Catch 22 - I have made 3 successive attempts to read it. I think I've read half of it now and what can I say? It must have been of its era. It is a complete snorefest from page one - unless something extremely exciting happens later in the book. Its humour is massively dated - it barely raises a smile from me. It just falls into the category of massively overrated books, as far as I am concerned. I have also made numerous attempts to read Crime and Punishment, but the endless Russian names (every character has about 3 different ones), the oppressive atmosphere of fetid rotting and a thoroughly unlikeable "hero" have so far defeated me. May give it another whirl in a few years.
Moby Dick - 100 pages in they have only just cast off. There was a long description of visiting a church as a way of killing a day prior to setting sail. This was about as interesting as describing a wet Sunday afternoon with zero entertainment possibilities. In any case, my sympathies are entirely with the whale. I don't think Melville's are.
Weird thing about the OT is that all the stories you know happen in the first two books - Genesis and Exodus. I suspect that : a) the rest of the thing is pretty much filler b) no one's read it so they can't quote you any stories about it
The 1st Harry Potter book and all the others. I saw everyone reading them on the tube and decided to give em a go. Bloody books are for kids. Some kids books I can read okay, like Roald Dahl books, but this was too child like for my enormous intellect. Besides Terry Pratchett's wizards were much more fun. Ahh Rincewind. I may have to read the 1st two discworlds again. Been many years since.
read all the sven hassel books when i was 9 or 10, try'd to read them again lately can get in to it. espadare street by ian banks probably the best read iv had.
I haven't even attempted Harry Potter, as I suspected it would be really for kids. Whereas the Lord of the Rings isn't (great language, well-written).
The first book is for kids, of course, but by the time you get to the last book it is for grown-ups. That is the essence of the appeal - readers grow up a bit during the course of it, like the characters.
Naked Lunch - William Burroughs Might as well be written in alphabet spaghetti - impossible to comprehend
I think you'll find the Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit and anything else that features Dragons, Wizards, ELves, Dwarves and Monsters are very much kids books, and I include Anne Mcaffrey and Michael Moorcock in that list.
Each time I read it, I feel sure I've grasped it. Then a few weeks later I realise it's gone again, and I'm no wiser. It's so well written, it's easy to read - but very hard to keep hold of.
Catcher in the rye. Dry, strange language and a total pain to force myself to turn another page. Gave up after 50 or so pages. the Gulag Archipelago - just plain difficult to keep a sense of "where am I?" I know it's a translation, and all the Russian names and laws kind of start drifting into one another. Still read a few pages now and then to see if I can do more than 3 or 4 at a time, but can't!
I love "Catch 22"... Have read it several times... That and "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance", I love that too... But I really cannot understand all the fuss about "Lord of the rings" / "Hobbitt" / anything else by Tolkien - it's just so damn DULL ! Honestly, grown adults go on about it as though it's some kind of deep meaningful masterpiece - it's just a (boring) story for kids !
