The 10 Toughest Books to read ever written - How many have you read? How many have you heard of?

Red_in_SE8

A literary website has identified the 10 toughest books ever written.

They are ;

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes;
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift;
The Phenomenology of Spirit by GF Hegel;
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf;
Clarissa, or, The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson;
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce;
Being and Time by Martin Heidegger;
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser;
The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein;
and Women and Men by Joseph McElroy.

For me......

Read - about 0.05 (I once read the first 10 or so pages of Finnegans Wake).
Heard of - 3.

Off_it

Toughest in what sense? Just badly written/hard work, or the subject matter?

Either way, the whole "Village with three corners" series was a pretty tough read for me.

siblers

Surprised Ulysses isn't there.

Red_in_SE8

Off_it said:

Toughest in what sense? Just badly written/hard work, or the subject matter?

Either way, the whole "Village with three corners" series was a pretty tough read for me.

...."books that are hard to read for their length, or their syntax and style, or their structural and generic strangeness, or their odd experimental techniques, or their abstraction".

Red_in_SE8

siblers said:

Surprised Ulysses isn't there.

I read about a 50 pages of that one.

cblock

I had the Moors Murders bought for me, Got as far as their petty criminal activities, then it reached the stage leading up to the murders, could not read anymore, chucked it out.

Leuth

I have a copy of Women And Men on the shelf. It's...large.

Amazed Gravity's Rainbow isn't in the list. Greatest thing I've read but absolutely fiendish.

Leuth

Reckon The Faerie Queen might be the toughest slog though. Who wants to wade through that?

McBobbin

My wife read Clrissa as part of her English lit degree. Said it was by some distance the worst book she'd ever read.

I gave up 50 pages into Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Only 200 odd pages long, but utter pretentious wiffly impenetrable cack

Macronate

The Yellow Pages.

i can't tear them in half.

smudge7946

If a book is any good, they will make a film out of it. So watch the film instead
If a book is rubbish, they wont. So dont bother reading them as as they aren't any good.

Lincsaddick

I have found that the majority of 'classics' I have tried are either totally unreadable or VERY hard going .. Joyce, Virginia Wolf, Trollope, dear old Tommy Hardy ... whatever

Off_it

I wouldn't recommend trying to read Tolley's Yellow Tax Handbook in one sitting.

In contrast Tolley's Orange Tax Hanbook is a cracker.

The_President

Read them all in the first half yesterday
Didnt like The Faerie Queene - bit too Faerie for me..

johnny73

Have a vague memory of reading identity and difference by heidegger. Not sure about being and time.

The_President

McBobbin said:

My wife read Clrissa as part of her English lit degree. Said it was by some distance the worst book she'd ever read.

I gave up 50 pages into Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Only 200 odd pages long, but utter pretentious wiffly impenetrable cack

Does 'pretentious wiffly impenetrable cack' mean its a pile of shit?

DaveMehmet

Curbishley's book must have come close to making that list.

Loco

Carl Marx Das Capital, anyone that has attempted it will know just how brutal it is and I should imagine the leviathan is quite hard going too.

McBobbin

The_President said:

McBobbin said:

My wife read Clrissa as part of her English lit degree. Said it was by some distance the worst book she'd ever read.

I gave up 50 pages into Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Only 200 odd pages long, but utter pretentious wiffly impenetrable cack

Does 'pretentious wiffly impenetrable cack' mean its a pile of shit?

Haha I rather blundered into hypocrite territory there didn't I

daveaddick

Ulysses utter pants don't care what the "highbrows" say gave up after 50 pages or so. Is it genius or garbage pretending to be genius?

Shrew

They obviously haven't read some of the threads on here....out of the list just 'To the Lighthouse' not really a difficult read.

Jints

Herad of five of them, haven't read any.

Hardest I've ever (tried to) read is Kant's Critique. First three chapters are a breeze but despite at least a dozen attempts I couldn't get past chapter 4.

Bangkokaddick

Wot, no Kafka?

Algarveaddick

As a simple man, I think books are meant to entertain. If it's a struggle it is not a very good book as far as I am concerned.

March51

Didn't get to the end of this one (a Christmas present). It soon became evident that the plot did not involve armchairs or televisions: what I did read quite wore me out!

ME14addick

Algarveaddick said:

As a simple man, I think books are meant to entertain. If it's a struggle it is not a very good book as far as I am concerned.

I agree - it's chick-lit for me - I like nice easy going books.

DRF

smudge7946 said:

If a book is any good, they will make a film out of it. So watch the film instead
If a book is rubbish, they wont. So dont bother reading them as as they aren't any good.

So you haven't had the misfortune to read or watch One Day then?

And I would add Dante's Divine Comedy to that list. Got about a quarter of the way through and if I hadn't known what it was about already I would have had no idea from reading it.

tangoflash

The toughest book I ever had was a "Where's Wally" bumper annual. Had me pulling my hair out for days at a time...........................

maybe_baby

I've been told Lord of the Rings is difficult to follow, though personally I haven't read a book.

Edit: I did of course read the Janet and John books at school...have to admit I found them quite challenging.

SuperCliveMendonca

Mayfair, can never get round to reading as the pages are stuck together

Hastingsaddick

Hardly ever read these days, just stuff on the web and What's Brewing...a pretty easy read.