That definitely rates as the finest novel I’ve ever read. I’ve read it twice from cover to cover, in my late teens and early thirties respectively, and could hardly bear to put it down either time - even though I was already completely familiar with the story and characters from the wonderful BBC adaptation that had me glued to the set when I was a kid (with Anthony Hopkins as Pierre Bezukov and Morag Hood as Natasha, who I fell madly in love with and held up as my paragon of feminine virtues for many years afterwards). I’d love to pick it up and read it a third time, and am sure I’d enjoy it as much as ever, though my taste in women has changed an awful lot by now.
That’s another one I never finished Expensive People. The title is great anyway.
If Freshman comp we read one of her short stories called Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been. It was very good. Dedicated to Bob Dylan.
Also, kind of related I guess, I once tried to read John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick but couldn’t retain interest.
That definitely rates as the finest novel I’ve ever read. I’ve read it twice from cover to cover, in my late teens and early thirties respectively, and could hardly bear to put it down either time - even though I was already completely familiar with the story and characters from the wonderful BBC adaptation that had me glued to the set when I was a kid (with Anthony Hopkins as Pierre Bezukov and Morag Hood as Natasha, who I fell madly in love with and held up as my paragon of feminine virtues for many years afterwards). I’d love to pick it up and read it a third time, and am sure I’d enjoy it as much as ever, though my taste in women has changed an awful lot by now.[/quote]
I also loved it, but I had to draw out a little picture of the family trees so I could keep track. I guess if you’re not turned on by history or epic stories it’s perhaps not for you.
I also get 
when people say I must read something, or that I should read it again if I didn’t like it. A particular acquaintance I know here always begins conversations with “What are you reading?”, and then usually proceeds to give his expert opinion on the biik. :raspberry:
By the way, I like the new :lovestruck: :ohreally: 
moby dick…i majored in american lit. but couldnt read it at uni…have tried since and still couldnt…800 pages chasing some dumb whale around is too much for me…good drum solo tho’
The one I just read recently is Mystic River… Don’t asked me why I can’t finished it… maybe it didn’t catch my attention???
I started some book by Eric van Lustbader, and thought it was absolutely awful. Sorry, the title escapes me.
I’m about two books behind in Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series. And I gave up and just skimmed to the end of L. Ron Hubbard’s 12-volume “Mission Earth” series. It started out pretty good, but just got worse and worse and worse. And then after the 12th volume came out, he died.
I loved “The Satanic Verses” (Rushdie), liked “Crime and Punishment” (what would it feel like to murder someone?), and liked “Lord of the Rings” and the first “Dune” (though not the sequels, which I gave up on) for their world-building. I’ve also read ALL of Shirley MacLaine’s books, some several times, and liked “Out on a Limb” and “It’s All in the Playing” best. She’s quite intelligent, though this doesn’t mean her religion is true. (“I am God!”)
Dream of the Red Chamber
I recall thinking that it wasn’t even like a book.
[quote=“chodofu”]The Bible 
Chou[/quote]
Omni wrote:
I liked that too, but The Count of Monte Cristo was better, I thought.
While traveling, I have picked up these books explaining Hinduism and as hard as I tried (with time on my hands) I could not get into them at all.
Brothers Karamazov took me nearly 5 years to read. Loved it in the end.
Lord of the Rings, still unfinished, 6 years and counting.
Books I couldnt finish…
Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum.
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Gogol, Dead Souls.
The first 2 were just too boring. The Gogol span out of control, and was abandoned somewhere in the second book.
I read the Bible, took too long to get going. Finished strongly!
Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco.
Immortality, Milan Kundera
After 2 chapters of each I realized that I’m too stupid to understand or enjoy either one.
Give me a Chinese paperback any day over Umberto Eco or Milan Kundera.
Wow! I couldn’t finish Foucault’s Pendulum either!
Other books I’ve ‘accidently’ left behind on a table…
Soul Mountain
Guns, Germs and Steel
The Holy Bible.
1984 by George Orwell - when I was at school.
Read exactly half of it - and then stopped. I will finish it someday…
I hate to say it, but I could only get halfway through the Lord of the Rings trilogy despite several attempts over the past two decades to read it. I always get to about the same spot – halfway through the Two Towers, about where Frodo departs his gang on the boat – put it down, and then by the time I think about getting back to it a few weeks later, feel that I’ve forgotten too much in the interim to continue where I left off. I absolutely adore the Hobbit … I’ve read that at least a half dozen times … but feel that the length and complexity of the LOTR tale does not lend itself to spotty adult reading habits.
And no, I have not seen the LOTR movies. Should I forget about the books, and take the easy way out?
Any book that wasn’t assigned for school.
I admit it, I’m the only honest person here - I don’t read. It’s boring. We’ve got TV and the internet to keep us entertained now. Story books are for kids.
I forced myself to finish “The Da-Vinci Code,” didn’t see what everyone was raving about. Some one gave me the prequel “Demons and Angels” it has been three weeks and I am still stuck on the fourth chapter and have finished four other books since picking it up.
I also never finished LOTR. Yet I’ve read the hobbit a number of times. I have seen the Lord of The RIngs movies and probably couldn’t tell you what happened after viewing them except the ending appeared to have homoerotic undertones.
I loved it!!
War and Peace (I think I was 15 and thinking it would would be nice to have read soomething clever) August 1914, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, which was good but slow and eventually too much(will have to try again though. A day in the life… was really good), and any of the books on my philosophy degree reading list.