Who is the hardest read?

[MonkeyCatcher]

You're inflicting corporal punishment on a deceased ruminant ungulate! And that is akin to creating canine vocalizations in the proximity of an inappropriate deciduous connifer. However, I am sufficiently sagatious to recognize that now that you have done so, it is fruitless to grow lacrimous as a reaction to precipitously departed lactal fluid.

Ummm.. what he said..

 

[Ronny]

Conversely, I found Eco to be an easy read, once I'd settled into Foucault's Pendulum. The one I looked at, read sixty pages without a clue as to what was happening, was Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon.

Glad it wasn't just me I sat, reread, tried my hardest and it was actually the first book I gave up on.

 

[Stewart]

I sat, reread, tried my hardest and it was actually the first book I gave up on.

I was sixty pages into Gravity's Rainbow and I couldn't tell you the names of any characters if, indeed, there were any characters. All I managed to discern from an image assault was a ladder.

 

[G4G]

bluraven and libre - stop that talk now, it's giving me a headache!

 

[Stewart]

I am also one who can't stand it when writers use untranslated foreign phrases, which my favorite author (Agatha Christie) does lots with French.

Bear in mind that when Christie wrote those books back in the day, French was taught at school, and everyone would have known enough of the language to understand.

It's the world that's got thicker; not outdated authors trying harder.

 

[abecedarian]

I was sixty pages into Gravity's Rainbow and I couldn't tell you the names of any characters if, indeed, there were any characters. All I managed to discern from an image assault was a ladder.

LOL Ya know, when doing the dishes holds more allure than the book I'm supposedly reading..it's time to toss that book aside and move onto to bigger and better things

 

[clueless]

LOL Ya know, when doing the dishes holds more allure than the book I'm supposedly reading..it's time to toss that book aside and move onto to bigger and better things

I've read enough rubbish, many bad enough to put down for good, but so far I never found a book worse than doing the dishes.

 

[abecedarian]

I've read enough rubbish, many bad enough to put down for good, but so far I never found a book worse than doing the dishes.

Oh, I've seen a couple that would have been better used for dishrags
But they were rare..and I've blocked them out of my mind

 

[raffaellabella]

You're inflicting corporal punishment on a deceased ruminant ungulate! And that is akin to creating canine vocalizations in the proximity of an inappropriate deciduous connifer. However, I am sufficiently sagatious to recognize that now that you have done so, it is fruitless to grow lacrimous as a reaction to precipitously departed lacteal fluid.

Well said!

 

[Stewart]

so far I never found a book worse than doing the dishes.

Now, you have. You'd rather have pins in your eyes lest you should happen upon more of his stuff.

 

[clueless]

The point is I wouln't rather do the dishes. I would put the book in the bin and pick another one or do something else. I hate house work.

 

[Stewart]

You would lose faith in books altogether if you read that one.

 

[Ronny]

I was sixty pages into Gravity's Rainbow and I couldn't tell you the names of any characters if, indeed, there were any characters. All I managed to discern from an image assault was a ladder.

I came away with bananas, I remember it rambled on about bananas the first couple of pages.

 

[Libre]

Thanks, raffaellabella.

<<bluraven and libre - stop that talk now, it's giving me a headache! >>
CDA, I deeply regret having precipitated your cranial discomfort.

 

[ions]

To answer my own question I have to say for me, so far, James Joyce has been my hardest read. I have a copy of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man from the library and it's been a more difficult go than I am accustomed to. The language is what I'm having difficulty with I think. The words themselves are not difficult but the way he can uses them creates complex sentences to describe simple things. There's also the vernacular of the place and period that occasionally slows me down. I can usually decipher the meaning in the context but not always. Having little familiarity with the game of Cricket early parts left me scratching my gulliver. To give myself some credit life has been a persistent distraction lately making focus difficult and limiting the amount of time I have been able to read. But regardless, Joyce has been my hardest read thus far.

All that said I am enjoying the book and hope to have some quality time with it soon. Really I should put it away and try again when I can give it the respect and attention it deserves. I can see that this book would be the sort where re-reads would reveal more and more.

 

[Henning]

Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre which gave me a headache after 240 pages or so. Nausea, also by JPS, which I DID finish, but also gave me a headache. The Castle by Franz Kafka which dragged on and on and took me about two weeks to read. The Denial of the Death by Ernest Becker. Some Stories in Macho Sluts by Pat Califia.

 

[czgibson]

Joyce can be quite hard to read. When I first read A Portrait it was the Irish politics that had me baffled. ions, my offer of help with Joyce is still open, so if you've any specific questions feel free to PM me.

I've started Gravity's Rainbow a couple of times, but I haven't been able to find the time to devote the right amount of attention to it, so I tend to get lost very quickly. I've enjoyed some of Pynchon's other books, though: V and The Crying of Lot 49

The most difficult writer I've ever come across is Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Philosophy is often pretty challenging anyway, but this guy is in another league!

 

[ions]

Joyce can be quite hard to read. When I first read A Portrait it was the Irish politics that had me baffled. ions, my offer of help with Joyce is still open, so if you've any specific questions feel free to PM me.

Yeah the argument at the Christmas dinner table made me feel ignorant. My knowledge of it is simply that there's a religious disagreement that has penetrated into politics and has been going on for a long time. Thank you for the offer again czgibson. I may have a question or two for you after I've finished the book and thought about it in its entirety.

 

[Jennifer]

The thing with Joyce I think you have to remember is that sometimes, especially in Ulysses, he was deliberately trying to confuse and perplex - trying to keep the academic community guessing for years, in which he succeeded. If your copy has good notes it should tell you some of the key figures, but I think with Portrait I wouldn't worry about the politics and suchlike too much. It's a bit more crucial with Ulysses.

I'm currently doing some coursework on Portrait (voluntarily, instead of About a Boy, thank goodness) so if anyone fancies an in-depth chat or wants some comments or help or whatever I'll second czgibson's offer.

I agree it's a hard one - as said before, it's not really the words but the style. Also, to English readers, the lack of speech marks can be confusing.

 

[Rigana]

I finally got a copy of 'Dubliners' and read the first story, "The Sisters", which I would have expected to be more difficult. I'm not sure that I got all of it, but I found Faulkner a bit harder to read, mainly because of the dialect, which was very difficult to understand for me. But English isn't my native language, so it doesn't really compare, I guess..