43 replies to this topic

[electriic ink]

What is the worst book you've ever read and why?

[brandice]

I got about 4/5 of the way through Mommie Dearest before I threw it across the room. I know the poor girl had a hard life and her mother was horrible to her but it just seemed like "my famous mother is dead and now I am going to make a few bucks"

Maybe I was in a bad mood that day.

[electriic ink]

Or maybe the book was giving you a bad mood.

Sometimes that happens to me and them I totally go off the book and never wnat to see it again.

I was like that when I read Harry Potter :: The Chamber Of Secrets (Book 1) I got to page 2 and never read it again.

[Caveman]

I'd have to say A Handmaid's Tale. I don't even know who the author is, anymore. It's basically a rip-off of Orwell's 1984, except it revolves around more sexist issues. Horrendous, disturbing, and overall, a very unsatisfying read.

Be warned, people. NEVER READ THIS BOOK!

[biscuitrat]

I didn't really like Watership Down but that's because I don't like Richard Adam's style. I've read a lot of bad books...but I can't think of any at the moment...

[Music]

Hmmm, Why the cage bird sings and/or Cold sassy tree...Once i finished with them at school...I took them out in my garage...got my home made Squirtgun flame thrower out....and torched it.

Although I love books and literally have my own library...I could not stand those 2 books...

[saladferk]

My all-time worst book was Tuck Everlasting. The flesh was decent, but it was a romantic tragedy, and the ending SUCKED!!!!! Urgh... The whole thing could have been WAY better! it just wasn't any good...

[wasi]

It was this romance I borrowed not very long ago. And ugh it was terrible! It was set back in the day (1600's) and this man (bad word) this woman and she fell in love with him and they married happily. So stupid. Put me in a terrible mood. And give romances a bad name.

[sean]

Anything by Charles Dickens gives me the runs. Yeah, yeah, literary master, yada yada yada... he can't even describe blinking without taking up 4 and a half paragraphs. I know that he was paid by magazines per word, but that's still no excuse to milk Tiny Tim's death for every drop he could. Sheesh!

He could learn a thing or two from Hemingway or Carver.

[Mzeppelin]

Sounder, borrrring.

[ramon]

nice topic, cant really think of the worst book I've ever read, most likely because I have read so many that I cant remember all of them. Espesially the worst ones.
Anyway how about Windows xp for dummies or something like that.

[Noferura]

That is simple! It was "The Process" written by one of the most popular German (he lived in the Czech Republic) authors. Kafka.
The book seemed to me like thoughts of a man with serious psychological problems, but of course it is a masterpiece for everyone who studied (German) literature .

[Joshua]

ramon, on Apr 5 2005, 10:44 AM, said:

nice topic, cant really think of the worst book I've ever read, most likely because I have read so many that I cant remember all of them. Espesially the worst ones.
Anyway how about Windows xp for dummies or something like that.

I tried looking at the Koran before since someone asked me to and just starting off it talked about killing everyone in sight and raping young girls, which might not have been as bad as it was if it didn't use such EXTREMELY graphic terms...

Maybe I just got a bad english translation but...

Also, looking at stuff on Catholic doctrine (someone asked me to do it again) always is tough for me, not something I like, and reading through the extra books they've added to the Bible was a bit annoying, there was this one about a girl who had sex because she believed God told her to or something like that as well, something with a pharisee or something like that if I remember right, and I was just like *blecch*

[Evolke]

Well, so far I have not come across a book 'I Hate' seeing as I havnt read ever book in the world ... but books I struggle to read is the Lord of the Rings Series. I really want to read them, and Im definately not saying they are bad, I just cant read them! I read the first page and Im confused! LOL

[encryptedwrath]

the worst book I've ever read is kensukes kingdom by michael mopurgo. Second rate , good plot , but poorly delivered. Hard to get into

[callumms]

For me it has got to be Mister monday. Entirely unreadable , hard to understand and nothing explained about the plot as a whole. It was a poor , poor book

[GrinningKittie]

For me it was The Satanic Bible by Anton Levay. To this day I have never finished it. I instead threw it across the room. Hard.
Why was I reading it? A friend of mine loved it ( he thought he was Satanic but he was about as "evil" and "hardcore" as a lop eared bunny) and so to try and figure out where his views were and where he was coming from on things I took a stab at it. Now that I think about it I really should have stabbed the book. It was THAT bad. The first page gave you like the 11 statements of Satanism. That truely is all you have to read. The chapters are nothing more than long, hateful expansions on the small sentences on that first page. There is nothing educational or enlightening about the book nor does it have anything remotely entertaining about it. It's just full of wrath, hate and a self justified anger. The only kudos I can give Anton is making boogoo bucks off of 11 sentences. UGH! That book was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddd!

[thorne]

I'm probably the only one who will say this, but Conrad's Heart of Darkness is the one book I read that I truly, truly hated. I can't really pinpoint why...but I think it had something to do with the way the actions they observed were all "pointless." I'm sure the book is full of symbolism and has all sorts of deep meaning, but I was never really into that stuff...I just like a good read

[Vixen_Poetic]

Terry Goodkind's "bestseller" about the Seeker and the Mother Confessor (I can never remember the title) was barely endurable. I could see the world had more scope and potential to develop but the sequel blew the whole premise out of the water. That one I couldn't make it 1/3rd of the way in before I annotated a major flaw and put it down for good.

[suberatu]

I'm going to be honest and say Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Calling him a master of the English language is like calling Ghengis Khan a master of peaceful diplomacy. The book is utter crap in my opinion. Yes, it does do a good job of informing the reader what society was like at the time, but guess what - society was BORING under Puritan control. I read the first chapter, which was a 3 page description of a prison door and a rose (might sound interesting or poetic, but it's hardly either) and the first few pages of the second chapter. After that I simply couldn't take it. Overall, from what I read (and friends who actually read the book for English classes have informed me that the rest of the book fits this description as well), there are numerous pages dedicated to describing virtually insignificant actions which do not add to the plot or the experience (unless you consider the experience an exercise in literary torture or a cruel test of the boredom threshhold), and the reader doesn't feel much after completing the book other than "Wow, I've wasted a lot of time reading this book [or attempting to]."

[cangor]

I actually loved the Scarlet Letter, though I'll admit it was kinda tedious at times. but I hated A Separate Peace. Book was trash, and there was no real redeeming message from it other than war sucks.

[salamangkero]

I've read Signs of the Gods by Erich von Daniken It was an entertaining read, actually, if you're willing to suspend your disbelief. However, considering that it is a (supposedly) non-fiction "document" explaining in great detail nearly all paranormal phenomena occurring on Earth and space, going as far as quoting select passages from certain ancient writings and taking their message as a literal truth, this is a big joke. I know, I'm supposed to be laughing but I find myself more annoyed that amused that someone would so painstakingly find conspiracies and "evidences" of a much more colorful history without enough research, save propaganda, hypotheses and speculation to back them up.

I believe myself to be an open-minded person but this is simply too much! >_<

Edited by salamangkero, 29 February 2008 - 07:36 AM.

[bishoujo]

I borrowed this book called a Legacy of Hate. Forgot the author name, but it was some Irish soap opera story about how a horrible but beautiful woman seduced some guys which led to a legacy of hate and chaos for the next generation. It's full of crap.

[leobrazer]

The Rule of Four.

I did not understand what was happening.

[pritamkumar90]

I'm usually very careful about what i read. I dont read a book unless I'm quite sure that I'll like it......There was this one book which i picked just because it was a book by mario puzo and that it was a best seller. It's called ' The Family'
I read the whole book but it was kinda boring and it was very slow....