Wednesday, April 25, 2012

What's a classic book you just can't finish?

It's Wednesday. That means it's question time. This time it's about classic books that you just can't finish.

I have one, and I may have mentioned it here before. Catch 22. I just can't get past the circular logic. I know that the circular logic is the point of the book and how none of it's supposed to make sense, but it drives me crazy. I can't get past it. I've tried a couple of times, and I always make it about halfway through the book then get so frustrated I have to put it down.

I really want to finish it, but I can't. There are other classics that I've read that I didn't think were all that good. But at least I got through those. Catch 22 just stops me dead every time.

Your turn to share. What is a book that's considered a classic that you just can't seem to get through? It may be the writing. It may be the characters. Whatever it is, you just can't push to the end.

4 comments:

  1. "A Tale of Two Cities." I've read every one of Dicken's books at least twice, but I can't get past the first few chapters of this one. I can't figure it out.

    Strangely enough, when I first started reading Jane Austen I couldn't get into "Emma" either. It took me a year longer to read it after I'd read all the others a couple of times. But with ATOTC it's been five years already since I first picked it up. There it sits on the bookshelf by my bed, accusing me daily.

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  2. High school ruined Dickens for me. Seems that anything I had to study as a kid I wind up not liking much as an adult.

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  3. I have never been able to read any Jane Austen. I just don't see the appeal.

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  4. Margaret --
    Is it the language? The plot? All of it?

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