What is the worst book you have ever read?
- Thread starter Jotaro
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Deleted member 4784
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If you stopped reading Don Quixote in the beginning then I'd suggest you give it another chance. The first half of the book is extremely slow, but the second half (actually second "book") is when things start to get funny and interesting. The problem with most classic novels is that the first half of the book was usually taken to be an introducton to the characters more than anything else. The second half is when the story really began.
Scrow said:
Dude, Don Quixote is probably the novel that had the biggest impact on literature ever. You've got to read it again. I remember when I read it in my room lent from my library, it's just timeless and the story is really intelligent.
You take Don Quixote away, literature would be a whole new beast. It's one of my favorites ever.
BTW, anyone read Perceval? I tried to read it, but as I'm french in Quebec I had to read the original, french version, and I dropped out of the semester at that time. I tried to read it, but the old dark ages french was non-understandable for me. Translated into any other language you can understand what Chrétien de Troyes meant, but the french version, well 
Star Wars was a rip-off of the movie The Hidden Fortress by Kurosawa, and the novel Perceval. But when I read the comparisons, the old french (it's really, REALLY OLD AND GIBBERISH BY TODAY'S FRENCH), gave me headaches and I gave up. At the beginning, when Perceval leaves to become a knight his mother dies, but as I read it I didn't even understand what happened. Everyone also did and found it the worst POS ever. But i'd love to read the story. I suppose I'd have to like, get an english version.
I will understand if you find it one of the worst ever, however.
Star Wars was a rip-off of the movie The Hidden Fortress by Kurosawa, and the novel Perceval. But when I read the comparisons, the old french (it's really, REALLY OLD AND GIBBERISH BY TODAY'S FRENCH), gave me headaches and I gave up. At the beginning, when Perceval leaves to become a knight his mother dies, but as I read it I didn't even understand what happened. Everyone also did and found it the worst POS ever. But i'd love to read the story. I suppose I'd have to like, get an english version.
I will understand if you find it one of the worst ever, however.
Templar Wizard
Member
DaVinci code
Wuthering Heights and Don Quijote have nothing to do in this thread :-( Shameful.
Try "Devos" by Veronica Robertson (or something like that) if you want bad. It's a sci-fi so bad that it's impossible to find even the tiniest bit of info about it on the net. So bad that the world doesn't allow it to exist any more.
Try "Devos" by Veronica Robertson (or something like that) if you want bad. It's a sci-fi so bad that it's impossible to find even the tiniest bit of info about it on the net. So bad that the world doesn't allow it to exist any more.
This topic is hard, because if a book sucks. I will stop reading it. So, that disqualifies me from saying a book sucked. Here are two that I felt compelled to finish, even though I hated the experience.
To be fair, the initial book isn't too bad ... but you get sucked into reading the series, and by book 3 of 12 (??!!!) you have realized that it was all a big waste of your life.
Also, Chuck Paluhniuk's "Diary" was pretty bad. I'm a big fan .. so I read through it all, but was very bored by it all.
To be fair, the initial book isn't too bad ... but you get sucked into reading the series, and by book 3 of 12 (??!!!) you have realized that it was all a big waste of your life.
Also, Chuck Paluhniuk's "Diary" was pretty bad. I'm a big fan .. so I read through it all, but was very bored by it all.
Other than the obvious choice (Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea - make sure you read the preview - it's well worth it, especially the quotes about the book...) I'd put forward any of Piers Anthony's Xanth books, and particularly the Chronicles Of An Age Of Darkness books by Hugh Cook. I was writing better fantasy novels when I was thirteen, and I wrote dire fantasy novels when I was thirteen.
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
Every book I had to read at school sucked. I suspect they didn't actually suck, but as we were forced to read it when they wanted us to, write essays about it and pull apart every last sentence in class, you start to hate it. I swear that, if anything, school puts people off reading.
Some of the books I read at school:
Lord of the Flies
King Solomon's Mines
Swallows and Amazons
The Mayor of Casterbridge
I believe they're all considered classics. THANKS HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH
Some of the books I read at school:
Lord of the Flies
King Solomon's Mines
Swallows and Amazons
The Mayor of Casterbridge
I believe they're all considered classics. THANKS HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
Luckily I don't find myself reading many bad books. I generally only pick up classics, recommendations, books that are getting good word of mouth, books from authors/series I know, or ones which have won awards I recognise, and even if they're not as good as I'd hope, they're generally not bad (even the Da Vinci Code had some good in it, namely the factual infomation).
I guess if you pick up books off the shelf due to interesting sounding blurbs, it's easy to come across a lot of shit.
I guess if you pick up books off the shelf due to interesting sounding blurbs, it's easy to come across a lot of shit.
If you want to keep your inner child happy, don't try to re-read them. I made the mistake of buying the first five volumes or so in a second-hand book shop, only to discover they were so badly written that I couldn't make it past the first chapter.
My inner child also cried when I tried re-reading the Dragonlance books. Perhaps writing one or two dire D&D-based fantasy novels makes it impossible for you to read them ever again...
My inner child also cried when I tried re-reading the Dragonlance books. Perhaps writing one or two dire D&D-based fantasy novels makes it impossible for you to read them ever again...
- BladeRunner
Ironically BladeRunner is among my top five favourite movies - but the book is a total atrocity.
And just because I want to mention another one.
- StarGlider Novella
Thankfully this was not a full novel length - though it didn't save it from being terrible. It's also kind of left me with the impression that books written after a game can't possibly be anything other then bad - so it's like the first thing I remember everytime someone starts talking about Halo books being any good.
Ironically BladeRunner is among my top five favourite movies - but the book is a total atrocity.
And just because I want to mention another one.
- StarGlider Novella
Thankfully this was not a full novel length - though it didn't save it from being terrible. It's also kind of left me with the impression that books written after a game can't possibly be anything other then bad - so it's like the first thing I remember everytime someone starts talking about Halo books being any good.
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
I assume you mean "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?".
Try listening to the audio version once(yes, there's an audio book too) and you'll realize that it in fact sounds more retarded then you ever imagined
I never actually read this, so I couldn't put it as my pick in this thread... (otherwise a winner by a large margin).
Musashi Wins!
FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
keeblerdrow said:
I'm sure I've read worse, but this book is overrated and trashy (in a bad way) and makes my most recent pick.
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
Can someone recommend some Russian literature? Any sort of fiction is fine. I know the big ones of course, but I've never read any.
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
They all sound good (well, I'm not a fan of reading plays, so maybe not The Government Inspector), but I think I'll go with Lermontov first. Cheers.
ManDudeChild
Member
Prospero said:
A smart move. I can stand maybe one or two of her books. For the most part, they're packed with evidence that she hasn't had "any" in a loooonnng time.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Hannibal by Thomas Harris.
Yikies. Red Dragon was a good book, Silence of the Lambs was so-so (but a great movie)... Hannibal was a disaster. No wonder Jodie Foster bailed out. I kept reading it waiting in disbelief, thinking "it can't get worse" and it just did.
Yikies. Red Dragon was a good book, Silence of the Lambs was so-so (but a great movie)... Hannibal was a disaster. No wonder Jodie Foster bailed out. I kept reading it waiting in disbelief, thinking "it can't get worse" and it just did.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Fafalada said:
That book wasn't so much bad, as it read like an incomplete draft. I mean, wtf with the plot jumping around and random left turns that it makes?
I was going to defend Wuthering Heights, but then I realized I never managed to finish it.
I can't stomach the thought of finishing Timequake (Kurt Vonnegut).
Ugh. A guy just abstractly rambling on about how stupid everything in the world is (and placing himself in the book as a boring "protagonist??"). Thanks for the pick me up, Kurt. Douglas Adams did that so much more humorously and wasn't anywhere near as full of himself as you are.
I really enjoyed Cat's Cradle, etc. (FEAR ICE 9!!) but Timequake.. just.. jut, no.
Ugh. A guy just abstractly rambling on about how stupid everything in the world is (and placing himself in the book as a boring "protagonist??"). Thanks for the pick me up, Kurt. Douglas Adams did that so much more humorously and wasn't anywhere near as full of himself as you are.
I really enjoyed Cat's Cradle, etc. (FEAR ICE 9!!) but Timequake.. just.. jut, no.
ToxicAdam said:
To be fair, the initial book isn't too bad ... but you get sucked into reading the series, and by book 3 of 12 (??!!!) you have realized that it was all a big waste of your life.
You've got the wrong L. Ron Hubbard "Earth" book there. Battlefield Earth isn't part of a series it's a stand alone book. You're thinking of the 10-book series "Mission Earth"
For the record, I hated "The Sun Also Rises" by Hemingway.
I'm going to have to say Wuthering Heights as well. A lot of the stuff people are posting are just like books that you know are going to be bad. Hack trash that I just can't see being good, but I despised Wuthering Heights, a supposed classic. This was kind of surprising, because I usually liked everything I read in high school, including stuff like The Great Gatsby, all the Shakespeare we read, Dante's Inferno, although I didn't like Catcher in the Rye either. Don Quixote was tough to get through but pretty good.
Oh and a book called Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze... had to read it in 6th grade and it was God awful. I'll give this the nod over Wuthering Heights actually.
Oh and a book called Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze... had to read it in 6th grade and it was God awful. I'll give this the nod over Wuthering Heights actually.
I was never a fan of the Great Gatsby, even though that's more about taste than it is quality. That's about it form me, most of the books I've read in my life I have enjoyed. As a matter of fact that same year I read The Great Gastby my class read Huckleberry Finn, which I put on small list of the best things I've ever read. Twain is amazing IMO.
Manics said:You've got the wrong L. Ron Hubbard "Earth" book there. Battlefield Earth isn't part of a series it's a stand alone book. You're thinking of the 10-book series "Mission Earth"
For the record, I hated "The Sun Also Rises" by Hemingway.
I probably should've done a google on it. Yea, it was the 'Mission Earth' series that was fucking awful.
Your 'Sun Also Rises' reminds me of my college English class. We also had to read one of the most boring, drab, depressing plays (and attend it also). It was called 'A Long Day's Journey into Night'. Description
Dreadful.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Gatsby is up there with great books of modern time, IMHO.
Dickens, on the other hand, can blow me. Especially Great Expectations.
Dickens, on the other hand, can blow me. Especially Great Expectations.
Particle Physicist
between a quark and a baryon
Manics said:
grade 13?
"Then I found out that Hemingway and Fitzgerald were good buddies and it all made sense."
The worst book I DIDN'T read was Samuel Beckett's interminable, insufferable novel Molloy. Assigned this for a class on Beckett in school, read the first couple pages, and knew that no grade was worth putting up with that junk.
The worst book I did read, though, has got to be Confessions of a Mask, Yukio Mishima's autobiography. I can barely stand any of his fiction, either, but his characters are usually at least grotesquely interesting. The autobiography, on the other hand, reveals exactly how dull and whiny an asshole Mishima was. Assuming he wasn't leaving lots of stuff out, then by his own account I couldn't find any problems in his life that weren't of his own making ...
The worst book I did read, though, has got to be Confessions of a Mask, Yukio Mishima's autobiography. I can barely stand any of his fiction, either, but his characters are usually at least grotesquely interesting. The autobiography, on the other hand, reveals exactly how dull and whiny an asshole Mishima was. Assuming he wasn't leaving lots of stuff out, then by his own account I couldn't find any problems in his life that weren't of his own making ...
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
FUCK YOU MICHAEL ONDAATJE
Let's see...
The English Patient
Coming Through Slaughter
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
In the Skin of the Lion
No I didn't WANT to read any of his crappy ass nonsensical books, damned schools forced me too...man Canadian Literature needs new authors and not
MARGARET ATWOOD
Edible Woman
Cat's Eye
Thank God I haven't been forced to read any more of her trash
Oh, and another book I hate, but was forced to read was
Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club
Damn does it portray Chinese males (both ABCs and from China) in a negative light. We're only rapists, dominating, traditional bastards who want our wives to stay home, clean the house and cook our meals. No, you can find happiness by dating another race, it doesn't matter what kind of morals or personality he has, if he's Chinese then women won't be happy.
So just to vent a little more
Fuck you Atwood, Tan, and Ondaatje and I hope people stop buying your crap so we won't have to study it in school!~
Let's see...
The English Patient
Coming Through Slaughter
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
In the Skin of the Lion
No I didn't WANT to read any of his crappy ass nonsensical books, damned schools forced me too...man Canadian Literature needs new authors and not
MARGARET ATWOOD
Edible Woman
Cat's Eye
Thank God I haven't been forced to read any more of her trash
Oh, and another book I hate, but was forced to read was
Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club
Damn does it portray Chinese males (both ABCs and from China) in a negative light. We're only rapists, dominating, traditional bastards who want our wives to stay home, clean the house and cook our meals. No, you can find happiness by dating another race, it doesn't matter what kind of morals or personality he has, if he's Chinese then women won't be happy.
So just to vent a little more
Fuck you Atwood, Tan, and Ondaatje and I hope people stop buying your crap so we won't have to study it in school!~
I'd mention mine but its so highly acclaimed by "fantasy" nerds this thread would spiral into 20 pages. Lets say I dont enjoy escaping into "fantasy" novel that mimics old england with more then hundred boring characters you have to keep track of with no sense of exploration or magic.
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
I hate Margaret Atwood. I've never read any of her books, but I refuse to since I read an interview with Steven Erikson where he spoke (not positively) about her:
"Whereupon she defined Science Fiction as fiction set in 'invented' worlds having no relationship to our own. At the festival, she added a definition of Fantasy, as fiction where animals talk."
Now I'm used to fantasy (and sometimes sci fi) getting crap from people who read LOTRs, didn't like it and found it shallow, and decided the entire genre must be like that, but from an author? It'd be like the people who make Prince of Persia (I pick randomly) saying they wouldn't want to play Mario when it's so kiddy in the games industry. We know full well that many people percieve Mario as kiddy, but if that sort of talk actually came from within the industry...well, it would be annoying.
While her definition of fantasy is wrong, her definitioon of sci fi is beyond me. It's both stupid and completely wrong...I just don't know what to say about it.
"Whereupon she defined Science Fiction as fiction set in 'invented' worlds having no relationship to our own. At the festival, she added a definition of Fantasy, as fiction where animals talk."
Now I'm used to fantasy (and sometimes sci fi) getting crap from people who read LOTRs, didn't like it and found it shallow, and decided the entire genre must be like that, but from an author? It'd be like the people who make Prince of Persia (I pick randomly) saying they wouldn't want to play Mario when it's so kiddy in the games industry. We know full well that many people percieve Mario as kiddy, but if that sort of talk actually came from within the industry...well, it would be annoying.
While her definition of fantasy is wrong, her definitioon of sci fi is beyond me. It's both stupid and completely wrong...I just don't know what to say about it.
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