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.

[InvisibleChurch]

[Borges]

Why would anyone care about Hilary Clinton’s memoirs? I mean I can understand if it was like Teddy Roosevelt...he can talk about his exploits with the Rough Riders or Grant’s memoirs. But Hilary Clinton? What has she done that’s worth that many pages?

[latina4dubya]

there is one book i have started at least three times and i cannot get passed the third chapter, and that book is A Tale Of Two Cities (Dickens)... i want to read it... i have read a lot of Dickens, but cannot follow through on this one... it took me two tries to get through Lolita (Nabokov)...

[PGR88]

Never read a politician’s memoirs within 20 years of being written.

Pap and political BS like Clinton’s will fade very quickly. Truly historical and useful autobiographies or histories (like Churchill’s) will increase in stature as time goes on.

[FrankR]

I never trust a book written by a prospective candidate for office; of course it will be material putting him/her in their best light, and redefining their own history. The lamestream media and the dems substitute autobiographies as “vetting the candidate”, using King Obama as an example.

[NorthMountain]

Of that lot, the only one I have read was Hawking ... and I was thoroughly unimpressed. The rest look like several hours of my life that I would never get back.

Currently reading "Enemies Foreign and Domestic".

[Borges]

Lolita is difficult but well worth reading. It’s pretty fantastic.

[Borges]

The Great Gatsby and Infinite Jest are certainly worth reading.

[Spirochete]

A mathematics professor has singled out which books are our most 'unread'

Math professor? Sounds like he's got an axe to grind with the English department.

[nikos1121]

I couldn’t put this book down. Read it straight out in 60 minutes.... And only $1.99 to boot.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bed-fails-laugh-laughter-ebook/dp/B00KZ2DI84

[wideawake]

Hmm. I read the Kahnemann book cover to cover. Really enjoyed it, actually.

[BluH2o]

My personal formula ... if a book hasn’t grasped my interest in the first 100 pages the rest goes unread. Often times it’s just a couple of chapters.

[Da Coyote]

Hillary has the intellect of a three year old, “her” book is worthless.

Piketty’s book is the economics equivalent of that hocky stick glow-bull warming joke.

Let’s not confuse things like that with Stephen Hawking’s book, please.

[gr8eman]

Try Victor Hugo...I couldn’t even put Hunchback of Notre Dame down and did not really understand it fully until the second time I read it.

[Chances Are]

Whatever happened to the “Totally Tasteless” series of books??? :)

CA....

[lefty-lie-spy]

The Brothers Karamazov in my case. I got half through it twice. Its a great book, but man, its a chore to read and follow casually.

[IronJack]

I can proudly say that, of that lot, I have read exactly none.

But as evidence that I do not lack perseverance, I have actually read “War and Peace” (twice!) AND “Moby Dick.” Furthermore, I enjoyed them both.

On the other hand, I struggled with Dostoevsky and found “Ulysses” (Joyce) unreadable.

[latina4dubya]

Try Victor Hugo...I couldn’t even put Hunchback of Notre Dame down and did not really understand it fully until the second time I read it.

i guess it is preference... i got through Hunchback the first time--but the French are so different from what i know... from Americans... some of their ways are kind of spooky to me... spooky is not really the word--i cannot put my finger on it... i loved Victor Hugo's Les Miserables... i think it is the best book ever written...

speaking of the French, i read a really good "new" book called The Paris Wife... it is about Ernest Hemingway's first marriage and their time in France as he was making his way as a writer... very good story... i did not want to read the last few pages because i knew how it would end... and i did not want that ending... :(

[JoeDetweiler]

Three times I started “Lord of the Rings.” And three times I made it about half way through the third book and then tossed it aside. To this day I don’t know how it ended.

The trouble is....I don’t like Fantasy. I was only reading it because everybody else was reading it.

[latina4dubya]

Three times I started “Lord of the Rings.” And three times I made it about half way through the third book and then tossed it aside. To this day I don’t know how it ended. The trouble is....I don’t like Fantasy. I was only reading it because everybody else was reading it.

oh!!! tears are practically coming to my eyes as i think about Lord of the Rings... the themes of valor and honor, perseverance... catches me right in the throat... but i do like fantasy and scifi...