Amusingly, _Catch-22_ is the only book to make both this list (which focuses more on prestigious or famous books rather than books anyone tries to read) and also my list of most-dropped books compiled from GoodReads statistics: https://gwern.net/goodreads
I find that strange because I liked _Catch-22_ and found it easy to read! (And easier than _Genji_, _Solitude_, or _Brief History_.)
Boy am I glad to see American Gods on that list. I started reading it on someone else's recommendation, whom I obviously should not have trusted. I gave up halfway, convinced that Neil Gaiman is a pen name of Garth Marenghi.
To anyone who gave up American Gods: you're right, they're wrong.
I really enjoyed American Gods but it took me a long time to finish. I assumed it was because my attention span was getting worse but I hadn't considered that it was just a tough book to read. The books I've read since have been non fiction which are also slow reads for me which supported my, hopefully incorrect, hypothesis.
I really didn't enjoy Catch-22 because it felt like a short story dragged out to 200 plus pages, just repeating the same observation about war again and again each chapter.
I was forced to read Catch-22 for a college course (“The American Novel”) so maybe that helped, but I loved it. I remember walking through the hallways of my alma mater with the book in my face and suddenly succumbing to fits of laughter.
I find that strange because I liked _Catch-22_ and found it easy to read! (And easier than _Genji_, _Solitude_, or _Brief History_.)