Which Books Have You Started But Never Finished

[Canary42]

I'm currently reading No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy (Mark Hodkinson's memoirs of a working class reader) and the author mentions reading Thomas Hardy's works successfully, but being unable to get through Thackeray's Vanity Fair .

I've been there with both those experiences. It got me to thinking of the few other books Which I've never been able to stick through to the end. These are :-

◊ War and Peace (but managed Anna Karenina) - also managed Dostoevsky's
Crime & Punishment

◊ Vanity Fair

◊ Far From the Madding Crowd (but managed Jude the Obscure)

◊ Middlemarch (but managed Scenes of Clerical Life)

I've added books in brackets which I've coped with, in order to show it's not necessarily the author/genre causing my reader's block.

So, let's be hearing similar "blocks", i.e. books you started but never reached the end. Hopefully it will be an interesting and entertaining thread on Aber's literary tastes.

P.S. 50 Shades of Grey was another, but that's understandable it was so appallingly written.

[naomi24]

DTC, you may well be surprised - but your suggestions are a start. ;o)

[ToraToraTora]

Stargazer 16:21, TCOM, try Stephen Fry's version, it's called "Revenge" - started slow but once it got going I couldn't put it down. It's basically the same story but in a modern setting.

[Lie-in King]

"A Game of Thrones" - oh, I tried. Not been able to see the TV series either, though I think I might be able to follow all the names a little better there.

"The Eye of the World" - 1st in the "Wheel of Time" (Robert Jordan) series. Again, I seem to remember too many names, too much description, not enough dialogue. I may go back to try again. I've watched the new series on Prime & thoroughly enjoyed it.

[barry1010]

Has anyone read Voltaire's Candide? I've tried several times but just can't manage it.

[Spicerack]

No, Naomi. I pretty much stopped reading books once I *discovered computers. *( not making out I invented them or anything)
Must have wept over all of Thomas Hardy's novels at least twice.
Don't tell them boys on the site, mind.

[naomi24]

No problem. Your secret is safe with me. ;o)

[Ken4155]

^
It's ok, Spice, we're not listening. :-J

[Ken4155]

LIK, i read all of the Song Of Fire And Ice (GOT) books. A friend of mine leant them to me, after he had read each one. He also enthused about the series and i was able to watch the initial series of GOT before i read the first book, so i found it quite easy to follow. Had i not seen the series, i may have had some trouble getting into it.

[Rosetta]

any Thomas Hardy & There's something about Kevin , others I cant remember at the moment that were so boring. I haven't been reading as much as normal, but I m trying to read , then chuck, books sitting on my book shelves. I hate chucking books out so it is taking some will power.

[Canary42]

Yes Barry to Candide . With foreign language books of course, they get overlaid by the translator's views. I enjoyed the version I read - the satirical way his naivety was slowly destroyed by harsh reality.

[Canary42]

Just an addendum to explain the title of the book in the OP. It comes from an anecdote in the book of when the author was a lad. He was quite keen on looking round second hand bookshops and was visiting one in a working class area run by a grumpy old man who was a member of the kids are bound to be up to no good brigade. The lad had a list of "must reads" that a serious-reader friend had given him to look out for him, and it included some Tolstoy. When grumpy demanded to see the list he came out with that wonderful phrase "Nobody Round Here Reads Tolstoy".

[Old_Geezer]

Finnan's Wake
Anna Katrina

[Captain2]

Anything by Tolkien, just couldn't/can't get into them at all.
A Thousand Splendid Suns, not for me.

Took me 18 months, on and off, to read War and Peace, glad I persevered and read it but what a slog.

[Canary42]

/// A Thousand Splendid Suns, not for me.///

Same here. My (twin) brother enthusiastically recommended it but I just can't get into it.

[Captain2]

If you like your Russian literature, I can recommend The Queen of Spades by Pushkin. Only a short story but an excellent read.

[Arksided]

Brave new world, Aldus Huxley. It’s still in my bookshelf, three quarters through but something else seems to crop up.

[piggynose]

i´ve read the count of monte cristo several times, war+peace once (only cuz i saw it on liver birds) several other classics, But i cant get past the 1st page of the Scarlett Letter!!!!! and i have tried countless times!!

[vulcan42]

Thoroughly enjoyed Three men on a boat by Jerome K Jerome but its sequel, Three men on the bummel was most disappointing and not finished. I think the river Thames itself added to the first book but cycling through the Black forest didn't create the same interest.

[jno]

I don't read fiction any more, but in my early days I once worked for two years without a break, then told my boss I needed a holiday, bought War and Peace and read it while I stayed with a friend (taking some time off to help him reroof). It was just after the TV series with Anthony Hopkins; if that hadn't inspired me I mightn't have done it.