Top Ten Unfinished Books
 

Can't remember if this was posted before.

Can't remember the details, but there was a list of the books most frequently bought but not read.

1) Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
2) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
3) Ulysses by James Joyce
4) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
5) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
6) The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
7) The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
8) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
9) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
10) Crime & Punishment by Dostoyevsky

Wasn't Finnegans Wake on there?

No.

Although it would be on my list.

I've read one and a half of them. Crime and Punishment and Ulysses, respectively. Are any of the others any good? I gave Finnegan's Wake as a gift to be an asshole once.

Lila - Robert M. Pirsig
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson

Someone lent me the Alchemist and I never finished it. HA!

house of leaves was fucking teeeerrrrrible

It was cool to a point.

The whole horror part of the book was cool enough. But whatever the story that was told in the margins was is the epitome of what i hate about most contemporary literature. Mindless drug addiction portrayal is fucking boring and trite and in no way sympathetic/shocking/interesting. And it seems to be what a majority or writers write about nowadays. Who really gives a fuck about the wreckless/indulgent lifestyle.

You're terrible. :mad:

WHO THE FUCK DIDN'T FINISH GOBLET OF FIRE!? :mad: :mad:

For real, I've read GoF like 4 times, each in less than a day.

Definitely on my to-do list.

I have yet to finish Middlemarch by George Eliot.

I can't think of a whole list, but one book I attempted in high school was Kafka's The Castle. Not because it was boring or anything, but the thing was one long paragraph. No breaks for changing speakers or chapters or anything. I would have to remember the last word of the last sentence I read in order to pick up where I left off, and after a while it got to be too much.

Here is one I'm ashamed that I'm including: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving. The FIRST book I can remember reading was the Legend of Sleepy Hollow in the first grade, but I've never read the whole book that contains it. I've attempted it a few times but the early 19th century language is so florid and eloquent that the reading goes at a snails pace. I mean, I consider myself very literate but I still can't read at a normal pace with his language.

from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
"
This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the blooming
Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and, though
his amorous toyings were something like the gentle caresses and
endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that she did not
altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, his advances were
signals for rival candidates to retire who felt no inclination to
cross a line in his amours; insomuch, that when his horse was
seen tied to Van Tassel's paling on a Sunday night, a sure sign
that his master was courting--or, as it is termed,
"sparking"--within, all other suitors passed by in despair and
carried the war into other quarters."

And that is fairly straightforward when his descriptions of the New York countryside are being read.

Not reading that is a huge crime in itself

Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum'

I got about two thirds of the way through it, feeling quite pleased with myself that I was managing to stay with what was generally thought of as a 'challenging' read. And then it just went utterly bonkers and I realised that I actually didn't have a clue what I'd been reading. I put it down in disgust and have never finished it since.

Oh, I didn't finish Umberto Eco's Baudolino, though I wanted to.

I tend not to finish novels because of outside (usually work or study related) circumstances rather than because I don't like them. I often find it hard starting a novel these days, simply because I know something will come along that means I'm going to have to stop reading it before it ends.

I rarely pick up novels for very similar reasons. I mostly enjoy novels, but I always feel that I shoud be keeping up with something else.


I read that in the summer between finishing school and starting college. From what I remember, it gets very turgid indeed about halfway through. I doubt I'd re-read it, so I wouldn't feel guilty about not finishing it if I were you.