Most Unreadable Books

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03-07-2010, 02:14 AM
jack burden

Most Unreadable Books

What books have you tried reading but could not get through because the writing was too shitty or deliberately obscure?

Finnegans Wake is my choice. I read through Naked Lunch but I didn't understand it. But Finnegans Wake is just obnoxious.

also anything and everything ayn rand has ever put on paper
03-07-2010, 02:29 AM
no_brains_no_worries

I'm with you on Naked Lunch. It was just a bitch.
03-07-2010, 07:51 AM
gwahir

da vinci code
03-07-2010, 11:02 AM
simonj

Twilight
Silas Marner
Any Jane Austen
03-07-2010, 09:07 PM
coqauvin

A Clockwork Orange

I got two chapters into it and said 'fuck this noise'
03-07-2010, 11:45 PM
jack burden

Quote:

Originally Posted by coqauvin

A Clockwork Orange

I got two chapters into it and said 'fuck this noise'

If you print out a list of what the words mean and cheat by referencing it for the first few chapters it gets easy.
03-08-2010, 02:51 PM
coqauvin

i shouldn't have to do that unless i want to read a book written in another language

i mean, i could pick up what they were trying to say by context, but it was just too much work and didn't catch my attention enough for it. now i know how semi-literate people feel
03-09-2010, 02:45 AM
jack burden

Quote:

Originally Posted by coqauvin

i shouldn't have to do that unless i want to read a book written in another language

i mean, i could pick up what they were trying to say by context, but it was just too much work and didn't catch my attention enough for it. now i know how semi-literate people feel

yeah i wouldn't normally do it either
03-09-2010, 04:23 PM
UnreasonablyReasonable

Fellowship of the Ring. Made it about halfway through and couldn't take the unnecessary descriptions. It eventually got to the point where I didn't care at all about the story anymore. Maybe I'd actually finish the books now after I've seen the movies.
03-09-2010, 07:03 PM
gwahir

god, it's been about five years since i was a lord of the rings nerd, and yet it still hurts me inside when people say they don't like the books

:(
03-09-2010, 08:58 PM
Nermy2k

yeah i got through about 11 pages of Atlas Shrugged (0.000000000000000000000001%)
03-09-2010, 10:20 PM
coqauvin

more than me

i read 1 x 10^-∞ of it
03-11-2010, 12:04 AM
babar

Twilight was a bit of a struggle to get through for me.
03-11-2010, 03:16 PM
coqauvin

you can read?
03-11-2010, 03:39 PM
simonj

No, hence the struggle.
03-11-2010, 08:12 PM
babar

Quote:

Originally Posted by simonj

No, hence the struggle.

^ this.
03-15-2010, 05:54 AM
no_brains_no_worries

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack burden

If you print out a list of what the words mean and cheat by referencing it for the first few chapters it gets easy.

I actually did this. Though it's pretty lame, watch the movie first and then read the book. It kinda helps.
03-15-2010, 04:19 PM
Think

Quote:

Originally Posted by coqauvin

you can read?

someone put the subtitles on and he got too confused to follow it
03-17-2010, 06:41 PM
jack burden

Quote:

Originally Posted by no_brains_no_worries

I actually did this. Though it's pretty lame, watch the movie first and then read the book. It kinda helps.

I'm big on reading books before I see their movie adaptations (if I care enough) because the book is usually better. If you see the movie first it kind of ruins the book.
03-17-2010, 06:46 PM
simonj

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack burden

I'm big on reading books before I see their movie adaptations (if I care enough) because the book is usually better. If you see the movie first it kind of ruins the book.

I completely disagree which is why I do it vice versa.
03-17-2010, 08:35 PM
Mr. E

All I have to say is "fuck Heidegger"

Being and Time made me want to smash my head against a wall.
03-19-2010, 02:22 AM
jack burden

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. E

All I have to say is "fuck Heidegger"

Being and Time made me want to smash my head against a wall.

Also Hegel.
03-21-2010, 03:03 PM
TheDudeFish

100 years of solitude by gabriel garcia marquez

seriously just what the fuck
03-21-2010, 03:24 PM
simonj

Yeah, definitely. I could not get a grip on that book whatsoever.
03-21-2010, 05:00 PM
thank mr skeltal

I read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and so then naturally read his next book Quicksilver, but just couldn't bear another huge, slowly developing book in the Baroque Cycle. I've read several of his earlier books (Snow Crash is my favorite book of all time) but his newer books are just far too much work for a casual reader. Very good books, I am certain, but too much work for me.
03-21-2010, 10:23 PM
Atmosfear

Fellowship of the Ring was terrible. I put it down at least 3 times.

I still haven't read the whole series. Better off without it.

I didn't see the last movie either, I'm pretty sure.
03-22-2010, 01:05 AM
coqauvin

the silmarillion

seriously, i could get through the fountainhead, but this is taking even longer
03-22-2010, 01:58 AM
gwahir

i got through the silmarillion

in the depths of my lord of the rings fandom, that is
03-22-2010, 02:54 AM
<JANE>

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack burden

Also Hegel.

If we're doing philosophy then Baudrillard's Fatal Strategies is pretty horrible to get through. He turned into such an attention seeking bitch in the 80's, like Cher.
Most of it is to do with the fact that they're poorly translated in parts, or haven't been re-translated in a long time.
03-22-2010, 08:45 AM
Think

ok this is continental philosophy by readability are you ready

(ARE YOU ON SOMETHING DUDE)
Lacan
Baudrillard
Derrida
Heidegger
Hegel
Foucault
Deleuze
Schelling
Adorno (& Horkheimer)
Marcuse
Habermas
Zizek
Fichte
Spinoza
Leibniz
Kant
Sartre
Kierkegaard
Nietzsche
(OK I AM FOLLOWING YOU)

Analytics are a lot easier to read but their greatest philosophers have less to say than the greatest continentals.
And they tend to perpetuate the myth that "readability" and importance have some sort of correlation. In fact, Heidegger, Hegel and Kant are all very important and the less worthwhile philosophers are pretty evenly spread
03-22-2010, 09:40 AM
Mr. E

I agree completely. Heidegger did make me want to shoot myself, but once you effectively translate his thoughts they really are profound. At least I think they are, lol.
03-22-2010, 05:53 PM
sycld

saying this is going to make me look like an idiot, but fuck all i am an idiot so whatever.

fitzgerald's translation of the iliad. that's sycld the idiot's hard read. so there.

okay in my defense the last time i tried to read it was when when i was 15 but i think it still qualifies me an idiot.
03-22-2010, 06:13 PM
simonj

Quote:

Originally Posted by sycld

okay in my defense the last time i tried to read it was when when i was 15 but i think it still qualifies me an idiot.

Actually that was what clinched it.
03-22-2010, 07:42 PM
Mr. E

Hehe, I had to read Fitzgerald's translation of the Iliad in my high school freshman english/world history/geography class. I remember it being annoying but manageable.
03-22-2010, 08:49 PM
Mr. E

Chris Evans has been confirmed as Captain America.

Carry on.
04-08-2010, 04:46 PM
Husein

Hegel is hard to get through. Žižek is obscurantist. Ayn Rand is a piece of shit pseudo-philosopher.

I could trod through Hegel and Žižek, but my eyes would pretty much roll around until they fell out if I was forced to read Rand.
04-08-2010, 06:33 PM
Nermy2k
All of the following:
- New Albania
- A Coming of Age: Albania under Enver Hoxha
- The Albanians: A Modern History
- The Albanians: An Ethnic History From Prehistoric Times to the Present
- Albania Today and Albania Defiant
04-08-2010, 08:03 PM
Husein

All written in simple English and not at all long books, so you fail at being witty.
04-08-2010, 08:41 PM
simonj

mirdie does not understand wit
04-09-2010, 03:53 AM
Husein

Quote:

Originally Posted by simonj

mirdie does not understand wit

Of course I do... sometimes.

ryaza: hallo
Husein: Yo
Husein: YOOOOOOOOO
ryaza: MAMA
ryaza: IS
Husein: an austrian economist
Husein: ergo she's fat and ugly and stupid
Husein: MUCH LIKE ROTHBARD
04-09-2010, 04:03 AM
gwahir

okay buddy listen if you keep infecting every thread ever with your INCREDIBLY boring single topic of conversation i will ban you

i'm not going to argue in this thread (and i don't care who started it because you play along every time) but just know that it's coming if you keep being boring

nobody gets to be one-note around here especially if their one note is as boring and unsightly as yours

edit: i really mean that i will not argue in this thread
04-09-2010, 07:33 PM
Think

Quote:

Originally Posted by Husein

Hegel is hard to get through. Žižek is obscurantist. Ayn Rand is a piece of shit pseudo-philosopher.

I could trod through Hegel and Žižek, but my eyes would pretty much roll around until they fell out if I was forced to read Rand.

Can't believe you didn't take the opportunity to discuss the frankfurt school

I wouldn't call Žižek an obscurantist, and Rand is a philosopher, provided you're willing to place her prior to Parmenides in the history of philosophy (that was an incredibly nerdy zing)

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