What is your record number of attempts to read the same book/watch the same movie/etc... but falling asleep before finishing?

Tonight will be #3 attempt at Dune pt 2, but this sleeper will probably not awaken...

I’ve been taking bites of Infinite Jest for the past 20 years. Will likely finish this summer.

Ha, first thought was Dune as a kid. 4 attempts or so, but once past 100 pages, it finally latched on. 100 pages has stuck as a go/no go line since Dune.

8 1/2 took me three tries over 35 years. Verdict: Fellini can fuck off.

Suspiria

up to 3 unsuccessfuls now

first time, wasn't in the mood for that kinda supernatural horror, peaced

second time, was out in an uncomfortable outdoor showing, got too cold and back hurt, left midway

third time, got too tired to finish, pulled it back up the next night, someone called me during it and the call lasted a half hour

also The Thing took me three times to appreciate, mostly because I misunderstood the genius of it the first times and got bored, then watched it last year and loved it

Started watching The Cassandra Cat last week and even after advancing to the last part I remembered, I still only got to about the halfway point after three evenings. I think I've also dipped into the video release of Einstein on the Beach three or four times without having made it more than an hour in. I'm not good for long after dinner much these days, I'm afraid.

I really really really want to watch The Expanse but I get four or five episodes in every few years and then get busy with other things, then realise I can't remember what happens and try again.

Mad Men was a bit like that, then I got over my hump and devoured the whole thing in a matter of a few weeks.

I've tried and tried with the Wire. I must have seen the first two episodes a whole load of times. Then I made myself sit through the first three seasons, persevering, waiting for this supposedly amazing show to connect with me, but by s4 I knew I just didn't have it in me

I don't think I've made it through any Tarkovsky movie in one sitting.

Nowadays, I also never make it through an 8 hour workday without a little unscheduled snooze.

When I set out to watch Solaris I deliberately only watched an hour of it a day. And then the whole first hour was a guy driving down a Russian highway...

Would you have been riveted to the screen if I told you it was... a Japanese highway?

I think it took three or four attempts, restarting each time, to read Under the Volcano.
Films I almost always either watch in full or (rarely) abandon, but I had to make at least two attempts apiece to watch Faces and A Woman Under the Influence by Cassavetes. Never did finish Husbands.

I tried 100 Years of Solitude three times. I’m always engaged at the beginning and at a certain point it switches to the children of the earlier characters, or someone begat someone, and I lose the thread.

I've started Leonard Bernstein's Norton Lectures three times now

I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during all three Godfather movies when I was a teenager. I think the same channel must have been showing one a night for three nights, and my brother watched them all, so I tried to watch them all and did not succeed with any. I finally saw the first Godfather movie years later while housesitting for a weird old couple with no doors in their house and breaking up with my boyfriend. I have not tried again with the others.

Cow_Art, if you haven't done so yet you should skip to the last page of 100 Years of Solitude; it's amazing.

I need to hear more about Old People With No Doors.

I've made multiple unsuccessful runs at many universally acclaimed stone-cold classics that have been read and praised for centuries. The two that first spring to mind are: Don Quixote and The Divine Comedy. I've made it through the Inferno, but I despair of ever doing more than glance at the second and third volumes. As for the mad knight of La Mancha, I always petered out before 150 pages.

Making run #5 on Dune 2: electric snoozaloo...

re: don quixote, the back half is technically a sequel, too, right?

I kept falling asleep reading Tim Lawrence Love Is The Message last year. Did get through it though.
Took me months to get through a few films I had on memory stick cos I kept dozing off. Think I keep waking up minutes after the end of Rick & Morty double bills too.