The 10 Worst Books

[The Terminator]

Ones that I didn't like and didn't finish are;

1. Atlas Shrugged

2. The Appeal by Grisham

3. Anna Karanina

4. The second book in the "Three Musketeers" Series that I can't remember the name.

[carld]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

8. The Dome by Stephen King. One of his longest, one of his worst and I generally like King and several of his books are favorites of mine. Dissapointing.

I pre-ordered this and started it with great expectations. And I did really enjoy the very beginning, and then my interest started to lag and finally petered out. I still haven't finished the darn thing, and I'm normally such a King fan. The only other book of his I've abandoned was the whiny and repetitive Lisey's Story.

[banjobama]

Originally Posted by carld

I pre-ordered this and started it with great expectations. And I did really enjoy the very beginning, and then my interest started to lag and finally petered out. I still haven't finished the darn thing, and I'm normally such a King fan. The only other book of his I've abandoned was the whiny and repetitive Lisey's Story.

I forgot about Under the Dome and Lisey's Story. I couldn't finish either one. So disappointing.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by banjobama

I forgot about Under the Dome and Lisey's Story. I couldn't finish either one. So disappointing.

I think "disappointing" is the key word here. These lists seem to be more about "The 10 Most Popular Books that Disappointed Me" rather than the "10 Worst Books". That's fine, but it's something else altogether. Real candidates for the 10 worst books list would probably never have been read by anybody here. "She Came with Curlers in Her Hair", or "The Creature from the Back Saloon", or something like that. Most of what's popular isn't high literature, but it's also nowhere near rock bottom.

[xg4bx]

i must be lucky, i've never read a "bad" book. probably because if i get the sense something is crap i'll only read a few pages of it. i don't have the patience to stick it out in hopes that it gets better. if the first few chapters don't grab me its doubtful page 300 will.

[missimpossible]

I've just read all thirty-three pages of this thread. It's almost like I'm trying to avoid studying :P

A hotch-potch of books I didn't like that I've read or tried to read in the last few years:

1. The Crimson Petal and the White: I laughed, I wept. Mostly I laughed. I got about 150 pages in before I couldn't take any more and stopped. The descriptions of genitalia were hilarious. I will never, ever forget reading about "his swaddled penis". I genuinely thought the prose was verging on purple and the story didn't grab me, so I stopped.

2. A Visit from the Goon Squad: achingly self-aware, hipster-y, angsty nonsense. Totally self-indulgent. Again, I admit to not finishing this one (I made my New Year's resolution last year to not keep reading books when I don't like them ) but I just couldn't stand the characters, or the writing, or anything about it. I hear there's a powerpoint chapter. Pretty glad I missed that.

3. Atonement: the book that prompted me to make the above resolution. I hated it. I hated everything about it. I hated the writing, I hated the characters, I particularly hated the story. I read it all in one day and I seethed at it for hours afterwards. My poor boyfriend had to listen to it all. I actually preferred the film because of one tiny change they made (which I won't spoil for anyone).

4. The Almost Moon: this book made me feel sick and is the only book I've ever put in the bin. I genuinely believe that this is an intrinsically horrible book.

5. The Hunger Games: pretty much saw these as generic dross. Was surprised by how popular they are. Not much better than Twilight, for my money.

6. One Day: I found this annoying in a similar way to "A Visit from the Goon Squad", though I made it all the way through this one. It was pretty terrible. Two generic, boring people have angst. They angst without each other, then get together and angst together. WHAT FUN.

7. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks: I loved E. Lockhart's Ruby Oliver series but have been mostly disappointed in her other works. This was the worst. There wasn't a single redeeming feature for any character and Frankie was the sort of person I would never get tired of slapping. Grrr.

8. The Girl Who Played With Fire: any book with a list of things the protagonist bought from Ikea is not for me. I found the first one compelling despite its glaring flaws. This was a slog to finish and I'm not going to bother with the third one - it's even longer.

9. Twilight: eugh. I know it's the standard thing to hate on, but seriously, what's not to hate?

10. I actually can't think of a tenth one.

I've been sort-of fortunate in that I was never forced to read anything too horrific at school. However, that's because we didn't read a single adult novel in school until I was 17. And prior to that, we only read two "young adult" novels which read at about a nine-year old's level. Fantastic education. To be fair to my country, that's pretty much an anomaly - my boyfriend was given an extensive amount of literature to read in his last four years of high school. I just went to a crap school. In fifth year I read Hamlet and the Great Gatsby - both of which I adored. My dad was an English teacher, and my mum's degree is also in English lit, though, so I didn't suffer at all from this. I've always been a particularly avid reader, but I really feel for the people who have missed out on the pleasures of reading purely because our school took absolutely no interest in teaching about literature at all.

[JSWolf]

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins was just awful. The story makes little sense.

[replica145]

Originally Posted by missimpossible

8. The Girl Who Played With Fire: any book with a list of things the protagonist bought from Ikea is not for me.

Right down to the model name even! It's a good thing you put it down or you would have been reading her grocery list every 20 pages. The whole series makes me vomit.

[missimpossible]

Originally Posted by replica145

Right down to the model name even! It's a good thing you put it down or you would have been reading her grocery list every 20 pages. The whole series makes me vomit.

Yeah, safe to say I was glad I stopped where I did! I'll maybe watch the films eventually, I watched the first one and it was okay.

Also, making that list made me realise how few truly awful things I've read, which is nice! I tend to think it's more than it is, but I guess sometimes the really bad things just stick in your head more.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

2. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

Will John Galt please shut the hell up before I put a bullet in my head.

You actually made it to the point where John Galt speaks? I might have been able to finish reading it when I was in my teens, but I tried reading it for this first time this year, and hated every single character and don't know anybody who would act like any of her characters in real life.

[HistoryWes]

Pornucopia by Piers Anthony.

I love most Anthony boks and looked forward to a sexy story, but it was just... Gross.

[TaureanBull]

Well, I dont have any book to list here simply because I dont have to read a book till the end to decide that the book was worthless. So I drop the book the moment I feel I am missing out something and move on to the next one in my TBR list.

I also discovered while reading this thread that how varied the tastes of people are. On Goodreads Twilight makes it to #1 in "Best Books Ever" and also #1 in "The Worst Books of All Times".

Hmmm..its all about tastes! But never seen such divergent views! BTW I am yet to read the book.

[Kevin8or]

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

On Goodreads Twilight makes it to #1 in "Best Books Ever" and also #1 in "The Worst Books of All Times".

That is amusing.

[Ninjalawyer]

Originally Posted by HistoryWes

Pornucopia by Piers Anthony.

I love most Anthony boks and looked forward to a sexy story, but it was just... Gross.

Ugh, this. 1,000x this. I haven't read Piers Anthony since junior high, but I remember finding Pornucopia awful even then.

As for a few books I really did not like:

1. A Catcher in the Rye - I read this in high school and found the main character, Holden to be unlikable, his observations simplistic and dull and the righting style uninteresting.

2. The Dark Tower - After thousands of pages of build-up, this book (the last book in the Dark Tower series) was a huge let down. The main enemy (who turns out to be your Alzheimer afflicted grandfather) is defeated with a deus ex machina too stupid to spoil, Stephen King breaks the flow of the story by writing a page or two near the end as to why the reader will be disappointed by the ending and the ending is no ending at all.

[Nyssa]

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice - I had such high hopes and expectations, and was thoroughly disappointed. I did not finish the book.

More recently, Dark Legacy by Anna DeStefano. Ugh! Another disappointing read. Very forced!