Books I Never Finished

[mrhig]

It's very rare that I don't finish a book, once I've started it. One would think this would lead to me having read a lot of books that I didn't enjoy, but this isn't really the case. Most of the time I stick to authors I know and trust, or books that I have already read up on (or listened to reviews of). Anyway, most people that know me, know that

Comments

[_ishtahar_]

I'm the same. I cannot bear the thought of a book unfinished. I can't realy bear the thought of anything unfinished actually, but books especially. I have never managed to finish Anna Karenin (and have therefore kind of dismissed Russian authors), or Finnegan's Wake (I did manage Joyce's Ulysses but it nearly killed me). Oddly the other one I've never finished is The Road. I don't know why because you'd think it's the sort of thing I'd like but I cannot get into it.

I only got through the whole of the Odyssey because I had to for my first degree. Parts of it in bloody Greek.... believe me the English version doesn't seem so long after that!

[mrhig]

I know myself well enough to never even try to start Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake :) So many books, so little time.

[smallbluesphere]

I really enjoyed the Odyssey, but I read it after attempting the Illiad...if you think the Odyssey is bad, the Illiad makes the Bible look like a cake walk, especially when you get to the chapter that simply lists everyone who came along, their pets, their entire family tree, what they brought with them, what they left behind, what they were doing a week ago last tuesday...

I gave up on the Illiad. The Odyssey was rather nice after that.

[mrhig]

I think I've read the Iliad. Then again I mix things up with the children guide versions sometimes :) I've definitely read - and had to translate - several chapters of the Aeneid (for my Latin GCSE), which covers some of the same ground.

[atticus_frog]

Tommyknockers -- never read it but the title makes me titter a bit. What exactly is a Tommyknocker?

I love buying books on holiday. They seem so much more promise-filled. And then, seeing them on your shelf years later, brings the holiday back better than most photos can.

[mrhig]

You haven't missed much.

SLIGHT SPOILER FOR THE TOMMYKNOCKERS

The Tommyknockers are aliens. I can't remember who calls them the Tommyknockers or why. It may be related to the nursery rhyme quoted in the book -

"Last Night and the night before;
Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door..."

And so on. Think of the nursery rhyme they had for Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it was similar to that.

Come to think of it, Dreamcatcher (another King book that came out around the time of his accident, though I can't recall whether it was before or afterwards) is about aliens too, and is also rubbish. Although, Dreamcatcher was not written during the booze & drugs period.