After countless attempts, I've finally sat through a complete viewing of Gone With The Wind. I like old movies and I enjoy epic films, but I've never been able to watch this one all the way through. Finally, I borrowed a neighbors copy and committed myself to sitting through it. Turns out it's a pretty good flick!
I made two attempts at reading The Grapes Of Wrath before completing the task on the third try. I enjoyed it.
Catcher in the Rye was another book that took three attempts. Bored hell out of me.
Still haven't managed to finish The Great Gatsby, The Lord Of The Rings books or anything by Hemingway. I don't hold out much hope for the first and last entries, though I'm still game for LOTR books.
Movies that required muliple attempts...Heat(good)..2001:A Space Travesty(bad)..Dr, Zhivago(oh the horror)....Beat The Devil(WTF?)....Nosferatu(Germans are weird).
Any books or movies you've actually had to work at getting through?
a movie i always struggled with is "the longest day" . i could never sit a watch the whole thing.
"Dont be a fool for ur tool"
a wrinkle in time, I hate the way the book is written.
I enjoyed Wrinkle in Time, and The Longest Day. Can't recall anything I've struggled with, ocassionally a book or movie is so bad that I stop reading or watching it.
The Lensman Chronicles by E.E, (Doc) Smith. The books have great concepts that have inspired a lot of people from George Lucas to J. Michael Straczynski.
The pulp writing style(from tthe 30's) that was used is just really hard to read. A lot of sexism and every one is a Bronze Adonis or Venus. They are classics and I pretty much forced my way through them, but they were worth it .
Oh, that does remind me of Through a Mirror Darkly, which at times felt like an obligation to read.
I have never made it all the way through 2001: A Space Oddysey
Maybe someday I will.
"the lord of the rings", sorry but i find it really soporific and boring, i cant stand frodo and sam. i love peter jackson but not the trilogy.
I always just avoid movies and books that bore me to tears. Great classic or not, if it doesn't interest me, I'm not going to waste my time with it.
A Tale of Two Cities- I hate Dickens more than anything else in the entire world. Stupid Victorian people.
If On a Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino- it was way too hard to follow, each chapter is a portion of a different book.
Deej wrote:
"Catcher in the Rye was another book that took three attempts. Bored hell out of me."
Wow. Catcher in the Rye was one of the few books that I have ever read that I had a hard time putting down. I was completely absorbed by it from page 1 all the way to the end!
I have the extended version of LOTR: THE TWO TOWERS on DVD. The first time I tried to watch it, I made it through about 30 minutes. The 2nd time, I made it to the end of disk #1. I really like the movie, but I just can't seem to get through it. I think I need to watch LOTR again first to refresh my memory about a few things.
i agree with u, catcher in the rye its a great book. caught my attention from the start till the end.
A Civil Action was rough going for me. The writing style just seemed so dry-- I kept imagining Criswell reading it.
It took me a while to finish The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Don't get me wrong-- I liked it a lot-- but I just kept getting distracted. I think I read something like five other books in their entirety between when I started it and when I finished.
For one reason or another, I've never made it more than a few chapters into Lord of the Rings (though I've read the Hobbit more than once).
As for movies, it took several sittings to finish Apocolypse Now Redux.
I've struggled with almost every book I'm told to read in school. No, I'm not bad at reading I actually graduated with an english minor from college since it went along with my major but when I'm told what I have to read something completely turns me off of it. I could pick it up on my own free will and love it but when I'm told I have to do it by this time and so on so forth it just doesn't work. Maybe I just can't get over my problems with authority. Anyone else feel this way
The Burgomaster wrote:
>
> Wow. Catcher in the Rye was one of the few books that I have
> ever read that I had a hard time putting down. I was
> completely absorbed by it from page 1 all the way to the end!
Yeah, everyone from my brother to Mark David Chapman seems to be wacky about this book. That's why I read it..."The Great American Novel" etc. I just didn't dig it. I thought Holden was a pretentious whinger, maybe I just didn't get it. I read Shane in one sitting...didn't put it down..much less whining in Shane...and more shootin'!!
I guess now I should mention a "Classic" book that I read and enjoyed, to save literary face, but can't think of one right off. I finished Lord Of The Flys in one sitting, when I was 14. Of course, it's about 100 pages long and kind of a children's book....but I dug it thoroughly! Poor Piggy!
Still working on the complete LOTR book, it's not that I don't enjoy it, but it hasn't grabbed me yet, and my mind has sort of toddled off. I've set it aside now for a few weeks, but will try again soon.
Just re-read The Novels Of Dashiell Hammett (except for The Dain Curse) and 4 of Raymond Chandler's early Marlowe novels....gooooood readin'!! I think I've given up on Hemingway and Fitzgerald....impenatrable! Currently, psyching myself up for Gerald's Game....wish me luck!
yeah i feel the same way brian. i read books for fun but when college tells me to read a book i cant do it. thier either real boring or give u a deadline which i cant do it by.
"Dont be a fool for ur tool"
I don't get "I AM LEGEND" by matheson, i loved the way it started, then suddenly it leaped years ahead and completely away from the main character and turned boring
I tried to read Moby Dick back when I was 10 or so. It was one long, slow book, and I barely got a few chapters into it. I've read much longer stories since (the Rama series and Harry Turtledove's Worldwar/Colonization series), so I think I could handle it now, but frankly, I have no interest in reading it.
I understand exactly what Vermin Boy means with his comparison of LOTR and the Hobbit. The Hobbit moves along at a brisk pace, and is jam-packed with adventures. I breezed through that in a few evenings. I'm currently slogging through The Two Towers, and finding that for all the entertaining reading in LOTR, including stuff that wasn't in the movies, it's pretty tough going, especially when somebody launches into a song that goes on for three pages. It takes a long time for anything to happen.
As for movies, just htis week, Isaw two meandering pictures that took a lot of patience. One was Shine, a movie that just seems to go on and on without building to anything, and largely glosses over some important and interesting details. The story could have been told in half the time.
Then there was Jackie Brown, which I somehow went for years without seeing. I love Tarantino's other movies, and I was expecting some updated blaxploitation fun, but it was a hard movie to finish. Good story, good cast, good characters, good dialogue, good sountrack - it just took too long for anything to happen. By about halfway, we were both sitting there wondering when it was going to be wrapped up.
What's up Deej! For me it would have to be Lawrence of Arabia. I've never been able to finisih this film, even though everyone's always talking about it and how great of a classic it is. I've sat through tons of slow films, but Lawrence gets me everytime.
Chopper wrote:
> What's up Deej! For me it would have to be Lawrence of Arabia.
> I've never been able to finisih this film, even though
> everyone's always talking about it and how great of a classic
> it is. I've sat through tons of slow films, but Lawrence gets
> me everytime.
I never had any problem with that one. It grabbed me right off, but it is long as hell.
Dr Zhivago, however, I still haven't been able to sit through more that an hour of. Haven't even attempted Solaris or Barry Lyndon yet.
>Currently, psyching myself up for Gerald's Game
When you read it, pay attention to the physical descriptions of the location and the placement of objects. Maybe I'm picturing it wrong, but the way King described it, it just didn't sound plausible. In other words, it seemed to me that some of the things described as possible, weren't and some of the things described as impossible, were. I don't want to say more and ruin parts of the plot.
Books I have trouble getting through - Anything written more than about 50 years ago. I tried reading War of the Worlds, some stories by Washington Irving, including Rip Van Winkle and The headless Horseman, and just couldn't get through more than a few pages. I tried reading the Superman novel, which was written back in the 20s or 30s I think and it completely lost me when it had Lex Luther flying around on little hover platforms in supposedly present day. Also, the novelization of the movie Moonraker. I'm all for character developement, but there are like 10 pages devoted to what the pilot of the airliner did the night before the flight. I mean, the guy dies in the first 1% of the story, do I really need to know who he's sleeping with, or what his plans for the future are?
I bought The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, which is all the Hitchhiker books in one volume. I ripped through the first four, but on the last (So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish) I just suddendly stopped. Dunno why.
Same thing with the first Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. I love the style, but again, dunno why, I never made it through.
A book that I made it through without understanding a bit- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Of course, I was around 12 at the time, so I might give it another go.
I really didn't enjoy reading THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. Then I saw the movie and thought it was great. After that I ripped through THE TWO TOWERS and RETURN OF THE KING, which I thought were amazing.
I did struggle through most of the books I was assigned to read in high school and hated them. THE GRAPES OF WRATH, THE PEARL and, the horror, THE SCARLET LETTER. I read the opening chapter of THE INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison in one of my literature books which blew me away. Why couldn't we read that?
Anyway, for books, I attempt to read ULYSSES by James Joyce every few years or so and it defeats me every time. It's so disheartening to read a hunded or so pages and realize you understood next to nothing.
As far as films, anything French New Wave usually bores me to tears. But my friend keeps loaning them to me and I keep watching them.
It, uh, builds character.
I did make it through Borring Lyndon, but then again, I was a young lad sitting in the theater when I saw it. Even the fighting and naked breasts! weren't enough to keep me interested.
I never made it through Rozencranz and Gildenstern are Dead, even seeing two or three times, but that was due more to the lateness of the hour, having seen 2-3 movies already, and imbibed a fair amount of beer. Usually I will sit through a movie, I even sat through Prospero's Books. I do not recommend that for anyone not suffering insomnia.
raj wrote:
I even sat through Prospero's Books. I do not
> recommend that for anyone not suffering insomnia.
Oh,Hell! You're a stronger man than I am!! I'm comfortable with nudity, and male nudity doesn't freak me out...but John Gielgud, nude.....couldn't take it. Plus, the movie was hella dull!
Personally, the most horrifying book I ever read was the Red Badge of Courage, by Crane. It just kept going and going, without going anywhere... And the Metaphors! Oh, ye GODS! "The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer." How does s### like that get filed away as a literary classic?
Anything by Dickens besides A Tale of Two Cities (one of my favorite books of all time) and A Christmas Carol. Everything else he wrote was dull, dull, dull, dull.
Anything by Faulkner. Impenetrable, pretentious drivel.
I struggled all the way through the last two Lord of the Rings books, but they're definattely worth the work. I'm not so sure about 2001, though.
As far as movies go, I have a bigger problem sitting down to see the movie than I do watching it. There is a long list of movies that, whenever I'm at the rental store I look at them and go "Wow. I'm going to have to check that out one of these days." And then I rent something else.
I can't seem to stay awake through Solaris (the original - I haven't tried the George Clooney version yet), though.
Yeah, the original Solaris was tough going. Very long, very slow, and the subtitles on the copy I rented were miniscule and shown too quickly to read. Couldn't get through it. Tried the Clooney version, and although I could at least understand what was said, it was equally boring. Paid $4.99 to see that piece of crap on pay-per-view.
My wife, on the other hand, managed to get halfway through a meandering four-hour Inuit movie before she even realized that she had to turn on the subtitles. She was actually able to piece together a good bit of the story. I joined her when she watched the whole thing over again with subtitles, and got through about an hour before giving up and going to bed.
An earlier post reminded me of a movie I'd almost forgotten. Back in the late 80s, I rented The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go. I barely remember it, except that it was narrated by "Buddha" and featured the titular crime boss, who is magically turned into a good man by Buddha at some point. Can't remember if it was trying to be action or comedy or what. One of those weird things you find in a small-town video store. A friend of mine warned me against it, telling me it was dull. Unfortunately, he happened to remark that there was "nothing but a bunch of topless Oriental women," and that got my interest. In spite of that one benefit (which was not as good or as abundant as it sounded) I fell asleep halfway through, as did the friend who was watching with me.
Post Edited (05-04-04 16:15)
Just imbibe enough beer so that you can't move.
you know my grandma showed Dr. Zhivago my young siblings: and they loved it! Maybe that shows children have better attention span than us.
In 10th grade English, I had to read "Ethan Frome" which has to be THE MOST BORING book EVER!! Absolutely nothing of interest characterwise, plotwise or anything. I think I finally just gave up and took the "F." It was less painful. Moviewise, I had a real tough time sitting through Bergman's "Persona" which seemed to go on forever. I had a similar problem with "The Thin Red Line" (I think that's it-the WWII movie with Sean Penn?) The first half was OK, but after a while it kept getting to points where we all thought "Alright, this has to be the ending," but it just kept going, hitting fake-climax after fake-climax and by the time it actually ended (84 hours later or whatever-maybe it just seemed like it) nobody cared anymore. I also, for some reason, have never made it all the way through "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" despite several attempts. Really weird, considering how much I liked the first two.
Darkautumn, that Thunderdome travesty can't be considered part of the 2 previous movies. Road Warrior is my all time favorite movie and I also really enjoy Mad Max. I was so excited when I had read they were making a 3rd movie. I saw it on opening night and was so angered at the way they just destroyed the whole thing. The formula for the previous movies worked well so they decided to make a 3rd one completely different and turn Max into a p***y...and he doesn't even drive a car! How can Max not drive a car?!...I'll calm down now. You have trouble making it through that movie? Consider yourself lucky.
I could never get into Thunderdome either. It just seemed too "Hollywoodish" and not like the first two.
Another book I hated reading, but had to for high school was The Red and the Black. On the otherhand, we read Crime and Punishment next, which was surprisingly good, except for the ending.
a little off topic. ok, a lot off topic....
long time no see (on my account)
One book that took me a couple of tries to read was "All Quiet on the Western Front," but only because the first time I tried to read it, I got nightmares. Really. It's a great book, so it was not because it was bad or boring or anything.
My wife bought me a book in 1994 called "A Himalayan Oddessy" about a trekker across Nepal. For some reason, I put off reading this book for nearly 10 years, but I finally read it last fall. It was great - I could not hardly put it down until I got it done.
As for movies, I fell asleep during "The Ring" and did not bother to try to watch it again. It really was kinda lame (I have not seen the original, which I have read is better). There's been a bunch of movies over the years that I did not finish watching, cuz they did not hold my interest...."Dude, Where's My Car" is one such (no, I did not spend money on this pile of feces, but I did watch the first 20 minutes or so on TV).
The movie Graduation Day. It's this awful slasher from Troma. I put it on and, with tremendous effort, managed to get through the first hour of it. The next day I thought I'd finish up the last 20 minutes or so. It would be easy as it was only one third of the previous night's work. But no, I didn't make it 5 minutes. I watched the rest of it 5 minutes at a time, over the next two or three days. I mean, I had to, I paid money for the DVD and, well, it was a moral imperative!