@tinyfaery I had the same problem with 100 Years. Parts of that book seemed to be wonderful… and then I’m stuck again trying to figure out “Who the hell is this?”
@Bluefreedom… amen.
I’m surprised by the two (?) mentions of Cold Mountain. I really enjoyed that book.
Even though I’ve read Atlas Shrugged twice (and will probably read it again), there’s a section near the end (and if you get that far into it you’ll know what section I mean) where one of the main characters delivers a 75-page soliloquy on Ayn Rand’s theme of the book. The book stands on its own without that deliberate exposition of the theme; I can’t imagine why she thought that was necessary to include. I can never finish that section. Fortunately I can skip through it and read the rest of the novel without sacrificing understanding or (much) meaning.
The book that I’ve tried and failed miserably with is Moby Dick. I shouldn’t be so put off by Melville’s ignorant description of “the fish”, but… there it is.
There are so many, so very many more books that I should have taken @Jeruba‘s excellent advice and just dropped. (I read—and actually finished—a novel recently where the main character flattened the tires of a pursuer’s car by… simply removing the valve caps from the valve stems on all four tires. I just rolled my eyes and read on. Stupid, I know.)