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anything by herman hesse. NAP
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The Bible, what were they on when they wrote that.
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Ulysses.
James Joyce was either brilliant or bonkers. |
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^^^^^
Tried that about 4 times, gave up after a few chapters. As boring as fack. |
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any religious book (NAP)
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I have read several books written by Amelie Nothomb and they have all been very odd.
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Another vote for Ulysses here. I don't know how many pages it ran to but I won't get those 50 pages of time back.
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Finnegans Wake, also by Joyce, makes Ulysses look like a Janet and John book.
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Ulysses is indeed turgid - yet considered by many the finest literary achievement in the history of Western Civilization.
A Clockwork Orange is another I could never warm to. |
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Having read both Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, I don't know why anyone would choose to read either of their own free will, but FW is indeed much the harder to make sense of. I wonder if it is even possible without reading another book telling you what it's all about.
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I found Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott pretty heavy going.
I think I gave up on page one. An Aunt bought it me for Christmas one year. I think I was about 10 at the time ![]() What was she thinking?! ![]() |
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The Adventures of Anybody by Richard Bandler is pretty weird.
I think I got it but I'm not sure. I must give it another read. |
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I thought Ulysses was a good read. Molly Bloom's soliloquy was top notch.
I loved Dubliners. I've tried Finnegans Wake several times. It's hard going. I've heard that the title of every Thomas Moore song is mentioned. |
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I suppose The Trial and The Castle by Franz Kafka could also be described as weird and dreamlike, though I enjoyed them both at the time.
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Midnight's Children by S Rushdie ....hugely acclaimed by many but irritated the hell out of me and I had to give up quarter way through . Magical realism -pah!
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The 120 Days of Sodom by the Maquis de Sade.
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Ulysses isn't that difficult. Finnegan's Wake is quite impossible unless you are multi-lingual,which Joyce was and I'm not.
Thomas Pynchon I can't cope with at all. I got through one of his shorter ones but didn't like it and didn't really understand it. 10 pages is as far as I got with Gravity's Rainbow. A cult US feminist author who is quite unreadable is Kathy Acker. The Bible is more boring than difficult except for Ezekiel in the Old Testament and Revelations ( George W Bush's fav )in the New Testament. Both read as though they were written by guys who had ingested nothing but magic mushrooms for 20 years. |
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Years ago someone lent me a Tolkien book. Got as far as someone's "eleventy first birthday" and gave up in disgust. Worse than trying to read the Old Testament.
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Shark by Will Self, it's ok but has to many recondite words for my predilection.
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Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley.
I read Brave new world and thought yeah this guy has something. Devils weirded me out and is still unfinished in a cupboard somewhere. |
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'The Glass Bead Game' for me. EastofEden has already mentioned Herman Hesse,though I've loved most of his other work.
The first 2 novels of the Titus Groan triolgy were excellent and I've made a number of attempts to complete 'Titus alone',without success.It has been said that following his experiences as a war artist at the Nazi death camps Peake had gone gaga whilst writing it and I believe it was completed by one of his children. |
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Make my hay 22 Sep 14 11:42
Shark by Will Self, it's ok but has to many recondite words for my predilection. ![]() |
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Five Go To Billycock Hill took a strange turn from the previous Famous Five books.
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Alice In Wonderland is far out man.
Magic Stories, Remy De Gourmont, a different meaning with each reading. |
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Make my hay 22 Sep 14 11:42
Shark by Will Self, it's ok but has to many recondite words for my predilection. OK, who else had to look up "recondite"? ![]() The reason I used to love reading Will Self's column in the Observer (and elsewhere) is that he always challenged you with a word you'd have to look up within a paragraph or two. It does get hard going when there's a book full of them though. |
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Oops, didn't see taxis post.
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'How to win friends and influence people.' a book by the pair of posters, Northernlad (Irish_Celtic) and ExtremeX (Menelaus)
Pretty hard to read with all the pages being blank. |
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Tristram Shandy or anything by Philip K. D1ck.
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I agree about Titus Alone. It's totally different from the 1st 2 volumes. I think I ploughed through it but wished I hadn't bothered. Peake certainly went gaga and may have written it when he was going that way. Not heard it was completed by one of his children but could be true.
I find I struggle with all Russian novelists I've read,particularly Dostoevsky. Not unreadable but I find them weird in that they seem to inhabit a different mental universe. |
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Actually, that post by Salmon Spray just reminded me of "The Spiritual Man" by Watchman Nee of China. By some Secretariat-like winning margin the strangest book I've ever read -- yet I fear it might also be true...
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Sebald wrote some unusual novels, not surprising for what I suspect was a horse.
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