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/lit/ - Literature

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687611 No.687611 [Reply] [Original]

Hey c/lit/s I just got over a very slow and difficult hump in the book I am reading and now it seems like smooth sailing from here. What are some books that have terrible humps but are completely worth plowing through?

>> No.687616

When Hugo started going on and on about Waterloo I almost gave up. Very glad I didn't, and the Waterloo scene is one of my favorites.

>> No.687615

Notes From Underground.

Short book but still...

>> No.687617

Atlas Shrugged is just one big hump.

>> No.687619

>>687617
nah, it's pretty easy to plow through.
The major hump is Galt's 50 page speech. Took forever.

>> No.687623

Anna Karenina.

I struggled with the Russian politics, not really something I'm particularly interested in, but still a very good book.

>> No.687626

>>687615
What terrible hump are you speaking of?

>> No.687639

>>687626
around page 30 :/

>> No.687648

>>687617
This.

I got like 30 lines out of Galt's speech before I just skipped the rest of it.

>> No.687657

The Idiot

>> No.688176
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688176

Dracula.
Starts off amazing, then hump in the middle, then amazing!
Worth plowing through the hump though.

>> No.688191

1984

>> No.688209

the first chapters on the second part of lolita.

>> No.688229

Kafka's The Castle is just a big bump on itself. It's worth it, though.

>> No.688252

>>688209
>>688191
>>688229
Disagree, I enjoyed all of them every second I read..

>> No.688265

>>688252
Don't get me wrong, I loved The Castle. Feeling like it's a bump is just part of the Kafka experience, as I see it.

>> No.688275

The first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Dude.
Like.
Worst beginning ever.

>> No.688282

The first section of 'A canticle for Leibowitz'

>> No.688586

Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus.

On first read, at least, it's two excellent, totally unrelated novellas separated by an incredibly long and tedious totally unrelated novella.

On second read, you realize that the second part is written by a minor character in the first part who turns out to be the protagonist of the third part, though it still seems pretty goddamn unrelated.

On third read, you realize that the protagonist of the third part is not actually the minor character from the first part (and that the minor character in the first part is actually a major character), a deception whose possibility (and necessity) can only be understood if you read the second part very carefully.

>> No.688940

Lotr, books one, two and four just drag on forever

>> No.688949

>>688209
The entire second part, really, except for the ending.

>> No.688966

WoT. Good start. Fuck terrible middle part. Latest two books are dick kicking awesome.

>> No.688967

20,000 Leagues Under the Seas is littered with speed bumps, whenever he starts listing breeds of fish my interest goes right out the window. I don't think it'll change any time soon, and I can't say whether it's worth persevering with.

>> No.689058
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689058

>>688940

LotR book 4, you say? And which one would that be?

>> No.689061

>>689058
Return of the King?

>> No.689064

Gogol's Dead Souls.

>> No.689066

Jonathan Franzen's 'The Corrections' has a hump at the start describing the elderly couple's relationship. It's a fucking batshit relationship and lasts about 50 pages.

Then the son writes about the hump in a book he writes lolol.

>> No.689071

>>689058

Wow, sure is ignorant in here. Book 4 is Frodo and Sam's half the the Two Towers.

>> No.689080

>>689066

oops, the son writes "a" hump, not about "the" hump

>> No.689093

Proust is nothing but humping.

>> No.689095

Dark Tower series is full of humps

>> No.689097

>>689071

Book 1: The Fellowship of the Ring
Book 2: The Two Towers
Book 3: The Return of the King
Book 4: ????

>> No.689099

>>689097
You never read LOTR, did you?

>> No.689109

>>689099

I did. But I can't remember any book 4. Perhaps there is one and I forgot. I think it's 8 years since i read it.

>> No.689110

>>689109
Each part is divided up into different sections called "books"

>> No.689111

Moby Dick

>> No.689116

The Agony and the Ecstasy

>> No.689118

Starship Troopers

The fucking speeches by the history teachers. Oh god I hated those.

>> No.689122

Absalom, Absalom!

I failed three times. Then I tried it once more and oh my god it was one of the best novels I've ever read.

>> No.689128

>>689109

Book 1: Beginning-Rivendell
Book 2: Rivendell- end of FOTR
Book 3: Helms Deep and all that jazz
Book 4: What Frodo and Sam were up to during book 3
Book 5: Pellenor Fields and the beginning of the Black Gate
Book 6: What Frodo and Sam did during book 6, plus the destruction of the Ring and the scouring of the shire.

>> No.689140

>>689118

Wow, really?

You didn't like the "There are no unalienable rights?" speech? That shit was amazing.

I admit I'm a super Heinlein geek girl though.

Funny, Starship Troopers has a "hump" in context of the book. Appropriate I think.

>> No.689145

>>689140

But does it have a bounce?

>> No.689161

>LOTR

The whole bit with Pippin in the White City just waiting around to be attacked. Also the 30-odd pages at the end with Saruman/Sharkey or whatever the fuck he's called in the Shire.

The Frodo & Sam & Gollum bits were the best.

>> No.689168

The first few chapters of the Silmarillion. Don't get me wrong, they were interesting but they feel kind of a chore. It gets really good after that.

>> No.689178

>>689095
i loved every page of the dark tower series. what would these "humps" be for you?

>> No.689189

>>689140

>I admit I'm a super Heinlein geek girl though.

you know the sentence:
"I admit I'm a super Heinlein geek though."
has the same effect

were you expecting reports of broken computer screens tomorrow morning as the news shows pictures of young guys browsing 4chan who fainted onto their computers at your gender revelation?

(can you tell I was rejected by a girl who liked Heinlein? I am such a cunt)

>> No.689217
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689217

>>689140

HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE!!

THERE'S A GIRL IN THIS THREAD.

>> No.689225
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689225

>>689217


OHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT

What ever shall we do?

>> No.689227
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689227

>>689178

>> No.689328

Starship Troopers has no hump.

>> No.689356

>>689328
Except for the part about the hump... but that was in story, and not a difficult part of the book to read.

>> No.689389

House of Leaves has a few. Those really cluttered parts.