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Boring books

"If you read a lot of book reviews, there are certain words that tend to crop up with comforting, or maybe it’s dismaying, regularity. Lyrical. Compelling. Moving. Intriguing. Absorbing. Frustrating. Uneven. Disappointing. But there is one word you seldom encounter: boring. It occurred a mere 19 times in the Book Review in 2009, and rarely as a direct description of the book under review."

I would say that the reason I've never written a book review with "boring" as a descriptor is because I rarely finish books that bore me. There are so many books in the world; why would I continute to read something that isn't good? Here, in no particular order, are books that I found too boring to finish reading despite their bestseller or classic status. (In fact, I find that most books I find boring are ones I feel I should read.)

1. The Life of Pi: I gave this one maybe two chapters. But I had no patience for it. All I remember is it's about a tiger and a guy and a boat. I really didn't care much past that.

2. Moby Dick: I had to read this one in school, and I still didn't finish it. (And I ALWAYS completed my work. I was that kid.) But really, a whole chapter about squeezing whale sperm? If I ever find the sonnet I wrote about Moby Dick in high school, I will post it here. Because, really, I wrote a sonnet rather than read that book.

3. The English Patient: I got halfway with this one. I really wanted to like it and finish it. But I think the only thing more boring than this book was the movie made off of it.

4. The Pillars of the Earth: I've never gotten very far in this, but all I know is that every time I put the audiobook on in the car, I find myself wanting to nod off while driving.

So, readers, what books out there have you found too boring for words?

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Posted by Mel Umbarger on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:59 pm

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Kimberly

January 29, 2010 - 2:24 pm EST

"The Old Man and the Sea." I read it because I had to for school. I had read other Hemingway books and liked them, but "The Old Man and the Sea" ... not so much. Man, fish, struggle, snooze. Also, "A Confederacy of Dunces." It seemed to be all the talk for a while, so I bought into the hype and got a copy. I tried really hard to get through it, but I just hated it. It's one of only a very few books that I never finished.

Dawn in NC

February 5, 2010 - 2:22 pm EST

Mel, you may have just ensured that "Life of Pi", sitting in my to-read pile for 6 months, will never get read. We'll see. And though I never read "The English Patient", I couldn't agree more about the movie. Any time an ad for that movie comes on, I start yelling at the TV, "STUPID movie! She dies of a BROKEN ANKLE!!! Puh-leez."

But I have to disagree with you about "Moby Dick". My junior year of high school, we had a new hot young American Literature teacher who had all the girls humming that Police song "Don't Stand So Close To Me" (young teacher, the subject of school girl fantasies). Thing was, he was also a great teacher who allowed us to spend an entire quarter reading "Moby Dick" -- really tore into it and pulled it apart and made it mean something. And the view wasn't bad either. ;-) I'm sure with any other teacher and being forced to read it in just a few weeks, I'd have come away with the same impression as you, but as it is, ol' Ishmael will always have a soft spot in my heart, as will a certain Greensboro roofer who used to teach high school English for a few years. ;-)