I saw this post floating around on the blogosphere the other week (on a whole lotta book blogger sites, too many to name them all) and I thought I’d join in. Here are some books I feel like I should read, but am really struggling with or have zero interest in.
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. It’s pervasive in pop culture enough that I know what it’s about. But I have no interest in immersing myself via reading into the head of a narrator who has sex with his tween step-daughter. No thank you.
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I’m torn on this one. I know the writing would probably be interesting, and it’s a classic. But again, it’s one of those so pervasive in our culture that I already know how it ends. So meh. I may or may not eventually get to this one.
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I’ve seen the Kubrick movie based off of this book. I never want to see it again, let alone read the source material. Blech.
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Oh, this one. It’s the boy’s favorite book (which is a whole other issue). So I’ve made several attempts to read it. But Ayn Rand is just not my cup of tea, and Atlas Shrugged in particular is just. so. boring. I don’t really want to read it, but I feel like I should just for his sake.
- War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It’s a classic, but would be a massive undertaking. It’s so LONG. And I just don’t really have the motivation. But who knows. Maybe one day?
- Anything else by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read The Great Gatsby. Thoroughly disliked it. I didn’t get this fascination with the 20’s as a time period before reading that, and I still don’t. And I have no desire to read more of the same.
- Anything else by Gillian Flynn. I tried to read Gone Girl. I never finished it (<--- rare for me). It's well-written in the sense that it made me feel things. Namely stressed out. The characters were just so unlikable, there was no one I wanted to root for and hence no ultimate payoff for any invested effort in finishing it. I wikipedia'd the ending, that's enough. And I have zero desire to try any of her other books, as I hear they are in the same vein. No thanks.
What are some books you’ve been struggling with whether to read or not? What are some you have absolutely zero interest in?
