you haven't gotten that far yet, I'd definitely recommend you give it another try.

For me, Gone with the Wind was just impossible--though I haven't tried reading it in a few years. Personally, I find that my taste changes with age.

I definitely recommend giving Frankenstein another chance. I agree that the epistolary form takes some time to get used to; however, once I got a quarter of the way through I couldn't stop reading.

I'm a literature grad student so getting through the occasional dull and convoluted novel is a must, but there have been a few that I could not trudge through in my personal time. I couldn't get through Henry IV part 1, and I've tried three times to read The Hobbit before giving up on the series. (Tomten, I totally agree with you about The Great Gatspy.)

Pride & Prejudice

I get a quarter of the way through it and just can't stop thinking "1800s Twilight".

05/16/2011 05:17 PMPosted by Taveria

The Name of the Wind. I keep hearing how it's the best thing since sliced bread but it's just so slow and boring.

Fantasy-wise, it's actually a fairly easy read I thought, and keeps things moving at a good pace. Perhaps the beginning is just slower than the rest of this work.

Dune I liked, at least the first three books.

Got no problem with the Russian novels.

Not familiar with the Malazan series.

The ones I was supposed to like and couldn’t were:

Catch-22
Read it when I was very young, perhaps I would like it more now.
Parts of it were hilarious but much of it struck me as simply pretentious at the time.

Lord of the flies
The actual main premise is BS, and that made it hard to take seriously.

The great Gatsby
A story about people I could not care about even if they were real, sort of the same way I disliked Seinfeld; I know asses and jerks in real life, I see nothing funny about them and don’t need to see any more of them when I’m looking for entertainment.

Re-read Catch-22. It's simply one of the best books ever written. You just have to give it another look over. You're older, more mature, and I'm sure you'll find it to be quite sophisticated whilst holding tons of comedic value.

LotF - really? Such a great book as well. A premise is just a premise, I mean - if you were cool with Dune how is this so out of the question? :P

Did you just diss Seinfeld? I'm horrified. You're confusing.
That show is sheer brilliance in a cup of soup. Or something like that.

... do you really dislike Seinfeld? Really?

I managed to push through it, but there were large sections of the Lord of the Rings trilogy that made me painfully aware every second that I was reading over a thousand pages. The passage where Frodo and Sam are climbing the stairs into Mordor is one I remember, it felt as if I was doing all that climbing myself.
Oddly enough, I had no problem with The Hobbit a few years before that.

David Eddings I just couldn't get into them. I don't know if it was the fact that my ex liked them so much or just the writing style wasn't for me.

I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but: George R R Martins "A Song of Fire and Ice" series.

I've read the first two books. I'm so tired of them already. All the main characters get killed, maimed, or otherwise tragically harmed. To be honest, that should make it exiting. Instead, it just make me less attached to them. That makes me less attached to the whole story. In the end, I stopped caring if the characters developed at all, since they were all going to be horribly mutilated anyway.

I managed to push through it, but there were large sections of the Lord of the Rings trilogy that made me painfully aware every second that I was reading over a thousand pages. The passage where Frodo and Sam are climbing the stairs into Mordor is one I remember, it felt as if I was doing all that climbing myself.
Oddly enough, I had no problem with The Hobbit a few years before that.

I read The Hobbit some years back and it seemed like a good pace, but now that I picked up the LotR, I'm finding it a bit difficult to truck through this one.

05/16/2011 12:56 PMPosted by Drësden

I'm gonna hear crap from this, but Dune. I've never read the series, because the first book is so slow and convulated that I can't get through it. Everyone keeps saying how much they love it, but I can't do it :\

Just started Dune about a week ago.

Normally im a voracious reader, but im only about 120 pages into Dune after a week.

And i am completely lost, i dont understand anything that is going on yet.

I am thrown into a universe with different rules, and nothing has been explained even slightly yet.