The books you didn't finish

[DavidB.]

I'm really close to drop lotr. I'm on page 800 (beginning of book 4) and really burned out. Any thoughts?

[Omega Supreme]

Can't help you here, it's only up to you.

Personally i love this book since i'm a kid but that's just me. If it bores you then stop before hating it.

[David Walton]

I'm really close to drop lotr. I'm on page 800 (beginning of book 4) and really burned out. Any thoughts?

I found LOTR both wonderful and frustrating. I'd go through stretches that seemed endless. And then I'd hit spots that flowed beautifully.

[Rabidwolfdog]

The Dean Koontz book I don't feel like finishing , Koontz just doesn't do it for me, good writer yeah but I dunno its like if Stephen King was a good beer, Koontz is like an okay lite beer

[Miss Fantastic]

Unless I missed it, can't believe I'm the first to mention a Charles Dickens book...tried to read Great Expectations and could absolutely never get into it. And it's probably shameful to say in light of the recent movie, but Les Miserables is another that never tickled my fancy during a reading attempt.

On the non-classic front, I had the Wheel of Time series recommended to me when I was in high school. Gave The Eye Of The World a stab, and it stabbed me back halfway through the novel. Eye started out rather good, but then already got too meandering and 'describing for describing's sake' at just before the halfway point. And when I learned that there were, at the time, seven (now fourteen!!) more books just like that, I immediately threw in the towel.

[Lord of the Unreal]

Mistborn- It took to long to get to anything extremely interesting.
Harry Potter 5- same reason, I got to page 504 and stopped.

[Omega Supreme]

I agree that HP 5 is a bit too long for its own good.

It's clearly my least favorite, the main story doesn't advance all that much and we end up yet again with one more of those prophecy child bullshits and the side stories are pretty much only Harry being a douche and Harry realizing that his father was also a douche.

Ah well, love the others books though.

[ItsFantastic]

Rick Riordan- Throne of Fire.

[dan bailey]

A few of mine have been mentioned previously, like Dune (got about 30 pages into it & realized that life was too short to subject myself to such tedium) & Moby Dick (read the first & last chapters for a lit class in college, just enough to allow me to write an "A" paper).

Others that come to mind --

Glory Road -- Robert A. Heinlein (he'd been a dull old fascist for quite some time by then, but for some reason this one was the straw that broke the camel's back for me when I tried to read it circa 1978)

The Computer Connection -- Alfred Bester (the protagonist proved to be unbearably ubermenschian [speaking of Heinlein!), or so it seemed to me at the time .,. again, around 1978)

Big Trouble -- J. Anthony Lukas (quite interesting, but so long [somewhere around 900 pages] that I tired out about 1/3rd of the way through. Unlike those mentioned above, though, I have every intention of going back & getting on this horse.)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- Dave Eggers (pretty decent, I guess, but I realized after 100-plus pages that I'd be just as happy if he & his brother were to burst into flames, which usually isn't a good sign).

[Graham Vingoe]

According to my Goodreads listings, I've marked the following as read in 2012-13 but not actually finished any of them:

Modem Times 2.0 - michael Moorcock
Darker Than You Think - Jack Williamson
The Complete Upmanship - Stephen Potter
Dark Benediction - Walter M Miller Jr.
The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil
The Android's Dream - John Scalzi
Waging Heavy Peace - Neil Young
The Testament of Jessie lamb - Jane Rogers
Steal Across the Sky - Nancy Kress
Stone - Adam Roberts
The Ritual - Adam Nevill
Deathless - Catherynne M Valente
The Dog Stars- Peter Heller
Sound Mind - Tricia Sullivan

Of that listing, I can truthfully say that I'm not likely to try with any of them again in future, and I still managed to finish 68 in the same timeframe so i don't feel tto bad

[berk]

A few of mine have been mentioned previously, like Dune (got about 30 pages into it & realized that life was too short to subject myself to such tedium) & Moby Dick (read the first & last chapters for a lit class in college, just enough to allow me to write an "A" paper).

Others that come to mind --

Glory Road -- Robert A. Heinlein (he'd been a dull old fascist for quite some time by then, but for some reason this one was the straw that broke the camel's back for me when I tried to read it circa 1978)

The Computer Connection -- Alfred Bester (the protagonist proved to be unbearably ubermenschian [speaking of Heinlein!), or so it seemed to me at the time .,. again, around 1978)

Big Trouble -- J. Anthony Lukas (quite interesting, but so long [somewhere around 900 pages] that I tired out about 1/3rd of the way through. Unlike those mentioned above, though, I have every intention of going back & getting on this horse.)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- Dave Eggers (pretty decent, I guess, but I realized after 100-plus pages that I'd be just as happy if he & his brother were to burst into flames, which usually isn't a good sign).

Glory Road is definitely one of mine as well: I can even pin-point the exact scene where I tossed the book aside. spoilers:

It's where the hero and heroine get in an argument to which the manly hero puts an end by threatening to give her a spanking - and she gives in.

end of spoilers. However, I seem to recall Slam Bradley of these boards half-convincing me to give it another try sometime because said scene wasn't quite as bad once you finished the book and knew more about the characters and the whole premise behind the story. So I haven't ruled out going back to this one at some point.

Dune I loved when I read it in the 70s and still think well of it.

The Computer Connection I liked at the time though I don't remember much about it and suspect that a lot if it went over my head. I hope to read it again one of these days.

Moby Dick had been one of mine until a few months back when I finally went back to it and finished it cover to cover. I didn't find it too much of a struggle this time, in spite of quitting only about a quarter of the way through in my first attempt 30+ years ago. I'm glad I read it now,. There was enough there to keep me interested throughout, and every now and then I felt something more than just mild interest, though not often enough that I'd place it quite as high in the ranks of English lit as it has been by cultural consensus the last 100 years or so.

One I've mentioned here before is Setphen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series: read about 80 pages of the first book back in the 70s when I was still looking for fantasy stuff in the Tolkien vein. Not sure why I lasted even that long, as it is amongst the dreariest, most lifeless dreck I can recall ever coming across. Don't intend to look at it ever again.

[dan bailey]

According to my Goodreads listings, I've marked the following as read in 2012-13 but not actually finished any of them:

Modem Times 2.0 - michael Moorcock
Darker Than You Think - Jack Williamson
The Complete Upmanship - Stephen Potter
Dark Benediction - Walter M Miller Jr.
The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil
The Android's Dream - John Scalzi
Waging Heavy Peace - Neil Young
The Testament of Jessie lamb - Jane Rogers
Steal Across the Sky - Nancy Kress
Stone - Adam Roberts
The Ritual - Adam Nevill
Deathless - Catherynne M Valente
The Dog Stars- Peter Heller
Sound Mind - Tricia Sullivan

Of that listing, I can truthfully say that I'm not likely to try with any of them again in future, and I still managed to finish 68 in the same timeframe so i don't feel tto bad

Darker Than You Think is the only one of those I've read (or, for that matter, even heard of, I think). I remember liking it fine -- one of the better werewolf novels I've ever encountered, not that that's a particularly populous category.

[Roquefort Raider]

A few of mine have been mentioned previously, like Dune (got about 30 pages into it & realized that life was too short to subject myself to such tedium) (...)

You're like the anti-me in that regard, dan! I started Dune at the public library because I had 15 minutes to spare while waiting for someone, with no intention whatsoever to read that ponderous thing past wherever I'd be when they arrived; but I was drawn in so mightily that I couldn't put it down.

I fondly remember the years where Dune was a big point of contention on this board! As I recall, howyadoin was a very ardent fan.

[dan bailey]

For me, part of the problem might be that somewhere along the line, my sense of wonder atrophied to the point that I vastly prefer my sf to be set on Earth, rather than on an alien planet on in an interstellar ship, & at least recognizably near to the present. I tried Dune when I was maybe 17, & I don't know if that preference had kicked in by then (I rather doubt it, considering some of the books I read & enjoyed after that), but it certainly has prevented me from being even remotely interested in ever picking it up again.

[Omega Supreme]

Ah Dune, most probably my all time favorite SF universe.

The political shenanigans, the way this society works with this taboo on computer and machines and how the different powers are linked to the others (landsraad, imperial house, guild) and of course all this psychic/religious stuff.

Well, i said favorite universe yes but i must admit that after "God Emperor of Dune" (which is so damn good) the rest of Frank Herbert Dune's books aren't really my taste anymore. "Heretics of Dune" and "Chapterhouse : Dune" are, in my humble opinion, quite awful and even borderline pathetic at some points.