Calling the attention of the bibliophiles on Silk -
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/books/Ten-toughest-books-to-read/Article1-557458.aspx
Oh well; the others too...
Ten toughest books to read
Who among us hasn’t struggled with a book or poem that failed to capture our
attention?
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 12:12 PM, Anil Kumar
anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com wrote:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/books/Ten-toughest-books-to-read/Article1-557458.aspx
I certainly agree with _Foucault's Pendulum_. I've bounced off it
several times over the years.
Udhay
--
((Udhay
*1. Finnegans Wake, James Joyce:*
i have always felt that Finnegans Wake is more of a sound art piece than a
novel to be read from cover to cover!
:-)
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 2:42 PM, Anil Kumar anilkumar.naga...@gmail.comwrote:
Calling the attention of the bibliophiles on Silk -
A frustrated friend once referred to it as F**k-all Pendulum...
Adit.
On 6/15/10, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 12:12 PM, Anil Kumar
anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com wrote:
At 2010-06-15 12:38:37 +0530, ud...@pobox.com wrote:
I certainly agree with _Foucault's Pendulum_. I've bounced off it
several times over the years.
I read it once, a very long time ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then I
kept hearing people say it was so long and boring that they couldn't get
udhay has a great memory for past silklist conversation
Foucault's Pendulum has featured on this list earlier i think...?
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 3:21 PM, Aditya Kapil blue...@gmail.com wrote:
A frustrated friend once referred to it as F**k-all Pendulum...
Adit.
On 6/15/10, Udhay Shankar N
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:02 PM, Abhishek Hazra
abhishek.ha...@gmail.com wrote:
udhay has a great memory for past silklist conversation
Foucault's Pendulum has featured on this list earlier i think...?
A couple of examples are here [1] [2]
Udhay
[1]
On 15-06-2010 12:38, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
I certainly agree with _Foucault's Pendulum_. I've bounced off it
several times over the years.
Can't understand why. I read it in seven nights. It's like an action
movie with bonus conspiracy theorising and delicious satire.
--
Regards,
Aadisht
I certainly agree with _Foucault's Pendulum_. I've bounced off it
several times over the years.
Silly coincidence. I just got Foucault's Pendulum from the library for
a re-read. Finished it in one feverish go few years ago and loved it.
Of the list, I don't think Atlas Shrugged was
For me, the toughest book to read has always been Catch-22. I've started it
some 7 times, and have always abandoned it in a fit of irritation.
I read Foucault's years back. I agree with Aadisht on the action movie
comparison-it was quite unputdownable.
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Sruthi
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:35 PM, Aadisht Khanna li...@aadisht.net wrote:
I certainly agree with _Foucault's Pendulum_. I've bounced off it
several times over the years.
Can't understand why. I read it in seven nights. It's like an action
movie with bonus conspiracy theorising and delicious
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 2:10 PM, Lahar Appaiah thew...@gmail.com wrote:
For me, the toughest book to read has always been Catch-22. I've started it
some 7 times, and have always abandoned it in a fit of irritation.
I also bounced hard off book 6 of Harry Potter (half blood prince?)
after
Looks like this is only fiction. If not, Stephen Hawking's A Brief
History of Time would qualify.
Venky
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 12:12 PM, Anil Kumar
anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com wrote:
Calling the attention of the bibliophiles on Silk -
On 15-06-2010 14:10, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
So, what are your hardest books to read?
Udhay
Books I've abandoned:
* The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
* The God of Small Things
* Don Quixote (is a huge pain to get through unabridged)
Books I've struggled to complete:
* Vanity Fair -
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 8:42 AM, Anil Kumar anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com wrote:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/books/Ten-toughest-books-to-read/Article1-557458.aspx
For me, any book that I don't care much about is difficult to read.
That said, I found Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day
I abandoned The God of Small Things halfway after reading about turds
and realizing that the plot might never emerge, even if I read the
whole damn book. Istanbul by Pamuk and Living to tell the tale are
some of my other abandonments.
Venky
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 2:37 PM, Aadisht Khanna
*4. The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot:* This tremendously dense modernist poem
is told in five parts and abruptly shifts between characters, time, place,
and languages (English, Latin, Greek, German, and Sanskrit) with nothing
more than the reader’s own erudition to make the connection between
passages.
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 11:19 AM, Venkatesh Hariharan ven...@gmail.com wrote:
I abandoned The God of Small Things halfway after reading about turds
[...]
My list of abandoned books is rather long - often because I don't care
for or disagree with what the author has to say anymore. Sometimes
it's
Usually I get screams of horror when I say this -- I couldn't get
through this book The Day of the Jackal by Forsyth. There was this
intense detailing on making a gun which was terribly boring, I
thought. I remember it well because it was the first book I abandoned
without reading fully.
Venkatesh Hariharan [15/06/10 14:49 +0530]:
I abandoned The God of Small Things halfway after reading about turds
You mean there's more to the plot than turds? Even the name of that place
read rather funny in tamil (sort of) ayemenem = aayi manam (feces aroma)
How very apt
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 01:00:39PM +0530, Abhijit Menon-Sen wrote:
At 2010-06-15 12:38:37 +0530, ud...@pobox.com wrote:
I certainly agree with _Foucault's Pendulum_. I've bounced off it
several times over the years.
I read it once, a very long time ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then I
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Sruthi Krishnan srukr...@gmail.com wrote:
Usually I get screams of horror when I say this -- I couldn't get
through this book The Day of the Jackal by Forsyth. There was this
intense detailing on making a gun which was terribly boring, I
thought. I remember
Looks like this is only fiction. If not, Stephen Hawking's A Brief
History of Time would qualify.
Venky
I've tried several times to read 'The End of Time'. I start to lose it
just after the author tries to explain 'triangle world'.
Forsyth has all these painstaking steps on everything from faking a
passport to making a nuke. The Fourth Protocol has all that as well as a
complete org chart of MI5, MI6, the KGB etc etc. Not bad, for all that.
If you want unreadable by those standards, there's always good old James A
On Tuesday, June 15, 2010, Abhijit Menon-Sen wrote:
[snip]
I read it once, a very long time ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Then I
kept hearing people say it was so long and boring that they couldn't get
through it, and I began to wonder if I had really managed to read all of
it. So I read it
Maybe it's a guy thing, but I had the opposite reaction, and read and
re-read the sections about the making of the hollow points and the
dirty bomb:-) This was before the Internet and Wikipedia made it easy
to get at this kind of information of course.
Yes, that's exactly what people have
Forsyth has all these painstaking steps on everything from faking a
passport to making a nuke. The Fourth Protocol has all that as well as a
complete org chart of MI5, MI6, the KGB etc etc. Not bad, for all that.
I remember being very sad. It was the first book I let go without
finishing
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Sruthi Krishnan srukr...@gmail.com wrote:
Usually I get screams of horror when I say this -- I couldn't get
through this book The Day of the Jackal by Forsyth. There was this
intense detailing on making a gun which was terribly boring, I
thought. I remember it
--- On Tue, 15/6/10, Anil Kumar anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com wrote:
From: Anil Kumar anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com
Subject: [silk] Ten toughest books to read
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Date: Tuesday, 15 June, 2010, 12:12
Calling the attention of the bibliophiles on Silk -
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 3:20 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.net wrote:
Venkatesh Hariharan [15/06/10 14:49 +0530]:
I abandoned The God of Small Things halfway after reading about turds
You mean there's more to the plot than turds? Even the name of that place
read rather funny in
You are obviously neither a (a) guy, nor (b) a geek :-)
:)
You never know. Someone the other day told me how gender is quite a
fluid concept. And I staunchly believed that I was a geek, a lifetime
ago.
Ayn Rand ... I no longer find her books difficult to read because I don't
touch them in the first place.
Faulkner, Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, War and Peace - all digestible in
the tin-of-biscuits fashion i.e. one goes back to them once in a while,
doesn't try to finish them at a sitting.
J.A.P.
J. Alfred Prufrock [15/06/10 16:12 +0530]:
Ayn Rand ... I no longer find her books difficult to read because I don't
touch them in the first place.
Faulkner, Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, War and Peace - all digestible in
the tin-of-biscuits fashion i.e. one goes back to them once in a while,
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 2:10 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
So, what are your hardest books to read?
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstader
The Emperor's New Mind by whatsisface
A Brief History of Time by Hawking
Oddly enough, I've never attempted anything on the list.
-- b
On 15 June 2010 17:11, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:
The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose
+1
Took me a year and more to finish it, just for the sake of finishing it.
Made excellent reading during my 1 hour train ride to office and back
everyday when I was working in Bombay.
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 2:15 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
I also bounced hard off book 6 of Harry Potter (half blood prince?)
after reading, with varying amounts of pleasure, the preceding books.
Gave up on the series after that.
I found book 6 the most enjoyable of the series,
Sruthi Krishnan wrote, [on 6/15/2010 3:16 PM]:
Usually I get screams of horror when I say this -- I couldn't get
through this book The Day of the Jackal by Forsyth. There was this
intense detailing on making a gun which was terribly boring, I
thought.
Have you read anything by Neal
Supriya Nair wrote, [on 6/15/2010 3:09 PM]:
Does Udhay's Harry Potter dismissal equate 'tough' with 'boring'? That
will inflate everyone's bounce lists.
Fair question. I guess that boring is a subset of tough to finish,
the overarching criterion being I don't care what happens to these
people
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
Supriya Nair wrote, [on 6/15/2010 3:09 PM]:
Does Udhay's Harry Potter dismissal equate 'tough' with 'boring'? That
will inflate everyone's bounce lists.
Fair question. I guess that boring is a subset of tough to
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
Supriya Nair wrote, [on 6/15/2010 3:09 PM]:
Does Udhay's Harry Potter dismissal equate 'tough' with 'boring'? That
will inflate everyone's bounce lists.
Fair question. I guess that boring is a subset of tough to finish,
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 6:19 PM, Anil Kumar anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
Supriya Nair wrote, [on 6/15/2010 3:09 PM]:
Does Udhay's Harry Potter dismissal equate 'tough' with 'boring'? That
will inflate
--- On Tue, 15/6/10, Kiran Jonnalagadda j...@pobox.com wrote:
From: Kiran Jonnalagadda j...@pobox.com
Subject: Re: [silk] Ten toughest books to read
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Date: Tuesday, 15 June, 2010, 18:00
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 2:15 PM,
Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com
wrote:
In particular, there's this
passage of ~15 pages in _Cryptonomicon_ that has to do with the Right
Way of eating chocolate cereal.
First reaction: Shudder.
Followed by: Tiny voice inside urges, maybe if it is well written
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:40 AM, Lahar Appaiah thew...@gmail.com wrote:
For me, the toughest book to read has always been Catch-22. I've started it
some 7 times, and have always abandoned it in a fit of irritation.
What did you find difficult with the book?
Give it another try. It is the best
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstader
I've always found GEB easy enough to read; it's understanding[0] it
that takes some effort.
For instance, it wasn't until recently running across a handholding
explanation of the slogan syntax and semantics are adjoint[1] that
I've felt I've
Sruthi Krishnan wrote, [on 6/15/2010 6:46 PM]:
In particular, there's this
passage of ~15 pages in _Cryptonomicon_ that has to do with the Right
Way of eating chocolate cereal.
First reaction: Shudder.
Followed by: Tiny voice inside urges, maybe if it is well written
I encourage you
I never liked Ayn Rand - always felt like she was a drill sergeant insisting
on her way...and all that aggrandizement of architects - utter rubbish.
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 3:42 AM, J. Alfred Prufrock
another.prufr...@gmail.com wrote:
Ayn Rand ... I no longer find her books difficult to read
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 3:36 AM, Indrajit Gupta bonoba...@yahoo.co.in wrote:
//Just say Russian, read Plum about the Russians, and let it go at that.
_By Order of the Czar_ has always been the best book that never
existed. It shares shelf space in my imaginary library with _Only a
Factory Girl_.
I'm going to sharply bring down the level of the books being referred to,
and say that, out of sync with my high school- and college-mates, I could
never go more than a few pages of those Mills and Boons and Hermina Black
type of novels. These are the staple diet of generations of young women, so
At 11:51 AM +0200 6/15/10, Eugen Leitl wrote:
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 01:00:39PM +0530, Abhijit Menon-Sen wrote:
At 2010-06-15 12:38:37 +0530, ud...@pobox.com wrote:
I certainly agree with _Foucault's Pendulum_. I've bounced off it
several times over the years.
I read it once, a very long
--- On Tue, 15/6/10, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
From: Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com
Subject: Re: [silk] Ten toughest books to read
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Date: Tuesday, 15 June, 2010, 19:06
Sruthi Krishnan wrote, [on 6/15/2010
6:46 PM]:
In particular, there's
Title: Re: [silk] Ten toughest books to
read
At 6:19 PM +0530 6/15/10, Anil Kumar wrote:
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Udhay
Shankar N ud...@pobox.com
wrote:
Agree with Venky Hariharan; though I did
not abandon reading God of Small Things; finished it only to feel a
depression set in; reading
At 6:46 PM +0530 6/15/10, Sruthi Krishnan wrote:
In particular, there's this
passage of ~15 pages in _Cryptonomicon_ that has to do with the Right
Way of eating chocolate cereal.
First reaction: Shudder.
Followed by: Tiny voice inside urges, maybe if it is well written
Most people can't
david copperfield is fantastic!
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 10:09 AM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:
I'm going to sharply bring down the level of the books being referred to,
and say that, out of sync with my high school- and college-mates, I could
never go more than a few pages of those
On Tuesday 15 June 2010 05:11 PM, Biju Chacko wrote:
The Emperor's New Mind by whatsisface
Really? I felt Penrose made things easy to get through thanks to his
in-depth explanations. I read more than half of it over four days I was
sick (and was thus bunking work during an internship a few
On Tuesday 15 June 2010 11:26 PM, Heather Madrone wrote:
I really wish I hadn't read Life of Pi. Ugh ugh ugh.
Jude the Obscure. Why on earth did anyone care to write a story about a
depressive who has a very depressing life that gets progressively more
depressing until it reaches a crescendo
Snow Crash remains one of the best- and most engrossing- books I have read.
Cryptonomicon was good too, but about 600 pages too long.
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 11:31 PM, Heather Madrone heat...@madrone.comwrote:
Most people can't get through Stephenson, but I'd recommend starting with
_Snow
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:24 AM, Sruthi Krishnan srukr...@gmail.com wrote:
Rand is a pretty good writer, and it isn't tedious.
If you don't mind me asking, how old were you when you read Rand?
I have this corollary that people who are introduced to Ms. Rand in
their mid-to-late 20's or later
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 10:52 AM, Heather Madrone heat...@madrone.com wrote:
When embarking on authors of this period,
know that you're traveling by packet boat and that you'll get there when you
get
there. In the meantime, enjoy the scenery.
The book I have tried (and given up) reading the
Heather Madrone wrote:
At 6:46 PM +0530 6/15/10, Sruthi Krishnan wrote:
In particular, there's this
passage of ~15 pages in _Cryptonomicon_ that has to do with the Right
Way of eating chocolate cereal.
First reaction: Shudder.
Followed by: Tiny voice inside urges, maybe
In infinite wisdom Anil Kumar said the following On 6/14/10 11:42 PM:
Calling the attention of the bibliophiles on Silk -
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/books/Ten-toughest-books-to-read/Article1-557458.aspx
Oh well; the others too...
After I read Dune, I was very impressed. Then I
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 12:34 PM, Radhika, Y. radhik...@gmail.com wrote:
I never liked Ayn Rand - always felt like she was a drill sergeant insisting
on her way...and all that aggrandizement of architects - utter rubbish.
Yes - I couldn't stomach the characters and the tone. It's been a
while
Sean Doyle [15/06/10 19:27 -0400]:
Another book I had trouble with (finished only about 1/4 of it -
unusual for me) this last year was Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I
took a strong dislike to all the characters - I suspect it was class
Not pride and prejudice, for me. Wuthering Heights - for
Raj Shekhar [15/06/10 13:46 -0700]:
After I read Dune, I was very impressed. Then I picked up its
sequel, Dune Messiah and plodded through it. I then picked up its
sequel, Children of Dune and could not go beyond the first 10 or 15
pages and I gave up on that series. Today I learned that
--- On Wed, 16/6/10, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net wrote:
From: Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] Ten toughest books to read
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Date: Wednesday, 16 June, 2010, 5:53
Raj Shekhar [15/06/10 13:46 -0700]:
After I read Dune, I
Indrajit Gupta [16/06/10 07:50 +0530]:
It's addictive. Also, unlike Tolkien, he keeps picking up an obscure part
of the narrative and polishing it for a book at a time. The result is that
they won't finish until 2012!
... if at all.
Jordan is in full soap opera (or maybe what local tv calls
--- On Wed, 16/6/10, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net wrote:
From: Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] Ten toughest books to read
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Date: Wednesday, 16 June, 2010, 7:57
Indrajit Gupta [16/06/10 07:50
+0530]:
It's addictive.
Autobiography of an unknown Indian
India after Gandhi
Al Beruni's India
Atlas Shrugged
At least the first 3 are tough to read because of the wealth of detail in a
format that is not entertaining to read. Like a textbook. They look good on
your bookshelf because they are fat and people think you
Pranesh Prakash wrote, [on 06/15/2010 11:38 PM]:
I really wish I hadn't read Life of Pi. Ugh ugh ugh.
Jude the Obscure. Why on earth did anyone care to write a story about a
depressive who has a very depressing life that gets progressively more
depressing until it reaches a crescendo of
Raj Shekhar wrote, [on 06/16/2010 02:16 AM]:
After I read Dune, I was very impressed. Then I picked up its sequel,
Dune Messiah and plodded through it. I then picked up its sequel,
Children of Dune and could not go beyond the first 10 or 15 pages and I
gave up on that series. Today I learned
If you don't mind me asking, how old were you when you read Rand?
I have this corollary that people who are introduced to Ms. Rand in
their mid-to-late 20's or later don't like her much.
Your corollary remains safe. :) I read her in my 11th standard, was
around 15 - 16 methinks. It was like
and say that, out of sync with my high school- and college-mates, I could
never go more than a few pages of those Mills and Boons and Hermina Black
type of novels. These are the staple diet of generations of young women, so
I wonder what's wrong with my genetic makeupbecause what I read at
On 16-06-2010 10:07, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
There are several series I've given up on partway through. Some examples:
* The Song of Ice and Fire
I am informed by those who know about such things that this is true of
the author as well.
--
Regards,
Aadisht
Email for lists: li...@aadisht.net
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 11:34 PM, Pranesh Prakash
the.solips...@gmail.comwrote:
On Tuesday 15 June 2010 05:11 PM, Biju Chacko wrote:
I never got around to finishing the neuroscience bits of the book.
You didn't miss much. I've always thought that consciousness being a result
of gravity on
Sruthi Krishnan [16/06/10 10:36 +0530]:
I never read MandB growing up. Recently while I was cooped up in B'bay
recuperating unable to travel much, I had no recourse but to pick
some. The local library in Goregaon boasts an inexhaustible collection
of MandB and only that. So I did end up reading
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