It has taken me 20 years to get thru this book.....

I can hardly believe it

A boyfriend gave me Love in the Time of Cholera 20 years ago, saying it was the greatest love story he'd ever read. I have dragged this book all over and could never get into it...

But I was determined to get thru it this weekend! Did I love it? Not a bit. I feel guilty as I know many people love it.

Anyone else holding onto books that they mean to get thru? My other half thinks it's a girl thing, as he gives a book two pages to get into and then tosses aside..

Interestingly enough, it was One Hundred Years of Solitude that I absolutely gave up on; I actually enjoyed Love in the time of Cholera! I wouldn't say it is my favourite though, so I understand why it took you ages.

It took me an entire semester to read it.  And it was my fun read.  Dh read it and recommended it.  It was good, but not a favourite. 

Sadly, I'm like your other half.  It has a chapter to get me sucked in.  If I don't get sucked in, I'm not reading it. 

James Joyce's Ulysses was started more times than I can remember.  I would always lose interest when he was on the beach with that damn dog.  I finally finished when I was sick with a fever. I guess being delirious with fever finally gave me the capacities to follow Joyce's steam of consciousness. 

I loved both One Hundred Years of Solitudeand Love in the Time of Cholera.

Ayn Rand The Fountainhead.  Just never can get past the first 50 pages. 

For me, it's Lord of the Rings.  I made it through about chapter 4 of the first book, but it couldn't hold my attention so I dropped it.  A shame considering how much good things I'd heard about it.  Maybe I'll try again someday...

A person shouldn't feel guilty about not enjoying reading a book no matter how classic it is.  There are enough books out there to satisfy everyone and you can never read them all--so I say give it a chance and if you don't like it, try another one until you find what you like!

I absolutely *loved* The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was 23.  I tried reading them again 15 years later and couldn't get through the first couple chapters (Hey--that's what the movie is for!  )

I had to read Pride and Prejudice for school when I was 15 and thought it was boring for the most part.  I've recently re-read it--*twice* I found it so engrossing and wonderful!

I have a friend who takes it personally that I don't like books she reccommends to me--how silly is that?    Sorry, I just can't get into Harry Potter past the first two or three books--nothing personal!

How funny. I went to IMDB to see if they'd ever made a film of it.......and there's one about to be released with Javier Bardem in the lead....


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0484740/

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow was like that for me.  I tried to give it a chance but I found it just terrible.  Usually I can read a book in a day if I really enjoy it, that one took me months and months. 

I used to force myself to finish books, no matter how tough I found it. But over the last few years, I've come to the realisation that life's too short to waste time reading something I don't enjoy. I'm getting very good at just closing the book and putting it aside. Permanently. 

Moby Dick, War and Peace and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Try as I might, just can't do it.

When I was 14 someone recommended I read The Hobbit.  I absolutely loathed it, but forced myself to finish it.  It was such a miserable experience that I began a 50-page rule.  If I can't get remotely interested in a book by page 50, I put it down and never look back.  Some of my '50 Pagers': The Grapes of Wrath, 1984, Great Expectations, and The DaVinci Code (although I did go back and read it a few months later after my mother badgered me incessantly).

Crime and Punishment. Just... ugh. I *KNOW* it's supposed to be this way, but I just cannot get interested in a book that makes you feel so poor, downtrodden, and dirty with every page turned. That said, I only finished A Tale of Two Cities because it was required reading!

That said, I only finished A Tale of Two Cities because it was required reading!

I had to force myself through the first half, but once you get to the Bastille it gets MUCH better, don't you think?

It used to drive my teacher nuts - I would rather take a zero on a paper than force myself to read something I hated.

I had to force myself through the first half, but once you get to the Bastille it gets MUCH better, don't you think?

It used to drive my teacher nuts - I would rather take a zero on a paper than force myself to read something I hated.

Yes exactly! I'm one of the 'one to two chapters to snag me or I'm done' crowd, so I was much happier when it finally got more interesting. The beginning was agonizing, though.

I must confess, I didn't read The Importance of Being Ernest and my teacher got pretty upset when I refused to read it. I just could not for the life of me get interested in that book. I didn't even like the movie they did of it in more recent years.