What work of literature have you started but never finished?

[furie]

What work of literature have you started but never finished? And I guess to add to that, never finished but wanted to, but never found the time.
For me, it would have to be Ulysses by James Joyce.
I found it such a hard read when i was in college. And now as an adult, i simple don't have the time.

[dino_electropolis]

Mine was "Songs of Experience" / "songs of innocence" by William Blake

Some great writing (obviously) but just couldnt keep with it.

[EliSnow]

The one that comes to mind is The Road. Great book but so depressing, and it just fucked with my head.

[Furtherman]

Hop On.... uh..... that's as far as I got. I wonder what was hopped on...?

[Dirtbag]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've read the first two (almost a year apart) and still can't be bothered to pick up Return of the King. I've had high school math textbooks that were more entertaining than Fellowship.

[Judge Smails]

I saw the thread title and came in here to post Ulysses but you beat me to it. But yeah, fuck that overrated shit!

[JimBeam]

Tom Sawyer

[TripleSkeet]

In Cold Blood.

I read about 3/4 of it in school but for some reason never finished it.

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

[drjoek]

What work of literature have you started but never finished? And I guess to add to that, never finished but wanted to, but never found the time.
For me, it would have to be Ulysses by James Joyce.
I found it such a hard read when i was in college. And now as an adult, i simple don't have the time.



Same here. And I was a bit of a Joyce fan and an Irish Studies minor but that thing is a bear and remains incomplete.

[TooLowBrow]

1 fish 2 fish red fish...something

[JimBeam]

I've had high school math textbooks that were more entertaining than Fellowship.

That was hilarious.

[ADF]

What work of literature have you started but never finished? And I guess to add to that, never finished but wanted to, but never found the time.
For me, it would have to be Ulysses by James Joyce.
I found it such a hard read when i was in college. And now as an adult, i simple don't have the time.

I had that same problem. Try getting one of the editions that has a companion guide. It's sort of like a "Ulysses in Plain English." Parts of that book are very difficult.

[hit11man]

On the road- for me. Started it several times. I have trouble with the beat poetry

[Dude!]

The Remembrance of Things Past
by Proust

i've gotten to about page 50
four times

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

On the road- for me. Started it several times. I have trouble with the beat poetry

Then forget about reading The Subterraneans. Kerouac wrote it in his speed heyday. I swear there's not a punctuation mark in the whole damn book.

[DarkHippie]

For me, it would have to be Ulysses by James Joyce.
I found it such a hard read when i was in college. And now as an adult, i simple don't have the time.

this

[Gvac]

I tried to read "Atlas Shrugged" a half dozen times at least.

Impossible.

I'm convinced there's not a soul on the planet who read the thing cover to cover.

[hedges]

Swann's Way by Proust

[spoon]

I ATTEMPTED to read Doogie B's threesome epic to no avail. I hear there's no payoff as well, so why bother.

[SatCam]

every book i ever had to read in high school. altho usually we watched the movie version afterwards anyway

[spoon]

every book i ever had to read in high school. altho usually we watched the movie version afterwards anyway

Cliff's notes baby! So as far as I'm concerned, I read them ALL!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519XZWA01KL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[biggirl]

Tom Sawyer

We were supposed to read this for English in high school. I only read a few of the chapters, yet passed all of the quizzes. Normally I had no problem reading any book for school, but I must have been too caught up with volleyball or boys or something. I still have not read it.

I have been cleaning out my book shelves for the past few days and realized I have a lot of books that I have bought and not read. Whoops!

I should probably read my Business Law book someday. I spent $80 on it and received a D in the class.

[Chigworthy]

Gravity's Rainbow
The Trial
2666

Wanted to like each one of these but just couldn't hang in there.

[smiler grogan]

Tropic of Cancer... I just don't care enough about the characters to finish it. It feels like a book thats subject matter is out dated that it is irrelevant.

[IamFogHat]

This hits me, cause my favorite author is Proust, who wrote the longest novel in history (it's over 4,000 pages) and I've read six of his seven volumes of said work - A Remembrance of Things Past depending on the translation - and for no fucking reason I can assertain in the universe I have not read the last volume (Time Regained). It might be one of those you know something you love is going to end so you spread it out over a long period deals, but it's been at least two years since I finished the previous volume so I should really buck up and tackle the last one and enjoy it.

BTW everyone and I mean Everyone, should read this book, it's fucking funny and great. You will not be dissapointed.

[Dude!]

you should have read post 15 first
and targeted your advice to me

[Slumbag]

"Machiavelli the Prince" cause it was too difficult to understand, and "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse. No reason I haven't read Siddhartha, I just kinda quit reading it.

[badorties]

i've attempted to read "the plague" a few times, but other things always seemed to get in the way

[jennysmurf]

Walden by Thoreau. I tried, really I did.

As for several of the other books mentioned in this thread, you should try listening to them. I've listened to Rememberance of Things Past, Swann's Way, Atlas Shrugged, and several others that I couldn't get through the old fashioned way. Any time I have a long road trip by myself, I load up on books on CD from the library. P.S. I used to be a librarian.

Oh, and The Road is awesome to listen to if you get a good reader on the CD. Some readers wreck the book, but most of the time, they really bring it to life. READING IS FUNDAMENTAL!!!

[Justice4all]

Interview with the Vampire. Heard all great things about it, just couldn't finish it....it was SOOOO fucking boring.

[DolaMight]

I started writing a book entitled "angels and demons" but I left it on a park bench. when I realized where I left it, I went back and it was gone.

[guyhandsome]

Confederacy of Dunces. I think both times I started reading it I was in the middle of moving somewhere, so as I started to get settled I just dropped it. I enjoyed what I read and think of the book on occasion, so I don't know what's up. And this is coming from someone who stopped reading a Dean Koontz novel (False Memory), read like 2 or 3 books, then 6 months later picked it up and finished it.

[realmenhatelife]

Gravity's Rainbow
The Trial
2666

Wanted to like each one of these but just couldn't hang in there.


I just finished 2666- I had to take a big break in the middle of The Part about the Murders. The last part, The Part about Archimboldi, is by far the most interesting and linear. On one hand I would say I didn't like it, but on the other hand I was thinking about why the author presented the story the way he did, so I can't say it isn't successful.


The Corrections- pissed me off to no end, probably the height of my anti intellectualism/post modernism in college. I'll never go back to see what I'm missing.

[instrument]

Naked lunch, don't know how anyone can read it.

[nate1000]

Don Quixote by Cervantes. Get lost 2/3 of the way through every time.

[strawberrypop]

I never did come up with a title.

[Kublakhan61]

Naked lunch, don't know how anyone can read it.

You have to make it all the way through or it makes no sense.

Don Quixote by Cervantes. Get lost 2/3 of the way through every time.

I hope you finish it eventually - it is the height of human achievement.

I have started Tristram Shandy a few times but never seem to get very far before picking up something else. I really hope to read it someday.

[A.J.]

The Bible.

[Meataball23]

The Bible.

Talk about a preachy book. Everyones a sinner!

[Andomray]

Naked lunch, don't know how anyone can read it.

I read about 3/4 of this book before I realized I had absolutely no clue what I had just read...since the beginning.

And don't ever try to read it high.

[Furtherman]

Searider Falcon.

[KC2OSO]

I couldn't care about what happens to olde Jack. What ever happens to him by the way? I made it up to the point where's pissing off the back of a truck in the midwest someplace. I threw the book behind my desk out of frustration.

[furie]

I tried to read "Atlas Shrugged" a half dozen times at least.

Impossible.

I'm convinced there's not a soul on the planet who read the thing cover to cover.


yeah same here. I forgot that one

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[furie]

The Bible.

i'll ruin the end for you,

he comes back

[Bill From Yorktown]

Frankenstein - and it was pretty good.

As for the Bible comment - yea read most of the O.T. but back in the day I read the encyclopedia too... geek.

[KnoxHarrington]

http://www.johnnycakebooks.com/images/rainbow.gif

Gave it a try, but it's not just going to happen. And that's OK.

[hedges]

Huysmans - Against Nature

[Ritalin]

The Brothers Karamazov.

Just stopped caring.

[monkfish]

"The Sound and the Fury" - the stream of consciousness thing doesn't work for me.

[A.J.]

i'll ruin the end for you,

he comes back

E.T was based on The Bible?

[Mikemantis]

I started right a crime/mystery novel, but I am kinda embarrassed with it and never finished.

[Thebazile78]

Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby are probably the two "classics" I've never finished.

I also didn't finish The Unnameable, but I don't know if that counts as a "classic." I did enjoy it quite a bit, as it reminded me of the 'Khyaman' sections of Queen of the Damned, but I just ran out of time before the semester was out, although I didn't sell it back in the hopes I'd return to it later.

(I've also never finished either Wuthering Heights or The Scarlet Letter, but seeing as how I didn't even start them to begin with, I don't think they count.)

The most recent book I haven't been able to finish is An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England ... but that's not a classic. It's just painfully dull.

[Kevin]

i'll ruin the end for you,

he comes back

SONOVABITCH!

I was just getting to that part..

THANKS ALOT!

[shittles]

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

[keithy_19]

Swann's Way by Proust

I picked it up, and was reading it with good momentum, and then I just got tired.

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. I read 'The Rule of Four' in high school, which has to do with this book, and I decided to give it a go. My god is it a tough read. I still plan on finishing it though, mostly because who can say they read Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

[keithy_19]

Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby are probably the two "classics" I've never finished.

The most recent book I haven't been able to finish is An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England ... but that's not a classic. It's just painfully dull.

I LOVED The Great Gatsby. Probably my favorite book I read in high school.

I was considering picking up 'An Arsonist's Guide...' but after reading what you thought, I'm glad I didn't.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

A Tale of Two Cities. 3 chapters, 12 years ago. Nevermore.

[keithy_19]

A Tale of Two Cities. 3 chapters, 12 years ago. Nevermore.

They tried to get me to read that in 8th grade. Didn't happen.

[dickydean]

I tried to read "A Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy" couldn't get into it so I downloaded the MP3 and didn't get much further that way. It must be me.

[STC-Dub]

I've never been able to force myself to read Shakespeare.

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

Infinite Jest.

I know I SHOULD read it. My ex-husband BEGGED me to read it! I just read all day long and I couldn't deal with 120 pages (exaggerated) for the first foot note.

He said I'd SO APPRECIATE it and all my questions would be answered at the end. I just don't have the patience. I'm just brain dead at this point in my life.

It surprised me he got through it. THAT, and he LOVED it, tells me I should read it.

I should read it, right?

[beachbum]

The Brothers Karamazov.If after 200 pages you still haven't developed your characters or a plot line go fuck yourself.

[Crossweird]

<img src="http://www.mannythemovieguy.com/images/never_ending_story_remake.jpg">