I still find myself sleeping everytime I try to figure out "The
Roaring Nineties".
Oh, there are some books that do that to you. 
The trick is, if you really really wanna
finish reading the book, you can balance reading a few other books
in between. Now, I've picked up a few really 'dry'
non-fiction titles so I'm balancing reading two at the same
time. I remember years ago, I used to balance up to six at
one shot, all of different genre, fiction and non-fiction, to break
the monotony, and to train my mind to handle a few different themes
at the same time... sort of... 
All said, there have been one or two books which I absolutely
could not see to completion, no matter what! 
In such cases, best to just abandon ship...
er... book, and move on! Maybe, you and that book, just no
'yuan2 fen4'! 
