Anyone else have a book (or books) that they want to read but just never seem to actually get around to reading? Any books you feel like you ought to read but never do?
Probably unpopular, but for me it’s classic Russian literature- War and Peace, Crime and Punishment and the like. I know they’re supposed to be amazing, but I just can’t work up the energy to read them. I think Anna Karenina soured me on Russian literature; the middle portion of that book with Levin on the farm was such a drag that I’m hesitant about the other books.
What about you?
Same here! And I’ll bet we’re not the only ones.
Joyce’s Ulysses is one. I’d started Finnegan’s Wake years ago but unfortunately never got past the first 20ish pages. Not that I couldn’t go forward, like you with Anna Karenina or me with Moby Dick (“Sorry, your honor, I just couldn’t finish it!”). I think I was distracted by something else at that point in my life.
Camus’ The Plague is another. There’re certainly hundreds of others that just don’t come to mind at the moment.
Wow…this post is making feel like a philistine!
When I was in High School, I read Ulysses purely out of spite. I got told it was a nigh incomprehensible series of Random events that seemed to not have anything to do with one another, and that there were entire college courses dedicated just to understanding what the hell Joyce was talking about.
So, I have read Ulysses, in that I have dragged my weary eyes from one end of the book to the other. Didn’t understand any of it though. I’ve tried to read Finnegan Wake like, three times; but without fail as soon as I get to the sound of Thunder a quarter of the way down the first page my brain just shuts off and refuses to let us go any further down that rabbit hole.