What changed (if you have an idea)? *Inspiration for this post- I just tried to read The Goldfinch and Project Hail Mary again; I have tried to read both multiple times and can’t get much past page 50. They keep coming up as people’s favorite books on this topic, so I have given each another chance this week. I still don’t get why do many people love both or even one of them. About to give up the 3rd and 4th time on this 2 books.
by BethyStewart78
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Just this year, V. by Thomas Pynchon, China: A History by John Keay, Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-75, and Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, among others. I’ve had an easier time focusing on long bricks now that I’m unemployed.
I have definitely tried to read a book, come back to it years later and inhaled it. I might have even come back to something a third time if I hadn’t given it a good go. But that would be the max. I really want to read Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth for my own work, and I have tried a number of times but my brain just switches off. I may just bull through it sometime for research purposes, reading a chapter a night, but it wouldn’t be fun.
I am one of the people who Andy Weir isn’t my jam. I don’t say much about it because I’m happy he is jam for other people. Just don’t think you’re alone in not enjoying his work. That goes for every highly recommended author here including Donna Tartt.
I do strongly think there are books which you appreciate better with age and experience. That if you don’t like a critically acclaimed book put it down and come back to it a decade later. But I don’t think Andy Weir is in that category.
Treason by David Nevin. I’ve had this book for nearly 20 years, tried it a few times and would get about ⅓ of the way through and then just stop. Finally this year I picked it up and blasted through it in a few days. Don’t really know what changed. Maybe just wasn’t the right time to read it back then.
It might even have been the 7th or 8th try… It was Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. If I’d had another book I probably would have quit but I didn’t, so I persevered and went on to read the whole series.
Don Quixote.
Tried it a few times and found it utterly and unbearably boring.
Until after several years I read the book Pessimism by Joshua Foa Dienstag, in which the author extensively analyses some of the classic book’s themes – apart from praising it all the way (the guy must love Don Quixote).
The result is: today Don Quixote is one of my favourite books, having had so much fun reading it – oh I laughed and I cried. Also many times in difficult situations I (try to) tend to think “ok, what would that crazy guy do if he were me right now”. So far this has paid out well.
The best book suggestions are from people that sincerely love a book and are completely fascinated by it.
Dune took me 5 tries to really get going.
Why would you try to read a book you didn’t like more than twice?
I wanted to give up on both Midnight’s Children (Rushdie) and Middlesex (Eugenides) and friends told me to keep reading, it will be worth it. And it was, I thought both books were excellent
Little Wiman.ive been trying to read this book since i was 8 years old …. I still can’t get into it.
Anna Karenina. I had to find a better translation than the one I originally picked up.
Moby Dick. Just couldn’t get into it. Twice. But loved it on the 3rd try. I think there were 5-10 years in between attempts.
For me it was To Kill a Mockingbird.
Lonesome Dove…..gave up twice. Tried it a third time. Loved it
All the light we cannot see. I had a hard time getting going, probably the first 50 pages, but then absolutely could not put it down.
*The Making of the Atomic Bomb* by Richard Rhodes. I finally got through it on my fourth or fifth (maybe sixth) attempt. It’s a fascinating book, but it’s also very long.
*Moby Dick* still awaits me.
I tried to read *Moby-Dick* for a class but just couldn’t get through it, so I bought the Cliff Notes instead. I went back about ten years later and tried again. Turns out it became my favorite book. I re-read it every couple of years and always find something new in it.
I tried *The Magic Mountain* probably five or six times. When I finally got through it, I re-read it immediately and it just “clicked” for me. I’ll probably read it again.
Also, *Love in the Time of Cholera*. Twenty-something me could not get into a book about old people in love. Hit totally different when sixty-ish me gave it another try.
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving. I gave it three chances and I couldn’t do it.