
Not to freak any of you out, but life can be scary sometimes. You're about to read some pretty unsettling stuff, so just keep that in mind. From bus accidents to comas to encounters with um, strangers... it's all here.
After Redditor Sqrootveg asked the online community, "What is the scariest event that you have been through?" people came through with their stories. We might have trouble sleeping tonight.
"I didn't know my neighbors very well..."
I came home one night after hanging out at a friend's house a few years ago. After I was sitting in my house alone for a few minutes, I heard screaming and crying coming from the neighbors. Apparently, their teenage son heavily overdosed and they found him dead on his bed with foam coming out of his mouth. The ambulance came, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
I didn't know my neighbors very well, but it was a pretty chilling experience.
"Dropped everything and went."
The birth of my son. My wife had to have a c-section when our oldest was born, so she had some complications with the pregnancy when she had my son. One night she comes out of the back after dinner and says she's bleeding. Call the doctor, who said get to the hospital ASAP.
Dropped everything and went. Dropped my wife with the nurses at the front of the hospital and parked the car. By the time I made it inside they had two lines in her and were prepping for emergency surgery. I was able to walk with her to the door of the operating wing, but then they told me I couldn't come. Spent 3 hours pacing in the waiting room. When a nurse finally came out they told me my wife died on the table twice. The complications caused her uterus to rupture during the c-section and she lost 7 units of blood. They more or less had her stabilized after removing her uterus and she was in the ICU recovery. Still couldn't see her.
Asked about my son. He inhaled a mouthful of amniotic fluid on his way out and was in the NICU under observation.
A couple of more hours and they finally let me see my wife because she was partially awake and screaming for me.
She spent two days in ICU, 4 in trauma recovery, and 5 in in-patient while she stabilized. My son was ok after 4 days in NICU. Her doctor told us flat out the trauma her body went through was equal to being hit by a train. All in all she had 9 units of whole blood, 8 units of plasma, and 5 units of platelets transfused before she finally stabilized.
Saw the doctor last year, as a customer at my work. I walked over and gave her the biggest hug in the world and thanked her again for giving me my wife back. I will never forget her and will always be thankful for that amazing woman.
"I was trying to nap..."
I was in a bus that crashed into a house. I was trying to nap after a late-night flight when suddenly the bus shook, so I opened my eyes and saw us going off the road, knocking down a small tree and then colliding with a house. There was a strong smell of gas, so we thought the bus was going to explode. We all had to get out through the fire escape window, and I cut my hand on broken glass when I landed. Thankfully the bus did not explode and everyone got out with only minor injuries. Nobody was home in the house either.
"As a kid..."
As a kid, I made a makeshift zipline between two trees in my yard with some rope and and old shirt. I went to go across it just after the sun set one summer night and my shirt was caught on a broken off branch from behind and started choking me. I thought I was as good as dead because I couldn't yell very loud due to being choked.
I held on to the zipline shirt for dear life when I saw one of my older brothers friends walking down the sidewalk. He saw me hanging and got my shirt off the branch.
"Forty years ago..."
Forty years ago I got home very drunk late at night. The police had my house staked out waiting for me and tackled me in the driveway and took me to jail for burglary that they accused me of. Spent three days in jail before they figured out that I was innocent and just cut me loose about an hour from my home without my wallet which they still had at the county jail that I was originally booked into. Didn't have a cent on me but I was sure happy to be out.
"London has held no joy for me since."
Being on a bus in central London on 7/7. Had travelled up from Bristol early morning to attend a work meeting and as the taxi queue was massive we decided on the bus. Bus moved a little but it was obviously gridlock. Internet access wasn't a big thing on mobiles then, so it took one of my colleagues having a phonecall with a friend to find out there had been a bomb on the tube. I called my Mum to say that I was in London but not to worry as I was on a bus and safe.
Then of course the bomb went off on the bus. With the mobile networks all bottlenecked my mum couldn't get through so she left a message. Honestly, the scariest thing was hearing the utter panic in her voice as she spoke. I can still hear it now. Just begging me to get off the bus. We got off at Marble Arch and walked back to Paddington. Work excused us from the meeting, we managed to catch the last train out of London back to Bristol that day and we were given the rest of the day off. I went straight to my mum's and held her for hours.
London has held no joy for me since.
"I remember very little..."
Saving a woman's life.
I was walking past my building's pool on the way home from the parkade when a guy flagged me down and yelled, "I think she's drowning!"
I remember very little of what happened next, but I pieced together that I ran like hell to get there, jumped in fully clothed, phone in pocket, grabbed her from the front - hot tip: don't grab a drowning person from the front, they will CLIMB you - and got her out of the pool.
I was in no danger, but after the crisis was over, fear washed over me like I could not believe. I cried in the shower for an hour until I finally calmed down.
I would do it again in a heartbeat.
"I still don't understand how..."
My 6'2", 300lb (now ex) husband decided I wasn't allowed to leave him.
For reference (not that it matters), I am 5'4", 155lbs.
I'd been out with friends one night and too "out of touch" for his liking... I came home to ugly accusations and verbal abuse. Unfortunately, I decided in that moment that telling him I wanted a divorce (this had been building for months) was a good idea.
As soon as I said "divorce," he escalated.
I still don't understand how, but I survived strangulation, smothering, dragging, and all kinds of other physical assault while our kids slept in the next room.
Thankfully my neighbors heard me screaming for help and called the police.
He went to jail for 3 days and is still in deep legal s***.
But as of last week, my divorce is over.
Nearly a year of nasty legal battles and PTSD and panic attacks and single parenting and I am free.
2020 has been one hell storm after another, but it's also given me my freedom.
"I challenged him..."
My (now deceased) father pointed a gun at me when I was a teen and we were arguing.
It was about a dog that kept getting out. Anytime someone got close he would run even faster. When we finally got him my dad pulled his pistol and pointed it at the dog yelling about how if it doesnt behave he would just shoot it.
I challenged him and he pointed the gun at me. It was the longest moment in my life. On the bright side, as a 120lb woman I've never been more scared of any man than him.
"Six weeks..."
Six weeks in an inducted coma. I woke up six weeks later in a strange hospital and I couldn't move nor speak! I thought I was in Hell.
"My heart goes out to anyone..."
When I was 5 my parents were driving me to kindergarten, and on the way (it was a horrible Manitoba winter) we were in a 3 car pileup. The roads were so slippery no one could stop.
I thankfully was sleeping through the whole thing, but I smashed my face on my knees (this was back in 85 when kay cars didn't have shoulder belts in the back) broke my face and my collarbone.
My dad crushed all of his ribs on the steering wheel and broke his arm in 3 places holding my Mom back from hitting the dashboard. She ended up breaking her leg when it was crushed with the front end.
We all survived. But I was the only one that has lifetime PTSD. The only thing I remember and it plays in my head through night terrors is waking up in the ambulance and there was blood in my eyes, I couldn't scream.. and all I could hear was the paramedic telling my mom I'm not going to make it, and my mother screaming.
I'm almost 39 now. And I am heavily medicated and had to be put through 14 years of psychologists and psychiatrists to heal.
My heart goes out to anyone who's faced trauma. I wish I could have hugged the paramedics who kept me alive and the doctors who make sure 5 year old me still had a future ahead.
As much as PTSD is terrifying, I value each and every single day I'm on this earth.
"At some point..."
The scariest event occurred at work. My life wasn't threatened or anything but I was literally watching a woman bleed out and knew there wasn't anything we could do. I'm a respiratory therapist and I work night shift (important to this story). Night shift means that fewer doctors are around and that we have less staff in general.
I was working in the surgical ICU that night. A woman came out of surgery with her belly still open (not uncommon) because they couldn't completely find the source of a bleed. Her stomach had a vacuum pump on it. She was intubated. She had started to get unstable in surgery so they opted to bring her to stabilize her in the unit and go back to the OR in the morning. Not rare and more common than some people would like to think. The plan that I was told was that we were just going to leave her.
At some point, we were told we had to go get more scans (a CT/CAT) even through multiple objections about how we didn't think this patient was stable enough. We had a window where we thought it might be okay and since the objections were overruled by higher-ranking doctors we decided to go for it.
Normally a CT would take us 5 minutes on the table and 5 back to the ICU. She was on the table for over 20. At some point, the portable pump dies. I'm the one who caught it because her vent starts to alarm and I realize I don't hear the pump anymore (those things are loud). The surgical resident who came with us just in case runs in and starts to hold this woman's belly together. I'm running to the tube station to get the blood products that are coming down to hand off to the RNs. The whole thing from when we notice to getting her back to the OR probably was no more than ten minutes, it felt like hours. We put in at least five units (pints) of blood and it was just pouring into her belly.
The patient died on the table.
It wasn't my first or last serious situation, or time for taking a questionable patient to CT. It is the one that sticks with me the most and has been the scariest time in my medical career.
"If anyone else has had one..."
Having an anxiety attack. If anyone else has had one they know what I'm talking about.
"Was coming home..."
Was coming home from a Boy Scouts camp out and one of the drivers (my friends dad) didn't get a full nights rest I presume and he ended up closing him eyes for like 3 seconds and drifted lanes and hit another car. Luckily no one was hurt.
"Ended up landing..."
Flying through a blizzard. Had to divert to two different airports and couldn't land at either of them because the conditions were just as bad. Ended up landing at the original destination nearly out of fuel and with a visibility of about 100 feet...
"We were going to a horse ride..."
When I was having horse riding lessons, at 8 or 9 years old. We were going to a horse ride, next to a golf field. Problem is, apprently, horses can only see silouhettes (aside from being fearful and kind of stupid as well). So, we assumed that one of the pony saw something creepy (like a golf ball flying towards us), because she panicked. Panicked hard. Like "oh shit I'm gonna die" kind of panic. So the others panicked as well.
They all entered in what we call "crazy gallop", when they run insanely fast to evade or something. We tried everything to stop them. Figures, directing them in bushes and stuff, but nothing worked. My pony was so freaking fast I fainted. I though I was gonna die. Then, he went into the forest, and I was thrown against a tree. I woke up after my fall, walked a few steps, to saw one of my friend with broken leg and arm, another one with a broken clavicle.
I was soooo lucky. This day, before riding, my father bought me a back protector jacket. Without it, I would have been paralyzed.
"Everyone..."
A guy crashed his car and escaped the police while on campus during the night. Everyone had to stay inside buildings while they searched the area.
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When love is on the rocks and there's no salvaging a relationship, it's better for a couple to call it splits.
Sometimes the reason for a breakup is obvious.
Other times, it's more complicated.
But the people involved going their separate ways is better than staying in an unhealthy relationship.
Curious to hear from ex-lovers who've been there, Redditor Lishasquarepant asked:
"What caused your last break-up?"
These Redditors found they and their significant other were no longer on the same page.
"Simply, we grew apart."
– catetheway
"Same, I feel like Michael Scott everytime I try to start another relationship. 'No question about it, I am ready to get hurt again.'"
– Gthew
Happier Apart
"Same. We loved each other like siblings, not spouses... Ugh! Lovely man though who now has a fab girlfriend. We are good friends and much happier apart."
– MoxieHasKnottyBits
No Regrets
"Same. And it f'king sucks, but that’s life. It’s been a year and I still hate every second that she’s not in my life, but at the same time I know she’s happier now than she would’ve been if we stayed together."
– throway35885328
Having no communication is the worst part.
Silent Partner
"He slowly got distant. I believe he lost interest and didn't dare be honest with me about that."
– GaiaNatur77
The Late Blame Game
"I had that happen as well, but then he pinned it on me being distant and not affectionate enough."
"My guy, if you pull your hand away every time I try to hold it, I'm gonna stop trying to hold it. And if I ask if something's up and you repeatedly tell me everything is fine, I'm going to believe you. Don't wait till I'm at my worst moment and then reveal you had issues with me for 3 months and break up with me for it being 'my fault.'"
– Billielolly
"Everything Is Fine"
"Oh man, the asking repeatedly and getting a 'nothing' reminds me of a story."
"My friend used to ask her ex this every time he was unusually quiet. He’d always say he was fine, then at one point, told her to stop asking because it was making him feel weird."
"So she did."
"Six months later he initiated a divorce because she didn’t care about his feelings anymore."
"Like…don’t ask for sh*t then get pissy when you get what you want."
– TheRealJackReynolds
And then there are those who were not invested in the relationship for a long time.
The Struggle Is Real
"He seemed to struggle with the concept of not f'king random people."
– spanglesandbambi
Leaving The Problem
"He moved to his country because he missed his family. So he only sent a WhatsApp message saying he was going to stay there. I would have preferred a call at least to break up a marriage."
– kattia12
New Life
"Something similar happened to my cousin. He married her in the US, they had a baby together.. a few years go by, he misses home, goes back to visit.. His family had an arranged marriage ready for him 🤦🏻♀️ He ended up with a new wife and new baby. Hasn’t came back."
– MysticalMom7
A Foreign Custom
"It just seems so surreal that a grown a** adult with a wife and baby would leave his family behind for an arranged marriage. I'll never fathom the mentality."
– ro0ibos2
Ouch
"I wasn't having sex near as often as she was."
– YourWordsMatter
Breaking up is hard to do.
But a good thing to remember is that love can be found again and the new relationship can be even better than the previous one.
And that's something that can't be recognized until you look back in retrospect.
We all have to kiss a few toads.
Everyone looks back on their high school experience differently.
Some wish they could relive it all over again, while others are more than happy to put it all behind them and seldom, if ever, look back on it.
Of course, no matter if they look back on high school with pleasure or disdain, everyone has a few memories of their classmates.
Particularly the one who always seemed to be getting into trouble.
Constantly landing themselves in detention and, in more severe cases, landing themself in trouble with the authorities.
Some of these students thankfully grew out of their bullying days and have grown and learned to treat others with respect and kindness. Others were not so lucky, and still found themselves getting into trouble long after their school days were over.
"Who was the worst student in your high school, & what did they do that was so bad?
The Beginning Of The End...
"There was a kid who walked up to the pencil sharpener and set the substitute teacher's hair on fire from behind her with a cigarette lighter and then claimed sparks had flown out of the light switch."
"Yeah."
"He's in prison for other stuff now."- isfrying
Lucky The Room Was Empty...
"I knew a lot of sh*tty people back in school, but I think the guys who dropped a whole desk out of a third-story window onto some kid qualify as the worst, purely because I think that qualifies as an attempted murder."- WixedEcho
Doesn't Exactly Scream True Love...
"The boy that put a pipe bomb into another kid's locker because he talked to the girl the original boy liked."
"He went to a juvenile program and then disappeared."- dreamermom2
The Demon Student Of High School...
"A girl at my school took the ashes of her recently deceased grandfather."
"Baked it into cookies and handed the cookies out amongst her classmates."
"Nine students had eaten them before she revealed the urn and told them what she did."- FiddlerofSticks
What A Waste, So Close To The End...
"He put LSD in a teacher's drink and they tripped."
"12th grade, he got arrested as he should have."- Amy_OZ
How Did He Even Get The Job?
"Not me, but my daughter and her female friends in 9th grade."
"There was a boy who was disturbed who was making threats to the girls in his classes."
"The girls told me he had photos of dead animals he'd killed."
"Anyway, for whatever reason, my daughter felt like telling me about it for the first time well into the school year, like in November or so."
"I had no idea this was going on until then."
"I called the teacher first, who was a man, and he was afraid of this kid."
"Teacher said to call the principal and gave me his number."
"Principal said, and I quote: 'Lady I have 1200 students to deal with on a daily basis'."
"'I can't be worried about whether your daughter is safe at school'."
"Which was the wrong thing to say, bc it obviously pissed me off."
"He said that he put this kid and my daughter alone in a room and told them to essentially kiss and make up."
"Called the superintendent next, who was incredibly bowled over by the incompetence of the principal."
"He told me to call the police."
"Which was too late because I had already taken my daughter and 3 of her friends to the police to make reports and file for a restraining order."
"The next day the principal called to apologize, from the phone in the superintendent's office."
"The kid was removed from the classes with all of these girls, which was next to impossible."
"And less than a week was removed from the school."
"I think my daughter said that he's in prison now."- floridianreader
Some People Can Turn Their Lives Around
"Not the worst student but craziest thing to happen was freshman year this kid got caught using a keylogger to steal teacher's gradebook logins to sell grade changes."
"He was also stealing credit card info."
"Ran into him a few years ago and he actually graduated Harvard and is in real estate now."- AbortionCrow
Bad Decisions Have Consequences
Bullied other kids mercilessly."
"Stole cigarettes & alcohol from shops, to sell to other kids for cash he'd use to buy weed."
"A few years after high school him and 2 of his closest mates were hooning in their sh*tbox on the highway, playing Chicken."
"It was night time and they had their lights turned off, and they were driving on the wrong side of the road with the intent to make other people flinch & dodge before they had to."
"Other driver didn't even know they were there & just drove a straight path."
"So because of that the other driver obviously didn't dodge or deviate, forcing them to flinch and they dodged off the side of a road, right into a huge Gum Tree."
"All 3 killed instantly 140+kmph impact on a hardwood tree."
"Small rural area so the whole town grieved over the 'tragic loss of 3 young lives' but single kid who grew up around them knew better than to call it a tragedy."
"Glad the other driver didn't see them & suffer their fate."
"Gladder that they're gone."- Pharya
Some People Simply Never Learn From Their Mistakes
"One of the rich families kid was just 100% incapable of driving safely at all."
"We're talking at the age of 16 has already totaled 3 cars."
"His parents kept giving him new ones, not cheap ones either, Acura RSX, VW Golf, Subaru WRX."
"The VW and Acura he did nothing but crash them into trees while he had his DRIVING PERMIT - not even a license."
"The First WRX he had a passenger in it and decided to hit another tree."
"Passenger broke his neck but was fine."
"3 months later, parents got him his second WRX."
"Was doing 70+ in a 45 back road with a 2 girls in the car."
"Swerved to avoid a truck pulling into a road, clipped the back corner, spun the car sideways and got T-boned by a box truck/Uhaul."
"Everyone died."
"It was sad but I'm more outraged at his sh*tty parents."- Saturn_5_speed
One never knows the kind of person your classmates are going to grow up to be.
Though sometimes, you can't help but appreciate that you were right about your instincts to avoid certain people.
Who among us hasn't seen things that made us think we were still asleep?
Sometimes those scary movie moments are a reality.
Once in a while, Michael Myers IS in the shadows.
There are so many unexplainable happenings that leave our nerves wrecked.
As I type this, I swear I can hear moving in the bushes outside.
I'm not in the mood to be terrorized before bed.
Redditor TractorLoving wanted to hear about the things many of us have seen that left us shaken and a bit scared, so they asked:
"What's the most creepy thing you've ever witnessed?"
I've lost track of the number of things that have creeped me out in life.
I barely leave the house.
From the bushes...
"When I was about 12 I was sleeping on my trampoline with a friend and we heard the bushes move behind us, we flashed our flashlight to the bushes and a mountain lion was laying there stalking us, I have never run so fast in my life."
Fortherecord87
Voices
"Finding my dad dead in his recliner. I swear I heard his voice when the coroner came for his body."
PolesawPolska
"My granddad knocked over my great-grandma's ashes in his car accidentally, and to this day swears he heard her laugh, loud and clear as if she was standing next to him. She had a hugely wicked sense of humor and would have found this (and my very stressed granddad carefully collecting her ashes back into the container before my grandma saw) very funny."
Tanyaaahhh
From the Sea
"When I was serving my time as an engineer in the merchant navy we used to have to clean out what is called 'sea chests;' they're basically big filters for seawater that we would pump in to use as coolant and if the pumps were on when we were dockside we'd find all sorts of things like bottles, fish, crabs etc."
"One day we opened up the chest, pulled out the filter, and immediately saw this gold shiny thing which turned out to be a Rolex watch. Usually, we'd just dump out the filter but with the mitigating circumstances, we went through it thoroughly and found a piece of a shirt with cufflink still attached and last but not least a nicely rotted finger."
"The police ended up closing off the dock and dredging it but never found anything on the end." ~ MarkyBhoy101
Terrified
"This guy followed me home. Said he saw me there often and named a few local spots I go to sometimes as places he sees me. It’s been about a year. Never saw him again. I was terrified for a little while for sure."
ewqdsacxziopjklbnm
Stay vigilant out there kids.
People are watching and some of us don't notice.
Back Up Creep
"I was in a restaurant years ago on lunch break. At the time I was a very thin 25-year-old woman. There was this big creepy guy sitting there who would NOT stop staring at me from the moment I walked in the door."
"I mean just open face staring without blinking for the entire 15 minutes I was eating several seats away. I asked for a box and left early to get away from him. As I walked out he said, 'You shouldn't be out alone. Someone's going to grab you and steal you away." 100% convinced creepazoid had someone locked up in his basement."
xain_the_idiot
'Youth in need'
"Was working in a restaurant. Nice place. That night we held a charity dinner for a 'youth in need' type of house. The guy representing the house, a worker there, was such a nice and kind man. Every teen there was only saying nice things about him. A good soul, that was giving everything he could for these teens."
"At one point they gave a big check to the charity. I must guess an amount they rarely received. Well under the excitement, that poor man had a cardiac arrest. Dropped there on the stage, cheque in hand. He couldn't be brought back. He died. Seeing this was already bad enough, but the kids everywhere in the restaurant screaming and crying for hours after... haunting."
Agronut
Inside the House
"One random night in middle school I woke up and had the odd feeling that something or someone was present in the house and coming towards my room. I was scared so I closed my eyes to pretend to be asleep. I could faintly hear something come into my room and it felt like someone was standing over me, looking to make sure I was asleep. I laid on my back, eyes shut, until the feeling passed, and ended up falling asleep. I woke up in the morning to find out that our house was robbed."
ThatOtherOtherGuy3
There in lies the rub...
"Well dressed 50 something business dude on a quiet Chicago L train reading a Wall Street Journal. Pretty woman with long curly hair dozing in the seat in front of him, her hair dangling behind the seat. The guy is rubbing and playing with her hair while reading his paper so I figure she's his wife or girlfriend who just wanted some space to nap."
"He is now intently rubbing and fondling her hair and not reading anymore. Suddenly she snaps awake and pulls in her hair like a bug was in it or something. She gets off at the next stop, he continues reading. They didn't know each other at all."
mtzuker
Why do people feel the need to overshare?
People really need to discuss boundaries.
If someone were to ask us which book we either hated or could not finish, we all have an answer to that question.
There are some books that simply do not work for us, while others stick with us forever.
Redditor Fair_Swing_6461 asked:
"What is the most challenging book you've ever read and why?"
'Ulysses'
"I have been an avid reader for many years. Thick and difficult books usually don't daunt me. 'Ulysses' by James Joyce has me beat, though. I just can't take the rambling about nothing at all and gave up 200 pages in."
- AppealAlive2718
Finnegans Wake
"'Finnegans Wake' by James Joyce: hold my pftjschute."
- A_Mirabeau_702
"'Finnegans Wake' is very similar to this for me. I tried to read both 'Ulysses' and 'Finnegans Wake' and never got too far with either, even though they fascinated me."
- TopRamenBinLaden
"'Finnegans Wake' is so much more difficult to understand than 'Ulysses,' in my opinion. 'Ulysses' is like a waking man’s stream of consciousness while 'Finnegans' is almost in a weird dream-like stream of consciousness that hits different readers in different ways. 'Ulysses' is Joyce playing with style/prose while 'FW' is him playing with language."
- philsqwad
Infinite Jest
"'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace."
"Every page has footnotes that are required to understand the story. All 1,000 of them."
- HeliosTheGreat
House of Leaves
"I'm reminded of 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski, where the footnotes are the story."
- Viltris
The Silmarillion
"'The Silmarillion' by J. R. R. Tolkien."
"It's like the Old Testament of Middle Earth. I couldn't do it."
- doug1963
Being Mortal
"'Being Mortal' by Atul Gawande."
"My Dad read it to prepare himself for his death from cancer. He gave it to me and said he hopes it brings me the comfort of his demise as it brought him."
"I can't get past chapter three. I cry each time I try to finish it. Ugly uncontrollable despair cry."
"It is a great book, it has helped me a lot. The author has some important insights into mortality. But six years on, I am still not there yet."
- ohno_spaghetti_o
Les Miserables
"'Les Miserables' by Victor Hugo, in French. I was a second-year French language student."
- bustedaxles
"I came here to say 'Les Miserables' in English. The plot, more plot, 50+ pages of the history of Paris's sewers, more plot, more plot, more extremely long history."
"I enjoy history but don't interject an extensive detailing of it in the middle of a story."
- XShadowborneX
Blood Meridian
"'Blood Meridian' by Cormac McCarthy. Judge Holden is one of the most disgusting yet intriguing characters in fiction I have ever read."
- Andrista
Reading Comprehension Who?
"I've read a bunch of Thomas Pynchon and Dostoevsky cover to cover and forget everything that happened in them."
"I find it very hard to reconstruct the words on the page into a movie in my brain. I might as well be reading a bunch of numbers. Pretty much all fictional books are challenging for me."
- JFKRFJSRVLBJ
Lolita
"'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov. It's an infamous book that has been historically misinterpreted, romanticized, and weaponized as a love story, when it's really the account of the sexual abuse and manipulation of a 12-year-old girl, written from the perspective of the abuser trying to convince the reader of his innocence."
"Some scenes are gut-wrenching when you actually read between the lines and keep in mind who is telling the story. It's the ultimate 'unreliable narrator.'"
- CascadingStyle
Intruder in the Dust
"Anything by William Faulkner. Specifically 'Intruder in the Dust,' because that is the one I actually read. It was a requirement for one of my college classes. It was awful."
"He doesn’t use punctuation. Sometimes a 'sentence' can go on for pages at a time."
- Nomadic_View
"'The Sound and the Fury' did me in. I had to read it for my last year of high school at a time when you couldn’t look up summaries and whatnot."
"It was just an uninterrupted stream of consciousness with barely any punctuation or flow. The definition of word vomit. I felt the mental equivalent of motion sick when I read it, and thinking back on it I can vividly recall these feelings, even several years later."
- FEDophilliac
Quantum Ontology
"'Quantum Ontology: A Guide to the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics' by Peter J. Lewis."
"The book focuses on the three dominant interpretations of Quantum mechanics from a viewpoint of metaphysical ontology (the philosophy of what exists and what is real)."
"I have read many popular books on Quantum physics both in English and in Dutch. I can say I understand 70% of what is written in those books. This book sparked my interest very much when I came across it."
"I did not understand any of it. I could not finish the second chapter as I had no idea what the h**l this guy was talking about. It grounded my smug a** for a while."
- Some_Belgian_Guy
Moby Dick
"'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville. Just chapter after chapter describing whales and the whaling process. This might have captured the imagination in the 1850s, but when you’ve been watching Attenborough documentaries since childhood, explaining how big a whale is becomes tedious."
- berserk_kipper
"I think people approach it wrong. It’s not a book about an exciting adventure, although it does have that, it’s a book about being bored at sea and reminiscing on life. I hate when people say you should only read the plot chapters. The point of the book is finding meaning in the dull things around you, and the writing is beautiful."
- Tippacanoe
David Copperfield
"This is a strange choice because it's a classic, but I struggled with 'David Copperfield,' because of the writing style, by the author, Charles Dickens, who wrote these long, drawn-out sentences, and it got to the point, as I was reading, where I would just start to count, in my mind, how many punctuation marks there were, in each sentence."
- neoprenewedgie
While we could take this conversation as sad, seeing as how there are books out there that some people do not like, it's better to take it as a reminder that not every book is going to be for us, and we have every right to put that book down and pick one up that we'll love instead.