Your most painful/difficult reads (or emotionally draining)

[Whitestripe]

I loved The Road, and yeah, the end was sad, but I found it very hopeful also.

[Zoë Sumra]

Just remembered. Among many other books, I had to read Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right at university (in translation). At the time I had a decently working brain, which basically went kaput at the sight of Hegelian dialectics - I could barely understand a paragraph. It is allegedly no better in the original German.

[Eponine]

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.

* The answer is still David Farland's Runelords. It is always Runelords.

I was thinking about this, mostly in terms of books I'd read in the last few years, and there have been a number of books that were bad but easy to read (mostly YA - short and uncomplicated writing), a smaller number that I thought were bad AND were painful to read (but Lions of Al-Rassan seems pretty universally loved here at Westeros, so is it really a bad book?), but very very few that were painful and difficult to read but also worthwhile.

I had some struggles with losing interest at the end of The Singapore Grip (J.G. Farrell) and with the length of Parallel Stories (Peter Nadas, 1152 pages), and I thought that both were good and worthwhile overall, but I wouldn't put either of them in the category of books that I had to slog and claw my way through. I would put a disclaimer on them before recommending, but only because I figure that other people also have crappy attention spans. I just find that if I think a book is good, it's not that difficult all the way through, OR there's a way to read it that makes it less difficult for me - it did take me two goes to read Ulysses, but eventually I got rolling. I broke Moby Dick into pieces instead of trying to read it for hours at a time.

If you mean hurtful like emotionally, I think that would be an entirely different topic, but it always gets mixed up with sentimentality...

[Darth Richard II]

Oh, the second um shoot hold on mind rebooting...

Right! His Dark Materials, the second book. What he did to Lyra in that book just....it infurated me to the point I still have yet to read the third. And I loved the first one.

[The Grey Wolf]

I second The Road.

Three others for me are:

And the Mountains Echoed

Godslayer

The Twelve [particularly Kittridge's story]

[The Grey Wolf]

For a college class I had to read Paradise Lost. Couldn't get past the first page without wanting to fall asleep. Another one is Falling Kingdoms. That is the first book I have ever read where I consciously realized it was bad from almost the get-go, read every other page thinking "I write better than this", and wanted to tear it in half by the end. To make matters worse I couldn't even return the bloody thing once I finished it.

[unJon]

The road bored me.

It was hard to get through Thomas covenant because I hated the character so much. Lolita is another good example of this for me , perhaps the best ever because of that.

wrong thread dude. Books of this sort are for Formerly's thread. This is fun.

[Kat]

I awkwardly merged these two threads, so perhaps reading this will count as painful, difficult or emotionally draining given the changing theme of the thread. :idea:

[Knight of Ashes]

I awkwardly merged these two threads, so perhaps reading this will count as painful, difficult or emotionally draining given the changing theme of the thread. :idea:

Oh thanks. I was looking for a proper thread where I can brag about reading the Silmarillion backwards.

[Kalbear]

Yeah, this is now a catch all for books that apparently were hard in some way for you.

As to being difficult because of boredom - got by erikson took me about two years to chew through. Outlander was also pretty slow.

[Datepalm]

I didn't mind The Road. I found it a fairly engrossing read and not particularly difficult. Bleak and depressing, sure, and with a couple of startling images, but never something that went beyond enjoyable-depressing and into being actually, personally depressing.

[red snow]

I loved The Road, and yeah, the end was sad, but I found it very hopeful also.

wow you must be "an empty glass is full" kind of person to see hope in that book. Unless you mean hope for people in terms of good nature rather than actual survival.

[Mark Antony]

I didn't mind The Road. I found it a fairly engrossing read and not particularly difficult. Bleak and depressing, sure, and with a couple of startling images, but never something that went beyond enjoyable-depressing and into being actually, personally depressing.

Exactly it probably helps I read it in one sitting idk

[OnionAhaiReborn]

Another one I'll throw in the hat is 2666 by Roberto Bolano. I really wanted to like it, and I don't even mind that it doesn't have an overarcing plot if there were interesting characters, but the whole thing just felt overly long, nonsensical and pointless.

2666 was a tough slog for me, until The Part About Archimboldi. At the point it became absolutely amazing and engrossing, imo. I think the first four sections (particular part four) took me months and the last took me a day or two. I've considered rereading just Archimboldi but I'd feel like it was cheating and maybe it wouldn't work as well without all the stuff leading up to.

Dune is the only book I've ever given up on. I mean this as distinct from having a book fall by the wayside and go unfinished, which I've done a few times, Dune is the only time I've consciously decided not to finish a book. I read a few hundred pages waiting for it to catch me and never enjoying myself. Ultimately I decided that, despite it's reputation, it just wasn't going to work for me and I couldn't drag myself through.

[The BlackBear]

Sore, I was actually contemplating reading Finnegans Wake recently, but I doubt I'm sadistic enough to push myself through it.

*Masochistic

I started reading Catch 22 didn't really like the way it was written and stopped. I struggled through Robin Hobbs Rain Wild chronicles mainly out of love for the previous trilogies, it just dragged and nothing really interesting seemed to happen, and all the characters were insufferable.

But I'd say the main book that fits the bill for me is Wuthering Heights. I've tried two times to read it, and just can't get past the start, everyone tells me it's better once the bell end at the start sods off. I will finish it eventually but not yet.

[Whitestripe]

wow you must be "an empty glass is full" kind of person to see hope in that book. Unless you mean hope for people in terms of good nature rather than actual survival.

By a little bit hopeful, I mean that the settlers found the boy. They were managing to survive and they took him in. Yes, I know that there were still marauding bands for cannibals all over the place, but I chose to believe that the good settlers will somehow overcome. There is a tiny glimmer of hope at the end, and I'm grabbing on to that.

An empty glass is full of potential, after all.... :p

[Lord Fluffy of House Puffy]

I tried to read The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb recently. I recognise that it is a good series but its just such a slog to read through for me... and i dont know why :uhoh:

[Shryke]

That reminds me actually:

Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb

Yeah, that was a painful slog. Like pulling teeth getting myself to finish that last one.

[Darth Richard II]

That reminds me actually:

Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb

Yeah, that was a painful slog. Like pulling teeth getting myself to finish that last one.

That series probably fits both. The first one I thought was great but my God, its like Robin Hobb is kicking you in the groin every 100 pages. Then the second one was eh, and my god the third one was painful.

[Night'sQueen]

I loved The Road, and yeah, the end was sad, but I found it very hopeful also.

I agree there was a hopeful note, but the overall struggle had a really visceral impact on me and I was haunted by it for quite a while after reading. Definitely one of the most moving stories I've ever read and one that really resonated with me as a parent. I haven't seen the movie. I fear it could not do the book justice.