Mine would have to be "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard. While some parts were okay, it was entirely too weird for my tastes.
Anyway, since everyone seems to always ask for book recommendations here on Hatrack, I thought I'd start a thread devoted to book hating. If there's a book you've read but couldn't stand, tell us about it. We want to know (Maybe).
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Tess of the D'Urbervilles. What an annoying and depressing book.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
I finshed six whole books in the Left Behind series. And I'll never have that time back. Fortunately, it wasn't a lot of time.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
Galactic Guerrilla by David Maine. Not sure about the title, I "retranslated" from Romanian. It's all that non SF-fans think SF is about. And it's bad. Really bad. I have no idea why I finished it, actually...
Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg could be close but some (few) of the stories in it were in fact interesting, so I can't say it was a total waste of time. And this one wasn't bad... Just not interesting. The style was ok but the fact that it was actually a collection of short stories meant that you didn't get to know any of the characters and most of the plots were borderline boring.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
That woman's Gate book. I really hated it.
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
Tommyknockers by Stephen King.
I sorta got into that book. It was looooong, but it was interesting enough that I wanted to read to the end just to see what happens. Let me put it this way. After spending several hundred pages building up the story, the ending read like King got a call from his publisher saying "Look, you've been writing this damn thing for 2 years. If I don't have a finished manuscript on my desk tomorrow you can just forget the whole deal." So, it read like King just pulled some random ending out of his hind-quarters, tacked it on and sent it in. Talk about feeling ripped off. Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
"Flowers in the Attic", V.C. Andrews. What can I say, I was stuck at the airport.
Posted by bunbun (Member # 6814) on :
Airport reading has severely compromised my standards on a few occasions. I've taken to just re-reading It by Stephen King if pressed. It's usually in the airport book shop, for some reason.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Wizard's First Rule Posted by Crotalus (Member # 7339) on :
KarlEd, I didn't read Tommyknockers, but I got the same feeling at the end of 'It' and at the end of 'The Dark Tower' (Book VII). King just falls apart at the end sometimes. Actually I pretty much hated DT 7 all the way through, but I had been following the story for approximately what 16 or 17 YEARS. What a let down.
But by far the worst book I've ever read was...Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I think you have to be on acid or something for it to make sense.
Posted by TheSeeingHand (Member # 8349) on :
Thats sucks because I'm in the middle of The Dark Tower (book 7).
Worst book ever: Closing Time: The Sequel to Catch-22.
There was no story at all really and eveything was just retarded. The ending was horrible. After I finished this book I decided that some books aren't worth finishing.
And Catch-22 was no gem either.
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
By far the worst book I've ever read is To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert A Hielien.
I love RAH, but as he got older, he got to be a dirty old man, and this is the pinicale of his dirtiness. This one didn't get published (for a good reason) until after the Grand Master's death.
Basically 400 pages of how he really really wanted to get it on with his mother, sisters, brothers, father, daughters, sons, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmaw and grandpaw and the family dog. At time explicit in its description of incest, this book put me off reading for nine months.
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
This is easy. It’s the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” I’m still trying to figure out why people like it. Horrible book.
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
Wow, some people have very different tastes. By which I mean I can't imagine disliking some of these books.
Atlas Shrugged. Unbelievable capitalist soap opera.
Posted by jexx (Member # 3450) on :
I've *started* lots of bad books (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, for one, lordy), but usually I will put a book down if it just doesn't interest me. My mom will finish any book she starts (poor mom, it's a compulsion of hers), but I don't have a problem walking away.
Two books in recent memory:
*American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis I loved the movie, and for some reason, I finished the book. Mostly so I could be absolutely certain that Ellis was indeed as hacky as I thought. Yup. Who told that man he could write?
*Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs This was just awful. Awful and abusive. I wanted to scrub my brain when I was done. I kept thinking "surely something GOOD will happen to this person at some point, surely there will be a redeeming epiphany of some kind". Nope. H*ll to the Nope (as Whitney Houston might say).
Posted by Swampjedi (Member # 7374) on :
Aftermath by Levar Burton. The message of "nonwhite good, white baaaad" really started grating on my nerves.
Who would write a book where the white people seek to kill black people to steal the dark skin, anyways?
Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
I've got you beat, Tante. Not only did I read Flowers in the Attic, I also read the sequel, Petals on the Wind I think it was called. I felt thoroughly ill by the ending, and swore I would not read any more in the series.
I'm a compulsive reader, so I generally finish what I start, regardless of how bad it is. Except for William Gibson's Neuromancer. I started that one twice and never could get through it. But I've found that I just can't stand the cyber-punk genre in general.
Lorna Doone, by Richard Blackmore was pretty bad, too. Quite a lot of his prose was just impenetratable.
My husband just pointed out that Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson was the worst book he's finished.
--Mel
Posted by xnera (Member # 187) on :
Some Piers Anthony book. I don't recall the title.
My attention span seems to be shortening these days. Or maybe I'm just picky. A book's got to be REALLY good for me to sink into it and have a good chance of finishing. I'm currently in the middle of about six different books because I keep getting bored and distracted.
Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
Nightseer by Laurel K. Hamilton - Although it appeared in paperback recently, it's a "reissue" of a 1992 publication. And it is really really awful. It reads like a draft from a very inexperiences writer that needed a strong editorial hand and an extensive re-write. It needed things like a little backstory, character development. I couldn't find it listed on Hamilton's website - that tells me she's not eager to have people get their hands on it.
Posted by rCX (Member # 8503) on :
I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven. I remember being forced to read it in the 8th grade. I don't remember much of the plot except that I couldn't stand the book and the main character died in the end.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I think a lot of people are listing books they didn't like, which is different to my mind than books that were really bad. Sort of like with the overrated/underrated movies thread. Most of the movies I listed in those were ones I liked but thought their press was better or worse than they deserved.
The worst book I have ever read all the way through, though...I usually put it down if I don't get into it. There are, I'm sure, many, many books people here probably liked on the list of books I Will Never Pick Up Again.
I like depressing books much better than depressing movies, for some reason. But the worst book I ever read all the way through... Would have to be something by Laurell K. Hamilton. I read her stuff, and enjoy it in a Guilty Pleasure sort of way. But I admit the last few Anita Blake stories (especially the last one... what was it? Threesomes R Us?) and probably most (if not all) the Merry Gentry stories, suck @$$. I think I read them because they make me laugh, and I can turn to Ron and say, "Oh, honey, listen to this--" and we can laugh together.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
I would probably say one of the Wheel of Time books. I think book seven or eight. At that point you can't really tell them apart anyway.
700-800 pages of nothing much happening, and then 50-60 pages where a conflict happens. I'm not even exaggerating. Books 6-8 were all that way, from the little of them I remember.
Posted by Gryphonesse (Member # 6651) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: "Flowers in the Attic", V.C. Andrews. What can I say, I was stuck at the airport.
You're not alone. I had read EVERYTHING in my house at least twice, and I needed something to read. I was EMBARASSED. I hoped I didn't croak and have someone find me holding a VC Andrews book... Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. No contest whatsoever. I'm not even going to dignify that one by italicizing its name.
Posted by CStroman (Member # 6872) on :
Talented Mr. Ripley.
Bleh. There wasn't anything attractive about the characters, story or anything....
I also have to limit how many "Misery Drinker" filled books I read. Too much depression and tradgedy isn't healthy IMO.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
Has anybody read Stanislaw Lem'sMemoirs Found in a Bathtub? That's one book that goes beyond bad, and around and around until it reaches good again. If you actually manage to make sense of it, it means you're downright crazy! Oh, and I have great respect for Lem for writing it and actually managing to sell it! It's like those "modern" paintings that show a red dot on a white canvas and everybody wonders at the depth of the meaning that can be found in the painting! Only Lem's book is like a painting full of different colored dots and you have to find the hidden image... that doesn't exist! o_O Up to now I'm the only person I know that has actually finished it. :proud; I guess:
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
I hated the movie Talented Mr. Ripley. Sure as hell won't read the book!
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon: L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. No contest whatsoever. I'm not even going to dignify that one by italicizing its name.
I just saw the movie (After 6 attempts catching parts on TV) and finally decided I actually did want to see what happened. I don't feel much desire to read much from Hubbard, though I am very greatful for the little writing contest he started (If I ever get my writing butt to sit down long enough to rework the first drafts I have, I'll try and enter it again) Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Seconding Noemon's nomination. I had to force myself to complete it. And that was before I watched the movie - which at least ended at roughly the point where the book turned awful.
Posted by Snarky (Member # 4406) on :
I'll second Icarus: Wizard's First Rule. I don't know why I even started on the sequels.
Also, Permutation City by Greg Egan. It's undoubtedly the worst, preachiest, boringest, book I've ever read.
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
quote:Originally posted by Goody Scrivener: Seconding Noemon's nomination. I had to force myself to complete it. And that was before I watched the movie - which at least ended at roughly the point where the book turned awful.
Well, the movie turned awful about the time John Travolta made his appearance. Actually, I never have seen the actual beginning of the movie, so I'm not sure where it turned awful. I just remember it being that way when I started watching it.
Posted by CStroman (Member # 6872) on :
quote:I hated the movie Talented Mr. Ripley. Sure as hell won't read the book!
As a wannabe Filmmaker I try to read any books that are made into films first to gain my own interpretation of it before I see how someone else has done it.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
quote:Originally posted by Boris: [QUOTE]Well, the movie turned awful about the time John Travolta made his appearance. Actually, I never have seen the actual beginning of the movie, so I'm not sure where it turned awful. I just remember it being that way when I started watching it.
Yeah, the movie royally stunk. As I recall, it was even nominated for (maybe won?) a Razzie for being so completely terrible. I liked the book, though, up until right about where the movie ended. But I seriously slogged through the second half and kept making myself go back to finish. I don't think I've ever NOT finished a book before...
Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
quote: I would probably say one of the Wheel of Time books. I think book seven or eight. At that point you can't really tell them apart anyway.
Thread Drift Alert!
OK, I know this is supposed to be about the books we've finished, but I found a copy of "The first part of book one of The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan lying around the office. It has a big blue "FREE" circle embossed on the cover.
I couldn't get past the prologue, which read like a parody of stock fantasy literature. Can anyone explain to me why people read this series? Does it get less awful?
Posted by Ben (Member # 6117) on :
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.
mainly because of how ill the book made me feel
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I tried for months to read the first WoT book, and kept having to re-read starting with the first chapter, because I kept falling asleep. I don't think I ever made it through the first chapter.
OSC says that writers do not compete with other writers, that a writer's natural enemy is the nap.
Naps:15 Robert Jordan: 0
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
quote:Worst book ever: Closing Time: The Sequel to Catch-22...
And Catch-22 was no gem either.
So right on the first count. I think it would qualify as my entry in this thread if I had ever bothered finishing it.
But sooooo wrong on the second count. Still in my top 3 books of all time.
Also, I enjoyed Dark Tower: VII. But does that make you feel better or worse, given our split tastes? Posted by UofUlawguy (Member # 5492) on :
sndrake:"Can anyone explain to me why people read this series? Does it get less awful?"
I don't understand how the second book ever got written, because there is almost nothing good about the first book. But the truth is that it does get a lot less awful. The second book is great fantasy, the third is even better, and the fourth is one of the best ever written. Unfortunately, this (as of now) ten book series peaked at the fourth book.
And, while I'm here, I'll add the worst book I ever finished. It's Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, also known as Fanny Hill. It was assigned reading in a course on eighteenth century British novels. The professor had selected Libertinism as the theme for the semester.
I understand that Cleland was horribly ashamed in later years for having written this book. I'm surprised he didn't take his own life.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote:Can anyone explain to me why people read this series? Does it get less awful?
Here is my approximate rating of my enjoyment of the series by memory...
Book four I liked pretty well, for my own reasons. Then it just kept getting worse and worse, with some exceptions. (For instance, there was one book around 6 or 7 which I enjoyed the end of, but I don't remember which one it was) If I remember correctly, book 8 was the absolute worst, with 800 pages there wasn't a single plot advancement. Book 9 was an improvement (something happened to advance the plot).
The only reason I read past book five was because I already bought the set. I won't be buying any more.
Edit: I wrote this before UofUlawguy's post, so its interesting to see that he also liked book 4 a lot. It was after I enjoyed book 4 so much that I went out and bought books 5-8. Big mistake .
Posted by pfresh85 (Member # 8085) on :
In regards to the Wheel of Time series, I've only read all the way through books 1 and 2, and I've enjoyed them quite a bit. I'm on book 3 at the moment. I have heard (on other boards) that the series goes downhill after book 4, and like Xavier said that book 8 was the worst with no plot advancement at all. Sort of sad that, because books 2 and 3 are quite good in my opinion.
Back on topic, I'm not much of a literature person. Some of it I like, but a lot of it I hate. So when I decide what book is the worst I've ever finished, I usually pull from the pile of books I had to read for school. I'm going to leave it as a tie for worst book I've ever finished: Emily Bronte's Wurthering Heights and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Both I found to be poorly written (or at least that's how I took it) and with lackluster plots. There was nothing to grab me at the start, the middle was just as dull, and the ending left me wondering "Why did I ever read this book?" As I said though, I'm not really a literature person, so take it for what you will.
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
*dies seeing pfresh's recommendations*
Mine's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I've been trying to read Fire Upon the Deep by Vintnor Vinge for a month now. I officially give up. Life is too short to read stupid books.
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
"Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury. Nothing happens. It's about "a 12-year old boy's magical summer and his exuberance at the wonders of being alive" which is a fancy way of saying "Nothing happens." Go outside on a nice day, take a deep breath. Wasn't that fun? Now you don't have to read the book.
I had to read it for American Novels class in high school. It was one of the books that they had old copies of and would be reordering, so we could keep our copies if we wanted. I did. My hobby for the next month was mutilating that book in every way my deliquent teenage brain could think up. It got ripped, stabbed, bent, soaked, thrown, beaten, burned, exploded, buried, dug up, torn into confetti, burned again, etc, etc, etc.
--Enigmatic
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I loved Dandelion Wine!
Posted by johnsonweed (Member # 8114) on :
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
quote: I found a copy of "The first part of book one of The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan lying around the office. It has a big blue "FREE" circle embossed on the cover.
While I haven't read them, this issue took up several hours once when I worked at a bookstore. What you read is not the current first book. At first, they published the two books in two parts, gave away the first part and then people had to purchase the second part if they wanted to finish it. When it was combined to one book, changes were made. So maybe the current first book is better than what you read.
I started Dandelion Wine several times and couldn't finish it because it was so boring.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
It was published as one book first and then split in half for younger readers, I think. The first Wheel of Time book was definitely just one book when I read it twelve years ago.
Posted by Sister Annie (Member # 8480) on :
quote:Originally posted by Snarky: I'll second Icarus: Wizard's First Rule. I don't know why I even started on the sequels.
I'll see you and raise you. I read the first SIX BOOKS of the stupid series, all because this boy I loved thought they were the best thing ever created and I needed an excuse to keep having to borrow his books and talk to him about them.
It's OK, though - I awoke from that dark stupor and realized how awful they were and my choice was reaffirmed when I saw that boy a few years later and he was raving about The DaVinci Code.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Confession time: I read the Flowers in the Attic series when I was a teenager and loved them. I've carried that as a dirty secret all these years, and now :sob: the truth is out....
I doubt I could stomach them now.
I liked To Sail Beyond the Sunset too.
And I liked Fire Upon the Deep.
I have tried to read several Stephen Brust books without any success whatsoever. I've never finished any of them except To Reign In Hell, which I seem to recall disliking.
One of the worst books (aside from the Left Behind series, which became unreadable) I've read was Pride and Prescience, which looked like fun on the shelf, but in fact was a mockery. It's marked as a mystery and is in the mystery section of the bookstore, but it's not much of a mystery, and probably fits Scifi/Fantasy better. The thought that Eliza Bennett could get into Spiritualism at all was beyond bizarre, but the ending was sacrilege.
I finished the book because I wanted to know how it ended, but as a "sequel" to a much beloved book it failed utterly. The author did things to the characters I thought were as almost as much a desecration as what the movie First Knight did to Arthurian legend. I was actually offended at the presumption, not only of the author but of the publishers.
Posted by Tinros (Member # 8328) on :
"Death Be Not Proud." I forget who wrote it, but it was required reading for Sophomore Honor's English, and I hated it with a passion. Our calss complained so much they took it off the required reading list.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sister Annie: I'll see you and raise you. I read the first SIX BOOKS of the stupid series, all because this boy I loved thought they were the best thing ever created and I needed an excuse to keep having to borrow his books and talk to him about them.
I think I was going to the library to get the fourth when it struck me that I could not read the rest of the series and be perfectly happy. It was like a great weight lifted off my shoulders.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Me, I like much of Piers Anthony's work. Portrait of the Artist, Atlas Shrugged, and Dandelion Wine are NOT bad books. They may not be to your taste, but they are not badly written.
On the other hand, after reading Herbert's "Dune", I felt compelled to read every book in the whole series. After enough of those, it was like torture. I should have just stopped and cut my losses. But I kept returning the books to the library and checking out the next one. I tried to read them super-fast to get it over with quickly. Ugh! Like taking medicine!
Note: The series now continues, written by Son of Herbert. The new series is more competantly written than the one by Herbert Pere. And the compulsion has returned; I've read all THOSE, too. But they are not painful.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Tangental observation: You know the Pern books...Todd McCaffery (Son of Anne) is writing them now too, and his aren't bad. I liked his first solo effort and the one he did with his mom.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
The book I wrote in HS. God I get prickly feelings of ick just thinking about it.
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: The book I wrote in HS. God I get prickly feelings of ick just thinking about it.
Yeah. That was just awful.
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
My vote would probably be one of the stylistically turgid anthropology or sociology books I read back in college -- something by Durkheim or Weber, say. I've no respect for academics who can't write, and I think most of the time they write dense prose on purpose to conceal how few ideas they actually have.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
quote:I'll see you and raise you. I read the first SIX BOOKS of the stupid series, all because this boy I loved thought they were the best thing ever created and I needed an excuse to keep having to borrow his books and talk to him about them.
This has happened to me several times, and it usually ends with me rethinking my crush. One boy from my freshman year LOVED the Elric books, and I was mad about the boy, but I still couldn't make through a single book. And I honestly tried. It didn't kill the crush, but later when it was time, it definitely helped me in getting over him. Seriously - Elric. Sheesh.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
It was a birthday gift from my now-ex. We didn't divorce over this, but the gift was symptomatic of a few things.
Posted by Lady Starkiller (Member # 8508) on :
The Mists of Avalon. I've never understood why so many people consider this a good book; not only did I strongly dislike the plot and characterization, the tone and style grated on me. The only reason I finished it was that it was the only book I had handy on a two-day train ride.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
I couldn't finish The Mists of Avalon. But I agree.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I lOVED DIckens! Especially Great Expectations. Of course, I read it of my own free will when I was 12 or 13, after playing Estella in a one-act play at school. God, I loved that role.
But I admit, it probably pre-disposed me to like the book. However, I went on to read many more of his books and enjoyed most of them.
Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :
Lord Jim. It took me FORVER to read that book, and it was so dull. I actually like the storyline itself, but it was written in the most boring possible way. I didn't really like Wuthering Heights, either. Partly because everyone in it was insane, and kept doing the worst thing they could do in the situation.
Posted by Rico (Member # 7533) on :
Worst book?
Cold Sassy Tree... I had to finish that for summer reading once and it bored me to tears. To this day, I can't even remember what that book was about, only it's dreaded name!
I'd also like to throw in Anthem into the mix. Did not like it at all.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
Eruve..
quote: didn't really like Wuthering Heights, either. Partly because everyone in it was insane, and kept doing the worst thing they could do in the situation.
For some reason, that is exactly why I liked it. But then, I have not read it since I was a melodramatic, angsty (pre/)teen.
Posted by Sister Annie (Member # 8480) on :
quote:The book I wrote in HS. God I get prickly feelings of ick just thinking about it.
Heh. Last night I re-read the book I wrote last fall and it made me shake my head and sigh. At least I can recognize these things quickly.
Posted by Sweet William (Member # 5212) on :
David Copperfield
In OSC's Saints, I was getting a bit of a Dickensian feel, and I was Sooooooooooo glad that it didn't take the ENTIRE BOOK for the characters to escape it.
I loved A Tale of Two Cities, but most Dickens books are 498 pages of suffering and 2 pages of Money Ex Machina "happy" ending. I just can't take that much punishment.
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
THere's one book I had to read in fourth or fifth grade-- it was agonizing. For the longest time, I couldn't remember the title or the plot, just that it happenned in the dark ages. I remember the year it took place though (1066) so now I think I can guess what the book was about.
--j_k
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I loved the first and last chapters of A Tale of Two Cities. The rest was not so good.
Posted by Tinros (Member # 8328) on :
I loved Anthem AND Cold Sassy Tree! They took some of the stupidity out of having to Read Death Be Not Proud, and aforementioned.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Ah, finally remembered the name of it! It's called The Warrior Within. It's this stupid, cliche story about some Lamanite warrior who visits a modern-day kid (Mormon, of course) who is struggling to "choose the right" because he lives in a town with very few Mormon kids. He eventually has to decide whether to date a girl or not after he finds out she's not a virgin, even though she wants to stay chaste now. There's a lot of other stuff I didn't appreciate in there, too. And the worst part is, there's a ton of editing mistakes! The spelling and grammar are so abysmal, I almost didn't get through it. (I was reading it because it was there and something I hadn't read before.) Oh, it was horrid. There was another book about some Mormon kid who's a baseball player and who lost a leg or something that I couldn't get more than a chapter into because the spelling and grammar are so bad, but this was the worst one I actually finished. *shudders*
Posted by CStroman (Member # 6872) on :
BTW good thread. :thumbsup:
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
quote: It was published as one book first and then split in half for younger readers, I think. The first Wheel of Time book was definitely just one book when I read it twelve years ago.
What I was referring to were not the youth books. I think it was a promotion when it first came out. The first book was clearly marked free like sndrakes's. However, I've been trying for about forty minutes to find proof of my claim and I can't. So I dunno. Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
No worries. It probably just means that you're crazy and imagined the whole thing.
Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
quote: This is easy. It’s the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” I’m still trying to figure out why people like it. Horrible book.
Are you kidding me? I think it's the greatest Sci-Fi comedy book ever written. And probably the funniest BOOK I've ever read. It's also possibly the best place (trilogy of books) ever to get quotes from.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
quote:Originally posted by katharina: I loved Dandelion Wine!
Me too. Because that boy had the same feeling I had growing up. I had never read about the sudden happy feeling of knowing you're alive before. I also loved Running with Scissors in a "It's too freaky to be made up" sort of way. But none of these books could suck more than Gate to Women's Country did. What is the use of keeping those stupid warlike lunky men around? Just for sex while the servitors who are much better men get to be practically eunuchs. How is that fair? They are the ones that father all of the children, yet no one wants to have sex with them. Lame.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Worst Book I Ever Finished Reading:
Oh, heavens, it's such a complete tie:
Black House, Peter Straub/Steven King & The Alienist, Caleb Carr
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Atlas Shrugged is an awful book. 600+ pages of the same story told three times. I would have said it, but the thread title was the worst book I ever finished. This is one of two books I ever failed to finish.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is an awful book too. Self-indulgent, self-conscious, and self-absorbed. It's just not as bad as Wizard's First Rule, though.
And I've read every book in the series. >_<
-o-
Wizard's First Rule is actually not the worst book I ever finished, though. Just the worst one I figured anybody would have ever heard of. The worst book I ever read (worse than Atlas Shrugged. even) was this one. It was given to me as a gift, and it's the most offensive, laughably badly written tripe ever. And the average customer rating is four stars!! Even with one person who only gave it one star! This makes me wonder if this is a pretty typical example of "Christian Fiction," and if the standards are just low in that field. I wish I were enough of a hack to capitalize on that.
I thought about a thread asking this question at the time I read it, but I didn't because I sort of know the author, and I was afraid of someone stumbling across my thread. (This is why I neither wrote the title of the book nor the author's name. Hopefully no Google hits that way.)
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Scott R, I thought you said you didn't finish Black House . . . ?
I thought it started of just awful, but it got better. Not great, but not nearly the worst book I've ever read. If that's the worst one you read you are truly blessed.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Guys, you just don't know what's good.
Dickens, good. Bronte (either of them), good. Ayn Rand, not a delight, but not awful.
And I liked "Saints", too.
You guys probably don't like Theodore Dreiser, either.
Barbarians!
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
I liked Battlefield Earth both the book and the movie, but the bok I'ld say that I never finihsed would be "The Bear and the Dragon" by Tom Clancy. I liked the Russian plotline but everything else was the equivilent of America being the ultra good guy that akes no mistakes whatsoever and achieves the impossible in getting a spy in the Politbureau.
Right.... Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
Ever read This Present Darkness? I gave up on page 91, and had to endure months of hearing my fellow students praise it. Mostly because it was the only Christian fiction like that at the time. Peretti lets you 'see' spiritual influences opressing people, etc.
For a lot of people, it was a revelation to thgink of things that way. All it did was give me flashbacks to zealots holding me down and praying for my 'deliverance' so, natch *shrug*
But it doesn't count 'cause I never finished it. I was sitting with my mother in the hospital for some minor procedure. It was the only book I had with me, and I couldn't pick it up once I had put it down.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I'm with Tante, more or less Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
<dances with Olivet to the strains of Carmina Burana>
Hooray! A non-Barbarian! More or less.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Gosh, I liked This Present Darkness. I didn't love it, but it was okay.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
I was waiting to see if Tom posted out here. I recently sent him my copy of the second book in Ricardo Pinto's series The Stone Dance of the Chameleon
I just wanted to see if he selected Book 1 (The Chosen) or Book 2 (The Standing Dead), or the as-yet-to-be-written Book 3 as the worst book he's ever finished reading.
For me, it's Book 2, but I'd like to reserve a slot for Book 3, which I'm sure will never be written. There are so many holes and loose ends in the first two books that I suspect the author will implode before ever finishing this series.
So... Book 2 with a possible slot for book 3.
By the standards of Mr. Pinto's writing, Atlas Shrugged and Battlefield Earth are works of simple beauty.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
As Christian Fiction goes (or should I say went at the time) it was a masterpiece.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
<-- wouldn't know
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Saints was not so bad, but I was frustrated when the main character left her children behind. I cannot even say what book recently frustrated me even though I finished it.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Oh, that tore my heart, but I sympathized with it.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
I liked Saints. I thought it was the most honest presentation of the subject that I've ever seen. It made no excuses. Definately a good tool for understanding.
And Jon Boy- Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
It's interesting to read everyone's different tastes.
I definitely enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, can't stand Dickens in any quantity (I don't think it's bad; I just don't enjoy reading it), and enjoyed Dark Tower VII. I can't count the last book of the WoT series, because I couldn't force myself to finish it.
I would have to say, though, that the book I most regretted finishing was Stephen King's Gerald's Game. I was very much a strong Stephen King fan until that book.
And, though I don't think it's bad, I also disliked reading The Great Gatsby.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Oh, and I enjoyed Great Expectations.
The thing with Atlas Shrugged is that it literally is the same story three times, and if you read The Fountainhead, it is the same story as that, but at least in The Fountainhead you only have to read it once! I've been trying to think of how it was that I could put a book down (because my O/C normally makes that impossible for me), and I think what it comes down to is I decided two-thirds of the way through that I had finished the story, three times, in fact (because I had read The Fountainhead) and therefore it wasn't stopping reading something, but simply deciding not to read it again. Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
quote:Mostly because it was the only Christian fiction like that at the time. Peretti lets you 'see' spiritual influences opressing people, etc.
For a lot of people, it was a revelation to thgink of things that way. All it did was give me flashbacks to zealots holding me down and praying for my 'deliverance' so, natch *shrug*
Yes! Precisely! (And in this case, how Hindus, arabs, Wiccans, and people who do yoga are all actively in league with Satan, just want to kill white Christians, etc etc.
[ August 19, 2005, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Icarus ]
Posted by Ophelia (Member # 653) on :
These were the first three things we had to read for AP English my senior year, each one worse than the next. When we finally got to our fourth reading, Oedipus, everyone sighed in relief at finally getting to read something remotely interesting.
First was Ethan Frome. However many pages of pure boredom, and then two of the main characters try to kill themselves by sledding into a tree. And fail. So then we get their crippled whining. Urgh. The paper that I wrote on that book was my only truly awful grade on a high school paper, mostly because I could not bring myself to look back in the novel for relevent quotations.
Next came Promethius Bound. A whole freaking play where the main character is chained to a rock whining about how Zeus wronged him, when he is guilty of breaking a law that Zeus had clearly defined ahead of time. Too bad, Promethius, but I don't feel sorry for you. You knew what you were doing was a crime, idiot. Stop whining and take your dang punishment like a man.
Third, and by far the worst, was As I Lay Dying. I don't like talking to really, really, really stupid people. I also don't like reading about really, really, really stupid people. Especially when it's "stream of consciousness" and I have to read it as they think. Although I still don't believe that even really, really, really stupid people think like that.
Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
There were a lot of books that I was forced to read in 11th and 12th grade that I absolutely despised, but then I'm not sure I actually finished any of them. For example I found The Scarlett Letter and Wuthering Heights to be incredible bores and Catch-22 to be just plain offensive, but I never finished any of them.
Posted by Ophelia (Member # 653) on :
quote: Note: The series now continues, written by Son of Herbert. The new series is more competantly written than the one by Herbert Pere. And the compulsion has returned; I've read all THOSE, too. But they are not painful.
No. No, no, no. I read the first prequel. While I thought the story was interesting, more interesting than the story of the 6th book of the original series (which I agree was . . . ungood, compared to, say, the first three), I could not go on to read the second prequel because the writing was just. So. Painful. Honestly, I could have written it better, and I was probably 16! It was horrible.
*wishes Leto II were still here to back this opinion up*
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
>>Scott R, I thought you said you didn't finish Black House . . . ?
Like a dog to its vomit. . .
I was working later, which made my commute longer-- I turned to the overdue audiobook for comfort.
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
Iccy, it's okay that you don't understand Ayn Rand. No need to overcompensate. Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: Me, I like much of Piers Anthony's work. Portrait of the Artist, Atlas Shrugged, and Dandelion Wine are NOT bad books. They may not be to your taste, but they are not badly written.
On the other hand, after reading Herbert's "Dune", I felt compelled to read every book in the whole series. After enough of those, it was like torture. I should have just stopped and cut my losses. But I kept returning the books to the library and checking out the next one. I tried to read them super-fast to get it over with quickly. Ugh! Like taking medicine!
Note: The series now continues, written by Son of Herbert. The new series is more competantly written than the one by Herbert Pere. And the compulsion has returned; I've read all THOSE, too. But they are not painful.
:dies:
The Dune prequels are something that should have never been written. In all honesty the authors seem some Dune fans with no writing talent. The whole action is so linear, the style... wait, what am I saying, there is NO style!!! Ugh... I've only been able to read them as a historic chronicle written by a very untalented writer. If I would have tried to read them for the entertainment value I would have left them after 10 pages. I've still to read the "Houses" books, but I'm not sure I'll ever do it... If they are like the Jihad prequels it's just not worth it. Those books are "action" books and for God's sake, Dune was NOT an action series. It was much more than that, it was deep, it was religious, it was philosophical! I'm really sad that someone can like the prequels better than the original series... Posted by Ophelia (Member # 653) on :
Right on, Corwin.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
The English Patient. Hated hated hated hated hated it. It was one meaningless scene after another.
Oh yeah, I hated the movie, too.
(As a side note, he's Sri Lankan, but living in Canada, and I know his relatives. They ones I've met are all a bunch of self-centred vain egotists.)
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Yes, because this is the first thing you want to see when you flip to a new page. :shrug:
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Corwin, IMO the House trilogy was MUCH MUCH better than the Jihad trilogy. It's teh 30-50 years immediately before Dune, explains why each of the major houses hate each other so vehemently in the current generations, etc.
Posted by MandyM (Member # 8375) on :
quote:Tommyknockers by Stephen King Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
I have to second those two and add that any long long LONG work by SK other than The Stand has been a terrible letdown. It is so sad considering most of his short fiction is wonderful.
I like other works by Dickens too but that one was forced upon me and I just never got into it.
I liked Sphere by Michael Crichton until the very end (pure drivel) so it goes on my bad list.
My number one has to be Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. And the sad thing is that The Pearl is one of my favorites. Maybe if Grapes had been the SIZE of The Pearl it would have been better.
Posted by Ophelia (Member # 653) on :
Oh, bothThe Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl are awful. Although The Grapes of Wrath was much, much harder to get through.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I'd list Grapes of Wrath, if I had actually finished it. I was forced to read it in school.
Still made an "A" on the paper. I made a list of themes we discussed in class, flipped through the book at random and made a case for something I found fit with one theme or another. I was so good at that BS, I almost went into Lit Crit. Decided I couldn't stand to do something so pointless and empty, even if my proffs (whom I really respected) thought I was 'brilliant'. I felt dishonest and dirty when I was praised for that crap. Couldn't do it.
On the other hand, I usually LIKE many books that people hate, or that people claim the only people who like them like them because they think they should.
So, who knows?
Posted by ? (Member # 2319) on :
The last few books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
And yet I'll still most likely keep reading them.
?
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
For really, really classic literature that was bad: I hated The Illiad. Incredibly repetitious writing style. Lengthy descriptions of battles between minor characters with the full geneaologies of each one given. I'm pretty sure there were parts where I dozed off multiple times per page.
At first I just thought that was how stories were written back then. But then I had to read The Odyssey and I liked it.
--Enigmatic
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
quote:The English Patient ... Oh yeah, I hated the movie, too.
Oh, preach it, sister; I could not STAND that movie.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
*high fives Megan and quid*
Posted by the_Somalian (Member # 6688) on :
"""""""""KarlEd, King just falls apart at the end sometimes.""""""""
That's because King--in his fantasy books--improvises his plots. In fact, the longer his work, the more it probably lacks the tight structure of his earlier works (carrie, the shining, Salem's Lot, etc). I first noticed this when I finished "The Stand." Simply put, the journey, the characters, and the overall situation are very intriguing but it felt at like at some point King decided, okay, now I'll have something big happen and end the book.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jon Boy:
quote:Originally posted by Sister Annie: I'll see you and raise you. I read the first SIX BOOKS of the stupid series, all because this boy I loved thought they were the best thing ever created and I needed an excuse to keep having to borrow his books and talk to him about them.
I think I was going to the library to get the fourth when it struck me that I could not read the rest of the series and be perfectly happy. It was like a great weight lifted off my shoulders.
I'll see that and raise you again! I read the first 3 and a half Work and the Glory books for precisely the reasons Annie mentioned above and I'll never have that time back again! It's gone!!
And, like Jon Boy said, it was a great relief when I finally gave up. (And it was an even greater relief when I gave up on that boy!)
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
I'm so sorry that a couple of you didn't like Great Expectations. I thought it was delightfully hilarious...but now that I think of it, it's my least favorite Dickens book.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Oh, thanks for mentioning Michael Crichton! Andromeda Strain was one of my top five worst books, and The Lost World was pretty darn bad, too. I felt like I was reading Jurassic Park all over again, but with slightly different characters and situations.
Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
Goodnight Moon.
No, wait - that was the best one I ever finished. I guess the worst would be Quirky Tales by Paul Jennings - too much superstition. It's OK, but a bit bland - and the jokes are a bit too childish for a 10 y.o.; it is a children's book, though, and I haven't read bad books recently.
Posted by the_Somalian (Member # 6688) on :
I'm wondering--why do we bother finishing bad books? If I progress into a book long enough and I'm not hooked and generally unmoved, I put it down.
Posted by Sister Annie (Member # 8480) on :
quote:I'll see that and raise you again! I read the first 3 and a half Work and the Glory books for precisely the reasons Annie mentioned above and I'll never have that time back again! It's gone!!
Ok, ok, you win.
Posted by Zarex (Member # 8504) on :
Worst book I've ever read, hmmmmm.
I would have to say Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Leguin.
And I actually sort of liked battlefield earth. It was one of the few books that took me longer than three days to finish.
Posted by Tinros (Member # 8328) on :
a farewell to arms
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
Olivet, I *heart* you. I'm the exact same way in English classes: I turn out papers that mean almost nothing to me, and my professors think they're awesome. It feels so... intellectually dishonest.
And it makes trouble between my English Lit. boyfriend and me.
But at least I know now there are other people who feel the same way. Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
Remember, though, that I've read some appalling books in Hebrew... But I don't count them here.
Posted by the_Somalian (Member # 6688) on :
""""Worst book I've ever read, hmmmmm.
I would have to say Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Leguin.""""
WHAT?!???
Posted by Zarex (Member # 8504) on :
Wizard of Earthsea, I can't stand that book. Another book that drove me nuts was the giver. Of course my hatred for that book is probably due to the fact that I was required to read it, and that it was just a less intense version of Brave New World, which I had already read.
Posted by Zarex (Member # 8504) on :
We generally finish bad books because we are being forced to read them. By classes, lack of other reading material, and such.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Either that or we're slightly OCD and just can't bear to leave something unfinished.
< ----is that way.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
<--- Is also this way.
But I'm not that way about bad movies. Fahim, however, is.
Posted by Will B (Member # 7931) on :
Devil Wind: a Dark Forces book. A throwaway paperback horror book for teens. I may still have it.
I finished it because it was so (unintentionally) funny!
Posted by Sister Annie (Member # 8480) on :
Sometimes I don't even finish books that I like.
Posted by Zarex (Member # 8504) on :
You're strange.
Posted by TheDisgruntledPostman (Member # 7200) on :
Racall, i hated that book.
Posted by TheDisgruntledPostman (Member # 7200) on :
wait, rascal
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
quote:Originally posted by Olivet: I'd list Grapes of Wrath, if I had actually finished it. I was forced to read it in school.
I never finished The Grapes of Wrath either. I was supposed to read it for a lit class in high school, but I just gave up and threw it across the room when it took something like three pages to describe a turtle crossing the road. Ridiculous. I say, if you've got to read Steinbeck, read "Travels with Charley" or "Story of a Novel". His nonfiction is much better than his fiction.
But, without a doubt the worst book I ever actually finished was Catcher in the Rye. And what makes it worse is that I've had to read it three different times for different classes. The first time was in 8th grade. I should have learned then. The second time was in a community college English class - I dropped that class rather than read the wretched thing again. The third time was for an upper division class in popular fiction, and I figured I'd go ahead and read it again, that maybe I had just been stupid in 8th grade. Nah. I was absolutely right. It was a horrible book.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Fortunately, it wasn't a lot of time.
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Oh, and I have great respect for Lem for writing it and actually managing to sell it! It's like those "modern" paintings that show a red dot on a white canvas and everybody wonders at the depth of the meaning that can be found in the painting! Only Lem's book is like a painting full of different colored dots and you have to find the hidden image... that doesn't exist! o_O Up to now I'm the only person I know that has actually finished it. :proud; I guess:
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
I lOVED DIckens! Especially Great Expectations. Of course, I read it of my own free will when I was 12 or 13, after playing Estella in a one-act play at school. God, I loved that role.![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
There's a lot of other stuff I didn't appreciate in there, too. And the worst part is, there's a ton of editing mistakes! The spelling and grammar are so abysmal, I almost didn't get through it. (I was reading it because it was there and something I hadn't read before.) Oh, it was horrid. There was another book about some Mormon kid who's a baseball player and who lost a leg or something that I couldn't get more than a chapter into because the spelling and grammar are so bad, but this was the worst one I actually finished. *shudders*
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Laugh]](graemlins/laugh.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
Ok, ok, you win.