Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Which LIST books did you attempt to read but failed to finish?

For me, this year, they were Anna Karenina and Neuromancer.

I had chosen Anna Karenina over War and Peace simply because there was a new movie adaptation of AK coming out soon. I made it 300 pages in before throwing in the towel. I found it to be hellishly boring. However I did not have the urge to toss the book into a fire like that one reviewer did. I simply returned it to the library.

With Neuromancer, I realized I liked watching sci-fi, instead of reading them.

I'm currently reading Anna Karenina also on account that i'm interested to see Joe Wright's movie, it's not a throroughly fun reading experience for me as well but i'm not totally bored ...yet :) (i'm on page 189 wordsworth edition) there r some subtle things that keep me interested so i'm patient with it, one of the reasons is that i want to c more of karenin, he seems like an intriguing character but all we get is Levin, Levin, Levin, everywhere

among those i dropped from the list is The Picture of Dorian Gray, hated it, simply hated it

On Beauty
Never Let Me Go
In The Kitchen

There are other books I finished that I wished I hadn't bothered to e.g. The Secret History

Robinson Crusoe ,he was such an unlikeable and unsympathetic character, every bit of the book that I read made me want to shout at him, waited on the island for about 50 years before thinking it might be an idea to build a boat....! I compared this to The Mysterious Island where the characters had a mini industrial town set up within about a fortnight from being shipwrecked. Didn't wait long enough to see if our Robinson actually got rescued...don't bother telling me, I hope he's still there, far, far, away from me!

The Master and Margarita
The Trial
Dead Souls

I did manage to finish Gulliver's Travels, but I should have abandoned it too.

Is there a theme here? I think so.

I finished A Passage to India only through sheer force of will. It took me two months, and ordinarily a book that size would take a few weeks, max.

Hmmm... Maryann, if you struggled with that, I'd recommend picking up Where Angels Fear to Tread as your next Forster. It's much easier to read.

Arukiyomi and Gwen, thanks for the encouragement. I'll go back to Forster when I stop twitching... :)

Maryann wrote: "Arukiyomi and Gwen, thanks for the encouragement. I'll go back to Forster when I stop twitching... :)"

I liked Howards End, though not 4 stars worth. my review I had no trouble finishing A Passage to India, but agree it isn't worth raving about.

Namida... wrote: "I'm currently reading Anna Karenina also on account that i'm interested to see Joe Wright's movie, it's not a throroughly fun reading experience for me as well but i'm not totally bored ...yet :) (..."

Just wait till you get to the part where he raves about mowing the grass! ;) I wish I had that kind of passion.

I would like to think I could have finished the book if it weren't for the fact it was from the library. Anyway, good luck & happy reading!

Actually, now I think of it, the film version of Passage to India is very good if you want to try that.

Naked Lunch, and Vile Bodies. I got about a quarter of the way through both, and then quit. Marked both as read, I figured I got the point, or didn't care to find out what it was.

Naked Lunch made me nearly physically ill. I read enough to get the point & also marked it as read just to be done with it. The other one I've sent back to the library without finishing was Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man by Joyce. I got halfway through & was bored stiff. I'm sure I'll get back to it eventually, but there are so many others I am actually INTERESTED in reading....

I postponed Joseph and his Brothers by Thomas Mann. I got it from the library and just didn't have the time to devote to Mann's prose that you need to fully grasp it. It was one of the most challenging books for me so far and I'll get back to it someday.

way back when, my review of One Hundred Years of Solitude raised some eyebrows.

http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?p=283

It's the only book I've abandoned that I can remember.

For me, this year, they were Anna Karenina..."
Don't bother with War and Peace. I had my doubts about AK (only picked it up 'cuz I'm trying to read all of the Oprah books) but I wound up really liking it. The secondary stories were far more interesting than Anna's, though. I hated WaP. Didn't think I'd ever read another Tolstoy after that one--didn't care one iota about those selfish characters.

Maryann wrote: "I finished A Passage to India only through sheer force of will. It took me two months, and ordinarily a book that size would take a few weeks, max."
Have you seen the movie? I loved it but haven't read the book.

When I was in 8th grade my English teacher recommended Rebecca to me. It took me two weeks to read the first half. Every day I'd go to class and whine, "Miss Mertz, I just don't like it!" She told me to stick with it. When I got to the second half, I finished it in one weekend. Ever since then, I haven't ever put down a single book, thinking maybe it will get better in the end.

Having said that, books I could have easily lived without:
Blood and Guts in High School
Watermelon Sugar (I just didn't understand it!)
Look Homeward, Angel (though I really liked You Can't Go Home Again)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Rob Roy (though I loved Ivanhoe)
The Man of Feeling
The Sorrows of Young Werther (guess I hate the durm und strang movement)
The Iron Heel
Finnegans Wake
Nowhere Man
The Floating Opera
Dead Babies (although I did like the character who had a fear of losing his teeth, for some reason!)

Tej wrote: "When I was in 8th grade my English teacher recommended Rebecca to me. It took me two weeks to read the first half. Every day I'd go to class and whine, "Miss Mertz, I just don't like it!" She to..."

Did you like Rebecca when you finished? I thought it was horrible - a complete waste of time. But I did read to the end.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Tej wrote: "When I was in 8th grade my English teacher recommended Rebecca to me. It took me two weeks to read the first half. Every day I'd go to class and whine, "Miss Mertz, I just don't like ..."
I did like it when I was in 8th grade. I re-read it again in my 40s and just thought it was okay. I have to say that Miss Danvers is a classic character in English literature, so I'm glad to have read it just for knowing her.

Just gave up on 2666 by Bolano (not sure which list this one was on). I didn't like any of the characters and really didn't care what happened to them. The Black Dahlia was another one. It became too dark for me and disturbing. However, I was absolutely fascinated by In Cold Blood. My nephew and his wife teach in Garden City, not very far away from where the incident took place.

Tej wrote: "guess I hate the durm und strang movement"

When I first saw this I thought you were refering to Harry Potter! I wonder if J.K. Rowling did the same as you and named Durmstrang after the Sturm und Drang movement?

Sandi wrote: "Tej wrote: "guess I hate the durm und strang movement"

When I first saw this I thought you were refering to Harry Potter! I wonder if J.K. Rowling did the same as you and named Durmstrang after th..."

Hah! Thanks for the catch.

And, I'm pretty sure she did. Rowling has lots of things like that. Sirius is really the dog star. Nicolas Flamel really was an alchemist who tried to find the philosopher's stone.

Ginny wrote: "Just gave up on 2666 by Bolano (not sure which list this one was on). I didn't like any of the characters and really didn't care what happened to them. The Black Dahlia was another one. It became ..."

My book club recently read The Black Dahlia and then we watched the movie. It was okay, but there are probably better suspense thrillers around. I was glad that the movie wasn't quite as graphic as the novel.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Tej wrote: "When I was in 8th grade my English teacher recommended Rebecca to me. It took me two weeks to read the first half. Every day I'd go to class and whine, "Miss Mertz, I just don't like ..."

I've yet to pick up Rebecca, but I know when I do, I am definitely obligated to finish it solely because the title is my name.

Tej wrote: "When I was in 8th grade my English teacher recommended Rebecca to me. It took me two weeks to read the first half. Every day I'd go to class and whine, "Miss Mertz, I just don't like it!" She to..."

Really enjoyed your post here, Tej.

Arukiyomi wrote: "way back when, my review of One Hundred Years of Solitude raised some eyebrows.

http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?p=283

It's the only book I've abandoned that I can remember."
Well I can't ditto your thoughts on A Hundred Years of Solitude, and I did finish it,but I do understand them. It is one of the ones I marvel at so many people's praise of when I just didn't get into that much. I think I read that Bill Clinton said it was his favorite novel (that was a few years ago, of course, but go figure!)

Okay, true confession time here, huh?

Well, I skimmed throughEmile: Or On Educationbecause it was so incredibly boring; and Rousseau was such a hypocrite on the subject of child raising! I read he gave his own children up to an orphanage. (Please enlighten me if I'm in error.) I'm not sure I'll really get through anything else by him on the list either, but I do plan to try at least one more

I've abandoned two because I just couldn't take any more of them:
Cloudsplitter and Snow.

I was about three-quarters through each of them and after long slogs I really didn't have the will to finish.

... Rousseau was such a hypocrite on the subject of child raising! I read he..."

You're right, Judith. I found this article which says that he had five children out of wedlock with a hotel maid, and the children were all sent to an orphange.

http://www.historyguide.org/europe/ro...

I read The Social Contract a long time ago, and I don't agree with his premises. I'm really not looking forward to his novels.

I thought of another one I ended up scanning:

Gargantua and Pantagruel

Once I got the gist, I had no further need for any more of the rude, crude and socially unacceptable humor of this one!

Tej wrote: "... Rousseau was such a hypocrite on the subject of child raising! I read he..."

You're right, Judith. I found this article which says that he had five children out of wedlock with a hotel maid, ..."

Thanks for the link. A good, quick refresher.

Judith wrote: "Okay, true confession time here, huh?

Well, I skimmed throughEmile: Or On Educationbecause it was so incredibly boring; and Rousseau was such a hypocrite on the subject of child raising! I read he..."

I just finished Rousseau's Reveries of a Solitary Walker in which he explained that he gave his children to an orphanage because he couldn't have educated them properly, and he couldn't give them to his girlfriend/later wife's family because they would have gotten spoiled too much. He also writes that he doesn't regret it and would make the same decision again because "his enemies" would try to instruct his children to hate their father (he was extremely paranoid).
...these sound like some very poor excuses.

Megi wrote: "I refuse to count a book as read unless I read it all..."

I am so with you on this, Megi. If you started a marathon but only made it 10 miles, you wouldn't say you ran a marathon, would you? If anything maybe mark it as partly read, but don't count it as fully read. Otherwise I'd feel like I was cheating myself.

Love in the Time of Cholera Ugh! I just could not like this book! It's made me shy away from all of his other works and from what I've read here, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

One I've really slogged through this year was The Double It turned out to be worth it in the end because it was quite thought provoking, but I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

catch 22....its was dreadful....i felt my brain slowly decay
had to read it though...thanks to my book club....still feel the little girl in me is haunted by it.

Naked Lunch. The Corrections... Read about 1/2 way. Austerlitz - I did read up until about the last 20 pages at which point I figured I could put it away.... Right now its Midnight's Children that is giving me a hard time.... Its been moved to my work cubicle for reading during lunch in hopes I might be forced to tackle it more often then at home.

Sissy, what didn't you like about The Corrections? I ask because I didn't really like it either, but I think it has more to do with my point of view. I am from the American midwest and, although I have lived in other places around the world, I have chosen to return here as an adult. I was given the book by a friend who is from South Carolina but married to a midwesterner. When she gave it to me, she said, "Now I finally understand my in-laws." Having that in mind as I read the book, I was horrified that she thought all midwesterners were like the characters in this book. Also, I get really annoyed by midwestern artists who move to NYC and talk about their life as having "escaped" from this horrible place. This was one of them--at least in the beginning. I remember warming up to one of the characters (the sister, I think) toward the end. But overall, I could not say that I liked the book.

It's so interesting to read through this thread. The difference in individual taste and how we respond to books is remarkable. I just started reading Catch-22 and I find it hilariously entertaining. I also can't justify marking a book as "read" if I haven't finished the whole thing.

Maryann wrote: "I just started reading Catch-22 and I find it hilariously entertaining."
When I started the book I had the same reaction at first, but after a while I got sick of how the only women in the book were whores, cheating wives, aspiring whores, or nurses that got made fun of for being upset when molested.

I'm not interested in books that are "hilarious", so I'm pretty sure I won't be picking this up. A GR friend wrote recently about not wanting a book to be hilarious, with which I agreed. She wrote something to the effect that humor is best when shared, and a book is best when enjoyed by oneself. Some humor I do appreciate, but it is more of the Trollope tongue-in-cheek type. Satire goes right over my head.

Oh I'm with you there Elizabeth.

I'm about halfway through, Sandi, and I guess that hasn't bothered me much yet. I think Heller shows the military in an absurd light while not making fun of the real damage war does. It's very intelligent humor, and as someone who loves language, the words used in this book are awesome! Again, though, I love that the list has books for everyone- we all have different tastes.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I'm not interested in books that are "hilarious", so ..."

That's interesting. It doesn't happen often, but I love reading a book that makes me laugh out loud. That's the only time I feel like I've made a real connection with the author.

I must say I always used to have a real problem with not wanting to ever abandon a book but I have so little time to read for big chunks of time nowadays that I end up resenting a book if it bores me too much! Life is too short and no prizes for slogging through a book you hate :) I just abandoned Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - I just couldn't get my teeth into it...onwards and upwards though. LOVE Catch 22 though - and Naked Lunch...

Thinking about giving up on 2666.

Eman wrote: "Thinking about giving up on 2666."

I recently gave up on it too. I tried reading it about two years ago,gave up and tried it again a month ago. I got farther along the second time. Who knows? Maybe later I'll try it again and get through it!

For me, Gulliver's Travels and Moby Dick.

Can't remember if Foucault's Pendulum is part of the 1001 list but if so, that one too..

Amanda wrote: "In my book, Franzen is the most over-rated living author. "
Dan Brown is dead!?

Arukiyomi wrote:
Dan Brown is dead!?"

Love it!