Book That Never Ends

Ever start reading a book and get partway through and have to put it down for a few days? Ever do that in a book that can't be resumed easily? (RobertAntonWilson's TheIlluminatusTrilogy comes to mind, as do RiseAndFallOfTheThirdReich, Gibson and Sterling's TheDifferenceEngine, and AynRand's TheFountainhead?) Ever have to flip back a few hundred pages to get the flow again? Ever do this for more than a few months and make zero progress? Get so pissed off that you couldn't even think of picking up another book until you finish this one? If you have, you understand the BookThatNeverEnds concept.

Just to be clear: we're talking about one finite book or series of books, aren't we? Trying to keep up with a semi-infinite work of any kind is a different problem; see TooMuchToRead.

''Yep, Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind". I've started it 8 times, and never gotten more than halfway through -- although I did peek at the last chapter. Another is Thoreau's "Walden". Maybe what these two books have in common for me is that the beginning is interesting and easy to understand, while the middle becomes, um, . . . --EdPoor

I have been reading GravitysRainbow in precisely this way for the last five years. -- RobertChurch

A surprisingly large number of my very favorite books are ones that spent long periods of time as The BookThatNeverEnds. I was stuck in the middle of LordOfTheRings for somewhere between two and five years. -- MossCollum

Not every book is the right book for every moment. A few years ago I tried to read Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent but couldn't get get my self properly engaged. Last year I tried again and was moved by nearly every page. Last year a novel about anarchists seemed a lot more meaningful. When I can't concentrate I read children's books. I just read the Chronicles of Narnia and reread the Lord of the Rings. And all the Harry Potter books too. I like that zoned out feeling of knowing that everything is going to turn out in the end and not having to work too hard to get it. -- MarianneBachman

Heh... I also read LordOfTheRings that way. Took forever. That's been years ago, and I feel like the series is way overdue for a re-reading, but I just know I'm going to get stuck once more if I pick it up again.

Heh^2, LordOfTheRings took me three days, pretty continuously, when I was about 12. I read it while cleaning my teeth, on the throne, ....

UmbertoEco's "Foucault's Pendulum" took me four tries. The fourth was the charm, though; it's a great book.

The Island of the Day Before'' by UmbertoEco was similar for me. It wasn't worth it - I still think it's a miserable attempt at a book.

"Foucault's Pendulum" I thought the first quarter was brilliant - not looked at it for a couple of years - maybe I'll pick it up again.

I don't want to spoil anything for you (it really is a great book), but the ending very weak, so definitely finish it but don't get your hopes up. Hint: It's a S.D.S.

Moby Dick was something I attempted. After the first three chapters, I realized I didn't care THAT much about finishing a book I had to force myself to turn a page on. -- WillSargent

It seems that many books, especially those of rich, deep content, have rough spots or "stagnant zones." This could be the author's failing to keep the pacing up, or maybe just reflects that our minds can only absorb so much before we need a break, or some of both.

The early/middle part of Tolkien's "The Two Towers" (where Merry and Pippin meet the Ents) is one example I've experienced. Even worse is John Galt's speech in Rand's AtlasShrugged. Usually I start skipping ahead when this happens, rather than just stop reading. Occasionally I've found a book where even if I skip ahead, I can't get re-engaged, and I end up abandoning the book; but this is rare for me.

I used to be obsessive about finishing every book I started, reading every word of every page. Then I realized that was absurd, and let myself not finish the occasional book. Now, every book I start is a BookThatNeverEnds. --Robert Anton-Erik

There is also the book that cannot end - where the layout, or the typeface, or something about it makes it totally unreadable. I've encountered a few books where, unless you're reading them out loud and tracing the words with your finger, they cannot be read because the eye keeps skipping back up the page. Unfortunately, none of these books happened to contain powerful spells - mostly they were textbooks - so the protective charm was wasted. (It wasn't just me, either, everyone I showed the books to had the same problem...)

This is probably even more true of gargantuan tomes of 19th century literature, but GravitysRainbow is definitely mine. On the other hand I read OneHundredYearsOfSolitude in one sitting. Actually, that may be the only way to prevent the book from becoming the BookThatNeverEnds, because the biggest problem in that book is keeping all the family members (with duplicate names!) straight in your head. -- MattChaput

Franz Kafka's, *The Castle* (*Das Schloss*): I started it numerous times beginning at about age 20. Finally finished reading it--in German no less!--at about age 50. Well worth it, though. --JohnReynoldsTheStudent

Encyclopaedias are books that never seem to end, with endless cross references between topics. In high school and university (the days before hyperlinks) I would sit for hours tracing from one subject or person to another.

And of course WikiWiki is the web site that never ends...