As a recent physics PhD in a European country, I went through Landau's books a number of times during my education. They were recommended (and sometimes require

As a recent physics PhD in a European country, I went through Landau's books a number of times during my education. They were recommended (and sometimes required) during my undergrad years, and it was a bit of a struggle. During graduate study I frequently found them concise and enlightening on some point I had forgotten, and I still use them as a reference every now and then. I think the same quality of efficiently getting straight to the point, without extraneous digressions or any hand holding, which makes them so highly valued by working physicists (at least in my experience) also makes them completely useless for self study without the necessary background knowledge. The Landau books aren't pedagogical, in any modern sense of the word. They're simply a concise, self-contained and rather well structured treatment of basic theoretical physics, almost unparalleled in their scope. Don't let them turn you off physics, though. You were simply unlucky in that you picked perhaps the worst possible famous textbooks for your particular goal. If it helps, most physics undergrads hate them with a passion too.