Classics Without All the Class discussion

I have decided to read Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, and HOLY MOLY! This is insane! I am going to try for 3 pages a day, and hopefully be done by the end of the year! That's right, I hope to read one book in a whole year! Has anyone else ever read Finnegan's Wake? Or What is the hardest book you have ever read?

I can't get too into Hemingway, just not for me.

I feel that there is going to be a lot of Joyce on this thread. Some of his work is way too enigmatic for me to fully appreciate, especially when he goes off on references in a different language. I would liken some of his writing to an extremely technically talented musician's solo work. Prominent but not obviously melodic or easily accessible. I prefer a show-off like Nabokov, way more fun to read.

I took a look at Finnegans Wake and decided I am just not at that point in my life where I read books I know are going to be difficult. Doing enough of that for School. I was wondering if I should mention a number of interpretations of Kant, which can be harder to read than Kant himself. But I decided on Goethe and his Faust Part II. There were just too many references to mythologies, other literary works and the like, and no coherent plot it was really hard to follow what is going on.

Ulisses by james Joyce, i couldn't proceed or finish after a while!

I second Kathleen but I'll go farther and just include everything he's ever written!

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale comes to mind...

I'm not a fan of Ernest Hemingway either. The ones I've read, I had to read for school but on my own I tried For Whom the Bell Tolls and can't make it past the first few pages. I believe I'm up to three tries!

I am over half way through with Finnegan's Wake now. Holy moly is a good way to describe it. I have 3 supplemental books with FW as well although you don't need them. I have a theory that it's the most accessible book, because it's so inaccessible... Anyway, it's actually made me a better reader. I started this as The Finnegans wake up challenge for Literary Disco. If you ever want to rant or rave about it, I know what you're going through. I love it and I hate it and I love it again. It's definitely the most unique book I've ever read! Good Luck!!!! Are you reading it for pleasure or a class? They actually have groups that read FW all over the country in bars and stuff or at schools. It's one to read with a group I think : )

I would say my most difficult was North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. It wasn't hard like Finnegan's Wake which is tied. It was more difficult for me in the sense that it had a lot of description as I remember. It might have been the time I read it so I'm willing to give it another chance, but it was rough for me to get through. When I read Crime and Punishment in high school that was probably my most difficult read at the time, but I loved it too!

If we're talking challenging, even for somebody who eats challenges for breakfast, Moby Dick.
I hate that book. A year's worth of trying and I'm at 260-something pages.

But if we're talking about psychologically or emotionally challenging, The City and the Pillar was difficult for me to read, followed by The Kite Runner. Both stories punched me in the gut.

I think everything James Joyce ever wrote is a chore.

Moby Dick. At one point I decided that I was going to finish it even if it killed me, so I stuck with it. Now it's one of my favorites.

Well good reads has a listopia for most difficult reads and I think everything here is on the list. Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake are 1-2 and Moby Dick is right up there maybe even #3. What scared me was how manyon the list iI've read.

Lol, I am determined to read Moby Dick one day, but I have heard nothing but how challenging it is, so I know it will be a monster read when I finally get to it. I will HAVE to do it with a group, no other way around it.

Infinite Jest. Just couldn't get through it...

The book I'm currently reading - The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe by Roger Penrose - is a 1000+ page monster about mathematics and physics. I attempted it once before, and gave up at around 200 pages. For fiction, I have had three attempts at reading War and Peace and I have yet to complete it. The most difficult book that I've actually finished reading would either be one of Franz Kafka's (his stories are short, but very dense) or House of Leaves (quite thick, and uses a difficult-to-follow format).

The most difficult read in terms of emotional impact would have to be the novelisation of Grave of the Fireflies. I read it when I was around eight - much too early, in my opinion. I had nightmares about not being able to protect my little brother at wartime for years.

Any novel by James Joyce is a defying task to finish!

This might be cheating. As a major fantasy fan, the fact that I fell asleep reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and never completed them has been held against me many times. Out of any book that I wish I could just force into my brain, it would be them.

Lindsey wrote: "I am over half way through with Finnegan's Wake now. Holy moly is a good way to describe it. I have 3 supplemental books with FW as well although you don't need them. I have a theory that it's the ..."

I tried to start at the same time as the Literary Disco crew, but at the time my school load was just too much (I realized as I read the first page). But my goal this year is to finish by the end of the year by reading three pages a say. I am also trying to write a quote of the day from what I read. Yesterday's quote was surprisingly coherent!

Quote of the Day from FG:"They lived und laughed ant loved end left. Forsin. Thy thingdome is given to the Meades and Porsons. The meandertale, aloss and again, of our old Heidenburgh in the days when Head-In-Clous walked the earth."

Shanea wrote: "This might be cheating. As a major fantasy fan, the fact that I fell asleep reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and never completed them has been held against me many times. Out of any book tha..."

The second book was a chore for my as well.

The Two Towers was slow, I do remember that. I got such halfway through that and put it down. A great later I started the trilogy over and went right through them, especially the third book. Sometimes it just has to be the right timing.

I must be reading a different trilogy because I loved Two Towers. It take a little bit but when the action hits it doesn't stop in that one. And I love cliffhangers and Two Towers is the top spot for that in my opinion. You can't help but immediately pick up the next book!

I also love the tree ents and they play a huge part in Two Towers. I think they are my favorite part of that entire trilogy.

Ha. This is what happens every time I tell readers about this weakness of mine.
My old boss was nearly ready to take away my nerd badge when in the same conversation I admitted this and the fact that I hated his favorite book ("Catcher In the Rye", for those who wish to know).

Martin wrote: "Shanea wrote: "Ha. This is what happens every time I tell readers about this weakness of mine.
My old boss was nearly ready to take away my nerd badge when in the same conversation I admitted this..."

You are not alone. He's a bit of a prick, and considering that he basically is the novel, it can get quite grating.

Shanea wrote: "Martin wrote: "Shanea wrote: "Ha. This is what happens every time I tell readers about this weakness of mine.
My old boss was nearly ready to take away my nerd badge when in the same conversation ..."

Definitely not alone.

Martin wrote: "Shanea wrote: "Ha. This is what happens every time I tell readers about this weakness of mine.
My old boss was nearly ready to take away my nerd badge when in the same conversation I admitted this..."

There's three of us in the hate club :) Martin, I love how you titled Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. I'm gonna say that if I ever get to that last stupid page.

Also, not a classic but for me very difficult to get into: Wolf Hall. Once I figured out the abominable style of writing, I was left insanely bored. The more pages I read, the longer the book seemed to get!

I am happy to see others pick Moby Dick as their most difficult read. The whale will elude me forever -- can't get through that book, but I love Bartleby.

In terms of comprehension, I will also have to say Ulysses, but I attempted it 10 years ago, and my reading has become much more sophisticated over the last decade. I think I will try it again soon.

In terms of emotion, I would most defiantly have to say Push by Sapphire. It's a book that haunts me, and a book that has inspired me to dedicate myself to education. I know it's a work of fiction, but the fact is I'm sure there are so many living the horrors in the book.

I'm just glad for any classic I can read and get through - really enjoyed Rebecca and the lengthy Anna Karenina. I would like to read more.

Emotionally, The Blue Notebook and The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine were hard for me.

I have been reading "The Red and the Black" by Stendahl for a 19th Century book club that I belong to. I read about 3 pages and I can't keep my eyes open. Is it the writing or the main character, or both? I have divided the pages by the number of days left before we get together and force myself to read early in the morning when I am most awake!

Martin wrote: "Jeane wrote: "Shanea wrote: "This might be cheating. As a major fantasy fan, the fact that I fell asleep reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and never completed them has been held against me man..."

Thank you :)

Shanea wrote: "This might be cheating. As a major fantasy fan, the fact that I fell asleep reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and never completed them has been held against me many times. Out of any book tha..."

I am a huge Tolkien fan and loved the LOR trilogy BUT I did not breeze through them. The Hobbit is a quick easy read but the LOR books are more challenging certainly. There were times that were long winded and hard to follow but there were other places that were so wonderful. I will read the series again someday because I certainly did not GET everything the way I had hoped. So I agree that it was a difficult series to get through, the movies make it seem like it will be an easy read. Not so.

Sound and the Fury..in fact, anything by him. I have yet to finish any of his books.

Shanea wrote: "Ha. This is what happens every time I tell readers about this weakness of mine.
My old boss was nearly ready to take away my nerd badge when in the same conversation I admitted this and the fact t..."

I also hated Catcher in the Rye! I even read in high school, which is usually considered the best age to read it, and STILL hated it. Never again.

I tried to start The Sound and the Fury, but just couldn't get into it.

Content wise I had a hard time reading 300 Days of Sodom. The premise was just too disturbing for me.

I had a really hard time with "The Stranger" by Camus. Not because of big words or long sentences, I just didn't understand it. I'm not even convinced that there is something incredibly deep about it that I don't get! Maybe it is a scam :) On the other hand, I don't have "a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world." I felt like the book was about nothing at all, I felt duped by everything I had heard about the author being so great. Not a long book, just inane.

Jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boys. And it also happens to be my favorite book of all time.

The one-fourth of A. S. Byatt's Possession I got through was really difficult for me. The book was due back at the library, and I just decided to take it back instead of re-check it and drudge my way through the rest. One day.

Holly wrote:
The one-fourth of A. S. Byatt's Possession I got through was really difficult for me. The book was due ba..."

I agree, I tried reading this book several times after I saw the movie. It still sits on my shelf. For me, this is a case of the movie being better than the book.

No doubt that the most difficult for me has been Moby Dick, and I am happy to see that I'm not alone. It was so boring and I read it rarely. I think that I will never read it in the future.

Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pyncheon, among others.

Have you tried his Dubliners? It is easy going. Also Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is okay. Quite humourous too!

William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury

ANYTHING Faulkner is incredibly difficult for me.

Wuthering heights anyone? I found this very difficult, the characters irritated me very much, and the volley of tragedies, one after another! well, that depressed me and sucked out my energy so I didn't have any motivation to continue... But I finished it. It seems that a lot of ppl find William Faulkner difficult, we might have to read it for March guys...I'm actually quite curious now.

I'm sort of relieved that I've never read most of the books that people have mentioned so far. A few of them are on my "I should read that someday" list, though. I have read some Faulkner, though I can't remember which ones - I'm sure they were just some of his short stories - and I did like those.

I'd have to say the most difficult books that I've read have been Gilgamesh and some of the other ancient literature from my college lit class. I think I had to read that one more than once throughout my school years.

House of Leaves was difficult for me, but it was worth the time and effort. I also had difficulty with Gilgamesh.

Wuthering Heights, I tried so many times and finally finshed. I just would get so frustrated with the characters.

Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses were painful for me. I can appreciate them-from far, far away. I struggled reading Moby Dick for the first half with all of that whaling nitty-gritty but I ended up really enjoying the story.

Heart of Darkness was tough for me too. It's been a while since I read it so I'd be willing to try again too. I had a hard time finishing it.

amen - 2nd time through with a college class in Mod. fiction made all the difference....