I’ve been thinking about how some novels feel important rather than pleasurable.
Books you admire, respect, maybe even recommend but that you wouldn’t say you “enjoyed” in the traditional sense.
For me, 1984 was like that. I’m glad I read it, it stuck with me, it shaped how I think… but the experience itself felt heavy and unsettling the whole time.
It made me wonder if we sometimes confuse “great book” with “good reading experience,” and whether those things even need to overlap.
Curious to hear:
what’s a book you’re grateful you read, but wouldn’t want to reread and why?
by ClementineMood
10 Comments
Demon Copperhead. I’m from the area the book takes place in. The book is important, and accurate for some kids. I don’t think I could handle reading it again, but I think everyone should read it once.
**1984** is definitely a book that I loved but didn’t enjoy the experience — it is such a bleak story.
Another book that felt like this for me is **Emmaus** by Alessandro Baricco. He’s my favorite Italian author and I adore his style. **Emmaus** was a great book to read by the characters were so nasty, it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
The Gulag Archipelago
*Blood Meridian* hits this perfectly for me. McCarthy’s writing is absolutely brilliant and the themes are devastating in all the right ways, but holy shit was it a slog to get through. Every page felt like getting punched in the soul
The Judge is one of the most terrifying characters ever written but I never want to spend time in that world again. Sometimes the best books are the ones that leave you emotionally drained
The Unbearable Lightness of Being! – thu i have not read this. Coz i am afraid i will not like it.
Of Mice and Men – brilliant, but I don’t enjoy feeling sad. Flowers for Algernon the same.
Crime and Punishment. It’s a slog but well worth it
Use of weapons
Oh yes absolutely. I read “Milkman” by Anna Burns for a book club and I distinctly remember feeling so relieved after I was done reading it. And yet, I occasionally still think about that novel to this day.
It was just such an exhausting reading experience–not “fun” in the least–but it really does a great job of immersing you in the mind of an anxious, stressed-out teenager during the Troubles.
Catch-22. Reading it felt such a slog and then I finally finished and had a massive grin for perhaps the first time since picking it up. Now one of my favourites but it was a journey for sure.