ESRWAP Syndrome

[kithereal]

ESRWAP Syndrome = Everyone should read "War and Peace" Syndrome

Are there books in the universe that you feel compelled to read?
Notorious books like the formentioned that you just can't read.... because you just don't like it ......and feel guilty and a bit mentally challenged that you just can't get into it?

Mine would be Henry Miller's "Black Spring" :pullhair:



This is the first time I have ever suggested a topic anywhere...I hope this is OK.
KIT

[Matt]

I think its a great topic.

Personally, I have always felt a bit...deficient because there are many "great works of literature" that I can't seem to get into.

War and Peace is one of them for sure--maybe I will listen to it someday :lol:

[Jean]

oh yes, it's a great topic! I didn't know it was called after War and Peace, it's hilarious.

It brings to mind that old good one (by Mark Twaine, I think): a classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

Luckily (unluckily?) I have no place for such a syndrome in my life: I am a teacher, so I am always asked my opinions about books, so I really - professionally - have to read all kinds of books whether I want it or not, and it's kinda different from feeling compelled.

[Frunobulax]

I have that syndrome. I actually attempted to read War and Peace in 7th grade and failed miserably after 50 pages. I think I'd rather go after A La Recerche Du Temps Perdu by Proust.

Anywho, my WAP in this case is Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Or The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

[sarajean]

:o

fruno, those seem like books you would love. i mean, based on my limited interaction with you...i'm just saying.

i hate jane austen. i read the two books everyone says i have to read, (s&s and p&p) but gave up after that.

(maerlyn and tamez hate when i say that.)

[Darkthoughts]

Mine are: anything by Umberto Eco
Setting Free The Bears by John Irving
and a book (poss. a trilogy but I never got past the first book)about Arthur/Merlin that was written by a Nikolai Tolstoy, that I believe is WAP Tolstoy's grandson (or great grandson).

[She-Oy]

Ulysses by James Joyce. Why is it so great? And if it really is, why do I hate it. I've tried to read it three times, but just can't.

[Darkthoughts]

I find Homer's Odssey the same - in theory its a great story, but I just can't get into it either.

[Patrick]

ESRWAP Syndrome = Everyone should read "War and Peace" Syndrome

Are there books in the universe that you feel compelled to read?
Notorious books like the formentioned that you just can't read.... because you just don't like it ...
Great question, Kit!

Mine would be Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. At first I liked it, but then I had to really force myself to stick with it. I think I got to about the half-way mark (maybe more) when I flat-out stopped. I simply could not stand any more of the main character's non-stop, incessant internal whining, paranoia and self-flagellation.

Since I generally have a strong need for closure, I like to think I'll go back to it someday, but I probably won't.

[Jean]

Ulysses by James Joyce. Why is it so great? And if it really is, why do I hate it. I've tried to read it three times, but just can't.
I read it. Found it boring and pointless. Revolutionary, as everyone knows, from the point of view of form and style and thought and what not, but in spite of that unreadable.


I find Homer's Odssey the same - in theory its a great story, but I just can't get into it either.
Same here.


Mine are: anything by Umberto Eco
I love him. Can never take him seriously, though, - some refined exercise in literature and history, rather than stories you can live (relate to characters, and live their lives, and laugh and cry and all that) - but fun anyway.

And I love Jane Austen (I'm happy I'm with maerlyn:rose: and tamez:rose: here!), and am a great fan of Dostoyevsky - although I am afraid:
1. Crime and Punishment is not his best novel;
2. It is hardly possible to translate him. I've seen some translations, they were nothing comparing with the original, just an absolutely different author.

[Patrick]

... I ... am a great fan of Dostoyevsky - although I am afraid:
1. Crime and Punishment is not his best novel;
2. It is hardly possible to translate him. I've seen some translations, they were nothing comparing with the original, just an absolutely different author.
That probably explains my reaction then. Thanks, Jean. :)

[kithereal]

[QUOTE=Jean;19371]oh yes, it's a great topic! I didn't know it was called after War and Peace, it's hilarious.QUOTE]

It was the most intimidating book I could think of......


until.....a la Recerche du temp perdu By Proust
oh my..... that sounds uber scary and intimidating

another book that made me feel less than intellectually stellar was..Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand .....was deeply dumbfounded .....I didn't feel enlightened...I have had people say that they found it life changing....
LIFE CHANGING...really?.....
KIt

[Frunobulax]

:o

fruno, those seem like books you would love. i mean, based on my limited interaction with you...i'm just saying.

i hate jane austen. i read the two books everyone says i have to read, (s&s and p&p) but gave up after that.

(maerlyn and tamez hate when i say that.)

They are books I love--I listed them because I know many many people who hated them. I'm passing those on. Personally, I like to play devil's advocate to people I know. My actual ESWAPs are The Bible and Lolita.

[Frunobulax]

[QUOTE=Jean;19371]oh yes, it's a great topic! I didn't know it was called after War and Peace, it's hilarious.QUOTE]

It was the most intimidating book I could think of......


until.....a la Recerche du temp perdu By Proust
oh my..... that sounds uber scary and intimidating

another book that made me feel less than intellectually stellar was..Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand .....was deeply dumbfounded .....I didn't feel enlightened...I have had people say that they found it life changing....
LIFE CHANGING...really?.....
KIt

Temps Perdu is a seven book series I plan on tackling after college.

[Matt]

I don't have a clue what most of these books are about...or are...or where they came from :unsure:

But I did recognize the bible

that's gotta be the biggest ESRWAP ever in some circles. :scared:

[sarah]

:o

fruno, those seem like books you would love. i mean, based on my limited interaction with you...i'm just saying.

i hate jane austen. i read the two books everyone says i have to read, (s&s and p&p) but gave up after that.

(maerlyn and tamez hate when i say that.)


I don't hate when you say that. To each there own, I like to say. Jane Austen really isn't loved by everyone.


btw, i hate you.


and anyways...back on topic.

My hubby read War and Peace last summer and loved it. He said it is a must read but I haven't gotten there yet.

[towerguard]

umm.. I admit to hating Dicken's. That mofo got paid by the word and it showed. Great Expectations...BLEH. So boring, and then, what do we get... NO PAY OFF AT THE END.
Oh sorry Pip, you lived life for nothing!

Fruno - I agree with the life changing aspect of Atlas Shrugged. Rand is boring, but I like her.

Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy are a couple of books I can't muster up the energy to plow through.

SJ - I'll join you in the "Jane Austen sucks club" :p

[Frunobulax]

The Divine Comedy is one of my favourite books of all time.

I think Finnegans Wake may be one for me. I've tried to read that book 3 times.

[Ruki]

the time machine. i've read all sorts of stuff about the book that makes me want to read it, the story sounds awesome from what i remember of the movie i saw when i was a kid. i suspect that i'd like it if i got a bit farther in but for some reason by page two i realize that i have no idea what i just read. i'll go back trying to concentrate and my eyes go over the words while i'm thinking about dinner or the weather.

[sarajean]

the mote in god's eye took me 10 years to finish. i'm glad i did, cos the end was awesome, but the first 75 pages or so were brutal.

[Matt]

I had to listen to "Last of the Mohecians" (which is actually an amazing story). It was written in the mid 1800's and very hard to understand.

[Brice]

The only writer I've ever found completely unreadable is Jane Austin. Her writing works as an excellent sedative though.

[ZoNeSeeK]

I haven't tried to read any of the great works of literature, so to speak - plenty of shakespeare and love my american poets (cummings, frost) etc but havent tackled any of the 'greats' - i started reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo but didn't really read enough of it to say i gave up on it, more didn't read anything for a while and forgot that I had picked it up.

Aside from fiction and in terms of more contemporary stuff, I would recommend anything by Rev James Spong - an anglican bishop, perhaps Why Christianity Must Change Or Die is one of his best known ones as he tackles aging church doctrine from the eyes of a believer in God (which I am not).

[Daghain]

HUGE Jane Austen fan here. My capstone class for my English degree was a whole semester of Jane. Good times, good times. :)

I cannot STAND The Iliad. I've had to read it on two different occasions and couldn't get it either time. Waste of the paper it was printed on, IMHO.

[Chassit]

Never ending story...it has been recommended to me more times than I can count and I cannot even get through the movie much less the book,


XIX

[Jean]

HUGE Jane Austen fan here.
<...>
I cannot STAND The Iliad <...>
same here to both