"The Most Boring Book" I read or tried to read

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by columbus

Second that I read less than 10% before throwing it at the wall. Even the local second hand book shop would not take it.

And also add State of fear by Michael Crichton.

Why must some authors become so self indulgent, I'll never wast money on either of their work again.

I think in King's case, nobody will edit him and risk losing their job. He's no longer a writer but a brand. A cash-machine. So he's allowed free-reign and the ability to contravene every one of the so-called rules he puts down in his book 'On-Writing'. Pity is, I loved most of his pre-accident stuff. One of the best writers out there.

[slayda]

The Lonesome Dove. I kept thinking it had some potential for getting somewhere (right up to the last paragraph of the last chapter, but it never did. It just finally (thank goodness) ended its rambling. Although it wasn't quite as bad as The Aztec or some of James Fennimore Cooper's stuff.

[Vaseline]

Pride and Prejudice

I only read it the whole way through because it was for school.

[Xenophon]

Vaseline:

When I read Pride and Prejudice in High School (for class, of course) I thought it was the stupidest, most boring book I had ever encountered. When I re-read it fifteen years later, I found it to be screamingly funny. Trenchant observations both of the society of the time and also of people-issues that never change.

Tastes change.

Xenophon

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by columbus

Second that I read less than 10% before throwing it at the wall. Even the local second hand book shop would not take it.

And also add State of fear by Michael Crichton.

Why must some authors become so self indulgent, I'll never wast money on either of their work again.

The used book store probably didn't take it back NOT because it was boring, but because they have tons of that title.

Stephen King's books are heavily remaindered - they print a huge amount and what doesn't sell is sold at the chains for (on average) about $4.98.

I'm a Stephen King collector, and the titles most collectible by him are his first books published by Doubleday.

There was a joke I had with my Stephen King friends when we acquired a new title by him, and it went something like this: "My God, you have a SECOND EDITION title by Stephen King!!!"


Don

[tech_au]

I tried to read Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson but the start is pretty boring. After about 50 pages where there is much detail expounded on the guy taking his kid to the park all the time rather than describing what the book is actually about I decided to give up.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

"My Life on an Oil Rig" was a boring read.

"My Life in the Shipyards" was a riveting one.

I don't know if you meant it, but your post was very punny.

[pilotbob]

I tend to recall _The Last of the Mohegans_ bored my out of my skull when I was made to read it in High School.

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Vaseline:

When I read Pride and Prejudice in High School (for class, of course) I thought it was the stupidest, most boring book I had ever encountered. When I re-read it fifteen years later, I found it to be screamingly funny. Trenchant observations both of the society of the time and also of people-issues that never change.

Tastes change.

Xenophon

That's the problem with force-feeding "adult" authors to teenage children - it just puts them off the "classics" for life. I was exactly the same with Dickens - forced to read "David Copperfield" in school and thought it was the more boring book ever. I only "rediscovered" Dickens 20 years later, in my late 30s, and thank goodness I did - he's now my favourite author!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I tend to recall _The Last of the Mohegans_ bored my out of my skull when I was made to read it in High School.

BOb

I do actually tend to agree with you. James Fenimore Cooper does nothing for me, either.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's the problem with force-feeding "adult" authors to teenage children - it just puts them off the "classics" for life. I was exactly the same with Dickens - forced to read "David Copperfield" in school and thought it was the more boring book ever. I only "rediscovered" Dickens 20 years later, in my late 30s, and thank goodness I did - he's now my favourite author!

I enjoyed reading Dickens as a teenager (possibly more than I enjoy him now), but at no stage of my life have I liked Enid Blyton. I don't think it's a case of 'adult' authors being boring to children - any author will be boring to some readers.
I think the problem with having 'set books' in schools is that it is impossible to choose ones that will appeal to everyone, at the time they have to read them.
The best they can do is provide enough variety to make it likely some of the books will be enjoyable to most.

[Moejoe]

Can I just put forth anything and everything by Tom Clancy. If I wanted to read a technical manual, Tom, I would have purchased a technical manual. Thankyou, very much

[HappyMartin]

More evidence f the harm done by forcing school children to read books beyond them and so bore them half to death was The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. I hated it. All those trees rubbing themselves into wounds and whatnot. Had no idea what he was on about. Our trees are miles apart and don't rub each other in that way. What was a school boy to make of the evils of bad marriages and all that?

Read the book again as an adult post divorce and thought it was fantastic. A fine institution divorce.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

More evidence f the harm done by forcing school children to read books beyond them and so bore them half to death was The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. I hated it. All those trees rubbing themselves into wounds and whatnot. Had no idea what he was on about. Our trees are miles apart and don't rub each other in that way. What was a school boy to make of the evils of bad marriages and all that?

Read the book again as an adult post divorce and thought it was fantastic. A fine institution divorce.

There was only one that I was forced to read that I hated -- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and that was by a temp teacher who took over. Everything else was great, my English Teachers (the only ones I liked while I was briefly at school) were fantastic and inspiring. One introduced me to Steinbeck. The other had us all reading The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Dougals Adams.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

There was only one that I was forced to read that I hated -- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and that was by a temp teacher who took over. Everything else was great, my English Teachers (the only ones I liked while I was briefly at school) were fantastic and inspiring. One introduced me to Steinbeck. The other had us all reading The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Dougals Adams.

I loved Catch-22, but then I wasn't forced to read it. I was rebellious back then, with long hair and the entire mindset of that time (early '70s).

And Harry, like you, I disliked Charles Dickens when I was forced to read him in high school, probably because I was concerned with S-E-X. Now, being older, I'm able to multitask and love both sex (lower case, now...hahaha) AND Charles Dickens.


Don