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5th June 2008, 2:06pm
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#16 | | Decaying Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: SPARTA!
Posts: 6,304
| Re: Most challenging read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by lirazel  baudrillard aye? | aye. one of the boys i went to college with was right, right into the matrix. he bought it off the back of that and gave it to me one day.
think i read about half of it before my head started to hurt and i realised i had read about 2 or 3 chapters, read the words but not really taken them in and had no idea what i was reading anymore. i think i gave up there.
also, mien kampf. | 
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5th June 2008, 2:09pm
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#17 | | 50ft Queenie
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Fascination Street
Posts: 8,467
| Re: Most challenging read?
See, I didn't find Crime and Punishment that bad... about two-thirds of the way through it got a bit tougher-going, but overall I thought it was pretty accessible. I liked The Mayor of Casterbridge too. 
I'd probably go with Mrs Dalloway. And Ulysses. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was a bit of a struggle for me as well... | |
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5th June 2008, 2:15pm
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#18 | | Sparkles!
Join Date: May 2001 Location: Near a beach
Posts: 8,336
| Re: Most challenging read?
The Hobbit, then again i was like 9 or something, and watched ALOT of telly! My dad switched the telly off, was sick of me watching too much telly and made me READ!
I think i got 10 pages in, tried to re-read most of them, got lost/bored and put the telly back on!
Although, maybe its just my attention span, it dfid get me interested in the poems at the back of the adventures of Tom Bombadil.
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5th June 2008, 2:17pm
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#19 | | Registered User Editor
Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Glasgow
Posts: 6,296
| Re: Most challenging read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowsbette See, I didn't find Crime and Punishment that bad... about two-thirds of the way through it got a bit tougher-going, but overall I thought it was pretty accessible. I liked The Mayor of Casterbridge too.
I'd probably go with Mrs Dalloway. And Ulysses. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was a bit of a struggle for me as well... | Dubliners is the only Joyce I have ever finished reading. Painful stuff, although not as painful at the one man reading of Finnegan's Wake I saw at the Edinburgh Festival a couple of years ago. Urgh. | |
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5th June 2008, 2:18pm
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#20 | | Sith Triumvir Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: RFS Ravager
Posts: 16,621
| Re: Most challenging read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tacky The Hobbit, then again i was like 9 or something, and watched ALOT of telly! My dad switched the telly off, was sick of me watching too much telly and made me READ!
I think i got 10 pages in, tried to re-read most of them, got lost/bored and put the telly back on!
Although, maybe its just my attention span, it dfid get me interested in the poems at the back of the adventures of Tom Bombadil. | Which reminds me, I've found the Silmarillion by Tolkien an absolute bitch to get through. | |
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5th June 2008, 2:20pm
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#21 | | 50ft Queenie
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Fascination Street
Posts: 8,467
| Re: Most challenging read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by triggerhappy Dubliners is the only Joyce I have ever finished reading. Painful stuff, although not as painful at the one man reading of Finnegan's Wake I saw at the Edinburgh Festival a couple of years ago. Urgh. | Why would you go to see that?!
I understand that Joyce is really important, but I don't really get how anyone can actually enjoy his books, they make you work so hard. Ulysses got a lot easier to digest when I started reading The Bloomsday Book alongside it, but I still never finished it. | |
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5th June 2008, 2:27pm
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#22 | | Registered User Editor
Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Glasgow
Posts: 6,296
| Re: Most challenging read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowsbette Why would you go to see that?! | I asked myself the same question.
It really was one of the most painfully "arty" experiences of my life: three hours long, in a 'theatre' that held fifteen people and the guy was naked by the end of it.
Not. Fun. | |
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5th June 2008, 5:32pm
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#23 | | pretty in pink
Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Circled by sharks.
Posts: 2,951
| Re: Most challenging read?
Middlemarch was fairly dull. It took me three month to force my way through it. I also started a book about medieval women about 4 years ago. I think I'm on page 45.
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Number 212. Expose the codes by which corporate meanings become our own.
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5th June 2008, 5:50pm
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#24 | | genuinely retro Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 4,753
| Re: Most challenging read?
The House with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown. In fact most 'Kailyard' literature is hard going, generally because it's so bleak and downright boring.
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5th June 2008, 5:50pm
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#25 | | Filth-kitten
Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Under a rock
Posts: 3,649
| Re: Most challenging read?
The Trial. I tend to read in the evenings/early morning and this book is not suited to a mind either winding down or waking up. Ooh, the pain, the horrible confusion!
I did finish that, however. The sixth Harry Potter book, on the other hand, has an impenetrable barrier called 'Chapter 2'. I have yet to summon up the willpower to break through it. I got the book around about when it came out.
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5th June 2008, 5:56pm
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#26 | | Shaming the Devil
Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Avenue Q
Posts: 8,605
| Re: Most challenging read?
Being and Nothingness by Sartre
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5th June 2008, 6:01pm
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#27 | | Frankly my dear.....  Editor
Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Paradise City
Posts: 11,320
| Re: Most challenging read?
Paradise Lost. I was determined to read it but deciding that in the middle of exams was stupid. I think it was the timing more than the book though.
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5th June 2008, 6:14pm
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#28 | | Shaming the Devil
Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Avenue Q
Posts: 8,605
| Re: Most challenging read?
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5th June 2008, 6:26pm
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#29 | | Lord Quas
Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Reading Rooms
Posts: 18,914
| Re: Most challenging read?
mines would be erskine childers - riddle of the sands. Read it about 3 seperate times and only ever got 3/4 of the way through. fuck knows why, its a good, interesting read but something about it always made me digress away from it. Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammer Which reminds me, I've found the Silmarillion by Tolkien an absolute bitch to get through. | yeh i did an all. No probs with LOTR or the hobbit when i was younger but tried to tackle silmarillion when i was 15 and got lost. Havent picked it up again since Quote:
Originally Posted by triggerhappy I asked myself the same question.
It really was one of the most painfully "arty" experiences of my life: three hours long, in a 'theatre' that held fifteen people and the guy was naked by the end of it.
Not. Fun. | Why didnt you just leave after 20mins when you realised it was shite? | |
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5th June 2008, 7:09pm
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#30 | | Registered User Editor
Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Glasgow
Posts: 6,296
| Re: Most challenging read?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JZY Why didnt you just leave after 20mins when you realised it was shite? | We actually couldn't - the room was tiny (capacity of fifteen people) and we would have had to walk right in front of the stage.
Also, it's incredibly rude to leave a theatre during the performance, even if it is shite. | |
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