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

[Yamunaji]

Hi all,

There aren't very many books that I start and then can't bring myself to finish, but there was one book that I started and just couldn't get into. I abandoned it on my bookshelf for almost a decade. I found it some ten years later and started again. I got a bit further than before the second time around, but halfway through, I just couldn't bring myself to carry on with. I'm quite ashamed to admit that as, usually, I'm really quick at starting and finishing off books. The book that made me feel like a reading failure was Catch-22. I know, I know - it's deemed an absolute classic, but to my shame, for some reason I couldn't get into it - even though, I admit it's very well written and clever.

It's still on my bookshelf, where's it'll probably languish for another decade. However, I am determined to pick it up one day and finish it off - Catch-22 has become my personal literally challenge.

So I want to know, have you ever found yourself in a similar position with a book? What is your reading failure/challenge?

[Elfqueen]

I would say that Thomas Pynchon's V was a complete failure. I loved Gravity's Rainbow, even though only 'got' a very small percentage of it. But V just did me in.

[lady_charlie]

Do you mean not liking or not understanding?
If I want to read something it may take me a long time and there are tons of books I am sure I don't understand,
which is one reason why I want to talk to other people about books.
If I don't like it, I don't read it.
I have books on the shelf that I started and didn't finish.
Most Infamous Purchased and Never Finished: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
Loved the first few pages. yep. Epic fail there.

[yvetteyoungkim]

I can relate. Everyone seems to enjoy The Hobbit but I just can't get past the first page.

[lady_charlie]

OK I know there are books that don't jump out and grab you but you have to try again.
Really, and this is Arwen talking, here, you have to try!
My life would have been so different without Arwen and Galadriel and Shadowfax.
On the same subject I can't finish Don Quixote. It just seems to go on and on and on and..well, you get the idea.

[A24]

I felt that way about a few books - Catch 22 was one of them! Stopped reading it.
I also did not finish Night Circus which everyone raves about. I hated it and so, stopped reading it part-way through.
I also had a hard time reading The Hobbit. I was expecting it to be great but it labored on and on. I loved the movie however.
I still have The Count of Monte Cristo on my list. Tried a few times to start it but couldn't. Perhaps it's size was daunting! Someday!

[lady_charlie]

Again with The Hobbit!
Really?

Of course there are people here who think I am silly for not being able to finish Don Quijote.
Including me
i get it, it is just too long
Stephen Hawking left me feeling very uneducated even though it seems like it would be interesting.

[Myownperson]

It makes me feel like an idiot to confess because I love classics but I can't seem to be able to read "To Kill a Mockingbird". It has proven to be such a hard read that the first few sentences took me an hour to comprehend. Also, "Cobra" by Frederick Forsyth turned me off after a couple of pages.

-- 19 May 2013, 11:45 --

It makes me feel like an idiot to confess because I love classics but I can't seem to be able to read "To Kill a Mockingbird". It has proven to be such a hard read that the first few sentences took me an hour to comprehend. Also, "Cobra" by Frederick Forsyth turned me off after a couple of pages.

[lady_charlie]

It makes me feel like an idiot to confess because I love classics but I can't seem to be able to read "To Kill a Mockingbird". It has proven to be such a hard read that the first few sentences took me an hour to comprehend. Also, "Cobra" by Frederick Forsyth turned me off after a couple of pages.

-- 19 May 2013, 11:45 --

It makes me feel like an idiot to confess because I love classics but I can't seem to be able to read "To Kill a Mockingbird". It has proven to be such a hard read that the first few sentences took me an hour to comprehend. Also, "Cobra" by Frederick Forsyth turned me off after a couple of pages.

Welcome to the club.
I love the first chapter of Don Quixote. In a little town in La Mancha...but after about three adventures, I am done.
Also I get the whole LOTR thing, really.
Have you seen the video of how to make LOTR three hours shorter?
The eagles fly everyone to Mordor and they drop the thing in. Done.

[Happily Candied]

I always get lost when I read Aristotle's Rhetoric. I love studying the concept of rhetoric, but there's so much substance in the topic that I find it difficult to focus on understanding everything it involves. It's much broader then I had initially thought.

I even took a college course that specifically focused on rhetoric and I still felt like the subject matter was way over my head. Truth be told, I was one of the only undergrads in a class of grad students (I remember that making me feel a bit uneasy), but still... I feel like there's no excuse to feel this challenged.

I'm determined to get a better grasp on it someday.

[nickyb325]

There were a few books that would've been so over my head when I read them, but thankfully I read them for a college course, so that helped a ton (Catch-22 included! As well as White Noise by Don Delilo). More recently I picked up the book Bringing up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel and it was the first book in a very long time that I just didn't care if I finished it. It was wordy and blah, maybe it was different because I already knew the ending...I mean it's Anne Boleyn, people.

Along with that, I think a lot of it was timing. When I first read My Antonia by Willa Cather I did not understand why its a classic, then I re-read it in college and now it's one of my favorites!

[allyzmom244]

I have to admit as much as I love reading, I have true difficulty getting into James Patterson's Alex Cross novels. I have no idea why, and tried and failed many times. I love reading anything and everything yet I have to force myself to read a chapter and have yet to finish a book

[shellyb]

I had a lot of trouble with Mill on the Floss when i was at school, this stuck with me and I had to challenge myself to read it again in later life which was a little easier, so I think its about time i tried again and see if the years of reading have made a difference.

[anu_]

Though, I have plenty of unread books on my shelf. There are two books that I just can't complete. Scarlett Letter and Billy Budd Both are considered great classics and yet I can hardly read beyond first few pages.

But, one book that really challenged me as a reader is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I did finish it and even loved Tolstoy's writing prowess, but it made me humbler as I realized I hardly know anything about world history to actually enjoy the story. After struggling a lot in the beginning, I tried to educate myself about Napoleonic War and history of Russia and Austria so that I can at least make sense of those high strung events and battles, Leo kept referring to!

[Kimpaluch]

I was loaned a set of three books set the set is wicked and I can't get into it it's very Dull and slow and I just don't care for it, though my Sister-in-law loves it. She also loved brotherhood of the Wolves and i didn't care for that one either...too slow and uninteresting to keep me reading it.

Kim