Literary Waterloo

A thought as I drifted off to sleep last night: “Books That Have Defeated Me”

(from most recent going back a few years ...)


– Cycles of Time by Roger Penrose
– Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI
– War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
– The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
– The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky


“Books that defeated me” are defined as books I wanted to read – still do want to read – but for some reason I just was not ready for them at the time I held them in my hands. Couldn’t, for the life of me, finish them. Be it a case of biting off more than I could chew or succombing to a maelstrom of outside circumstance (or even an inner maelstrom, I suppose), I could only make spare headway against stronger winds, and ultimately gave up.

To fight another day, that is. For reading to the Hopper is an act of almost religious perseverance. One day these great works shall all be absorbed into this less-than-great mind. Maybe soon-forgotten, maybe not, but I will travel these roads (hopefully) before I walk in to that Great Library in the Sky.


[Here are my scores; beat ’em if you can:

Cycles of Time – 20 pages in
Jesus of Nazareth – 120 pages in
War and Peace – 185 pages in
The Magic Mountain – 290 pages in (!)
The Brothers Karamazov – 120 pages in]