Which are the WORST books u've ever read?

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: 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.

Draka? Is it anything like Stirling's "Against the Tide of Years" Trilogy? I actually that was pretty interesting, and would've liked to have seen more books in the series. I like Alt History and consider myself a fan of H Turtledove.

 

[ed21x]

anything falling under the category of "Victorian Literature." that, and the Sound and the Fury

 

[jcwagers]

Animal Farm.

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: jcwagers
Animal Farm.

Sad? Yes. Depressing? Yes. But not bad, and definitely not one of the worst books I've ever read.

 

[Vic]

Interesting dissing of some of the Classics here.

btw, Heinlein is awesome and Animal Farm is amazing.

The worst books I have ever read are Shatner's TekWars crap. Only because he is Shatner did that pathetic crap ever see print, much less sell millions of copies.

 

[Pastfinder]

By far the worst book was Forrest Gump. The book was so bad that I felt Hollywood made it a far better story. If they followed the book the movie would have sucked royally.

 

[MournSanity]

To kill a mockingbird was total crap.

 

[jcwagers]

Originally posted by: hypersonic5
To kill a mockingbird was total crap.

:Q

 

[glen]

Wuthering Heights

 

[Garion]

Zen and the Art of Mororcycle Maintenance - I swear, the guy must have been stoned most of the time he wrote it. I made it about 2/3 of the way through it and gave up.

- G

 

[gotsmack]

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

Red Badge of Courage is THE great american novel. It was well written and the story line was also good. what didn't you like about it?

 

[fyleow]

Did not really enjoy Pride and Prejudice or the Mayor of Casterbridge (I kind of liked it but it's too unrealistic).

 

[gotsmack]

Originally posted by: 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.

The first 23 verses in the final edit are gold. After that, the quality just is not there.

 

[lowfatbaconboy]

bad: catcher in the rye (i didn't finish the book b/c i got fed up of him calling everything i mean EVERYTHING phoney)

good:
-1984 i didn't read it for school
-clock work orange....i think its far better than the movie and the last chapter makes the story better IMO (which isn't in the movie or some books)
-bunnicula j/k

 

[csf]

Originally posted by: AvesPKS

Originally posted by: MaxDSP

Originally posted by: DrumminBoy
Great Gatsby

I actually liked Great Gatsby.

I guess my two least favorites would be "Madame Bovary" (waah, waah, I live in France and I didn't want to marry my husband), and "The Awakening" (waah waah, I live in New Orleans and my husband's rich and we hire someone to raise our kids, but that's not enough, I want to marry someone else, waah, waah)...:|

I agree with you exactly on those two. I have a pretty extensive lit background, but I find these to be overrated tripe that infuriates me more than provides any insight. Somehow it's chic to sympathize with self-absorbed, spoiled, and fickle women who only make decisions based on emotions without weighing the consequences; especially when that kind of crap is portrayed as some masterpiece of feminist art. Ugh.

Other literary works that irritate me:
Anything by William Faulkner: It's a shame that his really twisted and interesting plots can be dragged down by confusing and convoluted narrating schemes that take way too much reviewing to follow.
Anything by Jane Austen: Too fluffy for me.
Anything by Borges: Too much pretentious mind games, no content.
Anything post-modern: same deal
1984: Makes a worthwhile social commentary, but the way it's parroted by idiotic sci-fi fans who like to act like Chicken Little and think they're profound and educated by comparing everything to Big Brother and fascism (ironically many of them while supporting socialist policies) by citing this book. See P&N for many examples.

 

[Flyermax2k3]

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
The Wheel of Time series - the latest book (not the prequel).

I'm not too scared of getting shot by a kid that wants to move to Japan to become an anime voice actor while he doesn't even know Japanese.

You leave me no choice but to h4x0r your intarweb

 

[0roo0roo]

chick lit is pretty damn horrible. i mean even that bushnell woman who did sex and the city can't put together a half decent book. bah. why do i know this.. don't ask

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: Garion
Zen and the Art of Mororcycle Maintenance - I swear, the guy must have been stoned most of the time he wrote it. I made it about 2/3 of the way through it and gave up.

- G

That's exactly what I was going to say.

"And what is good, Phaedrus,
And what is not good...
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"

 

[BillGates]

Shakespeare stories all sucked.

 

[Sideswipe001]

As I lay dying (something faulkner I think wrote it). I couldn't finish it. And not to blaspheme too bad, but "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens. That book bored the heck out of me.

 

[teddythemonster]

Asimov's Foundation Trilogy.
I found it boring and pedestrian.

Celestine Prophecies.
Castenada "don Juan" rip-off.

Hemingway-The Sun Also Rises.
bad writing, a few interesting scenes communicated in a stream of conciousness style that is occasionally effective but ultimately boring.

 

[LinuxIdiot]

Skace,

I believe this is the book you are referring to, it was titled "Stone Words: A ghost Story" with a sequel titled "Zoe Rising" I also remember reading this book.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: nater
Tolstoy's War and Peace...it's just too damn long to keep my attention. I read maybe 2/3 of it then gave up.

Did you know that Tolstoy originally called the book "War, What is it Good For", but then later changed it to the name we all now know.

 

[Flyermax2k3]

Originally posted by: Staley8

Originally posted by: nater
Tolstoy's War and Peace...it's just too damn long to keep my attention. I read maybe 2/3 of it then gave up.

Did you know that Tolstoy originally called the book "War, What is it Good For", but then later changed it to the name we all now know.

I heard it was cuz his mistress didn't like the name "War and Peace"

 

[BlackJesus03]

Crappiest book i have ever read was that of Memento Mori by Margaret Atwood. Had to read it for a class, and it sucks. Everything else she writes blows too.