# Difficult Books



## Akumu (Nov 15, 2004)

Simply put, what's the most difficult book you've ever read?

I'd have to say Umberto Eco's _Foucault's Pendulum_. It's brain candy, all right. It took me ages to read it, and I had to be so focused it was unbelievable. It really exhausts you, but for some reason, you can't put it down!

If you haven't read this book, be sure to do so, however, do it over the summer or winter when you have vacation. You won't be able to concentrate on anything except the book itself once you start reading it. Even on the streets, I was making connections in my head, trying to understand all the data piled up in that paperback.

_The Name of the Rose_ by the same author was a bit easier, although the full-page Latin paragraphs with no footnotes can get irritating and frustrating after a while. The good thing about it is that you don't have to be as concentrated as when reading _Foucalult's Pendulum_ and it has a more linear plotline. Well, at least it *has* a plotline unlike _Foucault's Pendulum_...


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## BlackHoleEnvy (Nov 16, 2004)

Any of Joyce's later ramblings.
Burroughs' opium nightmares and his cut-up fiction. 
_A Clockwork Orange_, simply because of all the obscure slang.
_Letters to Wendy's_, which was only hard to read becaues I was laughing so hard and I couldn't see through the tears of unbridled joy.

Hmm...and anything by Pynchon, because I don't like him.


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## kerpoe (Nov 17, 2004)

my most difficult reads must have been ALL of burroughs opium induced writings, brilliant yet utterly obscure! by god they are odd.


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## BlackHoleEnvy (Nov 18, 2004)

Indeed. Naked Lunch, in particular, invokes a sort of Lovecraftian horror. Don't ever read it while you are...ahem...intoxicated.


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## Ham (Nov 20, 2004)

Any of the postmodern prestige novelists.  Pynchon.  Gaddis.  Wallace.  Like that.

All are writers of enormous doorstopper novels that are so filled with literary pyrotechnics that simply "reading" them is a waste of your time.  They need to be studied, or you're virtually guaranteed to miss 90% of the authorial intent, no matter how literate you are.  To write my senior thesis on Pynchon years ago, I had to read _Gravity's Rainbow_ and _V._ about three times each, together with about 3000 pages of literary criticism and analysis, and a shelf-full of related texts on, for example, the history of modern art.  The stuff of literary nightmares.


Interpreted another way, I could say I find stuff like Grisham and Clancy to be not merely difficult reading, but borderline impossible.  In this case because I'd rather run my hand through a woodchipper than suffer them.


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## BlackHoleEnvy (Nov 21, 2004)

Agreed on Grisham and Clancy. Though I feel the same about the idea of having to read something by the "postmoder prestige novelists". For different reasons, but the result is the same: the urge to cause oneself bodily harm.

[rock the minimalists]


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## Ham (Nov 21, 2004)

BlackHoleEnvy said:
			
		

> Agreed on Grisham and Clancy. Though I feel the same about the idea of having to read something by the "postmoder prestige novelists". For different reasons, but the result is the same: the urge to cause oneself bodily harm.
> 
> [rock the minimalists]



I'd certainly be up for some bodily harm if forced to go through it all again.  But I figured it was a literary experience that was worth going through.  And what the hell, it was school.  I had to do something, and this was better than Econ.  The real tweaker is that you can't possibly know exactly how big a pain in the ass these sorts of books are until you've tossed away a couple years of your life on them.


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## Hakeem (Nov 22, 2004)

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I found Grisham's very easy to be read, well maybe I'm too smart or "A Painted House" is too easy, I say the latter fits more...


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## BlackHoleEnvy (Nov 22, 2004)

Hakeem said:
			
		

> Well, I don't know about you guys, but I found Grisham's very easy to be read, well maybe I'm too smart or "A Painted House" is too easy, I say the latter fits more...



Grisham is hard to read because he sucks, not because he is challenging.


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## Cipher2 (Nov 23, 2004)

Shakespeare.  Old English anyone?


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## fleakeepr (Nov 29, 2004)

BlackHoleEnvy said:
			
		

> Indeed. Naked Lunch, in particular, invokes a sort of Lovecraftian horror. Don't ever read it while you are...ahem...intoxicated.



Amen to that. Lovecraft can really get you going if you're a little messed up at the time. Some difficult books I've read must be The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Clockwork Orange was also difficult. Bankok 8 by....gah...can't remember. But that was difficult because it was written in the present tense, and I can't seem to get into a book that is, and he uses a lot of Thai in his writing. And its just a pain to go look up words on the internet every minute. Some Dickens books are very tough because it is sometimes hard to follow what he is saying. Sometimes I have to reread and reread a paragraph just to understand it.


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## BlackHoleEnvy (Nov 30, 2004)

Lovecraft had a strange effect on me when I first read him in High School. There was nothing apparently scary about the stories as I read them. But when I put them down and fumbled around the house in the dark, alone, at night...I realized that I was freaked out in a very vague way. No other writer has ever had this effect on me.


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## brockDXD (Jan 7, 2005)

The Origin Of Species and Descent of Man by Charles Darwin. 

I believe in the introduction it stated that it was not written to be read like a book, it was to be scientifical and thesis like. Well that was not enough of a warning. there should have been a huge

CAUTION: YOUR EYES WILL BLEED AND BRAIN MAY MALFUNCTION IF YOU TRY TO READ THIS LIKE IT IS JUST ANOTHER BOOK IN THE DARK TOWER SERIES...

Definetly the hardest thing ive tried to read. Also found any book we read in school difficult, but maybe solely for the reason it was not reading for pleasure. Books i have tried to read for pleasure but found difficult was King Lear (not a book but u get my drift..), and Lolita by that Vladimer Krushcock or something like that. Just could not get into it.


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## Aeryn (Jan 7, 2005)

Well, i've found that The Eye of the World books are hard to read.  Not because they are difficult on their own but because there are so many!  When you get to book 10 it's hard to remember the names of certain people or who did what.  Drives me crazy.

Most people take notes when they read the series.  I'm too lazy for that. =]


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## _underscore (Jan 8, 2005)

brockDXD about darwins Origin of Species, id have to say I knocked that off in about a week, then again, I get biology text books for christmas.

As for novels id say I stuggeled to a absurd degree with Updike, starting with "The Coup".  James Joyce is always a author that demands rereading, I remember reading a quote of his where he bassicly said the only way to be remembered is to put enough mysterys and elusive text in his writtings to give literary proffesors something to go over for years and years.  Although "A Portait of the Artist as a Young Man" isnt to difficult and a joy to read.


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## barnsturm (Jan 14, 2005)

Milton's _Paradise Lost_
Dante's _Inferno _- best literary translator is Mark Musa, most readable is John Ciardi, but it's like letting Tom Clancy re-edit _War and Peace _for you.
Umberto Eco's _The Island of the Day Before_: it was overlong and I'm sure I missed the point, even though I loved _Focault's Pendulum _and _The Name of The Rose_.
Hemingway's _For Whom the Bell Tolls_: I don't know why. I love Hemingway. I flew through _The Sun Also Rises_. I've reread _In Our Time_. But I have never been able to finish _FWtBT_.


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## Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor (Jan 21, 2005)

Paradise Lost is difficult, but I found it dreadfully boring.  The story is a basic concept of good vs evil, and he incorporates basic symbolism with excellent word choice.  Paradise Lost is a vocabulary builder, not a decent read.

Shakespeare is brilliant especially if you read a sparknote after each chapter, since some of the Old English doesn't translate properly.


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## crzywriter (Jan 24, 2005)

i have two.

the first is tolstoy's war and peace. man, if you aren't ready for a torturous journey, dont pick it up! took me the better part of a year, but i finished it. and i dont regret one second of it.

the second is ayn rand's Atlas Shrugged. now there's a book to make you think. also very long


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## reni (Feb 8, 2005)

I loved _Atlas Shrugged_. I loved the style of writing and the ideas put forth in the book were thought-provoking, to say the least. On the other hand, I had to read The Canterbury Tales in middle English, and I definitely wouldn't want to repeat that experience any time soon.

"...Poul dorste nat comanden, atte leeste, 
A thyng of which his maister yaf noon heeste. 
The dart is set up for birginitee: 
Cacche whoso may, who renneth best lat see..."

--enough said.


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## kerpoe (Feb 16, 2005)

I have read a lot of things ranging from Chaucer and Homer to Kerouac and Pynchon and by far the msot confusing and difficult read was Naked Lunch, and the book is brilliant.


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## swisstony (Feb 17, 2005)

I'm reading V right now, I'm not sure what to make of it except that in terms of technical merit, he is a supremely good author.

Underworld I found hard in the sense that I wasn't sure I was getting the grandeur of it.

Apart from that Trainspotters, because the literal recreation of scottish dialect was difficult to decode.


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## noahtgreat (Mar 10, 2005)

I'm glad to see all the "Naked Lunch" and Lovecraft loving in this thread.

Most difficult book though...  "House of Leaves" was pretty rough.  Not because it's difficult to read though.  It's just dense with words, and sometimes those words are printed backwards, so you need to use a mirror...  Still, it's the only book ever to make me quite literally scared to turn off the lights at night.  

I once tried to read a romance novel called "The Devil Earl."  I think that might have been the most difficult thing I ever read.


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## Rustem (Mar 10, 2005)

I didnt find Naked Lunch too difficult... I liked all his other stuff too, except the cut up trilogy (soft machine, ticket that exploded, something else forget the name).

Satanic Verses by Rushdie was hard on me. House of Leaves was pretty hard. I couldnt finish a lot of Kerouac.


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## Hodge (Mar 10, 2005)

A toss up between _Leviathan_ and _Age of Innocence_.

The former because it was years ago and it's written ina very difficult (and old) style, and the latter because it's so incredibly boring and annoying.


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## mikey1990 (Mar 15, 2005)

I don't think I read enough challenging books....I tend to just go for easy reads all the time. For some reason the challenging books i do read seem to be boring. May be i'm just reading the wrong books though.


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## Pengwynn11 (Mar 24, 2005)

Awww...Poor Grisham.  No, I'd have to say I enjoy his novels.  I think the dialogue is a litte contrived, but I enjoy reading them.  

Now as far as difficult goes, I'm going to have to say Catch-22, gasp!  And I know that makes me "oh so" uncultured, but I'm have a REALLY hard time finishing it.  It's a chore to read it because it's a little bit of over-kill...imho.  Now, my father and sister read it and couldn't put it down.  I don't know, I'm just not seeing it.  Maybe it's too synical for me, or maybe I just need to staple my eyes open and force myself to read it.  If it's considered to be one of America's classics, I must be missing something!


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## barnsturm (Apr 5, 2005)

Pengwynn11 said:
			
		

> Now as far as difficult goes, I'm going to have to say Catch-22, gasp!  And I know that makes me "oh so" uncultured, but I'm have a REALLY hard time finishing it.  It's a chore to read it because it's a little bit of over-kill...imho.  Now, my father and sister read it and couldn't put it down.  I don't know, I'm just not seeing it.  Maybe it's too synical for me, or maybe I just need to staple my eyes open and force myself to read it.  If it's considered to be one of America's classics, I must be missing something!



Yeah, I've been working on Catch-22 on and off for two or three years now. I doubt I'll ever finish, although I guess I'm curious about the whore and the guy with walnuts in his mouth.

I'm just as bad with, "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I ernestly like Hemingway, but I can't seem to finish this one. Not nearly as readable as "The Sun Also Rises," one of my favorite novels.


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## Pengwynn11 (Apr 5, 2005)

barnsturm said:
			
		

> I'm just as bad with, "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I ernestly like Hemingway, but I can't seem to finish this one. Not nearly as readable as "The Sun Also Rises," one of my favorite novels.



I was forced to read it for a Hemingway class I took during college, and I'll just say it was worth the fight.  I ended up writing one of my best pieces on it.  So glad to hear somebody else is having trouble finishing Catch-22.  Though you're right, the guy with walnuts in his mouth being beaten on the head by a whore with her shoe is pretty darn entertaining.  Maybe I'll go read that scene....   :-s


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## PaPa (Apr 6, 2005)

_The Canterbury Tales_.  Middle English is a complete fag to deal with.


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## Evil_Klown (Apr 6, 2005)

Where would I find the difficult "_Foucault's Pendulum_, by Umberto Eco"


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## barnsturm (Apr 6, 2005)

Evil_Klown said:
			
		

> Where would I find the difficult "_Foucault's Pendulum_, by Umberto Eco"



I got my copy at a used paperback store.

I really loved both "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucault's Pendulum ," but I got the hardback " The Island of the Day Before" from my wife as a gift and really didn't like it much. It tended toward tedium and the ending left me very dissatisfied.


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## Evil_Klown (Apr 6, 2005)

fun


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## Aevin (Apr 7, 2005)

> The Canterbury Tales. Middle English is a complete fag to deal with.



Oh ...  That's fun stuff.  In one of my classes, we had to read the stuff aloud with middle English pronounciation!  Gotta love the pardoner's tale--drunken rioters going on a quest to kill Death.  Oh, yeah!


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## Bad Craziness (Apr 7, 2005)

I'm going to go with HERmione by HD. My interest levels weren't there to begin with and I just found it agonising. Even after I'd finished it and discussed it I didn't seem to extract much from it. It seems that the time period that produced it was more important than the text itself, which is hardly an excuse for something that is supposedly 'literature'.


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## Evil_Klown (Apr 7, 2005)

I got me a new book called _Pirate Hunter_ which ios about the life of Captain Kidd, its the REAL story, and its quite good.


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## darb (Apr 9, 2005)

Hardest read ever, Hands down, Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.  It's also one of the most rewarding.

A Clockwork Orange, and Atlas Shrugged were tough to for reasons stated previously.

Maybe I'm weird, but I never had much trouble with Shakespeare, or old or middle english for that matter.  I always thought his humor and sarcasm were amazingly funny.  I guess it depends on where you're coming from though.

brad


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## Evil_Klown (Apr 10, 2005)

True dat yo!


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## Manx (Apr 10, 2005)

Most difficult book I started reading was 'The Diamond Age' by Neal Stephenson. I never finished it, though not because it was a bad book. The characters are excellent - all really well developed - and the story itself is very imaginative science fiction. My boyfriend loved it. For me however, it had a bigger vocabulary than I'm capable of understanding. If you're a walking dictionary it's a must, I'm sure. Sadly I'm not.

Most difficult book I've read all the way through was 'Dorian' by Will Self. Funny and totally original (and very explicitly graphic in parts!) but very descriptive (perhaps overly so) and filled with adjectives.


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## Evil_Klown (Apr 12, 2005)

bad books are bad...


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## Fidelity (Apr 27, 2005)

Herman Hesse's _The Glass Bead Game_ is an interesting read. Not too hard if you take it all with a grain of salt, but impenetrable if you try to read too much of it.

The _Mahabharata_ is the most confusing thing I've had to read.


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## Trilock (Apr 27, 2005)

Almost anything by Faulker, but man oh man, is he good.


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## Evil_Klown (Apr 27, 2005)

I'm reading a biography on Tim Allen, its really good, called Tim Allen Laid Bare.


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