1. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939) 2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929) 3. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (14th Century) 4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967) 5. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973) 6. The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975) 7. Being and Time by Martin Heidegger (1927) 8. Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet (1943) 9. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996) 10. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851) 11. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (1977) 12. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985) 13. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001) 14. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (1924) 15. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957) 16. Ulysses by James Joyce (1922) 17. Underworld by Don DeLillo 18. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (1936) 19. Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard (1981) 20. The Castle by Franz Kafka (1926) 21. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936) 22. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980) 23. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (2004) 24. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1927) 25. The Recognitions by William Gaddis
I'm going to go out on a limb without reading the article and assume those aren't in order of difficulty
Michael Ross
Why put philosophy on this list?
And if you're going to there's harder philosophy to understand than Baudrillard and Heidegger.
Matthew Ortiz
Whats the criteria for deciding their level of difficulty, are they door stoppers, or is the language archaic, or do they hit you right in the feels?
Leo Young
>Baudrillard I don't know familia, Baudrillard fucked me up
Austin Taylor
>buzzfeed It is the writers opinion. I wonder if he has read all those books or if he's just memeing.
Xavier Jones
>the Canterbury tales I don't see how that would be a very difficult read, unless you're reading the original version with no knowledge of medieval english.
Adrian Powell
>buzzfeed
OYoS is very accessible.
Kevin Carter
>4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967) It's an easy, fun read. Maybe it'd be a 4 if I had to read it in Spanish. >6. The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975) Difficult only because leftist drivel makes me vomit. >12. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985) Difficult only if you're a nu-male getting triggered every other page by problematic descriptions of the noble savage >13. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001) Hilarious. >15. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957) A test of patience, not intellectual capacity >21. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936) Absalom is a far more difficult read than The Sound and The Fury (ranked #2 on this same list)
Shit list all and all
Jayden Taylor
It's not that outrageous a concept and it was written in the 80s.
Kant, Hegel, hell even Foucault and Derrida are less straightforward and have denser language.
Ian Perry
100 years of solitude was hard but I'd never even dream of putting it in the 20 hardest books I've ever read. Canterbury Tales I can see if you're reading it in Middle English. Underworld on a page by page basis isn't hard at all, it's just long, and not worth the effort. I guess that's a challenge in and of itself: to care. Atlas Shrugged also, in fact I knew plenty of people with idiot-level intelligence who not only ready but clearly remembered and completely understood that book. The style is easy and there's no subtlety, it's like a middle school book extended to 1200 pages.
From what I've read of Franzen, (only Freedom) he was very, very easy to understand and read. And Moby-Dick is read by plenty of people in American high schools, which should tell you something.
Juan Robinson
Oh, I'm not talking about straight-forwardness or density of language or text. I'm just saying Baudrillard fucked my head up for a while and left me stumbling for a bit, especially with where I was in life working on advertising and television.
Anthony Adams
Woah, calm yourself user.
>nu-male >leftist drivel
We get it, you have been influenced by /pol/ but you don't need to have all your arguments reduced to memes.
Parker Gonzalez
Cloud Atlas shouldn't be there at all. There's only one section which could be considered difficult
Zachary Clark
>mommy this book is hard!!! I got to reread it 2-3 times before I understaaaaand!!!
Robert Cox
>25 most difficult books you'll ever read >Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy >25 most difficult books you'll ever read >Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy >25 most difficult books you'll ever read >Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Benjamin Smith
Posting the official Veeky Forums version of this list.
1. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939) 2. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973) 3. Ulysses by James Joyce (1922) 4. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936) 5. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (1927) 6.Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov (1969) 7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869) 8. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996) 9. 2666 by Roberto Nolan (2004) 10. The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra by Anonymous (2014)
Jordan Nguyen
Someone send this Buzzfeed writer a copy of Hypersphere
Jaxon Green
>the borderline sexual thrill your average Veeky Forums poster clearly feels when given a chance to go "FNEH! FNEH! NOT EVEN HARD! MY FUCKING DOG COULD READ ALL OF THOSE! FNEH! FNEH!"
you know that's the only reason lists like this exist, right?
Lincoln Ward
>you know that's the only reason lists like this exist, right? I thought they were made to be reposted and liked on normiebook
Tyler Adams
>unless you're reading the original version with no knowledge of medieval english. Just reading the introduction to a decent edition + footnotes is more than enough to understand and appreciate it its original form.
Jacob Rodriguez
Veeky Forums is the autist equivalent to normiebook. Clickbait memes work on both.
Jaxon Ramirez
>autist equivilent I think your completely denigrating the merits that it has over facebook.
You're free to say what you want anonymously here, what you post in one thread does not matter in another thread. One person you argue with right now in this thread, could seem to be your best friend in another thread. You don't have the animosity or pressure to believe what others want you to believe and say here. Facebook is shit, yes Veeky Forums is shit too, but Veeky Forums is less shit.
Luke Wilson
Cloud Atlas is easier than at least 75% the books recommended on this board. The middle section with the made-up accent is a little jarring at first but it's not that hard to get into a rhythm to understand it. The separated plots are not at all difficult, tons of books have non-linear plots, that book is just way more heavy-handed about it and made it part of its theme
Joseph Gonzalez
>2666
are we just listing memes? Its not difficult to read.
David Gomez
>FNEH!
What
Benjamin Green
you are fucking pathetic and so if your list.
Logan Cook
Wow, someone had a bad day!
Logan Reed
>no mention of Voynich Manuscript
C A S U A L A S U A L
Jack Jones
>8. Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet (1943) A bit dense and the perspective changes subtly, but also not absurd. How has it been placed over Ulysses and The Recognitions is beyond me.
Dominic Myers
>4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967) >10. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851) >14. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (1924) >15. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957) >20. The Castle by Franz Kafka (1926) >22. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980) >24. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1927) is the author of this list just mentally challanged? we've read most of those in hs
>the author of this article hasn't read any of them
Charles Martinez
The Name of the Rose is the fucking slog to end all slogs if like 100% of the human population you couldn't give two shits about gargoyles and stained glass.
Luis Diaz
Finnegans Wake and ye olde Canterbury Tales are the only difficult books on this list. The rest are just long.
Sebastian White
I never got that either. I've seen Blood Meridian on more than one list of "challenging books," and it really isn't. Aside from some obscure words, lack of punctuation, etc., it really isn't a hard read at all.
Brayden Morales
go back to r/books
Josiah Miller
>Sound and the Fury >second-most difficult book of all time
Cameron Campbell
This. It being difficult is a meme. It's written so well, it's impossible to get confused by the time jumps or Quentin's stream of consciousness bits if you're paying any sense of attention.
Jaxson Cooper
t. a pleb
Jaxson Martinez
The fact that The Corrections is on this list is comical.
Ethan Fisher
absolutely no trigger discipline
Leo Long
>Moby Dick
Am I secretly a patrician or is the person who wrote this just slow in the head? The Dick was in no way difficult.
William Perez
You didn't read so many things dude. And you make lists. Wew
Wyatt Martin
seriously? i study philosophy in college and i'd classify Heidegger (along with Hegel) among the hardest to understand philosophers
shitty list though. there's Ayn Rand there, i think that's enough of a reason.
Henry Miller
I stopped reading Blood Meridian after I saw the author writing in his *biblical* style with no quotations. I was around the first Judge (or whatever he is named) scene.
It rubbed me the wrong way and offended me probably worse then the eventual gore would have.
Cooper Powell
Exactly if you read a lot it's not bother to you. I enjoyed it people here probably wouldn't want to read Mitchell but for a popular author he actually writes some interesting stuff
Nolan Torres
>mobile site OP is the cancer here
Jaxson Diaz
It didn't bother me much, but I can see why it'd bother other people. It's almost like he thinks himself above English punctuation rules.
Adam Parker
BOLAÑO. And Abbadón, The Exterminator. By Ernesto Sabato is way harder than 2666.
Carter Hall
What's difficult about 100 years of solitude?
Lincoln Young
>11. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (1977)
Cameron Scott
>23. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (2004)
Lucas Robinson
>just because you understood what was literally happening means you understood all the subtext and religious iconogrophy
Jaxson Edwards
duuuuude Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable by Samuel Becket
also "La nueva novela" by Juan Luis Martinez
Dominic Reyes
>Pretty long >Many references that will go completely over people's head >Flowery prose (goat prose desu) >Some chapters totally drain your average reader (cetology)
Moby Dick is pretty difficult for most people I would say.
Liam Carter
Go back to whatever subreddit is dedicated to people with statue fetishes.
Logan Gonzalez
I know I probably won't have fully understood that, but that's not what the lists say makes the book challenging. It really just is the vocabulary and punctuation (or lack thereof).
Thomas White
You are pathetic and should knowingly carry that burden though life.
Name of the Rose is a cheeky, fun genre mystery with a great setting and a lively pace. I could read it again and again, and, in fact, have.
Bentley Morales
> buzzfeed
Benjamin Diaz
It's buzzfeed, to write for them you must have given up halfway through the first Harry Potter and call 50 shades a masterpiece, this is probably a list of books their 9 year old grandkids was memed into buying and couldn't Read!
Aiden King
Infinite Jest, 2666, and ISoLT aren't hard, they're just long
Aaron Fisher
One hundred years of solitude listed with Heidegger? Reading Marquez is like gently rocking in a hammock as the breeze blows across.
Julian Robinson
>infinite jest above Ulysseys >The Castle >Blood Meridian
Ryder White
>4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967) dismissed
Blake Morris
foucault is shit
Tyler Gomez
Where's Frankystine?
Samuel Ross
Memeing.
Colton Diaz
To be fair with the exception of Tolkien most of those are pretty difficult.
Mason Mitchell
> One Hundred Years of Solitude >Cloud Atlas >. To the Lighthouse I read each of these in a weekend.
David Sanchez
It appears to be a mixture of all of those things.
Jayden Howard
Hegel? Pop open Phenomenology of the Spirit and see.
Jace Ross
I'm assuming they're saying The Canterbury Tales is hard in Middle English, because a child could read the translated version except for the length.
James Davis
come on, they're too hard anyway better listen kanye west and play dark souls
Adrian Davis
Nothing. Someone will say the similarity between characters's name.
Julian Bennett
Could you tell us more about how you feel about your work after having read Baudrillard? Genuinely interested.
Hunter Sullivan
>buzzfeed yeah right
Lincoln Morales
People who read Buzzfeed probably haven't heard of these.
Jeremiah Bailey
philosophy is dead
Hudson Smith
I bought The Sound and the Fury for really cheap, having no idea what I was in for. It kind of blew my mind for a while trying to figure out what was going on. It certainly wasn't one of my favourites, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to do that.
Lucas Myers
No one has mentioned it; Don Quixote
Nolan Diaz
Wtf that's easy mode
Asher Edwards
Just my nomination for the list. I had more difficulty with it than some of the books in the list. Heck, I found Silmarillion and hundred years of solitude downright enjoyable and would never contemplate putting it on a list such as this.
Ryan Bell
Even Kant is harder than half of those books though
Brayden Gray
Who in their right mind would recommend Jean Genet to his 9 year old grandkids?
Jeremiah Collins
It is like sherlock holmes in the middle ages with psychedelic trips, medieval power politics and scholastic theological discussions. What is not to like?
Adrian Jenkins
That implies I'll ever read those snore-fests
Anthony Rivera
So the autist equivalent of normiebook, got it.
Samuel Fisher
>The Canterbury Tales Assuming he means translations, keklmao >Atlas Shrugged AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Angel Scott
it is really difficult to get through atlas shrugged.
Aiden Stewart
>War and Peace >hard
Just because a book is long doesn't make it hard to read. In fact, there is no such thing as a 'hard' book, merely soft minds.
Brody Harris
Yeah this list is autistic as fuck. Putting Baudrilliard below Marquez and McCarthy is hysterical. Putting To The Lighthouse instead of The Waves is dumb. Putting Kafka on there at all is dumb.
Bad list
John Reyes
Philosophy is dead because a large population such as you think that it is.
Henry Hernandez
> In fact, there is no such thing as a 'hard' book, merely soft minds.
Let's not be silly here. You know as well as I do that if a book demands far more attention from its reader to be understood, it's harder than a book that requires the bare minimum from its reader to understand, it's a "hard" book.
David Hill
when will the meme of middle english being hard end? If you have trouble just sound it out. Any good edition will have footnotes for any archaic words.
Eli Long
pleb detected
Jonathan Turner
my sides
Adrian Reyes
Some of those really aren't very difficult to read, though they have complexity and depth. Who would consider Faulkner or Eco more difficult than Bottom's Dream?