The most intellectually challenging book you have read?

[wolfhawk99]

For me, it was without a doubt the Dune series. Frank Hubert provides us with more a philosophical treatise than a novel. Feel free to share your favorite challenges.

[whateverfloats]

Not a novel but I'm assuming that doesn't matter.

The Critique of Pure Reason

I got the gist but deciphering his meaning was pretty damn difficult. I still don't think I got most of it. Kierkegaard is also indecipherable. What is it with Germans?

[RenkonNairu]

Doctor Faustus. stressed

[kwarren7]

anything by CS Lewis that was not Narnia


and analyzing As I lay Dying was pretty ridiculous to me. i had to read the book twice.

[whateverfloats]

kwarren7

anything by CS Lewis that was not Narnia


and analyzing As I lay Dying was pretty ridiculous to me. i had to read the book twice.

You read The Screwtape Letters? I got half way through and got bored. Is it worth finishing?

[Zell-The-Renegade]

******** Shakespeare. Thou havest thy intellect to don thy scripts of master William's humble writings?

[Robotic Dream Weaver]

Probably the book I just finished, A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

[stellaangelo]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

[wolfhawk99]

I can report that i had similar problems with each of these same writings, though I was tremendously bored by some of them. So in reality, I'm sure I did not get as much out of them as I should have. *guilty smile*

[Call Me Arizona]

Ayn Rand and mother ******** Shakespeare.
Also, Dune got a bit challenging.

[whateverfloats]

Robotic Dream Weaver

Probably the book I just finished, A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

You're kidding! Atwood is delightful! A Handmaid's Tale isn't perky but it doesn't waste time either. I liked it but actually preferred Onyx and Crake, perhaps because it's more topical and less dated.

[Aikochiyuuki]

I'm slightly ashamed to say I haven't read much literature that isn't just fluffy or chick-lit.

Though 3nodding .. I guess Shakespeare counts in.
I love his stuff

[teeheemilady]

I got through ten pages of a Brief History of Time by Stephan Hawking

[Hristis]

I think that must have been faust for me crying

[Slayer Igraine]

whateverfloats

Not a novel but I'm assuming that doesn't matter.

The Critique of Pure Reason

I got the gist but deciphering his meaning was pretty damn difficult. I still don't think I got most of it. Kierkegaard is also indecipherable. What is it with Germans?

I agree about the Kant, but I thought Kierkegaard was fairly straight-forward. But Schopenhauer can be a bit of headache at times - his essays and aphorisms are simple to understand but the first book of The World as Will an Representation can be a bit of a headache, and I'm quite sure that 90% of the people who read Nietzsche don't understand him anywhere as near a well as they think they do.

Also, Aristotle, Metaphysics.