The Most Boring Books Ever

How come Tolstoi's War and Peace is not there? That's scandalous! The book is so boring that it is cited in other novels as an example of boring book.

I loved Pilgrim's Progress. Good job too, because it was one of the books I had to study for A-level English Lit.. I've managed to avoid all the others, thus far.

And I agree with Yudith. Even Robert Heinlein's stinker, Time Enough For Love, cites W&P as a good soporific. One of the characters had to study it, and found it so hard to wade through that she learned Russian, so she could read it in the original, to see what the big deal was. Apparently, the translator had vastly improved the work...

I'm surprised "Ulysses" is missing. That was assigned in a literature class at university with a warning from the instructor. I did thank her for her honesty.

However, I've read Melville and enjoyed it thoroughly. As for "Remembrance", it helps if you have a few madeleines and a joint on hand before settling down to read. :lol:

What about The Old Man and the Sea? There's probably more drool on my copy of that than a baby's bib!

That looks like the A reading list from my high school English class.

I could never finish the first chapter of anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This thread reminded me of one of my Teachers who bore an amazing resemblance to THIS GUY FROM THE MOVIE ANIMAL HOUSE! :lol: :coolsmile:

Shocked and amazed!
"Silas Marner" is definitely not the most boring work by George Eliot.
"Don Quixote" is not boring at all! It's hilarious!
"Pamela" is considered the first novel EVER and is a good read.
"Ivanhoe" and "Faust" -- also not boring.
"Paradise Lost"? How did that end up here? And "Faerie Queene"?? Seriously?

I think a bunch of literature haters created this list.
Although I am 100% in agreement that "Moby Dick" is incredibly boring.
"Ulysses" also gets my vote.
Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" was awesome. Have not read "War and Peace".

The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov was not only the most boring book I ever read, It was also the most boring play I ever saw! :lol: :coolsmile:

You would think Boswell's biography of Samuel Johnson would be more exciting. The good doctor was quite a character. Doesn't say much for Mr. Boswell.

I can't think of anything that bored me excessively, maybe because I do not finish anything I do not like. On the flip slid though we were assigned the Odyssey in high school and I liked it so well I went to the library and got the Iliad to read after that.

I read Ivanhoe when I was about twelve, and really enjoyed it. I saw a condensed version years later, and found that the good parts had been cut. I saw The Cherry Orchard staged in New York City in about 1968, and that was very good.

" I think a bunch of literature haters created this list. "
Actually, literature snobs. Anything the hoi-polloi might've read and enjoyed is "boring" and "mundane" to them.

Moby Dick is one of the few times I've liked the movie (Gregory Peck) much better than the book.

But I had read the Cassics Ilustraded version many times before. They were good at showing -- " A picture is worth a thousand words. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics_Illustrated

Don Quixote? Moby Dick? Maybe because I was twelve years old but I liked both. I read " classics" when I was young and learned to appreciate them as I got older. With some it is the work of the wordsmith that is good. Others it is the actual content. But Faust I will admit was a hard read. That is for a 20 yr. old college student with a joint as somebody else said.The Metamorphisis is another but that one is actually a good read in an altered state. In fact you need to be in one if you want to avoid psycological damage.

The Bible :ahhh:

Thank goodness someone agrees with me that "Remembrance of Things Past" was awful. I had to read it for high school, and it was pure hell.

Don Quixote wasn't bad. Maybe my perception was filtered by "Wishbone," but I did like it.

Paradise Lost wasn't boring in my opinion. It was confusing as hell, and I needed Sparknotes to follow what was going on, but it wasn't boring.

One of the main things that can make a 'good' old book 'boring' is that it is old. If you need referance books just to get to the depth of the meaning???

I will recomend a book that has both and is available at Amazon.
"The Annotated Alice" by Martin Gardner

It has the text and illustrations from both of Lewis Carrol's Alice books.
The annotations go from explaining puns to also explaining the mathematics.

Pilgrim's Progress boring ! ! ! By Christ, Luddites.