Biblio File

Readers Respond: What Book Can't You Finish? by Gwen Glazer, CommunicationsOctober 25, 2017

Previously, we asked our librarians what books they've never been able to finish—yes, even librarians have books we just can't make it through—and now we'd like to know yours!

Here are some titles that our readers mentioned frequently on social media.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Infinite Jest. it’s amazing, but I can’t get past page 300. there’s so much to process.— Laura Lumpkin (@laura_li) October 24, 2017

Infinite Jest— Campiee4 (@campiee4) October 24, 2017

Infinite Jest— Kate Mallen (@MallenKate) October 25, 2017

Shakespeare

I love Shakespeare, but it takes time to get through so many of his stories.— Elizabeth Meadows (@ermeadows1961) October 24, 2017

Everything Shakespeare— Bambie (@Ambernofetari) October 24, 2017

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Gravity's Rainbow.— Susan Danzen (@LovemanythingsL) October 24, 2017

Gravity’s Rainbow. Funny because I made it through these other Pynchon novels: Mason & Dixon, V, Inherent Vice, Vineland, and Bleeding Edge.— LarryKellogg (@LarryKellogg) October 24, 2017

Gravity's Rainbow - I'm going need a lot of quiet alone time to work through it!— Olneyville Library (@OlneyLibrary) October 25, 2017

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Count of Monte Cristo— Salsa Patel (@madsalsaNY) October 24, 2017

The Count of Monte Cristo. I so love the plot, and admire the author's work, but some of the dialogue is just urghhh.— Anita (@Ivotedforhill) October 25, 2017

The Count of Monte Cristo!— i am educating (@iameducating) October 25, 2017

Ulysses by James Joyce

Ulysses— Laura O'Brien (@NatashaspyO) October 24, 2017

Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow.— Lawrence Miles (@umeanthatlmiles) October 24, 2017

Ulysses. Threw it against the wall 50% complete.— Bryan Szabo (@eidolonink) October 25, 2017

Let us know your literary Waterloos! And if you're looking for a book you can finish, check out our Staff Picks browse tool for recommendations!

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

View all posts by Gwen Glazer

Comments

Patron-generated content represents the views and interpretations of the patron, not necessarily those of The New York Public Library. For more information see NYPL's Website Terms and Conditions.

Book unable to finish

Submitted by annRann (not verified) on October 27, 2017 - 11:03am

Moby Dic by Herman Melville

Book I cannot finish

Submitted by Lily Alice (not verified) on November 1, 2017 - 11:42am

Moby Dick. I'm not so married to tightly woven plots. I don't always even care if there is one. I could listen to Garrison Keillor wax on for days about whether the Lake is frozen enough yet for ice fishing. But I cannot care about what happens to the whale for more than a third of that book. Fortunately, I do know what happens and why it might matter, thanks to a good scene in Star Trek: First Contact.

Books unfinishable..

Submitted by Marie (not verified) on November 12, 2017 - 9:50pm

The Goldfinch! The Goldfinch!! Stop writing! Get an editor!

LOVED The Goldfinch...

Submitted by Kerri (not verified) on December 31, 2017 - 12:43am

LOVED The Goldfinch... finished in a few days! Some of the best writing I’ve read in years!!

AGREE with Matt

Submitted by Jane (not verified) on December 2, 2018 - 2:08pm

How did The Goldfinch get published? It’s ridiculously long, repetitive, confusing—I could go on and on. The editor who worked with this author failed miserably.

Exactly! It's about a third

Submitted by Jill (not verified) on December 2, 2018 - 11:40pm

Exactly! It's about a third too long.

It took me years to admit I

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on August 20, 2019 - 7:17am

It took me years to admit I was so bored by the goldfinch

Book I can't finish

Submitted by Narah (not verified) on November 13, 2017 - 4:48am

Le rouge et le noir

cant finish

Submitted by meli (not verified) on December 3, 2017 - 2:45pm

catch 22

Book I want to like, but cannot finish

Submitted by Lydia Mullen (not verified) on December 4, 2017 - 12:32am

Everything by William Faulkner. I tried so hard, but he bores me to tears.

I made it through Gravity's

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on December 27, 2017 - 8:51pm

I made it through Gravity's Rainbow, all of Shakespeare (Macbeth's the best), Moby Dick, all of Faulkner, and loved and appreciated them all... But I just cannot seem to get more than 20 pages into Proust's Remembrance of Things Past

My list exactly matches yours

Submitted by Bob (not verified) on August 5, 2018 - 3:35pm

My list exactly matches yours....

The Last Black Unicorn and other things I can hate

Submitted by cc (not verified) on December 30, 2017 - 3:09pm

Just THE WORST! I'm not the demographic she's going for but it doesn't matter--it's just a terrible book. Books I've thrown across the room? Lolita, Lovely Bones and Running with Scissors.

Books I could not finish

Submitted by Linda Mo (not verified) on January 9, 2018 - 9:59pm

The DaVinci Code

Vollmann

Submitted by Steven Felicelli (not verified) on February 6, 2018 - 9:26pm

You name the book. Vollmann is my literary rope wall I'm too feeble to climb.

Books I couldn't get through

Submitted by Andrew Swift (not verified) on August 6, 2018 - 3:30pm

The Prince of Thorns By Mark Lawrence

Books I couldn't finish

Submitted by Susan Camille (not verified) on August 25, 2018 - 8:54pm

Ulysses (already mentioned by others) A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking

I was ok with brief history,

Submitted by Susan N Surles (not verified) on January 29, 2019 - 5:31pm

I was ok with brief history, but ulysses i can not finish.

Books I Couldn't Finish

Submitted by Anne Murphy (not verified) on June 5, 2019 - 1:15am

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - next attempt will be #4

The Corrections. I remember

Submitted by Marcus (not verified) on June 21, 2019 - 1:47pm

The Corrections. I remember being completely bewildered that everyone I knew thought it was brilliant and I just couldn't get what they saw in it...

I'm with you, Marcus.

Submitted by Liz Sea (not verified) on August 22, 2019 - 10:59am

I'm with you, Marcus.

Book I Could Not Finish

Submitted by BigTimeReader (not verified) on June 21, 2019 - 2:00pm

I almost never give up on books. I'm a completist and crave narrative closure. However, I couldn't get through 'Tipping the Velvet' by Sarah Waters. I know people who raved about it and I enjoyed some of the author's other novels, but 'Velvet' was unbelievably tedious and dull.

Book I could not finish

Submitted by Pam (not verified) on June 22, 2019 - 10:38am

Moonwise by Greer Gilman. It seems like the entire book was written in esoteric metaphor. I could barely identify what was happening. I wanted so badly to know what the heck was going on! But eventually I had to let it go.

Book i cannot finish :The Divine Comedy

Submitted by Jamie (not verified) on August 20, 2019 - 10:54pm

I have so much difficulty with this book. I constantly have to stop and research and read interpretations on each Canto... its so frustrating becAuse i am so interested in understanding it but i feel there should be a whole college course on this one book .

Moby Dick.

Submitted by Lydia (not verified) on August 20, 2019 - 11:06pm

Moby Dick. All that nautical stuff. I hated the movie, too. The Count of Monte Cristo. I LOVED IT. And all of the movie versions, too.

Don Quixote, which seems to

Submitted by Ian (not verified) on August 22, 2019 - 4:56am

Don Quixote, which seems to be as boring as a book can get (despite its significance), and The Divine Comedy (which I love but and restart from time to time, althougj I can't get pass the Purgatory part for some reason). Also, like many others, Ulysses even though I loved A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.