Audiobooks aren't working for me

I tried to listen to Middlemarch on a free podcast - it was a disaster.  I am feeling a little hopeless about the prospect about finishing the book.  Given that feeling, I shelved the book and picked the next one up in the to read pile (I have about 6 books required for graduate school I've been cycling though - I'm stuck on all of them).  I picked up A Clockwork Orange.  I understand that it is a "required" or even "recommended" read.  However, the book is in a whole other dialect - it's a hybrid of English and an English/Russian mix.  More to the point, it has a three page glossary to go with the book.  I had started to just translate the book, skimming for all the foreign words and penciling in the English versions. While it isn't a long book, it isn't short either and as such I gave up and shelved the book.  I opted to rent the movie, in the hopes I would get a handle on the story and be able to grasp the book.  I stopped after 20 minutes of the movie. A Clockwork Orange, like Martin Amis' Money is one of those books I cannot abide.  I respect that it is art and like all art it does not need to or even strive to appeal to everyone.   But who does it appeal to is my question.