Most difficult book you've read?

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Pretty much anything Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy took some getting used to. It's a very complex writing style.

I know this pain. I've been attempting to finish Anna Karenina since 1997. I get a little bit further every time, though...

Same here with the Tolstoy. War and Peace was a damn struggle to finish, it was enjoyable in places but damn was it long and it kept jumping around all over the place making in very difficult to keep up with what was going on. That said I actually enjoy Dostoyevsky's books.

 

[neoontime]

David Copperfield. It was long, I didn't quite understand it at all times, kind of boring, and I had to read it 5 hours per day of it for my spring break in order to catch up on my reading assignment.

 

[Fightgarr]

Very honestly, I found Mervyn's Peak's Ghormenghast incredibly dense and difficult to read. I would read for an hour and get through 10 pages if I was lucky.

 

[CoL0sS]

The name of the rose by Umberto Eco, especially those Latin expressions and paragraphs. Never studied the language. Also it was poorly translated.

 

[FangShadow]

Jane Eyre.

Some call it a literary classic. I call it a pretentious, overwritten chore with a boring story to match.

I'm with you. I had to read Jane Eyre for my honors class. I came close to commiting seppuku so many times just to get away from it. Never again...NEVER AGAIN.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Immanuel Kant; Kritik der reinen Vernunft.

The Horror, ohh the Horror. One sentence= 53lines, 12 commas. No sense to be found.
It was back in school in philosophy class. Still my favourite subject , but damn it was tough stuff for teens.

 

[Zhadramekel]

'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse.
It's a really good book but the constant switching between two different perspectives and the whole load of French words in it make it a bit difficult.

 

[darkman80723]

Probably War and Peace. Has to read it for my Russian Literature class back in college.

 

[Evilsanta]

Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Damn that took me some time to finish though I did enjoy it.

 

[Adam Galli]

Fucking Walden! We had to read it in high school. I swear when I was reading none of it was sinking in and I actually fliped over two pages on accident and didn't notice till I got to the bottom of the page and realize I skipped a couple pages. I ended up giving up on the goddamn book.

 

[similar.squirrel]

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin.

It's one of the most important books ever written, but it is extremely dense. Still amazing, but you generally need to plan a reading session in advance.

 

[Veloxe]

My head almost exploded from all the names and "son of so and so" in The Silmarillion. Plus there were a bunch of parts that were just ridiculously boring for me to read. But I managed to get through it and now know more about the LotR universe then I ever felt I should.

 

[zHellas]

My head almost exploded from all the names and "son of so and so" in The Silmarillion.

Same happened to me when I tried reading it.

Couldn't get passed first page.

 

[The Last Hunter]

A Pattern of Islands

I liked it, but it references events which happened a century ago. Also, the writing style made me want to ram my head against the wall

 

[Jaeger_CDN]

I managed to finish Atlas Shrugged by it was a long slogg

The only book I couldn't finish (atleast initially) was the first release of the Dark Tower: Gunslinger. It wasn't until many years (and getting married to a Stephen King fan) that my wife told me to try it again with the re-editted version. I found the whole series really disjointed but managed to get through it.

 

[Mailman]

The Red Badge of Courage. I was using it in a project in elementary school. I never really got into it or understood who the main character was.

 

[MegaR]

The bible. i just didn't understood the characters motivations... nah im just kidding never read the book. im still waiting for the movie.

 

[teh_Canape]

Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo

the book is about as big as a regular manual

but it's so fucking complicated and it just takes forever to read

 

[Fusioncode9]

The Pit and the Pendulum for sure, It took me a while to even figure out what's going on...

 

[dillinger88]

Another vote for Catch 22. It's a great book and somewhat mind-fucky.

The only problem I have with it is that Heller always calls the characters by their full name all the time. Barely any he's or she's. When you've read 'Major Major Major Major' (Yes, that's a character's name) and 'Chief White Halfoat' for the 5th time on one page it can get a little tedious.