Crime and Punishment question

Your girlfriend's diary.

As I lay Dying by William Faulkner

Finnegans wake, no doubt

A book by Danielle Steele. I don't remember the title. My mother was a huge Steele fan, and to make her happy I promised her I would read one of her books. I did. The endless sentimentality of it was not good for my digestive system. But, I told my mother that it was good and never read another one again.

Ulysses by James Joyce.

Ancient Greek stuff. I swear the first time I read Plato's Republic I went through 20 pages without knowing what was going on. Repeatably.

Crime & Punishment was the first Russian book I read. The names took some getting used to (I finally had to tell myself any guy's name that started with R was the protagonist). But once I got the hang of that, the lid came off all the Russian novels and now they are my favorite thing to read. Nothing else comes close to The Brothers Karamazov or Anna Karenina, in my opinion.

The most challenging novel for me was The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. At first it was interesting when he goes to the sanitarium. But once he's there he has endless conversations, and they all seem to be the same and they happen chapter after chapter....

But I had heard enough people say that the ending is mind-blowing. So I forced myself to stick with it. And once I got to the end, I discovered just how phenomenal it is. I happened to reach the end while having lunch in a family restaurant in Davenport, Iowa. Tears were streaming down my face. The waitress did not know what to do. Although it was a tough read, it was absolutely worth it.

Gravity's Rainbow, for I suppose obvious reasons. There is some much to take in, yet so many connections you have to make yourself, and you are constantly in danger of losing the thread of the story, you are constantly veering off the road and there have been many points where I lost sight of the road completely.

Another one that took me surprisingly long was Light in August by Faulkner, but that was years ago; I'd like to think I would be able to digest it better now.

Definitely CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. I wanted to understand and absorb the power and importance of the work so badly, but alas I think I'd have to re-read it many times to really see the richness of it.

The Inferno comes to mind. Had to read lots of footnotes to understand who was burning (or freezing) in hell and why. I had no medieval history of Italy prior. At least there was understanding to be had!

I found Crime and Punishment one of the most captivating books I ever read, the psychology of the book is extremely deep.. I would say that just because a book is thick it does not make it challenging. For some reason there are books that I never managed to get into.. and sometimes there is no other reason than time and place.. but the blocking still lingers...

Chandrasehkar's Stellar Structure.

imho, challenging fiction is an oxymoron.

I know this will annoy some people out there, especially the English teachers, but I do not view any fiction as anything other than entertainment. This isn't to say that I don't think that there aren't levels of quality in literature: there is a vast qualitative gulf that separates, say, Amanda McKittrick Ross and Vladimir Nabokov (I think one can argue that Lolita is the greatest novel of the 20th Century).

Remembrance of Things Past. . . . but I was so glad that I finished the first book and intend to read the rest. In fact, it is interesting to consider that Proust's writing demands all one's attention and participation, and that effort pays off both in the pleasure of reading him and in how clearly one remembers different scenes and characters -- much more than books that are easier to read.

Orwell's 1984. It did not bore me for a second but it was extremely challenging, philosophically. The first time I opened it I literally couldn't stop myself from reading it until it was finished. One of the greatest, most terrifying books ever.

The History of Rasselas, & Crime & Punishment

Crime and Punishment is one of just a few books I weren't able to finish. And I don't think I'm going to start it over any time soon...

The Death of Virgil, hands down. A single sentence will run on for a page or more, and you will welcome a paragraph break like an oasis in the desert. In my household, the title has become shorthand for long and arduous suffering.

Lesser sufferings: Ulysses and Finnegans Wake (due for a re-read of that, actually), and Proust (almost finished with book 2!).

What's fascinating about this list is that it includes books I have really enjoyed a great deal (Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury," for example) and did not find challenging (to me challenging is just plain hard to understand or get through); and books that I have found indeed challenging (Joyce's "Ulysses") -- which just goes to show the extraordinary diversity among Goodreads' readers!

"There have only been a few books that have been a true challenge for me to complete . . . "

The same for me. I've read quite a few books and there have been a few that I struggled with finishing. For some reason, my interest wasn't engaged and it was a hard slog to get through them (if I ever did):

A Clockwork Orange - picked it up and put it down at least 6 times over the years before I finally got into it.

Wuthering Heights - Still sitting on my bookshelf unread. I've gotten through the 1st cxhapter at least twice before i finally gave up

Beloved - had to force myself to get through it.

The Crying of Lot 49 - Ditto

Briefing for a descent into hell by Doris Lessing. The oscillation between madness and sanity, consciousness and unconsciousness and the use of language is both artfully done in challenging to the reader.

The Sound and the Fury. William Faulkner. It took me a few tries until decoded the secret to the book. Faulkner, that sly fox. I then read As I Lay Dying--much easier.

Giovanni Grazzini's book "Solzhenitsyn" about fried my 2 remaining brain cells, trying to understand all of his abstruse arguments which had been translated from tortuous paragraph-long sentences in Italian into even more tortuous English. I had to read some passages 5 or 10 times before I understood them, even with my Captain Midnight Magic Decoder Ring.

But, yeah, it was worth it, to get the inside scoop on what a Communist government does to dissident
writers...

OTOH... Some people on here are complaining about having to work hard to read stuff that's just plain boring (like Faulkner). Why bother? If it's difficult because it's boring, you obviously don't like,it, so just pitch it! Why beat your head against the wall trying to plow through the ravings of a blithering old drunk? "Life is too short for QRP..."

Edit: Actually, the more I think about it, I would have to submit Pais' biography of Einstein ("Subtle is the Lord") as another candidate for "Most Challenging" - it had a lot of the mathematics of Einstein's research in it and I had to work hard to plough through that (and *still* have a bunch to go review... Someday soon (yeah right).)

Les Miserables was definitely the most difficult and longest book I've ever read. The narrative and experience was worth it in the end, but I doubt I will go back and read it again.

Crime and punishment, war and peace.

The Divine Comedy, because it uses archaic language. It is also written in verses. Liked reading it though.

Pride and Prejudice bored me. I really had to push through that one.

The Magic Mountain, no doubt. I'm enjoying it, but it feels like wading through a quagmire because of:

1) The length of the book
2) The length of the chapters
3) The lack of "action". It's not plot-driven.

It's a great book, but it certainly does take a considerable amount of perseverance.

Absalom, Absalom!, As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury all by Faulkner I found to be very challenging, but also very rewarding. Light in August by Faulkner was much easier for me. Another difficult one was Moby Dick by Melville. It was one of the first classics I ever tackled and it took a long time to get through. Dostoevsky novels are great, but also took a long time for me to get through. I loved The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment.

The Thousander Club wrote: "There have only been a few books that have been a true challenge for me to complete . . .

See the full blog post here: http://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com...

The ..."

Homer & The Illiad come to mind. It took me a couple of yrs in high school to finish the books. With War and Peace, I had to keep putting it down to take a longggg break, just so I could continue reading it!

Any of Will Durant's "The Story of Civilization" tomes. I've finished off a few, but I'm still stuck in "The Age of Faith." The problem with Durant is the diffused account of EVERYTHING rather than recounting the events of history.

For sheer difficulty, Hans Kung's "Does God Exist?" is at the top of my list.

Easy - Jacques Derrida "Of Grammatology" in Senior year. Deconstructing constructions and the ideology behind it all. Dense read.

Ulysses by James Joyce (one of the few books that I did not finish)
A book that is difficult to but worth reading is Crime and Punishment

MOBY DICK! (But I loved it).

Frankly speaking, I felt really challenging reading my semester subjects like Analog design, Digital design, Quantum physics..etc... I couldn't finish them, not even half in a six month time, whereas I managed to read Anna Karenina in a month. Same is the case with Brothers Karamzov. :)

The Winter's Tale.
The language, allusions, and material were more challenging to me than any of his other plays or for that matter anything else I've read.

"There have only been a few books that have been a true challenge for me to complete . . .


The Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Ulysses by James Joyce
Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon

all of them worth the «trouble»"

Crying of Lot 49 -- had no idea what was happening except for bugles or trumpets

Goldfinch--stupidest book I've read in my entire lifetime, hard to bear

Proust Volume 1 -- exquisite loveliness nectar & sorrow. I loved this book but 10 pages at a time was my maximum speed. Like attending the funeral of a loved one - joy and pain and beauty and memory and sorrow and nostalgia.

Pale King--reading now. I love it but very taxing. (drum roll please)

Blood Meridian--also a favorite, but could only read 4 or 5 pages at a time, like reading the New Testament or something or Old Testament more accurately.

Dante--forced to read for school, had no idea what was going on. Same for Iliad of course and Goethe's Faust. Totally reliant on the professor for any insight whatsoever.

Unauthorized autobiography of Gary Coleman by Todd Bridges and Kelsey Grammar -- had some cool pictures but the text was dense

The Thousander Club wrote: "There have only been a few books that have been a true challenge for me to complete . . .

Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or: A Fragment of Life has to be the most challenging read for me. Like many people have said, challenging doesn't mean boring, and I think it is one of the greatest works of philosophy and it was so spiritually satisfying in the end. Kierkegaard's writing style made it easier to read as his style is so lively, poetic and entertaining.

I would also include Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Again, one of my favourite books and it read like a 500 page book rather than a 100 or so page novella.

"War and Peace" I just finished it and it was awesome. The most challenging interestingly was the epilogue. The most challenging mentally and spiritually was for me without a doubt The Holy Bible.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Initially, the motivation was the accolades given to the book, later on it metamorphosed into an accomplishment to finish the book, which I did exhaustively. It looks like author has used dictionary nonchalantly to find synonyms to every meaningful word. I don't know why, but book failed have to a charm on me.

"Under the Volcano" Malcolm Lowry...a journey into the soul and life of a drunken consulate in Mexico. Challenging to begin/exhilarating to complete. I was young but it left me with a great, deep sense of hope. Why? No explanation. What a trip that novel was.

War and Peace, undoubtedly. I keep picking it up and putting it off.

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND! It feels like dying anew per page read.

Last if the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.

The Brothers Karamazov, which I started several times and finally completed. Strange since I love and read everything else by Dostoevsky. The other is Ulysses, which I felt that I should read, but finally accepted that I do not like the story and it just looks nice in my collection. I have set War and Peace as my 2015 Winter reading goal. I can do this!

I'm still trying to finish Milton's "Paradise Lost".

Any Shakespeare play the first time through. Once the story is familiar the language begins to come alive, but initially I feel as though the language barrier is too great. Ditto any Middle English I have had to read.

I would have to agree with a couple of you on "As I Lay Dying", by William Faulkner. I finished it through, but most of the time I was scratching my head, thinking 'huh?'. I understand that there were different members of the family saying their side of what happened and things, but to me there was no flow to it. Maybe I just don't understand William Faulkner's style of writing. I read Willa Cather's "O, Pioneers!" and had no problem reading hers.

Finnegans Wake. No need to say anything else.

I fell asleep every day trying to read Crime and Punishment in high school. It sticks in my memory as something that just felt impossible to get through.

What about books that are fine for awhile but then become really challenging? I was reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and somewhere in the final third of the book, I'd only make it through a few pages in a sitting. I don't think I ever actually did finish it.

I also found Anna Karenina really challenging, especially long sections on the proper way to run a farm. Snoozefest. Yes, I know, there's lots of charming stuff, too, but the whole "animal husbandry" and "how to keep your peasants from revolting" stuff was insufferable.