Anonymous wrote:Lord of the Rings. Hobbit.

I could never ever get past the heaviness of the language. That is the reason I was soooo very happy that the movies were made.

Huh. I loved the language. Everyone's different, I guess!

On the other hand, I've never been able to get through Dickens (and struggle with Jane Austin) because they just go on, and on, and on ... I've tried reading Bleak House a few times and I just can't do it. The first couple of chapters are entertaining, and then it gets bogged down and I just don't care. Austin doesn't get bogged down, but when people open their mouths they don't shut up for pages. I enjoy watching movie adaptations of her books, but I don't care for the books themselves.

Crime & Punishment
Wuthering Heights
The one by Henry James that was banned--I can't even remember the name
+1 for the Bible
+1 for The Lacuna -- and I love love love Barbara Kingsolver. (I also slogged through the Poisonwood Bible, but did make it to the end. Wouldn't do it again.)

I did make it through On the Road, back in my youth. Not sure how. Some of it was cool; some of it was like sandpaper on my corneas.

The fixer

A train in winter
Girl with the dragon tattoo
Reading Lolita in Tehran

Anonymous wrote:Wonder Boys, which pains me because I'm a huge Michael Chabon fan. I've tried three or four times and just can't do it.

I tried to read it too, but just couldn't get in to it. The movie is actually one of my all time favorites though, I could watch it over and over again. Love it.

Anonymous wrote:Life After Life.

It messed with my internal desire to just move the f$#k forward

I finished that book but truly despised it. I shouldn't have bothered finishing it. I am still irritated that I wasted my time on it (kind of similar to my much more intense feelings of annoyance at watching every episode of Lost, but I digress...).

Oh, more-

The sound and fury
Any book by James Joyce

The golden notebook
Under my skin
Look homeward, angel

And pretty much all the non fictions I tried

Anonymous wrote:Lord of the Rings. Hobbit.

I could never ever get past the heaviness of the language. That is the reason I was soooo very happy that the movies were made.

I loved Hobbit. Almost did not finish The Ring. It went on and on dragging through the dead marshes

Babbitt.

Anonymous wrote:Wonder Boys, which pains me because I'm a huge Michael Chabon fan. I've tried three or four times and just can't do it.

Me too! I love a bunch of his other novels (Telegraph Avenue, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Kavalier & Clay) but this one ... I just could not get through it.

+1 also on the people who could not finish The Corrections. I also could not get through his other book, "America." I just don't like his writing style, I guess -- I think it's pretentious and over-written, and just not fun at all.

As for The Goldfinch haters, I agree that this book seriously needed to be edited down, especially the second part that takes place in Vegas. But overall I enjoyed the book -- I found the sequence in the museum gripping, and I found parts of it to be very moving. The same goes for "Life After Life" -- I thought it was inventive, nicely written, and even kinda funny at times.

Now "Atonement" and "Saturday" -- I've tried and tried with Ian McEwan and I just cannot get into his work. A good friend raved about Saturday, called it a tour de force, but after a couple of chapters... snoozeville. I also cannot get down with David Foster Wallace. I was sorry to hear of his death, I've enjoyed some of his non-fiction, but Infinite Jest? The book was so bad I left it in a public park. Just left it. Couldn't even bear to haul the thing home with me.

For the Austen-hater: I too could not get into her novels for years and years, even though I have a dear friend who was always trying to talk me into it -- she is such a fan that she even went on a Jane Austen-themed travel package in the UK. Well, at some point, it was like a switch finally flipped -- I picked up "Emma" and have since worked my way through several of her novels, and enjoyed them. Surprise!

Wonder Boys, which pains me because I'm a huge Michael Chabon fan. I've tried three or four times and just can't do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On The Road - stopped pages from the end. Was so pointless and boring.

ha! it's like being on the road... gotta enjoy the journey...

I actually got into the handful of characters in On the Road. However, another reason I kept reading was to see how many ways the author could describe the burnt trash and grey ashes along the side of the road (I'm serious).

Anonymous wrote:On The Road - stopped pages from the end. Was so pointless and boring.

ha! it's like being on the road... gotta enjoy the journey...

Anonymous wrote:I have been trying to read The Night Circus for months and just can't get into it. It feels like I have been reading forever and I'm not even halfway through. Does it get better? I feel like nothing is happening and I just keep waiting for it to improve.....

Yeah, gets better, keep reading. I always thought it would make a good movie