Reading Motives

[Aschenbach]

What's the most difficult book you've read? Did it give you a sense of achievement or leave you unfulfilled? Have you read certain books primarily to be able to say you have?

[shaneystar]

After watching the wonderful film Dr.Zhivago many years ago I bought the book by Boris Pasternak.It was very difficult reading and left me wondering why I had bothered to slog through it. I may think differently now though .Perhaps I ought to try reading it again.I have also tried to read Tolkien but it does nothing for me.I have never read a book just to say I have read it.If I can't get into a book after a few pages then it's no good me sticking with it.

[ratbag66]

'Bleak House' by Charles Dickens - it was on my 'O' Level English set book list and I hated every second of it!

[spudqueen]

The Name of the Rose was the most difficult book I've read. I didn't enjoy it, and couldn't even see the point of the story. But once I was so far through I wanted to finish it, even if it was because I didn't want to ever read it again! Duncton Wood (about moles) was a long slog aswell.

BTW for those who haven't read Lord of the Rings, have you tried The Hobbit, a brilliant book.

[mycatis]

spudqueen how could you :) I love the Duncton Wood books. The first one (Duncton Wood) was the first grown-up book I ever read, also the first proper book I ever bought myself (saved up my pocket money for weeks) I was 8 at the time. 
   I tried to read Dune by Frank Herbert at least 4 times before I got past the first chapter, but when I did get into it I Loved It!, now I've read it dozens of times

[delboy3]

I once tried reading a novel in French but only understood about 25% so gave up after two chapters. C'est la vie.

[spudqueen]

sorry mycatis, but at least I've read 'Lord Of The Rings' twice.

[mynaisir]

Split decision between JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion (essentially, a political history of Middle Earth) and William S Burrough's The Ticket That Exploded.

The former I found "difficult" because the invented histories of imaginary peoples left me cold; the latter because it required extensive re-reading. It was "difficult", but not necessarily in a bad way.

[nicola_red]

I recently bought two books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez cos I understood they were 'classics'.  I struggled through Love In The Time Of Cholera and really wished I hadn't bothered - it was incredibly laborious and went nowhere.  I haven't started the other one, One Hundred Years Of Solitude, and probably won't bother now!

[Rumford]

One of the most difficult books I've read was 'Moby Dick'. It's overly long, floridly written and most of the action seems to be in the last chapter. I've read (and given up on) lots of other 'difficult' books but this is probably the best known. BTW, LOTR - love it, almost know it by heart.

[AlFas]

Further to nicola_red's answer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of my favourite authors, 100 years of solitude in particular is brilliant though admittedly not easy to follow at some points. It's ten times better the second time you read it.
Anyway, another book by GGM is definitely the hardest I have ever read, called 'The autumn of the Patriarch'. The average sentance lasts 2 or 3 pages (and I mean that literally), with some up to 8 or 9 pages long. The idea is that it comes across as a stream of conciousness, which is a very powerful way of telling the story. It means that if you get any sort of distraction whilst reading you have to go back a big chunk of story and start again. I read it on the tube and it took weeks to get through. Ultimately it is very good, but requires a lot of effort.

[Otrere]

I found "A Man Named Dave" by Dave Pelzer hard going. I read the first two of his trilogy "A Child Called It" and "The Lost Boy" but the last one (AMND) was really hard work but completely fulfilling. What that bloke went through is utterly appalling and its such a good feeling to hear how he took strength from it and made it in life.

[cook1254]

I've recently finished "A suitable boy" by Vikram Seth.

A lovely book if hard going. I read it in the "bathroom" as it were which was probably why it took me about 6 months to read.lol

[Trillipse]

NOW, i don't consider myself easily disgusted. in fact most people find the putrid filth i myself churn out un-stomachable... but ploughing through 120 days of sodom by de sade was a little too much even for my jaded belly. i had to chuck it away in the end. not  difficult book in the way you intended the question, but you get the picture. just thought i'd mention it. anyone else read it?

[Dark Angel]

Arundhati Roy's "God of Small things" was difficult to read. It had so much similes, metaphors, imagery, idioms, alliterations all in one. I started reading it once and then stopped. Then a friend told me it was a really good book, and I read it again, slowly this time, taking my time to digest everything. It all made sense in the end!

[the.dr]

chinese dictionary.......just read the back, you'll get the jist

[jamesy boy]

call me jamesyboy.Every couple of years I try and finish "Moby Dick".Every time I fail.In a way "Moby Dick" has become my Moby Dick; Finishing it off has become a quest, a quest I'm destined to never see through...Maybe one day.

[Steve_Luts]

I know its not a 'difficult' book per se, but Great Expectations by Dickens was tough going for me....I just found it so hard to get going. We did it for GCSE English Literature in 1988, my twin brother swotted over it and got a 'B'...to my great amusement I read a bit of it, got bored, watched the film on video the day before the exam and got the same grade, basing my character studies on the people in the film! Funny thing is I keep picking it up in the Classics section of Waterstones and putting it down again quickly...

Now a responsible 33 yr old I would in no way condone kids watching the film instead of reading the text...you might miss some good sport on telly ;-)

 

 

[Mistopheles]

2 of them. Firstly Wuthering Heights. My dad made me read it when I said I wanted to do English A-Level, as he said that was the type of book we would study. Then we studied it for A-Level, then AGAIN for my English Lit degree. I hated it the first time - by the 3rd, I was tearing my hair out!

Secondly, a book about devil possession. I can read anything, no matter how gory, and don't believe in possession, but this book seriously freaked me out! I had nightmares for ages, and threw it away before I finished it.

And yes, I've read quite a few books because I thought I should. With a degree, people expect you to be well read, whereas I really enjoy junk! So every now and then, I force myself to read something 'intellectual'. Not as much fun as the junk though...

[mycatis]

American Psycho starts of pretentious drivel and decended into vile scenes of torture, disgusting,
Mistopheles I loved Wuthering Heights, Also "Briefing for a Decent into Hell" by Doris Lessing, pretty hard to read, well the first 100 pages but I love it anyway