The Guardian – The world’s most difficult books

August 10, 2012

Recently, the UK’s The Guardian posted an article on the world’s most difficult books. These are:

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes;
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift;
The Phenomenology of Spirit by GF Hegel;
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf;
Clarissa, or, The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson;
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce;
Being and Time by Martin Heidegger;
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser;
The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein;
and Women and Men by Joseph McElroy.

Now, I’ve not read any of these so I cannot comment on their level of difficulty. However, I did think this sounded like an interesting blogging challenge. There is also one book I will personally add to the list: No Place on Earth, by Christa Wolf. This was one of my set books at university and I could never get to grips with it. Maybe after, um, quite a few more years of life experience I may find it easier.

I will not be starting this blog challenge straight away – I have several books I’m reading currently, and ones I’m waiting to read so the challenge will have to wait a bit. It’s unlikely I’ll read the books quickly; most probably I’ll read a few chapters a week and try to blog once a week on what I’ve read. I also make no promises of completing this, but I’m willing to have a try.

Wish me luck!

One Comment

  • Anonymous August 11, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    Good luck!

    Good luck with your challenge!

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: