How many have you read

[GoogaMooga]

***HOW MANY HAVE YOU READ***

Books that you keep putting off:

Ulysses (James Joyce)
Finnegans Wake (James Joyce)
Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)
Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
In Search of Lost Time (Marcel Proust)
Don Quixote (Miguel De Cervantes)
Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pasternak)
Women in Love (D. H. Lawrence)

A book can be a daunting read for at least three valid reasons:

1. Too long
3. Too boring
3. Too complex

Or a book can be all of the above. Not sure where the books on the list would fall under, but I suspect they are 'all of the above' .
I honestly don't know if I will ever get through all ten books. Actually, Proust is seven volumes, so that means sixteen weighty books to read. I have no idea how long it will take. Could take a month, could take a year. Proust alone could take a year, I'm afraid. I remember how back in high school, students would buy a Classics Illustrated when they were assigned a heavy classic to read. No cutting corners now. Back then we had an excuse, or professed to have one, now it is for real.

[Darkness_Fish]

I've read 5 of those, Ulysses, Moby-Dick, Gravity's Rainbow, War and Peace, and Don Quixote. I've read Swann's Way, to, but couldn't find the rest of Lost Time for free.

War and Peace was easily the most engaging of all those, despite it being famously long and having a sweeping scope, all the characters are incredibly vivid, and it didn't feel like a difficult read. Unlike Anna Karenina which bored me rigid.

For the others, Ulysses was OK, but if one more person tells me the secret is to read it out loud... its a fucking book, not an overly long party trick. Thomas Pynchon is the least funny writer I've ever encountered, someone who thinks he's a character for wearing a cartoon tie. Moby Dick is a decent narrative ruined by pointless uninteresting digressions. Don Quixote is a big bag of fun, but it didn't need the second book.

[Limpin' Jez McKenzie]

Moby Dick, War and Peace, and Dr Zhivago

War and Peace is magnificent, or at least the translation I read was. The story is so good it is not hard to read, and I was surprised by the ending.That said, I didn't read the last 30 pages about how hard it us to write history (though I flicked through to make sure there was no more plot).

Moby Dick is one of my favourites - I loved all the digressions about whaling and sailing, and often point out the chapter called "The Cassock" as a sensational coup. I used to read bits of it to girlfriends.

I did not like Zhivago. The story is not that engaging, and Zhivago himself is uninteresting. This is not in remotely the same league as War and Peace.

I once read another book by Ayn Rand, and tge ideology made me want to vomit, so I won't be reading Atlas Shrugged any time soon (though my wife's copy is on our bookshelves).

If you want a hard book, read The Golden Bowl by Henry James - it is a challenging read, but the effort to pay attention is worth it because it is brilliant. Very possibly the greatest book I have read. [HoweverI would not insist that you plough on if you do not like it - life is too short to read stuff just to say you have read it.]

You could probably add Les Mis to this list - it is also brilliant.

[GoogaMooga]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, you could say life is too short to read any of those titles, but conversely, you can ask yourself if it really has been a full life withot having read at least a few of the titles.

"Remembrance of Things Past" is one for the bucket list; I think that is the one that speaks to me the most.

[Lord Rother]

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[The Fish]

Just the two monsters - Proust and Ulysses, amd yet I gave up on Gravitys Rainbow. Why would anyone want to read Ayn Rand ?

[BARON CORNY DOG]

None but I very much want to read most of them.
Well, 7.

[mudshark]

All but 3. I have Atlas Shrugged, but I gave up on that drivvel after 100 pages or so.

[GoogaMooga]

T'll try to pick the ones that I feel are essential reading for me:

Ulysses (James Joyce)
Finnegans Wake (James Joyce)
Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)
Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
In Search of Lost Time (Marcel Proust)
Don Quixote (Miguel De Cervantes)
Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pasternak)
Women in Love (D. H. Lawrence)

So that's two that I have to read, the others I'll see if I have time. "Gravity's Rainbow" is probably the one that I am least curious about.

[pcqgod]

I've read "Moby Dick." Pretty sure I picked up a copy of "Gravity's Rainbow" recently but didn't make much headway with it.

[Samoan]

1, Dr Zhivago - bleak overall but I did like some of the poems.

2, Women in Love (but you really need to read The Rainbow beforehand so you have a better understanding of the Brangwen family.)

[kath]

how many have i read as in cover-to-cover?

ulysses
gravity's rainbow
war and peace
don quixote
doctor zhivago
women in love

the ones i was sposed to read in a class, i read a lil smattering and decided oh fucque it, i can wing it:

finnegan's wake
moby dick

the one where even the title put me off and i went no further:

in search of lost time

and the just-fucque-right-off-and-rot award:

atlas shrugged


length is irrelevant to me. it is with a movie, too. the isssyew is if it's good enough to justify however long or short it is. as my dear old prof said once when a student asked him how long an essay should be, "how long do a dog's legs need to be to hit the ground?"

[Diamond Dog]

Only one -Moby Dick (rather aptly )- and I am currently reading Dr Zhivago.

I very rarely read fiction so the above isn't too much of a surprise.

[GoogaMooga]

That's another thing I've discovered as I got older - I am more interested in non-fiction nowadays, because I can double-up with other interests, too, and I learn new information. With a novel, however rewarding, I can't help but feel that I am investing time in something that doesn't pay off as immediately and directly as fact-filled non-fiction.

[Six String]

I have read none on the list but Rebecca has read five including Don Quixote in Spanish for her Spanish Lit. Degree.

[trans-chigley express]

Only Moby Dick, but based on what others have said I'd probably like War and Peace and should give it a go. I don't read much these days, never seem to find the time.

[robertff]

Think I might have taed "Women In Love' but can't remember, there was a time when I fead a lot of that sort of stuff - D.H. Lawrence, Gearge Elliot and Thomas Hardy.

Now if I can't get into a book reasonably quickly I don't bother going any further and get something else to read. Read a couple of fiction books recently that started off reasonably well and then petered out very disappointingly towards the end, consequently, I don't read much fiction these days, prefer to read autobiographies/biographies and non fiction.


.

[Johnny Fartpants]

Haven't read any of them and the thought of doing so bores me shitless. I've never been one of those who feels they "should" read this book, "should" watch this film or "should" listen to this album, because it is considered to be a "classic". I don't get people who will listen to a record over and over again until it "sinks in". I'll play an album once or twice and if it hasn't even started to gain my interest after that, then fuck it. I'm not going to try it again every couple of years because others say it's a great album. I'll listen to stuff I like, not what people say I should like.

And I know where talking about books not records, but it's the same principle.

[souphound]

Haven't read any of them and the thought of doing so bores me shitless. I've never been one of those who feels they "should" read this book, "should" watch this film or "should" listen to this album, because it is considered to be a "classic". I don't get people who will listen to a record over and over again until it "sinks in". I'll play an album once or twice and if it hasn't even started to gain my interest after that, then fuck it. I'm not going to try it again every couple of years because others say it's a great album. I'll listen to stuff I like, not what people say I should like.

And I know where talking about books not records, but it's the same principle.

I'm in the same boat. Add to this the fact that I am a very slow reader and a native francophone to boot, there is something like zero chance I'll ever read any of those.

(I might have mentioned this before, but having to tackle a couple of Shakespeares in my second year of learning English (age 13 or so) threw me off from this path. Plus, I've always been more of a Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov kind of guy anyway. Even in French, it would have been Jules Verne or Anatole France in my youth.)

[GoogaMooga]

Haven't read any of them and the thought of doing so bores me shitless. I've never been one of those who feels they "should" read this book, "should" watch this film or "should" listen to this album, because it is considered to be a "classic". I don't get people who will listen to a record over and over again until it "sinks in". I'll play an album once or twice and if it hasn't even started to gain my interest after that, then fuck it. I'm not going to try it again every couple of years because others say it's a great album. I'll listen to stuff I like, not what people say I should like.

And I know where talking about books not records, but it's the same principle.

I wouldn't read any of them because people say I should, either. For me it's a question of overcoming my laziness and opening one of them. I feel that sometimes pleasure takes a little work; in fact, for books I'd even say the greater the effort, the more rewarding a classic can be.