What is the most convoluted, opaque, impenetrable book you ever read?

Blind Eye Jones

[Cvengr]

Was that her creaming down by the last stream in the twilight?

[Cvengr]

creaming=screaming (too much cabsauv-merlot tonight)

[Old Professer]

Liquor is quicker, they say.

[Misterioso]

Aah. Food for thought.

[LexBaird]

"Anything by William S. Burroughs." I had to do a double-take on that. But O.K. - no problem. After a little research I realized I was confusing him with Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of Tarzan and a bunch of science fiction.

Philip Jose Farmer wrote a short story with the premise "What if William Burroughs wrote the Tarzan novels?" IIRC, it was called "The Jungle-Rot Kid on the Nod".

[metesky]

I don't know. Thirty years ago one of the reasons I liked Pynchon was because of the historical references to obscure places and events, now I more or less think the man has been playing one huge joke on his readers.

[Pietro]

"The Rube has a sincere little boy look,...."

Sure, but that's one of the more lucid paragraphs in the book.

[Pietro]

"I enjoyed everything by Solzhenitysn but especially "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.""

I first read Ivan when I was laying bricks for a living. I never appreciated his description of laying up blocks in sub zero weather until I was stuck doing the same thing in the winter of '77 in Fairmont WVA. It was bitter cold and we could only lay one block at a time before the mortar froze.

[Pietro]

Steppenwolf saved my life. The laughter of Mozart is the antidote, the answer, and makes everything ok. Just listen.

[Pietro]

I must complement you on your defense of Solshenytzn, Kirkegaard, and Grass. Well done.

[MortMan]

Hey - I enjoyed Dirk's Agency!!! I'm still looking for one of those electric monks!

[P.O.E.]

Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, or All and Everything, by G. Gurdjieff.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Jeez, I thought I was the only guy who remembered that one. Speaking of convolute, "Dahlgren" by Samuel Delaney took me a whole summer when I was 14. I could probably sue for psychological damage now.

[RobbyS]

Amen. But this is true of anything in academic German, or translations from "Hoch Deutsch."

[RobbyS]

Amen. But this is true of anything in academic German, or translations from "Hoch Deutsch."

[Churchillspirit]

Atlas Shrugged.

LOL!

That's like saying the King has no clothes in this forum, but you might be right.

I have not yet read AS, but my vote goes to The Fountainhead.

[Cvengr]

Some sincerely believed Thomas Pynchon was a pen-name, but if true, then the Internet has further embellished the pinnacle pen-name growing upon spinning Wikipedian aspirations.

[Zebra]

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

[montag813]

I actually found Godel Escher, Back to be one of the easier reads out there. Mind's I was also an enjoyable read.

Well, I was 16 when I tried. Perhaps I should try again.

[wideminded]

The Gulag Archipelago

I thought this book mught be inpenetrable but it turned out to be a page turner.