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People Are Sharing The "Great" Books That They Honestly Struggled To Finish

Sometimes, no matter how classic or well-written a book is, it might not connect with the reader the same way it does with other readers. On the popular bookworm-filled r/books subreddit, u/myawn asked readers to share a well-regarded book they struggled to finish. Here are some answers that will either have you stunned or relieved you're not the only one: 1. Dracula by Bram Stoker "This book is my nemesis. I must have tried it three times and never got even halfway through. Something about the format of diaries and letters just doesn't do it for me and breaks up my immersion in the story. I also find Jonathan and Mina's characters to be quite bland, though admittedly, I never got very far. For the supposedly quintessential novel on vampires, I have to say I was disappointed." — u/myawn 2. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 3. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Little, Brown and Company / Via 5. Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 6. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway "Anything written by Hemingway. I can't stand his writing style; it's just mind-numbing to me. I still remember the paragraph from A Farewell to Arms with the word 'and' like 30-plus times in it." — u/nildrohain454 7. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Simon & Schuster / Via "I LOVE Ray Bradbury, and I know it's an iconic book, and the first line is still one of my favorites ever. It was just boring to me." — u/spanish_destiel 10. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo Penguin Classics / Via "I feel like you have to be in a great place in your life to be able to read this book and not get depressed. I wasn't at my best when I started reading it and stopped when I realized it was only making me feel even worse about life." — u/inps37 11. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Penguin Classics / Via 12. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 13. Don Quixote by Cervantes Penguin Classics / Via 14. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace "I'd read it was the most brilliant book. I picked it up in the library, read 10 pages, decided it was over my head or something, and put it back." — u/Charlie500 15. A Widow for One Year by John Irving 17. The Aeneid by Virgil Penguin Classics / Via "I don't know why because I really liked The Iliad, The Odyssey, and even Metamorphoses, which I would think would be the odd one out of the four. It's just Virgil that rubs me the wrong way. I've read them all at least once by the same translator, so I don't think that's it." — u/ElricAvMelnibone 18. Neuromancer by William Gibson Penguin Publishing Group / Via "I've tried to read it several times but never get more than 10-20 percent in before I decide I don't want to read it anymore." — u/mrburnttoast79 19. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett Harper / Via "I can't get through The Color of Magic, which boggles my mind! I've been a fantasy reader for decades! I don't like it!" — u/KDLG328 20. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Penguin Classics / Via "I've tried many times with increasing levels of determination, but I can never make it through that first party scene." — u/BaileyGirl5 21. The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King Pocket Books / Via "It took me a few times to get through The Dark Tower, but I was able to get through it; it was worth it because most of the series is really good." — u/nyrdcast 22. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Picador / Via "It has been recommended to me lots of times. I've started and stopped many many times. I think this is just going on my DNF list and leaving it at that." — u/72_Suburbs 23. Dune by Frank Herbert Ace / Via "I f*cking hated it. I despised every single character, and eventually stopped wasting my time reading it and just listened to the audiobook until it was over, rooting for everyone to die." — u/Vanish_7 24. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman Avon / Via "I couldn't get through it and stopped mid-way. The main character was just too dumb and Literally every time this guy spoke, I imagined a drooling six-year-old in my head." — u/TheBackpacker2 25. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson Gollancz / Via "I finished it, but it was a huge struggle. To me, that book is everything wrong with mainstream fantasy writing condensed to a brick of a book." — u/Electronic_Basis7726 26. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Vintage / Via "It was really hard to get through." — u/ztreHdrahciR 27. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Penguin Classics / Via "As boring as the dirt on their wagon." — u/Damnmorefuckingsnow 28. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger Little, Brown and Company / Via "My teacher would talk about it so much I had really high expectations for it, but idk, maybe soon I'll give it another try." — u/janepaches33 29. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill Vintage Classics / Via "It's not even a long book and should be able to be read quickly, but I just can't get into it." — u/BellePoivron 30. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas Bloomsbury YA / Via "Everyone I know has said so many good things about the Throne of Glass series and has told me to start with The Assassin's Blade …big mistake. It took me MONTHS to get through, and it's a fairly small book. I don't know if it was the POV, the character, or what. I usually love Sarah J. Mass and her other series, but because of that first book, I can't get myself to open Throne of Glass." — u/SimpleResearcher8334 31. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin Random House Worlds / Via "A friend lent me the first book sometime in the mid to late 2000s, and I absolutely couldn't get through. I found the number of POV characters bothersome and often found myself having to go back and skim through previous chapters in order to remember what had last happened in that character's arc. Combined with being genuinely bored by at least one of these characters, I just couldn't find the motivation to finish the book." — u/DasMotorsheep 32. And lastly: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Knopf Books for Young Readers / Via "I'm studying to be a librarian, and the one that got me was The Book Thief. It's a young adult novel that is widely renowned, but I felt like it was a chore to get through. there wasn't a compelling plot and so much wordy prose I felt like I was reading A Room of One's Own! Wasn't what I was expecting from a YA novel for middle school." — u/rosmitchell0rosmitchell0 Is there a book you found difficult to finish (if you finished it at all)? Comment below and share with me why!