Most difficult book you've read?
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The Dutch translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Not because it isn't interesting, but because it's just written in shite.
Silmarillion's pretty dire. I understand what he was tying to do, but my mind rebelled.
I find passages in Steven Erikson's later Malazan Book of the Fallen stories conceptually quite hard - and thought-provoking.
I didn't have trouble with Catch-22 though, as some people seem to have. Lolita was a flat-out nasty book though.
I find passages in Steven Erikson's later Malazan Book of the Fallen stories conceptually quite hard - and thought-provoking.
I didn't have trouble with Catch-22 though, as some people seem to have. Lolita was a flat-out nasty book though.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
I know it was trying to simulate a labyrinth using words to make me feel ill at ease, but all it ended up doing was giving me a headache before the SATs.
I know it was trying to simulate a labyrinth using words to make me feel ill at ease, but all it ended up doing was giving me a headache before the SATs.
Does 'tried to read, but couldn't finish' count? That seems a logical conclusion, so I'll go with it: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Dude, Pound is awesome. Both the Cantos and Personae have afforded me many days of pleasure. Sure, I don't always know what he's going on about (then again, neither did he), but it's a lot more fun to read than most authors.RebellionXXI said:
Probably The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkein, purely because of the amount of similarly named characters who you have to remember. However I love the lord of the rings trilogy and I am reading it again now.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.
Each chapter is written from the point of view of three brothers.
The first is mentally handicapped, and the sentences run on with little, if any punctuation.
The second is prone to drifting off into reverie without warning, so the scene shifts from sentence o sentence, making things hard to follow.
The third is 'normal', and the writing is normal, but is an intensely hateful and nasty individual.
A real headache inducer all around, but I must admit I did enjoy the final chapter that rounded things up.
Each chapter is written from the point of view of three brothers.
The first is mentally handicapped, and the sentences run on with little, if any punctuation.
The second is prone to drifting off into reverie without warning, so the scene shifts from sentence o sentence, making things hard to follow.
The third is 'normal', and the writing is normal, but is an intensely hateful and nasty individual.
A real headache inducer all around, but I must admit I did enjoy the final chapter that rounded things up.
In my entire school history, I have always been able to read through and understand every book in its entirety. Even if I absolutely hated the book, I could at least appreciate the message and the literary style.
Except for Jane Eyre.
It is, to this day, even outside of school, the only book I have outright refused to finish reading. It is preachy, horribly written, and simply terrible. It's not even that it's hard to understand, it's that the book is just so God-awful that it simply defies description.
Except for Jane Eyre.
It is, to this day, even outside of school, the only book I have outright refused to finish reading. It is preachy, horribly written, and simply terrible. It's not even that it's hard to understand, it's that the book is just so God-awful that it simply defies description.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
If I had a dollar for every time that book almost made me vomit, it would still not be enough money to make up for how utterly depraved and disgusting it gets. I went through and marked out all the good bits just so I wouldn't have to read the entire book again.
If I had a dollar for every time that book almost made me vomit, it would still not be enough money to make up for how utterly depraved and disgusting it gets. I went through and marked out all the good bits just so I wouldn't have to read the entire book again.
"Heart of Darkness". I actually fell asleep while reading once. AND I JUST KEPT ON READING.
Runner-Up goes to George RR Martin's "Storm of Swords" and "Feast for Crows", because, due to the fact that 2 of my friends had finished both books and kept making me leave the room (IN MY OWN GODDAMN HOUSE) so they could talk about stuff I didn't know yet, I got really tired of it and read both books in the space of about 2(consecutive) weeks. These are both 1000-page books.
Totally worth it.
Runner-Up goes to George RR Martin's "Storm of Swords" and "Feast for Crows", because, due to the fact that 2 of my friends had finished both books and kept making me leave the room (IN MY OWN GODDAMN HOUSE) so they could talk about stuff I didn't know yet, I got really tired of it and read both books in the space of about 2(consecutive) weeks. These are both 1000-page books.
Totally worth it.
"Martín Fierro" by José Hernández is an awesome book but is written in "gauchesque" poetry and kinda hard to understand
I consider myself to be good at reading, but Franz Kafka is just torturous. I can't remember which book of his I read (something about a trial and a woman with webbed hands), but I remember finishing it and feeling like perhaps I hadn't read anything at all considering I didn't understand a single bit of it.