What author or book took multiple attempts but proved worth it in the end?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Sometimes we attempt a book or an author and we are literally "just not ready" to receive the book/style/message/genre etc. when we make our first dive into it. Who/What have you given up on and then come back to later on and enjoyed?

[EVDebs]

1. The Shack comes to mind

http://theshackbook.com/

I'm still trying to put together something on the Bonus Army March of 1932 and the 'Businessmen's Plot' (coup attempt) on FDR.

[Speck Tater]

2. Believe it or not, it took me four or five tries over a span of a couple years

to finally get into The Hobbit. I was probably too young the first time I tried to read it, back in 1960. But once I got hooked, I couldn't get enough Tolkien.

[panader0]

3. The Bible

I'm not religious, but I took a course called the Bible as Literature in 1968. We used the Bates edition of the Bible, one with no chapter and verse notation. Although I'm not religious, I have found that a knowledge of the Bible has been a good thing, because there are so many other allusions to it in literature.

[asjr]

4. The book was Michel, Michel and it

took me 10 years before I actually finished it. I can't remember the name of the author, but after I really got into the book I decided I was so stupid for not reading all of it earlier. Really good read.

[BlueIris]

5. Toni Morrison's "Beloved." (It was too emotionally difficult the first two attempts.)

But I made it through on the third.

[pscot]

6. Ulysses

It's like wrestling a bear; large, hairy and hard to get a grip on.

[YankeyMCC]

7. "The Wreck of the River of Stars" by Michael Flynn

I tried twice, nearly put it down a couple of times on the second try but pushed through and now I've read it 2 or 3 times, his characters and portrayal of how they interact is brilliant in this story. Not to mention the way the ship itself becomes is a character and this without the standing SF trope of an artifical intelligence as the 'ship' character.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Pride and Prejudice

I first tried it when I was twelve and still indifferent to the opposite sex. When I reread it at age 25 or so, I could identify with a lot of the emotional content of it, despite the very different culture. For one thing, I now found books about love interesting.

[Broken_Hero]

9. Stephen King....

I first read Insomnia back in 98 or so, it was a decent premise, but the whole struggle didn't make much sense to me, it felt like I was cheated.

A side note, Insomnia is heavily tied in with the Dark Tower series, so unless you have read the DT series, Insomnia will not make much sense.

After reading Insomnia, I didn't care for S. King, actually cared a lot less for him. The next book I read of his was Dreamcatcher. My wife(at the time my GF) had Dream Catcher in her bathroom, and I'd read a few pages every now and then. When I got to page 100 or so, I just continued reading on, and finished the same day, and I was surprised at how good the story was.

I saw the movie before reading the book, and the movie was dumb as all get out, but the book was outstanding. After reading DC, my wife got me started on the DT series, and I've been a fan ever since.

BTW, read Dreamcatcher in 03 or so, so I had about a 4/5 year break in between reading his different novels.

[yellowdogintexas]

10. Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels most definitely

I threw the first one at the wall numerous times before it clicked.

[Hamlette]

11. Lolita

I cringed through the first part of it a few times. Then I read that it was a love story to his new language, English, (which is probably BS but hey, it made me pick it up again) and I read that English was the 7th language he learned! I was so impressed the first time all the way through that it was written by a man who had just learned the language I read it twice.

It is beautifully written. And you can't help but feel sorry for pedophiles when you finish. Being in love with something you are forbidden from having (for a zillion reasons) has to suck.

[Jim__]

12. Lolita is one of my favorite books.

The part about the book being a love story to his new language is BS. Nabokov spoke English from childhood - from wikipedia

Nabokov's childhood, which he called "perfect", was remarkable in several ways. The family spoke Russian, English and French in their household, and Nabokov was trilingual from an early age. In fact, much to his father's patriotic chagrin, Nabokov could read and write English before he could Russian.

I think Nabokov was somewhat of an ironist, and he tricks us into liking Humbert Humbert because he is so charming. But, there are parts of the book where you really can't help despising him. I'm thinking particularly of the part where Lolita is reading something about motherhood and asks Humbert something about her mother, and humbert gives an absolutely cruel and despicable answer. If we can like Humbert in the end it may be because he kills his doppleganger(?).

The interesting thing about literature is everytime you read something, you can see all kinds of different possibilities.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. Lolita is a story of obsessional love.

And that's the big secret. Humbert loves Lolita for reasons which are unexplainable, but which just ARE. He loves her even at the end of the book when she is married and frumpy and far beyond the "nymphette" stage. Notice that no one replaces Lolita in his affections as she ages- so it has a lot less to do with pedophilia and more with obsessionalism than is generally considered.

I read this book in college along with a bunch of other Nabokov books. My personal favorite is "Pnin". There is no sweeter or funnier book in the English language as far as I am concerned.

[jellen]

13. It took me 4 tries before I could get into "Road Less Travelled" by Scott Peck.

Even though it's non fiction, I had to mention it.

[timeforpeace]

15. A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge. Knife of Dreams, Book 11 of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

just because he had lost the thread and was wandering, writing thousand page books that didn't go anywhere. So glad I tried a fourth time, because once you get past the prologue, it's back to how he began the series so long ago. Great stuff. Then he goes and dies. But his wife has "hired" Brandon Sanderson to finish the last three books to close it out. Book 12 is done and will be out soon.

[Onceuponalife]

16. Yes, this has happened to me several times

where I wasn't ready for a particular book. I struggled through The Lord of the Rings first time through (I adored The Hobbit from the get-go) having stopped in the middle of The Two Towers. Years later I started back from the beginning and now I'm about the biggest Tolkien fan around and am plowing through all the "history of Middle Earth" books that were compiled by his son after Tolkien's death.

I also had trouble with Dune when I first picked it up at about age 17 but have since read it over about 2 years ago and was very impressed. The other one that bugged me was The World According to Garp. I have no idea why I stopped the first time after only a few pages because now I love it and Irving has become one of my fave authors.

The one book I don't have closure with yet is Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. I just found the old woman's rambling narrative too exasperating but I do want to finish it (read about 200 pages). I just have a feeling I would really like it if I tried again. Does anyone who has read it want to give me any advise on whether I should bother with it or not?

[libguy9560]

17. Faulkner

His books are notoriously difficult, but very well-written.