Worst book you've ever read?
 

What's the worst book you've ever picked up? Or ones you couldn't even finish?

Mine would be:
Steven King books (who needs seven hundred pages of introduction and 50 pages of story)
The Hobbit (see above. also too much talk about hobbit feet, lol)
and Atlas Shrugged (liked Fountainhead, can't say why I didn't like this one.)

I don't read many books, and I can't remember ever not finishing one...

But I totally disagree with you on The Hobbit. I loved the book! It takes some getting used to the style of it, that's true.

I love Stephen King, but I have to say that I hated "Carrie". Read the whole thing in one day and it is clear that it was King's first novel (not written under the pen name Richard Bachman). King really got much better later in his career.

I'm really picky about the books I read, I can't recall reading a book that I hated, or stopped reading out of disgust.

virtually everything in my college English class........errrr

The Queen of Whores.

Oh 700 plus pages and it just fuckin sucked... It could of been cool.

The Hobbit was great. I really liked that book as a kid.
OK I know I'm asking for trouble for this but the worst book I've tried to read is the Bible.

I'm with agentsmith.

Outside of that, I'd say Stephen King's The Gunslinger . BOOOOOORRRRRRIIIIING!!!! I didn't even make it all the way through the book. It was too much work to get through another page.

i really dislike a lot of books that are non scifi written by "modern" authors.
such as Douglas Coupland's "Miss Wyoming", "Microserfs" "GenerationX", and "shampoo planet"
I also read some book that was making the rounds at mtv a while ago called "the fuck up" (i forget the author) it blew heartily.. that's the last time i read a book reccomended by MTV :)

"The interpreter" by Suki Kim started off..bleh.. got interesting, and wimped out in the end.
I think this is a trend of contemporary writers now.. almost everything has beeen done in some capacity.. they dont know how to wrap up a book effectively.

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.... god I hated that book sooooo much! I couldn't make it through it. Also I hated the Scarlett Letter. It was just boring....

Bonfire of the Vanitites. Forced myself through the first 50 pages, then chucked it.

I agree about King, although his short stories/novella's can be excellent.

The Still, by David F..., quite possibly the worst book I've ever read. 500 pages of drivel.

Anything that involves the typical outsider coming into a new world/situation and being the only hope because of his/her outside perspective (Thomas Covenant books come to mind here)

Anything that involves spunky kids saving the day because they're smarter/faster/cuter than the adults (Several Michael Chriton books come to mind here)

The octopus. It's about farmers, and the west and god damn it blows. so anti-climatic and just arggggggggggggggg. horrible book.

The gunslinger/dark tower books are some of my alltime favourites, can't wait for the rest of the series. I also have read The Stand (the full unabridge version) at least five times.

The worst book I have read in recent years was the first Harry Potter book - haven't gone near any of the umpteeth sequels after being completely unimpressed with the first one.

You're kidding? That book has it all. Sex, drugs, not so much rock n roll, more of a mariachi style dance number. If you ignore all the religious aspects, it's a REALLY interesting read.

Worst book ever is The Sun Also Rises. I GO TO BULLFIGHTS AND NOTHING HAPPENS! It was like a REALLY depressing episode of Seinfeld with all the humor removed.

Which ones? Only one remotely close to that is the Lost World, but it still isn't quite like that. Besides, Crichton is the man (except for Prey).

As for me, I'll agree with The Hobbit as well as the Fellowship of the Ring. Before all the Tolkien-ites send their elves after me, let me add that I was forced to read them in school. That, combined with a semi-dislike of real fantasy literature, gave me a bad taste in my mouth.

I have been meaning to read the booksagain, though, so maybe I'll like them better.

When the Legends Die by Hal Borland. I had to read it for school and it was complete horse shit.

heheh... memories of Alex and a Clockwork Orange....

"I didn't so much like the latter part of the book which is more like all preachy talking, than fighting and the old-in out. I liked the parts where these old yahoodies tolchock each other and then drink their Hewbrew vino and then getting on to the bed with their wives' handmaidens. That kept me going.
I read all about the scourging and the crowning with thorns and all that, and I could viddy myself helping in and even taking charge of the tolchocking and the nailing in, being dressed in the height of Roman fashion."

Yep the bible has some great fucked up stuff. I always wonder about the towns (sodom is probably the best known exsample) where when a stranger would show up the whole town would get together and try to rape him silly. (several towns in the bible display this nasty habit)

anyway, wort book I ever read has to be "player piano" it was short, but Oh so painfull. damd highschool english classes.

I could never get into Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (I think). It was high school reading, so I was probably prejudiced, but I just despised the book.
As for the Gunslinger, King rewrote it for the rerelease. He even admitted that it was a bit too pretentious. So the rewrite might be a little easier to read for all of you guys who didn't like it the first time.

Well, counting books I chose myself, rather than had forced on me by a class, I'd go with Crichton's Sphere or Prey. And I'll take issue with giblfiz' complaint, for all the good that does.

some crazy book my friend told me to read once... it was called "the blue light" or something like that... i can't even remember the author.. i read half the book.. hoping it would get better.. but it didn't... not at all...

um...i absolutely hated "Scarlet Letter", had to read it in high school. i just quit after the 3rd chapter, and BSed my way to an A on the test. although i found it really funny how overly fond of the word "ignominy/ignominious" Hawthorne was. also, this book called "Fortress of Eagles" by CJ Cherryh. gave up after 50 pages, because she thought it would be rad to write all of the dialogue in middle english. now believe me, i love shakespeare, but the fact that she went out of her way to do it was just pompous. and she did a shitty job of it too.

I can't stand the Scarlet Letter :\ heh

The Awakening

I had to read it for an AP English class. The only good part about it was the story ended the way you wanted it to end. And everyone who had to read this piece of garbage know EXACTLY what I meant by it ending the way you wanted it to ;)

Anything by Hemingway, granted he can write, I just hate how he writes, such a morbid sonofabitch.

the scarlet letter. GOD awful.

in high school, i had to read madame bovary. while it might have some literary value, it's boring as hell. for some reason, i remember particularly hating that book.

"Nightmare's Disciple" by Joseph S. Pulver Sr. The only book I've ever thrown across the room with hatred. sk

H.P Lovecraft books, just for the fact that they are so hard to read. I cannot stand how often he uses "I" in his stories.

i hated "catcher in the rye."

i couldn't finish "the talisman" by stephen king and peter straub.

Definately Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Took me 2 months to finish, I normally finish a book in about 2 weeks.

oh oops, allow me to clarify, not player piano the reasonably good book by Kurt Vonnegut (I sort of forgot about that one when I posted)

I'm talking about this really dumb book they made us read about some poor family in Mississippi who owned a player paino, as a family heirloom and wouldn't sell it but liked to fight about selling it.

Its possible that it was called "the piano" but I'm pretty sure it was called "player piano"

I have nothing against the Vonnegut book, which I forgot holds a greater sway on the namespace everywhere but my high school.

oh yeah, and the scarlet letter, as well as everything else by hawthorn sucked. I don't like most fiction about puritans

Edit: My bad. I found it and I was totaly wrong about the name, its called "the piano lession" I was confused because the piano they have is a player piano. Its by August Wilson and some idiot gave it a pulitzer prize.

I can't read Shakespear.

I can watch it though.

GN

I read one Clive Cussler book. He should stick to writing about boats. The action sequences in his books are pretty dreadful.

Otherwise, Anne Rice's books truly piss me off.
She sounds like an overprotected and incredibly bored woman.
Her vampires may have some kind of lure for some people, but to me her creations seem like pretentious wankers.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It was just boring and I didn't enjoy it at all.

don´t tell my mums kindergarten class - thats their favourite.

i´d have to jump on the Stephen King bandwagon here.

CUJO, was the first King i ever read. and i was seriously disappointed. i haven´t read any King since.

this is such an interesting thread.
i think its fascinating to hear why people hated books that i adored.
thanks for starting this one Jonsgirl.

Oh, thank the lord. Player Piano is about the future where machines have taken jobs away from people and it's sort of a dystopia, etc. Standard Vonnegutian brilliance. I will, of course, steer clear of The Piano Lesson. :)

I've never gotten past the first 40 pages of a book I didn't like, so I guess I can technically say that I've liked every book I've read.

I am a fan of Stephen King, and I will say this about his writing; he is a master storyteller who is also obssessed with the language. Some writers tell good stories but don't use good wording (John Grisham). Other writers use great wording but don't tell very good stories. Stephen King does both, but I can understand if some people don't like to muddle through his wording.

If you don't like Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, JD Salinger, or William Golding, then you will not like Stephen King, either.

And I'm not suggesting that King is as "good" as those other writers, but his writing is of a similar thrust.

Red Mars. Finished that, started Blue Mars, gave up after 20 pages when I realized there was a third book (Green Mars) in the series. All the pretentiousness of a Clancy novel but without Clancy's ability to make technological descriptions interesting. All I remember now was the free love commune under the southern ice cap. Ugh.

Oh man, I thought I was the only one who couldn't stand the Red Mars books. I tried to like them, I really did, but damn...

I'd have to agree... hating the english teacher that assigned it probably didn't help either.

Dear God yes, i forgot about those books, i mean, some parts were cool, where there were actual plot happenings or sex scenes or philosphical debates, but fuck, 90% of those books was just scientific jargon, absolute drivel. i honestly couldn't care less what the fucking chemical composition of rock IRX 2700 is.

ok. i really hated reading tess of the d'ubervilles.. and any jane austen.. i'm just not into that english lit..

wuthering heights was also painful and i actually read that on my own. not school. :P

TESS WAS EVIL.

Same here...Hard to enjoy a book when you feel total hatred for the main character.

But the worst book I ever read was one for English class called "The Chrysalis" If anyone hasn't read it yet and will, I won't spoil it for anyone, but I had no clue what the hell was going on until the teacher explained it for me well over halfway through the book. And I am an avid reader.

I read a truely staggering amount, and so I have read a heaping helping of steaming crap in my time. Some I feel I must apologize for disliking though;

Vonnegut - I tried reading Slaughterhouse and couldn't. Tried reading "Breakfast of Champions" and couldn't. I've heard the man speak (at college) and even spoken with him briefly (once), but his writing style makes me want to hurl.

Phillip Dick - A skilled screenwriter can get a good script out of a Phillip Dick book, but I'll be damned if I get anything out of them but let down. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep may be the single worst book I managed to complete in college. Giving him another chance, I tried The Man In the High Castle which, so far as I could tell, started in the middle and went nowhere of consequence. Colossal waste of time. (This from a man who truely enjoys the Illuminatus trilogy, which has been called the world's longest shaggy dog joke by some.)

Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
Burroughs - Naked Lunch
I lump these together because they both managed to revolt me into stopping reading within 100 pages. We all go potty, guys. But I don't send my TP off to my publisher afterwards.

Steinbeck was America's greatest typist. I recognize why he was necessary, but not why I was forced to read him after the rest of the world had already internalized his wretchedly written lessons on presenting the common man. There are others who do it better. Many others.

As a writer, Hemmingway was technically perfect, but failed completely in providing a single plot or theme I could give a rat's ass about.

Faulkner. As a writer, Faulkner was a pretty fair violinist. He should have taken up drinking professionally. Pretended to read "The Hamlet" in High School. Couldn't do it.

Salinger. JD Salinger is a pretentious old fuck who should shampoo my crotch. I cannot imagine why anyone considers him relevant to anything. If he were a pop band, he would be Flock of Seagulls. Two songs, no content.

F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby - It must really suck to be rich. Get over yourself.

Some books I have read that sucked I really enjoyed.

Stephen R. Donaldson has the lousiest command of the english language of any native speaking professional writer that I have ever run across. His metaphors are implausible to impossible, and he tends to use the same 25¢ word a dozen times in as many pages (ineffable is a faorite of his). His dialog is comparable to Ivanhoe translated to Modern English by Stan Lee. His settings, however, are breathtaking, and, if his plots are broadly the same old fairy tale, there is gold in the details.

Jack Chalker is a hack. I have read probably 80% of his stuff, and like it a great deal, but, in the 20 or so books of his I have read, there is one plot. Count 'em. One. Uno. Ein. All he does is keep dressing it up in different clothes. Fortunately, it's a good one.

James Joyce. "How's that working out for you?" "What?" "Being clever." No one doubts that James Joyce was Clever with a capital lever, but there is a point at which one becomes too clever to be understood by anyone else. Joyce is a memorial to exactly how far across that line one could go and still sell books. Yes, PhD theses have been written by the score on Finnegans Wake. There's a lot of eriudition out there about tapeworms too.

Alan Dean Foster. I used to love this guy when I was twelve. I've picked up some of his books agan since. Wow is he ever bad. Nuff Said about him. Christofer Stasheff is one of the same kind.

Robert Ludlam. What I have read of his stuff I have enjoyed, however, you know you've bee reading too much Ludlam when you hear of someone getting shot with a .22 and think "Man, that must've stung!"

To those of you who dissed Stephen King. I know where you're coming from and have been there myself. In 50 years, our great grandkids will have to read his stuff in high school (If they still teach reading at that point.) Cujo almost put me off of him forever too, but the Stand kept me off of him for years, because he will never write anything better. the Dark Tower series, though, comes close, but mostly on pure ghoulish ambiance.

Nostalgic, I know what you're talking about. It's Walter Mosely's foray into science fiction. I havent read it, so I can't comment on it, but it sounds like it came out about the way I would expect a hard bitten mystery writer's first attempt at sci -fi would.

The Bible was written by committee, some of whom were on hallucinagens at the time. Of course it's a lousy read. Also one of the two most pernicious books of all time, (the Qu'ran is the other), but that's a different argument.

Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco

The very definition of tedious.

I thought about listing that one, but I've only read it once, and I know that it took me a couple of reads to actually get to the plot of Name of the Rose. Flip side is that I read Focault's Pendulum in 94, so I am unlikely to return to it.

I could go on about bad authors too, but this thread is about the worst BOOK.

So, hands down:

Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard.
What a piece of shit. It's only about 5 times longer than it needed to be. It reminds me of the style of writing you saw in (what?) the early 1900s? When they were paid by the word.
The hero is called "Johnny (good boy) Tyler"????

I later learned that he aspired to be histories most prolific writer, which explains the extreme verbage of the book in that everything is described in excruciating detail.

I was about to say, damn, I read Player Piano by Vonnegut and loved it. I read it for my 11th grade English class and actually enjoyed it. The main character has a cool name -- Dr. Paul Proteus.

Worst book? Let's see...I've read some shitty Dragonlance books. Most of them are above average, but Vinas Solamnus, Darkheart, and Weasel's Luck are all pretty crappy.

-Lasereth

Wuthering Heights sucked. I hated Jane Austen 'til I was forced to read it 20 times. It's intracacies are amazing, I just don't give a shit about any of the characters.

Stephen King is for highschool detention.

oh yeah, Walden sucked too.

I have to agree with redmars and battlefield. Also those Donaldson white gold weilder books.

Plato - The Republic and Colleen McCullough's Caesar.

logic behind my choices:

plato's republic
this is a book I read to fall asleep. It has not yet failed me. While I am an avid and quite fast reader (3-400pg novel in about a week and a half, 30 mins a day avg) I simply cannot stand to read this waste of paper. The characters are ludicrous, and plato seems to jump between first, second, and third person without warning. Dialogue uses unneccessarily long and obscure words. There are also no " marks (cant remember their names atm) anywhere in the book, making it very confusing to read if you havent previously put the book down at the end of a chapter.
Also, in order to understand most if not all of this book, it requires the reader to re-read almost every line of dialogue to make any sense of it.
The only people i would ever reccomend this book to are insomniacs.
I have been attempting to read this book off and on for about 2 years now, and i am only on page 21

Colleen McCullough's Caesar, a novel

This is THE slowest and most boring book i have ever attempted to read. Even slower than the republic. After reading the INCREDIBLY detailed descriptions of EVERYTHING [the cutlery, the materials used to construct the soldier's tents, the germanic people's matted, twisted hair (think unkempt dreads)] i find myself nowhere. Page 2. Now come the characters which i cannot care about, even the characters i am somewhat familiar with (brutus, marc antony, etc). Dear god. Unlike the Romans, this book marches to nowhere. slowly. every time i attempt to read this book i am fast asleep within half a page.

I was very interested in the Roman legacy and culture before attempting this book, but now i find myself not caring at all.

PLEASE, PLEASE do not buy, borrow, steal, or otherwise acquire and read these books, unless you are either a masochist or an insomniac.

and so ends my longwinded (ah, the irony) rant on the sheer amount of bollocks contained in the pages of these two tomes of trash. sorry for the long post.

I watched LOTR when it first came out and couldnt wait for the next film, so i bought the book. now. i'm not saying its a bad book or story, i loved the film, but i just couldn't get into it.

And the the fifth harry potter book sucked!

I enjoyed Anne Rice's vampire chronicles up until Memnoch the Devil. I've tried to read it 3 times and each time I put it down halfway through, unable to finish it, and I'm the kind of person who <i>must</i> finish every book I read.

Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Ugh....total CRAP

THe Grapes of Wrath. I had to read it for 11th grade English. I know its a classic and everything, but everytime I picked it up to read I fell asleep within like 2 paragraphs. I did finish reading it. It was very depressing (Stienbeck always is) I didn't feel like I got anything out of reading it. Bleh

"the Wars" by timothy findley

It's Canadian liturature, so it doesn't matter that its a horrid piece of gay porn

dean kuntz needs to be dropped from something tall onto lots of sharp pointy things.

wind in the willows??? i love that... :( maybe that's because i used to watch those claymation videos when i was a kid... soo cute... i just don't understand.. :-/

and i though the Scarlet Letter was bearable... :-/ whatever... if you think those are bad, RUN AWAY SCREAMING FROM:

the Woman Warrior, Catcher in the Rye, The Invisible Man, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Catch 22, Slaughterhouse 5,

and Mutiny on the Elsinore (by Jack London) just takes the frickin CAKE!!!

(yeah and those stupid kiddie-saves-the day books really ARE lousy..)

Sword of shannara- terry brooks was "created" by a publisher to cash in on lotr fans- granted, he has gotten a bit better, but not by much...

Thomas covenant, unbeliever- what a great steaming pile of horseshit- what high fantasy THE MAIN CHARACTER IS A RAPIST!
even if you can ignore that the guy spends half the book essentialy curled into as ball trying to ignore what is happening to him- in context i could accept that for a while but it never ends.......

Native Son - by your guess is as good as mine.... ugh terrible book. Technically speaking it was okay, but I have problems with books where you have no relation/empathy towards the main character.

On the Road - Jack Kerouac (sp?) Hippies... Supposidly a book about freedom, but the main character just wanders around picking cotton. Stupid.

One thought, at what point do you decide to put down a book that's terrible? Do you stick through to the end just hoping for something salvagable? If it's for a assignment for school I can see trudging through it, cause you have no choice, but when your reading it on your own time what makes you stop?

Better question... What books have you started, but never finished?

As mtsgsd said, Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard... though I better hide now, or the Scientologists will get me :eek:

Atlas Shrugged.

That came to mind as soon as I saw the topic of the thread before I even read the first post. It's just a preachy piece of crap that goes on forever.

The Shipping News.

Man Dies of Reading.

You'll get the reference if you also suffered my pain. :)

Any of the "newer" Conan books, especially those written by Robert Jordan.

I laughed my ass off at the book and I don't even know why.

"I'd rather walk than snap my heel off on that rind of a bike."

yup, couldn't agree more. I even agree, for the most part, with what she's preaching, and I still wanted to say, "Okay, I get it, now let's just finish the stupid story so I can be done with this book!"

Tom Clancy generates the same preaching to the choir fast forwards from me, but at least his books are a bit more exciting.

I also really hated a book I read last summer, can't remember the name, but it was the new one in the Clan of the Cave Bear series (I had not read the others) It's about this caveman couple who are smarter and better looking than anyone else among the cave dwellers and they are so in love, etc.. I had read alot about it in the media and thought I'd try it out. It was boring and sucked alot.

i did not enjoy wuthering hieghts what so ever, it was a hellacious slow painful read, and i had to write essays about it. i think school contributes to ruining possibly good reads.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.
When a major character is getting castrated...and you don't know it because its GD stream-of-consciousness and you don't know what the HELL's going on...that's a problem.

Plum Island by Nelson DeMille. It's about 450 pp., and I read every page because I wanted to see how bad it could get. Answer: very, very bad: awful storytelling, a main character/narrator you want to punch in the teeth, a plot the most empathetic person on earth couldn't care less about, and absolutely awful, awful prose. Definitely worth checking out if you'd like to see how bad American fiction can get.

I've read some real crappy stuff, but...
 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The only book I've ever burned to make the world a better place. If you see a copy, please follow my example.

Atlas Shrugged. Got halfway through it and I Shrugged. Didn't want to read what was probably gonna be a five-hundred page prologue.

Aw, man...I really liked that one...made me use all the knowledge I had to relate to everything.

I'll have to agree with you on this...LOTR remix for the Sword of Shannara

And the Thomas Covenant series...oi, how depressing.
I actually got through the first few thinking he might do something productive.
But "The One Tree" has got to be the worst (longest fuckin' boatride in the world)

However, I would have to say that Robert Jordan's latest book in the "Great Wheel" saga
is one of the worst one I've read most recently.
Now THAT one is tedious, details about EVERYTHING but the plot goes nowhere. (talk about filler)

Catcher in the Rye.. Oh my @#)($ that book bored the hell outa me.. its just so boring, and repetitive... i hate school books, but this one,.. cuz sucked

the octopus or maybe the iliad

The Celestine Prophecy. I can only stomach so much new age bullshit before I vomit. Horrible story, horrible character developement, very weak touchy-feely concepts. I had friends who tried to live by it for after the first two months they read it. It was frightening. After some deprogramming they finally figured it out. I recommended some Dianetics. :D

Jonsgirl is Right On! She knows. "The Hobbit" was Sooooo freaking boring! Yikes!! Thank gawd the current LOTRs movies are way better than the books were! The special effects are worth sitting through. And admit it, the delicious Dane rocks. He's Hot PERSONIFIED!!!!!

But c'mon, what's all the fuss about "Altas Shrugged"....although the movie "The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand" was interesting and worthy enough in an ethnocentric and sort of - form follows function way...seriously....Check it out.

Personally, I highly recommend ANYTHING Herman Hess has written - ever. He has such deep insight in the struggles and the human condition and magic - so deeply inbedded within that his books give you knowledge you will never forget.

Anne Rice's The Vampire LeStat. Started it, put it down after about 70 pages.

okay... i read slaughterhouse five in hopes of seeing what the houpla was all about... i was still waiting for it to get good when i hit the last page. what a disappointment.

catcher in the rye was okay, but definitely not on my read again list. the diatribes of an angry teenager. what a drag.

okay. onto scifi. i loved rama. it was great. then rama 2 came out and i got a big steaming soft one... too much character development and drama, not enough big mysterious spaceship. i won't read the rest of them.