Books you've left unfinished.

[Andy in Sig]

OT, sorry.



Can you give an example? I'm aware of the influences on the English language (it's they that make it so wonderfully flexible) but I can't honestly say that I know an "English" word!

(I'm in the process of learning French and there a staggering number of words shared by the two languages)

The man is sitting on the white horse. As far as I'm aware the root of every word in that sentence is Germanic (i.e. Norse/Anglo-Saxon).

I'm having much more trouble of thinking out a Norman French based sentence, probably because they are used to a lesser extent in everyday English but the language of the legal profession, for instance, is largely descended from Norman French (for obvious reasons). I'll have to dig out an example when I get home this evening.

Here's a bit of Anglo-Saxon (from memory): Een dag cam suþ over see een munuc.

(One day came south over sea a monk.) The þ is "th"

Uncle Mort, when you say it's less than 50%, I would hazard a guess that you a talking about the total word stock of English (which would seem like a plausible figure to me) but I believe that the 80 - 90% figure is valid for the English of everday useage.

 

[Andy in Sig]

It's not surprising that little comes from German as both German and English are descended from proto-Germanic. I'm still surprised at how low your figures are though. I'll check my sources tonight.

 

[User482]

I'm ashamed to admit that I only finished Catch 22 at the second attempt - I really grew like it after the first 100 pages!

John Irving seems to divide opinion: A Prayer For Owen Meany was possibly the most turgid prose I've ever had the misfortune to wade through. But Mrs User482 loved it.

I was once stuck in a remote Nepali village for 3 days. There was no electricity, and the only english book I could find was one by Dick Francis. Very depressing.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

If you've read one John Irving book, that's probably enough. The 'quirkiness' gets very repetitive...

 

[Andy in Sig]

I'm ashamed to admit that I only finished Catch 22 at the second attempt - I really grew like it after the first 100 pages!

John Irving seems to divide opinion: A Prayer For Owen Meany was possibly the most turgid prose I've ever had the misfortune to wade through. But Mrs User482 loved it.

I was once stuck in a remote Nepali village for 3 days. There was no electricity, and the only english book I could find was one by Dick Francis. Very depressing.

I had Owen Meany foisted on me by a girlfriend too and I thought it not very good. Maybe it's something only gels get.

 

[yello]

The man is sitting on the white horse. As far as I'm aware the root of every word in that sentence is Germanic (i.e. Norse/Anglo-Saxon).

Ah, I figured I'd misunderstood you! I thought you meant an 'English' word that wasn't Germanic nor Norman French in derivation!

 

[ChrisKH]

The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood. Far too depressing for me to be enjoyable.

The Bible. I tried but gave up on that one too.

To be fair to the Bible, it's a reference text rather than a book per se, so you wouldn't read it for pleasure. It would be a bit like reading a Thesaurus. Ditto the Koran. Or the Talmud. Or a Haynes bike manual. I think it's more likely to give devotees pleasure as part of worship since it's being read in context.

I can't read anything by Irvine Welsh. It requires too much effort.

 

[John the Monkey]

I can't recall not finishing anything in the reading I've done as an adult, although "The Double Eagle" by James Twining came close. One amazon review said it was "One Dimensional Characters in an average plot". I think that assessment overly kind.

As a kid, I failed to read Lord of the Rings (could never remember who everyone was) and "1918" (Solzhenitsyn) - my fault rather than the books', I think.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

Tolkien's 'The Silmarilion', I have read all his other Hobbit, Middle earth Lord of the Rings books, but just couldn't get my head around this one, which was set in a time of elves before hobbits et al, it was far too deep for me!

 

[User482]

If you've read one John Irving book, that's probably enough. The 'quirkiness' gets very repetitive...

I'd already come to that conclusion.

 

[mondobongo]

Foucalt's Pendulum read about 50 pages before giving up and just about grasped that someone had got themselves locked in a museum for some reason absolutely awful.

Came to the conclusion a while ago that life is too short and if a book is not interesting me to put it down and read something else plenty of good books for all out there.

I liked the Hobbit and LOTR but could not finish the Silmarillion, good name for a band though.

 

[Arch]

If you've read one John Irving book, that's probably enough. The 'quirkiness' gets very repetitive...

I think they are pretty individual. My late partner was a fan, and one in particular had him completely gripped, because some of the stuff resonated with him veru particularly. The first time I read it, it gripped me too, because of that, but I'm reading it again now and it seems a bit removed... Perhaps you have to be in the right mood.

I made it through the first of the LOTR trilogy, gave up on the second half way through...

Not yet attemped the Da Vinci Code, I'm waiting to find it for 10p in a charity shop, just to find out what all the fuss was about.

 

[John the Monkey]

Not yet attemped the Da Vinci Code, I'm waiting to find it for 10p in a charity shop, just to find out what all the fuss was about.

People seem to find it very compelling, whilst simultaneously agreeing that it's dreadful. There was a Lenny Henry thing on the radio recently where one character said as much, "..it's like badly written heroin"

 

[jonesy]

...
I liked the Hobbit and LOTR but could not finish the Silmarillion, good name for a band though.
[/COLOR]

Some more Tolkien lore for those who are being snooty about LOTR...

Tolkien's books are all completely different, so his other books are often a disappointment for those who have read the LOTR and are looking for more of the same. The Hobbit was one of his earliest books and was primarily written for children; whereas the Silmarillion is not a conventional novel at all, rather a compilation of the legends that Tolkien wrote about Middle Earth. It was actually published by his son after his death. The Children of Hurin, published quite recently, is an expanded version of one of the tales from the Silmarillion, again very different from LOTR. Not the happiest of stories either!

(Cue another pompous lecture from FM on the character failings this demonstrates... (Quite liked Marillion as well- Holidays in Eden was distinctly underrated, at least Side 2! ) )

 

[Flying_Monkey]

(Cue another pompous lecture from FM on the character failings this demonstrates... (Quite liked Marillion as well- Holidays in Eden was distinctly underrated, at least Side 2! ) )

Blimey, you think being jokingly annointed as the most spoddish on the forum and confronted with a Terry Pratchett quotation is 'pompous'... you should have paid more attention to Marillion if you want to understand just what pompous and overblown can be... Script for a Jester's Tear... I mean, honestly...

We can probably do without more details on the collected scraps from Professor Tolkien's waste paper bin...