Books you had a hard time reading

I was assigned All Quiet on the Western Front in high school, and though I didn't particularly dislike the story or the characters, I just couldn't get over the fact that it was written in the present tense. I didn't think that it would be a problem, but it made it so difficult to read that I gave up really early in. The other book that springs to mind is Heart of Darkness. I remember reading the first part, then reading the Sparknotes for the first part to see what I missed, and I realized that I had missed about half of everything that had happened (major plot points included). I decided that reading the Sparknotes would be a more productive use of my time than reading the actual book, so i did that.

 

I struggled through Dickens' Bleak House, and I wasn't even reading it, it was an audiobook. It still took me ages to get through. I also had a hard time reading Tad Williams' To Green Angel Tower, which is one of the largest doorstopper novels in fantasy (and those of you who read fantasy know that that's saying something). In the realm of nonfiction, two of my books for philosophy class were very difficult: Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed and Paul Ricoeur's Symbolism of Evil.

 

i had to read the scarlet letter for school... I only made it through that book because my mom forced me to stay in my room and read the book.

 

Night by Elie Wiesel. I understand the historical and cultural importance of it, but I absolutely hated reading it. A teacher shoved it down my throat, or else I would have ran away screaming.

A teacher rushed me through 1984 and thus I could never really get into it.

The Great Gatsby. Probably the same issue as above.

The Plague Dogs... I just could never get attatched to the main characters, strangely enough.

I got about 40 pages into Twilight, but the main character was boring. First person boring, no less.


But, by FAR the WORST book I have ever read... Heaven't Net is Wide. I got to the end and wanted to go on a murderous rampage.

 

I tried reading the first Harry Potter book, but I gave up pretty quickly.

After watching the first movie, I decided I would read the second book and see if it was any better. I managed to finish it, but it wasn't very enjoyable. There is something wrong about her writing style that I can't quite place.

 

A Tale of Two Cities, Lord of the Flies and The Grapes of Wrath. Of course this was during school, so it was more like homework. I reread LoF after I graduated and still couldn't get into it. I also read GoW after graduating, but I loved it then. I'm not even going to try on that Dickens book...:lol:

---------- Post added 29th Dec 2011 at 06:13 PM ----------

And this. ^

 

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind.

Because it sucked.

 

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

 

I had to read a book for my history lecture my sophomore year that I can't remember the name of now, but it was so awful. It was about immigrants during the 19th century and in the first chapter the protagonist mercilessly beats his wife and kids before he goes to work. It was hard to keep reading after that. And I had a hard time reading all of the books we were assigned in my Creative Writing and Literature class solely because I can't stand westerns. Willa Cather puts me to sleep. The Professor's House has got to be one of the most dreary novels I have ever read.

 

Catcher in the Rye- Took me sooooo long to get through.
Truce at Bakura- a Star Wars book of 300 pages that only gets interesting at 200 :dry:

 

The Sound and the Fury
The Grapes of Wrath

I just found both of them incredibely boring (probably since they were assigned in school)

Hatchet - I was supposed to read this in 4th grade but I just couldn't. All the main character does is drink water and throw up...my friend and I actually went and asked the teacher if we could stop reading it and thankfully she said yes (it was the end of the year)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - The first time I tried reading this (I don't remember how old I was) I found it boring and stopped. I tried it again like a year later and loved it...so idk

 

I enjoyed all of two books I've been assigned through school, three now, and thats out of many many books. I enjoyed Lord of the Flies (to the point I bought my own copy) Tomorrow When the War Began (duh! John Marsden!) and we're about to start studying Snow Falling on Cedars, which I found hard to get into at first but now love. Other than that... the Machine Gunners was the worst of the books I had to read at school.

 

I found Lord of the Rings...dry for some reason.

 

They're traveling through the woods.... They're traveling through the woods... Oh no something got them... Oh wait they got away.... They're traveling through the woods...

I just explained the entire first half of the first book. Really.

 

Yeah, thats how I saw it too lol. It was just too flowery and hard to read. The Hobbit, on the other hand, was brilliant.

 

Really?! The Hobbit did NOTHING for me. I liked the trilogy once I got through the first book. Granted, I read The Hobbit a loooong time ago (early middle school) but I actually can't remember much about it other than I was really unimpressed. I remember not liking Bilbo. Other than that I remember it being unmemorable!

 

While I really enjoyed reading Lord Of The Rings, I found The Simarillion to be a very hard read...

 

No way! I loved The Hobbit and have re-read it several times. My favorite part is definitely the battle of riddles

"A box without hinges, key or a lid. Yet golden treasure inside is hid."
"Alive without breath, as cold as death, never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail, never clinking."

Is it sad that I have some of those memorized xD