Stevie B
Current Member
If you're patient enough, they might release a Cliff's Notes version.
"I quit!" -- Books I just can't finish
- Thread starter tiganeasca
- Start date
Leseratte
Well-known member
I know only one person, who read the whole Ulisses and the whole Finnegans Wake.
Stevie B
Current Member
I recently bought a hardcover copy of Ulysses with the full understanding that I'd likely never read it. It looks nice on the shelf, though.
Leseratte
Well-known member
So do my both English paperback copies. They look a bit battered, but not from excessive reading!
redhead
Blahblahblah
They already released a mountain version, now a cliff? How many rock formations do you need? (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself I’ll go now…)
Stevie B
Current Member
And I thought I was the only one around here who made dad jokes.
I've read Ulysses twice, once when I COULDN'T understand anything, and one recently, with some marginal improvement..
Stevie B
Current Member
No one can blame you for not trying. I'm saving it to read on my death bed. ?
Benny Profane
Well-known member
I've tried to read Ulysses twice but "as I'm brazilian and never give up", I will try again on May and June by Antônio Houaiss' edition.
I'd like to finnish it on Bloom's day! ?
I'd like to finnish it on Bloom's day! ?
Benny Profane
Well-known member
A true hero!
Cleanthess
Dinanukht wannabe
For some reason, I doubt that anyone has actually read the whole Finnegans Wake. Proof:
From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
bacon
Active member
You'll be happy to know that, although Xingjian has been nominated six times for the Ham-and-Eggs Prize, he has not actually yet won.
MichaelHW
Active member
Once I bought a book for myself for Christmas. It was many years ago. There was a Norwegian nineteenth century politician that interested me, and I wanted to know more about his life. I found a used copy of a biography about him, written by a Norwegian professor I will not name (he is dead anyway. I never had anything to do with him. I just don't like naming and shaming.) This book is to date the worst factual book I have ever read. It followed no plan, jumped back and forth for no apparent reason, and the sentences were extremely long, and exhausting to read. I don't know who was to blame, the writer or the publisher?
In Norway, we have a fantastic comedic actor who died some years ago called Rolv Wesenlund. He started as a jazz musician, but then became an actor, playing in the Norwegian version of Hancock's Half Hour, Fleksnes, which was such a success that he became a household name in Scandinavia for the rest of his life. He was a very fine comedic actor, with a mischievous, but very warm gleam in his eye. He wrote an autobiography, and read his own audiobook. This was a horrific book. He would introduce thoughts about NATO in passages about other things, and he mumbled all through the recording. I could not listen to it. So a great acting legend does not have to be a great writer, or the best person to read his own text. His mumbling was charming on screen, but annoying in an audiobook.
In Norway, we have a fantastic comedic actor who died some years ago called Rolv Wesenlund. He started as a jazz musician, but then became an actor, playing in the Norwegian version of Hancock's Half Hour, Fleksnes, which was such a success that he became a household name in Scandinavia for the rest of his life. He was a very fine comedic actor, with a mischievous, but very warm gleam in his eye. He wrote an autobiography, and read his own audiobook. This was a horrific book. He would introduce thoughts about NATO in passages about other things, and he mumbled all through the recording. I could not listen to it. So a great acting legend does not have to be a great writer, or the best person to read his own text. His mumbling was charming on screen, but annoying in an audiobook.
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redhead
Blahblahblah
Now I’m curious what book that was, or at least which writer it was about
MichaelHW
Active member
(I can't say it without revealing the author. )
Edit: Who cares
It was not one of those new biographies by Ingar Kollen or Hoem. These are great and award-winning books. It was a related subject, but the book was not favorably reviewed by anyone, nor did it receive a lot of attention. I am by no means alone in my assessment. I bought it because it was cheap, and appeared on a shelf in a book store.I checked. I remember incorrectly. It was not about a writer, but a politician. I remember now. I was researching something at the time. It was Wyller's biography on Mikkelsen, a major politician at the start of the twentieth century. The book was written in the late seventies. Who cares? I did not like it
We can't all like everything we read. That is just the way it is. Some of my recollections may be inaccurate. It is not like I would go back and open the book again for any conceievable reason, but the distaste for the book has left a lasting imprint on my memory.
Thomas Christian Wyller - Wikipedia
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MichaelHW
Active member
You don't understand the Irish. The book was probably written under the influence of absinthe, and must also be read under the influence of the same magic potion. Also, James Joyce is one those intellectuals that has left lasting imprint on literary history, not only through his pretentious stream of consciousness descriptions from his toilet, but also through his well-known fetish for farting, which fortunately has brought comic relief to some very tedious and dull biographies.
beelzebubble
Member
I got Finnegan's Wake as a birthday present. I thought the guy who bought it was funning me. I am neurotic like that
Abhi
Well-known member
Reading this and other threads, I realize I'm not the only one to say this but I am feeling really meh towards Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather. I read the first three stories and they don't read like Nobel-worthy works at all. I will probably abandon this book. I wanted to pick a good short work as my first attempt at Gao Xingjian but this backfired and now the fishing rod is broken and it doesn't even matter because all the fish are dead in the pond, as is the grandfather.