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/lit/ - Literature

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1758213 No.1758213 [Reply] [Original]

/lit/,

What is the most boring book you've ever read?
Why was it boring?

>> No.1758216

The Scarlet Letter.

Hawthorne in general is too convoluted to be enjoyed.

>> No.1758215

The Hebrew Bible.
Genealogies.

>> No.1758219

John Krakaur's Into Thin Air.

Snoozefest of a real account of some guy climbing Mount Everest & all of his friends die, but he's too crazed out from oxygen deprivation to tell the story accurately & all of the people who climbed with him got mad & sent him angry letters.

>> No.1758225

uhm... maybe some Faulkner. I don't remember why because i was too bored to remember.

>> No.1758228

Probably the Iliad. It's mostly a very long list of different Greek cities and tribes only recognizable to ancient peoples. Also, many vague and repetitive descriptions of Trojans or Greeks being killed with javelins.

>> No.1758235

The Awakening

because fuck all that bullshit ...women should not be allowed the free time to engage in "existential crises"

>> No.1758236
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1758236

THE GRAPES OF WRATH

>> No.1758237

possibly silas marner b/c 19th-cent wall of text and couldn't bring myself to give a shit about silas

or davinci code once the mechanics of cliffhanger-ending-to-each-chapter became evident since every character is a cardboard mouthpiece

>> No.1758244

A Tale of Two Cities and The Great Expectations.

Anything that Dickens writes is so excruciatingly dry, it drives me out of my mind. Nothing. Happens. And when something does happen, it's told in such a boring way that it might as well have not happened.

>> No.1758248

>>1758244
I disagree. I think Dickens is the opposite of dry. He is almost like life on paper, for me.

I'm actually surprised by your post.

>> No.1758251

The Sea by John Banville. So over-written it wasn't even funny.

>> No.1758252

>>1758225
I love Faulkner but he is one boring bastard.

>> No.1758254

>>1758248

I like the idea of Dickens. He can certainly dish out some very nice sentences. But unfortunately you have to wade through a narcoleptic sea to get to the good parts.
I don't have enough stamina to read Dickens either.

>> No.1758258

>>1758251
agreed

>>1758252
strongly disagree

>> No.1758260

isaac isimovs foundation trilogy. fuck

>> No.1758261

>>1758216
I actually really enjoyed The Scarlet Letter. I thought it was pretty easy to follow the story and to believe in the characters.

>> No.1758265

I don't really know what all the hype is about with The Catcher in the Rye. :l

>> No.1758267

>>1758236

I thought the parts I read in high school were really good, but I skipped most of the middle because it was so. Fucking. Long. & I had to do a report & read most of the book the night before.

>> No.1758272
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1758272

>>1758265
WTF

>> No.1758273

>>1758236
This. Fuck, I hate that book.

>> No.1758275

All works of fiction are generally boring, because honestly, who cares what happens to fictional beings? No one.

Nothing to see here.

>> No.1758276

Weird. I find that I enjoy many of the books others thought were too boring. "The Grapes of Wrath" was really thrilling, to me. I'm also the dude who said Dickens was like life on page.

Keep this thread going. It interests me, deeply.

>> No.1758277
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1758277

On the Road. Tried reading it 2 or 3 times and always ended up putting it down and forgetting about it.

>> No.1758278

>>1758236
Yeah. But, what annoys me with The Grapes of Wrath most of all is the country-speak they use. I hate, regardless of which accent the author is trying to convey, when words are shortened using apostrophes. Whether it's a squatter accent or a strong Yorkshire accent, it gets annoying. I hate having decode what the character is saying.

>> No.1758280

Lord of the rings, I don't care for chapter long descriptions of scenery.

>> No.1758283

>>1758280
I liked Lord of the Rings but I agree with you about the scenery bit. I know the author is trying to get me to picture the setting in detail, but if the description is more than two pages long, it sits in my head like as a block of text, rather than a picture in my head.

>> No.1758284

>>1758277
^this. I had to read that shit for class. So boring its ridiculous

>> No.1758285

>>1758252
I can see how some people find Faulkner boring, but if you've ever spent time with an older person from the South then you realize that he gets the folksy-style of oral storytelling down perfectly.

>> No.1758286

Hey, what about Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace?
That is a door stopper that I've actually used to hold open my door on drafty days.
Is that a blasphemous thing to say?

>> No.1758289

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. It was 10th grade and it was about the most boring inconsequential shit ever. Maybe if I read it now I would appreciate it, but meh...

>> No.1758298

Any non-fiction books having to do with science. Ughhh, so dull. I tried reading a book on genetic engineering the other day. I read about seventy pages into it, and had just read four pages going into detail about flagella in microscopic organisms when I chucked the book across the room and picked up my copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

>> No.1758305

Any fiction book is generally boring, who cares about made up characters and made up problems?

Other than children...no one

>> No.1758309
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1758309

>>1758298

Not true!

Pic related: Proof!

Unless you're not interested in human biology or mortuary science, but it's still a funny book...

>> No.1758311

The Good Soldier.

inb4
Moby-Dick
Tolstoy

they're not boring, you're just too dumb

>> No.1758312

>>1758305
>>1758275

Sure is samefag in here, with a faint breeze of failed troll.

>> No.1758317

>>1758312

not troll, not samefag

just geniunely don't understand the appeal of made up characters going through imaginary problems...really really boring

no fiction book has captivated me in the slightest, i try to enjoy them--but it just doesn't work

>> No.1758325

I tend to stop reading boring books.

>>1758298
"Moby Dick" was half cribbed from whaling manuals. Also, Steven Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawkings, Rachel Carson and a myriad of other writers are able to make complex scientific topics dynamic and engaging.

>> No.1758324
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1758324

>>1758311
>the good soldier

as in the good soldier svejk?

i put it down after about 350 pages. it was the same joke over and over. i may pick it up again. but i put that shit down two days ago.

>> No.1758329

Possession by AS Byatt

Never ever ever again

>> No.1758333
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1758333

>>1758298
I know im being trolled, but it helps to be interested in the field of science youre reading about...

>> No.1758334

>>1758216
I really love The Scarlet Letter. I don't think it's all that convoluted. I found it really easy to follow. Probably my favorite book I had to read in high school.

However, I also had to read Great Expectations. Now THAT was some boring shit.

>> No.1758336

I'm gonna be going with Moby Dick myself. I did not expect anything going in, but dayum. Blah blah blah blah blah "they call it chickens hurr" whatever. Couldn't take it.

>> No.1758337

>>1758216
I hated that book in High School and pretty much everyone Ive ever talked to hated it to. And not just "HURR READIN IS GHEY" kids. Straight A students and people who really liked to read.

>>1758334
You are literally the first person I have met who liked that book.

>> No.1758339

>>1758337
Now you've met another. I love The Scarlet Letter. It's fantastic and far more complex than people think it is.

>> No.1758340

Oliver fucking Twist

>> No.1758347

Anything by a German Idealist

>> No.1758349

Their Eyes Were Watching God

mostly because it's not a book that you read, it's a book that you decipher, due to the unintelligible nigger speak that literally every character speaks in. That book has probably created more racists than those videos of black chicks going crazy in fast food restaurants.

>> No.1758350

Great Expectations was presented poorly.

>> No.1758354

>>1758339

Sure, it's complex (kind of), but Hawthorne insists on explaining all of the symbols he uses, just in case you missed them or you're brain-dead. Way too many fucken "A" symbols in that book.

>> No.1758355

Lolita. Man, screw that book.
Also Dracula. 450 pages of yawns.

>> No.1758368

>>1758349
>say something racist on internet
>everyone will think i don't give a shit who i offend
>everyone will think i am cool!

>> No.1758373

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Hands down.

>> No.1758379

>>1758368

>bat an eye at racism on 4chan
>everyone will think I'm cool!

>> No.1758399

>>1758373
2deep4u, that book was amazing. Hell, even Joseph and his brothers was amazing and that was much longer

>> No.1758421

The Mummy by Anne Rice. I'd never read any of her books and was told by my friends that I had to because they're SOO GOOOD. Almost killed myself. I only finished it because it's so ridiculous. Though it took my about 20x longer than reading a book of that size normally takes me...

>> No.1758434

>>1758368
spoiler altert:

this is 4chan. no one would have noticed had you not said anything. go back to mommy

>> No.1758454

>>1758421
Holy shit, Anne Rice is awful. Her books are crappy blocks of pulp attempting to be dark, mysterious and erotic. Disgusting. I regret reading one of her vampire books, because my friends also said it was sooooo good. I wish I could unread it.

>> No.1758468

>>1758286
The first 112 pages are kind of boring; but it gets better once the war starts.

>> No.1758493

Anything Steinbeck ever wrote

>> No.1758551

Dickens was boring at first for me. It was just like the wooorst of times. But then I kept reading and there was so much going on that I didn't notice at first. And so it was just the flippin best of times. Yeah?

>> No.1758567

>>1758551
Yeah. God I love A Tale of Two Cities.

>> No.1758569

Naked lunch and Nausea

>> No.1758573

Ulysses and everything Henry James wrote

>> No.1758591

Leviathan...not the Thomas Hobbes the Paul Auster

>> No.1758672

harry potter and the half blood prince.

wat a door stopper

>> No.1758742

Of Mice And Men? surely I'm not the only person who this bored to death as a teen.

>> No.1758752

The Handmaid's Tale

Way to feminist and poetic for my tastes. Some of her prose even felt forced. It was an okay book, but it was also the most boring.

>> No.1758766

1.Don Quixote
2.Moby Dick
3.Dune
4.Pride & Prejudice
5.Brave New World

>> No.1758851

Mein Kampf
Various non fiction books I can't remember

>1.Don Quixote
What the fuck?

>> No.1758866

Wha? How do people find Steinbeck, Kerouac, and Dickens boring? Some of my favorite writers. ...Well I guess I can kind of see why. Different strokes.

Anyway, my vote goes to The Age of Innocence.
Tears, tears of boredom.

>> No.1758870

>>1758324
i think that anon meant Ford Madox Ford's book. Which is a fantastic book. I think I'm the only person on this board who thinks it fucking rules

>> No.1758873

>>1758244
A Tale of Two Cities isn't THAT boring. Some parts are dry, but overall the book is phenomenal.

>> No.1758875

No Country For Old Men, couldn't make myself finish it. Loved the film, I guess laconic narrative doesn't do it for me.

>> No.1758877

>>1758265
i thought it was well-written, but the main character pissed me off to no end.
>>1758354
fucking this. page and a half about a rose bush. fuck. me.

>> No.1758885

Diary of Anne Frank. Fuck, it's almost like schools are trying to turn children off to reading by exposing them to garbage.

>> No.1758893
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1758893

The Odyssey.

>YOU WANT YOUR SUITORS FILLER ARC
>YOU WANT YOUR BORING FEASTS
ITHACA IS PIG

>> No.1758899

>>1758885
I lol'd through that whole thing. we read it in play form or something. Fucking awful.

Exposed to in middle school
>White mountains
God i just want...That book fucking sucked.
>The Giver
Kill me. That shit was awful
>Romeo and Juliet
They couldn't have picked a worse shakespeare play.
>The Outsiders
What was so great about that again? Very simple, very boring. Not much meat
>King of Shadows
Anyone that had anything to do with that book should be shot repeatedly

I can't remember any others, but it was all shit lit.

>> No.1758905

I normally do a good job avoiding boring books like the plague. Still, I ended up trying to read Infinite Jest. Those 150ish pages I got through took me over a week to read whereas the Ware tetralogy, a quite enjoyable series I read immediately before hand, took me two days of solid reading. IJ was so boring that I momentarily considered never reading again.

To know why it is boring, read it. Scratch that, don't read it!

>> No.1758906

Treasure island

>> No.1758911

>>1758906

Explain yourself

>> No.1758913

The Iliad.

I really, really wanted to like it, but it was just so fucking dull. So many monolologues on the battlefield...it was terrible. I could understand if they were yelling at each other about how they wanted to rip out each others guts or something, but no, they spend three pages talking about every blood relation they can think of. And this is all happening on a fucking battlefield. It was goddamn ridicullous.

The only thing I even remotely liked was Diomedes

>> No.1758919

>>1758899

tybalt is a pretty great troll though

>> No.1758923
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1758923

>>1758766
>mfw all of those except for maybe "Dune" are great literature

>> No.1758920

>>1758911
Well we read it at school when I was like 13 and I found it boring as fuck.

>> No.1758964

>>1758244
Dickens is pretty boring, generally-speaking. However A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations were my two favourite works by him..
Personally, the most boring book I've ever read was A Brief History of time. Hardly original I know, but god damn..

>> No.1758967

>>1758340
Oliver Twist was perhaps the most boring book I've EVER read, totally with you there.
It got better towards the end, I suppose as you would expect a Novel to. But fuck me, the first 3/4 of that book were awful.

>> No.1758969

The full version of the Iliad.
Fuck, get to the point

>> No.1758971

>Dickens
>Boring

how.jpg

>> No.1758988

1. Moby Dick, he weaved exposition subtly into the story with all the skill of an illiterate badger with dyssentry. If you took all that shit out though, the four pages left would be awesome.
2. Oliver Twist. Like Shakespeare, I think Dickens is far better when adapted to stage or screen.
3. Psalms. Holy fuck, Psalms. Point me to a devout Christian who was entertained by Psalms and i'll show you a liar.

>> No.1759005

>>1758569
>>1758569

get.the.fuck.out

>> No.1759010
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1759010

>> No.1759022

The Road

ash...gray ash...everywhere and nothing ever happened

>> No.1759024

I find some of Dicken's work really, really boring due. His over attention to detail and his style of writing is just dry as a motherfucker. I thought A Tale of Two Cities was cool though due to his use of metaphors and foreshadowing but, still, the over attention to detail killed me. I mean, he would spend an entire page devoted to just describing the color and build of a table. Yeesh.

>> No.1759097

>>1758923
>Pride & Prejudice
>Great
Pick one.

>> No.1759191

ATTN:

KILL EVERYONE IN THIS THREAD

good day, sirs