On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 3:42 AM, Anil Kumar <anilkumar.naga...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Calling the attention of the bibliophiles on Silk - > > > > 1. Finnegans Wake, James Joyce: Internet searches on “most difficult” and > “hard to read” novels unfailingly recognize Finnegan’s Wake as the most > difficult work of fiction in the English language. Written partially in a > made-up language of mindbendingly convoluted puns, this novel is often > considered unreadable.
I didn't get past the first few pages of Finnegans Wake. This is the book that taught me humility. I was pretty sure I had good command o English but after this I saw that I was really not a native speaker. > 6. Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco: Fans read Eco with a dictionary at hand, > raving that his books are “for the strong of spirit, people with > perseverance, willing to struggle in order to reach the ultimate truth that > only the very few have mastered.” I'd disagree. I found this one to be a page-turner. > 10. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy: Fans say it’s best to read a few chapters at > a time, keep notes, rent the film, and then be sure to “do something special” > to celebrate after you’ve finished it. In fact, many people have read it just > to say they did. This is one of the coolest books I've read. I think I have a thing for Russian literature of the nineteenth century, though. I loved "War and Peace", but also "Crime and Punishment", and "Fathers and Sons". But my all-time favorite book is certainly "The Karamazov Brothers". Andre
