The Page Turners discussion

Of all the books you have read, what has been your most challenging read?

I have just finished Umbrella by Will Self which had no chapters , sentences which morphed from one character to another in a stream of consciousness and need for a dictionary every few words!

House Of Leaves. A very challenging book to read. House of Leaves. Even the format it's written in is challenging.

I think Bunker 10. The writing style wasnt hard but the story kept shifting from time period to a different time period and from a whole set of characters to another set. But it was definitely worth ot.

The Sillmarillion by Tolkien. It reads like scripture. It has long and awkward sentence structure.

Anna Karenina. I still haven't been able To go back to it

Chesapeake by Michener.
Read a third and gave up.

Wicked-Gregory Maguire

I've read it twice and it took weeks both times. Maguire immerses you so deeply in the land of Oz, that you have to read carefully or you'll miss something. I plan to finish the Oz series...however long it takes me.

I agree with Missy. The Wicked series by Gregory Maguire was very challenging. I like it, I just have to make myself read it.

Pride and Prejudice. I absolutely adore the movie adaptation, but I couldn't get into the book. I found it very confusing and the language was hard for me to follow. Granted, I was reading it for a summer school assignment and this was over two years ago, so I may give it another shot. Eventually.

A Tale of Two Cities. I think I heard someone on here call it "wading through language". Plus he just went on and on and on. It wasn't bad, though.

I really struggled through A Secret Garden, which I read for a school project two years ago. I read it with a group of my classmates who all agreed that the book was a bit slow and uninteresting.

Gone With The Wind. Though I loved the book, it was too long and somehow....difficult to read. It took me ages to complete the book but I finally did and now it's one of my favorite classics....

The hardest book I have ever had to read was Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." I HATE that book. I found it dull, annoying, and really disliked the characters. I had to read it for school, and it was a struggle. "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad and "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy were also difficult for me to get through.