Comments on: FFM: Books I Couldn’t Finish

by: Arguing with signposts… » My Tolkien confession

Thu, 18 Aug 2025 03:25:15 +0000

[...] Dr. Taylor: Books you know you should read that you can’t seem to finish. Oh, wait. It already has been. ¦ Trackbacks (0) [...]

by: Jan

Sun, 14 Aug 2025 03:16:20 +0000

Steve actually considered doing his dissertation on Joyce. I’ve only ever read “The Dead” by him. I liked it okay, but it was only a short story.

]]>

by: Dr. Steven Taylor

Sat, 13 Aug 2025 16:01:13 +0000

I’ve read Metamorphosis, but egads, I can’t stand Joyce.

]]>

by: Jan

Sat, 13 Aug 2025 15:37:58 +0000

Well, the only two that jump to mind are:
1. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
2. Run Away Jury by John Grisham

There are certainly others that I didn’t finish for one reason or another, but those come to mind as one I “couldn’t” finish.

My husband teaches Portrait of the Artist is you ever want any pointers on it. lol But then again, he teaches Metamorphosis but he couldn’t make me like it.

]]>

by: The Kudzu Files

Sun, 07 Aug 2025 01:20:07 +0000

Books I Couldnt Finish

From Steven Taylor at Poliblog, a Friday Fun Meme…. Books I Couldn’t Finish. Doing as he did and leaving out textbooks, and in no particular order:

]]>

by: The Bemusement Park » VENI, LEGI, CONCIDI

Sat, 06 Aug 2025 03:36:26 +0000

[…] sty.com”>

8/5/2005

VENI, LEGI, CONCIDI
From Steven Taylor comes his Friday Fun Meme: ‘Books I Couldn’t Finish.’ Forthwith, here are mine: The Lord of the […]

]]>

by: Gary and the Samoyeds

Sat, 06 Aug 2025 00:41:42 +0000

This will probably get Me banned, but I was not able to get into Dune. Everyone said how great it was, it sold and sold, and there were many sequels, but I couldn’t get more than 1/3 the way through it.

]]>

by: Dr. Steven Taylor

Fri, 05 Aug 2025 20:49:12 +0000

Funny–your post reminded me that I tried to start Timescape but just couldn’t get started.

]]>

by: pianoman

Fri, 05 Aug 2025 20:30:03 +0000

I had the same problem with Lord Foul’s Bane my first time through. I just couldn’t get into it. The second time I forced myself past page 100 or so…and that’s when the book took off.

My college friends and I enjoyed the series (all six books), and I think we all read the whole thing twice each. Donaldson’s problem is that he obsesses over the feelings of the characters way too much; if he focused on moving the story along rather than on how much emotional pain everyone was suffering, his books could shed 40% of their weight.

My rule now is if a book doesn’t grip me after 100 pages, I’ll give up and throw it against the wall. Doesn’t happen often, but the last time it did was “TimeScape” by Gregory Benford. Yeah, I know it won a bunch of awards, but the plotline is stale and the characters were one-dimensional. Isaac Asimov’s “The Gods Themselves” is a much better example of the “talking backwards through time” genre.

I’ve got Battlefield Earth at home; I’ll definitely have to try it soon. Thanks for the tip, Admiral.

]]>

by: Jay

Fri, 05 Aug 2025 20:05:46 +0000

Funny, Deb mentioned this post as a good meme and I immediately said “Thomas Covenant; I couldn’t even get through the first book!” Funny to see it’s on your lis, now that I’ve seen the post myself.

]]>