Books you've left unfinished.

[jonesy]

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...
..

I agree- Fish was indeed a master of pomposity! I'm sure you'd agree that pomposity does have its place however...

 

[atbman]

No-one has mentioned Salman Rushdie. I tried reading Satanic Verses and thought "This bloke writes extraordinarily good English - why does it bore me rigid?"

Reached page 48 IIRC. I've had the same reaction to extracts from a couple of his other books in the Sunday Times. Brilliantly boring.

 

[mr_hippo]

John Buchan's 'Thirty-Nine Steps' - read that for my mock 'O'-levels. Could not get into it at all. Tried watching the films years later - the Robert Donat version and the Robert Powell version but fell asleep every time. I did manage to watch the Robert Powell version a few months before I came out here - I taped it but it took me four attempts!
Stephen King's 'IT' - up to page 100 a few times before giving in.

 

[Abitrary]

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.

That's a good example of a book written around an amusing idea but with no plot.

I loved it until the ridiculous, forced, incongruous denouement. I've never seen the last few pages of a book ruin what might have been excellent like with this.

 

[Abitrary]

No-one has mentioned Salman Rushdie. I tried reading Satanic Verses and thought "This bloke writes extraordinarily good English - why does it bore me rigid?"

I got about that far as well. Yep, very good prose, but just whiffed a bit toooooo much of 'clever-clever'.

 

[Abitrary]

I did 'O' and 'A' level English Lit btw. Oh and studied it at degree level. There's nothing so off putting than being told that you have to read some dire old pile of tripe and that it is a classic, no argument allowed. Left to my own devices I'd have avoided the whole miserable lot of them, as it is I have a positively volcanic loathing of pretty much anything that you can turn into a costume drama.

Very true. The only thing that saved classic English Literature was..................

American literature.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Now you're just being provocative Arbitrary aren't you? I can't recall a single work of contemporary American fiction which I've read (and admittedly they've been few) where the author impressed me as being able to write as opposed to jotting down colloquial ramblings. That's not actually a criticism in that I suppose US literature is developing a flavour of its own (some sort of culture had to develop in that country at some point I suppose). It's just that in general I find American literature ... well, naff.

 

[Andy in Sig]

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

If you were a woman one could legitimately at that point loudly proclaim "burn the witch".

mjones is right in his observations on the different styles of Tolkein's books. The trick I would recommend to most with the Silmarillion is to skip the first bit as it is a very heavy creation myth (but still more fun than that Bible bollocks). The latest one The Children of Hurin is a serious heavy tragedy and would IMO be worthy of Shakespeare or even some gloomy Scandanavian making a film of it. Definitely a good bit of literature and worth having a go at.

 

[rich p]

Now you're just being provocative Arbitrary aren't you? I can't recall a single work of contemporary American fiction which I've read (and admittedly they've been few) where the author impressed me as being able to write as opposed to jotting down colloquial ramblings. That's not actually a criticism in that I suppose US literature is developing a flavour of its own (some sort of culture had to develop in that country at some point I suppose). It's just that in general I find American literature ... well, naff.

William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Hemingway, Richard Ford, Harper Lee to name but 5!

Light in August, Player Piano, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sportswriter, To Kill a Mockingbird!

Discuss!!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Hemingway, Richard Ford, Harper Lee to name but 5!

Light in August, Player Piano, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sportswriter, To Kill a Mockingbird!

Discuss!!

Never mind Carson McCullers, Peter Matthiessen, Jack Kerouac, Phillip Roth, Dave Eggers...

Peter M's Everglades trilogy of Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man's River and Bone by Bone, I think is the great American novel sequence.

 

[mr Mag00]

I think book 9 or 10 or Robert Jordan's ' wheel of time' saga, I cannot remember. having struggled through all the others and with only 2 left it was just so so tedious. a classic fantasy novel where 3/4 of the book is descriptive character building, the other titles were ok but my god it went on and on!! maybe one day to will return to it

 

[Flying_Monkey]

mjones is right in his observations on the different styles of Tolkein's books. QUOTE]

I know, I've read them all. Several times... when I was a teenager. Then I grew up. I still think they are interesting achievements (The Silmarillion was actually my favourite by some distance because it is the only one that approaches the mythic nature of the source material) but they are basically hoary old bollocks, and the all the recent 'new' books are post-mortum recreations designed to squeeze more cash from the gullible. His translation of Gawain and the Green Knight is much better than anything original he wrote.

 

[User482]

mjones is right in his observations on the different styles of Tolkein's books. QUOTE]

I know, I've read them all. Several times... when I was a teenager. Then I grew up. I still think they are interesting achievements (The Silmarillion was actually my favourite by some distance because it is the only one that approaches the mythic nature of the source material) but they are basically hoary old bollocks, and the all the recent 'new' books are post-mortum recreations designed to squeeze more cash from the gullible. His translation of Gawain and the Green Knight is much better than anything original he wrote.

I think that's a bit harsh on Tolkein. I loved LOTR, but I think it can suffer from a backlash against those who take it a bit too seriously. It's interesting that this backlash intensified when the films came out (a.k.a lots of people have read/ seen it so it can't be any good).

 

[User482]

Speaking of modern American classics, I don't get F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby did nothing for me. Can anyone explain why its so revered?

 

[Chuffy]

Speaking of modern American classics, I don't get F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby did nothing for me. Can anyone explain why its so revered?

Er, no. It's rubbish.