Top Ten Tuesday is weekly book blog meme hosted by the lovely girls over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is to choose your own from The Broke and the Bookish's backlist of topic choices. I ended up choosing the top ten most intimidating books!
We all have those special books that, although you may be dying to read them, there's just something about them that is highly intimidating. It could be due to an extraordinarily high page number (1000+ gets a little intense sometimes), the content, the praise surrounding them, or any other reason. But then, nothing feels better than the feeling of accomplishment upon completing one of these vast tomes. I'm always interested to see what books people have been intimidated by, as there are some that are commonly feared, but some that are uniquely intimidated to someone for a reason we never thought of. Here are a few of my most intimidating books I have successfully conquered!
This is a big book in an abnormal format that is somewhat difficult to get through at times. Though I didn't really find myself as sucked into this book as I've seen others, I still found that story fascinating and I loved the unique format, as this was one of the first books in this format that I ever read.
This was by far the most intimidating book that I've ever read. Not only in this book huge, but the extensive footnotes that are crucial to the story make this difficult to get through. The storyline is difficult to follow at times, as well the writing itself. I'm still not completely sure if I enjoyed it or not, to be honest. All I can say is that it was definitely a journey and one that I am glad I did. One day I would like to re-read it and pay closer attention to various things, but for now, I'm satisfied.
The main intimidation factors that went into play with this one were a mixture of the sheer size, along with the fact that this is often considering one of the greatest adventure stories. I felt like there was a lot to live up to - and fortunately it did!
I think it was mainly the size of this one that intimidated me, as I was a sophomore in high school and it seemed like quite an intricate novel. The Magus is, in fact, a mind-bending read, and one that I totally recommend. I really want to re-read this one day soon!
5. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
I always felt like I saw references to The Canterbury Tales everywhere, which made me intimidated that I would read this and not understand things or not find it nearly as humorous as others. Fortunately, it ended up being pretty enjoyable, and I loved the wit. (I definitely used some study aids to help me out, though!)
I always felt like I saw references to The Canterbury Tales everywhere, which made me intimidated that I would read this and not understand things or not find it nearly as humorous as others. Fortunately, it ended up being pretty enjoyable, and I loved the wit. (I definitely used some study aids to help me out, though!)
The length and extensive amount of characters in The Pillars of the Earth are pretty intense. I did struggle a bit through this one, and to be completely honest, I'm not sure I remember that much... maybe it's time for a re-read.
Considered to be one of the ultimate sci-fi classics by many sci-fi fans, Dune is a fairly heft book that took me a while to finally pick up. Sadly, I ended up not finishing this one; I can see where the immense world-building and detail in this book makes it a classic, but unfortunately I just could not get into the plot, characters, or the writing.
I think this is a a gorgeously written epic poem, but the fact that it is indeed in a poem format and that it is so incredibly long makes it fairly intimidating. My resulting feelingst: if it's something you've been wanting to tackle, go for it! You might just love it.
Being a classic filled with tons of made-up words and a rather intense subject matter makes A Clockwork Orange quite a task to read. I'm really glad I put the time and effort into it, though, because it is definitely one interesting story that really makes you think.. and sometimes cringe.
I mean, it's only considered to be one of the greatest fantasy trilogies of all time - no pressure!
In all seriousness, though, I loved this trilogy. It made me feel so happy and at home in Tolkien's fantastical world - I will be revisiting these soon. (And yes, there are a lot of long descriptions - and songs - but I promise it's all worth it.)
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What books have intimidated you?
I'm pretty intimidated by LotR too. I adore the movies so much and that just makes picking up the book harder, for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! I was really worried to try the books after loving the movies so much and hearing that the books can be a bit slow, but I actually think seeing them first really helped. I was able to picture what was going on better, which thus increased my enjoyment.
DeleteI have The Fellowship of the Ring in my bookshelf but I haven't braved the task to read it. Maybe one day soon! I do love the movies tho ♥
ReplyDelete