Over your head

[Lord Yu]

Ever try to read a book so thick with difficult language it was way over your head? This happened to me with the Divine Comedy and Paradise lost. But then again I was trying to read them in a room full of screaming people...

[9Tail-Hokage]

No, but the 2 books in the Inheritance trilogy comes close. At times I had to stop and look up a word in the dictionary to see what exactly a word meant. Still though, it's a great series. XD

[Sakura Kaijuu]

I had no clue what was going on when I first tried to read Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. But then again, I was twelve, and I wasn't used to not having chapter divisions.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight would've been over my head if it weren't for the books Gerald Morris wrote based on it. Everyone else in my class was just like, "What...?:blink "

I can't think of anything else...If I don't get it I always just ask my parents or my older brother and sister...Cuz they know everything...(Ah,the joys of growing up in a family that loves to read...)

Plus I have a tendancy to read things below my level. Cuz I can. And kids' books are more interesting. That's what happens when your mom's a children's librarian...:sweatdrop

[martryn]

Ummm... no. At least not after I reread it. Sometimes I'll have to read a page two or three times to get the gist of it. I got Road to Reality by Roger Penrose for Christmas and it gets a little complicated at times. Course, the book really doesn't pull any blows as far as math and physics go, and it is over a 1000 pages full of graphs and equations including chapters over Minkowskian geometry and Lagragians and Hamiltonians.

[less]

I tried to read "The Trial" by Franz Kafka when I was fourteen. Didn't get far.

[Copyright]

Last thing I got really stuck on was Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I've got halfway through it twice and given up both times...If anyones actually read it could they tell me how it ends, that way I'll never have to start again

[Chamcham Trigger]

Sometimes I'll have to read a page two or three times to get the gist of it.
Oh good. That's a relief for me. I thought I was one of the few people would would read a page, then just realize in the middle of the next page that I didn't get anything from the previous page and I'd have to reread it once or twice more....sometimes thrice more.
@Lord Yu: Reading in a room full of screaming people isn't really a good idea.

[Yasha]

chamcham: Nuh, everyone did that before unless he never read something deep :amuse

martryn: That one and Gravitation (1215pages) by Kip Thorne are more like textbooks than light reading materials. For something lighter, you can try those by Michio Kaku (Hyperspace, Parallel Worlds), George Gamow (Mr Tompkins Series, One Two Three...Infinity) or Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe).


I have problem understanding some of the English literature works because after all English is just my third language.:(

[Nakor]

trying to read the old english version of beowolf in highschool was the most difficult thing to read for me. luckily we only had to read a couple pages of the old english version before our teacher gave us a translated version of it.

[Sakura Kaijuu]

Oh good. That's a relief for me. I thought I was one of the few people would would read a page, then just realize in the middle of the next page that I didn't get anything from the previous page and I'd have to reread it once or twice more....sometimes thrice more.
@Lord Yu: Reading in a room full of screaming people isn't really a good idea.

No...I do that too. Usually I'm kinda distracted or I'm being forced to read it, so I read it, but I don't actually absorb it. I did that at school with All Quiet on the Western Front. I read about three pages and then I realized I didn't know what was going on.

trying to read the old english version of beowolf in highschool was the most difficult thing to read for me. luckily we only had to read a couple pages of the old english version before our teacher gave us a translated version of it.

Ugh...Yeah...When we were reading Beowulf, the first page was in Old English and we all stared at the teacher in disbelief. Then she told us that that was just the first page. Then it was in normal English.

[martryn]

martryn: That one and Gravitation (1215pages) by Kip Thorne are more like textbooks than light reading materials. For something lighter, you can try those by Michio Kaku (Hyperspace, Parallel Worlds), George Gamow (Mr Tompkins Series, One Two Three...Infinity) or Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe).


I just finished the Greene book, or maybe the one you mentioned was the first one and I finished the second. Who knows? But I'm a physics student (graduate in May) and I've been trying to read as much physics stuff as possible when I'm not in school so its always fresh in my mind. I finished the Greene book, and I have Faster Than the Speed of Light I'm almost done with, and then its Penrose and another book I got for Christmas, The Quantum World by Kenneth Ford (which is a much simpler book), and then I'm off to the library to find The Search for Zero Point. I've got a lot of reading ahead of me.

[rimpelcut]

I tried to read the bible but failed.

[Yasha]

I just finished the Greene book, or maybe the one you mentioned was the first one and I finished the second. Who knows?

Another book by Brian Greene is The fabric of the cosmos. You probably read that one. Both are bestsellers but I think The elegant universe is better.


But I'm a physics student (graduate in May) and I've been trying to read as much physics stuff as possible when I'm not in school so its always fresh in my mind.

Yeah, I know. Those I mentioned are all physics books, written in a simple yet very inspiring style.



I finished the Greene book, and I have Faster Than the Speed of Light I'm almost done with, and then its Penrose and another book I got for Christmas, The Quantum World by Kenneth Ford (which is a much simpler book), and then I'm off to the library to find The Search for Zero Point. I've got a lot of reading ahead of me.


Quantum World is a good one. Very easy to read. When it comes to quantum physics, many people like Nick Herbert's Quantum Reality but I haven't read it yet. My advice is don't buy The Dancing Wu Li Master. That one is a terrible mixture between "new physics" and craps, written by some illiterate non-physicist.

I just bought myself a book called Einstein's Dreams, by Alan Lightman in the Christmas because I heard that it is very readable. It is not a physics book but just a collection of short stories that happened in different time frames. That book is still lying on my desk. Hopefully I can find some time to finish it by the end of this month.

[martryn]

I tried to read the bible but failed.


Me too, funny enough.

Another book by Brian Greene is The fabric of the cosmos. You probably read that one. Both are bestsellers but I think The elegant universe is better.

Yeah, that's the one. I might get around to reading his other book (Elegant Universe) because I find him easy and enjoyable to read.

Yeah, I know. Those I mentioned are all physics books, written in a simple yet very inspiring style.

Oh, I know. I was just saying that although The Road to Reality gets complicated at times it isn't all that bad once you've reread a page once or twice. The concepts aren't over my head, just some of them are new to me. I'll see if I can't find some of those books in the school library if you recommend them. Have you read Faster than the Speed of Light by that Cambridge guy? I'm just now getting into the actual theory part (Variable speed of light theory) but the guy (can't remember his name and even if I did I wouldn't know how to spell it) writes really, really well. And he's funny.

[Yasha]

Have you read Faster than the Speed of Light by that Cambridge guy? I'm just now getting into the actual theory part (Variable speed of light theory) but the guy (can't remember his name and even if I did I wouldn't know how to spell it) writes really, really well. And he's funny.


No, I haven't. But I read a review on this book.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0130/p14s03-bogn.html

I also read some of the popular reader's reviews in amazon.com. One called it a "Pop-science book that degenerates into rant". It said Joao Magueijo (the Cambridge guy) never explained how his VSL theory can solve the BB problems (BB stands for Big Bang, or baby universe:laugh ), but just kept bashing and cursing other academics who opposed his theory. :huh


It costs around 16 dollars in my country. I won't buy it if what the reader said above is true. I hope he at least showed some proofs of his new theory. Do you recommend it?

[rimpelcut]

Are new books availible in librarys or only in special librarys?

[martryn]

Do you recommend it?

Well, he doesn't really get into it, true, but the reason I like the book is for the behind the scenes look at physicists in action. And he writes with such a witty style its hard not to chuckle at some of the things he says. It's one of the easiest books I've read on physics, meaning that I've really enjoyed it for a book, not so much for a learning experience.

[Tyrael]

Every time I pick up Tolkein's Unfinished Stories I feel like this. Still, I soldier on.

[Cardboard Tube Knight]

Some of the stuff my Kant.

Every time I pick up Tolkein's Unfinished Stories I feel like this. Still, I soldier on.

That's Awesome

[Lord Yu]

I've been thinking about trying The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost again. This time I'll do it in a place with an acceptable decibel level.

[Dream Brother]

Chaucer gives me fits. Honestly...

Shakespeare can be tricky at points, especially when deciphering his puns.

I didn't have a problem with Paradise Lost, but I haven't read the entire thing, so maybe it becomes more difficult as it goes on. I absolutely loved the first two books. Satan has some beautiful dialogue.

Never tried The Divine Comedy, but I've been meaning to.

[Camille]

James Joyce Ulysses. Good heavens, I had to stop reading after the first chapter, 'cause I was understanding nothing of it :D:

[Anon]

James Joyce Ulysses. Good heavens, I had to stop reading after the first chapter, 'cause I was understanding nothing of it :D:

I have to read this in the next 3 weeks.

Nothing so far compares to the medieval scots poetry I had to read last year, reading it was like :arg:argh:uwah

one of them was just 2 poets swearing at each other, some of the swear words were pretty creative.

[rawfulbutter]

I was in seventh grade when I read Wuthering Heights.
The dialouge and old english was very much beyond me then, but now its pretty easy to tell whats going on and what theyre saying.

I sometimes have trouble figuring out what Jim is saying, even now, in Huckleberry Finn.

[RetroElectro]

Anthony Burgess' 'A Clockwork Orange', I'm slightly ashamed to admit. Reading through the first several pages, it truly did go over my head. I had a vague idea of what was happening, but even then I found it rather awkward. I heard in the original print, there was a list of words in the book, and what they actually meant, but Burgess requested that to be removed. I feel almost guilty wishing my copy had that list. Nothing the internet couldn't help me with though, in the end, and I can read it properly now.

[Goodfellow]

Read Faust, got completely lost. Didn't help that a few pages were missing either:zaru

[Vermillionage]

uhmm.. I was so annoyed to read The tin drum by Günther Grass..
that book took me ages to finish:pek

maybe because i didn't liked it at all.. I guess the only book I really suffered under..

But I did finish^^:sag

Other german classic novels are hard too , like Kafka-stuff^^
but at least they are good:nod

[TheBlindHyuuga]

Ever try to read a book so thick with difficult language it was way over your head? This happened to me with the Divine Comedy and Paradise lost. But then again I was trying to read them in a room full of screaming people...

I didn't have a problem with the Divine Comedy.

I'm currently reading Paradise Lost and I'll say that I may have to reread Book I because that confused me as to what was going on...I'm on book IX right now and everything has been pretty understandable except for that first book.

I can't think of an example of a book where the language has completely gone over my head.

[Major]

English isn't my first language, so it happens to me quite frequently that I start reading a book where I have to look up almost every word, or phrase I come accross.

[Pintsize]

No one mentioned Finnegan's Wake?

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs.
Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen-
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor
had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse
to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a
peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later
on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan,
erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends
an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes:
and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park
where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev-
linsfirst loved livvy.

Yes, that is the first page, and yes, that is a 200 letter onomatopoeia.

[Platinum]

I'm reading both The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost right now. I sometimes have to read a passage over sometimes but i usually get the premise of what is going on.

[martryn]

Wow, I posted in this thread a lot more than I thought I had.

I tried reading Twilight. That book... it's over my head how the fuck something like that is popular in the least.

I've got three new "physics" books I'm reading. None of them are really that complicated, it looks like, but I've only started one.

The New Time Travelers by David Toomey
Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang by Steinhardt and Turok
New Theories of Everything by John D. Barrow

None of it looks like it's anything new. I'll get back to you in a few weeks, I suppose.

[Tyrael]

No one mentioned Finnegan's Wake?

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs.
Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen-
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor
had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse
to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a
peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenth ur-
nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later
on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan,
erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends
an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes:
and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park
where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev-
linsfirst loved livvy.

Yes, that is the first page, and yes, that is a 200 letter onomatopoeia.

I heard it was bad, but bloody hell...