The 10 Worst Books

[slayda]

Finally finished skimming through this version of "War & Peace". What I found most interesting is that some of my favorite books were listed.
The DaVinci code
Bridges of Madison County
Atlas Shrugged
Clan of the Cave Bear
Also someone mentioned C.J. Cherryh (some of hers are bad but most are very good, e.g. The Cuckoo's Egg and The Chanur series)

I didn't see some that I actually read that I disliked very much but that came highly recommended. (These are one that I actually read. Like many others here I tend to quit reading books I dislike.)

Hated books
The Lonesome Dove
The Aztec
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Others that I tried & couldn't get into
Lord of the Rings
Books by L. Ron Hubbard

Others that were required reading
Mobidick
Some book by James Fennimore Cooper where the Indians stuffed a dog to put by the old hunter's chair
The Scarlett Letter

[RickV]

The Entire Amber Series by Roger Zelazny.

I stopped reading it when I realized I couldn't remember what happened in the previous chapter, much less in the previous book.

Pity it took me 8 books to realize that.

Pierce Anthony's books. Tried them all...xanth, etc. Bio of a space tyrant was tolerable.

Rama. Maybe I'm too stupid.

Anything with Tom Clancy worked WITH someone....total crap.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickV

The Entire Amber Series by Roger Zelazny.

I stopped reading it when I realized I couldn't remember what happened in the previous chapter, much less in the previous book.

Pity it took me 8 books to realize that.

I enjoyed the first five, and had no particular problem recalling what occured. The second I found less satisfying: they read like Roger going through the motions because the readers wanted more amber books and the publisher offered him lots of money

Pierce Anthony's books. Tried them all...xanth, etc. Bio of a space tyrant was tolerable.

I liked Anthony's earliest works, like Prostho Plus, Macroscope, and the Omnivore/Orn/0X trilogy. I liked the first Xanth novel, but they palled rapidly afterward. I found Bio of a Space Tyrant simply unreadable.

The problem with Anthony is that he's one of the best in the SF field at taking an idea and running with it, but one of the worst at knowing when to stop. He tends to run series into and under the ground.

Rama. Maybe I'm too stupid.

I loved it, but it's not everyone's taste.

Anything with Tom Clancy worked WITH someone....total crap.

Some later Clancy written alone.

Clancy is trying to make himself a franchise, with his name as the selling point. It's a safe bet that Tom Clancy and whoever means whoever actually wrote the book, and Clancy provided the idea and perhaps an outline.

But Clancy got popular enough to be editor proof. The last JAck Ryan novel badly needed an edit - there was at least one plot thread that went nowhere and could have been removed without notice. But he's popular enough to demand no editing and get away with it.
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Dennis

[leveck]

Originally Posted by astra

9. The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

I love this book. It was damn near perfect. Nothing to be added or removed.

[RickV]

Originally Posted by slayda

Finally finished skimming through this version of "War & Peace".

How in the world do you SKIM over W&P!??!

Originally Posted by slayda

Others that I tried & couldn't get into
Lord of the Rings
Books by L. Ron Hubbard

Others that were required reading
Mobidick
Some book by James Fennimore Cooper where the Indians stuffed a dog to put by the old hunter's chair
The Scarlett Letter

You know, I couldn't get into LOTR OR DUNE. I slugged it through both books until I got a few chapters in and I just couldn't do it.


MOBIDICK? LOL.awesome.

One that interested me was 1984 by Orwell. Everyone seems to hate it, and granted, it IS a bit dated, but still a good read in my opinion.

[RickV]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I liked Anthony's earliest works, like Prostho Plus, Macroscope, and the Omnivore/Orn/0X trilogy. I liked the first Xanth novel, but they palled rapidly afterward. I found Bio of a Space Tyrant simply unreadable.

The problem with Anthony is that he's one of the best in the SF field at taking an idea and running with it, but one of the worst at knowing when to stop. He tends to run series into and under the ground.Dennis

So under the ground Hell has an uneven floor because of it.
One of my main issues with him is that he seems to inject sex into it, and bad sex at that.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Some later Clancy written alone.

Clancy is trying to make himself a franchise, with his name as the selling point. It's a safe bet that Tom Clancy and whoever means whoever actually wrote the book, and Clancy provided the idea and perhaps an outline.

But Clancy got popular enough to be editor proof. The last JAck Ryan novel badly needed an edit - there was at least one plot thread that went nowhere and could have been removed without notice. But he's popular enough to demand no editing and get away with it.
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Dennis

I agree, his last "Jack Ryan" book got on my nerves a bit. I was hoping he'd do better with his son, but no.
The main problem is that he put Ryan onto the fast track as far as the career goes and unless he wants to make him world emperor, there isn't a place for him to go.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickV

So under the ground Hell has an uneven floor because of it.

LOL

One of my main issues with him is that he seems to inject sex into it, and bad sex at that.

It's "bad sex" that would really annoy me. But he's not the only author guilty of that sin. See the comments elsewhere on recent Laurel K. Hamilton books.

I agree, his last "Jack Ryan" book got on my nerves a bit. I was hoping he'd do better with his son, but no.
The main problem is that he put Ryan onto the fast track as far as the career goes and unless he wants to make him world emperor, there isn't a place for him to go.

I was almost hoping for a follow up Jack Ryan novel where he has to deal with a move to impeach him over his actions in the previous book. Given the current political climate, that's what I would expect to happen. Too many congresscritters would be unhappy that their butts weren't kissed and their opinion wasn't asked about the actions, never mind that there likely wasn't time to do so...
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Dennis

[jmorton]

Originally Posted by slayda

What I found most interesting is that some of my favorite books were listed:
The DaVinci code
Bridges of Madison County
Atlas Shrugged
Clan of the Cave Bear

I don't think you and I will be trading book choices any time soon!

I will say this for Atlas Shrugged, it was the book that finally turned me off to Ayn Rand.

Jim

[RickV]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

It's "bad sex" that would really annoy me. But he's not the only author guilty of that sin. See the comments elsewhere on recent Laurel K. Hamilton books.
Dennis

I hear ya', to put in a "family friendly way." It's like expecting a plumber to know what they're doing but they're using straws hooked up to rubber hoses with rubber bands todo the house properly.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I was almost hoping for a follow up Jack Ryan novel where he has to deal with a move to impeach him over his actions in the previous book. Given the current political climate, that's what I would expect to happen. Too many congresscritters would be unhappy that their butts weren't kissed and their opinion wasn't asked about the actions, never mind that there likely wasn't time to do so...
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Dennis

I was expecting something along those lines as well because THAT would have been an awesome story line.

But NOOOOOOOO......

I think I've pretty much given up that entire genre' of books because I can't find anything interesting to read.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by jmorton

I will say this for Atlas Shrugged, it was the book that finally turned me off to Ayn Rand.

I can deal with Objectivist philosophy, but Rand demonstrated the problems of being too academic. Her primary interest was ideas, and everything had to be somehow made to fit in her theories, regardless of the size of mallet needed to pound particular square pegs into round holes.

Among other things, she seemed to believe that a woman could only have sex with a man if she was raped, because no proper Randite woman could possibly bring herself to submit voluntarily, even if she wanted it. If the guy simply took her, she could do it and enjoy it without guilt, because it wasn't her fault, and she hadn't willingly submitted.

And the prose. Oh, dear goodness, the prose, with dialog that read like it was graven in stone tablets, brought down off a mountain by a prophet, and intended to be spoken IN ALL CAPS.

If you want to push theories using fiction as a medium, it helps if you can write good fiction. From where I sit, Rand couldn't.
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Dennis

[RickV]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

And the prose. Oh, dear goodness, the prose, with dialog that read like it was graven in stone tablets, brought down off a mountain by a prophet, and intended to be spoken IN ALL CAPS.

If you want to push theories using fiction as a medium, it helps if you can write good fiction. From where I sit, Rand couldn't.
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Dennis

I never gotten into her. But I do wish I could share how this part of your post registered in my head. While I'm sure you were sincere with your post, the voice that took over the reading almost seems like a Mel Brooks character reading it.

Thank god I'm not into drugs, this would have been too much on my system.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by jmorton

I will say this for Atlas Shrugged, it was the book that finally turned me off to Ayn Rand.

I tried to read it a couple of times.

In the end I just settled for listening to a few Rush albums instead.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I tried to read it a couple of times.

In the end I just settled for listening to a few Rush albums instead.

Sounds like a plan. Do you mind if I listen to a couple of Falco singles on repeat instead though?

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

...
And the prose. Oh, dear goodness, the prose, with dialog that read like it was graven in stone tablets, brought down off a mountain by a prophet, and intended to be spoken IN ALL CAPS....

"This is John Galt speaking"...or should that be "THIS IS JOHN GALT SPEAKING"?

The thing is, I thought it was an okay book as a story, but it sometimes felt so crammed with philosophising shoved into any possible nook and cranny that it felt like sitting on an overstuffed chair (I should concede, though, that Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might feel like this to some people too, though I loved it)

I hear that Rand's The Fountainhead is better though.

On another tack, I know some people dislike Moby Dick, and I've heard it expressed that this was possibly because they had to slog through it at school. Down this way, we didn't get a lot of Am.Lit. (mostly Eng.Lit., with increasing amounts of Aus.Lit. gradually being added), so the White Whale wasn't on the syllabus. I read it a couple of years ago, and quite enjoyed it - far more approachable than I expected. It was the kind of book that made me want to attend a study group on it, just for a couple of weeks to extract the a decent amount of filling from its rich, creamy centre.

On the other hand, my last attempt at Crime & Punishment (admittedly over twenty years ago, while in my mid-to-late teens)...well, it wasn't a success. It's a "Worst" that deserves a review on my part though (since I didn't come close to completing it, or even starting it properly). I could say the same about ~gasp~ The Silmarillion.

Cheers,
Marc

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

"This is John Galt speaking"...or should that be "THIS IS JOHN GALT SPEAKING"?

Pretty much.

The thing is, I thought it was an okay book as a story, but it sometimes felt so crammed with philosophising shoved into any possible nook and cranny that it felt like sitting on an overstuffed chair (I should concede, though, that Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might feel like this to some people too, though I loved it)

I hear that Rand's The Fountainhead is better though.

I liked Zen, too.

And the overstuffed chair analogy is apt, save that not only was the chair overstuffed, it was lumpy, uncomfortable, and you best not peer too closely at what was used for stuffing.

On another tack, I know some people dislike Moby Dick, and I've heard it expressed that this was possibly because they had to slog through it at school. Down this way, we didn't get a lot of Am.Lit. (mostly Eng.Lit., with increasing amounts of Aus.Lit. gradually being added), so the White Whale wasn't on the syllabus. I read it a couple of years ago, and quite enjoyed it - far more approachable than I expected. It was the kind of book that made me want to attend a study group on it, just for a couple of weeks to extract the a decent amount of filling from its rich, creamy centre.

I haven't attempted Moby Dick in many years, since it was part of the syllabus here. Being force fed something isn't a good way to develop a taste for it.

On the other hand, my last attempt at Crime & Punishment (admittedly over twenty years ago, while in my mid-to-late teens)...well, it wasn't a success. It's a "Worst" that deserves a review on my part though (since I didn't come close to completing it, or even starting it properly). I could say the same about ~gasp~ The Silmarillion.

I happen to love the Silmarillion, but I understand why it isn't to everyone's tastes. People coming to it expecting a continuous narrative with a consistent set of characters will be disappointed.

I tell new readers to imagine they are in the Hall of Fire in Rivendell, listening to the lore masters recount tales of the Elder days, The stories will vary in style and tone, depending upon the tale and the teller.

I was particularly taken with Tolkien's version of the creation myth, with Iluvatar as a composer, propounding theses of music, and the Valar and Maiar as a heavenly orchestra, taking the themes and expressing them, each according to its own nature and ability. The music brings forth a vision os Arda, the world, which so entrances some of the Valar they beg Iluvatar to make it real so they might dwell there. He does, and things begin.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Spellbot 5000

I recently downloaded Cory Doctorow's collection Overclocked, and damn, some of the stories in it are bad. It started out decently with Printcrime, nice message, interesting twist at the end. Then came When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth. That is quite possibly the worst story I have ever read. The plot is threadbare, the characters are unlikable, and the modern-day net jargon and slang is laughable. It's like he tried to cram every acronym, every technology, anything he had ever heard about the net into one short story. I don't think I've rolled my eyes more times while reading any other story.

It reads somewhat better if you are a SysAdmin. The jargon is accurate enough, and I know people like the ones in the story.
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Dennis
Who is peeved that his ISP has dropped newsgroup services, and he has to find another place to read alt.sysadmin.recovery