What's Your Moby Dick?

VickieVexed · 21-01-2015 10:40AM

I'm so happy to see others have failed to understand Ulysses. Sweet sufferering Jebus, I tried to read it, I've tried three times. I thought it would show I was cultured and intelligent. But life's too short for that kind of torture. Now, if a book doesn't really grab my attention by page 100, I won't read any further and give up.

yeppydeppy · 21-01-2015 10:41AM

Anna Karenina, War and Peace and Lord of the Rings were all struggles to get through and I was delighted to be finished them.
I kinda liked Moby Dick but I can't remember why. We even started the whalers society one when we were drunk.
I gave up trying to read Ulysses twice but then got it on CD from library and it's a great book to listen to.

Shrap · 21-01-2015 10:44AM

VickieVexed wrote: »

I'm so happy to see others have failed to understand Ulysses. Sweet sufferering Jebus, I tried to read it, I've tried three times. I thought it would show I was cultured and intelligent. But life's too short for that kind of torture. Now, if a book doesn't really grab my attention by page 100, I won't read any further and give up.

Oh Jaysus, you're not alone. It's one book I won't try till I'm retired/terminally bored/run out of books. My Dad fought with it a few times, and if he doesn't recommend it, I won't attempt it. Mind you, it was him insisted I'd like Waiting for Godot

I've never heard of anyone actually understanding Ulysses. Anyone know of someone who did?

Egginacup · 21-01-2015 10:46AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

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

Ah, get into Pratchett straight away. They're brilliant...Guards Guards, Mort, Small Gods, etc. You'll enjoy them especially after the drudgery of Moby Dick.

I would also recommend George McDonald Frasier's Flashman Series.

Shrap · 21-01-2015 10:51AM

Egginacup wrote: »

Ah, get into Pratchett straight away. They're brilliant...Guards Guards, Mort, Small Gods, etc. You'll enjoy them especially after the drudgery of Moby Dick.

I would also recommend George McDonald Frasier's Flashman Series.

LOVE Pratchett. The best, unputdownable, feel good, laugh a minute easy reading ever. I hate that I ran out and have reread them all again already

CPSW · 21-01-2015 10:54AM

IT by Stephen King. The book is about 500+ pages. Was a fan of the TV movie so decided to pick the book up a couple of years ago, as I've heard its way better than what was in the movie.

Read the first 100 odd pages, put it down and didn't pick it back up until before Christmas just gone. More than half way through it and was enjoying it. Then made the mistake of watching the DVD of the movie. Also got some more books for as presents so am working my way through them. Will finish it someday!!!

Blisterman · 21-01-2015 10:57AM

Maybe it's just me, but I can't understand why somebody would force themselves to finish a book. It's not school where you have to read books. If I'm not feeling a book after a few chapters, I get another one and read that. I read for pleasure, and there's enough books out there that might interest me, that I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Life's far too short to waste on that.

kylith · 21-01-2015 11:00AM

Moby Dick is an awful piece of ****e. It's the only book I have never finished. Futurama was dead right when they called it a 'dense symbolist tome'.

kylith · 21-01-2015 11:01AM

CPSW wrote: »

IT by Stephen King. The book is about 500+ pages. Was a fan of the TV movie so decided to pick the book up a couple of years ago, as I've heard its way better than what was in the movie.

Read the first 100 odd pages, put it down and didn't pick it back up until before Christmas just gone. More than half way through it and was enjoying it. Then made the mistake of watching the DVD of the movie. Also got some more books for as presents so am working my way through them. Will finish it someday!!!

I find Stephen King massively overrated.

Egginacup wrote: »

Ah, get into Pratchett straight away. They're brilliant...Guards Guards, Mort, Small Gods, etc. You'll enjoy them especially after the drudgery of Moby Dick.

I agree, Egginacup.

Start with Mort or Guards Guards, you won't be sorry!

BeerWolf · 21-01-2015 11:02AM

Still looking for it.

Shrap · 21-01-2015 11:03AM

kylith wrote: »

Moby Dick is an awful piece of ****e. It's the only book I have never finished. Futurama was dead right when they called it a 'dense symbolist tome'.

I'm definitely not reading Moby Dick any time soon then. Sounds like another one for the retirement/terminally bored list.

kylith · 21-01-2015 11:05AM

Shrap wrote: »

I'm definitely not reading Moby Dick any time soon then. Sounds like another one for the retirement/terminally bored list.

I'll probably go back to it at some stage, just to say I read it but I think it says a lot that I have never, ever heard someone say "Moby Dick? I loved it. Couldn't put it down! In fact, I must have read it four or five times".

Aongus Von Bismarck · 21-01-2015 11:11AM

I really dislike the idea of not finishing a book once you've invested the time and effort to reach the stage where you realise you aren't enjoying it. That said, I had to admit defeat whilst reading A Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant. I read it as Kritik der reinen Vernunft in the author's German, but really struggled with the structure and language. Decided to pick up a copy in English - not much better. It's almost impenetrable,and I say that as someone who is fairly well read on the major Western philosophies.

I will read it again though. I refuse to say can't to Kant.

Hoop66 · 21-01-2015 11:13AM

Shrap wrote: »

LOVE Pratchett. The best, unputdownable, feel good, laugh a minute easy reading ever. I hate that I ran out and have reread them all again already

Me too. I read them all at one time or another. I think Unseen Academicals was the last one I bought.

I've just got my 10 year old daughter starting on The Colour of Magic nd she's loving it.

sbsquarepants · 21-01-2015 11:14AM

I can't stand reading fiction generally speaking - just takes too damn long, just to tell a story. But a few years back I said I'd read a book before watching the movie, just to see how different the experience was so I read Anne Rice - The queen of the damned just in time to see it on the big screen.
Both were steaming piles of shíte but only one of them wasted 2 weeks of my free time!

humanji · 21-01-2015 11:16AM

There's a disturbing irony in being obsessed with finishing Moby Dick no matter what the consequences.

The Peanut · 21-01-2015 11:18AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I read The Road in about half a day as well. Granted, it's bleak and depressing, but it's unputdownable.

It's very bleak. I've read it twice. Loved it the first time I read it and read it again last year. I had no children the first time I read it but found it an almost unbearable read last time as I could relate to the tragedy of the father in the book. I kept having to put it down it was so upsetting.

Sign of an excellent book if it can affect me that much.

Tabnabs · 21-01-2015 11:19AM

Heimskringla, so many kings, so much history. I'll finish it one day...

ChunkyLover54 · 21-01-2015 11:23AM

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

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.

Thats in the prologue!

Menas · 21-01-2015 11:26AM

Ulysses is on my book shelf as a testament to failed effort. Read the first 100 pages, skipped forward to the dirty bit (Molly) and have not touched it since.

Neil Youngs bio is another one...the recent one he wrote himself. A load of self serving boring claptrap. But it was a present from the Mrs so cant throw it out. I promise her that I will finish it once 'I am in the mood'.

ChunkyLover54 · 21-01-2015 11:26AM

CPSW wrote: »

IT by Stephen King. The book is about 500+ pages.

Yeah, about 500 A2 pages.

My copy is about 1100 pages long. Didn't finish it. Lifes too short.

ChunkyLover54 · 21-01-2015 11:28AM

Links234 wrote: »

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

The movies all right but the tidy happy ending is a complete cop-out from the novel.

dusty207 · 21-01-2015 11:29AM

The Famished Road by Ben Okri. Probably the only book I've never finished and I get through loads. Magic realism? More like the Emperor's new clothes!

hots · 21-01-2015 11:30AM

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'...

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

I liked that book

Hoop66 · 21-01-2015 11:43AM

hobbit of the shire wrote: »

I liked that book

I liked it when I first read it when I was 14 or 15.

I went back to it a few years ago, and found it unreadably bad.

There's a sequel, too. Avoid.

_Kaiser_ · 21-01-2015 11:46AM

Egginacup wrote: »

Ah, get into Pratchett straight away. They're brilliant...Guards Guards, Mort, Small Gods, etc. You'll enjoy them especially after the drudgery of Moby Dick.

I remember trying Pratchett when I was young and it did nothing for me but then I was never into that whole fantasy genre (wouldn't watch films like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit etc either). Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy was another I didn't bother finishing.

I used to read a lot about 7/8 years ago but got out of the habit then because I didn't have the time. Have tried to start again lately but it's tough going which I'm disappointed in myself about as I used to finish books in a night/weekend if they really grabbed me.

Tom Clancy for example was great in his early books.. loved those (The Hunt for Red October, Without Remorse, Rainbow Six, Debt of Honor/Executive Orders) .. but the quality dropped off in the last few (the collaboration/ghost writer efforts).

I then tried the Jack Reacher series but they didn't do much for me. Anyone recommend an author in the earlier Clancy style?

Dr.Winston O'Boogie · 21-01-2015 11:47AM

I try to read at least one classic fiction a year, mostly though I find them hard to read and prefer books based on real events.

My Moby Dick was Great Expectations, very long and some of the language is so outdated at times you hadn't a clue what they were talking about. But glad I read it in the end.

On a side note I started The Count of Monte Cristo last year. The full version, I found out after I bought it there is an abbreviated version. Now that's a beast, near 900 pages. Will never be able to read that in one go, and have read several books and finshed them in between it. Only about a third of the way through still.

hots · 21-01-2015 11:54AM

Hoop66 wrote: »

I liked it when I first read it when I was 14 or 15.

I went back to it a few years ago, and found it unreadably bad.

There's a sequel, too. Avoid.

Oh that would make sense, I was about that age when I read it too...

CPSW · 21-01-2015 11:55AM

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

I try to read at least one classic fiction a year, mostly though I find them hard to read and prefer books based on real events.

My Moby Dick was Great Expectations, very long and some of the language is so outdated at times you hadn't a clue what they were talking about. But glad I read it in the end.

On a side note I started The Count of Monte Cristo last year. The full version, I found out after I bought it there is an abbreviated version. Now that's a beast, near 900 pages. Will never be able to read that in one go, and have read several books and finshed them in between it. Only about a third of the way through still.

Great expectations? Read it, it's not what I hoped for......

Shrap · 21-01-2015 11:55AM

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I then tried the Jack Reacher series but they didn't do much for me. Anyone recommend an author in the earlier Clancy style?

Don't really read any modern military/espionage style books, but for amazing historical 19th century naval fiction, you should try the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Master and Commander is the first in the series and was made into a good film.

What's Your Moby Dick?

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