OT: Books you almost gave up on, but are glad you didn't?

[Groundhog]

Ok, as I mentioned in the films/books thread, I couldn't stick with LOTR nor Gunslinger. I'll give them another shot someday, I'm sure.

But as for books where I almost stopped reading, but my persistence paid off:

H.P. Lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness: A collection of short(ish) stories. I had to absolutely force myself to get through the first 50/60 pages of the first story (the s/t story), but I'm very glad I did. It goes from plodding along to absolute eerie goodness. Then, the second story (Case of Dexter Ward I believe it is called) same thing happened, but once again I'm very glad I kept on. Easily one of, if not THE, most haunting things I've ever read. The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, however... well, I did give up on that particular story. I found it just beyond silly.

Arthur C. Clarke - The City and the Stars: This was my first Clarke book, and I just didn't like his writing style at the beginning. It grew on me fast, however, and I became hooked after 60 or so pages. I was expecting more from the ending, but still walked away pleased.

Dean Koontz - Icebound: I just grabbed this book at random from my mother's book case expecting a supernatural-styled story (having read Dragon Tears prior) and needless to say was in for a shock. Was just plain boring about 60 pages in, but ended up being a good little mystery novel. Nothing spectacular, but enjoyable all the same.

[lcjjdnh]

Song Of Solomon by Toni Morrison-Had to read this one for school but the idea is the same. I really thought I was going to dislike it and after the first chapter I had already come to a conclusion that I would definitly hate it. But I continued to read it and end up finsihing the book really quick as I just couldn't put it down.

[mattwakeman]

Infinte Jest by David Foster Wallace over 1000 pages the last 200 of which are appendices and footnotes. There are patches in the book which go on for about 12 pages with no paragraphs or structural breaks at all, simply great big slabs of prose. And there is hundreds of footnotes some of which are immensely complex and actually cross-link with each other. At one point I had to use 3 bookmarks. And even though it is a hugely complex, clever for its own sake 'fashionable, new-wave' type books I really enjoyed it. If you have the time to spare (and the concentration) then I recommend it...although the bad news is that because of the way that the story is structured you really need to read it twice to actually understand the ending...!

[Super Ugly]

Underworld by Don DeLillo. It's a big, big book and like a lot of books that size it seems to slow right down somewhere in the middle. The last section was definitely worth the effort, though.
Studying literature at university meant that I had to give up on a few books because I simply didn't have enough time/energy to finish them - The Sound and the Fury, Gravity's Rainbow, fucking Ulysses ... my bookshelf is rammed with books that I keep telling myself I'm going to pick up again, but for some reason I'm just too scared ...

[QuikSand]

Fascinating. The last two books mentioned, Infinite Jest and Underworld are both ones that I purchased, made it part way into, and put down. Infinite Jest just staggered me, and I couldn't develop any connection to the characters in Underworld.

For me, my best answer here might be Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco. He's thick to get into, and I put the book down a couple of times before getting through it. But it's a book I think about pretty frequently - quite a work, and I'm very glad that I read it. Of course, I have now put down Eco's Baudolino twice, after being very put off by the initial scenes. *sigh*

[KWhit]

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand. I tried so hard on this one, trudging through 3-400 pages of it, but finally just put it down one day and never picked it back up. It seemed more of a lecture than a novel - a collection of ideas more than a story. Not my kind of reading.

[Grid Iron]

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien The first half literally took me a year to get through because I found Tom Bombadil and all his songs extremely annoying (which is why I'm not surprised they cut it from the movie). However, I powered it out and was glad I did. Once I crossed the halfway mark, the story picks up and I finished the all three books in just under two weeks.

[Philliesfan980]

Green Eggs and Ham By DR. Seuss.

Very informative. Tough read, but I got through it the other day.

[Fidatelo]

The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkein
Unlike Grid Iron I got through the first book fine, but my year-long dance was with the first half of the second book. I ended up re-reading the first couple hundred pages like 3 times over that year before finally sticking it out and getting to the juicy goodness at the end. And of course it was worth it.

[TroyF]

Couldn't agree more about Lovecraft. What a great writer. He's just really tough to get into at the start. I actually skipped much of the first story and read some of the really short stories to get a feel for his writing style.

[Bonegavel]

Taming of the Shrew (really, any of the Shakespeare classics).

Every few trips to the bookstore, I get into a "I have to buy a classic piece of literature today" mood. One of those times, I had purchased Taming of the Shrew. I understood that it would be a difficult trip, and the particular version I purchased had only a few notes in it, but I was determined to trudge through.

A dozen pages in I stalled and, for weeks, would only pick it up to read one page and place it right back on the shelf. Finally, I fought my way through (reading most passages about 20 times in order to comprehend) and in the end, came out with a huge appreciation for Shakespeare and, at that moment, understood why so many love to quote him. Amazing stuff.

[hukarez]

Garth Ennis' "Preacher" series. Magnificent. Ending. Ever. :D

[Fidatelo]

Magnificent. Ending. Ever. :D

I don't know my grammatical terms, but doesn't the above 'sentance' need a 'qualifier' or something??? Like the word "most" at the start, or even bastardize the language some more and say "magnificentest" or something?

[ice4277]

I don't know my grammatical terms, but doesn't the above 'sentance'
Well at least you proved your point about your own grammar skills :D

[hukarez]

I don't know my grammatical terms, but doesn't the above 'sentance' need a 'qualifier' or something??? Like the word "most" at the start, or even bastardize the language some more and say "magnificentest" or something?
I'm not quite as edumacated, unfortunately.

[NoMyths]

Infinite Jest is, in my opinion, the single greatest novel of our era.

[Fidatelo]

Well at least you proved your point about your own grammar skills :D

The sad part is, I can tell you're making fun of the grammar of my post, but even after re-reading it I don't know why :)

[ice4277]

The sad part is, I can tell you're making fun of the grammar of my post, but even after re-reading it I don't know why :)
That's ok, since you're Canadian, maybe you can blame it on the Queen's English or something ;)

[Leonidas]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I was in high school and into sci-fi, just really starting to read real literature. A teacher who was a mentor to me once handed it to me offhand when I asked if she had anything interesting for me to read. AS is like 1,200 pages of the smallet type you will ever see. It makes the Bible seem short. After 200 pages of it going absolutely nowhere my teacher friend asked how it was going. I told her I thought it was dull and couldn't get into it, of course not realizing it was more of a philosphy book than a novel. She said, "Fine, give it back. Perhaps you're not ready for it, or perhaps you'll never get it."

Of course she was palying with my head, but it worked. Never one to back down from a challenge I said I'd give it one more shot. I have now read that book four times and about every five years feel the need to go back and read it again. I always learn something new from it each reading.

[Glengoyne]

...Studying literature at university meant that I had to give up on a few books because I simply didn't have enough time/energy to finish them - The Sound and the Fury,...
Aarrgh Faulkner! You made me think of Faulkner, that makes you fifth on my list of mortal enemies.:p

[finkenst]

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien The first half literally took me a year to get through because I found Tom Bombadil and all his songs extremely annoying (which is why I'm not surprised they cut it from the movie). However, I powered it out and was glad I did. Once I crossed the halfway mark, the story picks up and I finished the all three books in just under two weeks.

ditto...

though it took me about 3 weeks... (work and all that)

[Qwikshot]

Life of Pi, was a very good read, but it's sluggish at the start, the 2nd half where the boy is trapped on the rowboat with a tiger in the ocean, well, that's the good yarn...

[Calis]

Sheesh, disregard this..I can't post in the right frigging thread.

[Aardvark]

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -- Edward Gibbon

Ok, so I haven't made it to the end, and I've been reading it on and off for a decade, but it is quite interesting in small bits.

I plan to spend the next decade reading Anatomy of Melencholy by Robert Burton.

[Glengoyne]

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -- Edward Gibbon

Ok, so I haven't made it to the end, and I've been reading it on and off for a decade, but it is quite interesting in small bits.

I plan to spend the next decade reading Anatomy of Melencholy by Robert Burton.

Spoiler Alert!!
It ends badly for the Romans

[KWhit]

Thanks for ruining it for me.