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The books many start, but few ever finish: Survey reveals the reads nobody reads (HRC 1.9%)
ukmail ^ | 7-8-14

Posted on 07/08/2014 6:44:44 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: books; literature; reading
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To: IronJack

You’re proud that you’ve never read The Great Gatsby? :)


21 posted on 07/08/2014 7:25:30 AM PDT by Borges
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To: InvisibleChurch

Most unreadable books ever:
1.Gravity’s Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon
2.Ulysses- James Joyce
3.Satanic Verses- Rushdie
4.Anything by Umberto Eccho
5. Cryptonomicon- Neal Stephonson


22 posted on 07/08/2014 7:28:18 AM PDT by Hiro Protaginast
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To: gr8eman
Try Victor Hugo...I couldn’t even put Hunchback of Notre Dame down...

I couldn't put down Les Miserables because I rested it on my lap and was pinned there until I got some help. :-)

Seriously, it was on of the best books I've read. It even made me wish I understood French so I could read an untranslated version.

23 posted on 07/08/2014 7:31:58 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (The IRS: either criminally irresponsible in backup procedures or criminally responsible of coverup.)
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To: Hiro Protaginast

Anything discursive or difficult then?


24 posted on 07/08/2014 7:33:17 AM PDT by Borges
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To: KarlInOhio

Do you like the musical? On stage I mean. That recent film was terrible.


25 posted on 07/08/2014 7:33:53 AM PDT by Borges
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To: JoeDetweiler
Oh, I love Fantasy, although I agree it often comes down to personal likes and dislikes.

I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy when in my early 20s (a long time ago, I'll grant you!).

The Hobbit was kind of slow until the Battle of the Five Armies, upon whence it's pace picked up considerably, leading in to The Fellowship.

I was at the beach when I finished The Two Towers, and once I put it down, I simply had to have Return of the King at that very moment! My mind demanded it!

So a neighbor took me down to the local bookstore and made my vacation the smashing success it eventually turned out to be.

I read a lot of books (too many, thinketh my wife!), but there are books out there whose turgid prose will simply turn me off and not permit me to finish them, they are that bad.

I think it's a defense mechanism of some sort my mind has devised over the years.

CA....

26 posted on 07/08/2014 7:37:56 AM PDT by Chances Are (Seems I've found that silly grin again....)
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To: Hiro Protaginast
4.Anything by Umberto Eccho

I agree with your list, except for this one. I find some of Eco's work quite entertaining, especially Foucault's Pendulum.

27 posted on 07/08/2014 7:38:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus (Omnia relinquit servare Rempublicam)
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To: Borges

I’ve only seen the “in concert” version on PBS. It seemed like a thin veneer compared to a great tree: a couple of hours were only enough to give a hint of the book.


28 posted on 07/08/2014 7:45:20 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (The IRS: either criminally irresponsible in backup procedures or criminally responsible of coverup.)
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To: latina4dubya
I have a confession. I can read just about any book written in English, with comprehension, and will finish them if they don't get repetitious or they don't have long chapters that don't accomplish much.

But I never could, and still can't, understand or enjoy Shakespeare. Most of the modern adaptations are fine, but not the originals.

I guess I have no taste or class. That's what some English teachers told me when I'd say I'd rather read Poe than read Shakespeare. Even Chaucer, Melville, Niestche, Dostoyovski...no problem.

Heck, we don't even know who Shakepeare really was. Probably some serial killer royal.

29 posted on 07/08/2014 7:49:56 AM PDT by grania
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To: wideawake
Hmm. I read the Kahnemann book cover to cover. Really enjoyed it, actually.

Kahnemann and his previous partner, Amos Tversky's works about risk analysis and the various biases that go into human judgement are all excellent. Its not done so with a lot of scientific jargon either.

30 posted on 07/08/2014 7:51:50 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: InvisibleChurch
I would suggest reading Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 as well as Jean Raspail's Camp of the Saints as essential to understanding what we face with the Obama administration.

Camp of the Saints depicts an invasion from the third world underclass that ends Western civilization.

31 posted on 07/08/2014 8:01:55 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: grania
But I never could, and still can't, understand or enjoy Shakespeare. Most of the modern adaptations are fine, but not the originals.

that is because Shakespeare was meant to be watched! watch the plays... they are fantastic... try not to watch adaptations before you watch in the original language... i introduced my sons to Shakespeare while they were tots... they love him... i first showed them Shakespeare: The Animated Tales dvds... these are adaptations for children done in several styles of animation... then i showed them movies like Two Gentlemen from Verona and Taming of the Shrew... than MacBeth and Othello... then we started going to plays when they were grammar school/middle school-aged...

and there is a new Julius Caesar movie coming out soon... i cannot wait to take them to watch this... the love Shakespeare and Roman history, so this will be a double shot of enjoyment for them... :)

rent Taming of the Shrew starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton... it is fantastic!

32 posted on 07/08/2014 8:04:34 AM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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To: InvisibleChurch

The only book on this list I’ve read is the “50 Shades” book. I only read it because an old girlfriend compared me to Grey (of which I disagree). I found the book to be horrendously bad and wish I had never read it.


33 posted on 07/08/2014 8:09:41 AM PDT by rfreedom4u (Your feelings don't trump my free speech!)
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To: KarlInOhio
I couldn't put down Les Miserables because I rested it on my lap and was pinned there until I got some help. :-) Seriously, it was on of the best books I've read. It even made me wish I understood French so I could read an untranslated version.

when reading Fahrenheit 451 i asked my students and their parents: "if books were outlawed (as in Fahrenheit 451) which book would you want to commit to memory? for me it would be either Les Miserables, or the Book of Romans... i might forgo Les Miserables only because i believe my two sons know it by heart... but i think my husband knows much of Romans, so i might consider something else altogether :)

as is said in a previous comment, i think Les Miserables is the best story ever written... (not counting the entirety of the Bible)...

34 posted on 07/08/2014 8:11:23 AM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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To: grania

I must have no class or taste either. I can’t and won’t read Shakespeare. I went to see A Midsummer Nights Dream at a live theatre and left during intermission. Of course it was half in English with Vietnamese subtitles and half in Vietnamese with English subtitles (this was when I was in Hawaii). Way too confusing.


35 posted on 07/08/2014 8:12:30 AM PDT by rfreedom4u (Your feelings don't trump my free speech!)
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To: rfreedom4u
I found the book to be horrendously bad and wish I had never read it.

i thumbed through it and the writing looked atrocious... so i skipped it... i took a second stab at Lolita instead... that time i finished it...

36 posted on 07/08/2014 8:12:41 AM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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To: latina4dubya

LM was a huge best seller upon release. When Hugo wanted to know what the sales figures in America he sent a telegram to his American publisher with a single ‘?’. His publisher’s response: ‘!’.


37 posted on 07/08/2014 8:13:44 AM PDT by Borges
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To: rfreedom4u; grania
I must have no class or taste either. I can’t and won’t read Shakespeare. I went to see A Midsummer Nights Dream at a live theatre and left during intermission.

let me recommend something better in DVD--like Taming of the Shrew or Hamlet... or Much Ado About Nothing with Emma Thompson, the fantastic Kenneth Branagh and Denzel Washington... this is a wonderful movie... Shakespeare's comedies are so clever and witty... his tragedies so--well, tragic! the characters in these plays are the same characters of today... the themes so relevant even today... Othello, MacBeth... King Lear!

38 posted on 07/08/2014 8:19:16 AM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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To: grania; rfreedom4u

Joss Wheldon filmed Much Ado About Nothing last year. He filmed it in 12 days at his home (in black and white), presumably in California. The dialogue is Shakespearean but the surroundings are modern day including Mercedes Benz’s, iPods, iPhones, modern kitchens, etc. This helped me understand the story better than had it been done as a period piece (subtitles help, too!). I think the b&w helps you focus on the characters instead of the background, too. It’s on Netflix, maybe Amazon Prime, but give it ten minutes and tell me what you think.


39 posted on 07/08/2014 8:24:58 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch (http://thegatwickview.tumblr.com/ http://thepurginglutheran.tumblr.com/)
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To: Borges
LM was a huge best seller upon release. When Hugo wanted to know what the sales figures in America he sent a telegram to his American publisher with a single ‘?’. His publisher’s response: ‘!’.

i love that!

40 posted on 07/08/2014 8:26:00 AM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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