Score

Should we also include books that we could not discern, capiche, appreciate, absorb, assimilate, catch, fathom, get, make out, perceive, take in, or cognize?

Lobstergirl wrote: "Should we also include books that we could not discern, capiche, appreciate, absorb, assimilate, catch, fathom, get, make out, perceive, take in, or cognize?"

All of the above.

What about remember? ;-)

teasing, Alice

Lot 49 is Small-Time

Lachlan wrote: "Lot 49 is Small-Time"

Lot 49 is the Word of God !! .... gods ?

many god

only read 4 of the 84 books :(

THE CRYING OF LOT 49 is difficult?

Tom wrote: "THE CRYING OF LOT 49 is difficult?"

I don't think so. A bit bizarre, but quite clearly stated.

twilight is not difficult, is stupid

HEART OF DARKNESS?! It's like 60 pages of plain English! Perhaps a bit symbolic, but very easy to read!

Difficult?! Are you joking me.
Some of this books we had to read in secondary school.

So to be clear, we are voting on books according to their difficulty level, regardless of whether or not we liked them? Because I got pissed at Joyce during my reading of Ulysses, but would gladly vote that it was a hard read.

not to be a dismissive, condescending prick, but is gilead really 'really, really difficult'?

Donna wrote: "So to be clear, we are voting on books according to their difficulty level, regardless of whether or not we liked them? Because I got pissed at Joyce during my reading of Ulysses, but would gladly ..."

Yes, any book you personally found difficult to plow your way through.

Twilight is the MOST difficult book to read, for this particular audience. Should be promoted right to the top.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Should we also include books that we could not discern, capiche, appreciate, absorb, assimilate, catch, fathom, get, make out, perceive, take in, or cognize?"

Isn't a question of being ready, rather ?

Fight Club is harder than William T. Vollmann or David Foster Wallace? Give me a break.

Frankenstein? Huh!?

Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey, so goodreads community is actually 4chan, 9gag community in hiding?

Why is 50 Shades of Grey in this list, before Spinoza and Badiou? Am I missing something?

Daniel wrote: "Why is 50 Shades of Grey in this list, before Spinoza and Badiou? Am I missing something?"

Daniel, people will vote for books that they have read, so if someone adds an inapplicable book people who have read it will vote for it. At least I suppose that is the reason why.

Daniel wrote: "Why is 50 Shades of Grey in this list, ...? Am I missing something?"

I personally don't think 50 Shades belongs on this "REALLY, REALLY DIFFICULT BOOKS" list either. It badly written, but difficult? Nah... But that's personal :-)

Who the hell voted for Atlas Shrugged on here? It's not a hard read if you just turn off your brain like Rand did when she wrote it.

So…?
I might not be any kind of scholar, but I’m not comfortable naming manny of these books as being “difficult”. In most cases i would suggest some pre-reading, or background information would be helpful.
For example, some knowledge of historical figures and what they had been known for, before reading Alighieri, Homer, etc?🤷🏻‍♀️
Nothing too crazy.

With that note; there are other titles which have no business being remotely associated with this list…
It’s vaguely insulting to see.
But more significantly, it’s alarming!
If this is a reflection of modern standards, thats a whole other dythopia…😰