'Life-changing' books that left you cold

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slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Absolutely anything over 350 pages. Why bother?
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
I challenge anyone to complete reading Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Eric Hofstadter

It tied my brain in knots and it languishes, unfinished, in the attic in an unopened box of books from my last house move twenty eight years ago.

I love that book!
 

Saluki

World class procrastinator
Gave up with Zen and the art of zzzzzz snoozefest
Gave up with Moby Dick too. So tedius. I got half way through Captain Corelli and was losing the will to live
King Lear
Mrs Dalloway - Woolfe. Read it at Uni. Stream of conciousness stuff is just hard work.
Dune - Frank Herbert. Didn't get that at all. Gave up.

I think that Dune, Moby Dick and Zen are the only books I have ever given up on.
Wasn't wildly keen on 1984 either.
 

winjim

Straddle the line, discord and rhyme
I love Catch 22 also and really enjoyed the sequel, Closing Time.
Catch-22 is my very favourite book. Couldn't get past the first couple of chapters of Closing Time.
 
I tried to read Portrait of the artist as a young man by James Joyce. Some humerous lines but fark knows what it was supposed to be about and I just couldn't get into it at all.:crazy:

Easyway to stop smoking by Allen Carr, I appreciate many found it really helpful, I actually agree 100% with everything he said but something about his sanctimonious style of writing really got my back up.:stop:

At the risk of upsetting many - Pride and Prejudice - excellent cure for insomnia.:tired:
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourites :ohmy:
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
Well, you're closer to the mainstream critical opinion than me. I fully acknowledge it might be my problem! :smile:

Love/hate is so subjective. Opinions can change during the course of reading a book. Midnight's Children for instance, I loved the start and hated it by the tenth page.

Godel, Escher, Bach - a great book but I don't have the mental stamina to read it to completion - I lost the will to live on my first and second attempts.
 

Poacher

Gravitationally challenged member
Location
Nottingham
I challenge anyone to complete reading Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Eric Hofstadter

It tied my brain in knots and it languishes, unfinished, in the attic in an unopened box of books from my last house move twenty eight years ago.
I enjoyed it, which is more than I can say for the follow-up, Metamagical Themas.

One of the very few books I haven't even tried to finish is Elias Canetti's Auto-da-Fé. So bloody repetitive that I gave up after about 60 pages. Normally I keep books - loads of them! - but that one went to a charity shop, and I pity the poor so-and-so who bought it.
 
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