DBC Pierre's Booker Prize-winning novel, 'Vernon God Little', topped the list of unfinished fictional works, followed by the fourth installment of Harry Potter and James Joyce’s notoriously difficult 'Ulysses'.I can't say I've read the first two, but I have read 'Ulysses' although it left no marked impression on me. There are books I've given up on, however.
One is 'Gravity's Rainbow' by Thomas Pynchon. I had never encountered a Pynchon book before I was recommended this one by a guy I communicated with on the internet (as you do). He was as enthused by it as the guy who described it as:
"The most profound and accomplished American novel since the end of World War II."-- Edward Mendelson, The New RepublicFrankly, I preferred 'The Great Gatsby'. GR was densely written, in a style I hated, and totally reader-unfriendly. I couldn't get into it, tried for 70 pages, and then wondered if my life was worth wasting over such a book. So I abandoned it, and even gave the book away. Sorry Marcus!
Another book I couldn't drum up the will to finish was 'Angela's Ashes' by Franck McCourt. It was so incredibly depressing, miserable, unrelentingly dire, and with no saving graces that I thought life was too short to be reading such a litany of impoverished misery. So I gave up that one too. Luckily I had borrowed it so was able to give it back with no regrets as to my purse.
I am actually pretty tenacious when it comes to getting through books. I hate missing out on things, so feel sure that at some point, the book is going to 'arrive' and it'll be plain sailing from then on. Sometimes they do, sometimes they never get better, but at least I can say I know they don't.
I had to give up on Roger Scruton's 'German Philosophers' too. It made my head reel. On the other hand, I love Alain de Botton's books, but then they are written for philosophy wimps like me (something like 'philo pour les nuls').
Still, I can proudly say that I read 'The Lord of the Rings' all the way through, once. Wasn't the film series good though?!
