Worst Book

[LucyLu]

Some years ago I received for my birthday 2 copies of "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyers (1 in english and 1 in italian) . This kind of book usually is not my cup of tea since I read a lot of thriller, horror, supernatural etc and "99 coffins" by David Wellington is more my genre however I decided to give it a chance.

Sure as hell it's been the worst book I've read in my life.

On which basis I'm saying this....let me see: poor writing style, plot holes, nonexistent character development, repetitions, repetitions, repetitions.. The main character, Bella, is entirely unbelievable as a person and probably the most stupid, glaring chick on this earth and as someone said she represents all that those who fight for feminism are battling to demolish.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by LucyLu

Some years ago I received for my birthday 2 copies of "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyers (1 in english and 1 in italian) . This kind of book usually is not my cup of tea since I read a lot of thriller, horror, supernatural etc and "99 coffins" by David Wellington is more my genre however I decided to give it a chance.

Sure as hell it's been the worst book I've read in my life.

On which basis I'm saying this....let me see: poor writing style, plot holes, nonexistent character development, repetitions, repetitions, repetitions.. The main character, Bella, is entirely unbelievable as a person and probably the most stupid, glaring chick on this earth and as someone said she represents all that those who fight for feminism are battling to demolish.

But it's given an awful lot of pleasure to a very large number of teenage girls. That's a good thing, surely, regardless of the literary merits of the book? To my mind any book which encourages teenagers to read is to be praised.

[LucyLu]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To my mind any book which encourages teenagers to read is to be praised.

I agree with you regarding the encouragement in reading but I think that books should be intellectually stimulating especially for young people. I'm young too (only not "so young" ) and I know that sometimes reading something "light" is fun but this kind of books (I'm referring to the whole series) are intellectual black holes in my opinion.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by LucyLu

I agree with you regarding the encouragement in reading but I think that books should be intellectually stimulating especially for young people. I'm young too (only not "so young" ) and I know that sometimes reading something "light" is fun but this kind of books (I'm referring to the whole series) are intellectual black holes in my opinion.

Probably no more, so, than Mills and Boone romances, which sell in their millions. Heck - probably hundreds of millions altogether.

Reading is entertainment. If it's fun to read, does it have to have literary merit? "Literary fiction" obviously has its place, but so does "fluff".

[kennyc]

I don't finish books that don't do something for me in at most the first chapter. And if they slump later...I have no problem dumping them. Now that doesn't mean that others might not like said books.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Probably no more, so, than Mills and Boone romances, which sell in their millions. Heck - probably hundreds of millions altogether.

Reading is entertainment. If it's fun to read, does it have to have literary merit? "Literary fiction" obviously has its place, but so does "fluff".

Exactly. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to Goodreads to rate the latest M&B / Harlequin I've consumed and see a really low rating with a review discussing the book's lack of literary merit. I'm confused that anyone would expect to find that in an MMFFF (that would be "mass-market fluff for females", no insult intended to any males that also enjoy them).

Fluff definitely has its place - in my case, that place would be anywhere within easy reach.

The worst book I've read? I won't mention any names, but it was a collection of erotic shorts by a man who apparently has spent very little time in the presence of real-live women. The sex in that book was an anatomical train wreck, and the dialog was right out of an uninformed teenager's fantasy. Sentence structure was horrific.

I didn't rate it, review it or even list it in my books on GR. I suspected it may well have been written by a shy, fragile 18-year old, and I decided to let someone else be the bad guy.

[Apache]

Just because I don't read certain genres does not mean that I think they are useless and should not be published. If everyone had the same tastes in reading there would be very few authors.
I know that quite a few authors and books I read are not the majorities cup of tea. But, at least enough enjoy them that I can continue to find new works available. Sometimes I just want to sit down and enjoy reading something that is entertaining and requires very little work out of "my little gray cells". Sort of like people who like action movies with that little Jack Reacher wanna be.
Apache

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Apache

Just because I don't read certain genres does not mean that I think they are useless and should not be published. If everyone had the same tastes in reading there would be very few authors.

But at least we'd all like every author out there. Wouldn't that make threads like this boring?

I can't recall specific names, but I do regularly download a dozen or so Creative Commons and start to read them. Some of them are poor, some are bad and some are startlingly bad - I don't finish the bad ones.

I do occasionally come across something I like though (maybe one in ten or so), and they're free, so nothing lost except a little time.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

I know that quite a few authors and books I read are not the majorities cup of tea.

A good example of that is a book of David Eddings' called "The Redemption of Althalas". It's one of my all-time favourite books, and the best (to my mind) of David Eddings' novels. But I regularly see it in peoples' "all time worst" lists.

It takes all sorts to make the world go round, as the saying goes.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

I have read a few really bad books though - very badly written ones, stories that didn't make sense or go anywhere and whatnot - but thankfully my memory quickly deletes the particulars, so I can't remember what they were.

I've abandoned more books than I finish. That's what snobs do

It is amazing how quickly the human brain suppresses unpleasant memories.

I had to keep a list of these unfinished titles so I don't accidentally pick them back up again. Also I write a brief blurb as to why I ditched it.

[JSWolf]

Crocodile on the Sandbank is not an awful eBook from the point of view of the story. But it is awful from the standpoint of way way way too many errors.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Crocodile on the Sandbank is not an awful eBook from the point of view of the story. But it is awful from the standpoint of way way way too many errors.

I read it recently and didn't notice an abnormal number of errors. It has different US and UK publishers - I wonder if the UK edition has fewer errors, perhaps?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I read it recently and didn't notice an abnormal number of errors. It has different US and UK publishers - I wonder if the UK edition has fewer errors, perhaps?

Take a look at your UK edition. See if you have em dashes with a space after them and ... with a space after as well. Those are the errors in the US version. Not all em dashes are wrong, but all ... are wrong.

[shane.hamilton]

I just finished reading Inversions by Iain M Banks. I gotta say it was pretty horrible start to finish. I read it anyway for completions sake (reading all of the culture books in sequence, though this is barely one of them). It was like reading a history book. Not once did I wonder what was next, it just couldn't grab my attention.

It wasn't poorly written it was just one of the most horrible plots I've ever read.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by shane.hamilton

I just finished reading Inversions by Iain M Banks. I gotta say it was pretty horrible start to finish. I read it anyway for completions sake (reading all of the culture books in sequence, though this is barely one of them). It was like reading a history book. Not once did I wonder what was next, it just couldn't grab my attention.

It wasn't poorly written it was just one of the most horrible plots I've ever read.

Hmmm, and I've heard such good things about his work. Maybe this one was just to complete a contract or some such.