The 10 Worst Books

[Sparrow]

Thanks for the review Katiesue - I'll probably give 'World Without End' a miss for now.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Harry001

for me it's
garp

and

A Son of the Circus

both from John Irving
...

Ah, well, The World According to Garp was one of my favourite books, but I admit I wasn't so fond of A Son of the Circus. Have you read any other books by John Irving? Some folk say Cider House Rules is his best, but I didn't much like that either. I enjoyed A Prayer for Owen Meany and, to be honest, it was the first book of his that I've wanted to re-read (though I haven't as yet - too many other books to get through ).

What turned you off with Garp? (note, I'm not going to disagree with you, or get defensive about it, I promise. I ask purely out of curiosity because, like with other "worst"s in this thread, it interests me most when people don't like books otherwise popular, or books that were my favourites).

Cheers,
Marc

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Mr. Wolf, at the time it was written, it probably had way more relevance. Women DID act like that. Men DID have those attitudes. The English empire DID look on native Indians as inferior.
The scene in the cave probably sent some women into palpitations, wondering what really happened, and using their imagination to fill in the gaps.

Don't get me started on 'worst books ever'. That would have to be Dune.

Maybe things really were like that back then. But to me today, I find it to be dull as all can be. The only bit I actually enjoyed was the bit in the Mosk (sp?).

As for Dune, I rather enjoyed it.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Katiesue

Yes, I read "World Without End". To me, it was a bit more "formulaic" if that makes sense. If you enjoyed Pillars because of the snapshot in history, then you will probably like "World". It takes place roughly a couple of centuries later and so you get to see a different slice of time and I thought that was interesting. But I didn't think the plot or the characters were as compelling in World as in Pillars.

Long story short.....it's worth the time to read, but not quite as good as the first one.

Aaarrrgh!... I gave a copy of it to my wife as a present, hoping she wouldn't mind my reading it when she's done. SHE PUT IT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PILE!!!
That pile measures in years!

Maybe I'll just wake up during the night to snack on it.
Or buy an ecopy cauz that thing is HEAVYYYY.

[JGB]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Amazon Search, keywords: Dune Brian Herbert.

It's funny to me because I grew up reading references to that, never getting the idea(granted I also thought black sabbath was a satanic day of worship when I first read a book mentioning it). I read the first few pages of dune and gave up, I had been told they were all dreadfully dull and believed it.

I missed out on the fact that there was more then one author.


I got dune on tape and was amazed at how great it was, I figured everyone was mistaken. So I started reading the rest of the series and I read my way though all of them, I even made it as far as Duke Leto the second falling off a bridge, started to think I kind of get the idea, it seems like the author wandered off and gotten lost in his topic(like this paragraph)
And finally the light went on.


Frank Herbert is not Brian Herbert

[Harry001]

to montsnmags
Hi Marc, I had read Garp allmost 20 Years ago, I think, and i didn't get it. Maybe because it was translated to german. The only thing i remember was that car eccident in front of the house.

The same was with child of circus. It was also translated to german and was highly recommended - but i didn't like it.
That was my experience with Irving.
i like Mika Waltari, Tom Clancy, Ken Follett, the earth children (Ayla) from J.M.Auel (but not the last book, that sucks).
i read them all in german and most of them in english - what is a lot better.
One other good writer is Nelson DeMille - he inspired me to a lot of trips around NYC.
I did all that reading with my palmone lifedrive. now with the Sony, I will start over all the classics - and all in english.
take care
harry

[June]

I have the principle that once I've started a book I don't quit - I keep reading out of some misguided idea that there *must* be some point/reason/idea in it eventually... That being said, there are a few books that I so far have been *unable* to finish (they loom like threatening clouds in the bottom of the bookshelf)....

So my list of worst books includes:
- Satanic Verses by Rushdie (I keep going back and starting over, thinking I must be missing something, since it raised such a lively debate worldwide, but just can't get past the dark cloud)
- most of John Grishams books (read a couple and you've read them all....)
- Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
- Trading up by Candace Bushnell
- Torey Hayden (they give me the feeling that the ultimate motive for writing the books after the first is, in addition to making money, to tell the world how good she is...)

[astra]

Originally Posted by June

I have the principle that once I've started a book I don't quit - I keep reading out of some misguided idea that there *must* be some point/reason/idea in it eventually... That being said, there are a few books that I so far have been *unable* to finish (they loom like threatening clouds in the bottom of the bookshelf)....

So my list of worst books includes:
- Satanic Verses by Rushdie (I keep going back and starting over, thinking I must be missing something, since it raised such a lively debate worldwide, but just can't get past the dark cloud)
- most of John Grishams books (read a couple and you've read them all....)
- Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
- Trading up by Candace Bushnell
- Torey Hayden (they give me the feeling that the ultimate motive for writing the books after the first is, in addition to making money, to tell the world how good she is...)

Unfortunately, I am following the same rule

From the list I submitted, the following were finished :
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Earthsea by Ursula Le Guine
The Redemption of Althalus by David Eddings and Leigh Eddings
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
+
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
+
The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia


However I have learned the lesson and ...
Thomas Covenant Series by Stephen Donaldson[1/3 into the first volume, then scanned the rest of the book]
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe [1.5 out of 5 books]
The Soddit by Adam Roberts [probably no more than 20 pages]

Since then two more books have been added to the list that I successfully managed to abandon:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
and
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I do plan to read Satanic Verses by Rushdie but something is telling me, that although the theme is exciting the book is going to be boring and I will drop it.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Harry001

to montsnmags
Hi Marc, I had read Garp allmost 20 Years ago, I think, and i didn't get it. Maybe because it was translated to german. The only thing i remember was that car eccident in front of the house.

It's hard to know if it was translation. It could just be that you wouldn't have liked it in any language or with any translation. That's a perfectly reasonable response. The book I think others would strongly disagree with me about, and that was on my list of "worst" books, was The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch. Certainly most critics would disagree with me, including those behind the Booker Prize. I'm okay with that though...I still found it frightfully dull and pointless.

The same was with child of circus. It was also translated to german and was highly recommended - but i didn't like it.
That was my experience with Irving.

Well, I certainly wouldn't continue to torture myself if I'd read two books by an author and not enjoyed either (I'd probably give up on the author after just one!).

i like Mika Waltari, Tom Clancy, Ken Follett, the earth children (Ayla) from J.M.Auel (but not the last book, that sucks).
i read them all in german and most of them in english - what is a lot better.

I do not know the first author (but I will google for the name). I quite enjoyed Tom Clancy's earlier work - particularly the "boring details" which he tends to be quite thorough with. I've yet to read a Ken Follet, though I've Pillars of the Earth around here somewhere. I've never read J.M.Auel, though I know my mother loves them (I have a feeling she said the same thing about the last book).

Thanks for the response, Harry.

Originally Posted by June

...
So my list of worst books includes:
- Satanic Verses by Rushdie (I keep going back and starting over, thinking I must be missing something, since it raised such a lively debate worldwide, but just can't get past the dark cloud)

I've started it a couple of times. I really enjoy the writing, but something keeps making me put it down. That was a few years ago now though; maybe my more relaxed state of mind will give it another chance.

I've been told Midnight's Children is the much better book to start on with Salman Rushdie, so I'm thinking of giving that a go first.

Cheers,
Marc

[June]

Originally Posted by astra

- - -Since then two more books have been added to the list that I successfully managed to abandon:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
and - - -

Oh, you reminded me. That is one of my unread books as well, it's just been placed in the main part of my library, not on the unread shelves... But I've only managed a 1/4 or so of that book so far....

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by June

Oh, you reminded me. That is one of my unread books as well, it's just been placed in the main part of my library, not on the unread shelves... But I've only managed a 1/4 or so of that book so far....

Which just goes to show that people have different tastes.
I really like The Name of the Rose.

[MonaLS]

I don't have a top 10 worst books list, but these come to mind:

Bikini Planet (It's a train wreck of a book. The kind of train wreck you can't look away from because it's so bad.)
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (Just nasty.)
Childe Morgan (A dismal disappointment in an otherwise fantastic series.) ("In the King's Service" isn't far behind.)

[JSWolf]

I did enjoy The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. I remember one summer devouring the first series in almost no time flat. I've read the 2nd series and I'm now into the last series. The last series is going to be 4 books and I've read the first one with the 2nd one on my 505.

Now are there any books we can ALL agree are nasty?

[MonaLS]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Now are there any books we can ALL agree are nasty?

Probably not. Every book probably has someone out there who likes it. And my sister probably thinks most of what I read is awful as well. We don't trade books much. (I don't read romance novels, she doesn't read sci-fi/fantasy.)

[the_callant]

Originally Posted by astra

Unfortunately, I am following the same rule


Since then two more books have been added to the list that I successfully managed to abandon:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
and
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I have been going through this thread and found myself feeling very isolated. Books which I love are loathed by some, but no one had mentioned the only book I can honestly say I hated. Catch-22, I read to the halfway point, and ended up throwing it in the bin. It all felt so pointless. Then again, it was probably a well written book, I remember the feelings it inspired even after 30 years. There have been other books I haven't finished, but they were probably poor books, as I don't even remember them at all.

The_callant