Hard read

[Muddyboot]

Over the last couple of years, I've been trying to read what I consider to be difficult
books. First was The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri) and now (John Miltons) Paradise
Lost
Does anyone else torture themselves with these literature classics? I struggle through
and finish them, leaving myself with a feeling of satisfaction, and plan on doing so more
in the future. But really don't enjoy the books.

How about you?  do you suffer for classic literature?

 

[Lonestar57]

Absolutely not. I do enjoy reading but time is too precious and there are many possibly great books to choose from.

 

[Valmet]

Not at all. I’m a big reader but if something is hard to read and time consuming I’ll discard it.

 

[kraynky]

I like to enjoy what I'm reading and get no pleasure out of forcing myself through a book. Like a movie, if I'm not enjoying it by the first quarter or so of it, I'll give it up and look for something else. Too many good reads out there to read a book I don't like just because "it's a classic". That's too much like "school work". All of my forced reading days are behind me now.

I read because it's enjoyable. I don't eat food I don't like either.

 

[TXBryan]

I tried Milton. He's tough with a capital "T." Paradise Lost is one of the most boring things I ever trudged through with some gems but lots of extremely wordy filler. Pass on any more Milton. I found "The Inferno" fascinating and it probably matters what translation you read. Heavy but wonderful and one of those books you're afraid you're gonna finish too soon - helps if you know a bit of medieval and Renaissance Italian history as to the characters involved. Dostoevsky is worth the effort especially "The Brothers Karamazov." No better analysis of the human condition than Dostoevsky. Get over him being Russian.

Another one that is deeper than the Marianas Trench is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship" if you're interested in Christian philosophy. I typically read a couple pages, put it down and contemplate what I'm trying to absorb, then pick it up again a day later, reread the last three pages and then move on to another three to six, repeat. I love books that make me do that.

And don't sell "Atlas Shrugged" short for a more modern novel with real substance. Ayn Rand penned a real masterpiece in my opinion. I wish everyone had to read Atlas Shrugged to graduate from high school.

Bryan

 

[rockquarry]

Reading is to be enjoyed. It shouldn't be like an unpleasant homework assignment.

 

[Alpo]

Reading is to be enjoyed. It shouldn't be like an unpleasant homework assignment.

That is about the best explanation I've seen.

I remember reading The Scarlet Letter in 10th grade English. I don't know if Hawthorne ever wrote anything else, but I will never read it because I don't like the way the man writes.

I've seen two movies of The Last of the Mohicans. It looks like an enjoyable story. I can't get through Fenimore Cooper's writing. I don't like the way Steinbeck writes. I don't like the way Hemingway writes.

These all might be great authors, and the books they write might be literary classics. But if I got to force myself to read them?? I read for pleasure. If I don't enjoy it, I don't do it.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I read many of those classics as a younger man. These days I find myself gravitating more toward "lighter" material with one exception - The Holy Bible.

 

[Farmer17]

I read so much in college and work and have to read instruction manuals now on any new tech product we get, any pleasure reading now is something very short.

 

[65Whelen]

Moby Dick. I've taken a couple of runs at it but Melville writes in an old English that I just suffer with. I get no enjoyment only frustration. I guess I shouldn't have skipped English class so much.

 

[Riposte1]

I've tried to read Hiawatha several times, and always give up about 1/4 way through. I read first for pleasure and second to learn something, I'll stick to Matt Helm and Biographies

Riposte

 

[duke2002]

I read them in college. I think prople put more stock in "classics" then i see. After its been translated several times who knows if the book is correct. I pissee my professer off by saying " you ever give any thought that these were just stories" and people like you make more out of them then they are.

 

[taz666]

Will there be a test?

 

[OutAtTheEdge]

I will give practically any book a chance, but frankly, if I'm not pulled into it and held there by the story and/or writing, I'll walk away.

 

[fordson]

Classic literature is enjoyable and enlightening to a point. I’m old with more of the road of life behind me than in front. I read mostly now for enjoyment and/or information. My current reading list……with my backlog ……of history and fiction…..
Annoying - the second photo posted upside down…..arrgggggg!

 

[greenwellg]

In third grade I read my 385 page reading book the day (all night) we got it. Then I was bored to death for the rest of the 179 days of class.
I also read the Bible and the Rise and fall of the Third Reich. I probably read many of the "Classics" if they were required but I don't really remember much of anything about them. I understand why many don't read much anymore, me included. I spend my time here trying to learn something I have been studying for decades which is firearms. I try to contribute when I feel I have something worth learning. This forum as well as others over the last 20 years have helped me learn but it seems there always is a point reached where the law of diminishing returns starts to make me disinterested again.
There is nothing I "worship or access about" anymore. One of my greatest pleasures at this point in life is to find something a friend has been looking for without success.
Sadly those friends have become few and far between as time inevitably takes them hopefully to a better place.

 

[Just another 22 shooter]

That is about the best explanation I've seen.

I remember reading The Scarlet Letter in 10th grade English. I don't know if Hawthorne ever wrote anything else, but I will never read it because I don't like the way the man writes.

This is exactly what came to mind when I read the op.

These days, if a book doesn't get me interested in the first 15 pages, it gets shelved.

 

[Rustyt1953]

After I read Chauser all books after that were cake walks.

 

[Denverd0n]

Haven't read any Milton as yet, but I have read a lot of other classics including a lot of non-fiction by the likes of Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Frederic Bastiat, and others. Yes, these can take some effort to get through, but I find it worthwhile. I quite enjoyed The Divine Comedy, despite the effort involved in reading it.

I guess it's a question of what it means to "enjoy" reading something. Many of these books are not what I would call "fun" to read, not in the way that a Louis L'Amour novel is, but in the end I am glad that I have read them and so would say that I enjoyed the experience.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Over the last couple of years, I've been trying to read what I consider to be difficult
books. First was The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri) and now (John Miltons) Paradise
Lost
Does anyone else torture themselves with these literature classics? I struggle through
and finish them, leaving myself with a feeling of satisfaction, and plan on doing so more
in the future. But really don't enjoy the books.

How about you?  do you suffer for classic literature?

Many decades ago when I was in university I did an Italian Literature in Translation course which was The Divine Comedy. I still have my textbooks, the translations by Dorothy L. Sayers (except the last, which I think was completed by someone else after her death.) An extraordinary work. Dante pretty much "set" the Italian language, with the result that a modern Italian can read Dante with relatively little difficulty, compared to us trying to read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which was written 80 years later.

We probably did parts of Paradise Lost in school but I don't remember much about it.

Now when you've cut your teeth on your current literature, take a deep breath and start chewing on some James Joyce (!)