University of Kwazulu-Natal

On Reading Difficult Books Writing At Large

Bonisiwe Shabane
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on reading difficult books writing at large

Is there a book that you want to read but scares you? It’s too long, or too technically demanding, or its subject matter is challenging — is there such a book on your virtual or physical bookshelf? I have several such books waiting to be read. I also make a point to read several such books each year. They’re nearly always worth the effort. Goodreads and its annual reading challenge make readers favour short, quick reads, skim reading and light reading.

This is not by chance, but this isn’t a post about the failures of Goodreads as a platform. This is a post about reading difficult books, and the point is that if you want to challenge yourself you’re going to have to make a concerted effort on your own. You will have to motivate yourself because reading platforms and book clubs skew towards books that can be read quickly and relatively easily, and we’re being trained daily to shorten our attention span and... To read difficult books is to go against the grain, to retrain your mind to deep, meaningful thought, to long stretches of concentration, to a higher level of empathy. It’s the difference between a fast food burger and an evening with a 3 star Michelin chef showing off his best work. It’s worth it, but it costs more.

If you chose to go on that challenging but worthwhile journey, here are some tips to help you along the way: Jeremy Anderberg • September 3, 2019 • Last updated: October 28, 2025 In the last year, I’ve managed to finish a number of lengthy, sometimes hard-to-read books. Ron Chernow’s 900+ page tome on George Washington. 600+ dense pages on James Madison. Andrew Roberts’ massive biography of Winston Churchill.

(Yes, I’m into biographies.) A couple of Dickens’ novels — they’re all big. Melville’s American masterpiece, Moby-Dick. Robert Caro’s legendary, epic series on Lyndon Johnson. And most recently, all 1,400+ pages of Les Miserables. Even though these books were enjoyable, and I had a genuine interest in the subject matter, they were often hard to read, if for no other reason than their sheer volume. Large pages, small fonts, tiny margins.

Les Mis, because of its actual weight, had to be read sitting up, and often in a chair with an armrest because the thing was so dang heavy and unwieldy. (While I could have read an e-version, as I’ll explain below, I often prefer hardbound copies of classics, even if they’re harder to wrangle.) While Hugo and Dickens are a delight to read, the reality is that their language is so different from today that it takes brain power to really digest. And while those biographies I mentioned aren’t necessarily old, they are dense with facts, especially when you’re new to that person/time period. They’re just intimidating for folks who aren’t used to that type of reading which requires sustained focus and a bit of endurance. Before the last year or so, I would have probably counted myself in that camp.

I had tried to read Washington: A Life and gave up after a few hundred pages. I’d tried Moby-Dick and met a similar fate. The allure of a big, meaty book was great, and yet I couldn’t find the stamina to actually finish many. “Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not. And books that are over your head weary you unless you can reach up to them and pull yourself up their level.” — Mortimer Adler I’ve just finished reading The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist.

It took 10x longer than expected. What slowed me down was the numerous moments I sat back in awe at what I’d just read on the page (it’s profound—you should read it). But also the fact that it’s not an easy read. It’s certainly not something you can leisurely scan through and gain an understanding of the concepts. Thanks for reading Sam Matla! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

And tt’s been a good reminder of the value of difficult books. There’s something you get from reading hard books that you don’t get from easy books. And that something is what I want to explore in this post. You are seeing this because the administrator of this website has set up Anubis to protect the server against the scourge of AI companies aggressively scraping websites. This can and does cause downtime for the websites, which makes their resources inaccessible for everyone. Anubis is a compromise.

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I’ve read my fair share of the heavyweights. From Plutarch to Proust, Conrad to Camus, and Dante to Dostoyevsky. I used to struggle with the “greats”. After a few pages, I’d close the book with a headache and poor sense of self-worth. Was I stupid? Maybe I needed to return to Dr.

Seuss and retake my entire literary education… Well, I wasn’t stupid. I was just approaching these books the wrong way. Big difficult books remain inaccessible to most people for a reason: they require a unique set of reading tools and a completely foreign approach to reading. Unless you’ve dedicated a lot of time to tackling these works and managed to make it through the frustration, you probably don’t know exactly what is needed to appreciate them. That’s because no one ever tells you.

But I’m going to tell you right now so you can dive right in and start enjoying the big once-formidable classics. Here are the tips that I have learned through years of trial-and-error and stumbling through the classics. Follow this approach and you will be able to knock quite a few hefty volumes off your book bucket list. You’ll actually enjoy them and remember them too! Don’t rush to consume big difficult texts. You aren’t stretched out on a sun lounger thumbing through the latest Jackie Collins.

You’re reading Thoreau or Shakespeare or Homer. This is work. And you need to do your work properly. No half-assed jobs here. Is there a book that you want to read but scares you? It’s too long, or too technically demanding, or its subject matter is challenging — is there such a book on your virtual or physical bookshelf?

I have several such books waiting to be read. I also make a point to read several such books each year. They’re nearly always worth the effort. Goodreads and its annual reading challenge make readers favour short, quick reads, skim reading and light reading. This is not by chance, but this isn’t a post about the failures of Goodreads as a platform. This is a post about reading difficult books, and the point is that if you want to challenge yourself you’re going to have to make a concerted effort on your own.

You will have to motivate yourself because reading platforms and book clubs skew towards books that can be read quickly and relatively easily, and we’re being trained daily to shorten our attention span and... To read difficult books is to go against the grain, to retrain your mind to deep, meaningful thought, to long stretches of concentration, to a higher level of empathy. It’s the difference between a fast food burger and an evening with a 3 star Michelin chef showing off his best work. It’s worth it, but it costs more. If you chose to go on that challenging but worthwhile journey, here are some tips to help you along the way: In our modern era of instant information and bite-sized entertainment, reading intellectually challenging material can seem like an unnecessary burden.

Why struggle through a dense classic novel, a difficult philosophical treatise, or an intricate historical account when easier, more accessible options are available? However, those who embrace the challenge of “hard books” often find their intellectual lives enriched in ways that lighter reading simply cannot provide. In the context of classical education, where the cultivation of wisdom and virtue is paramount, reading hard books is not just beneficial — it is essential. Reading a difficult text requires patience, focus, and perseverance. When a book is challenging, the reader cannot simply coast through it in a passive way. Instead, he or she must engage actively, rereading passages, looking up words, and considering complex ideas.

This process strengthens the mind much like physical exercise strengthens the body. In an age where attention spans are shrinking, the discipline developed through reading demanding works is invaluable. A student who has struggled through The Republic by Plato, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, or The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer will develop the ability to sustain deep thought. This intellectual stamina prepares individuals for rigorous study in any discipline, whether in law, medicine, theology, or philosophy. Even more importantly, it enables them to engage with the weighty questions of life with clarity and insight. Many of the greatest works of literature, philosophy, and theology do not provide easy answers.

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