The toughest book you have read or tried to read

War and Peace

I hear the Atlas Shrugged movies are awful.

When I was 13, I tried to read Nietzsche's "Genealogy of Morals" and have thought about reading it, but I'm only interested in biographies.

After the first couple, the Dune books just became a tedious, uninteresting, convoluted, confusing mess.

Me too, hownos! First book I thought of to answer your question. I so desperately wanted to read Atlas Shrugged because I admired Ayn Rand. But, for some reason I no longer can read for long periods of time as I become so fatigued. I continue to order books, but they aren’t read! I used to be able to read for hours....well into early morning. I attempted the audio books to listen to while driving back & forth to Florida.....no good as I became drowsy!

I can't remember a specific book, but it's certainly true that some books are hard to read. It isn't necessarily the subject matter. It's the style they're written in. Some are just so wordy that they're hard to read. Others are an "easy read." I can't put my finger on why that is, but that's my take on it. There have been some books where I've skipped sections because the author gets too bogged down in describing the room, the setting, the whatever - I get the picture and I've heard enough so, next page please!

“Never at Rest” a dense biography of Sir Isaac Newton written by R.S. Westfall. At the time I found it more difficult than reading an actual physics text.

The Brothers Kamarazov