Bringing back a topic that usually springs up around now: Do you have any particularly large projects growling ominously at you from the bookshelf? Anything that stands above the usual quick paperback? A classic, an epic, a nonfiction text... tell us about it! I, for one, was going fine through The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, until I had to leave for a week. Now that I've come back and lost my momentum, this has become a much more daunting project- maybe once I start reading again, it won't seem so big.
Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire was gifted to me by a friend some time back. Every once in a while he askes if I have read it yet. There's no aliens or time travel in it!
Huckleberry Finn was assigned as a school project, I cannot stand the book. I also can't read it because I somehow lost it. To me, that's not bad, the school might disagree.
School projects- that reminds me. I need to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It's the favorite book of my seventh grade English teacher, the coolest teacher in the world, so I figure it can't be that bad, but...it's classics, you know? They come pre-approved with a sticker that says 'Boring' on the front.
I have this thick law book I've borrowed from someone that I have yet to begin reading. The content does interest me - I just haven't had a time. It doesn't help that I'm developing an interest in a completely new subject and I've been doing a lot more reading than necessary in that department.
I tried to finish the Bible in 6th grade, but found I couldn't. Since, I haven't been able to start it. I dunno, it has a good message, but written in such a simple and matter-of-fact way ya know? Someday I'll rewrite the whole Bible in more modern language, haha.
I adored this book... until the middle where it turned so heavy that I just couldn't continue. I'm not surprised that you're having a hard time going back to it. I still wish I would have been able to read it. It's a great book and my dear friend recommended it. But the feeling of doom over everything is just too much for me. Usually it isn't, but this book is different. Hmm... I'm supposed to read a lot of classics. My first is Pride and Prejudice which is an easy read, but after that... it's a long way ahead of me.
Already been done Go find "The Message" translation of the Bible. It reads like a novel. As far as books I need to tackle...I've read everything I have at home except for A Child Called It and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. The material in both of those is so graphic and heavy that it's hard to get through. And they're both true...I'm not exactly looking forward to picking them up again, so I'm not sure I actually ever will.
Heh. I have just had a boost of confidence because I have actually tackled a few on this list. Currently, I must tackle: Anna Karenina, Gone With the Wind, Les Miserables One day, I will tackle: War and Peace
I'm planning to try and get through the nigh-incomprehensible Ink by Hal Duncan on the upcoming wealth of long and boring car rides.
I've tried to read the whole Bible before. I love the message, but it's such a big book! It's little overwhelming sometimes. But now I usually try to read a bit of it each night if I'm not too tired. I don't think I know anybody (even very devout Christians) who has read every word in the Bible, so don't feel too bad. I'm sure we'll all get to it eventually.
It's the parts where they list all the descendants and stuff that gets me. Like, "x had y and z and 1 and 2 and 3; and y spawned 4; and z spawned 5 and 6 and 7..." and so on. It might be that they're just at the beginning, but they stop me every time.
Haha, thanks. In the olden days, I can see why so many people read it because it was the only book they could get. It is one big book though.
I actually read the entire Bible (or at least the parts I never really read) when I was deciding whether or not I should continue to call myself a Christian. I didn't understand half of it because I wasn't (yet) well-versed in its historical context, but I did finish the damn thing. I plan on studying Asia Minor and Judaism before I reread it within the next five years.
Good for you! It's awesome when people stick with it and read the whole thing. I tend to be a procrastinator. I'll say that I'll read the Bible, but then "something else will come up" or I'll be "too tired." I know, pathetic me, right?
