Great books that put you to sleep?

maestrowork

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We know those books... great prose, great characters, wonderful story... but we can only pick at them, and if it's before bedtime... we fall sleep on them.

What are yours? And what do you think of them?

I've been reading Children of Men for a while now, picking at it on and off. But every time I read more than a few pages I fell asleep.

Another one is Corelli's Mandolin. Again, wonderful writing, but I fall asleep every time I try to read it.
 

Darzian

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The Lord of the Rings.


I couldn't make it through the first time. Several years later, I became an avid fan. I just couldn't take it when I was 12.
 

Dark Cyril

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A lot of the so called "classics" of American Literature. The Scarlet Letter is one of the greatest sleeping aids ever penned.
 

Dark Cyril

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Yeah, I should note that myself. I've made it through Fellowship a few times, but every time I get to Treebeard's introduction in The Two Towers I zonk right out.
 

Calla Lily

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Carlyle's French Revolution. You wouldn't think that bloody revolution, intrigue, slaughter, and complete country upheaval could be boring, but the man manages to do just that. I keep it for the few nights a year that I have trouble sleeping. Half a page and I'l zonked.
 

Darzian

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Yeah, I should note that myself. I've made it through Fellowship a few times, but every time I get to Treebeard's introduction in The Two Towers I zonk right out.

Hoom Boom Boom Boom Hoom............................
 

ajkjd01

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I'm right there with you guys on LOTR. And, scarletpeaches, I'm 32 as well, and still haven't figured it out.

I can't get by Tom Whathisname in the forest in Fellowship. I've tried for five years. I don't get why that scene is there. To be honest, I don't even care anymore.

I don't get why everyone's such a fan of his writing. It's a great story....but it's lost in too many details. To the point that it's work to find the story in the details. And the tangents.

This flaw is what kept me out of fantasy for SOOOOOOO many years. And that's too bad, because I really do like fantastical stories.

And it's why I go to my critique group and sometimes wish I could gouge my eyeballs out with sharpened chopsticks....people writing epic fantasy justifying the minutiae of detail because "That's What Tolkien Did." I feel like they need little silver bracelets with TWTD engraved on them. Really. And then I get the argument that I don't know what I'm talking about because I don't write epic fantasy (Huh? Doesn't mean I'm not a reader). And that Tolkien (and to a lesser extent, Jordan) must have known what they were doing since their books are classics. When I tell them I like the epic fantasy that has been published recently because it avoids exactly that problem, I get told that they aren't classics, so it doesn't count. (Forehead slap, anyone)

End rant. I promise.
 

Dark Cyril

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I like how Jordan has apparently already reached "classic status" despite it not even being two decades old yet.

As for Tolkien, the mistake he made is that he wrote the series as a history. There was a great story in there, he just couched it in so many small details here and there and so many Homeric tropes that it was overwhelmed (Jackson did a great job realizing the story and putting it on the screen, IMO).
 

nevada

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Tom Bombadil does me in every time. Although usually it's the barrow weights or whatever that stop me dead in my tracks.

Blindness. That book made me wish i was blind so I wouldnt have to read it. I stopped soon after the wish. It just wasnt worth the agony.
 
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Bloody Tom Bombadil. 180 friggin' pages. I'll never get that friggin' fortnight back.

GAH!!!
 

Calla Lily

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*sticks head up from behind the couch*

I love Tom Bombadil. He's my favorite Tolkien caracter. I've read the trilogy more than a dozen times.

*ducks and runs*

I'll add to my list: Gargantua and Pantagruel. I finished it because I kept thinking "I should like this--it's classic" but I had to keep pinching myself to keep awake.
 

Darzian

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*sticks head up from behind the couch*

I love Tom Bombadil. He's my favorite Tolkien caracter. I've read the trilogy more than a dozen times.

*ducks and runs*

I'll add to my list: Gargantua and Pantagruel. I finished it because I kept thinking "I should like this--it's classic" but I had to keep pinching myself to keep awake.

Run indeed! I've read them more than a dozen times but Tom serves absolutely no purpose in the plot. I know that everything doesn't need to be related to the primary plot but he really seemed unnecessary.
 

Calla Lily

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I always thought he served the very necessary purpose of injecting a little lightheartedness into Tolkien's Uber-Serious Epic (note the caps--I love LotR, but it knows it's an Epic).
 

Alvah

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We know those books... great prose, great characters, wonderful story... but we can only pick at them, and if it's before bedtime... we fall sleep on them.


Thucydides --Peloponnesian Wars
 

selkn.asrai

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I can't think of any books offhand, but I know that the first three times I tried to watch Eddie Izzard, I fell asleep.

I've seen it now, many times. I don't know why I drifted off, coz I thought/think he's hilarious. Maybe coz his delivery was often just so mellow.
 

Darzian

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I forgot to mention 'The Belgariad.'

I don't know if it's a 'great' book but it's popular enough. Fortunately I didn't buy the books but borrowed them.
 

Shaun M

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I read LOTR before the movies came out. But I misread the ending so the movie ending was a total shock to me.

I leaned over to my friend and said, "Did they change the ending for the movie? WTF..."

I thought Aragorn married Arwen (Stephen Tyler's Daughter). Which made her leaving for "Haven" all the more troubling for me.

Eowyn != Arwen.

Perhaps I should have been sleeping.
 

josephwise

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Run indeed! I've read them more than a dozen times but Tom serves absolutely no purpose in the plot. I know that everything doesn't need to be related to the primary plot but he really seemed unnecessary.

For some readers, he's thematically crucial.

He also serves as a foil for two incredibly important characters: the ring, and Sauron.

It depends on what you want to get out of the books. The plot might be fine without him; but I don't think the story would be as good.



Me, I had trouble getting through Crime and Punishment. All of the patronymics, and such. But I DID finish it, and it's easily one of the best books I've read. Svidrigailov is my favorite villain of all time.