Worst book you've ever read

Books I have yet to slog through (3+ tries):

Mason and Dixon - Pynchon -> The talking dog, that is where it ends. I have read most everything else he has done and loved it.

Lord of the Rings (first one) -> Gads page 100 and they haven't done anything. It starts slower than a Stanley Steamer.

daughter of time bored the hell outta me!

i agree in the sense that russian writers and russians seem to like to be miserable and write about miserable things [sort of like The Cure of their time]. reading the Brothers Karamozov in college for russian history class was not dissimilar to the brain-numbing effects of narcotic medication. in fact i suspect the trudging chore of reading the book helps or might intentionally make one experience the misery along with the characters. "they all die miserably and tormented. the end. have a nice sleep sweetie". hav the cyanide handy when reading any russian author. no wonder all the russians i met in va beach this summer seem like they are friggin robots or they had a lobotomy. man, i swear i wouldnt be able to get it up for a russian chick despite how good looking they can be. Da!

but it was well written i'd give it 7 miserable smiley faces :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[russian funeral dirge music heard in background]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
anna karinina
i really don't care about each blade of grass in czarist russia

Originally posted by [username edited by p.c. moderator]:

Originally posted by smakawhat:
Dostoyevski is awesome!!

I agree, if we were talking Crime and Punishment or Brothers Karamazov. The Idiot, however, seems more like a character study in a less fleshed out version of one of his Brothers, however.

The Idiot wasn't a bad atempt to show the i guess "denoument" of a Christ like figure, but there isn't too much of a story (the party scenes are fantastic, and it has also one of the best duel scenes I've read right up there with Lermontov and Chekhov).

Notes from Underground, Demons, even some of his short stories are really fantastic. Brothers K. is easily the best book I have ever read in my life.

Originally posted by muschi:
i agree in the sense that russian writers and russians seem to like to be miserable and write about miserable things [sort of like The Cure of their time]. reading the Brothers Karamozov in college for russian history class was not dissimilar to the brain-numbing effects of narcotic medication. in fact i suspect the trudging chore of reading the book helps or might intentionally make one experience the misery along with the characters. "they all die miserably and tormented. the end. have a nice sleep sweetie". hav the cyanide handy when reading any russian author. no wonder all the russians i met in va beach this summer seem like they are friggin robots or they had a lobotomy. man, i swear i wouldnt be able to get it up for a russian chick despite how good looking they can be. Da!

but it was well written i'd give it 7 miserable smiley faces :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

[russian funeral dirge music heard in background]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
anna karinina
i really don't care about each blade of grass in czarist russia

Ha ha. I always say you know you are reading a Russian novel when:

Some serf is getting beaten to death
Someone has consumption
Someone gets murdered
Someone gets killed in a duel
There's a good chance some antisemtic remarks will be made
There is plenty of Kvass, pepper vodka, and samovars to go around

Na zdorovje!!!

Originally posted by smakawhat:

Brothers K. is easily the best book I have ever read in my life.

as for dostoyevsky, crime and punishment is my favorite. i probably should re-read demons, cause i got so lost.