Top Ten Tuesday: Books that were hard for me to read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.



This week's topic is about books that were hard to read, be it because of the subject matter, complexity, bad writing, or whatever.


Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
I once tried to read it in German when I was nine. I thought it would be really interesting and all about surviving on that island, but it was really slow and simply too difficult for me at that time. Then I tried again in my third semester at Uni but never finished it. It was so boring. I'm not sure I even made it to the point where Friday shows up. I couldn't bear to read another catalogue of things he owns or is doing or remembering or thinking about God.

Stephen King - Dreamcatcher
This was my first Stephen King book and I read it when I was fifteen. It was a bit of a rebellious act because my mother (who doesn't like anything horror) always talked about him as that author who writes these gross, bloody horror books (never mind that she'd never read one). But I always felt drawn to King. The first 200 pages weren't so bad, but then the grossness started... for another 200 pages or so. I felt a bit nauseated at times. But then I read The Gunslinger next and was hooked on King for life.

Becca Fitzpatrick - Crescendo
I really liked Hush Hush when I first read it (don't know if I'd still feel the same way now) and was really disappointed by Crescendo. Nora was being so stupid and jealous and doing one brainless thing after the other. I don't even know how many times I rolled my eyes. Silence was a little better, but it's been two years and I still haven't bought that final book.

Laurie Halse Anderson - Wintergirls
Not a bad book at all, just to be clear. But for personal reasons it was very difficult for me to read.

Sarah J. Maas - Crown of Midnight
Why, you may wonder? Because it was so good but I knew it couldn't last. At a certain point in the story things started to pile up and I knew it would all come crashing down and go horribly wrong and characters I cared about would be hurt or killed. Makes it difficult for me to read on because all I can do is watch.

Courtney Summers - Some Girls Are
Heavy subject matter combined with excellent writing made for a harrowing read. I'm glad I read it though. It's important that these things are written and talked about.

Deborah Meyler - The Bookstore
It was unrealistic and pretentious. It wasn't all bad but I wished I could have knocked some sense into our dear protagonist.

Amy Butler Greenfield - Chantress
I'd been looking forward to this one so much and it started out promising, but then the pacing slowed, it was all talking and no experiencing/showing, it was stifling because the heroine was inside all the time, and I wasn't feeling the magic. The last 20 or so percent were great again, but man did that middle drag.

Cassandra Clare - Clockwork Prince
All. The. Feels. Being scared to read on because things will go horribly wrong, yet unable to resist reading. My heart was being stabbed. Cassie Clare made me cry on Christmas at two in the morning.

John Dos Passos - Manhattan Transfer
This book starts in the 1890s or so and spans all the way to the 1920s. There are at least 50 characters, some of whom reappear and some not. The narrative is very complex and not necessarily coherent but once I got into it, I found it irresistible and ended up really loving it. Just the way Dos Passos really gets into the characters' hearts and minds and describes the everyday gains and losses of their lives. The sadness and the hopes. I need to re-read it.

I think if I set my mind to it I could come up with many more. James Joyce's Ulysses was definitely hard to read, so was Bleak House by Charles Dickens (very bleak indeed, and like 1000 pages). And I could have listed a lot of books under 'annoying' but I think that adjective is not very precise or useful when it comes to describing a book or protagonist.
Were any of my picks hard for you to read as well? And what books did you settle on?

Get To Know Me: that time I went to Dublin and accidentally met an author

Hey guys :)

As I announced last week, I want to keep giving you a little glimpse into my life and stuff I like on Sundays, even though the Know Me Better meme hosted by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer is on hiatus at the moment.

Last week, I talked about favorite TV series (I'm now caught up on Game of Thrones, by the way, and can't wait for the new episode!). This week, I'll tell you about a Dublin trip I went on in October 2011. Why Dublin and not some other city I've been to? Well, I'm reading Karen Marie Moning's Fever series at the moment and it's set in Dublin, and I've been feeling nostalgic. So there.
Note: this post includes quite a few pictures, and they were all taken by me. Don't re-use them without permission. Click them to make them bigger.


Oh Dublin. I'd been meaning to visit you for a while. Then a total coincidence happened. A band a I follow on Twitter retweeted a tweet from a girl from my country being sad about not being able to take part in a video competition because no one else she knew was a fan. She was from Switzerland (and lives really close to where I grew up). I tweeted her. We talked. We met. 10mins later, we decided to go to Dublin together. Two months or so later, we did. She's now my BFF. She's one of those rare people who share both your taste in books AND music!

We arrived at our hotel in Dublin at about 11pm on a Tuesday. We dumped our stuff and headed out again, despite the drizzle and cold. I was really glad to be with someone who already knew the city fairly well. We headed strait for the Temple Bar district, to the actual Temple Bar bar. Despite the weather and being quite tired, I loved the atmosphere! It was quite packed but everyone was happy and in a good mood. There was a live band playing and soon we found ourselves sitting on old wood barrels somewhere near the front, enjoying our drinks and unable to keep our feet from thumping the beat on the floor. I felt like I'd arrived properly, like the city had welcomed me. I didn't want to leave, but we eventually did sometime around 1:30 or 2am, I think.

The band was taking a break.

Temple bar in the morning.

The next morning, we did some sight seeing, visited Trinity College, went to the wonderful library there, and looked at the Book of Kells. I had an intense moment of damn-I-want-to-study-here-it's-so-much-prettier-than-Zurich. Unfortunately, I realize I didn't take so many campus pics, my friend mostly did and we never really exchanged them. Here are some shots from the library that I do not own, because taking pictures was forbidden to protect the books.

Trinity College Campus

Courtesy of National Geographic

The Book of Kells was written around the year 800 in is known for its beautiful illustrations. Image source.

Let me tell you, this city is full of book stores of all kinds!! The biggest one we were at is Eason's, and there we had another lovely surprise!

Seriously you guys, I NEVER get to go to any author events because hardly any I read ever come to Zurich!! And I was so sad to have missed Sarah Rees Brennan by one week and that Cassie Clare would be there about 2 weeks after we left. In that very store. Ugh. So when we saw that Becca Fitzpatrick would sign the next day, we talked the book store lady into wizarding up two more tickets even though the event was sold out. Neither of us had read the hush, hush books yet but I'd seen them around and been debating whether or not to read them for a long time. So we bought them at the event the next day and had them signed. I'd post a pic of the signed book but I've already packed it into one of my moving boxes...

Meeting Becca. I'm on the right side.

 Of course I also bought a great deal of other books. 3 for 2 bargains don't exist over here. Also, books cost more than twice as much in Switzerland. I guess you know what I fill my suitcase with when I go abroad :P

Another author I 'met' was James Joyce. I've read most of Ulysses and a couple of his short stories in Dubliners, and finding his statue on the way to our hotel was awesome! One day I want to go to Dublin on June 16, the day Ulysses takes place. It's called Bloomsday and all over Dublin people dress up like characters from the novel. There are also tours and readings of the book and of poetry and it's generally an awesome literary event!

Me & Mr Joyce

Later that day, we also went to a shopping mall called St. Stephen's Green (I think) and I loved the architecture of that place!

St. Stephen's Green

We also made an excursion to the peninsula of Howth because I wanted to look at the sea. It was really cold so we stopped by the Bloody Stream pub too. Here are some shots.

Harbor

More harbor

Two fishermen

Unfortunately I don't know what this commemorates

Bloody Stream

We did A LOT of walking around over the two and a half days we were there! On the last morning in the hotel, another guest and his wife gave us their tickets for a hop-on-hop-off tour of the city. They were leaving and couldn't use them anymore, but they were valid another day. So we jumped that bus and drove around some more, also through Phoenix Park and some other places. We left early in the afternoon after buying some more souvenirs and stuff. It was quite a short visit and I would have loved to stay longer! I'm thinking about going back for a short trip in the summer, but we'll see. Below are some more random shots of the city, some taken on foot, some from the above mentioned bus. I hope you enjoy :)

The Olympia Theatre

This might be the Halfpenny Bridge but I'm not sure...

That needle was so high I couldn't get it on the pic properly.

That pole is the needle from before. Also, Jame Joyce statue from the back.

O'Connell Street

I love how the buildings along the river blend old and modern architecture.
Lots of brick, lots of glass.

Some more shots from the Temple Bar District:

No such thing as strangers in the Dub.

Street Art

Molly Malone statue. And a Leprechaun.

Irish bilingual street signs.

Hall of Mirrors shop.

So... I hope I could give you guys some sort of impression of the city, but I'm not sure I succeeded. I didn't take all that many simple street level shots, and I'm never sure what to include. The way the shops and all that looks is really different from here and I think it looks interesting, but it might be completely mundane and boring for other people. I also realized I don't have any big shots that give you an overview of the city. And many pics look bleak because of the weather. But I hope you enjoyed those I put there, because I had a great time!

Any comments on the pics or the author event? I kind of bombarded you ^^' Do you even like this kind of travel post? Would you like me to do another city? I've got lots from London, south England/Cornwall, Paris, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Florence... Or I could do more stuff with favorites. Feel free to suggest a topic :)