Mein Kampf of reading Mein Kampf.

Buona Fortuna

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

I've tried reading Catch 22 twice now and can't make it past around 70 pages, I just find it to be a bit ****. It might have been biting satire for its time, but it's aged badly

I actually went for a beer after reading Crime and Punishment to congratulate myself. I ended up enjoying it, but it was such hard work

You know it all makes sense on page 74

GoodKill

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Was that the buck with the stupid songs?

It was.

So frustrating. Just when you get to the end of one and think an actual answer is coming he pipes up again! Awful stuff.

Samaris

I can't be dealing with the Russian classics at all, and I've tried Crime and Punishment, -waded- through War and Peace in my teens and made a run at Anna Karanina. Probably won't bother with any of them again.

Figbiscuithead

kfallon wrote: »

Emma, read it as part of Leaving Cert English....turned me off books for life

Emma was an absolute arsehole! Bint of the highest order!



The Sun Also Rises. The man couldn't write and it's as simple as that - it's a **** book because the man simply couldn't string a coherent, interesting sentence together. The whole book read is if it was written by a 4th class child. Brutal beyond belief.


I've some Belgium beers so you've caught me at a particularly ranty time. Sorry 'bout that governer!

Ally Dick

namloc1980 wrote: »

Hard Times by Charles Dickens was the worst book I've ever read. Did it for the Leaving Cert and it was so tedious and drawn out that I actually never managed to read it in full. Relied on those "notes" books for the exam. Did pretty well too!

I like most of Dickens stuff, but I didn't like the character with the lisp in Hard Times, where Dickens insisted on spelling what he said to include the lisp. Very hard to read

MRnotlob606

Voltex wrote: »

Free To Choose by Milton Friedman. Its like Fox News's Hannity on steroids...but without the empathy.

Milton Friedman, now there's an actual príck of a man.Him and Ayn Rand are inadvertently responsible for creating the modern republican party with their free market -law of the jungle jargon.

hidinginthebush

Bulbous Salutation wrote: »

Catch 22. One moderately funny joke spread out over 350 pages.

Its like one really long, really bad episode of MASH

JPNelsforearm

Anything by Roddy Doyle, I cringe when reading his dialogue, even worse is when fb friends "like" his Dublin dialogue take on the issue of the day on facebook, terrible terrible writing.

Anything Marxist in nature, its like Ayn Rand, but with boredom and cult levels usually raised over 9000

Zillah

JPNelsforearm wrote: »

Anything Marxist in nature, its like Ayn Rand, but with boredom and cult levels usually raised over 9000

So...like Ayn Rand?

padd b1975

Robinson Crusoe.

I thought he'd never get to the part where he became shipwrecked.

El Weirdo

I love Morrissey, and I was really looking forward to his autobiography, but it turned out to be a load of ridiculously verbose bollocks.

Corpus Twisty

Anything written by Sidney Sheldon.

Zaph

The Female Man by Joanna Russ. It was recommended to me by a guy in a bookshop who'd always been spot on with his recommendations, but I never listed to him again after that. It's feminist science fiction apparently, but all I remember is it being the most tedious pile of badly written sh*te I'd ever come across.

Honourable mention to The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It's about an old man. In a boat. On the sea. It's also about 126 pages too long (Wikipedia says it has 127) as it could all be summarised in a paragraph or two and then nobody would have to endure it for more than a couple of minutes.

Exclamation Marc

...And Justice wrote: »

Can you just leave the aethiest bollocks out for one thread?

Chill out, it was a joke. Nothing religious at all mate.

On a serious note, I found The Sound and The Fury extremely difficult to follow with so many narrators and their 'style'.
I also tried to pick up Infinite Jest but giving it the usual scan terrified me. Hundreds of endnotes and some of the endnotes have footnotes, not to mention the sheer size of it.

Carry

Cecilia Ahern. Tried to read her first book, to learn what all the fuss was about. Couldn't get past the first few pages whithout getting sick 'twas so bad.

De bello Gallico. I Will Never Forgive Caesar. Only Asterix rescued me.

thegreatgonzo

The Sun King wrote: »

Like a fascist, one testicled, vegetarian one trick pony comedian (won't name names) this guy keeps hammering away at the same old shtick for near 700 pages. He has about ten points that get constantly rehashed. You'd get more variety in a slew of romantic comedies ffs...... What's the most tedious book you've ever read? Any suggestions?

Atlas Shrugged. I read it when I was stranded in a small town for a few days while travelling and had no other ways of passing the time. You pretty much described it in the quote above.

Buona Fortuna

padd b1975 wrote: »

Robinson Crusoe.

I thought he'd never get to the part where he became shipwrecked.

Tried it too years ago. Mainly because I loved the old b&w series that was on tv when I was a kid.

meeeeh

Zaph wrote: »

Honourable mention to The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It's about an old man. In a boat. On the sea. It's also about 126 pages too long (Wikipedia says it has 127) as it could all be summarised in a paragraph or two and then nobody would have to endure it for more than a couple of minutes.

Hehehe. I didn't like that one either. I swear there are non-classics I don't like too. I lasted about half way of Gone Girl. There must be some serious twist at the end because it's seriously predictable up to where I stopped reading. Third book from Millennium series is bad. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has good storyline but it's badly written. Second one has weaker story and style doesn't improve and the third one is just bad. Da Vinci Code must be one of the worst books I actually finished.

However I do actually like Russian realism.

The Pheasant2

War and Peace...even starting the book I knew my failure to finish would be inevitable.

blackcard

Ulysses

Micky Dolenz

The Sun King wrote: »

I actually enjoyed that one. Didn't relate to the guy or anything, just a fun little read

I liked it too.

Junkyard Tom

There's nothing you can get from a book you can't get from a television faster.

Samaris

Argh, James Joyce! There is something dementedly musical about reading his insanity aloud;

“A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”

And of course, the classic;

“bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-nuk!"

But there is a very limited amount of his lunacy I can deal with.

JPNelsforearm

Martin Amis, from Money to Lionel Asbo
Complete hack, just terrible, unfunny, overlong, crude. With Money, its basically a hack version of what American Psycho is, Lionel Asbo is just terrible, Amis is just a dull writer, who cant write comedy, yet persists.

Everything by Brett Easton Ellis since American Psycho,I like large chunks of Glamorama, but all his other work is simply steadily declining versions of what he has already said.

Vojera

cml387 wrote: »

Pride and Prejudice. Can't get the point, at all.

Pride and Prejudice is the only book I've ever given up on before the end. I tried reading it twice and both times got as far as Chapter 16 before calling it a day.

I know some people love it, but I found 100 Years of Solitude incredibly tedious. When I got to the end I was just glad it was over. Some scenes stand out to me but if you were to ask me what the book is about, I honesty couldn't tell you.

Wibbs

Deleted User wrote: »

'Tis all well and good for you to say that now, but FFS who in their right minds was ever going to tell yer man his book was sh!te?

Quite a few did actually. The non nazi controlled newspapers for one were screaming headlines of warning about this eejit. He was hounded and exposed by a couple of newspapers and reporters. Some extremely brave men and women involved in the German press and a few died for their criticisms later on. One chap whose name embarrassingly escapes me really rattled Hitler's cage and when he came to power this reporter was "disappeared" without trace, tortured and then murdered. A good while later his wife recieved an envelope containing her husbands bloodstained glasses.

Yea LOTR bored me to bloody tears very rapidly I have to say. Those other two on the teenage reading list, Catcher in the Rye and Atlas Shrugged ditto.

Dyr

JPNelsforearm wrote: »

Anything by Roddy Doyle, I cringe when reading his dialogue, even worse is when fb friends "like" his Dublin dialogue take on the issue of the day on facebook, terrible terrible writing.

Anything Marxist in nature, its like Ayn Rand, but with boredom and cult levels usually raised over 9000

I've actually banned, burned, unliked, reported and everything else roddy doyle on facebook so I don't have to see the muck dialogue he posts on topical subjects

If he was writing that cringey guff in a south london stylee he'd be strung up for racism innit

endacl

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Moby Dick.

Awful.

Terrible.

Unfathomably tedious.

Finished it though.

You got through it!

Great book.

asherbassad

Grapes of Wrath got the better of me. I couldn't finish it.

I was a little down at the time of reading it anyway so I had to sling it back in the book box and find something else.

Howard the Duck

Medusa22 wrote: »

I tried to read 'Lord of the Rings' but I gave up quite quickly, the excessive amount of tedious details, yawn.

It's really just the story of a bunch of short people who enjoy long rambles in the countryside..with the odd fight thrown in. He wrote this book for his kids and you can tell he used to read it to them at night in an effort to get them to fall asleep. I'd say they were the best rested kids at their school.

PopePalpatine

Wibbs wrote: »

Quite a few did actually. The non nazi controlled newspapers for one were screaming headlines of warning about this eejit. He was hounded and exposed by a couple of newspapers and reporters. Some extremely brave men and women involved in the German press and a few died for their criticisms later on. One chap whose name embarrassingly escapes me really rattled Hitler's cage and when he came to power this reporter was "disappeared" without trace, tortured and then murdered. A good while later his wife recieved an envelope containing her husbands bloodstained glasses.

Are you referring to Fritz Gerlich?

The most tedious book I can remember reading was probably "A Feast For Crows". It just became a bit of a grind to get through, and IIRC that's when GRRM wrote himself into a corner in one of the storylines.

topper75

The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. Supposed to be one of the great 20th century novels.
Stream of concsiousness nonsense that is supposed to ultimately clarify. Just, it doesn't. Stay away.

I wouldn't bother with that rubbish propaganda tome by the 'former chancellor', but when you can link his attitude to jews in Germany with a 2015 western european having to endure random bombings and gun attacks along with hordes of welfare tourists turning up on their doorstep with the hand out - all I can picture is Evil Kneivel jumping over 20 double decker buses on his motorbike.

recylingbin

Bulbous Salutation wrote: »

Catch 22. One moderately funny joke spread out over 350 pages.

Came in to say this but think you're being overly kind with the moderately description.

super_furry

The Mayor of Casterbridge. I'd rather stab myself in the bollocks than have to read it again.

Sheeps

The only way to own a book is to never read it.

c_man

I dislike those books whose ideological position/narrative I don't agree with. Funnily enough, they're all badly written and I blame lots of todays woes on them.

Joeface

I took up reading some of the "Classics" a few years back , went out and bought a few copies of "Catcher in the Rye" . It was Ok didn't love it didn't hate it. Then Read Lord of the Flies . Actually enjoyed that.

But the Lord of the Rings and Wheel of time series . The amount of detail describing the shape of the leaves on the trees while building up to someone saying a sentence just turned me off them . Couldn't get myself focused on finishing any of them.

I have been toying with the Idea of reading some Tolstoy , just un sure I can allocate that much time to reading.

As for Mein Kampf , was any of it even remotely interesting as a look into gullible madness of an blindly corrupted mind.

Letree

Manufactured Miracle wrote: »

The Bible. Meandering character development and inconsistent storyline.

Go on be brave joke about the other one..

KomradeBishop

Naked Lunch - the most incomprehensible batshít book I've forced myself to read. It made up for it though, with a couple of unexpected moments that were insanely funny.

To give an idea of the inspiration for the book: The entire last (supplementary) chapter, is an encyclopedia of most known mind-altering drugs at the time, all of which he was likely on while writing the book.

inforfun

Great Expectations.

Disappointing.

RikkFlair

Have a few chapters left of Moby Dick, gave up halfway through but returned to it after about a year.

All those in depth descriptions of the narwhal's anatomy will come in handy later in life, I'm sure of it :pac:

meeeeh

I think I actually borrowed Mein Kampf for a high school sociology essay on Nazism. I can't remember anything about it which probably means I was too lazy to read it and found some condensed version about Nazi ideas somewhere else and copied that.

Stephen Gawking

A friend recommended I read a book called 'the ragged trousered philanthropist' by a guy called Robert Trestle (a pseudonym I think). Biggest load of fúckshyte I have ever attempted to read. So bad that it'd give a Disprin a headache!

That was back in 1994. I never finished it. Having recently moved house I came across it whilst doing a clear out. Couldn't put it into the bin quick enough!!!

aine92

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin. Most difficult read EVER, he is an awful awful writer. Interesting content but christ his style makes it terribly difficult to get through.

The Sun King

Joeface wrote: »

I took up reading some of the "Classics" a few years back , went out and bought a few copies of "Catcher in the Rye" . It was Ok didn't love it didn't hate it. Then Read Lord of the Flies . Actually enjoyed that.

But the Lord of the Rings and Wheel of time series . The amount of detail describing the shape of the leaves on the trees while building up to someone saying a sentence just turned me off them . Couldn't get myself focused on finishing any of them.

I have been toying with the Idea of reading some Tolstoy , just un sure I can allocate that much time to reading.

As for Mein Kampf , was any of it even remotely interesting as a look into gullible madness of an blindly corrupted mind.

We must keep our blood pure.

2 seconds later.

The damn Jews keep their blood pure.

2 seconds later.

The damn Jews have dirty blood and mix with ours.

Well which is it man?!!

ClovenHoof

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Ramblings of delusional minds are delusional. Sniffing mustard gas will do that to you.

Actually is not all like that. It is also very interesting and at times, a bit too intense. It was probably mostly written by Rudolf Hess anyway.

In terms of being delusional it would be no less than boards civil servants lovingly holding Audacity of Hope by Obama who then went on to be more of a freedom wrecking imperialist than Dubya.

Figbiscuithead

super_furry wrote: »

The Mayor of Casterbridge. I'd rather stab myself in the bollocks than have to read it again.

Did you have to read it for school? That turned me off it too but for some reason, I gave it another chance in my early twenties along with Thomas Hardy's other books and he's been in my top 3 ever since.

namloc1980

Howard the Duck wrote: »

It's really just the story of a bunch of short people who enjoy long rambles in the countryside..with the odd fight thrown in. He wrote this book for his kids and you can tell he used to read it to them at night in an effort to get them to fall asleep. I'd say they were the best rested kids at their school.

By the time he finished the book and published it his youngest child was 25. Perhaps you should consider some fantasy writing - you clearly have the imagination for it.

LDN_Irish

namloc1980 wrote: »

By the time he finished the book and published it his youngest child was 25. Perhaps you should consider some fantasy writing - you clearly have the imagination for it.

Obviously took him a long time to write all that painstaking boring detail.

Zaph

asherbassad wrote: »

Grapes of Wrath got the better of me. I couldn't finish it.

I was a little down at the time of reading it anyway so I had to sling it back in the book box and find something else.

In fairness, if you weren't already down when you started reading it you would have been by the end. I remember reading The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row when I was in school. For some odd reason I thought that if I persisted Steinbeck's books would get better. They didn't.