Posted on 03/09/2007 11:22:35 PM PST by Blind Eye Jones
What is the most convoluted, opaque, impenetrable book you ever read?
For me, Silas Marner and Earth in the Balance.
Anna Karenina is one of my favorite books.
I also enjoyed Lolita.
I only read little parts of that. Mostly for a laugh.
I'll bet it was dry as all get-out reading the entire thing.
Das Kapital.
"I'll bet it was dry as all get-out reading the entire thing."
I read everything, but I couldn't through those two books.
I never finished "Earth in the Balance", we all have to accept the word of someone that claims he has.
LOL!!
DUNE. Without a doubt. A close second is Lord of the Flies. What the hell was that guy snorting?
US Code Title 26 aka the Internal Revenue Code. And associated regulations.
I suppose it's best read during a Russian winter, when there's not a lot else to do and you sure don't want to go outside.
I've never tried scaling the summits of Proust, or Joyce, or even Eco. I've read a fair amount of Kant and Nietzsche, and it's dense, dense stuff. But with most philosophy (my undergrad minor), I find that after a lot of hard work and temple-rubbing, the pieces fall into place and it makes sense -- and that Eureka moment is, at least to me, enormously satisfying.
On Joyce, I've had folks who love his books tell me that the key is to wrap your head around the accent. and read it phonetically, like poetry, just gliding over it. If you slow down to try to grasp it all, you break the rhythm. That's why most people who love Joyce read each book again and again -- the more practice you gain at that, the more you can glean from it on each pass. It's a radical departure from most of the prose reading we do, where we're striving for depth and comprehension, which is part of why Joyce is such an acquired taste. I haven't yet tried to acquire it.
I hesitate to mention this, because I'll be asked to turn in my nerd card, but I thought the Lord of the Rings dragged quite a bit. I like rich detail and a well-fleshed-out background, but there comes a time to get to the point.
ONLY? I think making it that far puts you easily in the 90th percentile.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
I don't think the Talmud qualifies as "a book" -- it's more like the entire US Code with back issues of every American law journal thrown in.
The Book of Mormon followed by the Koran
The Iliad
Imagine that people used to memorize and sing this epic poem at festivals and such.
Gotta love Ezekiel too.
Don't give up on Eco. Once you get through the very beginning, the rest of the book is a total delight. It is a terrific read. Sort of the anti-da Vinci Code.
Docs for 3D Rendering with DirectX3
Yeah dat.
101 elephant jokes.
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