Ser Arys Redshirt Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 The Silmarillion should not be undertaken when one is 14 years old, from my personal experience. You can get through the Hobbit and the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy at that age, but then.... it's like reading the Bible in Elvish. Seriously beyond the young-adult category. Also, don't read v. by Thomas Pynchon unless you are a total masochist. Finnegans Wake was easier than that shit. You need lots of drugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myshkin Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Also, don't read v. by Thomas Pynchon unless you are a total masochist. Finnegans Wake was easier than that shit. You need lots of drugs. Or do read V. by Thomas Pynchon. It's difficult, but well worth it if you're willing to put in the work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordStoneheart Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 The Silmarillion should not be undertaken when one is 14 years old, from my personal experience. You can get through the Hobbit and the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy at that age I read the LotR when I was eleven and again when I was fifteen... soooo much things I didn't pick up on the first time around though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Ha, yeah, I read The Silmarillion in...6th grade? and was like WHAT IS THIS POOP. Now I want to marry it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoë Sumra Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 :D I read The Silmarillion for the first time when I was eight. A fair bit of it went over my head but I loved it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowborn Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I read the Silmarillion when I was 12 and loved it. :lol: Emotionally draining books: Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Memories of Ice. Books that were painfully dull/whatever: The Handmaid's Tale, Rebecca, The Name of the Wind, The House on Mango Street, a book from an Argentinian author called Juvenilia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Arys Redshirt Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Ah, Myshkin, I see you are also a fan of Books that Hurt. Are you by any chance a Neal Stephenson fan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerolunar Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 LotR. Read it happily when I was younger, but when I got back to re-reading it, I could not keep up the attention due to all the boring descriptions of landscapes. Well written, sure, but not something that I would like to go through again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight of Ashes Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 The Name of the Wind was emotionally draining for me if only 'cause of that scene where Quothe stepped off roof 'cause he thought he was being clever. How I laughed until I cried.Otherwise I spent a good part of that book rolling my eyes. In fact, that scene where Quothe and whatsername put on accents on the spot to show how extraordinarily clever they were almost made them roll all the way back.That was painful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Grey Wolf Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Just remembered another book that was painfully boring to read in my last year of high school. The Stranger by Albert Camus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone Star Pate Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Push by Sapphire and Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby. Harrowing stuff to read through mainly because of how close it is to describing the depths of social depravity and how miserable existence can be.. I'm finally reading Blood Meridian and it's no stroll in the park. It's so well written that I can't put it down. With regards to difficulty in following the actual story, I read The Sound and The Fury as a personal project since we skipped over it in my high school curriculum. It was tough to make out the points of view and follow the different family members throughout. I've read it about four times now and I'm sure there are aspects of it that I haven't fully grasped yet. I read Infinite Jest over a summer and it took me the better part of those three months to finish. I'd love to go back and tackle it again but there's other David Foster Wallace novels I've been meaning to get into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Kafka Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Kafka. The Trial. Horrible memories, it's still lurking in my bookshelf. Actually, I found this to be an excellent book. A bit weird, perhaps, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only book I can think of at the moment which I found unbearable was Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Pretentious, wordy, off-putting. Didn't finish it. As for emotionally draining, then I'd actually have to go for ASOIAF, especially the Red Wedding scenes. I genuinely couldn't bring myself to carry on for a while after that. That really had an impact. I suppose Ned's beheading would also have had the same impact, however I had seen the first season before reading the book which took the edge off a bit. I went to a Welsh language school and some of the Welsh books we had to read were truly boring. Also didn't particularly like reading Shakespeare and I haven't attempted to re-read him since. Perhaps I should. (Hello all, by the way!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Kafka Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Right now, Eye of the World, the first of the Wheel of TIme novels by Robert Jordan. I've read like a chapter a night for a couple nights, but it's slow going and I can't seem to get interested. Right now the only thing that's keeping me interested is the idea that at some point it will become interesting. After all this series and author is immensely popular, classics even? Must be something to it? Maybe, just maybe I've been spoiled by gritty fantasy by Abercrombie and Martin and Bakker even. Nowadays I need my fantasy characters to have terrible flaws, grey morality, and rape demons. WOT seems to cause a bit of a rift. Love it or hate it? I bought the first book and intend on starting it soon. Will keep an open mind, however I hope I make my mind up on this series soon-ish; it'll be a costly investment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clueless Northman Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Foucault's Pendulum was quite good, imho, but only once you've suffered through the utterly pointless first third, which brings close to nothing to the story and is just about the protagonists' past stuff, students' antics, annoying romantic life and random occult attempts. Once it goes full conspiracy theory, it definitely improves. Then of course, it's Eco, so there's a lot of showing off throughout the novel :D Just remembered another book that was painfully boring to read in my last year of high school. The Stranger by Albert Camus.It isn't even 200 pages long. Might be boring, but at least it's a quick read. There are 600-pages long books that are boring and long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adara Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Actually, I found this to be an excellent book. A bit weird, perhaps, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only book I can think of at the moment which I found unbearable was Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Pretentious, wordy, off-putting. Didn't finish it. ... (Hello all, by the way!) Vice versa for me, I really enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum (after I forced myself through the first 50 pages :D). Perhaps you should give it another try. Welcome to the Forums :cheers: Foucault's Pendulum was quite good, imho, but only once you've suffered through the utterly pointless first third, which brings close to nothing to the story and is just about the protagonists' past stuff, students' antics, annoying romantic life and random occult attempts. Once it goes full conspiracy theory, it definitely improves. Then of course, it's Eco, so there's a lot of showing off throughout the novel :D It isn't even 200 pages long. Might be boring, but at least it's a quick read. There are 600-pages long books that are boring and long. This :thumbsup: Still makes me grin when somebody talks about a laundry list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Kafka Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Yeah, I think I gave up on FP around page 35. :lol: I'll give it another go when I have time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eponine Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is making me cringe. It's really hard to read the casual sexism that comes out of the mouths of the characters. I've had arguments here before about whether having main characters saying sexist things reveals sexism on the part of the author. It's not a given, I guess. But it is painful to see the main character over and over imply that women are less smart, less rational, and the words "feminine intuition" make me want to vomit, and this isn't called out or even addressed at all that this isn't totally normal thinking. Now, there is an aspect where it's addressed that in the setting of the book, women are approached differently in the culture, but it seems to be resolved by the "exceptional female" - you know it's not sexist if you have a female character who isn't weak and dumb like other women, right? And oh the mansplaining. Complete with the starter, "now honey..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durckad Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Considering that sort of stuff was in both the Heinlein books I've read, I think that's an aspect of authorial voice creeping in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Grey Wolf Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 It isn't even 200 pages long. Might be boring, but at least it's a quick read. There are 600-pages long books that are boring and long. Thankfully, I haven't read any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galactus Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 RE: Dickens and Pacing Dickens wrote for serials, so if the pacing is off when the thing is collected into a single novel it's probably becuase it was intended to be read in chunks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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