Your most painful/difficult reads (or emotionally draining)

[Darth Richard II]

I'll second that. I suffered through The Road and thought maybe he just wrote like that because of the futile, post apocalyptic setting, so I gave the much loved Blood Meridian a shot. I can't stand Cormac McCarthy's prose, it's turgid. Which is a shame, because a dark, brutal Western sounds like the kind of thing I'd really enjoy, otherwise.

Sir, I love you.

[Queen of Whores]

Not that the book was bad at all, but I only got through 100 pages of Bleak House before putting it down and just not continuing. It was a well written book, and some parts were mildly interesting, but most of it was such a drag to get though I found it not worth it. I hope I fair better when I finally decide to start reading War and Peace; which has been sitting on my shelf for a year and a half.

[Durckad]

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Not because it was bad or anything, but there were three reasons why this book took over a year for me to finish reading.

1) Its length. Ye gods, its length. Neal Stephenson can usually make even the most bloated, overwritten section of text fun and enjoyable to read, but Cryptonomicon tried my patience several times.

2) Lawrence Waterhouse. Unless you're really into the math, science and general processes behind cryptography, Lawrence's sections are just generally not that interesting and it's mainly because he's not that interesting as a character. Usually the other characters that he interacts with are interesting but he just isn't.

3) Many long sections of the book are dedicated to the math and science of cryptography and other subjects, topics which are waaaaay over my head (I suck at math) or are just not interesting to me.

So the book glides by on the Bobby Shaftoe and Randy Waterhouse sections and on Stephenson's writing, but when a book is as long as Cryptonomicon, that's almost not enough.

I still finished it and I'm glad I did, but I don't know if I'll ever read it again.

[Myshkin]

i'm at nemesis status on steppenwolf. notes from the underground and the stranger are tied for almost-nemesis.

What's your deal bro? You wanna fight?

[buff daddy]

The latest book that was like this for me was David Peace's Occupied City. Other Peace novels have had the stylized prose and stream-of-consiousness POVs that can take some getting used to and have passages that I've had to think about to decipher what just happened in them, but they generally will settle into a rhythym that will hook me into the story. This one was just too much for me.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Demian was pretty rough, in a want-to-carve-eyes out with a spoon kind of way, but I read it as part of a deal with a friend. I tried Atlas Shrugged but it was too boring to stick with. I remember Balzac's Maison du Chat qui Pelote, had to read for school, being pretty terrible too.

[Shryke]

Books that were painful/difficult to read, regardless of quality:

Blood Meridian - I enjoyed The Road but found this a much more annoying and painful read. Still kinda liked it, but it felt more gobbledeegoopy and full of nothing then The Road ever did. Gonna give it another try in the future.

Lord of the Rings - Reread it recently and enjoyed it more then the previous times, but still full of some truly painful to get through parts. Especially at the start. Was good overall though.

Toll the Hounds - Worst book I've read in years and by far the most painful to get through of the bad ones I can think of.

James Joyce - /wretch Seriously, fuck you Joyce.

I used to throw Great Gatsby on these kind of lists but seeing as it won't get it's second shot for another month or two, I'll withhold judgement for now.

[Frank Fitzpatrick]

The Grapes of Wrath was a hard slog for me, although I was fifteen at the time.

[me399]

gardens of the moon. still havent finished

I completely agree!! This series is PAINFUL!!!!

[nahadoth]

Wheel of Time - I'm still struggling on Lord of Chaos hoping it will get easier and you're saying the 8th book is worse...

I had to put it aside for a quick dip into Neal Stephenson, tried it again and got through about 14 pages and I've now started Bring Down the Bodies (historical fiction) hoping it might make me more keen to finish Lord of Chaos.

Id give up altogether but I feel like I've invested so much time reading the books so far that....I should finish...all that's keeping me at it really is the hope that all the characters die miserably at some point in the story cause I'm really sick of them.

[Ser Jake]

Easy. The Silmarillion. I couldn't get past the first 30 pages. I've talked to people about it and they told me to just skip the intro, which is what I'll do if I ever try to read it again. I love The Hobbit/LotR series, but I literally had no idea what the fuck was going on in The Silmarillion.

[Darth Richard II]

This thread.

[Knight of Ashes]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. It was a chore for quite a while for me but was worth it in the end.

[Ramsay B.]

Insomnia by Stephen King. I only finished it because of the connection it had with The Dark Tower series. That book fucking dragged...it was an exhausting experience.

[Datepalm]

Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn, is the only one that comes to mind. Not bad, per se, and something there pulled me through to finish it, but just tedious and long and tedious and confusing and tedious.

[Sothoryan]

Moby Dick.

*shudders*

And I know I'll be crucified for this but Slaughterhouse Five.

[Whitestripe]

Sorry, no offense intended, I was just trying to be funny. (I should probably stop.) This is just about, well, really bad books. That's a very common question, actually*. The question of books that are good but hurtful to read...that is an interesting, complicated, personal question and I don't remember talking about it before either. Oh well, different thread.

That's a much more interesting question, if you ask me.

[Kaminsod]

That's a much more interesting question, if you ask me.

For the sake of the conversation, i'll go ahead and include those.

[Night'sQueen]

I'm always surprised by other people's opinions of The Road. I read it in one sitting, staying up most of the night. Then I crawled in bed with my daughter and held her. I was deeply moved by that book.

I can't read James Joyce. I tried multiple times to read The Stand back in my Stephen King phase and couldn't get into it. I've tried Wuthering Heights a couple of times and always put it down. I don't know why I struggle with that one -- I like the genre and the Bronte sisters and feel that I *should* read that book! but I can't.

[Whitestripe]

A spin off on the books that were painful to read thread, 'cause I think it's much more interesting to talk about books that you might have enjoyed or that stuck with you, but were really difficult to read.

My son brought home Old Yeller the other day. It was a year-end gift from his teacher. He buzzed through it and said it was fantastic. I, on the other hand, nearly burst into tears just *thinking* about poor Old Yeller. I read Charlotte's Web out loud to the kids a few summers ago was sobbing though the end. Poor Charlotte. I guess I'm just a sucker for animal stories. I want to read War Horse, but don't think I can. Sapphire's Push was another book that I could not put down, but I man, was it a bummer. Same for Donald Ray Pollock's All the Devil, All the Time.