Books you've stopped reading....

I never got through "The Life of Pi". That damn book annoyed me so much.

And Last of the Mohecans was a terrible movie

I have a lot of books that have been sitting by my bed with bookmarks about half way through for a very long time now - but I haven't stopped reading them. I've sometimes picked them up and finished them years after I last put them down. And I liked Last Of The Mohicans.

hehe....I made it through the first page of 'life of pi' - something abouts sloths and stuff. "Angels and Demons" - now there's a book that, after 20 pages, flung me on a wild tangent that lasted 2 years. It's still in the beside drawer where I left it. When the power of love overcomes the love of power, we'll find peace. - Jimi Hendrix

Never made it through a single Virginia Woolf novel. She frankly pisses me off Span

What!? How can any movie with Daniel Day Lewis in it be bad? Especially DDL with long flowing hair and buckskin trousers!? And a big gun? Fwoah! I *still* haven't made it to the end of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I hate that book, hate the stupid weak people in it, hate the writing. I keep trying, thinking, 'Well, I ought to at least finish,' but I just can't. Liked the movie, however, because of the above-mentioned DDL. Fwoah! Another book I really loathed but forced myself to finish for a book club was 'Ahab's Wife'. What a load of pap. What dross. Chick-lit at its very worst, and that's saying quite a bit. Chick-lit dressed up in 'historically relevant' clothing. Pah! The book I've never finished but WANT to finish, however, is the 'Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations'. I've made it through ancient Persia, but no further. Hmm. I see I'm feeling rather feisty about books right now. Perhaps I should go cool my heels somewhere... *goes to rummage through fridge*

Archie, just to give us some idea of how far you got through the encyclopaedia (assuming it's alphabetical), is the chapter you got through called "Persia, Ancient" or "Ancient Persia"?

I hate leaving a book unfinished, will always try and see it though, but.... DCB Pierre's Ludmila's Broken English. What a clunker. I loved Vernon God Little but this....? Dear oh dear! I think I managed about 100 pages before quietly closing it, never to return.

I can never get through Middlemarch, and I like George Eliot, e.g. Adam Bede and Mill on the Floss. But Middlemarch is the slowest-paced book I have ever been misfortunate enough to fail to become engrossed in.

Anything by Jane Austen. I'd rather saw off my left arm than read another word. Any film/TV adaptations are fine, but the books themselves are dreadful.

Aged 15, embarking on a new set of books (including JA's Emma) for O level, my English master proclaimed "boys - all you ever need to know about Jane Austen - she was a repressed lesbian". Had a dozen 15 year old English scholars engrossed from page 1 to page 351.....

Obviously there are squillions of books I've failed to finish, but Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest have been the latest casualties. Failing at GR is pretty much par for the course, I expect, but I was sorry not to be able to press on with Infinite Jest - I mean, it *is* good, it's just interminably long!

No, DDL *did* have a fabulous 'tache in GONY, as well as a fantastic, early-era American accent. Apparently he listened to early recordings of Walt Whitman to nail the accent. But OH that moustache! The kind that can tickle when he.... *drifts off in reverie for a moment* *cough* I can't stand a lot of Scorsese's work: he's too obsessed with gratuitous violence, much like Mel Gibson seems to be. How many ways can we flog Jesus? But GONY was enjoyable simply for DDL; nevermind that little DiCaprio guy. Haven't seen 'Departed' yet. It's on my list. I keep watching 'Volver' over and over instead.

Repressed lesbian? Mm, I might have to try "Northanger Abbey" for a third time - perhaps it will mean more to me now I'm older and wiser...

If you like Almodovar you'll love 'Volver'. I've seen it a few times already. I've got a list of 'must-read classics' so long, I'll never get through it. Mostly 'old stuff': Regency/Victorian lit, early 20th century stuff, etc. I've given up. I'm reading 'Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies' right now. I'm not even sure I'll be able to finish *it*...

Volver is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful and anyone who says otherwise isa fool. He said, non-judgmentally.

Vernon God Little is apparently the most unfinished book amongst UK readers. I got to about page 10. I have also got no further than the first chapter of the Alexandria Quartet but will finish it before I die. jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

Possession by AS Byatt I bought it.It lives on the bedside table.I pick it up feel faint as the type looks small and ...put it down again.

my unfinished books list is long ... i always used to finish books no matter what ... but now my fear of commitment has spread into all spheres of my life ... many of my unfinisheds are bookers or other prize winners ... and include life of pi, possession and vernon god little ... it's just age i think ... nowadays finishing a novel i am not enjoying takes up a far more significant percentage of my available lifespan than it used to ... even erstwhile fave authors such as john irving languish in the unfinished pile ... his son of the circus and until i find you ...

I gave up on Vernon God Little, then started again and once I got in the swing, I finished it. And I was jolly glad I did because it went from irritating to okay to really good without me even noticing. Catch-22. Can't do it. Have tried half a dozen times. The last time I even posted on here something about how "I'm really getting somewhere with it this time". Bollocks did I. Can't do it. Volver is great.

YOU DIDN'T LIKE POSSESSION?????? My God, Fish, I can really go off a person. It affected me as much as the first time I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Fantastic book.

Fish, can I make a quick plea that you recommence Until I Find You. It's really rather triffic. Some of these "started, stopped, started again and found I liked it" comments remind me of my relationship with Vanity Fair (Thackery, not the US glossy, naturally). Couldn't get past first 30 pages or so first time around. Tried again, got into it and ended up thinking it was utterly brilliant.

*sigh* ok then andrewjames ... just for you i will give it another go ... and as for possession ... didn't LIKE it? i HATED it ... such dreary overintellectualised piffle ... and the poems ... my GOD! have you gone further off me? and drew ... you are my reading hero ... i read your blogs and wish to be like you when i am grown up ... so generous and devoted and wise about stuff ... sadly i am grown up already and will never be the above ... oh shit

I'm with Fish on the Irving book, twenty pages is my maximum. God of Small Things... urm... White Teeth. I do tend to persevere though, more than I ever did before I did a lit degree. Books that are challenging can make you so glad to have stuck with them. The above though - bleurgh, no.

I read most books/material that I get as its mostly work related. Don't get much time for leisure reading as I'm always playing catch-up. There is one though, Dickens - by the biographer Peter Ackroyd. Can hardly pick the thing up, let alone read it.. Will have to try again some day.

Fish, I am of course joking; just don't ever mention Possession again and we'll get along fine.

I liked "Life of Pi"! I thought it was a dreamy, drifty sort of a read... Call me shallow, but generally nowadays, if something doesn't grab me within 20 pages or so (or half an hour if it's a film), I give up. pe ps oid Blogs! "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

agree with George Eliot. It's a struggle to read. Great Literature often is. I also clawed my way through For Whom The Bell Tolls, inch by inch, with bleeding fingernails. Anguish it was, but I got to the end. can't remember a damn thing about it now except there was a character called Pilar. One book I just never ever ever got to the end of was The History of Danish Dreams. Life's too short to read stuff like that, except for a bet or something.

agree with George Eliot. It's a struggle to read. Great Literature often is. I also clawed my way through For Whom The Bell Tolls, inch by inch, with bleeding fingernails. Anguish it was, but I got to the end. can't remember a damn thing about it now except there was a character called Pilar. One book I just never ever ever got to the end of was The History of Danish Dreams. Life's too short to read stuff like that, except for a bet or something.

"It's a struggle to read. Great Literature often is." This made me think. Is that really true? Does hard work pay off, or is it a sign that the writer isn't writing effectively?

Steinbeck's pretty easy to read. And back to "Life of Pi"... I think one could say this is a literary book, but I also found this something of a breeze. is it a sign that the writer isn't writing effectively? ... I'm going to be shot down in flames (probably) for saying this, but as writing is primarily a means of communication, I personally lean towards thinking that if something is largely (i.e. by the majority of people who attempt to read it) unreadable, then how can it said to be quality? pe ps oid Blogs! "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

Saw Volver a week ago. great film. scorcesse is excelllent IMO, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Departed, Goodfellas, Mean Streets. love them. I couldn't finish Gone With The Wind, just absolutly hated it. Same with American Psycho (movie was great, but the book is the most disturbing, vulgar and brutally violent book Ive ever seen)

Yes anything with DDL in is Phoartastic. It's spelt phoar by the way. Oh and I think it should be called 'clit-lit' much funnier and to the point. If you narda mean?

Vulva? I've stared at it, I don't think I read it.

I always see them through, no matter how bad they are and then whinge at length about the time I've wasted.

The classics by Jane Austen, the Brontes and Charles dickens are impossible for me to read, although I would love to read Barnaby Rudge. The Chronicles of Narnia, for some reason, also are hard, and the Life of Pi utter rubbish. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake was a struggle, but one day i will try re-reading it, and Dr Moreau by George Orwell. I would like to read the Da Vinci Code too-but I fell asleep a few chapters in, and lost interest with Lorna Doone. So i usually just end up going back to the moth-eaten old favourites; Harry Potter, Shadowmancer by GP Taylor and most work by Antonia Fraser.

Found Dickens a struggle, laughed like a drain at Shakespear's The Tempest. I was living with one of his descendants at the time, (which is something I shoehorn in at any given opportunity. I also shoehorn in shoehorn at any given opportunity.) and she said "you're reading Shakespear - you don't laugh at Shakespear!". My hair was upstaring as I felt him turn in his grave.

P.S. Forgot. Her father's first name was William. He was stopped by the police one night for driving erratically. The cop sidled up to the car as only cops can sidle, the car window was lowered and the cop asked my almost father-in-law "O K what's your name." Nearly Father-in-law replied "William Shakespear." "Yeh and my names fucking Marilyn Monroe, now what's your name?" Replied the cop. It is reported that the only reason the cop let him off was that his face was so red, when he saw the name on the driving licence.