Books or audiobooks that you just didn’t get into

[eggman]

I thought I’d start a thread about books or audiobooks that you just couldn’t get into no matter how bad you really wanted to like them.

I’ll start off with my recent audiobook I really tried to like. Bram Stokers Dracula. I listened to it for several hours and the more I listened to it the more I didn’t like it. It got to the point where it was like listening to someone reading from a journal.

I know this this a classic novel. But not my cup of tea.

I’ve read books that my wife didn’t like and I have enjoyed them. Different strokes for different folks.

What books have you tried to read and didn’t like? Someone else may try them after you say why you didn’t like them.

 

[Brewdude]

A few that I struggled with and gave up on -

Beowulf
Ulysses
Most Charles Dickens
A Suez Crisis history book
Rasputin
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire


Cheers,

RR

 

[D.L.Ruth]

I have listened to the first few hours of Moby Dick on multiple occasions, I just lose interest in it. I am not sure if it is the narrator of the actual story, but I always just end up giving up on it. I'll make it through at some point lol.

 

[user 2027]

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[Zeno Marx]

I have listened to the first few hours of Moby Dick on multiple occasions, I just lose interest in it. I am not sure if it is the narrator of the actual story, but I always just end up giving up on it. I'll make it through at some point lol.

It's the story. I obviously don't know which version you are playing, but Moby Dick is a long slog as a book and story. It's also a rewarding story. DUH, it's a classic, but I know a few people, by my influence, who have all felt it was laborious. None of us have found it to be a book that you quickly and easily read. I can't imagine it being any different as audio.

 

[Valdus]

Perdido Street Station, too many characters with bugheads.

Dune, I think I read it thirty years too late. I do not believe it has survived the test of time. Though I do enjoy the tech-juxtaposition. Audio-tapes in a space-faring world. Awesome. I also am not too keen on heroes that you automatically see as a hero. I just don't think that Mua=Dib earned my awe.

There will be more, many more, but I can't think right now. Its too hot to smoke and I want to smoke.

 

[eggman]

DUNE, oh my goodness. I had forgotten all about that book. I tried to read it back in the 80’s after the movie came out. A good friend of mine told me it was a awesome book 10x’s better than the movie. But didn’t like the movie that much either. Now I wish I could forget it again.


I didn’t care for The Gunslinger by King from the dark tower series. I purchased it in a airport bookstore back in 2005 durning a very long layover. I tried a couple times to read it, but I just couldn’t get into it. I even borrowed the audiobook back in the spring to listen to while repairing a ceiling. I just couldn’t get into it.

 

[Brewdude]

I didn’t care for The Gunslinger by King from the dark tower series. I purchased it in a airport bookstore back in 2005 durning a very long layover. I tried a couple times to read it, but I just couldn’t get into it. I even borrowed the audiobook back in the spring to listen to while repairing a ceiling. I just couldn’t get into it.

Stephen King can frequently be obtuse or obscure. There has been several books that I read but didn't really "get".

That said, I do enjoy his style. All the more so on the current trilogy I'm reading. It may be down to understanding the author and his quirks. And I'm only a novice....

:!:



Cheers,

RR

 

[kingcobradude]

For me, it has to be James A. Michener's Centennial. I had to read it in middle school (iirc), and I absolutely could not follow along with it at all.

 

[Brunello]

As a newbie I've been looking at some of the older threads that aren't buried too deeply in the ancient archives and thought this idea was worth keeping alive.

I agree about Dune which never actively drew me in. As I read it was like peering through a dim window on some remote events. Moby Dick was also slow but, if you don't mind the forlorn mindset it puts you in, worth the effort.

All I can say about Ulysses by James Joyce is that if a person could write a novel while in a drunken stupor, this is it.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco was also critically acclaimed but I never connected with it.

More recently I slogged through Neal Stephenson's 998-page Anathem. which some critics were saying was the best Sci-Fi novel of the last two decades. Really? I did enjoy Stephenson's Seveneves which had a lot of interesting ideas to ponder. But with Anathem the tedium of describing meals, or walking from room to room, as an attempt to make the setting seem real to the reader, is just too indulgent. Somewhere between page 450 and 550 I grew impatient and skipped over a hundred pages. It resumed as if I hadn't missed a thing. The ending was not worth the painful ordeal of getting there. Be curious to hear of others here had a different impression on this.

 

[DWSmith]

Lord of the Rings trilogy. I finished it but only because I forced myself to read it while commuting on the bus for a few hours every work day. (Please don't hate me! I loved The Hobbit.)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Everyone kept saying how great it is. Juvenile humor.

I'm glad I read this thread. I had planned to read Dune but not now.

 

[ThePreacher]

I have been a fan of Tom Clancy for a long time, but I downloaded "The Bear and the Dragon" and could not get into it at all.

 

[eggman]

I haven't thought about reading any of Tom Clancy's works. I can't remember hearing any of my family and friends saying that they read any of his books. However, my son did have some Clancy-based Xbox games that I tried to play.

I did like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I thought it was a good not to hard read.

 

[Haebar]

I read 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' way back in the day hiking on the Appalachian Trail and didn't get much out of it. Figured I hadn't been paying attention and started to read it again to see if I had missed some golden nugget that would make it more interesting, but gave up on it.

 

[ThePreacher]

I haven't thought about reading any of Tom Clancy's works. I can't remember hearing any of my family and friends saying that they read any of his books. However, my son did have some Clancy-based Xbox games that I tried to play.

I did like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I thought it was a good not to hard read.

The problem with them is that now that Tom Clancy is dead, the books just aren't as good. I fell in love with is work when I first read "The Hunt for Red October" Those books were very good. I have since switched to the Jack Reacher series

 

[gravel]

I read 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' way back in the day hiking on the Appalachian Trail and didn't get much out of it. Figured I hadn't been paying attention and started to read it again to see if I had missed some golden nugget that would make it more interesting, but gave up on it.

I had to read that in high school. The second review on Goodreads seems spot on. I’m sure if I read it with the benefit of life experience I would agree with some of the other reviewers. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Phaedrus, #1)