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What's the WORST book you ever read?

For me, the worst book has to be Dune:TBJ. Not only did it completely suck, with poor writing that stooped to levels of repetition not seen since Homer (and at least there was a reason for that), but it really pissed me off when I think about how good it could have been if his dad had wrote it. But the simple (and laughably nonsensical) plot couldn't match any of it's pre/sequals philosophy and cultral reference beyond naming the robots after greek figures. God I hated that book so much. The book version of the Phantom Menace in every sense. It's a tribute to how cap it was that I couldn't care less how the trilogy ended.
 
'Mourning Ruby' Helen Dunmore.

Pure and utter drivel.

Have read some online reviews and the majority of people thought it was good, but I thought it to be awful.

No rhyme or rhythm to it - hard to understand.

Online reason I finished it was I took it with me on a train journey and had nothing else to read. Had I been at home, I would have cast it aside after Chapter 3.
 
jesschoub said:
Was there something specific that was confusing? Just curious since I just had that book reccomended to me by a friend.
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Hi Jess

for me the entire story was confusing with characters such as Howard, peter & Wynand, i didn't get what she was trying to tell thro' that book
give it a try mebbe u"ll like it as i have heard that there are 2 kinds of opinions bout Ayn Rand either they love her or they hate her, i'm pretty much in the latter group
 
The FountainHead by Ayn Rand

May be many of u might disagree with me but I couldn't tolerate the uncompromising central character Howard Roark.
 
I cannot believe people put novels such as The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury or The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand as the WORST books they've ever read. Did you guys just sleep through the novels?

I'll grant you the fact that you may not have enjoyed these books much, but naming it as WORST ever? That's extreme I think in any sense for novels such as these.

The only possible way I can see this happening is if you only ever read books which have won Nobel Prizes, Booker Prizes etc. Or you have only read one book in your life and it takes the spot as both best and worst.....

Reminds me of people who say: "I thought The Iliad was long-winded, LOTR was confusing, Shakespeare was a exaggerating floozy, yet, I love Danielle Steel."

Sometimes, reading the novel just once isn't good enough for you to properly criticize it. Especially when you're judging such influential works as these. Admitedly, I didn't enjoy Farenheit 451 when I first read it, but after reading it a second time, I was stunned by how I could have thought it overratted.
 
Jazzman said:
I cannot believe people put novels such as The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury or The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand as the WORST books they've ever read. Did you guys just sleep through the novels?

I'll grant you the fact that you may not have enjoyed these books much, but naming it as WORST ever? That's extreme I think in any sense for novels such as these.
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But those books have reputations and people tend to expect something when they pick them up. Besides, I don't think anyone would actually remember the real worst book they've ever read and if they did nobody would have heard of it :p
 
Good point Tom. I wouldn't say "worst I ever read", but most philosophical writers aren't great in a literary sense, no matter how worthy of respect they are in the former field.

On topic. Worst book I ever read. . . some trash by Kathleen Woodwiss where the heroine got raped in the first chapter by the "hero". Ugh, stomach turning.

I'm not prudish. I read fantasy occasionally, and there are all kinds of plays on "hurts so good" or protest pretense in that genre, though even there, I have my boundaries.

But the novel by Woodwiss was supposed to be a romance. And it was inarguably just flat rape, complete with girl then falling in love with the rapist. Gag me.
 
I'm not sure I could get through it lovermuffin. I found the movie so disturbing I vomited three times while me and my ex watched it, he was one of those "Kubrick is a god" or whatever type of film buffs.

It's not that I don't appreciate the general message I guess (or what I recall understanding that it was), but I have a pretty sensitive imagination and I think I was empathetic enough to the concepts therein without needing the illustration.

It's also taken me 7 years since to be able to appreciate "Singin in the Rain" without getting nauseous. Whoa, let's just say I'll probably pass on the read. . . .
 
I agree, you either love or hate Ayn Rand. But suggestions for a more pleasurable reading of Ayn Rand books: 1) Atlas Shrugged has a much better story than the Fountainhead - or maybe better told... - and her message is pretty much the same thing in both books so skip the Fountainhead and read Atlas Shrugged. 2) SKIP THE PREACHY PARTS! She goes on and on and on about her ideals...blah, blah, blah, blah...okay skim through them if you're really interested but once you get the jist, move on. There really is no need to suffer through the whole thing - unless of course you're into that kind of thing.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was a bit of a disappointment. It's not the worst book I've ever read but it just wasn't as good as everybody said it was.

Book I truly hate that comes to mind: The Notebook. I saw the movie and I really liked it - I like chick flicks, and this is a great one. So I decided to read while I was on the plane to Hawaii - my sister had the book and I didn't like what I brought....AWFUL. Incredibly cheesy - and this is coming from a girl who doesn't mind dipping into the romance section once in a while - okay it's been years since I've read a romance novel but still, my taste couldn't have changed that much. Anyway I'd rather read a Nora Roberts book than anything of Nicholas Sparks. There is something about Sparks' writing style that grates on me.
 
Jazzman said:
I cannot believe people put novels such as The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury or The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand as the WORST books they've ever read. Did you guys just sleep through the novels?

I'll grant you the fact that you may not have enjoyed these books much, but naming it as WORST ever? That's extreme I think in any sense for novels such as these.

The only possible way I can see this happening is if you only ever read books which have won Nobel Prizes, Booker Prizes etc. Or you have only read one book in your life and it takes the spot as both best and worst.....

Reminds me of people who say: "I thought The Iliad was long-winded, LOTR was confusing, Shakespeare was a exaggerating floozy, yet, I love Danielle Steel."

Sometimes, reading the novel just once isn't good enough for you to properly criticize it. Especially when you're judging such influential works as these. Admitedly, I didn't enjoy Farenheit 451 when I first read it, but after reading it a second time, I was stunned by how I could have thought it overratted.
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Ever considered that people may have different tastes to you? What's wrong with someone hating Shakespeare, Homer and Tolkein and other so called 'classics' and loving Danielle Steel. Since when does everyone have to enjoy and deride the same things? Sorry if this sounds derisive, but I thought you were very critical in your post about someone's opinion that differed from yours.
 
Hard to pick just one...

'Earth in the Balance' by Al Gore

'The Fifth Profession' by David Morrell

'The Bourne Identity' by Robert Ludlum

'The Pelican Brief' by John Grisham

'Hannibal' by Thomas Harris

One might gather from this list that I don't care for cloak & dagger stuff or suspense/thriller novels, but this is not true. I don't know what happened to the David Morrell who wrote 'First Blood' but based on the 'Fifth Profession' someone better check his basement for pods.

Ludlum, I tried a few of his, including 'The Chancellor Manuscript,' and the guy just can't write.

Grisham I enjoyed up to 'Pelican Brief.' 'A Time to Kill' was pretty good, and so was 'The Firm.' I also liked Thomas Harris' first three books, he just didn't sell me on the conversion of Clarice Starling to ritual cannibalism. And the book wasn't tight and well paced like his earlier books.

And I've recently read & enjoyed Stephen Graham Jones' 'All the Beautiful Sinners' and Peter Temple's 'Identity Theory.'

The list does not include books that stunk so bad I didn't finish them. These include 'Drive Like Hell' by Dallas Hudgens, HST's 'Songs of the Doomed' and 'Generation of Swine.'

Oh, and if 'Earth in the Balance' seems an oddball on the list, I had to read it for work. I used to work for a chain of small newspapers and it fell to me to do the review of Gore's so-called book. Between the logical fallacies, the lack of documented sources, and the terrible prose, it was damned near impossible to finish. I doubt it was finished by many who bought it, I suspect it was mainly a book that was bought to prove that the person buying it 'cared.' If they read it, Gore probably set the cause he claims to champion back by decades.

If memory serves, there was stress placed on 'Earth in the Balance' being printed on recycled stock. But it wasn't just not worth cutting a tree down to print: it is a damned shame to waste old newspapers and unsold Harlequin romance novels printing such a terrible book. I couldn't pick just one, but it's a no brainer what's topping the list...
 
I'm probably going to offend a lot of people with this but for me the worst book that i have read recently is 'Norwegian Wood' by Haurki Murakami.
I just found the whole thing so incredibly dull and poorly written.

Having said that it is far better than the worst author in the world EVER (IMHO) which has to be John Grisham!

Lisa
 
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