The 10 greatest literary works that I could not finish reading

Strangely believe it: A few weeks ago I posted on the most famous works of literary fiction that I had not read. Last night, thinking about what I might post in the blog today (and thinking I might want to take a break from the ongoing posts on Stendahl), I was thinking about famous books I had started to read but did not, could not, or would not finish. That might make a good post, too. This morning, scanned through the NYTBR and noticed that the "Our Back Pages" (I like the allusion, btw) feature looks back at an issue when the review editors asked some well-known writers about books they had not finished reading. Odd, right? In any case, here, in roughly chronological order (by pub date) are some of the great works of literature that I have not finished reading (and probably never will). Note that there are about a million works I've started to read and quit before finishing - as I encourage all readers to do once you've given the book a chance - because the book was bad or uninteresting. These are 10 works that I acknowledge to be great but are just too high a mountain to cross in this lifetime:

1. The Bible - Old Testament (King James V.): Yes I took a full semester of independent study on the Bible in college, read the whole NT w/ which, as a Jew, I was unfamiliar, and read much of the OT, using the excellent Dartmouth Bible, w/ great contextual notes. These readings have been essential over a lifetime of literature for context and  understanding. But the whole OT? Numbers? All those Judges and Kings? Despite a few goes at the Books of Moses, I never came close to a complete read-through.

2. The Canterbury Tales: Read many of these in college and grad school, have even published on one of the tales, but, hey, even Chaucer couldn't finish. The Parson's Tale? Seriously?

3. Gargantua and Pantagruel: Started reading this not too long ago, and found it kind of funny, if you're a Frenchman living in about 1500. Today, the raucous and bawdy humor feels juvenile and primitive, but it's clearly a foundational work that maybe I should read through - some day.

4. The Prelude: Anyone who wants to understand Romantic poetry or English poetry in general has to read Book One. Nobody but a Wordsworthian has to read all 12 (I think) [it's 14, actually].

5. The Human Comedy: Not that you're expected to read the Complete Balzac, but I thought I could read more than one volume; I think the only one I've been able to complete has been Cousin Bette, which was great. Sorry I couldn't finish either Pere Goriot or Lost Illusions.

6 and 7. James's Late Novels: I've tried more than once both Wings of the Dove and Golden Bowl, and in all attempts I got so fed up w/ James's never-ending sentences and subtle "Aahs" that I was ready to throw the books across the room, but they were too heavy.

8. Finnegans Wake: Friend AW has often noted that the only way to read FW is as part of a liteary seminar. Probably that's true. If I had time enough to read a novel word by word, I'd probably do so - but that would take a lifetime.

9. The Man Without Qualities: Great, strange, disconcerting, unique in style - but so long and so unsettling that, after an enthusiastic start, I hauled in.

10. Gravity's Rainbow: A fantastically complex and involved plot that was literally too much for me to hold in my mind at any one time as I was reading the book. See comments above on Finnegans Wake. 

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