"I quit!" -- Books I just can't finish

[tiganeasca]

I like to finish what I start. Even books that I don't particularly care for, I'll usually finish. Partly out of some sick sense of guilt and partly out of a misplaced hope that they'll get better and, finally, I suppose, partly to give the entire book a chance. But as I get older, I find myself somewhat less inclined to spend the time finishing books I dislike. There's too much stuff out there remaining unread to spend my time torturing myself.

Which brings me to note with admiration that in the "Recently Finished Books" thread, DouglasM just finished Anna Karenina. That got me thinking: I've been a fan of Tolstoy for decades and have read much of his work. But I am unable to read that book. I've gotten a hundred or more pages into it and come to the conclusion that I can't stand Anna and couldn't possibly ever care what happens to her (or Vronsky, though he's a bit more interesting).

Likewise, another classic I've tried to read several times and just can't finish: Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. I've gotten through about 250-300 pages both times I've tried (most recently within the past year) and just bog down. Again, I've read a lot of Mann and have enjoyed almost everything else I've read. But this is another instance of, "I just don't care." I get what Mann is about. I just can't the vehicle, I guess. Too much navel-gazing, self-involvement.

I want to read and enjoy these books; such highly rated books are undoubtedly so well-regarded for a reason. But neither of these two books works for me. And though I suspect I'll give each one another shot at some point, I can't be optimistic.

 

[hoodoo]

I've tried to read Gravity's Rainbow 4 or 5 times. Its very unforgiving.

 

[lucasdiniz]

I tried "One Hundred Years of Solitude" 3 times. Never got past midway through.

 

[Stevie B]

I tried "One Hundred Years of Solitude" 3 times. Never got past midway through.

Perhaps that was a good decision. I enjoyed the first half of the book, but my interest began to wane severely during the second half.

 

[tiganeasca]

Glad to hear these reports...I felt vaguely guilty for my inability to plod through the swamp about midway through as well. The pity for me is that I've enjoyed all the other works of his that I've read. That just became impenetrable.

 

[OverTheMountains]

Oh man. Tiga - I loved that book to no end, and I would read it again right now. I'll even toss it on my list of books to read before the end of the year.

I've quit a handful of books part way through. I haven't gotten rid of any of them though - always had the hope of coming back in a different head space and enjoying it. It's working.

Right now I'm reading Devil on the Cross by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. A couple years ago I picked it up and, nearly 100 pages into it, couldn't get into it. So I set it aside. I'm glad I've come back to it rather than given up on it - I'm seeing a great many things in it which I like.

I've also given up on Five Spice Street by Can Xue. I couldn't enjoy the reading, and it was terribly slow. Plodding is maybe the correct word. But it is back on my night stand, one more try will come its way before I get rid of it.

And I gave up on Satantango by Laszlo Krazhnahorkai after one frantic night of feverish reading got me about 1/3 of the way through and I realized that I needed to go back and read it all over again and that my life at the time - I was packing up to move to Colombia - didn't really allow for complex, heady reading. I cannot wait to go back into it, or any one of Laszlo's books.

 

[redhead]

Why are you moving to Colombia?

And I had to quit on Anna Karenina and The Count of Monte Cristo. One day I'll finish them (I'm stubborn about finishing books), but they were just so long and had so many names. A month break to read other novels/do traveling and suddenly I'm lost.

Re: Gravity's Rainbow, I had to really slow down my reading speed for it, but once I did I found section 1 not so bad other than a few parts where the narrative takes a crazy turn. And sections 2 and 3, which make up the bulk of the book, aren't so bad. Section 4, however...

 

[Daniel del Real]

Oh man. Tiga - I loved that book to no end, and I would read it again right now. I'll even toss it on my list of books to read before the end of the year.

Completely agree, it is just a fascinating book and trust me I hate Gabo's fans always praising that book and not realizing how mediocre some other of his works can be. But hey, that book paired with El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera and some of his short stories are, IMO, the best of his production by far!

Count me in for the abandonement group of Gravitiy's Rainbow.

 

[Cleanthess]

Completely agree, it is just a fascinating book and trust me I hate Gabo's fans always praising that book and not realizing how mediocre some other of his works can be. But hey, that book paired with El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera and some of his short stories are, IMO, the best of his production by far!

Count me in for the abandonement group of Gravitiy's Rainbow.

Agreed on all fronts.

 

[Cleanthess]

http://68.media.tumblr.com/7cc0dcca1a13d9ea0c768edc4f3e203e/tumblr_ow76v2zJAk1qiuiebo1_540.jpg

Sarah's take on the issue.

 

[Bartleby]

I tried three times or so with Franzen's Freedom, and each time I would start from the beginning and advance a little more into it, but I just couldn't finish it, I would always lose my interest...

 

[Harry Haller]

I like to finish what I start. Even books that I don't particularly care for, I'll usually finish. Partly out of some sick sense of guilt and partly out of a misplaced hope that they'll get better and, finally, I suppose, partly to give the entire book a chance. But as I get older, I find myself somewhat less inclined to spend the time finishing books I dislike. There's too much stuff out there remaining unread to spend my time torturing myself.

Which brings me to note with admiration that in the "Recently Finished Books" thread, DouglasM just finished Anna Karenina. That got me thinking: I've been a fan of Tolstoy for decades and have read much of his work. But I am unable to read that book. I've gotten a hundred or more pages into it and come to the conclusion that I can't stand Anna and couldn't possibly ever care what happens to her (or Vronsky, though he's a bit more interesting).

Likewise, another classic I've tried to read several times and just can't finish: Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. I've gotten through about 250-300 pages both times I've tried (most recently within the past year) and just bog down. Again, I've read a lot of Mann and have enjoyed almost everything else I've read. But this is another instance of, "I just don't care." I get what Mann is about. I just can't the vehicle, I guess. Too much navel-gazing, self-involvement.

I want to read and enjoy these books; such highly rated books are undoubtedly so well-regarded for a reason. But neither of these two books works for me. And though I suspect I'll give each one another shot at some point, I can't be optimistic.

Romanian Roma?

I haven't tried too hard with any given novel that I failed to finish, but I am on my second attempt with Das Glasperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse now. One problem I had before, I think, was just less proficiency in German than I have now. I think I'm getting more out of it this time around.

One that I started but gave up on pretty quick was War and Peace. Maybe I was just spoiled by the much more engaging writing style of Dostoevsky, but that book did not hold my interest. Maybe I'll give it another go eventually.

Another that I started and got further into was L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. I basically got as far through it as the movie went and a bit beyond. I suppose I'll resume it eventually. It is not a bad book, really. The silly movie did not do it much justice.

 

[tiganeasca]

Romanian Roma?

Very perceptive and intelligent guess. But (alas) no. Just a mark of affection on my part for their music.

 

[garzuit]

Some of the books I still have pending after one or more tries:

J. Joyce Ulysses. Not because I was not enjoying the experience, but because it will require my undivided attention for considerable time. I need to have in hand: the Gabler edition, García Tortosa's translation to Spanish, a good set of notes, etc. Hopefully before I die I can tackle this one.

T. Hardy Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The prologue ruined the book by telling all the plot, and by "all" I really mean every single thing. Most likely will end up unread.

A. Roa Bastos I The Supreme

To mention a few. On the other side, I left unfinished for a long time Bomarzo, by Manuel Mújica Lainez, but I finished it last year. I'm happy I did. A great novel about the Italian Renaissance at the time every writer from the Boom was writing about magical Latin America towns. Reminds me of News from the Empire by Fernando del Paso.

 

[Stevie B]

I hate that this is what most "Introductions" are these days. They usually contain info on the author/style of writing that are useful to know before reading the work, but then just end ups being plot summaries with spoilers for everything. I've never understood why they don't just put them after the novel.

Totally agree. There have been times I've put books back on the shelf because I've read a big plot spoiler in an intro. Nowadays, I'll read the intro after completing the book first.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I might get a lot of flak for this but I just couldn't finish Jane Eyre. I have read like 60% of it and the writing is pretty amazing. But I just don't feel connected to the characters in the story. Maybe classics are not my cup of tea.

Probably not. I can't stand neither the Brontës or Jane Austen.

 

[Liam]

^Regarding Jane Austen, Dan, I would recommend Northanger Abbey to you: it's her shortest and funniest novel, and a brilliant literary satire (making fun of the "gothic novel" craze popular at the time). A young woman who's been reading nothing but these trashy books is invited to stay at her fiancé's family estate, as soon as she arrives, she sets out to discover the dark secrets, ghosts, dead bodies in cellars, etc, that she's sure are hiding in every corner. I thought it was great.

 

[Bartleby]

I've been struggling with Frankenstein for quite some time now. In the beginning it was nice, but that structure of a story inside a story started to get on my nerves on the second part, just as it was reaching a climax we had to start anew with the point of view of the monster. And the writing after a while started to read like any other British of the period writing a letter. It's boring me to death. But I enjoyed the ideas she expresses with the story when she does so...

 

[tiganeasca]

It saddens me to say this but I have tried and tried and simply cannot make progress in Tahar Ben Jelloun's Sand Child. I have only heard and read great things about it, I have enjoyed other works of his, but this one is so...heavily symbolic that I simply cannot get anywhere. I have read the first 50 pages or so but while the straightforward narrative in quite interesting, the interior monologues of the protagonist are so incomprehensible to me that I have to chalk this one up as a no-go. I'll probably try again some day, but I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get far. Guess I need a course of symbolism.

 

[Liam]

Guess I need a course of symbolism.

Hehe, perhaps! I love heavily "symbolic" writing. Here's the thing though: it must be short. A text rich in symbols and symbolism, like Lagerkvist's Barabbas for example, is a delight to read because it's just over a hundred pages. I agree though: if a 500pp. tome would just go on and on and on, laden with all this symbology it would drive me nuts.