The topic of this week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) is very fun: Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read. Book Bloggers spend so much time discovering new books and adding them to an ever expanding TBR list, it’s a bit refreshing to make a list of books we’ve decided that we’re ok with never getting around to.
Here’s the thing though: I have a history of assuming I’ll never be interested in reading a particular book, only to completely eat my words later on. I never expected that I would read Moby Dick, the Lord of the Rings, or The Brothers Karamazov. (Click on any of those titles to read about my experience reading and loving each of them.) When I was in high school I swore off Dickens forever after reading and hating A Tale of Two Cities, only to end up reading and loving David Copperfield years later. (And many others by the wonderful Dickens.)
I also have plans to someday read many of the more challenging classics such as: War and Peace, Ulysses, and In Search of Lost Time.
But regardless of all my lofty plans, and all the times I’ve been wrong before about what I’ll want to read someday, it was still possible to create a list of books that, as of right now, I have no plans to read.
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
- The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
- The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
And… as a bonus, here’s one novel that I’ve already read twice (for school) and never want to read again: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
If you love any of these books passionately, feel free to persuade me to read it in the comments! I clearly change my mind about what I think I’ll want to read or not frequently.
The Good Soldier is brilliant. My review is here: https://pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/the-good-soldier-by-ford-madox-ford/. In short though, it’s incredibly subtle, exceptionally well written and challenging in a good way. It’s absolutely exceptional. It’s also really short, well under 200 pages. Everything else on your list is a chunkster but The Good Soldier is bite-size.
Otherwise, your call of course but I loved Don Quixote. It’s actually two novels which are now always published together, but they were written and originally published ten years apart. I don’t know why they get packaged as one book because they’re really not.
I read it as two separate novels, just like its original readers did, and it makes it much more digestible. It’s also really funny and a surprisingly good commute read. I’ve reviewed both halves at mine and it’s worth at least taking a look at because it might not be what you think it is.
The rest I’ll leave to others, noting though that I wouldn’t read Rand if I were paid to.
Based on your excellent review, and the support of several other commenters here, it seems I was definitely too hasty to write off The Good Soldier! I hereby revoke my earlier statement, and will give it a shot. I’m not sure when – I’ll leave that to fate… I’ll begin to keep an eye out for a copy at used bookstores and buy it once I see a good copy.
I had a feeling Don Quixote would get some love in the comments as well. This one I’m less likely to read soon, as there are many other chunkster classics much higher on my list. But you never know – I never thought I would read The Brothers Karamazov before I read War and Peace. It’s good to know that it was originally two separate novels, treating them separately would definitely make me more likely to tackle it in the future.
The main one I would try to persuade you to read is The Good Soldier. It’s short, fascinating, very readable, and it’s a classic worth spending your time on. Read it with a discussion group if you can: it’s kind of a puzzle, so it’s fun and helpful to have extra minds looking at it along with you.
As for the others, I’m part way through Infinite Jest and not ready to give up yet. Don Quixote is so long I probably wouldn’t have made it through except that the narrator of the audiobook was extremely good and I could listen to it while doing other things. I read the Rand books years ago, and though the ideas in them were interesting I don’t want to travel their roads again. Sound & Fury and Miserables are still on my to-read-someday list; jury’s still out on the Corrections; tried Pynchon and quickly gave up; wouldn’t touch the Mailer.
Great post– now I’m itching to make up my own won’t-read list!
Based on all these comments it seems I’ve been very wrong about The Good Soldier! I officially change my position. :D
Haha – War and Peace, Ulysses, and the Lord of the Rings all made my list today! Good thing they have you to console them. To be honest, I haven’t COMPLETELY ruled out The Lord of the Rings yet for forever, but definitely for the foreseeable future!
A few years ago I NEVER thought I’d read Lord of the Rings. I wrote a post about why I changed my mind:
How to become a Tolkien Fan for the Reluctant: http://www.booksuniverseeverything.com/2013/05/05/how-to-become-a-tolkien-fan-for-the-reluctant/
I do hope you’ll give Don Quixote a try at some point in the future. It’s worth reading. I don’t think I’ll ever read Ulysses, though like you, I don’t want to say “never.”
I’m seeing a lot of support for both The Good Soldier and Don Quixote in the comments – I love that! Such strong support for just two of the ten is interesting, I think I might have to change my mind about it!
I *intend* to read Ulysses – we’ll see if it ever happens! :D
I’ve read six of the books on your Don’t Read list and all three on that mini Do Read list. Based on that, I’m going to tell you what I’d do if I could go back in time and do it (or not) all over again. Here we go:
The Corrections: SKIP
Gravity’s Rainbow: READ
Don Quixote: READ!!!
The Good Soldier: READ
The Naked and the Dead: READ
The Sound and the Fury: SKIP
War and Peace: READ
Ulysses: SKIP!!!
Proust: READ
I like this assessment! I’m seeing a lot of support for both Don Quixote and The Good Soldier – I think I’ll definitely need to re-evaluate my position on those two.
I don’t really know what I’m waiting for with Proust. I’m pretty confident I’ll enjoy it. I guess I’m just waiting for a big block of time when I don’t mind diving into Proust’s world and not coming out again for quite a while. I don’t think it’s something I can dabble in – I need to focus on just that and not be reading a lot of other things at the same time. I have the audiobook and I really love listening to the start of it when my mind is spinning at night and I need to try to settle down to sleep. The description of him falling asleep at night is so wonderful. I’ve probably listened to the first 50 pages about 25-30 times. I love that introduction.
As for Ulysses – I don’t think I’ll ever get through it if not for the Frank Delaney podcast. He is going through the book and unpacking it, almost page by page. It’s an immense project and it’s kind of amazing to behold. It adds a lot to the reading experience, and makes it more fun. I read the first chapter this way and the first several podcasts, but then life got in the way. It’s hard to keep up with. I’m still not convinced I’ll ever ACTUALLY get around to reading it, but I have good intentions.
I’m reading volume 4 of Proust at the moment (the first three are all reviewed at mine if you’re curious). It’s great, superbly well written and observed. You need decent chunks of time to read it though, ideally so you can get really stuck in and take in 50 to 100 pages at a time.
That’s exactly why I haven’t started them yet – I’m really looking forward to them, but know that I need a good open stretch of time when I don’t have 10 other books screaming to be read. I think there will just be a day when I decide “poohy on the other books waiting” and just dive in. I have the audiobook of the first volume, and I love listening to it at night if I need to wind down after a busy day. The description of him falling asleep is so beautifully written, I’ve probably listened to it 25 times. I’m looking forward to reading the entire thing sometime soonish.
Great list and I could have used just about any of these on my own. I *may* have read Don Quixote in high school, but it was so long ago I don’t even remember. I’m KIND of interested in the Faulkner, but will probably never read it. Now that I’ve read all your comments I’m curious about The Good Soldier!
I’m so curious about The Good Soldier too! It appears I was perhaps very wrong about this one.
But you’ll never know who is John Gault.
Alas, I probably won’t. :D But you never know – I change my mind FREQUENTLY. I never thought I’d read Gone with the Wind (just wasn’t interested) and then yesterday read a great piece about it in Slightly Foxed Quarterly, and now I want to read it!
I tried reading The Fountainhead and only made it about 10 pages in. I’m with you there for sure. But Les Miz? That’s a great book (minus the 50-page detour about halfway through to the Battle of Waterloo. You can just skip those 50 pages). Might be worth a try! :)
Les Miz is one I could picture myself changing my mind on. I put it on there because it’s so huge and right now I don’t have any desire to start it, but I felt that way about Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov too before I read them. Good to know which part to skip as well! I’m bad at skimming over parts in books (I think that’s why I never finished the second half of Middlemarch, I got bogged down in one of the boring bits) – I need to get better at fast reading over dull parts, I tend to try to “close-read” all classics, and not all sections of every classic needs to be read that way!
Don Quixote is great fun and is an especially good book to readalong with another person or two. The story sags once in a while but it would be a shame if you never got to fall in love with the great knight.
It’s official – there is too much Don Quixote love in the comments here for me to skip it. I’ve officially changed my position! I’m not sure when I’ll get to it, but it’s out of the doghouse now. :D
The only one out of your list that I have read is Les Miserables, and let me tell you that you have made a wise choice. I love the musical, did not super enjoy the book. It’s basically two books in one: the story plus an abridged history of France. I slogged through it a couple of years ago. Never again.
Glad to hear it! :) I don’t mind the main story line – I like the musical/movie, but it’s so huge! I don’t have much motivation to ever read it.
I’m with you on Les Miserables and Don Quixote!
Glad I’m not the only one! :D