# Book you gave up on?



## cinderblock (Feb 18, 2015)

Finally at page 140 of Black Glass by John Shirley, I just couldn't... nothing has happened. I tried to read it because the premise sounded great, and people were praising his imagination. I think Shirley should've gone into interior design. His characters are just an uninteresting conglomeration of random quirks to disguise as character development, and every chapter, it's just endless descriptions of the futuristic world. I may have read maybe 15 pages of plot total. I thought he would stop at a certain point with his world-building, but it's become incessantly clear, this is his style. He tries to overwhelm you with a silly environment to pad up a paper-thin story. Everytime you think there might be some progress in the book, he stops and starts describing what the person is watching on the news for a few pages, what some tertiary character is drawing on her canvas for more pages, etc etc. World-building should be mostly done with character interactions (thoughts and dialogue should dictate mood and atmosphere). Let the reader's imagination take over. If you don't have anything particularly revelatory about the environment, keep it simple. Too much physical descriptions is a crutch. It's the easiest way to pad up a book. 

I'm also currently struggling with Chuck Palahniuck's Choke. I'm stalled at 128. So far, it's just a smorgasbord. Nothing has happened. Some witty moments, but extremely sparse. It seems raw and unedited, as opposed to Fight Club and Survivor, which were refined masterpieces. Disappointed, to say the least.


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## dale (Feb 18, 2015)

"the sound and the fury" bu faulkner. i tried to readit like 3 times and i just couldn't do it.


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## am_hammy (Feb 19, 2015)

I took a chance on "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. Probably one of oddest formats of story telling that I've ever read, though I understand it. There's all detail, then choppy sentence structure for dialogue. No quotations so it almost appears to be entirely in his head. Got through a third of the book and just stopped. Oddly, I lost interest. You would think that reading about someone telling about their time in a treatment facility would keep you hooked. Should tug at the humanity in you right?

Well, I didn't really know much about it, so I googled if it was a legitimate story like it suggests and there was all this stuff about how Frey's memoir was basically a lie. Most of it never really happened or from what I understand not in the way it actually happened. I get people get caught up in their own personal healing process, but this is heavy stuff to deal with. It's not right to play around with that. So I was done after that. Kind of a bummer and a little sad that someone would take that serious of a situation and twist it for some fame and fortune. I'm not so surprised, it's just a shame. It's still chilling with my other books. Been 2 years about since I last read it. Haven't decided if I'd ever try to read it again. Probably not though.


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## patskywriter (Feb 19, 2015)

"The Wind in the Willows" back when I was a kid.


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## Mondestrunken (Feb 19, 2015)

Awhile back there was this young adult book I got called "a countess below stairs" that I tried and failed to read multiple times. The female protagonist was unbearable in her perfect sweetness. I kept waiting for her to have some sort of flaw or at least an _interesting _character trait, but I couldn't keep going and hoping in vain.


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## Guy Faukes (Feb 19, 2015)

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I know he's a prolific writer and I have a great deal of respect for him, that was a very, VERY dry book for something so controversial and fatwa-inducing.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Feb 19, 2015)

I guess for me it was Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. Usually I like autobiographical type novels but this one to me  seemed a bit..... boring.


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## Bloggsworth (Feb 19, 2015)

_Seven Pillars of Wisdom _- Life is too short...


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## Pidgeon84 (Feb 19, 2015)

I actually gave up on the Harry Potter series after Goblet of Fire. Not because it got bad. Mostly because I became a teenager.


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## Riis Marshall (Feb 19, 2015)

Hello Cinders

_Finnegans Wake_. Half the first page was enough for me. Sometime back I saw a trailer about a group of folks in New York City who meet weekly to discuss the book. If I remember correctly they had been working on it for about six years and had only progressed to Page Seventy. I reckon I'm not alone, then.

All the best with your writing.

Warmest regards
Riis


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## MamaStrong (Feb 19, 2015)

I don't even remember the name. The classic that has Mr. Darcy. Not a very good read IMO.


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## Terry D (Feb 19, 2015)

There have been a number of them over the years, but the one that stands out for me is Stephen King's last book in the original_ Dark Tower_ series, _The Dark Tower_. I read all six others, but just couldn't make it through the last one--I just didn't care what happened to them. I still have it on my dresser, and may pick it up again at some point, but am in no hurry. I have a problem staying interested in long series, but don't usually stop reading mid-book.


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## Deafmute (Feb 19, 2015)

MamaStrong said:


> I don't even remember the name. The classic that has Mr. Darcy. Not a very good read IMO.



pride and prejudice 


I have given up on a few books, usually because I get busy and forget I was reading them, but that usually means I didn't love them because when I love something I can't put it down. That said there was one series that I just couldn't bear to finish. The Wheel of Time series. 14 books each one over 1000 pages long. I got to book 7 and had to call it quits. Great series, I loved the early books and tore through them in days, but as it went on it felt like a slog. After a while the character drama made me want to scream. The world is about to end and they are all still screwing around with the same stupid personal conflicts that the books started with. That and I couldn't keep track of the minor characters. He would introduce a bit part with one of his absurd names we would see that character for one or two chapters three books ago and suddenly it would pop up again and we were suppose to know who the heck it was. Drove me crazy looking up names. 

All that said I invested so much time into the series I wonder now and again if I should just man up and dive back in. Only 7000 pages or so left....


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## TJ1985 (Feb 19, 2015)

If we're talking about books I gave up on writing, the count is roughly 800 at the moment. 

Of books I've given up on reading, Tropic of Cancer. It may be an amazing book, but it started off too whiny too early for my likings. Plus, the first thing I read was about some guy wanting somebody to shave his armpits... I'm weird enough without reading the manual.


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## TKent (Feb 19, 2015)

I was addicted to Charlene Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, and the last few felt so different - as if she knew she was nearing the end or something. Didn't finish either 

- - - Updated - - -

One that I 'almost' gave up on was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The first few chapters were SOOOO slow for me. I kept reading, then setting it down, then having to re-read because I forgot. I had a friend who kept pushing me to read it, so I finally trudged through those and then the become was incredible, as were the next 2. So glad she kept pushing.


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## KJay (Feb 19, 2015)

Last one I remember giving up on was Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. Just couldn't get through it!
Song of Ice and Fire I gave up on after book 2. I might read the rest at some point. 

BTW, I love Pride and Prejudice! I hated it the first time I had to read it for school, but now it is probably one of my all time favourites.


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## MamaStrong (Feb 19, 2015)

Yes, that's the one. I almost gave up on Little Women too.


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## cinderblock (Feb 20, 2015)

Deafmute said:


> pride and prejudice
> 
> 
> I have given up on a few books, usually because I get busy and forget I was reading them, but that usually means I didn't love them because when I love something I can't put it down. That said there was one series that I just couldn't bear to finish. The Wheel of Time series. 14 books each one over 1000 pages long. I got to book 7 and had to call it quits. Great series, I loved the early books and tore through them in days, but as it went on it felt like a slog. After a while the character drama made me want to scream. The world is about to end and they are all still screwing around with the same stupid personal conflicts that the books started with. That and I couldn't keep track of the minor characters. He would introduce a bit part with one of his absurd names we would see that character for one or two chapters three books ago and suddenly it would pop up again and we were suppose to know who the heck it was. Drove me crazy looking up names.
> ...



Lulz I say cut your losses. Life is too short. You will never read all the books, watch all the shows, play all the videogames that you want before you die. Why bother with bad ones?

I read the first Robert Jordan book from Wheel of Time, and I was completely underwhelmed. It was obviously a LOTR ripoff, and it also seemed to contain elements of Dune lulz. Mediocre overall. The only other fantasy I'd ever bother with besides LOTR, is George RR Martin, but his books are biblical in length. I finished his first book Game of Thrones in high school. Loved it to death. But then I took a break, and I was daunted by all the names I forgot in the series, so I never picked up book two. I'm tempted to start all over from Game of Thrones again, but I just don't have a lot of time anymore.


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## Deafmute (Feb 20, 2015)

> Lulz I say cut your losses. Life is too short. You will never read all the books, watch all the shows, play all the videogames that you want before you die. Why bother with bad ones?
> 
> I read the first Robert Jordan book from Wheel of Time, and I was completely underwhelmed. It was obviously a LOTR ripoff, and it also seemed to contain elements of Dune lulz. Mediocre overall. The only other fantasy I'd ever bother with besides LOTR, is George RR Martin, but his books are biblical in length. I finished his first book Game of Thrones in high school. Loved it to death. But then I took a break, and I was daunted by all the names I forgot in the series, so I never picked up book two. I'm tempted to start all over from Game of Thrones again, but I just don't have a lot of time anymore.



yea I got that too when I read the first book. It was like wait a second? Haven't I read this before... after the first book it gets better, but then slows way down and the books start to feel repetitive. I doubt I will go back, Game of thrones is one I would like to try though. I read the first chapter of the first book on amazon and it looks like really impressive writing. But seeing how long it runs is a little daunting that and the whole killing off every character thing. I dunno maybe im old fashioned but I like to follow at least a few characters all the way through.


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## Mondestrunken (Feb 20, 2015)

MamaStrong said:


> Yes, that's the one. I almost gave up on Little Women too.



I've tried and failed to read multiple Jane Austen books, so I don't blame you. Her storytelling is great, but her style is so dry that I find it really hard to get through.


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## MamaStrong (Feb 20, 2015)

Mondestrunken said:


> I've tried and failed to read multiple Jane Austen books, so I don't blame you. Her storytelling is great, but her style is so dry that I find it really hard to get through.



Yeah. I think I tried another one as well, _Heathcliff _? or something like it. Anyway, I wanted to drown myself in a bath of freezing cold water. That's how difficult it was.


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## Holly_M (Feb 21, 2015)

I give up on books all the time. I basically think by about a third of the way in, if a book hasn't pulled me in, it's probably not going to. Plus, there are too many good ones out there waiting to be found to waste time on a book you don't like.

Last one I gave up on was _Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel_. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters.


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## stevesh (Feb 21, 2015)

The Bible, apparently. I managed to slog my way through Genesis, and I'm led to believe the pace picks up in later books, but I can't bring myself to pick it up again.


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## Riptide (Feb 21, 2015)

TKent said:


> I was addicted to Charlene Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, and the last few felt so different - as if she knew she was nearing the end or something. Didn't finish either



I haven't read the last book. I read through the series with rose colored glasses so... she's still high on the pedestal and her novels remain unchanged gems in my eyes, no matter what I read about them. But then again... I haven't bought the last book yet, that must say something.

I don't remember the title of the book I stopped reading. My grandma gave it to me and I read it even though it wasn't my usual style and then the plot like... ended. DId a 180 change. She found her sisters dead body, not really murdered I don't think, but caught up in a storm. So it turns from finding her sister to figuring out her sister's secret. I didn't like it...


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## Folcro (Feb 21, 2015)

Honestly, I've given up on most of the novels I started. I find more and more each day that while I love _writing _fiction, I can't stand reading it. I believe that when it comes to fiction, my expectations are higher and narrower, whereas reality leaves one no choice but to accept (hence why "based on a true story" is the most abused sales tag in cinema). 

The book I got the furthest into and gave up on is probably Stephen King's _The Stand_. I was so looking forward to the incarnation of the villain I so loved from _The Eyes of the Dragon _and probably got as far as I did just to see him. In the two hundred-something pages I'd read, there had been three scenes that engaged me, totaling ~10 pages. I got to one scene with Flagg and pushed myself a little further and the story somehow managed to get more ridiculous but stay boring. 

How that story came to be his opus I will never understand.


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## BobtailCon (Feb 21, 2015)

"The Hunt For Red October" much too slow.


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## cinderblock (Feb 22, 2015)

Deafmute said:


> yea I got that too when I read the first book. It was like wait a second? Haven't I read this before... after the first book it gets better, but then slows way down and the books start to feel repetitive. I doubt I will go back, Game of thrones is one I would like to try though. I read the first chapter of the first book on amazon and it looks like really impressive writing. But seeing how long it runs is a little daunting that and the whole killing off every character thing. I dunno maybe im old fashioned but I like to follow at least a few characters all the way through.



If you're gonna read another Robert Jordan book, I say give Game of Thrones a shot. After reading LOTR, I was looking for other great fantasy authors for a while during high school, and I was shocked that they were all basically ripoffs of LOTR. The same story, just watered down lulz. Blatant and shameless, the more I think about it. 

Game of Thrones was a book somebody was touting in one of the forums I went to, so I thought, "Ah what the hell," and I gave it a shot. I don't know if I'll still feel about it the same way today, since I've moved on to science fiction/futuristic stuff (damn what a shift), but back then, I thought Game of Thrones legitimately gave LOTR a run for its money. It is a completely different story, and I was extremely impressed. The only thing is, I'd highly recommend making a character list of who's who. It has a thousand characters, and you'll forget  when a character from page 26 resurfaces in page 250 lulz. I guess now we have Google and Wikipedia for that, but when I was reading it in high school, there was no reference for Game of Thrones. Also, funny thing Stephen King said was that he picked up the entire set of books and figured he'd just read the first one (Game of Thrones) and then start watching the HBO show. He said it was so good, he read the whole set, and he praised Martin for being a natural storyteller. I thought that was pretty neat.


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## escorial (Feb 22, 2015)

Lolita....just made me feel uncomfortable


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## MamaStrong (Feb 22, 2015)

stevesh said:


> The Bible, apparently. I managed to slog my way through Genesis, and I'm led to believe the pace picks up in later books, but I can't bring myself to pick it up again.



This is a bucket list item of mine. I just finished 2nd KINGS. Still dragging. I'm hoping when I get to the New Testament it'll be better. When I make a goal as big as a Bucket List, I don't like to quit. So I'll continue to slug through.


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## am_hammy (Feb 22, 2015)

MamaStrong said:


> This is a bucket list item of mine. I just finished 2nd KINGS. Still dragging. I'm hoping when I get to the New Testament it'll be better. When I make a goal as big as a Bucket List, I don't like to quit. So I'll continue to slug through.



The Old Testament definitely has some good books to read, so keep trucking through. Ecclesiastes is great, there's a bunch of prophesies in Isaiah. Some books are better than others in my opinion. A lot of the Old Testament reads like a history book for me, but definitely keep going! There are good nuggets!


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## MamaStrong (Feb 22, 2015)

am_hammy said:


> The Old Testament definitely has some good books to read, so keep trucking through. Ecclesiastes is great, there's a bunch of prophesies in Isaiah. Some books are better than others in my opinion. A lot of the Old Testament reads like a history book for me, but definitely keep going! There are good nuggets!



Yeah, I just hit First Corinthians tonight... I dread it already because after a quick glance it's a bunch of names. But I feel like I'd disappoint God if I don't finish and read each book/word so...trucking through I go.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Feb 22, 2015)

Read Acts.  Shipwrecks, people stoned, and general adventure. But both Corinthians aren't that bad. Lots of good advice in all of Paul's letters. 

Read it whatever order you feel like.


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## Loveabull (Feb 22, 2015)

"Things Fall Apart"...Cliff and Spark Notes got me through the required reading but I just couldn't "feel it" ya know? Likewise the end of " Invisible Man" when he started the living underground thing, I got lost.


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## cinderblock (Feb 23, 2015)

Loveabull said:


> "Things Fall Apart"...Cliff and Spark Notes got me through the required reading but I just couldn't "feel it" ya know? Likewise the end of " Invisible Man" when he started the living underground thing, I got lost.



Ironically, that was probably one of two, maybe three books I actually read for high school curriculum. 10th grade... the only other ones I remember actually reading was Black Boy and Angela's Ashes. I read them because they were "simple" to read. That and the "Shakespeare-Made-Easy" version of all the Shakespeare books lulz (underachiever). The rest were just boring (Scarlet Letter, Crucible, etc) or too damn long (Tale of Two Cities, Odyssey, Moby Dick, Gulliver's Travels, Once and Future King). I superbly regret not reading them though, when I actually got credit for it. I still don't know why I never actually finished Once and Future King. I actually enjoyed it too, but I think I was so anti-school during my junior high-high school phase, there was something putoff-ish about any book assigned to me by a scholastic institution. Even though I loved fantasy/sci-fi, I refused to read Brave New World and Fahrenheit. It was very immature of me.My senior year English teacher took pity on me and gave me a C. I really should've gotten a D, points-wise. If I ever get a book published, I would love to find her and give her a copy, just because the look on her face would be priceless. She'll be like, "WTF of all people" lulz


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## cinderblock (Feb 23, 2015)

MamaStrong said:


> Yeah, I just hit First Corinthians tonight... I dread it already because after a quick glance it's a bunch of names. But I feel like I'd disappoint God if I don't finish and read each book/word so...trucking through I go.



Well you could be the first person in your church to finish the Bible.

I remember reading the whole thing front to back in high school. I'd read a few pages every night before bed. Anyway, I was an extremely devout Christian then, and yet I remember disagreeing with almost everything I read. I never questioned it though, because I was fixed in my stalwart views. And when I met so-called missionaries and bible studies teachers, I loved screwing with them, because I realized they had not read the Bible front to back like I did. I would bring up the time somebody was stoned to death for picking sticks on the Sabbath, or (SPOILER ALERT) how Job really did quit on God at the end of Job (even though we're taught otherwise), and misconceptions about marriage (God does not want you to get married, even though most people think you should), etc etc. I loved trapping people who thought they were an authority on the Bible. I'd ask if God preordains everything, and they'd say, "No, we have freedom of choice." And then I'd bring up the moment where God deliberately whispers to some Pharaoh (philistine I believe?) mind-controlling him to wage war against the "good guys," and he gets defeated. All of them would be like, "What? Really? I'll have to look it up." 

Anyway, I am not religious at all, anymore, and it's funny how when I look back on the days I was, I guess somewhere, subconsciously, I knew I wasn't. Why else would I be arguing at Church all the time. Gah, I gave them a lot of hell.


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## cactusdude (Mar 1, 2015)

95% of the non-fiction books sitting on my bookcase which I spent good money on and was so eager to read. I gobble up fiction though; don't think I've ever not finished one.


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## Yumi Koizumi (Mar 1, 2015)

I'm sure I'll get heat for this, but anything Stephen King. 

When in Cujo he spent 4 pages building up a character only to immediately get killed by the dog, I gave up. That kind of bul/pulp/superficial writing has made him millions, and I'm sorry to say I helped build his fortune.

But no more.


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## Sonata (Mar 3, 2015)

Yumi Koizumi said:


> I'm sure I'll get heat for this, but anything Stephen King.
> 
> When in Cujo he spent 4 pages building up a character only to immediately get killed by the dog, I gave up. That kind of bul/pulp/superficial writing has made him millions, and I'm sorry to say I helped build his fortune.
> 
> But no more.



I gave up on Cujo as well although I am not sure how much I had read before I gave up.  There was also another Stephen King -Gerald's Game ? - a friend gave it to me as she said it made her feel sick part way through it.  I admit to having read it because I refused to give up on it.  But it made me feel sick as well.

As for Jane Austin - not my cup of tea at all, and the novel we had to do for GCE "O" level English literature - "Cloister In The Hearth" - I must have read it but do not even remember what it was about.

Unfortunately I cannot read much these days as the print is so small and my eyes cannot cope, and unlike my computer monitor I cannot increase the size of the print.


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## Lilith K Duat (Mar 4, 2015)

The Road by Cormack McCarthy. I couldn't stand the format and it just went on and on.
The Hobbit and The Two Towers. Again, they just went on and on.
1984, but I love Animal Farm. I'll probably try again, but it didn't get the viceral reaction so far that A Brave New World did.
Speaking of A Brave New World. The conditioning scene just turned my stomach, so I dropped it.
Hannibal. The introduction of Virgil or whatever his name was. Guy in the wheelchair, also turned my stomach. 
Les Miserables because I loved the play. I skipped around the book a lot, and ended up reading just Fantine and Eponine's scenes.


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## Artinum (Mar 4, 2015)

Yumi Koizumi said:


> I'm sure I'll get heat for this, but anything Stephen King.



Wow. I've read a ton of his stuff and I find him pretty hard to put down once started. But I can sort of agree with the earlier poster about the final Dark Tower book - it felt like he was forcing it. He had a ton of characters and he was desperately trying to kill them off so he could get back to the ending it was supposed to have. Books 2-4 were the best in the series - they opened up into this enormous, rich world, and it was all quite dreamlike. When he got into a proper plot for book 5 onwards, it was almost a disappointment.

The only fictional work I couldn't finish (I'm not including Danse Macabre, which is non-fiction and got bogged down in a long list of films I've never seen or sometimes even heard of) was a co-written work with Peter Straub called "Black House". I couldn't even get into the first chapter. Not sure how much of that was Straub as I've never heard of him anywhere else.

I did, however, manage to read the entirety of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code". That was... pretty awful.


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## Sonata (Mar 4, 2015)

Artinum said:


> I did, however, manage to read the entirety of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code". That was... pretty awful.



Is this where I admit that I have never read that book?


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## Loveabull (Mar 4, 2015)

Stephen King is hard for me to read. I don't get into the paranormal and all that. I read "Carrie" a few zillion times as a teen. But in the parts where he goes out there, I just skimmed over to get to the good parts.


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## Pluralized (Mar 4, 2015)

_*Semiotic Insights: The Data Do the Talking*_

I had high hopes, but hadn't the intellectual wherewithal. I encourage you to give it a shot, see if it tickles the left side of your brain.


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## SirJohnnyBoy (Mar 4, 2015)

There's a few books by Jeff Shaara I can't finish... I've read two trilogies of his, one on World War 2, and the other the Civil War. The topics are extremely interesting, but there's some I can't get through. They're awfully slow in parts. I might return to them, hopefully.

There are also a few books by the late, great Tom Clancy still on my bookcase... Those can be a lot to read and take in.


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## Yumi Koizumi (Mar 4, 2015)

There are lots of "old folks" magnifier gadgets with lights (I have a few for all kinds of things), plus every day more is online via your computer or cell (getting a dedicated device like Kindle is against my religion, as this cell phone was supposed to make for only 1 gadget!)... and on those,  you CAN change font size.


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## Yumi Koizumi (Mar 4, 2015)

Artinum, 
Mr. King is not hurting for money, so I'm sure I'm in the minority!


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## Yumi Koizumi (Mar 4, 2015)

Guy, 
Could it be the Faithful want to kill him because Satanic Verses was bad?


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## Sonata (Mar 5, 2015)

Yumi Koizumi said:


> There are lots of "old folks" magnifier gadgets with lights (I have a few for all kinds of things), plus every day more is online via your computer or cell (getting a dedicated device like Kindle is against my religion, as this cell phone was supposed to make for only 1 gadget!)... and on those,  you CAN change font size.



Problems with reading are not confined to "old folks" as there are many "young folks" who are visually impaired.  There is also the problem of holding a book - or a Kindle - and not all books are available on such a device.


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## Blade (Mar 5, 2015)

_Catch – 22 _by Joseph Heller. A book I had read years ago and not only finished but enjoyed. I came across it in a used book store and decided to give it another go but it did not work out so well this time. I found it overly wordy and lacking in action, one of the rare times I felt the author was trying to strangle me.
_
Duluth_ by Gore Vidal. I gave this a try because I had heard of the author though never read him and was rather interested in the title, a city that normally gets the attention of no one. The book had to be a cash grab of some sort. It had a number of absurd characters but no plot that I could see and seemed to be about nothing. It was mercifully short but not short enough for me to finish as I gave up about half way through.


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## The Green Shield (Mar 5, 2015)

_Mr. Mercedes_ by Stephen King. I tried, I really did. I read _Dr. Sleep_, his sequel to _The Shining_ and got into his style, but this book? I guess crime/thrillers just isn't to my tastes. I'll wait until he goes back to doing horror.


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## Yumi Koizumi (Mar 5, 2015)

Sonata said:


> Problems with reading are not confined to "old folks" as there are many "young folks" who are visually impaired.



I understand (was trying to help), but I never said anything about whether someone would need to be old, or whatever. 

When I said:"_There are lots of "_old folks_" magnifier gadgets_", I meant just that-gadgets that are associated with old folks. If you took offense somehow, I apologize.


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## The Green Shield (Mar 5, 2015)

Yumi Koizumi said:


> I understand (was trying to help), but I never said anything about whether someone would need to be old, or whatever.
> 
> When I said:"_There are lots of "_old folks_" magnifier gadgets_", I meant just that-gadgets that are associated with old folks. If you took offense somehow, I apologize.



Hey, I'm vision-impaired and I didn't take offense.  Don't sweat it. 

Though I would require a single monocle for the glasses as my other eye is pretty much decoration.  :chuncky:


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## Merchen (Mar 5, 2015)

It was a Japanese author and I can't even remember the Title. It was suppose to be the story that closely followed his life. I hated it so much and could not get past the first ten pages where he started talking about the "night soil" collectors. I had friends that tried to convince me it was a wonderful book and to stick with it, everytime I read a page I ended up beating the book on the side of the sofa. Funnily enough, I enjoyed the author's other novels, just not this one.


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## aj47 (Mar 6, 2015)

*Lord of the Rings:* Sue me, but I can't make it to the end, even though I know the ending.  I even took a class so I would be "forced" to read it. Um, no, that didn't work.
*
The Cobweb Bride:* The author is in desperate need of an editor.

*The Harry Dresden books: *I made it to the werewolf one--book 3 I think.  But Dresden is an idiot and I have a profound dislike for protagonists who are idiots.  If you want to know the details, PM me--I don't want to spoil it for the folks who really do like that stuff.


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## aj47 (Mar 6, 2015)

The Green Shield said:


> Hey, I'm vision-impaired and I didn't take offense.  Don't sweat it.
> 
> Though I would require a single monocle for the glasses as my other eye is pretty much decoration.  :chuncky:



I'm not offended neither.  I used to use a gadget like that to read large print--before I was sight-restored at 17.  Guess what, my vision is going now because I'm geezering out, so I'm no longer reading print books--do it all on electronic gadgets.  I miss the random-access features of print books.   I sense a rant coming on.  Meet me in the Living Room.


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## JamesR (Mar 12, 2015)

_Paradise Lost_ by Milton. I know it's considered one of the most pivotal texts of the English language, but I found it so mindnumpingly boring and depressing.


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## Blade (Mar 13, 2015)

JamesR said:


> I know it's considered one of the most pivotal texts of the English language, but I found it so mindnumpingly boring and depressing.



But that is why it is a pivotal work, repulsion drives humanity forward, "We can do better'.:encouragement:

Another one I could not get more than half way through was _Moby Dick,_ perhaps for someone trapped for the winter in an isolated cabin somewhere in the wilderness but I can find better things to do with my time. As per the  previously mentioned reference 'pivital work' and 'classic' sometimes are just not enough. To be honest I have not even tried ](*,)_Paradise Lost._


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## Deafmute (Mar 13, 2015)

JamesR said:


> _Paradise Lost_ by Milton. I know it's considered one of the most pivotal texts of the English language, but I found it so mindnumpingly boring and depressing.



classical literature in my opinion is not meant to be read, at least not anymore. Maybe at one point in history it was relevant enough that certain audiences could really appreciate it, but now much of it is lost. Now classical literature should be studied. Read with a group and access to an expert who can interpret the story, and put the events into perspective with insight about meaning and social impact. In that regard it can be loads of fun to study a story and learn about the world through the eyes of someone from another time and be exposed to unique thoughts that were unique and original at least at the time.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Mar 13, 2015)

It probably doesn't count as a book anymore, but I'll say it anyway...

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar... I don't mean I gave up as in stopped reading, as of course they forced me to study it in school, but I gave up gleaning anything meaningful from it.

And I've probably offended many people just by saying that! Haha. Sorry, I did... :I


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## SMScoles (Mar 16, 2015)

The first book that I can remember starting and purposefully not finishing (I've been distracted away from books, forgotten them in vacation spots, lost them etc." was Pride and Prejudice. 

Moby Dick was the second. I gave up on it about 4 times before finally pushing through. All I think about when Moby Dick comes up is that if 30% of the words got removed it would be a pretty damn good book.


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## Blade (Mar 17, 2015)

SMScoles said:


> All I think about when Moby Dick comes up is that if 30% of the words got removed it would be a pretty damn good book.



I think if 30% of the words were removed it would be a better book.:encouragement:


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## BurntMason84 (Mar 18, 2015)

One book I've never been able to finish is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.  Couldn't even tell you why.  Think I've attempted it three or four times now, and get about 300 pages in and just drift off to something new.  And you know you've just gotta start from the beginning to remember what all happened... it's a vicious cycle.


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## BryanJ62 (Mar 18, 2015)

*I had to pull the plug on Alien in the Family by Gina Koch. The main character was way to full of herself. She reminded me of an ex-girlfriend. I lasted about 100 pages and had to walk away.*


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## MzSnowleopard (Mar 19, 2015)

If I had to pick anything by _Lakisha Spletze_r- we were once friends. 

In all honesty, she is not going to be happy with me, because it'd be her books. I can't bring myself to read them- in part, because she read them to me ( as works in progress) over the phone. Instead of asking, she assumed that I would listen - be her sounding ear- and instead of saying no, like a gluten for punishment- I listened. When I finally did tell her that I couldn't do it anymore- surprise, surprise- ( not ) she cut ties with me.

I still have her books and while I've read 2 of them ( because I promised her ) I can't bring myself to read the rest. 

The 2 that I did read left me wanting a coarse cleansing with a long hot shower. I've told her many times that I believe that sex is not necessary for a book to be good. She not only disagrees with me but goes to the 'shock effect' akin to porn mags. It was revolting. 

I am not against sex in novels. As one friend put it - whoring out a novel is tasteless and tacky.


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## The Green Shield (Mar 19, 2015)

MzSnowleopard said:


> If I had to pick anything by _Lakisha Spletze_r- we were once friends.
> 
> In all honesty, she is not going to be happy with me, because it'd be her books. I can't bring myself to read them- in part, because she read them to me ( as works in progress) over the phone. Instead of asking, she assumed that I would listen - be her sounding ear- and instead of saying no, like a gluten for punishment- I listened. When I finally did tell her that I couldn't do it anymore- surprise, surprise- ( not ) she cut ties with me.
> 
> ...


My creative writing teacher once told me, "the best kind of sex is the one not written."


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## MzSnowleopard (Mar 19, 2015)

The Green Shield said:


> My creative writing teacher once told me, "the best kind of sex is the one not written."



That I agree with- there's something to be said about subtly


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## BeastlyBeast (Mar 19, 2015)

cinderblock said:


> Well you could be the first person in your church to finish the Bible.
> 
> I remember reading the whole thing front to back in high school. I'd read a few pages every night before bed. Anyway, I was an extremely devout Christian then, and yet I remember disagreeing with almost everything I read. I never questioned it though, because I was fixed in my stalwart views. And when I met so-called missionaries and bible studies teachers, I loved screwing with them, because I realized they had not read the Bible front to back like I did. I would bring up the time somebody was stoned to death for picking sticks on the Sabbath, or (SPOILER ALERT) how Job really did quit on God at the end of Job (even though we're taught otherwise), and misconceptions about marriage (God does not want you to get married, even though most people think you should), etc etc. I loved trapping people who thought they were an authority on the Bible. I'd ask if God preordains everything, and they'd say, "No, we have freedom of choice." And then I'd bring up the moment where God deliberately whispers to some Pharaoh (philistine I believe?) mind-controlling him to wage war against the "good guys," and he gets defeated. All of them would be like, "What? Really? I'll have to look it up."
> 
> Anyway, I am not religious at all, anymore, and it's funny how when I look back on the days I was, I guess somewhere, subconsciously, I knew I wasn't. Why else would I be arguing at Church all the time. Gah, I gave them a lot of hell.



I don't want to derail this thread at all, but I'm curious as to where you got that Job was unfaithful at the end...? First off, the last bit of Job _specifically says the exact opposite_. In the very beginning of Job 42, he repents and at the end it says he lived a long and satisfying life - quite a contrast to what you seem to have gotten out of that book. If that's not enough, Ezekiel, another book, uses Job as a positive example - why would it say he's a good example if he was unfaithful in the end? As for the Sabbath thing, yeah, there were big penalties for working on the Sabbath. It was strictly forbidden, yet the people still loved to test God's limit. Finally as for marriage, God doesn't really care if we marry or not. He loves when we do, he loves when we put it aside to render service to him, and overall it's inconsequential whether or not you marry.

Completely On-Topic: A book I put down simply because I couldn't bear to finish it? Hmm... I can't really recall any books I felt were that bad. However, while I don't judge books by their covers, I do judge by their first few pages, sometimes the first few lines. If I'm not gripped by the book and sucked into the desire to read on at the Barnes and Nobles, I don't buy it. Sadly, a book on my shelf noticeably falls into that category - Watchers by Dean Koontz. Seriously, these are the first few sentences: "On his thirty-sixth birthday, may 18, Travis Cornell rose at five o'clock in the morning. He dressed in sturdy hiking boot, jeans, and a long-sleeved, blue-plaid cotton shirt. He drove his pickup south from his home... He took only a package of..." Starts off with the most boring wake-up scene I've ever seen, and uses 'he' like 25 times on the first _page!_ Couldn't bear the bland, dry storytelling here, so I never read past page 1.


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## bazz cargo (Mar 20, 2015)

The Odyssey, makes a great cure for insomnia. Homer should have stuck to the Simpsons.


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## BryanJ62 (Mar 20, 2015)

*Give Watchers a chance. Not a bad read.*


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## Blade (Mar 21, 2015)

MzSnowleopard said:


> If I had to pick anything by _Lakisha Spletze_r- we were once friends.
> 
> In all honesty, she is not going to be happy with me, because it'd be her books. I can't bring myself to read them- in part, because she read them to me ( as works in progress) over the phone. Instead of asking, she assumed that I would listen - be her sounding ear- and instead of saying no, like a gluten for punishment- I listened. When I finally did tell her that I couldn't do it anymore- surprise, surprise- ( not ) she cut ties with me.
> 
> ...



All’s well that ends well.:cookie:



> When I finally did tell her that I couldn't do it anymore- surprise, surprise- ( not ) she cut ties with me.



:cool2: At least someone else took out the garbage.

It must be very difficult when you have a personal stake in someone and things take a bad turn but I think in this case you are in the right.



> I've told her many times that I believe that sex is not necessary for a book to be good. She not only disagrees with me but goes to the 'shock effect' akin to porn mags. It was revolting.
> 
> I am not against sex in novels. As one friend put it - whoring out a novel is tasteless and tacky.



Sounds like the road to _50 Shades of Grey._:livid: 

It is not only unnecessary but rather difficult as well. Does the description really match the experience? IF I wanted shock value I would stick a butter knife into an electrical outlet.


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## NoxiousLovexx (Mar 21, 2015)

Honestly, I gave up on Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Don't send lynch mobs, please. D:  I just... couldn't push through them, I have no clue why.  It was just... too much, and I tried more then once because I liked the LotR movies. Honestly Game of Thrones itself might just not be interesting because the tv show was hard to get through, too.


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## LOLeah (Mar 23, 2015)

There are a few Charles Dickens I just couldn't hang with. I hope that doesn't upset anyone LOL I know he's a classic factory but oh my, it's just such tedious reading in my opinion.


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## BryanJ62 (Mar 23, 2015)

*I had to read a couple of Charles Dickens in college. It was painful. Just had a hard time sitting through them.*


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## kellypeace (Apr 9, 2015)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Just couldn't get into it.


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## Monaque (Apr 10, 2015)

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. As I mentioned in another thread, this book was weird. Gave up after the first chapter.


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## MzSnowleopard (Apr 10, 2015)

Blade said:


> All’s well that ends well.:cookie:
> 
> 
> :cool2: At least someone else took out the garbage.


 
Indeed, yes there are readers who enjoy the subject matter- the more detailed the better for them. I'm not one of them. If you've read the opener to my book The Zodiac Chronicles, you'll see just how far I'm willing to go. (It's posted here in the secured area.)



> It must be very difficult when you have a personal stake in someone and things take a bad turn but I think in this case you are in the right.


 
T.S.Bowman would agree with you. In the years that we've been online-friends I think I've cried more on his virtual shoulder about her than anyone else.




> Sounds like the road to _50 Shades of Grey._:livid:
> 
> It is not only unnecessary but rather difficult as well. Does the description really match the experience? IF I wanted shock value I would stick a butter knife into an electrical outlet.


 
In one of the books- the sexual attraction between the two main characters bleeds on every page where they interact. So, it's no surprise when they finally 'get busy'. It's the choice of words that make is nasty. Even Harlequin writers don't go this far. 

I might send her a copy of 50 Shades so she can see how it's done. I'm assuming that writer knew what she was doing and chose more tasteful words. I can't say ye or ne because- based on what I've seen / heard from the press- it's not my type of book.


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## Monaque (Apr 11, 2015)

MzSnowleopard said:


> I might send her a copy of 50 Shades so she can see how it's done. I'm assuming that writer knew what she was doing and chose more tasteful words. I can't say ye or ne because- based on what I've seen / heard from the press- it's not my type of book.



Not mine either, although I`ve never actually tried to read it, unlike Twilight, which I gave a good go.


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## T.S.Bowman (Apr 11, 2015)

Artinum said:


> The only fictional work I couldn't finish (I'm not including Danse Macabre, which is non-fiction and got bogged down in a long list of films I've never seen or sometimes even heard of) was a co-written work with Peter Straub called "Black House".



I actually liked "Black House". 

"The Talisman", however, was a different thing. It was the first book of the two co written by Straub and King. Same characters and stuff...far worse book. I tried to read a couple of Straub novels after reading "Black House" and couldn't manage either of them.

By far, the one novel that I will NEVER regret not finishing is Clan of the Cave Bear.


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## T.S.Bowman (Apr 11, 2015)

MzSnowleopard said:


> T.S.Bowman would agree with you. In the years that we've been online-friends I think I've cried more on his virtual shoulder about her than anyone else.



Happy to help. I'm just glad you have finally rid yourself of that particular albatross. The woman was no more useful to you than jock itch. And she was quite a bit more irritating.


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## MzSnowleopard (Apr 11, 2015)

T.S.Bowman said:


> Happy to help. I'm just glad you have finally rid yourself of that particular albatross. The woman was no more useful to you than jock itch. And she was quite a bit more irritating.




oh come on, those birds have their uses \\/


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## Sforza (Apr 21, 2015)

Glamorama, it's interesting but too long for what it is.


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## JustRob (Apr 21, 2015)

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. 

I bought this paperback in a charity bookshop for 50p.  Despite being over 800 pages long there was no sign of the back having been broken, indeed no sign of it having been read at all.  The cover blurb suggested that it was my kind of thing but I got only a few pages into it before giving up. I think the problem was the repetition of ideas hammering away that deterred me. Maybe they employed the principle that anything seems amusing if you repeat it enough times. The thought of 800 pages of catch phrases appalled me. I still have the book but have no idea what to do with it. I could give it to a charity shop. Maybe that's its sole reason for existing, not to be read but to collect money for charity. That's 50p well spent then.



Guy Faukes said:


> The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I know he's a prolific writer and I have a great deal of respect for him, that was a very, VERY dry book for something so controversial and fatwa-inducing.



Having bought my way into this thread I have a funny story about Salman Rushdie to tell. An American friend was attending a book publishing festival in Hay-on-Wye here in the UK at the time that the fatwa was a current event. One of the speakers was Salman Rushdie, who arrived from a safe house in much secrecy attended by a small army of security men. After his talk they whisked him away again. On the coach journey away from the festival my friend heard the driver announce "If you look over there you can see the house where Salman Rushdie lives."  Oops.


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## Mr mitchell (Apr 21, 2015)

Lately I gave up with Fight Club. I know it's meant to be a masterpiece but couldn't get into it. The.characters I didn't like and that put me off the book.


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## BryanJ62 (Apr 21, 2015)

*I am put off by any book when I can't support the main characters. I keep that in mind when I write.*


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## Noth (Apr 21, 2015)

A book I gave up would be Buddha's life and the bible.


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## DB17 (Apr 23, 2015)

It was a Billy Joel biography. The writing was execrable. I read about ten pages and brought it back to the library from whence it came.


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## StephLondon (Apr 27, 2015)

1984 ~ I know, it's a classic... but whenever I tried reading it, I would immediately fall asleep. Not just for a catnap either, I would read a page or two and fall into a good three or four hour slumber.

The Great Gatsby ~ I've now had to read this novel for school twice. Each time I skimmed the ending and went by the class notes. I really, really dislike it. I just didn't find any redeeming qualities in the character and the symbolism was so obvious and seemed to drive the story. Not my type of thing. 

There are also a countless number of young adult/ new adult/ romance/ erotic novels that I've tried starting but ended up shaking my head in disappointment or disgust. My Nook is actually full of novels like this, damned cheap dollar books. -_-


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## Artinum (May 20, 2015)

Much as I enjoy the Lord of the Rings (I've read it many times), I too gave up on it the first time. It was too dense for me at that age. It's also full of songs and nonsense. If you think the films were long, be thankful they cut out the whole part with Tom Bombadil (which is downright bizarre) - and the scouring of the Shire (which is a downbeat ending for our hobbits when they get home). They also cut out the scene where Strider and the hobbits sing a song about trolls before they come across three of them, turned to stone, and laugh about stumbling upon a scene from Bilbo's adventures in "The Hobbit".

LotR isn't so much a three-part novel as an excuse for an exercise in linguistics.


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## Tyrion (May 20, 2015)

I gave up trying to read _The Naked and the Dead _by Norman Mailer. Despite being a huge fan of a really good war novel and an admirer of Miller's writing style - as well as his very vivid, crude and believable speech which I found particularly entertaining - there was not _one _likeable character in the book. Everyone was a straight out first class A-hole without a morsel of decency. I am aware that war is a dreadful business and that boys will be boys but I was hoping for some 'band of brothers', heroic bonding and just didn't get it. I might re-read it again and this time plough the whole way through but the characters, all of them male (really should have been at least one female, even a nurse!), really were abysmal specimens of humanity. I didn't care for anyone of them, which isn't really much good in a war novel were half of them get blown to pieces or perish from shrapnel wounds. There also didn't seem to be all that much of a plot in the book, although as said the actual style of writing was excellent and very articulate.


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## The grappling minstrel (May 22, 2015)

Quite a bit of fantasy novels, actually. If they don't show anything unique and relies too much on cliches (either character or plot) I just lose interest


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## MamaStrong (May 22, 2015)

_Paper Towns _is a book I should have given up on. I didn't but such a disappointment.


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## Mesafalcon (May 29, 2015)

stevesh said:


> The Bible, apparently. I managed to slog my way through Genesis, and I'm led to believe the pace picks up in later books, but I can't bring myself to pick it up again.



Ha. Good call.

It's huge.

I wanna love Steven King's Dark Tower series, I am on book 2 - but the travelling between times is a bit too fantastic for me. 


I liked it much better when Roland was in the one world of demons. Gonna try to push forward.


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## Foxee (May 29, 2015)

I normally vet books pretty quickly before I even start them so I don't often find myself quitting mid-book. Still...

State of Fear by Michael Crichton is the result of a TON of research and most of it is still in there. The first time I ended up putting it down but later I checked it out of the library again and finished it.

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. I loved LOTR, read it over and over. Tried The Silmarillion a few times and just couldn't make it past a couple of pages. Sorry, J.R.R.

Someone gave me a random Sydney Sheldon book which isn't really my gear anyway though I've read a couple of his. In the first chapter he stepped right out of the POV he'd been writing in and I closed it. Haven't opened it since.

And then there is the NaNoWriMo novel that someone got very excited to finish and self-publish even though I had beta-read it and, eyes still watering, told them not to. I won't mention the title here in case the author wanders by though to my knowledge they aren't on WF. All I can say is please, please, PLEASE for the love of Pete...do NOT think that a finished 50,000 words is a finished novel. I keep it in my little collection with its slick little clip-art cover and the horror show inside. No matter how pretty you think your babies look...to the rest of the world they may look pretty bad. Edit and actually listen to the people who you've asked for crits. I guess I can't say I gave up on it since I beta-read the thing but I wish I could have bailed.


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## Sonterp (May 30, 2015)

When I was younger I gave up on Harry Potter, because everyone had spoiled it for me.


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## Allysan (Jul 2, 2015)

Allegiant by Veronica Roth. I just couldn't get into it. Am I alone here? The first two were great but the third just killed it for me. I still don't know who dies at the end ...


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## RJ_Parnell (Jul 21, 2015)

A friend of mine hounded me to read a novel by Dean Koontz.  I don't even remember the title now, but he claimed it was the best thing he'd ever read.  I managed to struggle through about half of it before giving up.  It was terribly boring and didn't seem to be going anywhere.  In hindsight, I might have used it on those wakeful nights as a powerful sleep aid.


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## JustRob (Jul 21, 2015)

Blade said:


> _Catch – 22 _by Joseph Heller. A book I had read years ago and not only finished but enjoyed. I came across it in a used book store and decided to give it another go but it did not work out so well this time. I found it overly wordy and lacking in action, one of the rare times I felt the author was trying to strangle me.



Catch - 22 defeated me as well. Perhaps I came to it too late, like after watching M.A.S.H. for years. Blame progress.

I didn't get far with _The Anatomy of Melancholy _by Robert Burton. It was actually given to me by a patient in a mental hospital who may well have been suffering from the affliction. He was the sort of man who could speak fluent Latin, so 17th century best-sellers were probably right up his street. He even wrote a Latin dedication on the flyleaf, the translation being "To Robert himself." An English literature expert mentioned to me unprompted that the book is still his favourite above all the more obvious classics but I disposed of my copy, so haven't tried to tackle it again recently. Blame lack of progress.


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## AtleanWordsmith (Jul 21, 2015)

There are plenty of these for me.  When I was younger, I loved Michael Crichton's work, but now, when I try to read his stuff again, it just comes off as dry and unappealing.  I keep finding myself looking for a glass of water.  Many of Stephen King's books didn't appeal to me, and I actually ended up abandoning _The Stand_ and the _Dark Tower_ series.  I could never quite get into the _Wheel of Time_ series, either, though I have plenty of the books sitting here waiting to be read. 

I can't get through much of Tom Clancy's stuff, either, which is sad, because I really want to, haha.


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## walker (Jul 21, 2015)

Too many to mention. Hundreds.

War and Peace is one I would have liked to have finished. I've tried to read it a few times, always with the same result. I'm not sure why. I can read other thick Russian novels. Crime and Punishment is one of my favorite books.


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## John T. K. (Jul 21, 2015)

The Fellowship of the Ring. Quite a few attempts. 

Doctor Sleep. I really wanted to like this, as I am a big fan of The Shining.

The Sound and the Fury. I have not given up yet. I stopped reading it just a month or two ago and so it is still fresh enough in my memory to pick it back up.


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## Bishop (Jul 21, 2015)

Never did finish _American Gods_. The middle of it just got so boring and meandered with no discernible plot. Writing was good, concept was good... just probably waaaaay too long. And I didn't care about the main character enough to actually see what happened to him. Wife says it picks up again, but... I just couldn't bring myself to push through.


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## Ariel (Jul 21, 2015)

It does get better and, honestly, that's a common problem in Gaiman's work.


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## TheWonderingNovice (Jul 21, 2015)

I gave up on Great Expectations , I tried my darnest to get into it but it was so dry.


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## John Oberon (Jul 21, 2015)

cinderblock said:


> Well you could be the first person in your church to finish the Bible.
> 
> I remember reading the whole thing front to back in high school. I'd read a few pages every night before bed. Anyway, I was an extremely devout Christian then, and yet I remember disagreeing with almost everything I read. I never questioned it though, because I was fixed in my stalwart views. And when I met so-called missionaries and bible studies teachers, I loved screwing with them, because I realized they had not read the Bible front to back like I did. I would bring up the time somebody was stoned to death for picking sticks on the Sabbath, or (SPOILER ALERT) how Job really did quit on God at the end of Job (even though we're taught otherwise), and misconceptions about marriage (God does not want you to get married, even though most people think you should), etc etc. I loved trapping people who thought they were an authority on the Bible. I'd ask if God preordains everything, and they'd say, "No, we have freedom of choice." And then I'd bring up the moment where God deliberately whispers to some Pharaoh (philistine I believe?) mind-controlling him to wage war against the "good guys," and he gets defeated. All of them would be like, "What? Really? I'll have to look it up."
> 
> Anyway, I am not religious at all, anymore, and it's funny how when I look back on the days I was, I guess somewhere, subconsciously, I knew I wasn't. Why else would I be arguing at Church all the time. Gah, I gave them a lot of hell.



I think it must've been a while ago that you read it, lol.


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## KLJo (Jul 21, 2015)

Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.

I'm quirky and I like space, so people are forever suggesting this to me. I went and bought the series several years ago, and I cannot force myself to get through it.


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## Bard_Daniel (Jul 21, 2015)

Tenth of December by George Saunders. I tried to get into it twice but no dice.


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## Jenwales (Jul 22, 2015)

I hate not finishing a book but I let my anger at the writer allow me to stop reading these days. Two come to mind though there's probably more:
Recently: Uprising by Scott Mariani, after reading the brilliant reviews I decided to read it. The chapters were too short, instead of getting into the atmosphere and impersing me in the world I felt dragged from one scene to the next. The writing was terrible too much he did this and that.. I even wrote a review on Amazon I was so annoyed. The characters and speeches were cliches, (I can't believe they said fans of Blade would like it!). The ideas were good but the execution was terrible. And there was a character that reminded me a lot of Renfield. Vampire cliches! It just seemed like a rehash of everything I think. I just had to stop reading, I couldn't torture myself anymore. The silly thing is I read the bad reviews and find i agree with them.
It's annoying because it's hard to tell sometimes if a book will be good or bad. I took a chance again and it's put me off taking another chance.

Years ago: Labyrinth by Kate Moss. I loved Sepulchure. I really did. But I was reading this Labyrinth and there was one scene where the main character just goes to a location and thinks something and leaves. It was so pointless I couldn't read anymore and put the book down. It's a shame is was a good copy of the novel with illustrations. I won't read any other books by Kate Moss in case they're terrible.

I've recently tried reading Stephen King books again but I don't like that the story doesn't seem to move much at a certain point and I get bored and stop reading. This happens with most of the books I read by him, they just don't seem to have a point (Dreamcatcher!). James Herbert is much better although not appreciated enough. (He's not around anymore  )


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## Jenwales (Jul 22, 2015)

Pidgeon84 said:


> I actually gave up on the Harry Potter series after Goblet of Fire. Not because it got bad. Mostly because I became a teenager.


I gave up too but the last book is so good you should read them! I reread them all not too long ago and I'm in my twenties and hate teen/kids books. I didn't want to read them as a child, my big regret that I only read a few as they are so good. Well they're great page turners and the last book was ... so good. I did watch the film and wanted to read the ones I didn't read.


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## Offeiriad (Jul 22, 2015)

I've tried both text and audiobook formats of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. I love historical fiction. I am even interested in the time period she writes about. I cannot CANNOT abide her style. Third person present tense just doesn't do it for me. Occasionally I feel bad about not liking it because she's won so many big literary awards, but I've tried and just can't.

There have been others, but that always stands out to me.


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## AaronR316 (Jul 22, 2015)

A free domain ebook of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. Eventually, I'm gonna buy a better English translation of it. The free version hurt my head!


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## RileyGardner17 (Jul 23, 2015)

Today I finished F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned. Didn't give up on it but I sure wish that I did - what an horribly depressing novel that's beautifully written with some beautiful scenes but by the end of it I felt so exhausted and saw so much hopelessness within my life.

Also, I gave up on Every Day by David Leviathan. I'm consistently stunned that people love that book. Nothing about it is bad per se but from my experience I found myself so bored. It's such a great premise but my interest in it was essentially zero and it felt like the whole book was just "ah, shucks, my life!" and "another day, another dollar...". Dreadful experience, though I might go back again to it one day.


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## Lewdog (Jul 23, 2015)

I tried my best to read _Black Sunday_ by Thomas Harris, and just couldn't finish it, the plot moved so slow.  I have read the entire Hannibal Lecter series and figured it would be a good book, but in my opinion it was just boring.


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## Dave Billig (Jul 24, 2015)

I could never read all of _Walden_ in high school. Five pages for every one-paragraph argument.


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## Joe_Bassett (Aug 3, 2015)

_Les Miserables _by Victor Hugo. While I greatly enjoy the musical production (which I had a chance to see in London at the Queen's Theatre), I found the book to be rather dull.  The book was more detailed and had a more in depth plot but I felt that I was losing track of events each time the POV changed.  Perhaps one of these days I'll pick it up again but I'd rather listen to the soundtrack.


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## Artinum (Aug 19, 2015)

Pidgeon84 said:


> I actually gave up on the Harry Potter series after Goblet of Fire. Not because it got bad. Mostly because I became a teenager.



That's not a good reason. I was reading them in my early thirties.


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## Monaque (Aug 20, 2015)

Artinum said:


> That's not a good reason. I was reading them in my early thirties.



i read the first and couldn`t get into them, perhaps it was because they were primarily aimed at kids, not sure, i`ve read her Cuckoo`s Calling novel and found it excellent, but not Harry.....


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## InnerFlame00 (Aug 20, 2015)

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion. I loved his first book, The Rosie Project so it was a real disappointment. My husband and I were listening to the audiobook together and had to rage quit on it because the main character was progressively making less and less believable poor decisions. I understand you need a certain amount of that to advance the plot, but it was getting really unbelievable towards the middle of the book. I mean, ugh. I've never quit a book because the main character made me mad before, so it was a first for me.


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## chase1423 (Sep 16, 2015)

Not gonna lie, _Harry Potter_ by JK Rowling is always one I have tried to read and could not bring myself to it. The book has never grabbed my interest long enough for me to get past what seems an annoying beginning into the actual book. I'll be shunned by other users, I know. Of course it has been years since I have tried reading the series again.


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## J Anfinson (Sep 16, 2015)

Robert McCammon's newest novel, The Border. I couldn't even get through chapter one. I love him, but that book sucks.


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## Teb (Sep 16, 2015)

The Da Vinci code by Dan Brown, couldn't get into that at all.


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## The Green Shield (Sep 17, 2015)

While I enjoyed both _Endurance_ and _Kalimpura_ by Jay Lake, I had to stop reading _Green _(the first book, actually.) Why? Because the first half of it is about how the titular character was enslaved and horribly abused by the Mistress Tirelle of the Factor's House when she was a small child. Sorry, but reading about a toddler being force-fed ash, pummeled by a sandbag for the most minor infraction having her entire culture being destroyed, etc. is not something I can stomach reading through. Really, any book where the abuse of children, pets, or elderly is the main focus, even if it were just the first part of it.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Sep 17, 2015)

Couldn't read any Harry Potter. 

Hardy Boys. Was it hardy boys? I think so. Whatever it was called. 

Tom Sawyer. Any of the books. Why in the burning hells did anyone read it? 

50 Shades, Twilight...

I got halfway through Moby Dick. Like climbing halfway up a mountain, I had the honesty to admit that I couldn't make it.


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## kilroy214 (Sep 17, 2015)

I've tried several times to pick up The Dark Tower Series by Stephan King, and I still can't make it through The Gunslinger. Pretty sure it just ain't gonna happen.


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## jbishop15 (Sep 29, 2015)

"This Side Of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I've tried many times to finish this novel, but there is nothing about it that I like. I love Gatsby, and Fitzgerald in general, but Paradise just didn't work for me.


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## Schrody (Sep 30, 2015)

kilroy214 said:


> I've tried several times to pick up The Dark Tower Series by Stephan King, and I still can't make it through The Gunslinger. Pretty sure it just ain't gonna happen.



Stephan King, is that a new writer? Never heard of him :lol:

OT: Every Richard Dawkins book...


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## JustRob (Oct 28, 2015)

I just started reading _The Time Traveller's Almanac, _from the beginning unfortunately. I'm getting the impression that these people are charlatans, which is putting me off reading any further. Perhaps I should skip the pretentious stuff in the wrapper sections and just read the honest fiction. 

To my mind there's only two ways to write about time travel and the associated phenomena, either in a purely fictional setting or a factual one. I can't cope with someone writing pseudo-factually in a glibly authoritarian way as I doubt that anyone has that much personal experience. If they did then they'd keep quiet about it, I suspect. If they treated paraplegics or autists or any other such clearly defined minority group like that then society would frown on them, but chrononauts are most likely too confused to defend themselves and the phenomenon itself denies them any definitive evidence of their claims. Hence the authority with which these other people write proves that they don't know the truth. It's like they used to say about the troubles in Ireland, that if you thought you knew the answer then you didn't understand the problem.

Don't push the LOL button on this. You've no idea how serious I am. I do hope you don't have anyway. The clock's just slipped past midnight now. Time to sleep and then start again.


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## Rabber (Oct 29, 2015)

Atlas Shrugged and The Catcher in the Rye. I didn't get very far into either one.


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## movieman (Oct 29, 2015)

Crowley K. Jarvis said:


> I got halfway through Moby Dick. Like climbing halfway up a mountain, I had the honesty to admit that I couldn't make it.



Better than me. He hadn't even got on the boat by the time I gave up. Six hundred pages describing dockside inns in tedious detail was more than I could handle.

_Lord of the Rings_. Loved _The Hobbit_, but never even managed a hundred pages of the sequels.


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## Amnesiac (Oct 29, 2015)

Slogging my way through, "A Tale of Two Cities," right now.

Gave up on, "Cloud Atlas," by... can't remember. 
Gave up on, "The Satanic Verses," by Salman Rushdie
Gave up on, "Pattern Recognition," by William Gibson
Gave up on, "Black House," by Peter Straub

Probably a gazillion others that aren't worth mentioning... Bleh.....


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## Allysan (Oct 29, 2015)

War and Peace. I just couldn't...


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## Amnesiac (Oct 30, 2015)

The Hobbit - Egad... So impossibly dull. Bored of the Rings. Thpppppth....


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## JustRob (Oct 31, 2015)

Amnesiac said:


> The Hobbit - Egad... So impossibly dull. Bored of the Rings. Thpppppth....



You had to be there. Shortly after Lord of the Rings was published in the 1950's I was at boarding school. One of our housemasters was an avid reader and he read The Hobbit to us in the dormitory at night. Our 1950's English boarding school was a spartan environment. Lying in the dark with twenty-four other boys, just a thin hair mattress and solid boards under one's back and barely adequate blankets over one's body in the chilly air, it was wonderful to escape into one's mind after a hard tiring day. Tolkien gave us the means to do that. When the master finished The Hobbit over many nights he was persuaded to read Lord of the Rings as well, although that was such a mammoth task that others had to help out and vast quantities of water were drunk to preserve their voices over many weeks. Yes, that was how to experience those books, as bedtime stories in the dark with the imagination of a child.


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## wainscottbl (Nov 7, 2015)

Harper Lee's "Go Set A Watchman" 

Kind of...I am reading is slowly. I like the idea that Atticus is a racist. The complexity of the hero. But it is so badly written style wise. I mean this is the woman that wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird"? She should stick to the first person I guess. I want to read it, as I like the idea of the story, but gee, the writing really sucks. Am I arrogant to say that? 


And I have been meaning to read The Hunt for Red October, which I got for $4 at the Dollar General Store. But Tom Clancy can't write either. I mean he can spin a story, but not write one. Well, he's dead, but let's keep it present tense, There's just no depth of voice to his writing. The movie was better for once.


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## wainscottbl (Nov 7, 2015)

Allysan said:


> War and Peace. I just couldn't...



Tolstoy is not Dostoevesky....

He's more....visual rather than spiritual, in his writing at least. Tolstoy is very keen on details of the senses. I like War and Peace well enough--reading it now actually!--but it's not The Brothers Karamazov.....


Anyway, I've got to finish Go Set a Watchman. Its just so tedious and badly written. I mean seriously. She wrote it before To Kill a Mockingbird. A book of young adulthood. The stuff I wrote in my early 20s was crappy too. Maybe my stuff today is crappy, but my crap smells better now. Well, To Kill a Mockingbird, now that is good writing.


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