10 most difficult books to finish (from The guardian)

[Josephus]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2012/nov/03/10-most-difficult-books-in-pictures

1. Umbrella by Will Self

2. Alphabetical Africa by Walter Abish

3. Ethics by Baruch Spinoza

4. The Unconsoled by Kazauo Ishiguro

5. The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil

6. Das Kapital by Karl Marx

7. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

8. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

9. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

10. The Unfortunates by BS Johnson.

So I've only finished one of these (Das Kapital).

[merithyn]

Only one I've tried is Finnegan's Wake, and I finished it without a problem. Most of the others I've never even heard of.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Yeah, I read Finnegan's Wake and it wasn't really hard to finish.

Some of those books are hard to read cover to cover. Like I've read Ethics and Das Kapital, but these are philosophical/political type works and lay out a bunch of ideas etc. They're not really designed to be novel type books. You can get a lot out of both by referencing passages on key issues and you don't necessarily get a lot out of just reading it cover to cover without breaking them down.

[CountDeMoney]

I don't see how The Unconsoled is considered difficult to finish.  Esoteric yes, but not difficult.  And Das Kapital?  C'mon.

Probably the most difficult book I ever tried to read was Rushie's Satanic Verses when it first came out;  but, after many years and many college credits in Islam later, I tried it again and enjoyed it immensely.

I used Tolkien's Silmarillion as a doorstop for decades.  Dear God, what a turgid mess.

[DGuller]

I read several books a year, and yet I've never seen any of these books.  My list would include The Wealth of Nations.  My guess is that 95% of the readers give up right after the non-benevolent butcher on the third page.

[Valmy]

Das Kapital was especially hard for Marx to finish.

[Barrister]

Crime and Punishment would head my own personal list of "hard to finish" books.

[CountDeMoney]

My list would include The Wealth of Nations.  My guess is that 95% of the readers give up right after the non-benevolent butcher on the third page.

That was as dry as the Sahara.  Had to read that in little bits.

[Valmy]

I read several books a year, and yet I've never seen any of these books.  My list would include The Wealth of Nations.  My guess is that 95% of the readers give up right after the non-benevolent butcher on the third page.

I read that in High School.  My only recollection is a nail maker being used as an example of specialization.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Wealth of Nations is one of those ones like Ethics or Das Kapital I've referenced specific parts of before, but don't know that I've ever read it entirely through.

A lot of older political/economic/philosophical treatises I've treated that way. The only ones I think I've read all the way through are ones like The Prince (short), The Republic (the mark of a gentleman and thus a requisite reading to be part of polite society), and a few other really important ones or ones that happen to not be too long.

But yeah, what I find odd about that list is the only three books I've read on the list are the only ones I've ever heard of, never heard of the rest of that list. I'd expect to see other well known difficult to read things like Ulysses or Crime and Punishment on there (both of which I've not read but am aware of..)

[Grey Fox]

In French literrature it would just be anything written by the Naturalist movement authors. Damn things are long just for the sake of being long.

2-3 pages sentences are too often the norm.

[Josephus]

Crime and Punishment would head my own personal list of "hard to finish" books.

Really? That's Dos's easiest book. Try Brothers Karamazov if you have trouble with that! Crime...is my all time favourite novel, I 've read it at least four times.

[Barrister]

Crime and Punishment would head my own personal list of "hard to finish" books.

Really? That's Dos's easiest book. Try Brothers Karamazov if you have trouble with that! Crime...is my all time favourite novel, I 've read it at least four times.

Yeah, really.

Now this was back in my teens, but I think I made about 3 attempts at it.  Couldn't do it.

[CountDeMoney]

The Republic (the mark of a gentleman and thus a requisite reading to be part of polite society),

That one's better to digest in bits as well, as opposed to a cover-to-cover endurance race.

I'd expect to see other well known difficult to read things like Ulysses or Crime and Punishment on there (both of which I've not read but am aware of..)

I was surprised there wasn't a single Russian on that list, either.  And there are so many candidates to chose from.

[garbon]

My list would include War and Peace - and the Bible. I always get bored.