Books you can't finish reading

[KDS]

My wife and I watched the show Black Sails on the STARZ channel. 

On chance, I picked up a copy of a book of the history of pirates at the Dollar Tree called Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly. 

I was expecting a fascinating history of piracy and separating some of the myths and realities, but the writing just didn't speak to me for some reason.  It was very dense, and maybe a little too much time devoted to pirate fiction.  I did eventually finish it, but not as fast as I usually get through a book.   I read Mike Love's book, which was at least 100-150 pages longer, in less than half the time. 

[Loaf]

The most recent book I almost finished but didn't was Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. I'd read both V and Gravity's Rainbow twice (extraordinary books both) but Vineland didn't grab me the way its two predecessors did.

I have another fat Pynchon tome waiting in the wings. I bought The Mason-Dixon Line on a whim at a book launch where they had been serving white wine but I don't hold out much hope for it.    

Pynchon is my favourite author, and I've read everything he has written.

Mason & Dixon is such a beautiful book. Full of some of Pynchon's best prose and descriptions. Read the first few pages and savour it! If you like Gravity's Rainbow, it will hopefully resonate with you. Think of the description of the parabola of a thrown snowball as a great in-joke

My personal favourite Pynchon is Against the Day. A 1000-page monster of ideas, conscience, humour and changing styles. His magnum opus, imo. There is a great web resource for read-alongs, http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html

Vineland, and it's cousins Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge, are less satisfying to me, but still contain enough Pynchon to elevate them above most other authors' works.

[JK]

The most recent book I almost finished but didn't was Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. I'd read both V and Gravity's Rainbow twice (extraordinary books both) but Vineland didn't grab me the way its two predecessors did.

I have another fat Pynchon tome waiting in the wings. I bought The Mason-Dixon Line on a whim at a book launch where they had been serving white wine but I don't hold out much hope for it.    

Pynchon is my favourite author, and I've read everything he has written.

Mason & Dixon is such a beautiful book. Full of some of Pynchon's best prose and descriptions. Read the first few pages and savour it! If you like Gravity's Rainbow, it will hopefully resonate with you. Think of the description of the parabola of a thrown snowball as a great in-joke

My personal favourite Pynchon is Against the Day. A 1000-page monster of ideas, conscience, humour and changing styles. His magnum opus, imo. There is a great web resource for read-alongs, http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html

Vineland, and it's cousins Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge, are less satisfying to me, but still contain enough Pynchon to elevate them above most other authors' works.

Many thanks for the heads up, Loaf. I've had this "reader's block" for years now and hardly read anything of length anymore, including long posts! I'm hoping to break it with The Great Gatsby, after which, if successful, I shall give Mason & Dixon a go (sorry about getting the title wrong). 

[RangeRoverA1]

Plenty & don't plan to finish them, too boring.

[JK]

Pynchon is my favourite author, and I've read everything he has written.

Mason & Dixon is such a beautiful book.

Many thanks for the heads up, Loaf. I've had this "reader's block" for years now and hardly read anything of length anymore, including long posts! I'm hoping to break it with The Great Gatsby, after which, if successful, I shall give Mason & Dixon a go (sorry about getting the title wrong). 

And yes, I'm now a good fifty pages into The Great Gatsby! There's hope for me yet (with the occasional push)...

[RangeRoverA1]

Bumping this thread by blah/ meh/dullard poster SCarolineZzzzz. Read 5th time "Lord Of The Rings" & didn't finish. It's impossible to do.

[RangeRoverA1]

M. Sholokhov "Quiet Don". I shall admit - epic novel isn't sth. I'm patient about. But, now & then I give chance to it - it's challenge, if you will. Looks like it's not meant to be sth. I'd like. Then again, like I said in the other Reading thread, am nearly exclusively interested in lines, dialogs, monologs, polilogs, sometimes inner speeches by characters, what they think about. Bottom line - I prefer plays. Classic example - A. Chekhov "Cherry Garden". Back to QD, it's 0/5.

[RangeRoverA1]

Bumping again SCaroLoonZzzzz's thread. This time, it's "Eugene Onegin". I detest poetry - symbolic/ abstract/ nature etc. & that which tells tale. Besides, I despised each character & didn't wish to read it till the end.

[RangeRoverA1]

Bumping shcaLOLinezzzZz's thread - Alexander Ostrovsky's "Without A Dowry" (1878). I didn't like it to the degree to continue reading.

Edit: hmm. Weirdly, JK didn't mention celebrating the OP's birthday at PS that surflowery turns 43 today. Aka "Happy 43rd Birthday!" since it's in calendar too. Interesting fact omission...

[RangeRoverA1]

Bumping SCroonerlinezzzZ's thread - Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm". It being short, yet difficult to read thru speaks.

[Alex]

When I was 14 I read the first two chapters of thr first Harry Potter book. I absolutely hated it, don't really remember why, but I disliked it enough to swear off the rest of the books and all of the movies. I would probably dismiss it as a children's book if I tried going back to it now at age 33.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

When I was 14 I read the first two chapters of thr first Harry Potter book. I absolutely hated it, don't really remember why, but I disliked it enough to swear off the rest of the books and all of the movies. I would probably dismiss it as a children's book if I tried going back to it now at age 33.

I've just finished teaching a three month university course on the book series!

[JK]

When I was 14 I read the first two chapters of thr first Harry Potter book. I absolutely hated it, don't really remember why, but I disliked it enough to swear off the rest of the books and all of the movies. I would probably dismiss it as a children's book if I tried going back to it now at age 33.

I've just finished teaching a three month university course on the book series!

Wow, Choc. I must confess to never having read a page of anything from the series.

I started The Hobbit years ago, but from what I remember of the experience, I got so pee'd off with the endless stream of visitors to Bilbo's (?) house that I gave up in despair.

Same with Dune. I guess I just don't like science fiction, although I do recall enjoying Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land...

[JK]

   Sorry, I'm in one of those moods today...