What classic could you not finish?

Question

Or you think should not be a classic or is a hard read?

Answer 1

Interesting. I really like all the books that have been listed so far. The Grapes Of Wrath is one of my all time favorite books, in fact.

One book that almost did me in, though I did finally finish it, was The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. I like some of her books but that one just didn't cut it for me.

I should probably try this one again, but when I read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, in high school, I really hated it. I could see why it was important and all, I just loathed reading it.

I'm sure there are more, but those two really stand out. Who knows though? They might be someone elses two favorite books!

***Edit) Does never really intending to finish it count? Because I have owned a copy of Joyce's Finnegan's Wake for at least twenty five years, I have moved it hither and yon and I have always kept it on my shelf, but I cannot recall the last time I so much as opened it. To me it is a classic in name only, and I would laugh in the face of anyone who told me they actually sat down and read it through. Though again, I'm sure someone actually has. Poor soul.

Answer 2

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann: I just couldn't get into it.

However, I'm determined to try again. Hopefully it was just my mood at the time that stopped me. We'll see...

Answer 3

anna karenina it took me a month to plod through it

Answer 4

I'm struggling through Moby d**k right now.

I mean, I'm going to finish it because it's for summer reading, but it's tough going.

However, I think I'm just not enjoying it because I waited until so late in the summer, and I'm stressed about it now.

Also, to the first post. Oh good, I have to read Grapes of Wrath with in this week as well.

oh god. haha

Answer 5

Illiad by Homer. I gave up trying on this one, never could get further than 20 pages. Although I respect it being a great classics, just probably not for me.

Answer 6

well call of the wild is a really hard book to read

I'm not sure if its considered a classic, but the old man and the sea i could not finish

Answer 7

I tried to read Anna Karenina but was unable to get past the first 100 pages.  Perhaps in a few moths I will try again.

Answer 8

James Joyce's Ulysses.  I'd finally got the hang of the stream of consciousness bit when he changed up styles.

Answer 9

"Moby d**k" and "The Old Man and the Sea".

"Moby d**k" is horribly, horribly boring.  And Ernest Hemingway's simplistic style really aggravated me in "The Old Man and the Sea," so that I was praying that the next sentence wouldn't be simple.

Answer 10

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce.  That was really a struggle... I had to skim the last 50 pages, haha.  Heart of Darkness was another struggle, but I did finish it.

I liked Grapes of Wrath and the Old Man and the Sea... but I haven't tried to tackle Anna Karenina or Moby d**k yet.  They are intimidating!

Answer 11

Grapes of Wrath.  Hated it.  Never finished it.  But I like Steinbeck's shorter works.  

Answer 12

Middlemarch, it was a bit wordy.  

Love Moby d**k, Great Expectations and The Old Man and the Sea though.  

Also though everything by Virginia Woolf pointless except Orlando.  

Answer 13

The book that took me the longest time to read would definitely have to be Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I would not have continued reading it if I hadn't needed to read it for a class. The same goes for The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. It was horrible and the movie was even worse. Both stories, plots, and characters were unappealing to me, I had to force myself to keep going. I would not recommend them to anyone.

I don't know what the criteria were for placing them under the category of 'classics' but I would like to know.  

Answer 14

I don't think Walden by Henry David Thoreau should be a classic. I did finish it but dear lord was it boring and pointless -_-

I never made it through Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, but I think I wasn't in the right frame of mind for it when I started. It may have gotten better but I remember the beginning had descriptions that were FAR too detailed and uninteresting for me at the time.