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

[Adam Jensen]

Trainspotting and Johnny Got His Gun were difficult to read quickly. Their Eyes Were Watching God and A Tale of Two Cities caused my grades to drop.

Johnny Got His Gun kinda creeped me out. If I was ever in that state, I'd just want to die.

Their Eyes were Watching God.......oh man I hated that book, we read it in class, then read summaries over it, and then watched two movies about it.

That book would not have been such a pain if the author hadn't felt the need to write in a southern accent. I could not stand having to decipher every word. Seriously, let me add the accent through my imagination.

[BHD]

Silmarillion, easily

Same here. I didn't find it boring at all, but the way it's written like a history book/bible made it a dreadful read. The language in the book is rather heavy, too.

I'm sure there are far more difficult reads out there, though. Like The Divine Comedy, which I hope I'll fully read some day.

Not sure if I'll ever read "Röde Orm" even I already have it, older english is far easier than older swedish/anynordiclanguage. Just.. fuck.

[Kisho]

Jane Eyre. Could never get past the first page. Since it was required reading for one of my Creative Writing courses, I just read the summary on Wikipedia and some random reviews of the book. Did the job.

Lord of the Rings was a struggle, but I persevered. Worth it.

Oh, and another book that was required reading for University, but I never bothered with it... This monstrosity.

The story is basically about a surgeon who is amazing at life, goes about his regular day at work, gets burgled and ends up having to save the life of the person who burgled him. Because he's just so perfect, he can put aside his own grudges and save the day.

Atrocious book, terrible, awful. Oh, and this one is horribad too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Chesil_Beach

Basically anything by Ian McEwan is awful.

[Yavannie]

Boring: Le Père Goriot by Balzac. Realism isn't really my cup of tea.

Difficult and boring: The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. I understand its historical value, but I didn't enjoy it.

Difficult and rewarding: The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. Very long, surrealistic, but totally worth it.

[Jon]

Atlas Shrugged - boring, dreadful book.

[icedwarrior]

Atlas Shrugged was a difficult read. I wanted to read through it, but I just couldn't get into it. It wasn't bad, per se, I just couldn't get through it.

The Bible is a difficult read as well. I'm not condemning the Bible here, just difficult.

Paradise Lost is another difficult read, which is a shame, because I love the concept of the Devil being a sympathetic character, and God being a tyrannical being. It's an interesting take on those two characters.

[Darsithis]

Atlas Shrugged, as well. I ended up skipping most of the book to get to the end and find out how it all went down.

Conversely I loved similar works from the same period.

[Kerath]

Most difficult was definitely the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.
Middle English is a bitch.
Most boring? Twilight. Yes I read it - wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I still don't see what all the fuss was about.

[Arlee]

For me it was Lord of the Flies. It wasn't difficult to read in terms of reading skill, it was that from the very beginning of the book I hated it and as I read it more I just hated it more. Which made the whole thing of reading it more difficult than it would have been if I enjoyed it.

[Shadence]

The Wheel of Time Series

No, you could not pay me to read anything by Robert Jordan.

[Markluzz]

Atlas Shrugged was a difficult read. I wanted to read through it, but I just couldn't get into it. It wasn't bad, per se, I just couldn't get through it.

The Bible is a difficult read as well. I'm not condemning the Bible here, just difficult.

Paradise Lost is another difficult read, which is a shame, because I love the concept of the Devil being a sympathetic character, and God being a tyrannical being. It's an interesting take on those two characters.

There have been a number of people who mentioned Atlas Shrugged, and although I had never attempted to read the book, I couldn't even get through the movie of it (literally I turned off the netflix because it was so uneventful and no development of anything).

I'm weirdly surprised some people find the Bible hard to read, although I could see how if you went from the beginning to end, I've had no problem reading it (though I tend to skip a lot of the Psalms, and prophets).

[Fuzzzie]

Had to read some of Isaac Newton's book Opticks in college and it was challenging to get through. You end up reading each sentence and paragraph 3 times to get the information out of it. It's just written for a different time. Interesting though.

[fizzbob]

andromeda strain. was disappointing. the first few pages set the tone

[conscript]

The most difficult is probably Les Miserables or the Silmarillion. Both of those books are so dense. Not difficult to understand or boring at all, just ridiculously dense.

[AceofHarts]

The Wheel of Time Series

No, you could not pay me to read anything by Robert Jordan.

i could understand some of the middle books (especially Crossroads) but books 1-5 and the last 2 out are friggen great. let me guess, you think Sword of Truth is better then WoT?

[Xerra]

Hmmm I might get a little hate from some people but I couldn't finish Musashi the book was terrible to me, I hated the character so much to the point that I wished the story was about everyone else but him.

[Mormolyce]

The Hobbit. Started a few years ago,and got a headache from reading lol. And i can read a 500 page book in one day if i like it.

Whaaaaaat the Hobbit is the most readable book ever! I guess it's totally personal.

[Rekenna]

Heart of Darkness.

[Mormolyce]

Took me like 6 tries to read The Fellowship of the Ring. LOVE the books, but I kept getting stuck at chapter 4. EVERY TIME. Once I was able to get passed it I had no problems with the rest.

Is chapter 4 where the writing transitions from the "Hobbity" parochial style of the Shire to the somewhat stilted style of epic fantasy in the rest of the book? I think it happens somewhere between Bree and Rivendell, from memory.

[Asotcha]

Moby Dick--- its just not very readable, and while im at it, 'The Great Gatsby' wasnt really either.'