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Post by Koalapupu on Aug 12, 2006 5:39:22 GMT -5
For a long time, I thought it was just good manners to finish a book. So I waded through all kinds of inane stories, until I got to college and decided not ever to read a book again if I don't like it. Stuff that I have discarded: The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Now, I know it's a classic, but goddamnit I never can finish it! We had to read it for a fiction class, and I just passed the test with the best grade because I listened to what the teacher said about it.  I tried re-reading it again this January, thinking I just needed to be mature to understand it. Again, I didn't even make it half-way through the jungle. For some reason it's a snorefest for me! Typee by Herman Melville Again, one of our fiction class must-reads. My experience was thus: *reads for 30 pages* "Look, we have finally emerged from the jungle!" *when the hell were they in the jungle???* Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer I bought the book after hearing so much about it but managed to read only a few first pages. It's still untouched in my bookshelf. Anybody want to convince me that it's a great book to read? For some reason, once books have a safe place in my shelf and I know I don't need to return them to the library with a reading deadline, they are also left unread. The Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller America sucks! Everything in the US sucks! The culture sucks! Henry Miller at his grumpiest. His whine-fest got way too much for me and I never finished the book. Bleah. Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt'n Blaubärs by Walter Möers It's in German. Nuff said :/ (I like the idea of the book, but it's so gigantic and the language hurts my brain! Embarassingly enough, it's a children's book...). Maybe one day! The Decamerone by Giovanni Bocaccio I read one story from it during school years and loved it, and then bought the whole book. Is there anyone who has actually read all the stories? So far I've read only that one. I think it'll be a mission of a sorts for me... When I remember more, I'll get back to you. Now, which books have you left unfinished? Or which should've been better left unread... |
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Post by matzy on Aug 12, 2006 7:20:46 GMT -5
lmao @ käpt'n blaubär ;D i hate him. but walter möers is extremely popular. i TRIED to read "moby dick" last year. didn't get very far. same goes for virginia woolf's "mrs dalloway". but - i have to say in defense - that english is not my mother tongue so that it does indeed take some time for me to read a book in english. "ulysses" was also extremely hard, but i managed. yay.  |
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Post by matzy on Aug 12, 2006 7:22:09 GMT -5
oh, and jenni - my brother LOVED "artemis fowl". and that's saying a lot since he's probably only read, like, 7 books in his entire life (so far).
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Post by elizabeth on Aug 12, 2006 9:12:25 GMT -5
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I read a lot of it, not really liking it the whole time.
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Post by mana on Aug 12, 2006 13:57:29 GMT -5
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer I bought the book after hearing so much about it but managed to read only a few first pages. It's still untouched in my bookshelf. Anybody want to convince me that it's a great book to read? For some reason, once books have a safe place in my shelf and I know I don't need to return them to the library with a reading deadline, they are also left unread. It is a good book. It has imaginative stuff there, underground people's system etc. And it has great characters, some are funny, some just nice and some crazy. I like Holly a lot but my favourite of them all is Foley, a paranoiac centaur who wears tin hat all the time so no one can read his mind.  I really like it, you should take it from your shelf now.  Hmm, I usually finish books I'm reading, I'm quite good choosing books that I like but a few I have left unfinished. One scifi book I remember, I just don't remember the author or the name now.  I thought it could be good but it was boooring. Also, I never finished Kalevala, Finnish national epic. But that was some years ago, maybe I should try it again now when I'm a bit older. There are maybe a few more but I don't remember. But I rarely leave books unfinished, I've read even most that have been given at school... But one book we had to read when I was on 7th grade was so horrible that I didn't read it. Just from the end to know how it ended... |
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Post by ♪Carly♪ on Aug 12, 2006 16:22:42 GMT -5
I tried reading Hard Times by Dickens several times and it never got better for me so I gave up every damn time.
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Post by Aims on Aug 13, 2006 2:48:17 GMT -5
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller America sucks! Everything in the US sucks! The culture sucks! Henry Miller at his grumpiest. His whine-fest got way too much for me and I never finished the book. Bleah. I've never heard of that book but oooh! This must be where Mike Patton got the title of his song "The Air Conditioned Nightmare"?? lol... who knows. |
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Post by Aims on Aug 13, 2006 2:51:11 GMT -5
Oh yeah, to avoid thread-jacking....
The only book I can think of right now that I didn't finish was Violin by Anne Rice. Blehhhh...
Oh wait, also Feet Of Clay by Terry Pratchett. It wasn't because it was a crap book though, but more because I just couldn't get into it.. some of his books are like that - I have firm favourites when it comes to the characters and general areas of his Disc World, and anything else is a bit slow for me.
It took me about 3 years of sporadic reading to get through The Hobbit, but I did eventually finish it (and during that last burst of reading, really really enjoyed it.. haha).
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Post by Koalapupu on Aug 13, 2006 7:36:31 GMT -5
Matzy and Mana--I'll take your word and give Artemis another go! Carly--I just talked to someone who raved about how good Dickens is. I couldn't really believe him. I admit that I have never, ever read any Dickens yet claim to know about him and his style. But let's keep that secret between you and me. Aims--ooh, that must be it! Or could be that Henry Miller got the title from some other source, too. I have to check the lyrics to the song to see whether they're as whiny as old Miller's story I think I didn't finish one Pratchett as well, pretty much for the same reason as you. It's not that he's bad, but he does have a certain style and if I'm not really in the mood for it, it just doesn't work. |
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Post by ♪Carly♪ on Aug 13, 2006 17:23:18 GMT -5
I've never finished a Dickens novel so that probably makes me a horrible horrible English major, but whatever.
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Post by Koalapupu on Aug 14, 2006 12:03:05 GMT -5
I've never finished a Dickens novel so that probably makes me a horrible horrible English major, but whatever. Heh, we're on the same boat then. English (lit.) major here, and I've only read the foreword of one edition of Great Expectations because John Irving wrote it... I don't think that classics should be read for their classic status' sake. They should be read for being great works of literature. Unfortunately, a lot of classics can't stand that scrutiny. :/ *waits for the rotten apples to fly from Dickens-fans* |
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Post by matzy on Aug 14, 2006 16:17:14 GMT -5
haha... never really got into dickens either but i did read "the christmas carol in prose". nothing to be proud of though, since i was also an english lit. major. hehe.
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Post by ♣Miranda♣ on Aug 14, 2006 19:38:39 GMT -5
I could never finish The Grapes Of Wrath and I made this deal with myself that I'd read Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by the end of summer, but I'm still on page 9. lol
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Post by veela on Aug 15, 2006 10:06:28 GMT -5
when it first came out, i got you shall know our velocity by dave eggers as a gift. i had loved a heartbreaking work of staggering genius SO much (i was a creative nonfiction major and just idolized his style) that i was just super excited for it. and then i started reading it and never got into it. i could not relate to the characters in the slightest and was just utterly BORED!! i have a beautiful hardback copy of it on my bookshelf that i'll probably never bother to finish... maybe if i get desperate.
also, i started reading the last days of dogtown by anita diamante. i loved the red tent so so much so picked that up from the library. but then it was due back and i was only a bit into it so i took it back and haven't been bothered enough to check it out again...
(and as a fellow english major -- writing, but still -- i am another who has barely read any classics. even in high school, i managed to get by without even reading a tale of two cities when i was supposed to. however, i do want to revisit that one because it is supposed to be phenomenal and i understand so much more about it now)
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Post by ♪Carly♪ on Aug 15, 2006 13:13:39 GMT -5
Jenni, I've read Heart of Darkness three times, because I took three different classes that assigned it and I didn't really like it any of those times. lol... But it just goes to show how anal I am about actually reading the whole book that's assigned to me.
Miranda, I loved The Grapes of Wrath and I was the only person in the class who actually read the whole thing.
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Post by ♣Miranda♣ on Aug 15, 2006 15:27:15 GMT -5
Jenni, I've read Heart of Darkness three times, because I took three different classes that assigned it and I didn't really like it any of those times. lol... But it just goes to show how anal I am about actually reading the whole book that's assigned to me. Miranda, I loved The Grapes of Wrath and I was the only person in the class who actually read the whole thing. Maybe it's because I tried reading it when I was 17 and I was quite silly back then.  |
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Post by ♪Carly♪ on Aug 16, 2006 16:33:52 GMT -5
Jenni, I've read Heart of Darkness three times, because I took three different classes that assigned it and I didn't really like it any of those times. lol... But it just goes to show how anal I am about actually reading the whole book that's assigned to me. Miranda, I loved The Grapes of Wrath and I was the only person in the class who actually read the whole thing. Maybe it's because I tried reading it when I was 17 and I was quite silly back then. BAHAHA!!! You're probably right. |
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Post by Lemon Pie on Aug 20, 2006 5:14:33 GMT -5
My problem usually is that I start reading too many books at once and then don't know which to read... or I don't seem to find time and decide to continue later... and then I find something else I really need to read. Also, the problem with books in your shelf is that you are in no hurry to read them as they will always be there, if I get a book from library I usually finish it. I have about 30 books in my shelf that I havenb't read but am planning to... Right now I am reading Artemis Fowl (really slow as my copy is in Swedish but as far as I could understand what's going on, after first couple pages I'm liking it), and Lord of the Rings (am still in the first book and ashamed to admid I never read them before)... Oh and Jenni, as for the Decamerone, a couple years back I found a really nice leather covered copy of it in Suomalainen and it was about 2 euros. I bought it but have never started reading... As for book I never finished I remember two very well (and I still have every intention to finish them one day ) In high school we needed to read a book for English class and write a review... I chose Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clark Ha ha ha and got about half way through. It was the first book I ever (tried to) read in English and for some reason didn't finish. The second one is Mika Waltari's Sinuhe Egyptiläinen (The Egyptian), I really enjoyed this one, it consists of two parts and I finished the first, then I had to return the book and never got around to reading the second part but it as it was a great book I probably will read it and finish it. Like said the problem is that there is just too many great books in this world. |
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Post by veela on Sept 15, 2006 11:55:04 GMT -5
so i guess i can add "the liar" by stephen fry to this list. i read about 50 pages and i seriously just could not get into it. there were too many characters and at times i thought the language was just pompous. and it seemed the story was just taking a while to really kick in. i'm sure it would have gotten pretty good if i'd have stuck with it but it was due back at the library today and i just couldn't be bothered to renew it!
maybe i'll try again a different day...
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Post by ♥Jana♥ on Mar 22, 2007 19:44:47 GMT -5
Oh yeah, to avoid thread-jacking.... The only book I can think of right now that I didn't finish was Violin by Anne Rice. Blehhhh... Oh wait, also Feet Of Clay by Terry Pratchett. It wasn't because it was a crap book though, but more because I just couldn't get into it.. some of his books are like that - I have firm favourites when it comes to the characters and general areas of his Disc World, and anything else is a bit slow for me. It took me about 3 years of sporadic reading to get through The Hobbit, but I did eventually finish it (and during that last burst of reading, really really enjoyed it.. haha). *SIGH* Violin was one of my favorite anne rice books. I couldnt finish the virgin suicides lately.. ill have to make a whole list. |
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I tried re-reading it again this January, thinking I just needed to be mature to understand it. Again, I didn't even make it half-way through the jungle. For some reason it's a snorefest for me!
I really like it, you should take it from your shelf now. 
I thought it could be good but it was boooring.
