Hard read

[31FordA]

I didn't care for most of the "classics" we had to read in school. Among the worst of the worst were "House of Seven Gables" by Hawthorne, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, and "Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger. Fortunately my love of reading survived in spite of school. I prefer reading history, the majority of the fiction I enjoy is Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. The only mandatory reading assignments I enjoyed were "Shane","Robinson Crusoe" and "April Morning".

One of my first book reports was in 4th grade, our teacher let us do a book report on any book we wanted. Mine was on "Reilly:Ace of Spies". My teacher wasn't expecting that one from a ten year old. One teacher told my parents my book reports, on books I picked, stood out, mainly because the teachers had never heard of the books until my report.

 

[Buford57]

I have been a voracious reader since grade school. I plowed through most of 19th and early 20th Century US and British classics by the time I finished High School both because I enjoy reading and because some of them were considered "important" and should be read. I would force myself to finish books I thought were boring or written in a style I didn't care for, including much of Faulkner. At some point I realized the self-improvement ship had sailed and resolved not to force myself to read anything I didn't find pleasant or thought provoking. Then, after 50 years of mixing fiction and non-fiction I dropped the fiction entirely for about a decade until last year when I binged on Rand, Lewis, Steinbeck works I had overlooked and Roger Pinckney. It was my retirement gift to myself. The Bible has been a constant and each year I try a new translation, but I no longer feel compelled to read anything I don't enjoy.

 

[16thVACav]

Did you ever figure it out, or does it still elude you?

I finally decided it was an outstanding example of entertaining album art from a musical group that understood its target audience.

 

[Muddyboot]

Having finished Paradice Lost (it got better and more readable at the end of the book) I've ordered Moby Dick and Uncle Toms
Cabin. I don't anticipate those being hard reads, but you never know until you start the book. For some unknown reason as I grow older (Turning 65 in November I feel compelled to read the classics.)

 

[biku324]

Don't neglect 'The Old Man and the Sea.'

 

[YouveHadYour6]

The 'I only read if I enjoy it' comments here are disheartening, as these are often the people and books that probably ought to be in contact with one another. Books, including fiction, are not meant purely as entertainments and often can teach a great many things about self and the nature of man, let alone delving into the harder works of non-fiction.

The lack of willingness to read that which is difficult despite it being worthwhile seems emblematic of the era, however.

 

[Muddyboot]

The 'I only read if I enjoy it' comments here are disheartening, as these are often the people and books that probably ought to be in contact with one another. Books, including fiction, are not meant purely as entertainments and often can teach a great many things about self and the nature of man, let alone delving into the harder works of non-fiction.

The lack of willingness to read that which is difficult despite it being worthwhile seems emblematic of the era, however.

Well said, I like the challenge of difficult books. I'm planning to read some of them a second time.

 

[Doriangray6]

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?

I first tried to read the Canterbury Tales in old English and couldn't understand most of it but after I got a copy in modern English it was pretty entertaining though I still had to research some parts to figure out the context.
Paradise Lost is a difficult read either way because so much of it was written in an allegorical context. It leaves you scratching your head wondering what Milton was saying.

 

[rockquarry]

The 'I only read if I enjoy it' comments here are disheartening, as these are often the people and books that probably ought to be in contact with one another. Books, including fiction, are not meant purely as entertainments and often can teach a great many things about self and the nature of man, let alone delving into the harder works of non-fiction.

The lack of willingness to read that which is difficult despite it being worthwhile seems emblematic of the era, however.

More "emblematic of the era" is the fact that few read books at all nowadays. We all have different interests in reading material. It's okay to read something that's enjoyable, yet not difficult or challenging. If you read books that are teaching tools and you learn about yourself and man's nature, that's okay, too. No need to look at other's reading preferences as a lesser form of what you like.

 

[Muddyboot]

I first tried to read the Canterbury Tales in old English and couldn't understand most of it but after I got a copy in modern English it was pretty entertaining though I still had to research some parts to figure out the context.
Paradise Lost is a difficult read either way because so much of it was written in an allegorical context. It leaves you scratching your head wondering what Milton was saying.

The last couple of chapters of Paradice Lost helps explain the book, at least that's what I thought.

 

[Krogen]

I'm just finishing up Treasure Island. Yeah, the book we were "supposed" to have read in school. It's a real struggle to comprehend. Ostensibly written in English, but certainly not the English I learned. I guess I don't speak Pirate English.

 

[45Smashemflat]

I usually have 2-3 books going at any one time. I skip around between fiction, non-fiction, and what I'll call "General trash." Usually some fiction has a bit of truth to it that prompts a dive into non-fiction. Just loaded McCormac's Blood Meridian on the Kindle and will start that after I finish Connoley's Crime Beat, which is a collection of his real newspaper articles he wrote ahead of becoming the fiction author he is today. (Harry Bosch writer…). Physical non-fiction currently in progress, The Politics of Heroin, by McCoy. In depth study of the CIA's complicity in the world drug trade.

I think I'm on book 6 of the Longmire series, and 3-4 of the Woodsman series too.

I need to tackle Moby Dick at some point. I've enjoyed the various movies, as well as the true story that inspired it, the whaler Essex.

 

[smithman 10]

Don't neglect 'The Old Man and the Sea.'

If I were to recommend just one of Hemingway's books it would be "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

 

[Mister Coffee]

@Muddyboot Bravo, sir, and well done.

There are so many books that I have left to read, and I am desperately trying to catch up in the time that I have left. They include:

The Canterbury Tales
Paradise Lost
The Fairie Queen
War and Peace
The Confidence Man and Billy Budd
The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov
pretty much all of Dickens
probably five plays by Shakespeare
Don Quixote
a bunch of French novels
novels of Thomas Hardy

Thanks for inspiring me to get on it.



P.S. By the way, I read that Dante guy in college (trans. John D. Sinclair). Who could not love the Inferno? "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate"

 

[Muddyboot]

If I were to recommend just one of Hemingway's books it would be "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

Hemingway's on my list for a few reads.

 

[Muddyboot]

@Muddyboot Bravo, sir, and well done.

There are so many books that I have left to read, and I am desperately trying to catch up in the time that I have left. They include:

The Canterbury Tales
Paradise Lost
The Fairie Queen
War and Peace
The Confidence Man and Billy Budd
The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov
pretty much all of Dickens
probably five plays by Shakespeare
Don Quixote
a bunch of French novels
novels of Thomas Hardy

Thanks for inspiring me to get on it.



P.S. By the way, I read that Dante guy in college (trans. John D. Sinclair). Who could not love the Inferno? "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate"

So many books, so little time. I'm contemplating the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.

 

[Mister Coffee]

If I were to recommend just one of Hemingway's books it would be "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

Not a bad suggestion, but I think his best work is A Farewell to Arms and the story collection In Our Time. At his best, Hemingway is not just story teller, but a prose stylist; however, that may be too deep for some people. There are folks who enjoy thinking deeply about the designs of John M. Browning, and there are others who just wanna shoot.

 

[Krogen]

@Muddyboot Bravo, sir, and well done.

There are so many books that I have left to read, and I am desperately trying to catch up in the time that I have left. They include:

The Canterbury Tales
Paradise Lost
The Fairie Queen
War and Peace
The Confidence Man and Billy Budd
The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov
pretty much all of Dickens
probably five plays by Shakespeare
Don Quixote
a bunch of French novels
novels of Thomas Hardy

Thanks for inspiring me to get on it.



P.S. By the way, I read that Dante guy in college (trans. John D. Sinclair). Who could not love the Inferno? "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate"

Your post inspired me. I had a look at The Canterbury Tales on archive.org. I do believe I'll need a translation! I mentioned above I can't read Pirate English. Well, The Canterbury Tales is even more daunting. The first page stopped me in my tracks. Here's a snippet from archive.org:

 

[Mister Coffee]

@Krogen You ain't lyin', as Screamin' Jay Hawkins once said.

Chaucer, I believe, is late Middle English. Very close to our own Modern English, but not quite there.