Books you stopped reading . . .

I had trouble at first because of the style of the writing, much like Selby Jr. But I found when I pushed through those first two pages and adapted myself to his style and flow it became much easier for me to absorb. Come to think of it I had the same problem with Blood Meridian. Something about those long paragraphs with no punctuation made everything run together and look like a jumble to me. But again, after 2 or 3 pages I got into the authors rhythm and enjoyed it.
Stick with it, it's a funny read, plus we gots to discuss this motherfucker eventually.

have you read Runnng Dog? has anybody? I really want to read that.

I stopped reading Blood Meridian. kind of boring, not much going on. just a lot of descriptions about how vast and hot and ungodly the desert is. may revisit it later. maybe.

I want to read Running Dog hardcore. It's one of the tops on my "list".

I gave up on Lunar Park too.
I left Until I Find You on a plane in 2006 and I keep meaning to buy it or libarry it because it was good, but it was sort of a commitment and I was pretty far into it and now I don't remember anything so I would have to start over and I'm lazy.

never read The Road and never will. the only book I read (i.e., completed) by him was No Country for Old Men and that was in preparation for the film and expected lots of kick-ass cattlegun violence. It was pretty bland but good and reading that and what I read of Blood Meridian I sort of get the gist of what his writing is like, lots of nihilistic descriptions of nihilistic landscapes with a bunch of violence, necrophilia, and biblical references thrown in to get the lit critics crotches wet, so I feel that I can safely skip everything else he has done.

That is a poor assessment of his writing as a whole. The Border trilogy is far from nihilistic, entirely lacking in necrophilia, much less violent than The Road and No Country and free, if I remember correctly, of Biblical references. I would say that while I thoroughly enjoyed both The Road and No Country, neither is particularly reflective of his writing style. In fact, All the Pretty Horses and, to some extent, Cities of the Plain, are basically love stories.

I never finished Bob Dylan's book. Don't know why but I just put it down and never went back to it (it was probably because I was taking Brit Lit II in college and didn't have the time). I put down Thus Spoke Zarathustra for probably a year, and then picked it back up for some reason and finished it.

If you didn't like the beginning of "Blood Meridian", you won't like the end. It doesn't change at all.

I can't believe so many people put Lunar Park on this list. I finished that in a day. Not that it was a literary masterpiece but it was a fun read. Geez!

EXACTLY! Awful isn't it? He just goes on and on, saying "profound" things, tautologies everywhere, blah blah blah. Really really don't get it.

cath 22...curiously there's an above poster mentioning the book. I thought it was quite tedious and all the dialog just got on my nerves, I found the dialogues and intereactions between characters quite pointless and unfunny (I don't have a problenm with nonsense, actually I love it as long as its funny but this kind of humour sound like its trying to hard) so i lost interest and started reading something else. Anyway, I've decided to give it another go and see if I got caught but as of yet, nothing. I'm giving it the benefict of a doubt and give it some more tolerance, thinking like maybe it's because i'm not american and never really thought about all the people who got themselves dragged to a war...maybe, I don't know but the dialogue really piss me off and the characters don't feel as original to me as they pretend to be. Anyway, I'm reading it on until i get my paycheck and buy some books.

I stopped reading "Clown Girl" yesterday. I got about 20 pages in and gave it up. It was so...precious. Everything was overpolished and unrealistic, and it grated on me.

I *still* can't get through Dune.

I've hung up Confessions of a Yakuza for the time being. I got bored and didn't care much about the yakuza's confessions.

I quit reading "The Golden Compass". Mostly because it just bored me, and that was about the same time I started reading Rant, so I chose the obvious better of the two

i ate a bagfull of ice cream upon finishing rant. right after i gave up on reading the bible.

but really, i stopped reading catch-22 because i haven't got enough time to focus on it. this was a while ago, though.

i'll probably pick it up again during christmas break.

I definitely understand everyone who gave up on DeLillo. Espicially, Nate, I think it was? with Americana. I love the hell out of some DeLillo, but Americana could have used an editor. I kept with it because there were, every so often, pieces that were just beautiful and hit me very personally, but yeah. Not a great achievement. Really, I loved the first third and maybe every couple of pages after that. Should have been half the length. I highly recommend Mao II, Libra, and White Noise to anybody and everybody, though.

Stopped reading Left Hand of Darkness after the first page or two. I'm sorry, but the Victorian "Attention: I am now beginning an epic book of epic proportions as exemplified by this epic introduction! All who give up now are unworthy of the epicness!" introductory style went out with, well, the Victorians.

Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand
Naked Lunch-William Burroughs
Sellevision-Augusten Burroughs (just not as good as his memoirs)
Beowulf
Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte

You simply MUST get through Jane Eyre, stat! Such a good, good love story. So's Wuthering Heights, but I couldn't put Jane Eyre down. I read it the first time when I was about 12, but it's one of those you have to go back and read once every couple of years.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that couldn't get through Dune.

what it reminds me of is if you tried reading the lord of the rings starting out with The Two Towers and you had no knowledge of the previous material. That's what it felt like to me; like you were jumping into a story that was already underway and based on what is clearly in the author's mind meant to be a universe with a history, but no one bothered to tell you what it is. I was like who are these people and why are they fighting each other over tarragon?

I'm a little surprised that most people had a hard time getting through Rant, I couldn't put it down.

Like everyone else I couldn't get through Only Revolutions. I suppose you either love or hate HOL and I'm a lover, so I really wanted to get behind this author. But that book is like James Joyce on acid. The historic news clip cut-ups as a sub-plot were totally irrelevant to anything. I found it a bit better when I skipped them the second time I tried to read it. A lot of people say that the audio version is a lot better, and the stuff on the website, with audio and writing and music combined is pretty enjoyable. It seems like something that would work being read out-loud in a coffeehouse while people smoked a hookah, but sitting on the couch and trying to follow through it goes nowhere for me.

I really liked the contortionist handbook, so I bought dymerphoria(whevr) and lost intrest about half way through.

I don't understand. I'm still reading "catch 22" and I still miss the point.

I truly don't understand this.

I can't believe all you Catch-22 haters. You're all on crack.

Oh, right. Yeah, misread your post. Anyway. I do wonder how he got Americana published, since it was his first novel and very...well, that way it was. Overwritten?

I am not a catch 22 hater...I just didnt get in the book. (I'm Jinxed rockwhatever I got bored of that stupid nickname...this one is stupid also but its kinda new so im cool with it) I really tried to get interested in catch 22 but failed miserably, I'm glad other people liked the book, I guess there are a lot of reasons why it's such a popular book I just didnt get thrilled by it.

my antonia: could barely even read ten pages without hating my eyes.
necromancer: wasnt the books fault, i dont think. i just couldnt pay attention to anything when i was reading it. i got about 100 pages in and realised i didnt know any characters names.
i cant think of any other ones. i try to read everything all the way through. cant handle not finishing something. even tortured myself through the three dickens books ive read. fucking hate that guy.

I dont know, the later book is just hard to get into, I read contortionist fast, I couldnt put it down

I almost stopped reading Naked Lunch, but decided to continue; it was well worth it. It quickly became one of my favorites.

That's a good way of putting it. I couldn't even get past Leto Atreides...well, what happened to him (don't want to spoil it for anyone else).

I liked Rant pretty well but I thought Snuff was terrible. Funny thing is, I read Rant on a flight from California to Atlanta and it felt like it took 30 mintues. I read Snuff between Texas and Birmingham and it felt like 12 hours (granted, I got stuck in Memphis because of a storm, but still).

Couldn't agree more.

Gave up on THE ROAD. Will try again later.

Baer, Clevenger, The Stand? Wow. Some of my favorites. The Stand IS long. Epic though.

Funny, I read Rant on a plane trip too and I remember someone else saying they read it on a plane also. whadafuxupwidat?

i couldn't finish Ulysses by Joyce.

I did buy my copy of Rant at the airport, though. I like to buy books in the cities I've flown through if they have good stores in the airport. Better than picking up shitty magnets that never have the correct spelling of my name, I guess.

When I was reading Snuff on the plane there was an annoying kid sitting next to me who kept asking me what it was about and it was making me incredibly uncomfortable. He was so fucking obnoxious. He said he was twenty two but there's no way that kid was a day over seventeen the way he kept talking about his mom and how she bought him whatever games he wanted. And the way he kept wanting to show me his iPhone. He openly told me he was going to read over my shoulder. Can you believe that?

So yeah, whadafuxupwi reading Pahalahniuk on plane trips?

i don't know but i did that with survivor and i got weird looks.

Until I Find You replaced a Prayer for Owen Meany as my favorite Irving book. Read it!

I stopped Reading the End Of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. Rather I set it aside because I have other books I'd rather read. I am avoiding a friend because of this. He wants me to finish it so we can talk about it.

Mirka, did you cry when you read Until I Find You? I did...

I wept. Copiously.

one book i stopped reading was Heart Shaped Box by joe hill. it's an interesting book. but i got bored half way through. might finish it in later years.

I tried a couple of times to get through House of Leaves and Only Revolutions. Does anyone know if they're worth pushing through? Also couldn't get through American Psycho. People say it gets better I just couldn't get through the boring bits. Same thing over and over. I know people say that's the point but it's a little too much for me. Perhaps I'll give it another go.

100 Years of Solitude upon realizing it would take me 100 years to finish it
The Crying of Lot 49 - read most of it and scanned the end
Survivor
Glamorama
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness
The Stand - my friends crucified me for this one

I forsee me giving up on Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace but I haven't started it yet

In my defense I read half or more of all these books except To the Lighthouse... they had their chance and blew it

'middlesex' pissed me off and i quit reading it because 'the virgin suicides' was amazing and 'middlesex' was most decidedly NOT amazing.

WRONG.

i don't know what that word means

i'm not listening to you anyway, you don't like dave eggers.

ps janeS- How can you not like dave eggers!

ive only stopped reading a couple
-haunted
-blackbox
-the bewildered (though i keep meaning to get back to that one)