Most difficult book you've read?
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And the entire series after that....I think partly I picked it up first time a little too young, at around 13 and also the depth of the material and the protagonist's action and reasoning's...One of the few books I physically had to put down and say no....I'm not going on with this yet
Still one of the best things I've read currently working my way through it again books 1 - 9 as I just got 9....but I had to work my way up to it via Raymond E Fiest's latest 2, the entire wheel of time, oh and Game of Thrones....it's not the kinda series you plunge into after not heavily reading for 6 months or so
And the entire series after that....I think partly I picked it up first time a little too young, at around 13 and also the depth of the material and the protagonist's action and reasoning's...One of the few books I physically had to put down and say no....I'm not going on with this yet
Still one of the best things I've read currently working my way through it again books 1 - 9 as I just got 9....but I had to work my way up to it via Raymond E Fiest's latest 2, the entire wheel of time, oh and Game of Thrones....it's not the kinda series you plunge into after not heavily reading for 6 months or so
War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy
Nitpick: The first few pages has you learn a lot of names.
Also: Dante's Divine Comedy.
Best/hardest book I finished:
God is not Great. How Religion Poisons everything. By Christopher Hitchens
Nitpick: The first few pages has you learn a lot of names.
Also: Dante's Divine Comedy.
Best/hardest book I finished:
God is not Great. How Religion Poisons everything. By Christopher Hitchens
That really depends on the translation. The one by Henry Francis Cary is the oldest (and it's the one you'll find online, for free) but it's absolutely horrible and the Christian Church took this translation to enter some motivations of their own in the story. Not good.Gaiseric said:
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was just so mind-numbingly tedious. The most boring, godawful book I've ever read.
I dunno, I've never had any books that i've found difficult to read, I've always loved reading and had a fairly wide lexicon, the only book that's difficult to read would clockwork orange, and that's only because you have to keep flicking back and forth between the page and the slang glossary..ugh.
On LOTR, I read it when I was 9, and it wasn't too difficult, but thinking back on it now, it was in DIRE need of an editor, christ tolken can talk alot but never actually say anything.
On LOTR, I read it when I was 9, and it wasn't too difficult, but thinking back on it now, it was in DIRE need of an editor, christ tolken can talk alot but never actually say anything.
A English translation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At first it's not so bad, but in the translation I read each character had at least 2 or 3 different names (usually a common mans name, a family name and a respected name) which when a single character could be refereed to by all three names on one page made it rather difficult.
After seeing many recommendations for George RR Martin's "Song of Ice & Fire" series, I picked up the first book "A Game of Thrones". However despite my best efforts I couldn't make it beyond 1/5th of the story before giving up. There wasn't a single remotely likable character and in many cases someone is introduced and within no time at all is engaged in murder, rape or incest.
I'm not timid and have no problem with seeing the protagonists faced with the most dire of adversity, but there are limits. A Game of Thrones was simply full of despicable characters performing disgusting deeds for too damn long without any sign of anything fun, interesting, heroic, epic or worthwhile. Perhaps it really does live up to the sterling reviews it's garnered had I made it any further...but I'll never know
I'm not timid and have no problem with seeing the protagonists faced with the most dire of adversity, but there are limits. A Game of Thrones was simply full of despicable characters performing disgusting deeds for too damn long without any sign of anything fun, interesting, heroic, epic or worthwhile. Perhaps it really does live up to the sterling reviews it's garnered had I made it any further...but I'll never know
In all 28 years of my life I still can't bring myself to get past the Tom Bombadil part, and I've trudged through Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and for some god-forsaken reason i've even gotten through Beowulf in Old English, but Tolkien? Fucker gets me every timemParadox said:
It's gets slightly better, but not by muchKingsGambit said:After seeing many recommendations for George RR Martin's "Song of Ice & Fire" series, I picked up the first book "A Game of Thrones". However despite my best efforts I couldn't make it beyond 1/5th of the story before giving up. There wasn't a single remotely likable character and in many cases someone is introduced and within no time at all is engaged in murder, rape or incest.
I'm not timid and have no problem with seeing the protagonists faced with the most dire of adversity, but there are limits. A Game of Thrones was simply full of despicable characters performing disgusting deeds for too damn long without any sign of anything fun, interesting, heroic, epic or worthwhile. Perhaps it really does live up to the sterling reviews it's garnered had I made it any further...but I'll never know
This reminds me of The Grass Crown, an in-depth and possibly needlessly detailed tracking of the beginning of the fall of Rome. Every character had at least two names, most of the men had three, and the best part was that like the respect rules the Japanese use when addressing each other, everyone seemed to call the same person by a different order of their names, depending on their status and relationship. I got so damn confused when one character was called 5 different permutations of his goddamn name by 5 different people. I wanted to put that book through a shredder.ImpofthePerverse said: