Books you've tried reading multiple times but never managed to finish
-
scharnbergmaxse — 9 years ago(September 25, 2016 05:02 PM)
I know there are some teachers and some other advisers who request that when someone has started reading a book, he or she should invariably continue until the last page. I think this is very poor advice. There is the risk that books in general will be perceived as sour and boring. Some people are not "tuned in" for some sorts of books.
I belong to those who experience "Midnight's Children" as one of the best novels ever written. Evidently Markvoyager had a very different view.
How about my own experiences? - I regret that I did not earlier come into contact with Goethe's novels (the three ones about Wilhelm Meister), plus "Die Wahlverwandtschaften". I am sure that I would have enjoyed these books if I had encountered them earlier. Now any effort would be in vain.
A much more intersting - but also regrettable - fact is that there are rather many recently written novels which I do not love; and I am strongly convinced that I would neither have loved them 20 or 40 years ago. It does not depend on the fact that I have read very many in German translation.
When the Romanian embassy arranged an evening with Gabriela Adamesteanu I bought "Lost Morning" (in Swedish) and "The Same Day Each Morning", both by Gabriela Adamesteanu. My primary feeling while reading was: What is so excellent in these books?
Since I have an appetite for love novels which is too great to be satisfied, I did expect the best from "A Map of Loving Couples That Have Disappeared" by Nadeem Ashlam. After 200 pages I have not got much from it. - But this is a book I am going to finish to the last page.
Some examples of other books from which I had little profit:
Katja Kettu: "Wild-Eye", (about love between a German soldier and a Finnish woman during WWII).
Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer even got some award for "The Most Beautiful Girl in Genua".
Ulrich Plensdorf: "A Legend About Endless Happiness".
This is not a list of novel from which I during my long life have been disappointed. All of them are instead books which I started to read during 2016. Too many disappointments in so short a period.
Anybody who has written any of these books and have specific feelings or evaluation of them?
Drei Arbeiter, die in einem Schokoladenladen laden Laden, laden Ladenmädchen zum Tanz. -
OneGettingOlderAndBetter — 9 years ago(September 27, 2016 08:48 AM)
One book about vultures.
Another one called Tom Jones. There was a reading list in english licence
The teacher was a regular er teacher.
In the student paper it was reported he once called the students "bunch of idiots".
He once pounded on me and asked, in the tone that reminds one of sour milk :"is there any chance you want to get a license, one day, miss"?
Eyed the smart ass, smiled, replied, no, I allready was a master in the law and was just studying english for the love of it.
Never had seen someone actually turn green, before.
Then, there was a speech contest and it was Japan. Never achieved those studies. Kept the book for the memory.
His jaw also dropped to the floor. It -felt-good.
Tom Jones.
Ton Jones, more like.
(Never finished Roderick Random, either, though looking forward to do so one of those days)
Manelle
"to tax and to please, no more to love and to be wise, is not given to men" -
felipe_o9 — 9 years ago(October 01, 2016 06:22 PM)
This one is an issue of language, not story or writing: as a German language student I have some books in German I bought to train my reading skills and many times tried starting with the fairy-tale
Nussknacker und Mausekönig
by E. T. A. Hoffmann, but I couldn't get on the 19th century German of the book and didn't even move past the first page, so instead I tried starting with Michael Ende's
Momo
, that is being much easier now. I intend to give a try at Hoffmann maybe in one year or more.
"I know one thing: that I know nothing" - Socrates -
grade_z — 9 years ago(October 02, 2016 06:46 PM)
Twice I've attempted to read
Heaven's Prisoners
by James Lee Burke. His writing style drives me up the wall and I could never get past the first few pages.
http://gradez.tumblr.com/ -
hamsaini — 9 years ago(October 08, 2016 08:27 PM)
Well, there is "The Dome" by Stephen King, a rare occurrence with his works. "Atlas Shrugged" Clive Barker's "The Essential Clive Barker" I think because I have read all the books by him that are referenced within this work. "1984".
You know nothing Jon Snow! -
Cult_of_Kibner — 9 years ago(October 11, 2016 08:35 PM)
Les Misérables. Even with skipping the large chunks that aren't directly tied to the main plot I can't seem to get through it. I pick it back up every now and then to continue but I never make it more than a chapter or so.
-
indy_go_blue44 — 9 years ago(October 15, 2016 05:16 PM)
War & Peace.
The Wheel of Time set. I started book 9 about 2 years ago, got about half way through it, then finally said f- it, I've forgotten most of the story and I really don't care enough what happens to read 4 more books.