h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

can't understand these people slating the Lord of the Rings.
it is one of the greatest tales ever told.
(i think anyway...)
curiously has anyone ever tried to read 'Finnigans Wake' by James Joyce?
it has no beginning or end.
it doesn't begin with a capital letter or end with a full stop.
one can pick a point at anywhere in the 'novel' and read it all the way back through to the same point.
virtually unreadable but Joyce's argument was that people should put as much effort in to reading the book as he did in to writing it.
interesting argument...

JRR TOKINS THE HOBBIT

well...
talk about a conversation killer...

Having read War and Peace several times, when people reckon it's unfinishable, I intended to read Ulysses by James Joyce, which is also reckoned to be unreadable. I picked up a copy in Waterstones, read the first paragraph or so, and put it down. It *is* unreadable.

I've never read the Bible all the way through - got as far as Leviticus (I think) before giving up. I will read it all one day.

Here's a rhetorical question: Why are some books by a given author readable, while others are a real struggle? For example, I can breeze through War and Peace without too much trouble, but I really have to persevere with Anna Karenina. Similarly, I enjoyed 3 of Scott Turow's books (Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof and Pleading Guilty), but almost gave up on The Laws of Our Fathers because his style changed - for the worse.

I've read the bible - a couple of times. The secret to getting all the way through is to skip the 'begots.' There's a lot of chronology that the Israelites recorded that is really unnecessary.

"Clarissa" by Samuel Richardson is (I'm told) heavy going. Personally, I'll go for "Mrs Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf; I;m sure it's mightily profound in its observation of shellshock and social mobility, but I could never bring myself to get that far...

The thing that gets me with the Bible (what I've read of it) is the bit in Exodus where they tell you what the tabernacle was like TWICE. First God tells Moses how it should be made, then the Bible tells you how it was made. Totally needless repetition. Why couldn't they just say, 'So Moses caused the tabernacle to be made as God had directed.'? And, yes, I skip the begats.

A long time ago my parents had a book called 'The Bible in Brief', which was just the nitty-gritty, without the begats or any other extraneous bits. A much shorter book, and much easier to read. Unfortunately, it went missing when Mum moved. It's not a book you can get now.

How could somebody throw aside the Hobbit in bordom and disgust???
That happens to be one of the best books of all time.

One book which I find to be incredibly boring is the Bible.

I just realized how incredibly funny the word bible is

James Joyce's Ulysses I found quite readable, but maybe becuse a friend of mine wrote his thesis around it (- yes, around, he picked a different movie style for each chapter and wrote screenplays, I had to check Ulysses for understanding his stuff!).
I've never finished the bible, too. But I observed the same as Cheerful Dragon - I've read, and partly enjoyed the 3 musketeers (all 3 volumes), but never finished Monte Christo... tried 6 times so far (I can be stubborn, but not that stubborn... those endless page where he sits in jail...). With Scott Turow, it was the same for me, too

But you need all those pages of him sitting in jail to fully appreciate the full force of the revenge he hands out once he gets out. (sorry for the spoiler! )

I love just about anything Dumas wrote - even the Black Tulip which was pretty grim in places since he wrote it to pay off some debts.

right, jimi, give me more threads to muddle .
I know that it's about revenge - I found a shortened version I indeed *have* read. erm... read might be too strong a word. About 200 pages shorter, so not the "real stuff", and I hate short versions usually! Black Tulip I don't know - so far . Or the names *very* different in german.
ke.

left out an '.
here it is - please insert before the s in "names".

What do you mean 'All *3* volumes of the Three Musketeers'? Did your copy come in 3 volumes, or are you referring to the number of books featuring the Musketeers? I believe there are 5 stories involving those gentlemen - The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte of Bragelonne, Louise de la Valliere, The Man in the Iron Mask. I've read the first and the last, have copies of 2 and 4 that I've never finished reading (too many distractions), and have never been able to track down a copy of 3.

Oh, and I've read The Black Tulip, but don't rate it as one of Dumas' best. The Man in the Iron Mask took a couple of attempts before I finished it, as did The Count of Monte Cristo which is well worth persevering with.

Vicomte of Bragelonne.

ISBN: 0192834630

Hi CD!
erm... right, I should have explained that... Those books are very old, with volume 1 = The three Musketeers, volume 2 = The Vicomte of Bragelonne (try to find it with the title "Ten Years Later", CD!), volume 3 includes Twenty Years After and The man in The Iron Mask (don't ask me why, it's really thick). Louise de la Valliere is missing then.
(insert 4 letter word here. I'd hate to have a different edition to round those out...) But since I don't even know it I better find a copy! thanks!

k-e

"The sound and the fury" by William Fulkner

It is a tell told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing!!!!!!!!!

Mostly

A friend of mine gave my a copy of "Violin" by Anne Rice, and I almost
burned it after ten pages - after twenty I just wanted
to burn myself. She is so indulgent and lengthy. I like to think there's a difference between good story telling, and just plain wanking. Her description meander off course, and offer so much detail that reading the book is like watching film in slow motion - it's nice for certain moments, but you couldn't watch a whole feature like that.

wow, thanks for the 3 musketeers info, i'll have to try and track them down...

count fo monte christo is one of my favorite books, its great. I even liked the parts where he was in prison... and the end... oh yeah.