Valkyrja Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Roughly translated; "The Tale of the Norwegian Kings" by Snorre Sturlason... Written some time before year 1400 (not sure which century), it's really heavy stuff. I'll take it up again soon though, as I have a thing for Norwegian history. I assume you are talking about the Heimskringla? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falagar Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Snorre put it together 'round the middle of the 13th century, iirc. Not the most...accessible reading, but parts of it is actually pretty fun. (especially liked the saga of Olaf Tryggvason - not too long and a great ending) Crime and Punishment- got about halfway through before the library reclaimed it. Will probably go back one day, but was a bit...uneven. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - about 2/3s through here, but definitely not going back. Why she needed 1000 pages+ to reinforce a point she made in the first few pages is beyond me, the world is a bit too depressive and none of the characters even remotely likable. To Green Angel Tower part 2 by Tad Williams - dragged myself through the previous three, but just couldn't find the strength to start this one. Lost most of the interest by this point, far too winding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 "Gone With the Wind". I read the first 800 pages before I had to return it to the library... I should have burned it instead! Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite books! I've read it several times and was just thinking about reading it again. The sequel, however, was written by a different author and can be added to the short list of books I have started and not finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastia Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite books! I've read it several times and was just thinking about reading it again. The sequel, however, was written by a different author and can be added to the short list of books I have started and not finished. You didn't miss anything. I made myself finish it and it didn't get any better. Gone with the Wind is one of my favorites as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nymeria87 Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence...it's a stupid teenage boo, but it was just creeping me out, too many bad Tschernobyll associations I think, blah Sword of Truth 4 - Temple of the Winds by Terry "Tairy" Goodkind...well anyone who's read all those threads know why...I simply couldn't bear it any longer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multaniette Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Way too many books. The most prominent in memory is Crime and Punishment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrja Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Sword of Truth 4 - Temple of the Winds by Terry "Tairy" Goodkind...well anyone who's read all those threads know why...I simply couldn't bear it any longer... Hey, that's when I quit too! (Should have stopped sooner of course, but ah well....I was young and foolish. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nymeria87 Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Hey, that's when I quit too! (Should have stopped sooner of course, but ah well....I was young and foolish. ) I so know that feeling...worst thing is my fiance does still need to be convinced of just HOW bad it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsy Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 The Silmarillion by Tolkien I statrted reading it because it was after I had read LOTR for the first time and was really into it. I thought it would be fantasy in the vein of LOTR. It read like a history book though and was just so boring and hard to get through. I think i read a quartyer of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Paths Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 I also put The Silmarillion down a couple times; keep telling myself I'll pick it back up one of these days. Ditto the previous mentions of The One Kingdom, The Fifth Sorceress and Jonathan Strange. And I gave up on The Wayfarer Redemption before the anal raping. But for some reason it took me 5-6 books to stop the SoT madness ... Didn't see this one mentioned before - I got about halfway through Elantris and wasn't compelled to finish it. It just didn't grab me, but I see that several people liked it and will give it another try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vhagar Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 I rarely don't finish them. It's a real struggle to make myself just stop, but life is short, why fight a book you're just not getting? I don't know, but it's sometimes a real fight with myself to just give it up. That said, the list is short: Sophie's World. I'm sorry, but I can handle sentences longer than See Spot Run. I think I read three pages, and it had come very highly recommended. Just painful. A Son of the Circus by John Irving, who I love, but man I couldn't get through this one. Message in a Bottle, Nicholas Sparks. This was a desperation purchase for something, anything to read on my commute home having finished my book on the way to work in Chicago....I'd have been better off without it. I nearly went into a diabetic coma. It went to the used book store on the way home the same day I bought it. Moby Dick. I think I just was resentful of having been forced to read about something I wasn't in the least bit interested in. I read the first ten chapters the night before the exam and got an A just from paying attention in class. This made me feel, probably wrongly, vindicated. Nothing else is coming to mind at the moment. I've started books and not got back to them but will. In my mind, this is just interruption, not a conscious "I'm not wasting a second more of my life on this tripe". AFFC, for one. I can NOT get through it, for some reason, but I will. It's not that it's bad, I'm just getting bored with it. I blame Brienne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vethnar Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I expected to like this one, but after 200 pages or so I was tired of waiting for something of consequence to finally happen. The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes. Although the topic is fascinating, this is the most awful popular science book I have ever read. I finished about 2/3 of the book before I got so disgusted that I decided to burn it (yes, really). The Ancestor's Tale - A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life by Richard Dawkins. An excellent book (like everything I have read by Dawkins), but heavy reading (at least for a non-expert like me). I read it in a period where I had too much else competing for my attention, and I didn't get further than the chapter on new world monkeys before I was forced to give up. I should try to pick it up again some time soon. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Simply too weird for my taste. I think I read only about 50 pages before deciding that Vance is not for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L'Sana Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 War and Peace. I should read it. I mean to read it some day. I just need to gather some energy to make it all the way through before the library takes it back. Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman. Not sure what it is about the book, since I rather like the story while I'm reading it. It's just one of those books that once you put down is hard to pick up again. Hell's Gate by David Weber. I'm told that there is a decent story underneath all of those chapters describing exactly how the economics of multidimentional gate travel works, but I already have an economics textbook, and frankly, it was written better. Has a more interesting plot too. I've also given up on several series, most recently the Mazalan books. I made it up through Deadhouse Gates and realized that I really didn't give a damn what happened to any of these people. Reading this thread reminds me of a quote. Not sure if I stole it from someone on this board or somewhere else, but I thought it was worth including: "Terry Brooks gave me a great gift. He taught me that just because I had wasted my money buying a book did not mean I had to waste my time reading it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fingolfin Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 "The Language of the Stones" by Robert Carter, I just never got into it and the main character was so boring for me at least. "Song of Susannah" by Stephen King, I had really enjoyed the first 4 Dark Tower books and the fifth was passable but in this one King just lost his way and forgot what made the series good. Doubt that I will pick it up again. I also had trouble with "War and Peace" but I never expected to like it, I just tried to read it through a sense of duty. I am surprised that so many people stopped WOT at bk.6 because in my opinion it was one of the better ones. Although if people had said bk.7 I would understand, it was woeful but not as bad as bk.10 which was an insult to written english. I will buy the next WOT book but like someone else said I am just past caring about what happens (apart from Mat Cauthon, who I still like). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuwa Slayne Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Usually I'm a trooper and will force myself to finish a book once I have started it, especially if I have devoted a significant amount of time to it, but I couldn't finish the third Robert Jordan Wheel of Time book--whatever the Hell it's called. I really enjoyed the first two books, but he lost me with the third. I also gave up on Chapterhouse Dune. I love Frank Herbert and the rest of the Dune series but Chapterhouse was completely boring. I made it about half-way through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Sophie's World. I'm sorry, but I can handle sentences longer than See Spot Run. I think I read three pages, and it had come very highly recommended. Just painful. This is one of my favorite books! I'm actually in the middle of a re-read right now. Sometimes the mechanics of the writing seem a little off, but I chalk that up to being a translation from Norwegian. The first time I tried to read it, I couldn't quite make it, but I was only in 5th grade and it was pretty heavy going. Once I made it through to the end, it jumped to the top of my favorites and I've re-read it several times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Tywin Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Many over my university career (anything by Dickens immediately springs to mind)... Recently, Daggerspell by Katherine Kerr (geared towards teenagers?) Robin Hobb's first Tawny Man book (yawn) Stephen Erikson's first Malazan book. Borrowed it from a friend who loves it. I found it atrociously written, no cohesion, scattered viewpoint characters, the whole "deck of the gods" motif doesn't appeal to me at all. I don't understand all the fuss over this absolute poo or how it even gets published in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vhagar Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 This is one of my favorite books! I'm actually in the middle of a re-read right now. Sometimes the mechanics of the writing seem a little off, but I chalk that up to being a translation from Norwegian. The first time I tried to read it, I couldn't quite make it, but I was only in 5th grade and it was pretty heavy going. Once I made it through to the end, it jumped to the top of my favorites and I've re-read it several times. I had been told it was great, it came very highly recommended, but I just couldn't get past the sentence structure being so simplistic. It felt very stilted and choppy and I just can't deal with that. The premise sounded good, too. I was really disappointed. Ever since I read a couple pages before actually committing to a purchase. Maybe they need to try a new translator! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCloskey Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Shardik Gardens of the Moon Wizards First Rule War and Peace Sound and the Fury A Song before Battle (?) Its a shitty sci-fi book by John Ringo Books that I stopped then started years later: Silmarillion The Jungle Grapes of Wrath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deornoth Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 I'm this close to quitting on 'Danse Macabre' (Laurell Hamilton). I don't mind a bit of sex in books but having it on every single page is getting tedious... The only other books that spring to mind are 'David Copperfield' (Dickens) and 'Potrait of the artist as a young man' (I can't remember the author, the book made that much of an impression on me!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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