Author Topic: Unfinished books (Read 2865 times)

Iain · « **on:** March 12, 2007, 05:25:47 AM »

I found this article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6440981.stm - quite interesting.

Top Ten Unfinished Fiction (and my notes on some)
1- Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
2- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
3- Ulysses, James Joyce (- English undergraduates probably comprise the majority here)
4- Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres (- probably because a large amount of non-readers bought it after seeing the film. Book is actually pretty readable.)
5- Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (- I have read Ghostwritten and can understand abandoning his work, good but hard)
6- The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie (- again, I'd imagine non-readers bought because of the fatwa thing)
7- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
8- War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (- doubles as a boat anchor)
9- The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy (- was a bit of a fad, is decent though)
10- Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky (- one of those 'must reads' that isn't an easy read)

(There is a top ten list of unfinished non-fiction to be found at the link, it is much more British orientated though, although 'My Life' by Bill Clinton is at number two.)

Books I notably haven't finished - A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth. Falls into the War and Peace length category at near 1500 pages. I also started Ã€ la recherche du temps perdu like many people have. Made it half way into Within a Budding Grove. I did finish Roy Jenkins' epic Churchill biography, didn't think I was going to make it.

280plus · « **Reply #1 on:** March 12, 2007, 06:05:45 AM »

Mine:

"The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China" I just can NOT get through that thing. I did finish Sun Tzu though. grin

Dannyboy · « **Reply #2 on:** March 12, 2007, 07:19:43 AM »

"V" by Thomas Pynchon

Tallpine · « **Reply #3 on:** March 12, 2007, 07:20:16 AM »

Oh .... and I thought this thread was going to be about books that you have started writing but hadn't finished yet ...... rolleyes

trapperready · « **Reply #4 on:** March 12, 2007, 07:47:52 AM »

Personally, The Silmarillion is a repeat offender. I love Tolkien's books, but I've probably started that thing more than 10 times and just can't do it. Also, "A Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin. I originally picked it up while on vacation in high school (early '80s) and have never made it through to the end. It's been probably 10+ years since I last picked it up, but I seem to remember hitting a section where I just kept thinking "WTF is going on here?" and never getting any farther.

HankB · « **Reply #5 on:** March 12, 2007, 08:45:37 AM »

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand . . . I agree with much of the philosophy in the book, but Ayn was never one to use a single sentence when an entire chapter would do. (I did get to the end, but I'm afraid I skipped large sections.)

Invasion Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. Being a science fiction fan, I started reading the first book (in, IIRC, a series of ten) and made it through about the third chapter before becoming disgusted with the crappy writing of a hack author.

Tolkien? I found the movies better than the books . . . I mean I can only take so many pages of "Hobbiton" descriptions before I cry "Enough, Already!"

The last few books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Along about the fifth or sixth book, it became painfully obvious that Jordan was getting paid by the word, with his digressions having nothing to do with character development or story line progression, just page after page of filler material.

The sequels to Frank Herbert's Dune.

And of course, most of the "chick books" assigned 'way back in my high school English classes. (I still have a soft spot in my heart for Cliff Notes!)

Vodka7 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 12, 2007, 09:34:32 AM »

Definitely Ulyssess, and in the exact situation you mentioned--undergraduate English course. Our teacher had a strange setup for the book, though: no final or midterm, just three papers on any three chapters. So, basically, I read three chapters of the book and still got an A.

Another one for me is The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian. It's a good book, I just don't know if it's 600 pages good. I've been in the process of reading it for about six months now, and I seem to keep "temporarily" abandoning it in favor of shorter books I can bang out quicker.

Also, for some reason, I've never been able to finish The Master and Margarita. I've started it four or five times, and while I like it every time I read it, I've never gotten past page 100 or so.

StopTheGrays · « **Reply #7 on:** March 12, 2007, 10:58:57 AM »

Unintended Consequences: Until about halfway thru the book I could only read a few pages before dozing off. After that it was a page turner.
Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams: Same as UC only it never got any better.
CEO of the Sofa by PJ O'Rourke: Picked it up again and I am going to finish this time before buying another book or rereading a different one. This will be the 3rd or 4th time trying to get thru it. There is something about the style he uses in this book that makes it hard for the reader to get accustomed to.

Recent books I was able to zip thru:
Theodore Rex
Guns of the South

lee n. field · « **Reply #8 on:** March 12, 2007, 04:20:27 PM »

Quote

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand . . . I agree with much of the philosophy in the book, but Ayn was never one to use a single sentence when an entire chapter would do. (I did get to the end, but I'm afraid I skipped large sections.)

Just guessing -- John Galt's 60 page radio speech?

Quote

The sequels to Frank Herbert's Dune.

Slumlords of Dune. What-ever.

Quote

Tolkien? I found the movies better than the books . . .

Philistine.

RocketMan · « **Reply #9 on:** March 12, 2007, 04:29:21 PM »

Quote

Just guessing -- John Galt's 60 page radio speech?

Skipped through most of that, myself. Pretty good book otherwise.

MechAg94 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 12, 2007, 04:51:44 PM »

I thought the LOR books were great. Thankfully, I was warned of the Dune sequels before even trying.

Titan by Stephen Baxter is one I got about halfway through and just got disgusted with the stereotyping. There are a couple of other scifi books I have tried to start and just never got into the story. Mostly, I just see the attitude of the author and realize it is not something I will enjoy reading.

280plus · « **Reply #11 on:** March 13, 2007, 02:04:38 AM »

I want to add "Kill It and Grill It" by the nuge. I just started it and I can already tell it's going to be a tough one. rolleyes

Iain · « **Reply #12 on:** March 13, 2007, 02:21:46 AM »

I'm surprised no-one has said the Bible yet. People always tell me to start near the end, where that Jesus chap turns up.

Thinking about it, several 'books' I've not finished were collections of short stories. I like short stories sometimes, but can't ever seem to read a whole books worth. My collection of Saki short stories is unfinished, as is Maupassant and a collection of the 'New Puritans' (almost like dogme for writers) I was given a by a friend.

LadySmith · « **Reply #13 on:** March 13, 2007, 02:32:25 AM »

One book I did finish (on a dare) and wish I hadn't was "Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce.
I smacked the guy who dared me upside the head with it when I was done.
I'm an avid reader, but that one hurt.

mfree · « **Reply #14 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:49:08 AM »

Closest I've come to not finishing one would be The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon.

So long, yet so *dry*... Dry enough that you want a glass of water after a chapter or two, y'know?

StopTheGrays · « **Reply #15 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:51:01 AM »

Quote from: 280plus on March 13, 2007, 01:04:38 AM

I want to add "Kill It and Grill It" by the nuge. I just started it and I can already tell it's going to be a tough one. rolleyes

I have the book. I know I read it. I know it has Ted on the cover. Other than that I cannot remember anything in the book itself. sad

BrokenPaw · « **Reply #16 on:** March 13, 2007, 06:33:48 AM »

George R R Martin's A Game of Thrones. I got perhaps two thirds of the way through it on the strength of a recommendation from a friend (and I figured I owed it a good try, since he gave me the book as a gift). After perhaps 400 pages of utterly nothing happening except the establishment of why everyone in the books hates everyone else in the book, I gave up.

Never made it through The Silmarillion, but I was in the 7th grade and probably didn't have the attention span.

Managed to not read more than a third of A Tale of Two Cities and The Great Gatsby in 10th-grade English class, while still getting a (more or less) passing grade.

Won't ever touch another Joyce book, and, if I should pick one up by mistake, will put it down with extreme prejudice. This based upon having read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. A travesty of the language and the soul.

-BP

crt360 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 13, 2007, 07:36:20 AM »

I couldn't begin to name all of the books I haven't finished. If I get to a certain point and the book isn't doing anything for me, I put it down. Life is too short to waste on finishing books that lack educational or entertainment value just so I can say I finished them. That said, as an undergrad I majored in philosophy and government which involved reading and re-reading thousands of pages of books that would make most peoples' minds numb. If I had to read something for school, I usually finished it.

If I pick up a book for my personal reading satisfaction and make it to the end, it deserves five stars (and should be read by all).

lee n. field · « **Reply #18 on:** March 13, 2007, 01:40:28 PM »

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Life is too short to waste on finishing books that lack educational or entertainment value just so I can say I finished them.

I agree. At this stage in my life I have a much lower toleration for things that waste my time.

So why am I on the Internet instead of reading a book?

Warren · « **Reply #19 on:** March 13, 2007, 06:46:31 PM »

Um, I'm going to have to finish this thread later, just cannot get into it at the moment.

MechAg94 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 13, 2007, 07:56:02 PM »

I guess I never made it through the Silmarilion either.

HankB · « **Reply #21 on:** March 14, 2007, 03:26:11 AM »

Quote from: lee n. field on March 12, 2007, 03:20:27 PM

Quote

Tolkien? I found the movies better than the books . . .

Philistine.

Just don't come after me with the jawbone of an ass . . . angel

MattC · « **Reply #22 on:** March 14, 2007, 11:01:53 AM »

Silmarillion -- guilty as well.

There have been a few others that I've skipped over due to time constraints. However, I am the most guilty of not finishing collections of poetry.

BrokenPaw, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was his easiest! You don't realize how much you are missing out on! Think how much more you could despise the most pompous, elitist author ever to enter tha canon of Literature (capital "L," thank you) if you would just try reading a few chapters of Ulysses or Finnegans Wake. He is so difficult to read because he realized that the closest way to make himself immortal is to write something so complex that people would always argue about it means. I'm not making a joke--he seriously intended that.

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Author Topic: Unfinished books (Read 2865 times)

Warren