• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Hard to read, the fiction.

Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
4,572
Reaction score
5
Let's talk difficult fiction. I tried Joyce's Ulysses a couple times, but I went soft. I tried Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, but I lost momentum rather quickly.

Please list your failures as a reader.
 

lawyerdad

Lying Dog-faced Pony Soldier
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
27,006
Reaction score
17,139
Originally Posted by denimdestroyedmylife
Let's talk difficult fiction. I tried Joyce's Ulysses a couple times, but I went soft. I tried Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, but I lost momentum rather quickly.

Please list your failures as a reader.


By your definition, Proust is one of my failures. I prefer to think of it as the better part of valor.


Vikram Seth's monstrous A Suitable Boy kicked ******. It's not difficult reading per se, just kind of overwhelming. I'm a big fan of Ulysses, but I've never come close to making it through Finnegans Wake at a go.
 

globetrotter

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
20,341
Reaction score
422
Originally Posted by dopey
Atlas Shrugged. I am not sure if that counts because I managed to get through it by skipping the monologues and don't think I missed anything.

I know there is another well known, highly regarded author that I found unreadable but I must have blocked his or her name out of my mind.


I don't think that atlas shrugged is so hard to read as poorly written.


I have read a lot of gabriel garcia marquez, but I wasn't able to read 100 years of solitude - I tried several times, just couldn't get through it.
 

lawyerdad

Lying Dog-faced Pony Soldier
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
27,006
Reaction score
17,139
Originally Posted by dopey

I know there is another well known, highly regarded author that I found unreadable but I must have blocked his or her name out of my mind.


Does it rhyme with Pantongiavanni?
 

robin

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
12,378
Reaction score
161
Dune. I don't understand why it's such a popular science fiction piece when the writing is so horrible.
Originally Posted by dopey
Atlas Shrugged. I am not sure if that counts because I managed to get through it by skipping the monologues and don't think I missed anything.
I've read it many many times, but I have not yet read all of Galt's speech at the end. I have not yet met anyone who has, and I will be suspicious of the first man who claims it.
I don't think that atlas shrugged is so hard to read as poorly written.
Rand was Russian and English was not her first language. It is no literary artpiece, but I would rate the writing quality as being better than what's put out nowadays by many native speakers.
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
4,572
Reaction score
5
Originally Posted by globetrotter
I have read a lot of gabriel garcia marquez, but I wasn't able to read 100 years of solitude - I tried several times, just couldn't get through it.
Ah, here is the best part of a thread like this: I read 100 Years of Solitude and enjoyed it. Keeping track of several generations of characters can be a challenge, I guess, especially when some share the same name, but I managed it. :brainflex:
 

globetrotter

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
20,341
Reaction score
422
Originally Posted by robin
Dune. I don't understand why it's such a popular science fiction piece when the writing is so horrible.


I've read it many many times, but I have not yet read all of Galt's speech at the end. I have not yet met anyone who has, and I will be suspicious of the first man who claims it.


Rand was Russian and English was not her first language. It is no literary artpiece, but I would rate the writing quality as being better than what's put out nowadays by many native speakers.


compare it with Conrad - Conrad was a native polish speaker, and learned English at about the same age. I don't think that language is the issue - I think that Rand was a philosopher, not a writer.

oh, and I've read Galt's speech.
 

globetrotter

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
20,341
Reaction score
422
Originally Posted by denimdestroyedmylife
Ah, here is the best part of a thread like this: I read 100 Years of Solitude and enjoyed it. Keeping track of several generations of characters can be a challenge, I guess, especially when some share the same name, but I managed it. :brainflex:

good for you - I mean that with no sarcasim. I honestly love some of his other writing, and my wife loves his writing, and I value my ablity to read and comprehend literature. it was a bitter failure for me not to be able to handle this book.
 

Tokyo Slim

In Time Out
Timed Out
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Messages
18,360
Reaction score
16
Never been able to finish Cryptonomicon.
 

robin

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
12,378
Reaction score
161
Originally Posted by globetrotter
I think that Rand was a philosopher, not a writer.
That too.
Originally Posted by globetrotter
oh, and I've read Galt's speech.
Are you a masochist or was it for a dissertation?
tounge.gif
 

Thomas

Stylish Dinosaur
Spamminator Moderator
Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
28,098
Reaction score
1,279
Originally Posted by dopey
Atlas Shrugged. I am not sure if that counts because I managed to get through it by skipping the monologues and don't think I missed anything.


Wish I'd thought of that. I just started reading the same paragraphs over and over, then I set the book down and wept.

Oh, Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky), and Green Hills of Africa (Hemingway). Stalled on those as well and haven't had the desire to look at them again.
 

Baron

Distinguished Member
Dubiously Honored
Joined
Oct 5, 2004
Messages
8,155
Reaction score
3,459
Gravity's Rainbow ground to a halt in my brain about 50 pages in. I think I could read it if I just poured myself into it without stopping over a weekend. There's a tipping point that needs to be reached with books like that. I read Absalom, Absalom! that way and it worked.
 

robin

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
12,378
Reaction score
161
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim
Never been able to finish Cryptonomicon.
I thought that was always more of a joke book - are you saying that people actually try to read it?
 

GQgeek

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Mar 4, 2002
Messages
16,568
Reaction score
84
Originally Posted by robin
Dune. I don't understand why it's such a popular science fiction piece when the writing is so horrible.


Dune is awesome and it is popular for a million different reasons, most of which are probably valid.
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 60 38.7%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 11.0%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.4%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 18.1%

Forum statistics

Threads
505,180
Messages
10,579,211
Members
223,888
Latest member
alitamartin07
Top