The books many start, but few ever finish: Survey reveals the reads nobody reads (HRC 1.9%)

ukmail ^ | 7-8-14

[InvisibleChurch]

It's the cultural crime we don't dare admit - starting that big, high-brow book with the best intentions before leaving it half-read down the back of the sofa.

So those who give up on tough reads will be relieved to hear they're not alone.

A mathematics professor has singled out which books are our most 'unread' - and intellectual big-hitters are far and away the worst culprits.

Readers in their droves gave up on Hillary Clinton's memoirs, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century before they were even a tenth of the way through.

Far more bookworms persevered with the light erotica of Fifty Shades of Grey and the teen violence of Catching Fire, part of the Hunger Games series.

The ingeniously simple test was devised by Jordan Ellenberg from the University of Wisconsin, who studied the Popular Highlights feature on Kindle e-readers.

The function allows users to select their favourite sentences from a book, and the results are collected centrally to build up a picture of which phrases are the most popular among the public.

[notdownwidems]

I've read many many books, including most of the Western classics, but one that I just couldn't get through: Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

[Borges]

Frankenstein is more interesting to talk about than it is to actually read.

[Borges]

I’ve read that Salinger regarded himself as FSF’s literary heir. And reading his short stories you can see it.

[ifinnegan]

Infinite Jest has never been able to intrigue me.

Why I it worth reading?

[zeugma]

To this day I don’t know how it ended.

You probably wouldnot want to sit through the movies either. Sadly, the vid left out some really critical development of Merry and Pippin. (The Scourging of the Shire).

[zeugma]

Cryptonomicon- Neal Stephonson

Yeah that was a toughie. WifeofZeugma didn't make it through that one, and that's saying something. The playing card cypher was cool.

Any list of unreadable books mustinclude Dianetics. Granted, it's not supposed to be considered fiction, but still, it's the worst thing I've ever read that comes to mind.

[zeugma]

Really like Joss. Will have to pass this along to wife. She's a Shakesphere and Joss fan. Personally I really don't like reading his works. Being forced to read through several of his plays while I wasin High School pretty much destroyed my enjoyment of live versions as well.

I can handle the sonnets, but my preference for poetry leans to Kiping.

[Verginius Rufus]

I had a hard time with The Brothers Karamazov but finally finished it.

War and Peace, on the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed (well, not too crazy about the last 50 pages). Need to read it again.

Crime and Punishment is a great read. Fathers and Sons isn't bad.

Has anyone else read David Baldacci's The First Family? Published in 2009. The President and First Lady in the novel seem to be based in large part on the Clintons. (Not as bad, of course.)

[IronJack]

I’ve read the same thing, and I agree there’s some truth to it. I think Salinger is coarser then Fitzgerald but equally angst-ridden. And his style is sort of a compromise between Fitzgerald’s eloquence and Hemingway’s pithiness.

[zeugma]

Frankenstein is more interesting to talk about than it is to actually read.

And it really fun to talk about when someone has only seen the movie adaptations and thinks they know the story.

[JoeDetweiler]

“...Sadly, the vid left out some really critical development of Merry and Pippin...”

He’s probably saving it for another three movies ;-)

[notdownwidems]

Frankenstein is more interesting to talk about than it is to actually read.

Well, I did read the Classics Illustrated version! The plot is very interesting and far more nuanced than the 1931 movie classic.

[Borges]

It’s been called the key American novel of its generation (Gen X)

[Borges]

Those people inevitably think that Frankenstein is the name of the monster.

[yuleeyahoo]

Well, the world’s in a great commotion,
From the Misty Mountains back to the Shire,
The Hobbits are sneakin’ the One Ring
From the frying pan into the Fire.
“From somewhere we gotta get a hero” —
That’s what the bards all sing,
But they never expected the rockin’ and rollin’ I bring —
It’s the return of the King.

I got a suit of studded black leather,
And my hair stays in place, of course,
I got a re-forged steel electric guitar
And a three-hundred-horsepower horse.
No matter what I ask my Rangers,
They’ll do almost anything,
And the ladies are waitin’ for the chance to dance and sing —
At the return of the King.

Well, everyone said that I was dead,
Or maybe Ara-Goin’ off to hide,
But I just kicked back to get on track,
And wait till I hit my my Stride.

I got my Rangers hoppin’
Down the misty murky Moria Line,
And there ain’t gonna be no stoppin’
Till the Pellenore Fields are mine,
We’ll hold off the trolls and goblins,
And all of the rocks they fling,
Until Sam and Frodo set Gollum’s bells to Ring —
And make me the King.

Now, I’m supposed to marry Arwen, the Fairie
Queen of the Saturday Nights,
But until then, give me Eowyn
And I’ll blow out her Northern Lights.

We’ll have a celebration,
And I’ll take a couple years to rest,
Then I’ll stick around and keep an eye on things
When everybody else heads West,
But I’ll be here if you need me,
Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring,
And everyone in Middle-Earth’ll really rock and swing —
At the Return of the King.
At the Return of the King.
At the Return of the King.

— That’s why they call me the King.
Tom Smith (Use your best Elvis voice to the song “Don’t be cruel”)

[ifinnegan]

Hi.

But why?

I have begun it, but don’t find it compelling.

[Borges]

I haven’t read it. I’m going by what I’ve been told. No other American novel of that generation is as revered.

[ifinnegan]

Oh.

I see.

I like ambitious literature, and I likes some of his style in having footnotes. I was impressed by his knowledge of pharmacology he put forth in the foot notes.

But the story and world he was presenting did not do any thing to make me interested.

This book, and Gravity’s Rainbow, were not Ulysses, which is a great book.

[Billthedrill]

It strikes me that the chosen metric is a little shaky - I do almost no highlighting on my Kindle, and if a book really grips me I don't have time to highlight anyway. The author of the study would conclude I discarded books I really loved.

Nor is it especially fair to measure popular novels such as Catching Fire against popular science pablum such as Hawking's book. They're two entirely different genres. I have highlighted very little of Jonathan Israel's Revolution of the Mind, my evening's project, compared to that unforgettable entire fifth chapter of Naughty Nurses In Bondage, the one with the dyspeptic midget and the circus pony... Note to self: better not hit the Post button on this one...

[Vision Thing]

I encouraged so many friends to read Saul Bellow’s Henderson The Rain King, letting them know that it starts out painfully slow for the first third of the book, but the last two-thirds are just breathtaking.

Everyone put up a stink when I asked about their progress through the book. True enough, they struggled through the beginning of it.

But it was such a joy to see their faces after they had finished it. Every single one of them loved it as much as I do and were glad they persevered through the slow beginning.