What''s the worst book?

[eks6426]

It''s funny how so many of the worst books on people''s lists are the ones we were forced to read in school. To Kill a Mockingbird, Red Badge of Courage, Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick, War & Peace. I wonder how many people would ever read these books if we weren''t all forced to in school?

What made these books worse for me wasn''t just reading them, it was reading them while analyzing themes & plots etc for essays and tests to follow. I was one of those "good" students who actually read the books and didn''t use any form of cliff notes until I encountered Moby Dick. I rented the movie and even fell asleep during it.

One of my favorite books was Thorn Birds. I read it when I was 13 or 14...my mom was reading it and I swiped it off her nightstand and read the whole thing one day while she was at work. She was really horrified to find out I read it.

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 9/12/2007 9:22:43 PM
Author: luckystar112

Date: 9/12/2007 7:01:08 PM
Author: Pandora II
This is probably sacrilege, but I HATED ''Catcher in the Rye'' with a vengeance.

BLASPHEMY!!!!

I lovvvvvve Catcher in the rye. I''ve read it about six times and it never fails to satisfy me. Maybe its because I can relate to the main character and we share many of the same philosophies on life. (Which is good or really really bad.

) Plus it seems that I discover something new every time.

I wonder if that is my problem with it. I am horribly ''british'' and just didn''t really get the book at all. I just couldn''t relate to the main character in any way.

I will admit it is one of the very few books I refused to finish reading.

 

[InlovewithJHK]

Date: 9/12/2007 1:52:59 PM
Author: MC
''The Time Traveler''s Wife,'' by Audrey Niffenegger was one of my least enjoyed books. It''s so popular on Amazon, that possibly I''m just too picky? I felt the author did a terrible job at creating different personalities for the characters. She alternated between two peoples'' voices and sometimes I''d forget to look at the top of the page to see who was talking and would mistakenly think the other person was explaining a situation. I guess her characters would be considered ''flat.''

FWIW, I''m not the world''s best writer and make tons of grammatical errors, but with books, I expect the proofreading/grammer to be impeccable!

This is one of my most loved books! Too funny!

 

[ursulawrite]

Date: 9/12/2007 4:40:34 PM
Author: Selkie
Most overrated recent book, IMHO, is The Da Vinci Code. Setting aside the whole nutty vast Catholic conspiracy thing, the dialogue is stilted, the characters are flatter than roadkill, and the plot is utterly ludicrous for anything other than a 1920''s black-and-white Perils of Pauline type movie.

Couldn''t have put it better (said Teabing, drinking tea "viciously", or some other cringeworthy adverbial phrase).

I love anything by Kazuo Ishiguro, Evelyn Waugh (forgive him his fondness for adverbs

), Carole Shields, George Orwell, Victoria Ridel, and about a million others.

 

[HollyS]

Date: 9/12/2007 9:27:20 PM
Author: diamondfan
I could not get into the Celestine Prophecy. I am a VERY prolific reader but just had a tough time with it. Picked it up and put it down a ton of times and eventually gave up.

Yep. And maybe anything to do with Dianetics, too. All bad. Stupid bad. (IMO; don''t mean to offend anyone.)

 

[Shay37]

I cannot believe that all of us good PSers have overlooked anything written about warped diamonds by Fred Cuellar. We are BAD PSers. LOL

shay

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 9/14/2007 6:17:38 PM
Author: Shay37
I cannot believe that all of us good PSers have overlooked anything written about warped diamonds by Fred Cuellar. We are BAD PSers. LOL

shay

yea but mentioning that book results in a 3 week ban from the show me the ring forum!

 

[Shay37]

Date: 9/14/2007 6:26:16 PM
Author: strmrdr

Date: 9/14/2007 6:17:38 PM
Author: Shay37
I cannot believe that all of us good PSers have overlooked anything written about warped diamonds by Fred Cuellar. We are BAD PSers. LOL

shay

yea but mentioning that book results in a 3 week ban from the show me the ring forum!

No, No, Anything but that!!!!! LOL

shay

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 9/14/2007 6:56:41 PM
Author: Shay37

Date: 9/14/2007 6:26:16 PM
Author: strmrdr

Date: 9/14/2007 6:17:38 PM
Author: Shay37
I cannot believe that all of us good PSers have overlooked anything written about warped diamonds by Fred Cuellar. We are BAD PSers. LOL

shay

yea but mentioning that book results in a 3 week ban from the show me the ring forum!

No, No, Anything but that!!!!! LOL

shay

rofl!

 

[divergrrl]

Heart of Darkness by Stephen Conrad & Sound & the Fury by William Faulkner (who happens to share my Sept. 25th birthday). I really do not enjoy anything by Faulkner...blech.

Those two novels were the painful moments of my BA in English Lit. ouch.

Greatest "freak" read? Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Weird book...but I loved it. I also love Vonnegut & Keesey.

I wanted to burn The DaVinci Code, it began to pi$$ me off it was so flatly written...oddly enough the pre-quel to that novel, Angels & Demons was actually a good read. Even more odd...I liked the movie Davinci Code...weird eh?

 

[Harriet]

Did anyone else dislike Jonathan Franzen's "Corrections?"

 

[nomissjane]

I though Joseph Heller''s ''Catch 22'' was one of the best reads of my life.....but I''ve decided he''s a ''one hit wonder'' cause I''ve hated everything else.....
I found his next book ''God Knows'' just rubbish. For the last ten years I''ve been picking it up at least once a year now and trying to finish it, but just can''t....and that''s not like me, I''ll always at least finish before I form an opinion.

 

[fabcrab]

Statistical Thermodynamics by Donald McQuarrie.

 

[ephemery1]

Date: 9/13/2007 2:03:52 PM
Author: InlovewithJHK

Date: 9/12/2007 1:52:59 PM
Author: MC
''The Time Traveler''s Wife,'' by Audrey Niffenegger was one of my least enjoyed books. It''s so popular on Amazon, that possibly I''m just too picky? I felt the author did a terrible job at creating different personalities for the characters. She alternated between two peoples'' voices and sometimes I''d forget to look at the top of the page to see who was talking and would mistakenly think the other person was explaining a situation. I guess her characters would be considered ''flat.''

FWIW, I''m not the world''s best writer and make tons of grammatical errors, but with books, I expect the proofreading/grammer to be impeccable!

This is one of my most loved books! Too funny!

One of my all time favorite books too!! I''ve heard other people complain about lack of personalities for the characters too, but I LOVED her "less is more" style of character development... kept me intrigued and let me use some of my own imagination, rather than have everything laid out for me. But I think it depends on what kind of story you''re in the mood for... it''s not heavy reading by any means, but not light either... I tend to think of it as its own genre. I wish she''d write another one!

One book that has always stood out in my mind as horrifically overrated: Suzanne''s Letters for Nicholas by James Patterson. I remember being APPALLED that a book like that could get published... I enjoy a good tear-jerker movie/book/whatever once in a while, but there were sentences in there that just made me cringe... I think his editor must have taken a day off when that was released.

 

[Dogmom]

"Hannibal" was HORRIBLE. It reads as if Thomas Harris threw it together in a few weeks to meet his deadline for a new book after "Silence of the Lambs" was so popular.

Go figure - I loved "To Kill a Mockingbird." I think the two stories relate very well to each other. Persecution of the innocent and all that.

 

[HollyS]

Date: 9/17/2007 8:04:41 PM
Author: fabcrab
Statistical Thermodynamics by Donald McQuarrie.

Okay - you win!! LOL!

 

[fabcrab]

Date: 9/19/2007 6:53:36 PM
Author: HollyS

Date: 9/17/2007 8:04:41 PM

Author: fabcrab

Statistical Thermodynamics by Donald McQuarrie.

Okay - you win!! LOL!

LOL!! It''s incredibly dry and I''m planning on burning it in a month or so.