What's Your Moby Dick?

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 01:35AM #1

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?

endacl · 21-01-2015 01:36AM

Conspiracy Theories forum.

Jesus Wept · 21-01-2015 01:36AM

ffs spoilers

AboutaWeekAgo · 21-01-2015 01:37AM

Finnegans Wake. Tis madness.

Micky Dolenz · 21-01-2015 01:38AM

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

Dirty Steve · 21-01-2015 01:38AM

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:

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 01:40AM

i heart chewy louie wrote: »

ffs spoilers

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

Spoilers me arse!

Jesus Wept · 21-01-2015 01:40AM

Dirty Steve wrote: »

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

the evasion_kid · 21-01-2015 01:40AM

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

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 01:41AM

Dirty Steve wrote: »

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!

I'm not giving up though

And my version has 549 pages

Deco99 · 21-01-2015 01:42AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It's bloody tedious, that's why!

I'm not giving up though

Why are you not giving up if its tedious?

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 01:43AM

Deco99 wrote: »

Why are you not giving up if its tedious?

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

Micky Dolenz · 21-01-2015 01:44AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It's bloody tedious, that's why!

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.

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 01:47AM

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

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

osarusan · 21-01-2015 01:48AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

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

Jelqing.

Oh wait, you mean books?

Capt'n Midnight · 21-01-2015 01:49AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

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

Spoilers me arse!

No they don't.

endacl · 21-01-2015 01:50AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

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.

Links234 · 21-01-2015 01:50AM

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.

osarusan · 21-01-2015 01:52AM

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.

Slicemeister · 21-01-2015 01:52AM

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.

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 01:52AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

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.

Venus In Furs · 21-01-2015 01:53AM

https://www.msu.edu/~wilsonc8/fsmobydk.htm

Micky Dolenz · 21-01-2015 01:55AM

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.

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 01:57AM

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

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.

Links234 · 21-01-2015 01:59AM

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

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

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 02:01AM

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.

GLaDOS · 21-01-2015 02:01AM

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

one day I'll go back and finish it.

The Backwards Man · 21-01-2015 02:02AM

No. 1 One Direction Fan wrote: »

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 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.

seenitall · 21-01-2015 02:33AM

Nothing. I'm a good quitter.

RobbingBandit · 21-01-2015 02:41AM

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

Zaph · 21-01-2015 02:43AM

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.

What's Your Moby Dick?

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