I thought it was very good. Stephenson does have a tendency to get really into whatever the subject matter of his story is, eg. cryptography in cryptonomicon, MMOs and gaming in REAMDE, Alan turing and AI in The Diamond Age etc. I find it to be an endearing aspect lf his writing. Definitely recommend Seveneves.
I chose it for an English literature class, as I was always fascinated by Arthurian legend. The teacher thought I was mad, and was probably right. But it was more that I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
I was adept at French, which really helped. But it was a long slow read. Looking back I don't know how I managed other than to ignore the parts I really didn't understand. It was pre internet hahah.
In the end, I'd say yes, I did enjoy it. It's always stuck with me, and I automatically compare every Arthurian story (book, movie, etc) to what I remember from it - which I guess makes sense.
But ultimately it's very sad. Almost depressing. And the dryness of it makes it feel like it could have really happened.
Damn, your question is enticing me to it up again!
I haven't read that much, but kinda proud of reading Hyperion. It starts super slow, and I find that the writing style is like he's omitting too much, if that makes any sense.
Definitely be proud of reading Hyperion! I know exactly what you mean about it seeming to leave out stuff. I guess it is part of the mystery that we find out as we go, and we experience things from the point of view of the protagonists. You've made me want to read it again!
The poetry is also something I'm not familiar with which maybe makes me miss out? Still, I did enjoy it a lot, especially the planet itself. Also vagina with teeth hmm
Hyperion is not like any other book I've read before. It puts together a lot of disparate events and individuals, and you sort of need to let the story happen as it's not entirely clear at first what is going on. I love it and recommend the sequel.
The third and fourth books for me were more difficult reads but they were still good. They were more traditional in the way they told the story. I liked the first two better, but I recommend the whole series.
Kudos! I think I would have ended up skimming it quite a bit if I had read it, but I went with the audio book instead in that instance. I will say, the audio book is a full cast and very entertaining. I would recommend it if you ever wanted to go through the story a second time.
Julius Caesar's Commentarii De Bello Gallico in Latin. And... yes I did enjoy it. There are some points where translation just cannot capture Caesar's wit. I wish I still knew enough Latin to read it again.
(Why yes I am a huge fucking nerd, how could you tell?)
Don Quixote de la Mancha, in the original castillian. Super tough read for me since I only know as much Spanish as I did when I left home at 8. But I'm glad I powered through it
I just liked the story of this old man who just can't let go, running amok and becoming increasingly insane, while most characters in the book are either indifferent to him or think he's nuts. He's just trying to live out his own reality one last time I think, one last adventure in a world that doesn't exist anymore.
I understand. I disliked every bit of it, because it was bleak and dark in a sticky way, if that makes sense. I think it’s a good book because it definitely achieve to criticize the economy of the time, but it doing it it becomes an un-enjoyable book.
Ulysses! The Joyce one. Honestly I enjoyed it - for how esoteric and sort of distant it is, the base plot itself is kinda mundane so it's not like the base structure of the book is massively hard to follow (especially if you're familiar with The Odyssey) once you get over the constant writing style shifts. It's randomly funny and weirdly relatable (like being stuck in a conversation with a chatty American) and gives you so many reasons to hate the British. I really like how it's adapted the story of The Odyssey and I think more adaptions of Greek works should be like it - an adaption of the themes and vague plot beats rather than just taking the characters and doing whatever the fuck you want with them, and also should have one guy who inexplicably thinks he's actually in an adaption of a Shakespeare play instead.
I will say though, my copy of Ulysses is one third appendix, which explains out the schema and has footnotes for most of the references that will just go right over your head if you don't happen to be James Joyce and I genuinely don't understand how you could read that book without it. It really turns every confusing reference and story moment into something clear and understandable which elevates the text around it. If I didn't have it I most definitely would've dropped the book
Also I'm nowhere near finished but I've started reading Dream of the Red Chamber (aka Story of the Stone) which is an 18th century Chinese novel infamous for being really long (I think it's like over 2k pages? My copy is divided up into like five books) and difficult to follow with way too many characters in it. It's a big long deconstruction of Confucianism and nobility following a chunk of the heavens who's reincarnated into a failing noble family because he wants to see what it's like being human, only to be treated like absolute shit by his family because everyone see him as a divine blessing and want to use and abuse him as much as possible for their own ends. He spends a lot of time around the women of the house and watches their own tragedies unfold, hence the length and excessive characters. Hasn't gotten too bad yet, but I'm also barely into it relatively speaking.
I've read Ulysses and Infinite Jest (the latter multiple times), all of Samuel Becketts novels, and the complete works of Italo Calvino and Georges Perec.
I maintain that although the prose was much much easier, 120 Days of Sodom was the hardest to pick back up after putting down. It's so tedious and repetitive but also about coprophagy, pedophilia and extremely detailed gore, with 0 plot or characterisation. I feel no sense of achievement for having read it and my life is worse for having done so.
This is true. I used to be a dishwasher and farm hand and listen to hundreds of books, anything, because I couldn't keep up with new music to listen to. I loved it.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's been a while and I don't quite remember a lot of details, but I'm proud I was able to read it and did enjoy the process of reading it.
I loved Anathem, but the ending was a bit too much all over the place for my taste. I honestly enjoy random philosophical discussions, so the first third of the book was my bread and butter.
Stephenson is a weird author, Anathem is great, I enjoyed the Criptonomicon but really did not like Snow Crash.
'Anathem.' Got about 20 pages in and threw it down, because it was just Stephenson being deliberately confusing. Someone advised me to stick with it, but warned me that it took about 200 pages for the plot to get going. Skipped over the last section with all the multiple world nonsense.
I did read all three books of the Baroque Cycle, but threw Book One at the wall when I got to the end and found the damn gloassary hidden away like a pearl in an oyster.
Joseph Conrad's book, Nostromo, was a bit dense for me. I did enjoy it though. Not sure if that meets the requirement. There are a few books I've been bracing myself to read that I've chickened out on starting. Things like Cormac McCarthy's books.
I read through Adventures of Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn at one point. They were fine, had to google a few archaisms. Not exactly thrillers, but even as a euro, I just felt the Americana, I guess. Charming as a period thing.
On the other hand, I read 1984 and was actually surprised at how engaging it was. Major bummer, obviously, but I expected it to be an effort. It held its own and kept me reading.
Are you reading it in Italian or in a translation?
I read most of it in high school and the rest on my own. Reading it fully on your own is a feat! Do you have a commented edition? What do you like of it?
“Os Maias” by Eça de Queirós was exactly like that. Forced upon every 11th grader. I’ve read much longer books before, but it’s with lots of hatred that I finished it
I think it's the descriptions. I got an audio book of the first volume and it seemed like the descriptions went on for ages, but not a whole lot happened. Normally I love fantasy, but so far I can't warm up to this series.
We Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong is about microbes inside us and animals and I have no idea why I read it, but it was difficult to read because I'm terrible at biology. Still cool though
Edit: Oh, I didn't realise this is the fiction comm. Oops. I guess I don't read any challenging fiction books. Maybe I should rectify that
I read The Third Pandemic and Sphere in 5th grade, back in the 90s. I had to carry a dictionary with me for them, but I still remember most of the stories to this day.
I learned a lot, but the process of reading them involved a lot of teachers telling me it was too adult for me (probably because they didn’t understand them), so that wasn’t fun, but ultimately I did enjoy the process. It helped make me who I am now.
I don’t find books particularly challenging at this point (I’m now a 600-700 word per minute speed reader, depending on material, with tested 98% retention) but I have to brace to read legal text, or anything that’s written to sound smart rather than be accessible. But that’s just because those aren’t ever fun to read for anyone.
Gravity’s Rainbow. I’d taken classes in postmodernism and still found it so difficult to focus. I’m not sure if I enjoyed the reading process, but I felt good for having completed it. Took 2 attempts.
I came in to say Gravity's Rainbow also. It felt like four different books and, yes, it was hard to focus with the tonal changes (iirc... it was a long time ago). Still found it worthwhile.
I have tried to read it three or four times and cannot get past the part about the banana tree and all the banana based food he cooks up. Not a banana hater but for some reason that part makes me kind of queasy and I put the book down every time
David Copperfield. I read it in one day when I was a kid and had nothing else to do. Bleak House was a slog too, but it had some nice turns of phrase that stuck with me.
And at the risk of insulting a classic, One Hundred Years of Solitude. I get that it's supposed to be a critique on society and inspired by the author's life. I just found it bleak.
I struggled to overcome the first chapters, but after the “crime”, things picked up and I ended up really enjoying it. It consolidated Dostoyevski as my favorite author for quite a while.
Out of curiosity I tried to read the first few lines of Finnegan's Wake. Couldn't progress beyond that. How do people who actually read the book make any sense of it? This is not an example as stated in the post, but "most difficult book" made me think of this book immediately.
Stefan Wul - Oms en Serie. Difficult because my french isn't that great. Interesting because it was adapted as Fantastic Planet. Great book. Wul is weird.