Has a book made you feel like a "reading failure/challenge"?

[Katherine E Wall]

*Hides all the stones before commenting*

I have tried and tried to get into J.K. Rowling's writing style. I made several attempts at Harry Potter, and her subsequent novels. There is just no connection for me as a reader. Which I find very strange, since I am such an eclectic reader.

Sometimes, it is just about chemistry, I guess.

*Remembers to hide the tar and feathers, as well.*

[roguexunited]

Personally I had a lot of trouble reading As I lay Dying, by William Faulkner. The only reason I was able to finish it was because I had to write an essay about it. But I suffered every single minute. I've been meaning to read something else by Faulkner because I don't want to leave him on that note, but I still haven't found the motivation.

[Katherine E Wall]

Personally I had a lot of trouble reading As I lay Dying, by William Faulkner. The only reason I was able to finish it was because I had to write an essay about it. But I suffered every single minute. I've been meaning to read something else by Faulkner because I don't want to leave him on that note, but I still haven't found the motivation.

I had love/hate relationship with As I Lay Dying. Reading it can be a chore, and yet when you really experience it, there is a different relationship. I guess it is like the relationships I found most difficult, the ones I had to work at, turned out to be the most rewarding in the long run.

[Swiss Guardsmen]

Pope Emiritus Benidict's, Jesus the Nazarene was beautiful but so complex

[sickwithsin]

Took me almost five years to get through LotR. I love the movies, but reading the book felt like a chore.

[Swiss Guardsmen]

That can be uncomfortable when someone close likes a book very much and they loan it to you and you hate it! Tough times.

[Ravenmount]

Nikos Kazantzakis' The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel was awful for me. It took me a month to read it because every other paragraph I was nodding off from sheer boredom. His language was pretty enough, but the story was impossible to follow, and it was of course an epic poem, not straight prose, and VERY long. I celebrated with a bottle of wine when I reached the last page, even though I had to skim whole sections to get through it.

[MamaTheNurse]

I usually give a book a reeeaaaalllly good try before I tap out but I couldn't even give that much effort to Middlemarch by George Eliot - it put me to sleep too easily - blahhhhhhh.........

[SidnayC]

I use to feel like that all the time. Then I realized that my time is precious and their are so many books out their to explore - if a book is unable to catch your attention and draw you in even after you painfully continued to read - then it's the author's fault and not yours. Read what you enjoy not what you feel obligated to read.

[alex_]

Yes. Great Expectations, because the beginning was so boring that I would fall asleep, and it frustrated me that I couldn't read it because of that, I felt like a failure.

[ghostpixie]

I'd really like to read some more Stephen King books, but I just can't bring myself to do so. I've only read one- Misery.