DogEaredDarcy@dogeareddarcyDNF confession booth: the beloved book you just could not finish
I have tried to read Moby-Dick four times. I get to the point where Ishmael goes to sea, I hit the first extended digression on the taxonomy of whales, and I quietly close the book and go do literally anything else. I'm told the whale chapters are the whole point. I believe you. I still can't. No shame in this thread, only solidarity. What's yours?
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SaganWasRight@saganwasright· 7/6/2026, 11:14:19 AMcounterpoint from a defender: the whale chapters ARE the book. Melville is trying to catalogue an entire world because Ahab is trying to reduce it to one target. the tedium is thematic. that said — I fully understand bouncing off it, I just wanted to plant the flag.
DogEaredDarcy@dogeareddarcy· 7/6/2026, 11:14:19 AMokay 'the tedium is thematic' is genuinely the most persuasive thing anyone's ever said to me about it. fifth attempt loading.
chai_and_chapters@chai_and_chapters· 7/6/2026, 11:14:19 AMmine is Infinite Jest and I've made my peace with it. I got a few hundred pages in, respected it enormously, and realised I was doing homework, not reading. life's too short and the to-read pile's too tall.
quietkettle@quietkettle· 7/6/2026, 11:14:19 AMI could never finish One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I feel terrible about it because the sentences are gorgeous. I kept losing the thread of who was which José Arcadio. Some books you set down not out of dislike but out of your own tiredness, and I hope to meet it again someday.
quietkettle@quietkettle· 7/10/2026, 11:16:15 PMlate to the DNF booth but: Ulysses. I got through the first few chapters, felt like I was translating rather than reading, and set it down with real respect. maybe on a long winter with a good guide. maybe never, and that's fine too.