Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

What's Your Moby Dick?

  • 21-01-2015 12:35am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭


    16th of May last year, I started reading Moby Dick, I still have a hundred odd pages to go, I'm at the part where Queequeg took sick. I hate it, with every bone in my body, but I'm going to stick it out, even if it kills me.

    What have you stuck with, against all the odds, and how good did it feel finally overcoming?


«13

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,438 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Conspiracy Theories forum.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    ffs spoilers


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 651 ✭✭✭AboutaWeekAgo


    Finnegans Wake. Tis madness.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    I call me penis Moby. It's bald and can't rap.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 234 ✭✭Dirty Steve


    544 pages in total, you've been reading it for a year and you're only half way through.

    That's an average of less than a page a day. :pac:


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    ffs spoilers

    I'm not at the end yet and even I know they all get killed by the fcuking whale!

    Spoilers me arse! :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    544 pages in total, you've been reading it for a year and you're only half way through.

    That's an average of less than a page a day. :pac:

    he's reading it backwards


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,740 ✭✭✭the evasion_kid


    War and peace..... felt like taking a flame thrower to it when I finished it


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    544 pages in total, you've been reading it for a year and you're only half way through.

    That's an average of less than a page a day. :pac:

    It's bloody tedious, that's why! :D

    I'm not giving up though

    And my version has 549 pages


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,642 ✭✭✭Deco99


    It's bloody tedious, that's why! :D

    I'm not giving up though

    Why are you not giving up if its tedious?


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Deco99 wrote: »
    Why are you not giving up if its tedious?

    Because I've never not finished a book in my life.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    It's bloody tedious, that's why! :D

    I'm not giving up though


    Moby Dick isn't that bad. Knuckle down and finish it. You could be done by the weekend.

    Try Ulysses. I've read it twice and still haven't a fcuking clue what is going on, I think that is the point though.

    The Old Testament is another tough read.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Moby Dick isn't that bad. Knuckle down and finish it. You could be done by the weekend.

    Try Ulysses. I've read it twice and still haven't a fcuking clue what is going on, I think that is the point though.

    The Old Testament is another tough read.

    It's all the Begotting and Begetting that gets me in the OT


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,779 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    What have you stuck with, against all the odds, and how good did it feel finally overcoming?
    Jelqing.

    Oh wait, you mean books?


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 94,288 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    I'm not at the end yet and even I know they all get killed by the fcuking whale!

    Spoilers me arse! :D
    No they don't.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,438 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Because I've never not finished a book in my life.

    I'd never not finished a book until I started Luke Rhinehart's 'The Dice Man'. That pile of steaming shyte is the only book I've ever started and not finished. Also the only book I've ever dumped. I normally pass novels on to Oxfam. Wouldn't take the chance of inflicting it on an unsuspecting browser who might unsuspectingly think it 'looked interesting'...

    Except for China Meiville's 'Perdido Street Station'. I'm in the middle of that though, so it doesn't count as not finished.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,944 ✭✭✭✭Links234


    Bakemonogatari

    Heard so many people rave about it, one of my friends loves it, it's pretty highly rated. I tried watching it, and I just couldn't get into it. I was told to stick it out until x episode and so on, and I did but just hated the show. I don't get why people go on about.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,779 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    I'll often not finish books if I'm not interested.

    The Da Vinci Code was one that I put down after about 15 pages and never picked up again.

    Cold Mountain was another.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,526 ✭✭✭Slicemeister


    Firestarter by Stephen King. Have read a lot of his books but this one is hard work. Started it before Xmas and still only on page 54 or something.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    No they don't.

    Well apart from the whale and the dick of a narrator that goes off on more tangents than Ronnie Corbett they do.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭Venus In Furs




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    Links234 wrote: »
    Bakemonogatari

    Heard so many people rave about it, one of my friends loves it, it's pretty highly rated. I tried watching it, and I just couldn't get into it. I was told to stick it out until x episode and so on, and I did but just hated the show. I don't get why people go on about.


    Whoa, I thought this was about books. if it's about anything. I was going to do my third marathon after a few years absence and after a few training sessions, I thought, bollix to this. It's torture, piled on more torture to run for 3 and a half hours of pain, to get a crappy medal. No one has time for that.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Whoa, I thought this was about books. if it's about anything. I was going to do my third marathon after a few years absence and after a few training sessions, I thought, bollix to this. It's torture, piled on more torture to run for 3 and a half hours of pain, to get a crappy medal. No one has time for that.

    Na it's about anything you were sorry you were started but too pigheaded to give up on once you did.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,944 ✭✭✭✭Links234


    Whoa, I thought this was about books.

    Well, OP never really specified books :pac: But that was one thing that came to mind as far as struggingly to get through, some (?) episodes in I threw in the towel.

    Honestly, can't think of any books I really struggled with. That said, I've mostly read Terry Pratchett and such :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Links234 wrote: »
    Well, OP never really specified books :pac: But that was one thing that came to mind as far as struggingly to get through, some 16 episodes in I threw in the towel.

    Honestly, can't think of any books I really struggled with. That said, I've mostly read Terry Pratchett and such :)

    I'm mad to start on Terry Pratchett, but I've a heap of Hemingway and some Icelandic buck to get through first. :(


  • Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 23,239 Mod ✭✭✭✭GLaDOS


    I absolutely struggled through Dantes Divine Comedy, but refused to give up. Was delighted to finally finish it.

    Gave up halfway through The Silmarillion though :o one day I'll go back and finish it.

    Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of the test



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    I absolutely struggled through Dantes Divine Comedy, but refused to give up. Was delighted to finally finish it.

    Gave up halfway through The Silmarillion though :o one day I'll go back and finish it.

    Silmarillion was a real struggle for me too, couldn't believe it was the same author.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,725 ✭✭✭seenitall


    Nothing. I'm a good quitter. :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,330 ✭✭✭✭RobbingBandit


    Machiavelli The Prince, one of these days I'll finish reading the damn thing just wish he wasn't such a condescending prick.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 47,365 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    endacl wrote: »
    I'd never not finished a book until I started Luke Rhinehart's 'The Dice Man'. That pile of steaming shyte is the only book I've ever started and not finished. Also the only book I've ever dumped. I normally pass novels on to Oxfam. Wouldn't take the chance of inflicting it on an unsuspecting browser who might unsuspectingly think it 'looked interesting'...

    Unlike you, I actually finished it because like the OP I wasn't going to let it beat me. I really should have given up on it though, it was the second greatest load of bollocks I've ever subjected myself to. The worst is a book called The Female Man by Joanna Russ. A guy who worked in a bookshop I went to all the time and knew what I liked recommended it to me, and he'd been spot on with previous recommendations. Rather than doing the sensible thing and burn it after the first 10 pages I stuck with it until the end. Having a prostate exam is a more enjoyable experience than reading that book.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,590 ✭✭✭ahnowbrowncow


    Ha I'm actually reading Moby Dick too, tedious doesn't do it justice. I stopped reading it 2 months ago when I read a chapter that did nothing other than detail the characteristics of every f*cking whale, ain't nobody got time fo that.

    Back reading it again tonight after I saw a Moby Dick film advertised in the cinema at the weekend, have to finish it before that film is released.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,217 ✭✭✭Photo-Sniper


    After 2 years I finally finished reading "The Ultimate Guide to cooking with Herbs"

    Its about Thyme.


  • Posts: 15,814 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    One of the most important things you will ever learn is that it's okay to give up on a book you are not enjoying. I used to always finish any book, no matter how much of a chore it was or how much I disliked it till I saw a piece with Ian Rankin where he stated that the most important thing you learn as a reader is when to realise it's time to go no further.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,462 ✭✭✭✭WoollyRedHat


    The spire was to be, but after umpteen times sliding back down, I said what's the point.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,438 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Call me The Backwards Man. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse to spend on Tennants, and nothing particular to interest me on the telly, I thought I would read a little and learn the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to read another page as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the book. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the overblown classic novel with me.

    :cool:


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,449 ✭✭✭Call Me Jimmy


    Crime and punishment. Weirdly, I did find it enjoyable and interesting but it's just I'm not very good with commitment. I think it is reflective of the egotistical side of the reader to continue with it knowing you don't enjoy it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    endacl wrote: »
    Call me The Backwards Man. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse to spend on Tennants, and nothing particular to interest me on the telly, I thought I would read a little and learn the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to read another page as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the book. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the overblown classic novel with me.

    :cool:

    I hate you


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,438 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    I hate you

    :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,330 ✭✭✭✭RobbingBandit


    After 2 years I finally finished reading "The Ultimate Guide to cooking with Herbs"

    Its about Thyme.

    Was there much Sage advice in there?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44,079 ✭✭✭✭Micky Dolenz


    endacl wrote: »
    Call me The Backwards Man. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse to spend on Tennants, and nothing particular to interest me on the telly, I thought I would read a little and learn the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to read another page as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the book. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the overblown classic novel with me.

    :cool:


    That is what I find fascinating about it, the use of language we speak. We probably use one thousand average words in a thousand average combinations in daily life.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,217 ✭✭✭Photo-Sniper


    Was there much Sage advice in there?
    Not really.

    But it does answer the question does Sean Connery like Herbs?

    The Answer is Yes, but only partially.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 936 ✭✭✭JaseBelleVie


    -Ulysses was one. I tried. Lord knows, I tried. But I could never get past the first 50 pages or so, before I felt like crying from frustration. I could just never get into it. How them poor f*ckers that study literature are required to read it, analyse it and attempt to understand it cope, I'll never know.

    That was the main, big one. There were several other books, films and TV Series that I tried to get into, but could never stick with. I used to never walk out of films in the cinema if I'd gone. But I stunned myself when I walked out of several films over the past few years. Just couldn't fathom how they even got made.

    And then, you have the other side of things. Reading a good book and wanting to finish it as fast as possible but at the same time not wanting it to finish as it is so good!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,681 ✭✭✭✭Ghost Train


    I need to go back and finish the count of Monty Cristo, got half way into last year and then never continued with it


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,944 ✭✭✭✭Links234


    I need to go back and finish the count of Monty Cristo, got half way into last year and then never continued with it

    the movie with Guy Pierce is fantastic if you fancy just watching that and pretending to have read it :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 512 ✭✭✭Asarlai


    The New Catechism. I hated, but I did finish it.

    I loved the old green one, but don't like this one. The stories are no good.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,631 ✭✭✭Dirty Dingus McGee


    I tied to read it a few years back and wasted 6 weeks of my life to get to about 200 pages.

    Its a dreadful book.

    If I wanted to read a text book about the whaling industry in the 19th century I would have bought one.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 944 ✭✭✭BetterThanThou


    The Road by Cormac McCarthy, currently in my Leaving Cert year and it's part of the comparative study. Missed reading it in class due to illness, book is 400 pages long and I've about 50 read, I'm not a lazy student by any stretch of the imagination, but I can't seem to read this book, it's so boring. I've just learned how to write essays based on the notes I've been given, I'll most likely end up cramming the book in just to be safe the week before the leaving cert.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,254 ✭✭✭Wompa1


    16th of May last year, I started reading Moby Dick, I still have a hundred odd pages to go, I'm at the part where Queequeg took sick. I hate it, with every bone in my body, but I'm going to stick it out, even if it kills me.

    What have you stuck with, against all the odds, and how good did it feel finally overcoming?

    Read that turd a few years back. Tried to read War and Peace but gave up.

    Right now I'm reading a book called Flyboys. It's great but I've been so busy that it's taking me about 9 months to finish the f'kin thing


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,169 ✭✭✭The Peanut


    Finnegan's Wake; part of me feels I should be able to read it and then after a couple of pages I get a headache. May have to just accept the fact it's not for me.

    Moby Dick not easy either. Persevered but only out of stubbornness.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,075 ✭✭✭✭o1s1n
    Master of the Universe


    Lord of the Rings. Have started it multiple times over the last 20+ years but just can't stick it out.

    Parts are just so incredibly long winded and boring.


  • Advertisement
Advertisement