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sos
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 16, 2018 - 03:11pm PT
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Facebook
TL;DR.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 16, 2018 - 03:36pm PT
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"Something Happened" by Joseph Heller. It's basically about the lives of the guys from "Catch-22" after they returned home from the war. It is powerfully written. I started it three times, but quit at the same spot each time. It was so deathly depressing I could not go on. The emptiness of their suburban workaday lives was too much to bear.
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Aeriq
Social climber
Location: It's a MisterE
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Nov 16, 2018 - 05:58pm PT
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I put "Magister Ludi: The Glass Bead Game", by Herman Hesse down twice before I was able to get through it with any sort of comprehension.
I hear it helps if you play Go - which I don't.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Nov 16, 2018 - 06:00pm PT
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Funny you should say Catch 22, Gary. After many years of wanting to read it, I started earlier this year, and eventually gave up. I know it's a classic, but it just didn't work for me.
Oh, and Facebook, too. F*#k that sh#t.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 16, 2018 - 06:23pm PT
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hey there say, T Hocking...
yep, the ol' dictionary, :))
say, and my jake smith ranch series, head injury awareness and
seizure awareness and speach loss awareness books...
great gang of folks, loyal, true blue, to buddies, and
each facing their own situations, while 'all in one' and
all for one... :)
EDIT:
*ahahahahha, i thought, 'what book did you PUT DOWN-- meant, as in
finished them, due to liking them...
UNTIL i read the other posters, here...
i like all the books that i PUT down-- and, i pick them up, over and over again, :)
OTHER wise, i'd never buy them, or pick them up, in the first-place...
time is TOO precious...
:O
:)
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 16, 2018 - 06:40pm PT
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Next time you wanna put down a large dictionary and make sure it's dead,
I recommend a Desert Eagle 50 cal.
[Click to View YouTube Video]Try it at home, don't be shy.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Nov 16, 2018 - 06:43pm PT
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That wouldn't be a 'what' but a 'how many?'
This old internet will have a hard time digesting all of human culture.
It was educational for me to do a search for "cheeselander."
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 16, 2018 - 06:55pm PT
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100 Years of Solitude - Magical realism doesn’t do it for me. I think I’ve read all of Hesse
so it could follow that I would appreciate Marquez. Sure and I appreciate him, I just didn’t
like it. Ulysses blows IMHO also.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Nov 16, 2018 - 08:21pm PT
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Far too many. Now I find I don't have time to read, except for the morning me time, which is barely enough time to get through a short chapter.
I will say I've set aside Rooster Bar by Grisham several times in favor of reading Comey's book and Madeline Albrights "Fascism: a warning". Both intelligible and useful reads for contemporary events in the world that can be read in sections easily.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 16, 2018 - 10:24pm PT
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The New Testament, I liked the Old Testament....nice and racy. The NT was too preachy.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 17, 2018 - 10:11am PT
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Something Happened hit me hard. I read it when I was in my twenties. I don’t think I would have been able to finish it now.
Glad I'm not the only one. I'm thinking of giving it another shot, it was powerful writing.
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Nov 17, 2018 - 11:47am PT
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Gravity's Rainbow. Thomas Pynchon.
The screaming that came across the sky was me throwing the book across the room sixty pages in when I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on.
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Nov 17, 2018 - 12:32pm PT
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gravity's rainbow ... that's the one i was thinking of!
a picture would tell the story, the first one tenth of the paperback soiled, wrinkled and bent
after several efforts ... as opposed to the rest, which was in good enough shape
to make a credible case for a refund
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 17, 2018 - 01:30pm PT
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Jack Kerouac's "Dr. Sax" was one of those books where I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then I dropped a blotter of Mr. Natural and it made perfect sense.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 17, 2018 - 02:52pm PT
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Nothing happened for me with Something Happened, too.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 17, 2018 - 02:58pm PT
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You have to kep trying, I suppose. I didn't get "Crime and Punishment" until the third try. Then I couldn't put it down.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 17, 2018 - 04:53pm PT
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What, Gary, you finally broke down and got an English version? 🤡
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WBraun
climber
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Nov 17, 2018 - 05:01pm PT
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Every book gets put down.
There are millions and millions of them on the shelves, laying around and in dumpsters ......
The only book never put down is the ONE vibrated since time immemorable and is fully complete.
It exists eternally in all stratospheres and transcends all mundane material incomplete books .....
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Nov 17, 2018 - 05:02pm PT
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I appreciated Ulysses though I won't say it was an easy read. Rewarding though with the caveat that I read it during a period when I saw myself going to grad school for Lit (law school won out).
I started Lord of the Flies and was COMPLETELY underwhelmed. The end is supposed to be the best part but I honestly thought the first part was loaded was bloated, lousy writing. Couldn't finish it.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Nov 17, 2018 - 05:09pm PT
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I read a lot of Science Fiction for light reading, in between heavier reading.
I'm glad to see I'm in gud company for not being able to make much headway in Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I tried it in my mid-20's & failed.
It was touted as the best Sci-fi novel ever too.
Yeah, Ulysses was pretty much impossible reading for me in my early 20's. Happily, I never took an English Lit course, so I didn't have to skim books & fake it for a report.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 17, 2018 - 05:39pm PT
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What, Gary, you finally broke down and got an English version?
I got a version that had a list of the characters with all of their various names! Finally, I knew who was who.
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, Bozeman, the ocean, or ?
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Nov 17, 2018 - 05:41pm PT
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Some of the more recent Steven King books except for the latest “Outsider”.
I loved his early stuff but the last few years just couldn’t get into his books. It really may be my aging and that my tastes have changed.
Susan.
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Aeriq
Social climber
Location: It's a MisterE
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Nov 17, 2018 - 05:41pm PT
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This was another one I just couldn't wrap my head around...I finally gave up.
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I guess it's some kind of cultural statement?
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zBrown
Ice climber
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Nov 17, 2018 - 08:36pm PT
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Naked Lunch
Also Sprach Zarathustra
Crime and Punishment
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Lituya
Mountain climber
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Nov 17, 2018 - 08:42pm PT
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The Stand, by Stephen King.
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ecdh
climber
the east
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Nov 18, 2018 - 03:14am PT
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I liked Ulysses. Funny and surprising.
Lord of the rings was silly, nostalgic and childish.
Magister ludi was overly involved tho a good ending. Other Hess stuff is good tho.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Nov 18, 2018 - 07:55am PT
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I have read Gravity's Rainbow several times cover to cover but never at home, only while travelling/working in places like India or Pakistan. Your mind has to be in a different space to read this book.
By the way as in all Pynchon novels you never do learn what is really going on.
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Nov 18, 2018 - 05:38pm PT
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^^^^ My hero ^^^^
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Nov 18, 2018 - 06:28pm PT
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Gravity's Rainbow has long been on my list, along with Under the Volcano and The Magic Mountain, a copy of which I carried around in the back of my car for so long and which got so beat up I had to chuck it.
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Aeriq
Social climber
Location: It's a MisterE
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Nov 18, 2018 - 08:26pm PT
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perswig
climber
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Nov 19, 2018 - 02:43am PT
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Island of the Day Before
Memoir from Antproof Case
Pillars of the Earth
Took a couple starts to get through Gravity's Rainbow.
Vollmann's The Rifles has been sidelined several times but remains on my must-finish-or-die-trying list.
Dale
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Glenwood Springs, CO
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Nov 19, 2018 - 10:52am PT
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The Sugar Barons by Mathew Parker.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/matthew-parker/sugar-barons/
Cotton slaves at least had a reasonable chance at some type of survival, the sugar slaves were done for in a few terrible years. Was just too grim for me, I read more than enough to get the idea and then stuck it in one of my book shelves where it just sits.
It was also considered the final straw for America starting the Revolutionary War. The sugar barons were sending their product back to England for fantastic profits and had representation in Parliament that represented them. America was doing the same but for far less profits and no say or representation in England's Parliament. Boom.
Caylor!
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Scole
Trad climber
Zapopan
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Nov 20, 2018 - 05:27pm PT
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"Gravity's Rainbow. Thomas Pynchon. The screaming that came across the sky was me throwing the book across the room sixty pages in when I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on."
I had the same experience. I tried to read that POS twice. I got 600 pages in both times. The first time I burned it, the second I shot it full of holes.
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two-shoes
Trad climber
Auberry, CA
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Nov 20, 2018 - 06:40pm PT
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GIANTS, the global power elite. by Peter Phillips
This book is all about the Transnationalist Capitalist Power Elites, and who rules the world. How all the giant transnational corporations own stock in one another, to the point where they are totally in cahoots with each other. No wonder they are too big to fail !!!
This book is "so heavy" I can only manage a few pages a night, then I must put in down.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
Valles Marineris
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Nov 21, 2018 - 06:31am PT
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At least two of the books on Trump (Wolfe, Bernstein). The real news was far more interesting and up-to-date.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Nov 21, 2018 - 02:57pm PT
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I actually got through Gravity's Rainbow, but then faltered trying to read Pynchon's "V".
I put down The Name of the Rose, too ponderous for me.
Loved Cryptonomicon, had to put down Anathem, I was always lost.
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