#48: The Difficulties of Difficult Books

After a bit of a hiatus, Tom Roberge and Chad W. Post are back to discuss what we mean when we say that a book is "difficult." They use a range of examples, from Finnegans Wake to Mrs. Dalloway to define a few different categories of reading "difficulty," such as, not being compelled, and having to read a book like a puzzle. 

For a Three Percent podcast, this one is pretty serious, and even more interesting than usual. And for those who are interested, here's a list of all the books/artists discussed this week:

• Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
• Maidenhair by Mikhail Shishkin
• Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff
• P.T. Anderson's movies
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Hawthorne & Child by Keith Ridgway
• Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
• Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• A Wilderness of Error by Errol Morris