Most difficult book you've read?

[Void(null)]

I have this theory that there are no difficult books, just bad authors.

 

[Drop_D-Bombshell]

Dan Brown Angels and Demons. I still get confused on most of the parts with the science company.

 

[subtlefuge]

As much as I absolutely love the Song of Ice and Fire series, they are huge and depressing, and hugely depressing.

It's tough, but worth it to read them all though.

 

[PlayingOpossum]

Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. It's a linguistic jigsaw puzzle. You know how watching a movie in 3D can give people headaches? It's like that.

 

[Hlain]

Thus spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
It was a pretty old translation, and the book itself isn't easy to begin with.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

The Lord of the Rings just trudged on, and on, and on.
It was a difficult read at the time, when I was eleven or twelve years old.

Agreed. I got through Fellowship after a couple of tries. Two Towers had me stuck for a few years before I could get past that one. I remember finishing Return of the King and being very disappointed. Those books, especially Two Towers, were just huge, meandering, pieces of literature.

 

[Mouse One]

The most difficult books are the ones I couldn't finish, I suppose. But to quote an ex-girlfriend of mine, "it's not me, it's you".

Best most difficult book, as in I was compelled to read it despite twisting my brain around, was for me The Waves by Woolf. She wrote like Joyce should have written.

 

[BleedingPride]

most difficult book ive TRIED to read is a russian dictionary... dont ask why

 

[emeraldrafael]

The Talisman by Stephen King. My dad wanted me to read the book, but I kept putting it down for months at a time. He eventually forced me to finish it, and I gotta say, it was worth it.

I find no book is worth reading when its forced.

Charles Dickson's Oliver Twist, cause I read it and didnt want to. I more or less just read it so I could see waht the hype was about.

 

[Tulks]

Foucault's The Order of Things and Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation both took me a couple of attempts to finish, yet neither are particularly long. By contrast, I found War and Peace fairly easy-going during my commute to Uni, and re-read Hobbit/LotR/Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales in their entirety several times (just before each of the films released... what an almighty geek).

 

[L4WLI3T]

When I was in 5'th grade i read all the Dark Materials books... (Golden compass, Subtle Knife, Amber Spyglass) And I had a lot of trouble. but I finished them, in two weeks.

 

[Brandon237]

The Lord of the Rings just trudged on, and on, and on.
It was a difficult read at the time, when I was eleven or twelve years old.

Same on every point, although I may have been more towards 13. Damnit that thing was a pain, I happened to get the 3 in 1 book too. So many pages! 998! And I read the prologue... too long.

 

[Hlain]

Thus spoke Zarathustra and In search of lost time

Good books both of them, but rather difficult language and slow pace.

 

[teqrevisited]

I read through The Hobbit & LoTR in anticipation for the release of the films. After I finished them I found The Silmarillion. Fuck that book. It is honestly the most confusing piece of literature I have never finished.

My hat goes off to anyone who had the patience to finish it.

 

[dlsevern]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, the footnotes were killing me.