Classics That You Couldn't Finish

No matter how much you tell yourself 'it must be good because it's a classic!' you just couldn't wade through it. Maybe it was too depressing, too olde worlde, too complicated or just plain boring.....
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51 books · 40 voters · list created July 3rd, 2015 by ☆Ruth☆ (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


☆Ruth☆ 5223 books
45 friends
~☆~Autumn 7996 books
141 friends
Katherine 7191 books
120 friends
Misfit 5491 books
530 friends
Emily 3494 books
241 friends
Hunter 2742 books
56 friends
Michael 368 books
321 friends
P 786 books
10 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by ~☆~Autumn (new)

~☆~Autumn You are brave as some of these I would not even pick up as they appear to be so daunting!


message 2: by ☆Ruth☆ (new)

 ☆Ruth☆ Lol - They were daunting!


message 3: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie HA! Where do I begin??


message 4: by Michael (new)

Michael Schmicker Laurie wrote: "HA! Where do I begin??"

Aloha Laurie:
I found two on the list I could never get through. :)


message 5: by P (new)

P A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities."


message 6: by P.J. (new)

P.J. Sullivan James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind.


message 7: by P (new)

P Autumn♥♥ wrote: "P. wrote: "A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities.""

I believe I read On The Beach twice but was unable to get into ..."


Autumn♥♥ wrote: "P. wrote: "A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities.""

I believe I read On The Beach twice but was unable to get into ..."


P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind.

I'll give Lucifer's Hammer a look.



message 8: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie P. wrote: "A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities.""

We were forced to read "A Tale of Two Cities" in the 9th grade or I would've never stuck with that one.


message 9: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind."


I wish I could remember the Faulkner book I tried to read once but it's been so long ago.

I'm not even going to attempt reading Joyce.


message 10: by ~☆~Autumn (last edited Jun 26, 2016 11:53AM) (new)

~☆~Autumn Laurie wrote: "P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind."


I wish I could remember the Faulkner book I tried to read once but it's been so long ago.

I'm not even going to attempt reading Joyce."


I read a couple of little James Joyce books just so I could say I read it. He was mostly boring but will recommend the one I read to you as it wasn't too bad. I don't know what the big deal could be! Mostly for people who love Ireland I think.


message 11: by ``Laurie (last edited Jul 05, 2015 10:14PM) (new)

``Laurie Autumn♥♥ wrote: "Laurie wrote: "P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind."


I wish I could remember the Faulkner book I tried to read once but it's been so long ago.

I'm not even going to atte..."


I believe it's his book "Ulysses" that is either loved or abhorred. His other books might be good but I've never gotten around to reading them.


message 12: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie I hear all these rave reviews about how great a book is and I become very curious to see what all the fuss was about. I'm too impatient to tolerate the "stream of consciousness" style of writing anyway. I'm busy and I don't have time to figure out what the author is talking about, but that's just me.


message 13: by P.J. (new)

P.J. Sullivan Some of Joyce's books are readable, but "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" are not. Both have been made into semi-intelligible movies.


message 14: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie Thanks for the information P.J. and I think I would prefer to watch the movie instead of reading the books.


message 15: by Malika (new)

Malika The Time Traveler was simply magnificent!!! Idk how anyone could pick that one, but that's just my opinion :)


message 16: by ~☆~Autumn (new)

~☆~Autumn Is Outlander a classic? I don't think so! Some of the books on here are NOT classics IMO.


message 17: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager King James bible is in there twice. Some of the books on my list were ones I couldn't get through in HS, but did happily later on(David Copperfield) and others WILL(I promise) be read in full at some date(The Iliad).


message 18: by P.J. (new)

P.J. Sullivan Dan Poynter said that the ideal length of a book is 144 pages; the maximum is 288 pages. This is good advice for authors.


message 19: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager If only writers would follow those guidelines!


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