Most of us have been there, we buy a book only to find out that's it's very difficult to understand, either because we lack the background information necessary for it to make sense or its simply too deep for us. Meditations: The Journals of Marcus Aurelias is not light reading. Though highly acclaimed, it's a chore for me just to get through 4-5 pages at a time. So, what to do? Grind on through and glean what lessons one can get from it or put it aside and find one that's more enjoyable to read?
@mchill saidI think we have to be in the right mood and motivated to read such books, I'm sure it demands a lot of the readers. I had to try four times when starting to read the worldwide bestseller The Shadow of the Wind (Spanish: La sombra del viento) by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón - not at all as intellectually challenging as Marcus Aurelius but still written in a style that took a while to feel the rhythm.
Most of us have been there, we buy a book only to find out that's it's very difficult to understand, either because we lack the background information necessary for it to make sense or its simply too deep for us. Meditations: The Journals of Marcus Aurelias is not light reading. Though highly acclaimed, it's a chore for me just to get through 4-5 pages at a time. So, what to d ...[text shortened]... d glean what lessons one can get from it or put it aside and find one that's more enjoyable to read?
@mchill said“Some simple questions do not have simple answers. Therein lies a difficulty.”
Most of us have been there, we buy a book only to find out that's it's very difficult to understand, either because we lack the background information necessary for it to make sense or its simply too deep for us. Meditations: The Journals of Marcus Aurelias is not light reading. Though highly acclaimed, it's a chore for me just to get through 4-5 pages at a time. So, what to d ...[text shortened]... d glean what lessons one can get from it or put it aside and find one that's more enjoyable to read?
— Goethe
edit: There is no excuse for mental laziness. On the other hand, sometimes one just isn't ready for a certain author's ideas; one has to lay the book aside and come back to it later.
@moonbus saidThere is no excuse for mental laziness. On the other hand, sometimes one just isn't ready for a certain author's ideas; one has to lay the book aside and come back to it later.
“Some simple questions do not have simple answers. Therein lies a difficulty.”
— Goethe
edit: There is no excuse for mental laziness. On the other hand, sometimes one just isn't ready for a certain author's ideas; one has to lay the book aside and come back to it later.
Good Plan. 🙂
@great-big-stees saidThe movie is easier to follow and less exhausting.
Although I tried three times to “get through” the Life of Pie, I set it aside, yet again, two years ago and will probably donate it to one of those “take a book, leave a book” setups.
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Ulysses, by Joyce. I read a version of it which had a considerable amount of notes at the back, which was helpful. Worth reading. Not worth reading twice. Still worth reading once.
Die Kritik der reinen Vernunft. I'm still only halfway through - in the original German, at that - and I'm not sure I'm going to make it to the end. I started out a fan of Kant, and I'm losing ever more appreciation for him. For one, as regards physics, he's an idiot. Still worth going through for its influence on later European culture.
The Bible. Don't quote-mine it - read it, think about it, and love thy neighbour.
Books not worth grinding through:
Moby Dick. Ye gods, that was a moronic waste of time.
Franzen's Corrections. I hate every single character in that book, except for the young sister who is a cook. I don't care if any of the other ones die in ignominy. I'm not finishing that one.
Oh, another one which wasn't a grind for me but might be for others: Paradise Lost. You have to get into the mind-set, but the ending is one of the best tear-jerkers in the history of literature.