[Books] The Most Difficult/Boring Book You Have Read

[Deleted]

A lot of people are mentioning Silmarillion, I began reading it not long ago and it isn't very hard so far, probably it's the polish translation? And as for boring well it's a history book so yeah it's a bit boring but I like history.
Again I'm not far into the book but the way he introduced the elves and their tribes when they where on their journey through Middle Earth was hilarious, he puts a dozen of elves, then a dozen of tribes, tells where they are with landmarks you don't know at all and tells you to deal with it

i remember checking the maps like a hundred times each chapter to keep track on where things were happening.

[Dyra]

Like so many others, The Silmarillion.

Good grief that was a difficult book to get through. Took 10 attempts to get through it, and even now I can't for the life of me tell you anything from it.

Also The Mayan Prophecy Trilogy by Steve Alten. Just an awful awful set of books. It just got worse and worse and worse as each book went on.

[Powerogue]

I recall Night feeling like an incredibly miserable chore to read, along with Fallen Angels. Required reading almost never falls conveniently in the same category as your casual reading you would have picked out of a library. It did once though, The Hobbit book was awesome.

Yet oddly I couldn't make it through the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I felt bogged down by the number of characters and just generally keeping track of what was going on. I should give it another try at some point.

[eschatological]

Most of the books in here are great. You want a truly awful book, try Ivanhoe. Historical novels suck. Or at least that one did.

[Adam Jensen]

Yeah I got to the point where I wanted to punch a baby if another female folded her arms under her breasts. damn.[COLOR="red"]

Nynaeve sniffed disdainfully, tugging her braid and then folding her arms under her breasts.

[gnomergon]

the great gatsby. though that probably had to do with the fact that I was reading it for school, and every time i would read it it would be around 3 o'clock in the morning, and I would be incredibly tired and couldn't understand anything.

though seriously, the two towers. I know i will get shit for this. I love lord of the rings, and I have read fellowship, and return of the king. but I cannot finish two towers. it is just so incredibly dry and uneventful.

[Spekkiothebrave]

I have read some terribly boring books. Pilgrim's Progress is probably one of the worst, then I also remember that I have read Jude the Obscure. Jude the Obscure seemed to be about a thousand pages of this guy wishing he could go over this hill....awful. I don't really care for highly romanticized longings for rural life, and as far as I can tell that's all that Thomas Hardy ever wrote about.

The two most difficult books I've ever tried to read were probably Maldoror by Lautremont and Finnegan's Wake by Joyce. Never finished either, both are too far into the surreal for me. I don't know why anyone ever recommended I read Maldoror, but the first part was sickening and I couldn't find any meaning in it. Finnegan's wake is just incomprehensible, I love Joyce; but even I had to take a pass on that one.

[Kasierith]

Nynaeve sniffed disdainfully, tugging her braid and then folding her arms under her breasts.

Ahhh.... there's that feeling of immense burning hatred and disgust....

[AceofHarts]

Nynaeve sniffed disdainfully, tugging her braid and then folding her arms under her breasts.

you forgot to throw in an "ear Boxxing" comment...

[Zoma]

you forgot to throw in an "ear Boxxing" comment...

A wool-headed thing to do.

OT:
Shadowmarch by Tad Williams, especially the first book. One of my favourite series is Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn", so when I saw the Shadowmarch series by him in a bookstore, I immediately bought them. It took me a full month to force myself through the first book (my first time reading a book usually only takes 2-3 days). The second book was nearly as bad, although some character's chapters were kind of interesting. The third and fourth were much better, but still far below my expectations.

Also, "Toll the Hounds", the 8th book in the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series by Steven Erikson. The final hundred pages or so were amazing, a trait shared by most Malazan books thanks to convergences. The majority of the book however was pretty disappointing. Pretty much every storyline related to Harllo and Gorlas in that book was completely pointless and did nothing to the plot of the series. Harllo frees an undead warrior, who immediately gets sucked into an Azath before he can do anything. Harllo's first rescuer from the slave mines, a minor character no one cares about, gets killed by Gorlas for pretty much no reason. The plotline revolving around Gorlas ends with pretty much everyone involved either getting killed or committing suicide, with the exception of the one main character involved in the storyline.

[AceofHarts]

A wool-headed thing to do.

OT:
Shadowmarch by Tad Williams, especially the first book. One of my favourite series is Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn", so when I saw the Shadowmarch series by him in a bookstore, I immediately bought them. It took me a full month to force myself through the first book (my first time reading a book usually only takes 2-3 days). The second book was nearly as bad, although some character's chapters were kind of interesting. The third and fourth were much better, but still far below my expectations.

Also, "Toll the Hounds", the 8th book in the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series by Steven Erikson. The final hundred pages or so were amazing, a trait shared by most Malazan books thanks to convergences. The majority of the book however was pretty disappointing. Pretty much every storyline related to Harllo and Gorlas in that book was completely pointless and did nothing to the plot of the series. Harllo frees an undead warrior, who immediately gets sucked into an Azath before he can do anything. Harllo's first rescuer from the slave mines, a minor character no one cares about, gets killed by Gorlas for pretty much no reason. The plotline revolving around Gorlas ends with pretty much everyone involved either getting killed or committing suicide, with the exception of the one main character involved in the storyline.

oh god not the wool-headed! only some muley stubborn man would forget that!

[Aliessil]

The Virgin and the Gypsy, by DH Lawrence. Had to read it for my English A-level. I fell asleep before the end of the first chapter, and struggled all the way through it - I found it absolutely terrible.

[Palmatum]

Surprised Ulysses hasn't been mentioned much/at all.

I've heard a lot of people have struggled with that one.

[Defengar]

The Scarlett Letter.
HOLY FUCK.

If I had a time machine that I could use twice and I had a choice of either going back in time and punching Nathaniel Hawthorn in the face, or shooting Hitler, I would use it to punch Hawthorn in the face twice.
Seriously, what the fuck was that man thinking? The whole first fifth of the book in an introduction (seriously, exactly 18% of the book is introduction, and all the narrator does is bitch about how boring his life is and how his family is a bag of dicks or something), and the thing is written in such an infuriating and out of whack style any sane high school student wants to immediately throw the thing out the window. And I know he could have written it better to, the time period is not an excuse. Oliver twist was written more than ten years earlier, and even today it is still perfectly readable for most people.
The premise and overall arc is excellent, but he just doesn't translate it well to paper. I love to read, and I pride myself on how much I read and that I never don't finish a book. Unfortunately The Scarlet Letter is the one blemish upon my record. I tried getting through it in high school, couldn't do it, tried doing it in college, couldn't do it. Tried last year, still couldn't do it. It's just so boring and painful you either want to fall asleep, or go do something else after reading more than three pages.

I remember in high school when we had it for a reading assignment no one scored above a mid C on the test over it, not even the super bookworms could stomach it. The teacher, who was normally very strict, had a brief moment of mercy and ended up grading us on a curve.

---------- Post added 2013-01-02 at 09:48 AM ----------

The swiss family Robison Was really bad too. I read through that corny unrealistic POS when I was 6 and even back then I knew it was flaky childish garbage.

Also more recently I read through the City of Ember trilogy. I know their kid books, but sometimes I like stuff thats a bit on the light side and that I can get through quickly. The first one, City of Ember was surprisingly good. The second, The People of Sparks (I think thats what its called), was decent, but not as good as the first book. And finally I read the third book, The Prophet of Yonwood (a prequel to the first book)... Holy hell, I have never seen a series take that big of a nose dive in quality, EVER.
The dialogue was garbage, the story was pathetic and unrealistic to the point of laziness and absurdity. I mean seriously, an entire town thought a bear was a terrorist. Aliens are discovered but no one somehow gives a shit, two children solve all the fucking mysteries, and a world war apparently happens over nothing, also some crazy bitch says she can see the future or something and the whole town believes her. This is set in the 21st century.
If the first book had been anywhere near as bad I would not have continued on with the series after finishing it. No excuse. Blatant money grab on the writers part and extremely poor work by the editor.

[Screwtape]

Disclaimer: not trying to be insulting. Purely in jest. Some of these books I go, ok personal preference. Some I want to say "fuck you". So all you people who put Silmarillion, fuck you.
-Ulysses, Absalom Absalom. Moby Dick and a bunch of others: this might just mean you aren't very smart.
-Their Eyes Were Watching God, best African American work; beats the hell out of that swill that normally gets peddled around.
-Hawthorne isn't my favorite author, but c'mon. Reading too much of that Game of Thrones horseshit are we?
-I'm not really sure what to say about people who complain about the Bible so I won't even try.

[Defengar]

I have read some terribly boring books. Pilgrim's Progress is probably one of the worst, then I also remember that I have read Jude the Obscure. Jude the Obscure seemed to be about a thousand pages of this guy wishing he could go over this hill....awful. I don't really care for highly romanticized longings for rural life, and as far as I can tell that's all that Thomas Hardy ever wrote about.

The two most difficult books I've ever tried to read were probably Maldoror by Lautremont and Finnegan's Wake by Joyce. Never finished either, both are too far into the surreal for me. I don't know why anyone ever recommended I read Maldoror, but the first part was sickening and I couldn't find any meaning in it. Finnegan's wake is just incomprehensible, I love Joyce; but even I had to take a pass on that one.

If you like Joyce you should look up his love letters. Some of his most... "unique" work...

They will blow your fucking mind.

[BHD]

When you feel the need to write "not trying to be insulting" or "no offense", it's more often than not because you are insulting, and typing that beforehand doesn't change that

Do elaborate about why I should mate with myself because I thought Silmarillion was a pain to read. :>

[Wynnyelle]

The Kite Runner. I just thought it was terrible. I couldn't take it seriously and it took me forever to read it because I would get through a page and a half and then my thoughts would wander.

[Defengar]

The Kite Runner. I just thought it was terrible. I couldn't take it seriously and it took me forever to read it because I would get through a page and a half and then my thoughts would wander.

What were the reasons you couldn't take it seriously? Just curious here because I thought it was a decent read.

[Tziva]

I hate this. I read a lot about 18th century French history and it pisses me off to no end when an author quotes something in French. Ok so I am reading a book about France, that doesn't mean I speak the damn language.

It at least makes a little more sense in that context. Orientalism is about relationship between the West and the Middle East, but regularly quotes scholarly works in French and German. I guess it makes sense on an academic level since a great deal of writing is done in those languages, but for average readership, it's very difficult. And even if you're well versed in French and German, you'll still faced with tons of vague references to other scholars and classic works that expect you to know enough about them to be able to know what he's saying because he never gives enough context to glean from the book itself. And in general, it's a very arduous read - complex topic, complex language, a lot of depth and a lot of work to read.

I read tooooooons of non-fiction, maybe a hundred books a year not even counting fiction stuff. I'm used to dry, academic reads. I love reference books. I love stuff by university presses. I love niche topics. This particular topic is interesting to me. Everything suggests I should like it but this book is just over my head; I would probably be generous to say I really understood about half of it. I am obviously too dumb.

Surprised Ulysses hasn't been mentioned much/at all.

I've heard a lot of people have struggled with that one.

I've never even bothered. I've read enough to conclude that it's not worth the investment to read. I'm sure the bulk of people who claim to have read that book actually haven't.