Books you just can't get into

[BAYLOR]

Definitely--her Alliance/Union books are amazing and her two-book series about the elves was lovely.

The Morgain books by her were quite good.

 

[soulsinging]

Yet really good things from even earlier days still please me. I'm now, once again, in the third of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books (The Castle of Llyr). Given the humanity of the characters and other elements, these books are actually, in some ways, more grown up than the pulp stuff. I've been finding the Prydain books to be even better than I remembered.

I don't know how I never read these, I've been interested in them since I was shelving them as a library page over 20 years ago. Maybe this year?

 

[hitmouse]

I don't know how I never read these, I've been interested in them since I was shelving them as a library page over 20 years ago. Maybe this year?

Great series. Seconded. Disney did a serious mis-service with its dire animation of The Dark Cauldron.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

I wanted to like "Wuthering Heights" after reading Joseph O'Connor's "Star of the Sea", but in the second part where Cathy is running around going "Hehehe! I've gone MAAAD! Woop" I realised I just could not be bothered

 

[BAYLOR]

I wanted to like "Wuthering Heights" after reading Joseph O'Connor's "Star of the Sea", but in the second part where Cathy is running around going "Hehehe! I've gone MAAAD! Woop" I realised I just could not be bothered

I managed to struggle though Withering Heights in college. I find this book to be vastly overrated.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

That huge Stephen King epic - I cannot remember the name, but it is the one with a whole lot of volumes which include "wizards and Glass" and "the Gunslinger" or something like that. I know a lot of people think it is fantastic, but I just cannot. I also found Thomas Covenant really impossible.
Finally I cannot read Terry Prachet - I found them just too self consciencely aware of being "funny".

It took me years to get along with Pratchett because of his tendency to wring every possible joke out of every situation. Now I've got past that I think he does have real and serious insights into the ways people behave and think, and the ways societies operate.

 

[BAYLOR]

It took me years to get along with Pratchett because of his tendency to wring every possible joke out of every situation. Now I've got past that I think he does have real and serious insights into the ways people behave and think, and the ways societies operate.

In case of Pratchett , there is always a serious message or incite or two under the humor.

 

[Extollager]

Finally I cannot read Terry Prachet - I found them just too self consciencely aware of being "funny".

My understanding being that Pratchett writes about persons of fairy tale and myth for the sake of being clever and amusing — I think “That’s not what they are for.”

These figures — dwarves, etc. — are essential in perennial stories of the imagination. I don’t want to read of them in stories that are characteristic of a typical flippant modern sensibility.

Phooey!

Someone gave me one of the Pratchett books, Carpe Jugulum. I read a little — no, not at all to my taste.

But I love Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham, a fantasy with spoof elements. I don’t think it’s just the Tolkien name!

 

[Matteo]

I recently tried to read Dhalgren but gave up after 50 or so pages. The story seemed interesting but the writing style was just to cumbersome for me. However, that was only one attempt - a second try might be different. I've also failed with Moby Dick a couple of times.

Thomas Covenant (the first two trilogies) took three goes. The first two times I got maybe 100 pages in, but at the third attempt I devoured all six books. So I suppose that doesn't count for this question - ditto Dune which also took three goes.

 

[farntfar]

Despite having read most of his other novels, I found it impossible, on my first attempt to get into The day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham, and had to give it up, even though it was popularly meant to be his best book.
A few years later I tried again and enjoyed it immensely, although I still don't rate it his best. (I can see why many people do , however.)

 

[CupofJoe]

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Had to read it for a college project. For me it was like trying to read porridge or one of those magic eye picture. I'd get about half a page in and my mind would go blank. Eventually I bought an unabridged audiobook and listened to it for 2-3 weeks without a break as I travelled to and from work. Must have listen/read it 5 times and never since.

 

[Vince W]

Anything by Brandon Sanderson. I know people rate him highly but I can't get into his stuff at all. This includes the last three books of WoT, although I do want to change that this year.

 

[Guttersnipe]

The Inheritance series by Paolini and the Pern series by McCaffrey. Western, or Western-esque dragons, in my mind, should stay wild and misanthropic.

 

[Toby Frost]

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The edition we had at school described the opening chapter, where the protagonist gets drunk and sells his wife to a passing sailor (!) as particularly good. Having finished the opening chapter, I thought "Uhoh" and the rest of it was like wading through treacle.

 

[Foxbat]

Dracula. I've tried many times to read it but just couldn't get into it. I think it was the letter/diary format that I found unappealing. And yet, I did read and enjoy Frankenstein many times despite its often meandering storyline.

I did finally find a way to get Dracula done by listening to it as a an audiobook narrated by Christopher Lee. I listened to it cycling to work on dark winter mornings...it really added to the atmosphere.

 

[Rodders]

I really Struggled with The Lord Of The Rings. I enjoyed what I did read, which was about half way through The Two Towers, but put it down and just couldn’t pick it up again. Maybe is should address that. Reading goal for 2021, perhaps?

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Some books that I read many years ago, yet when I tried to read them recently I struggle with them. I tried to read Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, yet, I found it very brutal and couldn't get on with it, but years ago I enjoyed it.

 

[Randy M.]

I'm surprised at how many books mentioned in this thread I read and enjoyed quite a bit (Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, etc.)

I had to read Moby Dick twice to appreciate it. I finished The Scarlet Letter and Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter, but both were a struggle; in the former I found Hawthorne slow going at novel length (though the introduction about the Custom House was fascinating) after greatly enjoying many of his short stories, and in the latter the Catholic mindset as set forth in the novel was so foreign to me that I found it hard to empathize.

Having enjoyed Hard Times and David Copperfield, I started Bleak House. After 100 or so pages, I set it aside and never returned. Maybe one day when I can devote more concentrated time to reading I'll try again, but the first try found it long-winded and the characters less interesting than I'd expected.

Randy M.

 

[Paul_C]

It took me three goes to get going with Iain Banks' Whit, but when I did I enjoyed the rest of the story. I've read Song of Stone a couple of times and only finished it once - I didn't like it as for some reason it drags terribly, but I will try again one day just see if it was me, as I love most of his books.

Gravity's Rainbow and The Crying of Lot 49 are another pair I've struggled with, though I have managed to read the latter once, though I'm not sure I really "got" it.

Strangely, though I loved it first time round, I've never managed to read Perdido Street Station a second time.

 

[Toby Frost]

I did read A Song of Stone, but I thought it was very poor compared to the other Banks novels I've read.