I love classic books, but I found it difficult to get through Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. After reading just five pages, I closed the book. I attempted to read it again a month later and still struggled to get through it. In my opinion, the preface of the book felt dull and boring.
So, I’m curious about what books you’ve tried to read but just couldn’t finish.
by Former_Comparison966
36 Comments
I also put down *Pride and Prejudice.* It was so boring.
Ted turners just call me Ted. Fuck right off you maniac.
I gave up halfway through the first paragraph of *A Clockwork Orange* because I had to refer to the glossary for every other word.
Most fantasy stuff I can gleek through context, but that was just word salad.
Pillars of the Earth
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Personal Librarian
The silmarillion
Piranesi
Moby Dick
Wuthering Heights
Eragon.
I know it’s for young adults but I couldn’t stand the writing style. It felt beyond amateurish.
It’s a bit harsh to call it cliché when she originated it. She wasn’t to know that hundreds of writers would copy her.
Moby Dick and Ulysses
I also couldn’t finish the Aeneid because I thought Aeneas was such a whiny lil dick.
To Kill A Mockingbird. It was recommended by a teacher as I had a higher reading level for my age so initially I thought I was just too young for it. Tried a few more times as I got older. The furthest I got was page 32.
Only two books I can recall not finishing:
William Faulkner, I believe it was The Sound and the Fury.
Stephen King, the 2nd Dark Tower.
“Every time I read “Pride and Prejudice” I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” Mark Twain
And then there were none T__T I realized mas magandang panoorin na lang mga teh
100 Years of Solitude
The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. I like hard-sci-fi and he’s supposed to be the grandfather of it and that book is supposed to be the Bible. It was so boring I didn’t get very far in. One of those things where you read the same paragraph over and over without actually reading it.
I’m with you on Pride and Prejudice; even though I know it’s satire, everyone is just so vapid that I failed to connect with any of the characters.
A little life. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
I stopped before the last 150 pages of Don Quixote. I’ve been meaning to finish it for the past year. Book 2 was nowhere near as funny or interesting as Book 1. I believe the people that suggest it was written by someone else.
The Talisman by Stephen King. I’ve tried just don’t think it will ever happen
The Wise Man’s Fear by Pat Rothfuss. Made it about 400 pages and a particular sequence just through me out of a story I already wasn’t liking.
“Maia” by Richard Adams.
Lord of the Rings. I made a couple of attempts on it back in the 60s but never got more than a few pages into it.
Atlas Shrugged. Soooo boring.
I thought the Unabomber Manifesto was a tad overrated. Some decent arguments, and a gripping introduction, but sometimes it gets a bit wordy for my taste around the middle.
I have never finished a Jane Austen book. There are so many, I just don’t hesitate anymore to put down a book I’m not enjoying because life’s too short to read bad books. Audiobooks especially, I will stop if I find the narrator even slightly annoying or dull. Two that come to mine that I didn’t enjoy and stopped were the girl with all the gifts and Elizabeth is missing. And it took me a full year to read One hundred years of solitude because I kept having to force myself to pick it up again after putting it down for months at a time.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Game of Thrones (the second book, I think). I found the descriptions of sexual violence too much for me. It really felt like GRRM had a streak of sadism. I know people thought they were great, but not for me.
Austen (and Bronte, and other Victorian authors) require getting into the rhythm of the prose, but I found most of them quite approachable after I settled into the different language style.
I struggled to find anything interesting about Atlas Shrugged. Who is the target audience even supposed to be?
We Were the Mulvaneys (Joyce Carol Oates). I tried. I just couldn’t do it. It’s unusual for me to just give up on a book.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Hobbes Leviathan
If you watch the movie first it s easier to read it. I admit, the books was slow but with the movie in mind it was easier to read it.
A little life was horrible for me tho. Hated it. Usually i can t finish around half / a third of the books i read in a read so there would be many titles to mention
I wouldn’t even say you started the book if you read five pages and then stopped. You just glanced at it.
“Lightlark” its so ;-; not it.
The Little Friend. I liked her other 2. This one, I can’t get through for the life of me. Tried 3x. Have given up. Won’t bother trying a fourth time.
Why are people getting down voted for sharing what THEY dislike? C’mon, what you like may not be others’ cup of tea,.so be it. Why the down votes just because their views don’t gel with yours??
Invisible monsters by chuck palanuick. It was chapters upon chapters of a character’s rambling narrative. At one point it was 36 pages of no dialogue.