Ten Hard Books I Want to Read (But It’s Fine If You Don’t)

I’m 79 years old and autistic. 19th century literature saved my life by allowing me to understand a bit about how neurotypical minds and bodies work. War and Peace was the most important. I began my summers, junior high through college, with a complete reading. Tolstoy seemed to cherish every human being and every human experience.

The count of Montecristo: It is a page turner! I read it in two days because I could not put it away.

My father's advice for Russian literature was to write down each character's name the first time you encounter it and add the other parts to it as they come up. First name, nickname, patronymic (-ovich for men, -ovna/evna for women), surname, and titles because the same character can be addressed different ways based on the other characters' relationship to them. So Grand Duke Andrei Ilyovich Rostov might be call Dre by his parents and sister, Andrei by his wife or mistress, Andrei Ilyovich by his cousins, in-laws, or friends from school, Grand Duke Andrei by a member of the Royal family, and Grand Duke Rostov by his business associates or distant acquaintances. Having a chart to reference can help immensely. I loved Crime and Punishment but found Brothers Karamazov more difficult. Either way, I hope you love it or at least find it thought provoking.

I remember reading Crime and Punishment at 28 and having an existential crisis. It was the first book I'd sat down and read properly in about 15 years since reading the LOTR trilogy. I realised I'd wasted 15 years of my life NOT reading.

The Brothers Karamazov is potentially the best book I’ve ever read. Super rewarding! Good luck on your journey!

Infinite Jest is challenging, dense, and the kind of book you need multiple bookmarks. Loved it when I finally got through it but it took genuine effort.

Blood Meridian is absolutely astonishing. Not read anything for a while that made my jaw drop like this did. Perhapa even the best writing Ive ever come across.

The guy is Ben McEvoy. He is marvelous.

The Count Of Monte Cristo is my favorite book of all time! I got so invested in trying to find out how he was going to exact his revenge without any casualties who dont deserve anything to happen to them. I promise it gets more interesting after the first 200 pages. Once you hit that mark youre gonna be golden! So good.

My personal advice regarding Infinite Jest is to just focus on character and plot. I think people get bogged down with all the end notes and details and clues (which are all fantastic to get into!) but might be better suited for a second reading. I say embrace a little confusion and stick with the personalities that are so beautifully developed :) Nobody can get it all on the first go-through, or at least I sure didn’t.

If you get thru Cantebury Tales, try The Decameron, a collection of stories about 7 women and 3 men trapped in a villa outside Florence hiding from the Black Death. Written in 1353.

Thanks for joining in on the fun! Your selection is excellent, particularly in terms of choosing difficult books that don't vie merely to be difficult; rather, their difficulty stems more often than not from just requiring focused attention. If any readers opt to read the books you suggest here, they will have learned something vital about reading generally, the merits of focus and of opening one's expectations. I do have some advice about Infinite Jest (if you don't mind unsolicited advice): I recommend reading Brief Interviews with Hideous Men first. That's how I got started with David Foster Wallace, and I found that Brief Interviews offers up the various technical tricks of Infinite Jest but at a more manageable length and register, making for a smooth transition, mentally, into DFW's dense, despairing, enlightening magnum opus of Infinite Jest. All the best, bud!

Love your list! I read Moby Dick in Feb and it is totally worth it. The chapters are short. Read it a chapter or two at a time and experience it. It's remarkable.

Thank you for being so vulnerable! Great list, as always :)

Don't think you'll find Canterbury Tales overly challenging. Granted, I read it many years ago but aside from the language, my enduring memory was how funny and charming it was.

Fascinating list, we are at very similar reading levels. I have read three on your list, pulled two more off my shelves to be read, and have noted the other five for future purchase. Thanks!

Oh good luck with House of Leaves! It made me learn that I cannot do long footnotes. My brain can't handle a page of an interruption and then continue. I gave up after 2 tries at it

A great quest you’ve set for yourself. Congratulations!!

Count of Monte Cristo is my #1. Joy. You will get the main point, and the nuance will come on future reads (time for my #4 in fact!)

Oh what a nice selection!! I am so looking forward to the reviews of those books, especially Infinite Jest. (Haha could relate a lot to the „down a pint education“, I’m not from England but from Bavaria;)