The book that challenges you the most?

If you have picked out your books... which book on your list challenges you the most? Is there one you feel you might not make it through? And if so, why?

I think that the ones in my CLASSICS or History/Biography categories are going to be the hardest for me to read since I normally like light reading - romances, cozy mysteries.
What about you?

I've seen The Brothers Karamazov on a couple of other lists and am considering adding it to mine. It scares me. I have trouble keeping Russian names (and nicknames) all sorted out. I worry that I won't be able to understand who's doing what. I also noticed it has an 'existentialism' tag on it and I've always struggled with that. I never did finish Camus in my college Lit class. But I so very much want to grow as a reader. I'm still debating. I feel better about tackling it if others are going to read it then I can ask questions.

I use libraries a lot so I haven't named my books, though I do have some in mind that I already own.

I am wondering though, if there are books that are a few of us plan to read whether we might do some group reads ..... ?

I am fairly new to group reads, but at the moment I am loving Kristin Lavransdatter, a book that I would never have even known about if it hadn't been suggested for a group read and I am getting much more out of my reread of Orlando thanks to another group read.

For me, I think it might be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay simply because I've owned a copy for about 5 years and have just never got around to reading it. I want to read it, it's just that every time I plan to do so another book catches my eye and I read that instead. I wonder if my copy has a curse on it or something ;-)

I also think the books by Australian authors might languish on my list for awhile, again just because I always seem to reach for something else. I WANT to read these books, but I think I've convinced myself they will be harder than they really are.

VictoriaPL, ditto with the Russian names and nicknames thing. I read Anna Karenina earlier this year and kept wishing everybody had just one name. I think it's funny that I can read and enjoy Anna Karenina but I'm afraid of attempting a book by Kate Grenville!

Like FleurFisher, I'm not naming any books yet, but I do think that my nonfiction category will be the hardest. I'm an avaricious fiction reader, and like to read all sorts - but that's where it usually stays. Fiction. I'm trying to broaden my horizons here. I'm a little worried, though, because I'm usually much slower at reading nonfiction.

I see that I was delusional and chose Anna Karenina and the Brothers Karamazov in my Classics category. I think that they will both be pretty chellenging for me since I like to read pretty fast. I have had them for years and really want to read them this year, but it won't be back to back!

None yet, but I want to make sure that a few of them are hard. I don't want to just breeze through. I want to choose some outside my normal comfort zone. This year I read Chaos and A Brief History of Time, and those were challenging for me. But I'm glad I did it.

For me it will be the David McCollough books 1776 and John Adams. I want to read them and I'm looking forward to it but it will be a change from my usual fiction or non-fiction for coursework.

I have a poetry category, and intend to get through one volume of Dante - I think I'll choose the Paradiso, but not sure. Not matter what I choose, i don't expect it to be easy reading, but want to challenge myself with something that's stood everyone's test of time.

I am also planning to tackle The Brothers Karamazov this year and try to read at least part of In Search of Lost Time. The Proust really intimidates me alot. I think that the Dostoevsky will also be a challenge, but I have enjoyed other Russian novels. I also loved Kristin Lavransdatter. The 1150 page length was intimidating, but what a great read! If not for the reading group, I never would have read it. I do think that reading in a group keeps up the interest and makes me more dedicated to the book.
--BJ

I haven't picked out all of my books yet. I tried to for the 888 challenge and ended up deviating from the list so much.

The only category I've filled up is the 1001 books which was mainly just to see that I could find 9 books there that I thought I could read. I haven't picked the most challenging titles at all but of my selection I think Justine by Lawrence Durrell might be the hardest as I've read it is a difficult read.

I think Godel, Escher, Bach will be hardest for me. I read half of it a few years ago, and I'm planning to just continue from where I left off, so I'm worried that I'll have forgotten some important details.

Gravitys Rainbow will be the biggest challenge for me. I have tried to start it several times, and really want to read it through. I even got a reading guide!

sanddancer#12 - I 'm with you on the lawrence Durrell book--I remember reading Justine and several of his others way back years ago because my then-current beau was so enamored of them. I really didn't like them, had almost forgotten how painful I found it reading them because I kept thinking 'why on earth does he find these interesting?' Needless to say he didn't last much longer in the beau department.

But now you've piqued my interest, I may have to revisit at least one of them, to find out whether I now have the same impression.

Another book I found difficult (challenging?) and not much to my liking was another of said gentleman's recommendations The Magus by John Fowles--in fact when I unpacked my books and started cataloging I found I had 2 copies.

she hurries off to find those 2 and dump them in the donation pile.

edited to correct typos

I haven't quite completed my list yet, but Ulysses is definitely hovering there. Yipes!

Sanddancer & Tututhefirst #15 I'm with you both on the Lawrence Durrell book - one of a handful I've abandoned though strangely I enjoyed The Magus despite the ambigious ending.
I think Brothers Karamazov will definitely be the hardest for me.
Elee#5 I'm including an Aussie author category too. Perhaps we can work together and share notes? I haven't filled in any books for this category yet, just waiting for inspiration.

Hmmm. Nine books, nine categories. That's a lot of books to get through. I don't think I'll read ANY challenging books next year. This year I ODed on challenge.

That's my wish. In reality, I'm probably going to have to read Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford for a class I'm taking. I believe it's about 900 pages of modernist WWI fiction. There's my challenge. The rest of 2009 I can coast . . . . . .

Yeah, right.

I have a long-book category that might be challenging; however, I've discovered that the immersion in pages makes long books some of the best reads. Right now, my lists seem pretty juicy, not challenging. Only Joseph Heller's Something Happened gives me trepidation -- if it's anything like his Catch-22, it will be excellent but will require perseverence.

I hesitated a long time before putting "The Lost" by Daniel Mendelsohn on my list. Why? Because I've tried this book before and got stuck within a few pages. English not being my native language combined with the very long sentences and the challenging circumstances of having 4 kids caused me failing to compleet this book. But I'm going to give it another try (and another, and...) And I certainly will not allow myself to take the easy way out to read the book in Dutch!

The massive Edith Wharton biography by Hermione Lee (864 pages) will be my greatest challenge. I'm not great with books that exceed 500 pages...

I think any of the ones in my #4 category- Re-reads will be my most challenging. Specifically The Activist: John Marshall by Lawrence Goldstone, Generations, the History of America's Future by Neil Howe, and A History of the American People by Paul Johnson. All of these were interesting, but slow reading because the concepts and sentence structure are deep. I liked them all so my challenge this year is to 'get er done.'

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky will be the one to give me the most trouble. Looking forward to the group read of this book. That will be a big help.

There's going to be a few for me I think, but comments from others here suggest that See Under Love is going to be a challenging read.

I'm guessing Wuthering Heights. I have a feeling I'm going to have trouble with the style of writing. Since it is also my next pick for the Go Review That Book! group, I'll be finding out soon after the New Year.

I think the most challenging aspect for me will be getting through the sheer number of books. I've left most slots in my categories to be filled in as I read (it's really not my style to pre-determine ALL the books I want to read in a year, or even most, for that matter). Unfortunately, I may have to choose between picking shorter reads to complete the challenge or making more challenging individual picks, either length-wise (I'm thinking, for example, A Suitable Boy) or literary-difficulty wise (I'm not inherently drawn to the classics and do tend to find it challenging to get through most of them) but risk not completing the challenge unless I have many, many overlaps.

I'm sure it will be Anna Karenina for me, followed closely by Einstein: His Life and Universe. I don't usually read such lengthy biographies, so I intentionally included it in order to stretch myself.

I have to concur with Deesirings though, in that the biggest challenge will simply be reading so many books in one year!

*goes off to start reading!!*

Mine is a category - I have a books-written-in-German category to force me to keep up my German. I've chosen books in my favorite genre (noirish mysteries) but it will still require will power to read nine books in German this year!

For those who said Anna Karenina was expected to be a challenge...I read it for the 888 challenge last year and found it to be pretty engaging - almost a page-turner! I hope you enjoy it too.

I'm going to stay away from anything too intimidating in the interest of finishing the challenge.

As of right now, John Adams, because it's my only non-fiction book on the list, and I tend to read those a bit slower. I may add a few more non-fiction, so this could be supplanted.

Edited for ytpos

I will probably read another of the the volumes in Joseph's Campbell's The Masks of God and that will be challenging though maybe not as much so as the one I read last year. The hard part is that it will be a long book that has to be read in fairly small doses.

But the real challenge will be pacing myself so that I read more of my nonfiction books in the first half of the year than I did for the 888.

As far as my list goes, I'm a bit nervous about reading Kristin Lavransdatter. It's so long! I'm very reassured to read that other posters on this thread enjoyed it.

Just joined today and not sure of books I will read yet.
But, I suspect that old favourite War and Peace may be a bit of a challenge. I'm reading it for a group read over in the 75 books challenge group.
Though lots of people who have read it say it is surprisingly easy to read. I'm hopeless with history and long books - ha ha ha, what kind of masochist am I...

Elee #5 and Socialpages #16, I've also got an Australian category, but I haven't put any books in it yet, although some I have in other categories would overlap. I'm not sure I'll be able to read 81 books this year either, so I may need considerable overlap.
One Australian book I would recommend is A Fortunate Life by Albert Facey. On the face of it it's just a good story, but it's also thought provoking. I think I particularly enjoyed it because I live in Western Australia, so many of the places were familiar to me, in fact our local library is called the Albert Facey Memorial Library.
I'll keep in touch with your lists to see what other Australian books you end up reading!

I've tried to read Crime and Punishment twice, and the second time I threw it across the room in disgust. I'm tempted to make the attempt again. According to my sister you just have to make it through the first 100 pages, then it gets good, which is why I'm willing to try.

I'm a little intimidated by Eline Vere, which I just got via interlibrary loan (what a wonderful invention!!) I've heard the story is good but the writing style can be difficult for modern day readers.

Probably anything in my Science category. I'm very much an arts and literature gal, so even though I've picked mostly biology type books, which I'm very interested in, they'll still be a challenge. Right now I'm slogging through Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique and it's extremely interesting but very, very slow as I have to keep rereading pages to make sure I grasp the concepts.

I'm having a hard time with A Marvelous Work and a Wonder. It just seems kind of repetitive and slow. h