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

This question almost came up in a Forum conversation I was reading (appropriate nods to those concerned) and I thought it might be interesting.

Some people I know will quickly give up on books if they find them boring or inpenetrable. Others will plough on through despite finding the book mind-numbingly tedious, simply because they feel they 'have' to finish it.

For those of us who were once in the second category, my question is this:

What was the book which broke that habit for you?

For me it was War and Peace, which I tried to read when studying Russian. It was probably a pretentious, studenty thing to do. Never made it past the first few pages. Should maybe try again one day...

Jules

Catcher in the Rye.

What happened?

Catch-22. It just rubs me up the wrong way.

And The Trial. Goddamnit, I was too busy looking over my shoulder to finish the second page.

Lord of the Rings!! Tried it first at the age of 12 and gave up. Same happened at 14, 16, 18 and then never tried again! Still never finished it and don't ever intend to!

I'm much more of a book over film person and so haven't watched the films either! I take it the good guys won?

Nice one, Deakie. I was just about to post the Hobbit which, even at the age of 10, I could see was full of pretentious and idiotic verbiage.

B

Ein Kampf um Rom (Battle for Rome). Got it when I was a teenager,read the first few pages, then stopped. Tried several times , but never got past page 47

Crime and Punishment when I was 17.


az

The Famous Five go doing something. I picked one up, read the first few pages, got bored and left it on the shelf for Tintin. I was about 7 or 8. (yes, yes, I had an early reading age. I read Dune when I was 12, and enjoyed it).

Once upon a time, I used to read copious amounts of sci-fi, and enjoyed it. One day I was working my way through the 'Foundation and Empire' thing by Asimov and it suddenly struck me just how much absolute twaddle it all was. It didn't get finished.

On reflection, with a couple of notable exceptions, so was much of the previous stuff I'd read and I really felt that I'd wasted a sizeable chunk of my time. With the exception of h2g2 I haven't really read any since. It's still twaddle but at least it raised a smile or two.

I much prefer science fact.

DK

I can't remember which one was the first one, but the most memorable was Foucault's Pendulum - holy cripes - utterly inpenetrable.

Oh yeah - the second and third books of the Rendezvous with Rama trilogies.

I once threw away a book after reading 2 pages of it. It was a thriller novel I bought at an airport (can't remember the name). Total garbage.

I'm not good with books that don't hold my interest. I've a ton of half-read forlorn books in my library that still prick my conscience every time I see them sadly staring out at me.

One exception: I threw "Clear and Present Danger" down out of sheer boredom after a few chapters some years ago, but later on I picked it up again and read it right to the end. It was a great read. Most of the time though, books usually start as they mean to go on.

Great Expectations, must have been about 9 or 10. Good lord, doesn't it go *on*?

Pedro, I know what you mean about The Trial. I had to finish it as I was studying it. I think I quite enjoyed it, from memory, although this enjoyment was tempered by having to read it in German, which was less relaxing.

Interesting how quite a few of these answers are the types of 'worthy tomes' we are led to believe are the cream of literature (my example included). I think someone on the original Forum thread questioned whether they were really to be read or studied.

Since War and Peace I actually went back to forcing myself to finish everything I started. Piles of books would remain by the bed until they were completed. Then there was one much more recently which I had to give up on and since then I've been much more relaxed about it. Maybe I know there's less time in life now that I'm older?!

I posted this elsewhere, but Stephen King's The Gunslinger I just could not read. One of those situations where your eyes keep reading and your fingers mechanically turn pages at the right time, but you realise two pages on that you've been thinking about what to have for dinner.

I also couldn't interest my self enough in ship terminology to get very far with Patrick O'Brian's books. I do regret this, since I've heard a lot of people hold them up as the all-time summit of historical fiction and I've got the feeling I'm missing out.

Not sure if it's the first, but The left hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. Booooooring.

Didn't finish the first chapter, never gone back.

The first book I ever just chucked without finishing it was "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell" by Susanna York. Several people had receommended it as "intelligent fantasy", but it really is just complete garbage. I forced myself to get halfway through and then quit. I have been unable to sell the stupid thing. I can't even GIVE it away.

I've also, in spite of being a fan of many of his other works, been struggling for three years with Salman Rushdie's "The Ground Beneath Her Feet". I just cannot bring myself to care about its characters.

I feel like we should have a list of unfinished books with two options for people to tick beside each one:

Go back and try again, it's worth it!

or

You're right, it's rubbish!

However, everyone is different so those hated by one will of course be loved by another. So it wouldn't really work.

Jules

I think mine was also War and Piece when I was about 12. Couldn't get a grip on all the russian names either. More recently I struggled with the remains of the day. I wanted to like it but I just coudn't keep interested.

Well at least you were 12. I was about 21 when I gave up on it!

don't think I'd do any better now and I'm a bit older than 21 now

The first time I tried to read War and Piece, I gave up(I was around 22-ish) - just couldn't get into it. I picked it up a few years later as something to read on the train to work. Since then I've read it 5 or six times.

Another book that springs to mind that I gave up on and went back to is Madame Bovary. I couldn't believe that any author could portray a woman as such a drip.

As for books I've given up on after a couple of paragraphs, never mind pages, a few months ago I received some free books. Of the 10, there were 3 that I gave up on because I just couldn't get into them. They were:

Once in a House Fire by Andrea Ashworth (True story of a family in Manchester in the 1970s - poverty, abuse, that kind of thing. Gave up after 2 pages.)
Getting Over It by Anna Maxted (A story of a 26 year old woman and her life problems. Would probably appeal to younger women than me. Can't remember much about it.)
Have the Men Had Enough by Margaret Forster (A story about how a family copes with a grandmother who's going senile.)