A few years back I heard the frase Must read cant finish. It was related to the great classics in literature which you must read (if you are a cultured person), but which are very hard to finish. Some you read and did.

I have a few of these books, and I am sure so have you. What examples can you give? My own are
Must read cant finish books

James Joyce: Ulysses

I kind of stopped at the point where this guy sitsin his outhouse (after eating fried kidneys) and never picked it up again...

Must read did finish
Tolstoy: War and Peace.
I found well worth it to stick it out.Well written anti war novel.

James Joyce: Ulysses

I've actually read that!

So maybe you can tell how that is done:)

I read it chapter by chapter, a few chapters a day.
All along, I thought to myself "This isn't a stupid book. This is superior literature." I also remember I drank vodka and cognac while reading ... so my memory is a bit blurry.
But I read it!:wallbang:

Ok, sounds actually as fun. Maybe I should try the same, although I dont like vodka

Now I think - if after you've read a few pages, a book doesn't interest you in some way or another, there's no point in reading it. Life is too short to spend it on stuff you don't like.

A slightly different matter, but for some reason I can't finish William Gibson's "Neuromancer".
I've tried for 4 times already, but haven't gotten further than 1/2. The thing is that I always get massive headache from that book and, as I remember, it puts me in a "suicidal" mood. Haven't tried to reread it since 4 years or something.
Can't explain it, but that's the only book reading which makes my head hurt like hell.
Maybe some neurolinguistic programming, ha

Ok, that is a classic I heard, at least in the cyberpunk genre. Maybe it is too nerdy?

No, I'm all into cyberpunk! That's the stupid thing, I like that book, but it makes my head hurt like hell.

...for some reason I can't finish William Gibson's "Neuromancer".

is he of any relation to Mel Gibson?

Anyways I started reading Bible from Genesis and up to New Testament...but ever since I got past the Psalms...well I got stuck on the Psalms actually...

Anyways I started reading Bible from Genesis and up to New Testament...but ever since I got past the Psalms...well I got stuck on the Psalms actually...

And how do you feel about that ?

And how do you feel about that ?

well I did switch my religion...but Bible is indeed very morally fullfilling book, I feel like I have to finish it thou.

well I did switch my religion...but Bible is indeed very morally fullfilling book, I feel like I have to finish it thou.

You switched your religion ? I thought you didn't have one..

You switched your religion ? I thought you didn't have on..

Well I was raised from beginning to age 4 as an atheist. Than from age 4 to age 6 as an Orthodox Christian, from age 6 to age 8 as Evangelist of 7th day, from age 8 until age 10 as mix of Orthodox Christian and Evangelist of 7th day...than as Orthodox Christian from age 10 until age 16 when I decided to switch myself to buddhism...and currently I am under buddhism at age 21.

No, I'm all into cyberpunk! That's the stupid thing, I like that book, but it makes my head hurt like hell.

:D Well thats no good if it is your favorite.

Maybe it is meant to do that? Anyway, I heard alot about Gibson, but never read anything. Would you recommend him?

Well I was raised from beginning to age 4 as an atheist. Than from age 4 to age 6 as an Orthodox Christian, from age 6 to age 8 as Evangelist of 7th day, from age 8 until age 10 as mix of Orthodox Christian and Evangelist of 7th day...than as Orthodox Christian from age 10 until age 16 when I decided to switch myself to buddhism...and currently I am under buddhism at age 21.

Wow.. ok, thanks for your answer :)

Great thanks for your life story!!

I never read the bible in full. Maybe you should return to atheism, then you dont have to switch any more. Whats next. Muslim?

Great thanks for your life story!!

I never read the bible in full. Maybe you should return to atheism, then you dont have to switch any more. Whats next. Muslim?

No...I am fully contempt with buddhism :) I picked it myself, not by anyones guidance or "care-taking"

Oh I started reading Dostoevsky's book on Crime and Punishment...but I stopped reading it when it got to the church business...it disgusted me, the book. I cant understand why people like it so much.

http://img0.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/b/3/10/540/10540721_kadr.jpg

How did it disgust you? I have not reached the church stuff yet I guess.

How did it disgust you? I have not reached the church stuff yet I guess.

well he is just running away from everything...

its been long since I read the book, have you finished it? Have you read it? What part have you left off?

I have not left of yet. I am half way through. And I like it.

he is running away, because he is weak. He think he is superior, thats why he thought he was allowed to do his crime. But he cannot face up to it, and it destroys him. Punishment.

As I said, I am not there yet, but after this weeknd maybe....

I've read Crime and Punishment too, we had to read it in school.

he is running away, because he is weak. He think he is superior, thats why he thought he was allowed to do his crime. But he cannot face up to it, and it destroys him. Punishment.

Strangely or not, I couldn't come up with such a summary. Even though there is plenty of rationalizing in the book about why he did it, I never quite bought it. This notion that there is one reason, one explanation for why a person does something seems suspicious to me. In my opinion, there were numerous motivations that drew Raskolnikov into the murder, the book presents them - the urge and confusion of poverty, his ideas of superiority, sheer survival instinct, forgetting oneself in the moment, generalized hatred and fear.

To call him "weak"? Well, what would a "strong" person be like, in the same circumstances? I don't think a "strong" person would find themselves in such circumstances to begin with, so I think it's impossible ti rightfully apply the weak vs. strong criteria.

And how could Raskolinkov face up to his crime? It's not like he committed it solely out of being deliberately evil or solely because he enjoyed the murder. In the situation he was in, he had to choose between his own life and the life of another. And he chose his own life above the life of another. Should one feel bad about that? I think this is the question the book explores. And the way the story ends, in some cheesy idealism - I think this was a dissonance Dostoyevsky deliberately introduced, as a metanarrative twist, to make the reader rethink their own interpretation of the story and not simply go with what the story seems to be about at first glance.

Show off. Looks as if you went to school recently.

But I guess your right. Right now I need to finish it, thinking comes afterwards.

Anyway, remember that this book was written before Freud and psycology. So Dostojevski may well have thought that there can be one explanation, eventhough we dont buy it today.

Show off.

:p dont feel bad

Bored of the Rings

the kushiels series

No...I am fully contempt with buddhism :)

Draq. that's just beautiful, only a true buddhist could be so self deprecating.

Sorry, I treat you with content.

I am, by the way a devoured aetheist.

Draq. that's just beautiful, only a true buddhist could be so self deprecating.

Sorry, I treat you with content.

I am, by the way a devoured aetheist.

:p I messed up...you know it...I meant to say "in full agreenmeent with buddhism" ...and said the opposite :bawl: and u took advantage of that, u big meanie

That's much Beddha.

That's much Beddha.

however if you come to think of it, well if I come to think of it, and thinking of it... such statement would truly symbolize my full devotion to the belief to the point that I go against what I sought as wrong entirely.

Show off. Looks as if you went to school recently.

Watch your tongue. I've read Crime and Punishment some 15 years ago. For some things, I have a very good memory.

A slightly different matter, but for some reason I can't finish William Gibson's "Neuromancer".
I've tried for 4 times already, but haven't gotten further than 1/2. The thing is that I always get massive headache from that book and, as I remember, it puts me in a "suicidal" mood. Haven't tried to reread it since 4 years or something.
Can't explain it, but that's the only book reading which makes my head hurt like hell.
Maybe some neurolinguistic programming, ha

i find that books can change my mood alot too. there is one series that leaves me really depressed and restless when i read it. then i'll forget about it, and years later read them again, and go right back into the same foggy depressed state for a few weeks. really strange.

Watch your tongue. I've read Crime and Punishment some 15 years ago. For some things, I have a very good memory.

:p Sorry no offense

Huckleberry Finn and One Hundred Years of Solitude. You must understand that my wife has a master's degree in literature and she regards these as two of the greatest books ever written. She wrote her thesis on the García Márquez. I really wanted to read these, not just because she specifically recommended them to me and when your woman gives you something artistic to do you just better do it, not just because they really are great books and great books tell you a lot about the universe you live in, but also because it was something I so much wanted to share with her.

I couldn't do it. In both cases I got halfway through and my mind was a muddle. I couldn't tell you what was going on, what the characters were about, what the important issues were, nothing. I couldn't understand anything, couldn't follow the plot. I might as well have been reading Cien Años de Soledad in the original Spanish, at least I would have learned some new words.

That was really sad. Especially since I have given her a couple of my favorite books and she read them and really appreciated them.

Fortunately she didn't give up and eventually found my wavelength. Saul Bellow is another of her favorite authors. She picked a novel that is not one of his more critically acclaimed but still good literature and very thought-provoking, while being a good yarn and very understandable: Henderson the Rain King. I heartily recommend it. I've also made it happily through a couple of others in the twenty years since then.

well I did switch my religion...but Bible is indeed very morally fullfilling book, I feel like I have to finish it thou.

Yeah, all the talk of prostitutes, rape, and genocide get me rock hard too.

What's your favorite book of the old testament?

Oh I started reading Dostoevsky's book on Crime and Punishment...but I stopped reading it when it got to the church business...it disgusted me, the book. I cant understand why people like it so much.

http://img0.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/b/3/10/540/10540721_kadr.jpg

... One of the best books I ever read! But not as good as The Brothers Karamazov by same author. That is my fav. I've read it three times.

But I'm with you on the bible. Just can't get through it no matter how hard I try.

I couldn't get through "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Not even that long of a story, but GD, I just could not so it!

Russian novels. Any of them since teenage years (for some reason, they were OK then). The closest I've come since age 21 is Anna Karenin , and that was on the third translation try (the one that spelled it "Karenin") - made it about half way, ran into PJ O'Rourke's question (sturdy Russian peasant moral true son of the Motherland's soil and yadda yadda yadda - Leo, why'd she fuck the guy ? ) and gave up.

But translations are unreliable indicators. The Odyssey would have been on this list for me a couple years ago, but I gave Fagle's translation a crack and ended up turning pages clear to the end. Maybe there's someone out there who can turn Russian into English I can keep reading in adulthood.

The Bible rolls pretty well, but only in the King James, for example - Ecclesiastes, the begats, story of Job, "And thus may I not spare Ninevah, wherein are nine hundreds of people who do not know their left hand from their right, and also much cattle ?"

...
I couldn't get through "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Not even that long of a story, but GD, I just could not so it!

I loved it. But it is difficult to read, the language is kind of dense, so you have to read it slow, eventhough there are few pages. It is as if Conrad was showing of a bit. English was not his first language.

But it is one of the best books I have read for many years

I loved it. But it is difficult to read, the language is kind of dense, so you have to read it slow, eventhough there are few pages. It is as if Conrad was showing of a bit. English was not his first language.

But it is one of the best books I have read for many years

Thats what a lot of people say. Maybe I'll try again someday...

I read Huckleberry Finn as a part of my English and American literature class at school; liked it quite a lot.

I read Huckleberry Finn as a part of my English and American literature class at school; liked it quite a lot.

yeah but have you finished the book?

:bugeye: I finish reading, what I like. Except for Neuromancer.