Which are the WORST books u've ever read?

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: SirWoj
I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

I sure hated that book. It basically entailed listening to a crazy woman whine in the real world and her own fantasy world. She switched worlds randomly so the book had no flow.

I remember that book from High School and found it to be a fascinating look into mental illness and the challenges of treating it.

 

[PottedMeat]

Ethan Frome, of all the books from my 11th grade reading list this was the absolute worst - boring and depressing.

 

[cricky]

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I've been able to finish other Pynchon novels, but not that one.

P.S. Whoever said "I quit reading after I got my computer..." is a sad, sad comment...

 

[K1052]

"The Scarlet Letter" and "The Awakening" tied IMO.

 

[BD2003]

Before trying Starship, try reading Armor by John Steakley. It's what Starship should have been It has a few holes in the plot (Just why don't they nuke the bugs from orbit? I don't know.) but is a much better read. Felix's arc is quite gripping.

Man, I thought that book was terrible. I couldnt make it halfway through the book before stopping.

But speaking of sci fi sequels, Id say every dune book after the first has gone into a downward spiral of crappiness.

If you want good sci fi, read the hyperion series.

 

[Czesia]

Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
The Greatest Story Ever Told <-- couldn't even get through it
What's Bred in the Bone <-- ugh, that was torturously twisted

 

[Modeps]

I dont read much. But I really didnt like American Psycho... I understood the need for everything, like the insane amount of detail, but it was just too much for me to handle.

 

[marquee]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Ethan Frome, of all the books from my 11th grade reading list this was the absolute worst - boring and depressing.

I liked this book. The realization he had that he was deceiving the only people that were kind to him, to achieve dubious ends..

I didn't like the Bluest Eye. Or I know why the caged bird sings. I don't like any of Morrison's book actually.

 

[Wuffsunie]

Originally posted by: Flyermax2k3
Wuffsunie: I happen to like the Sword of Truth series :| Granted, the last volume I read was the fifth one, but I doubt it went that far downhill...

You see, that would explain it. I like Sword of Truth too, at least the first 4 volumes and especially the first two. While not crazy about the fifth, it's alright. But, you know those little pokings and proddings he makes about free will and free choice and social order and the lot? In six they're no longer proddings, but out and out clubbings. If you're going to label it as fantasy, write it as fantasy. You want to write social commentary and political ravings, market it as that.

I don't suppose you'd be interested in paperback copies (mint condition) of books 6 and 7, would ya?

Originally posted by: thedarkwolf
Wuffsunie
I've read the whole Silver Wolf series and the first is the weakest. I read the first two back before I started rating books but I gave the third a 7.5 out of ten. I am pretty generous though with my ratings especially towards werewolf books. I really can't remember much about any of them other then the second one deals with how the male werewolf came to be and the third picks back up were the Silver Wolf ended. I do remember them all being weird.

Ah, okay. I had picked the second one off the shelf and gave it a look over, it did look better written. Still, the first was so putrid that I have no desire to read any of the others. And good werewolf lore is so hard to find. Oddly enough, I found Wolfen by Whitley Strieber to be an excellent read.

 

[TheAudit]

For me that's easy:

Blue's Coach Works by Neal Graham.

Horrible.

 

[Triumph]

Crime and Punishment.

 

[Unheard]

rasin in the sun

 

[LS20]

as far as recreational books are concerned:

peter weiss' Many Lives, Many Masters

which was actually recommended to me.. what a load of shcrap

 

[athithi]

'Tuesdays with Morrie' has to be the absolute worst piece of crap I've ever read. It came so highly recommended too. It was shallow and presumptuous - aimed at the half-wits who are too simple-minded to read the "Inanities of Life for Dummies" handbook. Moreover, the writer has some pervert fascination with Morrie's phlegm :disgust: Utter waste of time.

 

[Balt]

Originally posted by: athithi
'Tuesdays with Morrie' has to be the absolute worst piece of crap I've ever read. It came so highly recommended too. It was shallow and presumptuous - aimed at the half-wits who are too simple-minded to read the "Inanities of Life for Dummies" handbook. Moreover, the writer has some pervert fascination with Morrie's phlegm :disgust: Utter waste of time.

I didn't like that book much either. Every bit of advice that Morrie gave the author was over-simplified and rather cliche. Kind of like "make love, not war" advice. I suppose that all seems very simple to someone on his deathbed, but in the real world it's a little more complicated.

I'm surprised that a couple of people have mentioned "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities". I usually don't like classic literature, but those books are among my favorites. I guess it would be a pretty boring book if we all liked the same books, though.

 

[JupiterJones]

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

a ghost/horror/detective/time travel/romantic comedy epic by Douglas Adams

 

[Chaotic42]

The Awakening
The Joy Luck Club
The Great Gatsby
Wuthering Heights
Madame Bovary
The Scarlet Letter

Basically anything that I had to read in school after 5th grade.

 

[PanzerIV]

Marching Through Georgia. An alternative WWII history scenario with this ridiculous society set in South Africa who are battling the Nazis and winning. The book was inane, dull and frankly if I could strangle the Drakos people featured in the book (IIRC that is what they were called), I would have.

I love alternative history, time travel and WWII but this book blows.

 

[ClueLis]

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: ClueLis
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

BLASPHEMY. (Or maybe just to each his own). I am not one for poetry, but Leaves of Grass (and specifically, Song of Myself) spoke to me in ways that no other literature (let alone poetry) had before.

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: Balt

Originally posted by: athithi
'Tuesdays with Morrie' has to be the absolute worst piece of crap I've ever read. It came so highly recommended too. It was shallow and presumptuous - aimed at the half-wits who are too simple-minded to read the "Inanities of Life for Dummies" handbook. Moreover, the writer has some pervert fascination with Morrie's phlegm :disgust: Utter waste of time.

I didn't like that book much either. Every bit of advice that Morrie gave the author was over-simplified and rather cliche. Kind of like "make love, not war" advice. I suppose that all seems very simple to someone on his deathbed, but in the real world it's a little more complicated.

I'm surprised that a couple of people have mentioned "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities". I usually don't like classic literature, but those books are among my favorites. I guess it would be a pretty boring book if we all liked the same books, though.

I've never read "A Tale of Two Cities", but I liked "Great Expectations."

 

[ClueLis]

Originally posted by: AvesPKS

Originally posted by: ClueLis
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

BLASPHEMY. (Or maybe just to each his own). I am not one for poetry, but Leaves of Grass (and specifically, Song of Myself) spoke to me in ways that no other literature (let alone poetry) had before.

I found parts of it insightful, but the majority of it was just so excruciatingly painful.


It's odd, I actually liked most of the books listed in this thread.

 

[Armitage]

Illuminatus

Huge book ... conspiracy theory stuff. Looked interesting enough, but made absolutely no sense. One of the few books I've ever started but didn't finish. In fact I even started it again to see if I missed something the first time, but it still made no freakin sense.

What's worse ... a few months later, somebody gave me another copy of it as a gift!

As others have said ... the tail end of Clarke's Rama series really sucked. I've gotten to really distrust collaborations. Another example of that would be The Difference Engine by Gibson & Sterling. Not sure if the suckiness of that book is due to the collaboration aspect, or just indicative of the long slide in Gibson's work after his first 3 novels.

 

[IcePhoenix]

The Red Badge of Courage. Horrible. Catcher in the Rye, boring. Next book we read was To Kill A Mocking Bird, fantastic.

 

[Wuffsunie]

Originally posted by: PanzerIV
Marching Through Georgia. An alternative WWII history scenario with this ridiculous society set in South Africa who are battling the Nazis and winning. The book was inane, dull and frankly if I could strangle the Drakos people featured in the book (IIRC that is what they were called), I would have.

That would be the first part of S.M. Stirling's Draka series. Hmm, I had heard they were supposed to be pretty good. Oh well, I was in no rush to read them anyway.

Originally posted by: JupiterJones
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

a ghost/horror/detective/time travel/romantic comedy epic by Douglas Adams

I thought this one was pretty good myself. It had Adams' trademark quirky humour to it and a fairly decent plot. The second one, though, the aptly named The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul, bored me quite badly. No where near as good and plot and dragged at a lot of parts.

Originally posted by: ergeorge
Another example of that would be The Difference Engine by Gibson & Sterling. Not sure if the suckiness of that book is due to the collaboration aspect, or just indicative of the long slide in Gibson's work after his first 3 novels.

Bingo! That's one that I forgot! Never have I seen such a wonderful setting and premesis produce so little. They seemed to have spent the time building a very cool world, figuring out how to fuse a contemporary (for the time) level of tech with what could be done in the 1800s, and then did nothing compelling with. Ultimately a pointless book. Sure, there were hints of stuff -- the plastic(?) punch cards that showed up every now and again -- but nothing was ever done.