What's the best book you never finished?

[DrWimpy]

This exchange from the Congratulations... thread seems threadworthy on its own:

I must argue here with what I believe is the incorrect use of "want."
Nobody "wants" to read Moby Dick.

I stand corrected. I've started Moby Dick three times, and have never gotten past the first 50 or so pages. Ditto Gravity's Rainbow, which I am determined to read one day.

for me it is Tono-Bungay by H.G. Wells started three times never got past page 35.


.

 

[Rob Webber]

Infinite Jest
Gravity's Rainbow

 

[gktkd]

Brothers Karamazov...the super long translation...
Celine's Journey to the End of the Night...I'm such a pussy

 

[GoldDustWoman]

Ulysses. Although in high school, our English teacher excerpted the dirty part at the end for us and let us peruse it at great length, without having to deal with the entire book (since we were studying lots of other James Joyce stuff). Thanks, big guy!

 

[dash22]

Ulysses for me as well.
Also On The Road. I made it to the last 50 pages, then for some reason got distracted by something else.

 

[yatesy]

Crime and Punishment

 

[goldfish boy]

When I was 11, I started writing my novel, "Space War: 3010 AD." I wrote it in pencil on very cheap yellow paper. I only got to chapter 8 before I abandoned the project several months later. I probably will never finish this masterwork.

 

[Rob Webber]

I never finished the Chronicles of Narnia.

I stopped reading after the second book "Voyage of the Dawn Treader".

 

[VarietyUndrgrnd]

I need to finish Don Quixote!

2/3 of the way through... must... keep... chugging...

 

[Mr. Kwako]

What happens in 3010? What precipitates this space war? Are the nations of Earth at peace? What alternative did we find for fossil fuel? How have humans evolved? Do they have big heads that look like butts like on that one episode of Star Trek? Does it strike anyone as silly that we're still counting the years in terms of how many years after Jesus we are? Does all of space accept this calendar? Do we win the space war? Do we win the space war?

 

[Todd Simmons]

Catch-22.
I found it funny and brilliant but somehow frustrating.*








*I am retarded.

 

[Mr. Kwako]

Catch-22.
I found it funny and brilliant but somehow frustrating.*


*I am retarded.

I have the same thing! I like brilliant things because they make me feel like I'm not too retarded to understand them! Of course, my retardedness makes it so I can't tell which things are brilliant. It's a real... what's the term? Oh yeah, "corker."

 

[Todd Simmons]

Thanks for understanding, Chris.

 

[Cpt. USA]

Everybody liked A WRINKLE IN TIME when I was twelve, but I thought it was bullshit.

 

[Floofy]

An American Tragedy.

Loved the first half. Didn't get the chance to finish before we went over it in 11th grade English.

 

[VarietyUndrgrnd]

An American Tragedy.

I think if you're going to not finish a book, Dreiser is probably a good choice.

He never met a paragraph he didn't like.

 

[goldfish boy]

What happens in 3010? What precipitates this space war? Are the nations of Earth at peace? What alternative did we find for fossil fuel? How have humans evolved? Do they have big heads that look like butts like on that one episode of Star Trek? Does it strike anyone as silly that we're still counting the years in terms of how many years after Jesus we are? Does all of space accept this calendar? Do we win the space war? Do we win the space war?

A space war happens. Aliens attack the moon. Probably, I guess. We just somehow found more. They now look like bad pencil drawings. They have disproportionately big heads but they don't look like butts. Nobody knows much about Jesus; they grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. The title of the book accepts this calendar but it's not really mentioned ever again. We don't know if we win the space war because the book isn't finished. We don't know if we win the space war because the book isn't finished.

 

[Blair]

I never completely finished Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. but it had it's parts...

 

[Mo Nose]

A space war happens. Aliens attack the moon. Probably, I guess. We just somehow found more. They now look like bad pencil drawings. They have disproportionately big heads but they don't look like butts. Nobody knows much about Jesus; they grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. The title of the book accepts this calendar but it's not really mentioned ever again. We don't know if we win the space war because the book isn't finished. We don't know if we win the space war because the book isn't finished.

I could barely finish this post.

Currently, Jonathan Stange and Mr. Norrell, but I may finish it.

 

[mikelibrarian]

Gravity's Rainbow