books you are ashamed you have not read

[Kevin]

1,000 Years of Solitude

The Monk by Matthew Lewis.

Das Kapital by Karl Marx.

Despite enjoying The Turn of the Screw and a few other ghost stories of his, such as The Jolly Corner and The Friends of the Friends, I have never been able to make it through a full length Henry James novel. People I respect say he's essential, but his prose style just bothers me.

I couldn't get through The Turn of the Screw. Maybe I should try again.

It could do with a damn good edit, but the story is nevertheless a strong one for its ambiguous portrayal of evil. The question as to whether the ghosts are real or not isn't even the most interesting question raised. Le Fanu's Green Tea got there first. The power of James' novella lies in the idea that nothing can be taken as fact. It's a murky morass of unknown malevolence, and I love it for that despite James' voluble prose meaning many areas perhaps lack the impact they would otherwise have.

It's a milestone in the development of the ghost story. Robert Aickman, Walter de la Mare, L. P. Hartley, Oliver Onions, Edith Wharton, John Metcalfe and others would continue what Henry James was working at, but few match the discomfort of The Turn of the Screw. A flawed an unique masterpiece in the same way Hodgson's The Night Land is a flawed masterpiece.

[Robin Davies]

Quote Originally Posted by Prince James Zaleski

Despite enjoying The Turn of the Screw and a few other ghost stories of his, such as The Jolly Corner and The Friends of the Friends, I have never been able to make it through a full length Henry James novel. People I respect say he's essential, but his prose style just bothers me.

I agree. In fact I even struggled with The Turn of the Screw. I love the classic movie adaptation, The Innocents, so I approached the story with keen anticipation, especially after reading a glowing recommendation from the mighty Algernon Blackwood.
Then I got mired in a swamp of the most turgid, unevocative prose I had ever read. I made it to the end but that was the last I ever read of James.

[Druidic]

I'm not ashamed of books I haven't read. I'm ashamed of all those owner manuals I never opened.

[ToALonelyPeace]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This one I'm not sure if I will ever read. The English translation is too opaque and clunky; the version translated in my language is smooth but has archaic vocabulary beyond my level; and the original Chinese I can't read.

My only comfort lies in the fact no one else around me has read it either.

[miguel1984]

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.

Now that the great Alex Garland is filming an adaptation of Annihilation, I may read the three books.

[Liam Barden]

Quote Originally Posted by miguel1984

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Now that the great Alex Garland is filming an adaptation of Annihilation, I may read the three books.

I've read children's stories with more style and gravity than Annihilation. The literary media duped me into buying it, I was young, I was drunk, I was roofied, I can still taste his . . .

I barely made it a quarter way through the second novel – Each to their own – although I am interested in any counter opinions regarding Vandermeer's, knife-edge, mind-blowing, stem-winding, hair-raising, Southern Reach Trilogy?

[All credit to google search for the adjectives]

I haven't read anything by Dostoyevsky, Nabokov or Ballard.