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What''s the worst book?

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somethingshiny

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What, in your opinions, is the worst book? It can be bad premise, bad writing, or not what it was cracked up to be.

I HATE Moby Dick. I''ll call him Ishmael if he would learn that a whale is not a D**N FISH!!
 

I wasn''t a fan of The Gulag Archipelago simply because the prose was way beyond my realm of comprehension.

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DKS

 
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. It was better than sominex.

shay
 
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Hands down #1 worst.

Now, I read ANYTHING and everything, but in school I begged my teacher to read anything else. She said it was that book or 3 in it''s place. I read the three books happily.

Painful to get through book: is a toss up between The War section of War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and ooohh.... Crime & Punishment....maybe it''s a theme, but they are both boring and way too verbose to even leave a picture after you ahve started snoring...

Most useless book ever written may be Alexis de Tocqueville''s Democracy in America. It was so inaccurate and pointless I remember I found myself reading it and laughing as if it was Don Quixote de La Mancha....
 
there is no such thing as a bad book.
:}
Every book has something too give.
 
 
Date: 9/12/2007 11:35:26 AM
Author: strmrdr
there is no such thing as a bad book.

:}

Every book has something too give.
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Sometimes it''s just a headache! Or a nap!
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Strm~

My mom and I both really liked The Clan of the Cave Bear books. And, Mrs. Pollifax seems like a very interesting character! Thanks for the suggestions!
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I hated Watership Down with a passion. It was boring and weird and I had to learn a rabbit language to understand the book! We read that in 8th grade and I''ll never forget it.
 
Date: 9/12/2007 12:59:12 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Strm~

My mom and I both really liked The Clan of the Cave Bear books. And, Mrs. Pollifax seems like a very interesting character! Thanks for the suggestions!
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You would both like Song of the Axe then.
Try one of the Mrs. Pollifax books and I bet you will want to read them all :}

I''m trying to remember the name of it but there is another book with similar theme as clan of the cave bear that I really liked but the name escapes me at the moment.
 
"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!
 
Date: 9/11/2007 10:08:36 PM
Author:somethingshiny
What, in your opinions, is the worst book? It can be bad premise, bad writing, or not what it was cracked up to be.

I HATE Moby Dick. I''ll call him Ishmael if he would learn that a whale is not a D**N FISH!!
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Just about everything in the first few aisles of Barnes & Noble as you walk in the door is usually some of the worst crap ever published. And, as much as I love books, there is a lot of garbage out there. Dean Koontz has written some pretty ugly stuff. Frankly, anything with gross-out passages, deviant/violent sexual scenes, rabid animals gone wild, creepy-crawly bugs, etc. would qualify for WORST -- and Dean Koontz usually has at least two of those elements in each book.

So I''ll say -- darn near everything or anything he''s written would get my worst vote. And, if there is nastier stuff out there, I don''t want to know.
 
Date: 9/12/2007 2:00:08 PM
Author: HollyS

Dean Koontz has written some pretty ugly stuff. Frankly, anything with gross-out passages, deviant/violent sexual scenes, rabid animals gone wild, creepy-crawly bugs, etc. would qualify for WORST -- and Dean Koontz usually has at least two of those elements in each book.

So I'll say -- darn near everything or anything he's written would get my worst vote. And, if there is nastier stuff out there, I don't want to know.
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His older stuff pre-1990 or so was pretty good reading.
His newer stuff isnt as good.
 
I can''t resist a book post.

THE worst book? This is tough because there are so many horrible books out there (and I''m forced to teach some of them!) I''ll say the most overrated book is To Kill a Mockingbird, it is very poorly written, and it fails to tie in two very separate plots.
 
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.
 
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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.
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I love a *spot on* snarky comment! LOL!
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I think use of the term roadkill, deserves a very important award!!

Will let you know what it is...when I figure it out! Good job Selkie!!

DKS
 
This is probably sacrilege, but I HATED ''Catcher in the Rye'' with a vengeance.
 
Date: 9/12/2007 2:10:56 PM
Author: strmrdr

Date: 9/12/2007 2:00:08 PM
Author: HollyS

Dean Koontz has written some pretty ugly stuff. Frankly, anything with gross-out passages, deviant/violent sexual scenes, rabid animals gone wild, creepy-crawly bugs, etc. would qualify for WORST -- and Dean Koontz usually has at least two of those elements in each book.

So I''ll say -- darn near everything or anything he''s written would get my worst vote. And, if there is nastier stuff out there, I don''t want to know.
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His older stuff pre-1990 or so was pretty good reading.
His newer stuff isnt as good.
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Eep, you''re attacking one of my favourite authors. Yes, I do read the heavy duty literature too, but my private secret guilty pleasure has always been the horror genre. Koontz deals more with the supernatural. He''s been very prolific, and there are duds out there for sure, but I love his Odd Thomas character, and he''s new. So
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...

The worst book ever written was definitely The Midnight Tour by Richard Laymon. If everyone or in fact, *anyone* else here had read it, I''m sure they''d agree. It has grossest, most sexually exploitave, creepy and downright stupid passages ever written. You don''t want to know more. Really.
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Date: 9/12/2007 2:50:03 PM
Author: Haven
I can''t resist a book post.

THE worst book? This is tough because there are so many horrible books out there (and I''m forced to teach some of them!) I''ll say the most overrated book is To Kill a Mockingbird, it is very poorly written, and it fails to tie in two very separate plots.
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Awwww...this just goes to show that one man''s junk...I love To Kill a Mockingbird, and I love teaching it! I haven''t found any other books that strike a chord with my immature 9th graders to show them the meaning of a hypocrite and how important it is to be accepting.

Moby Dick and Billy Budd were the only books that I actually didn''t read when assigned to in high school. Although recently I tried to read Red Badge of Courage and had a hard time making it through that.

This summer I read Les Mis, and I think I should have read the abbridged version. The diatribe on the Battle of Waterloo was too much for me, but other than that, I loved reading it!
 
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.
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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.
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) Plus it seems that I discover something new every time.



Now THIS is probably sacrilege...but I'd have to say Harry Potter books.
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Granted, I'm WAYYYYY late in the game and only in the middle of book 2, but it isn't as "great" as I've been led to believe. I'm assuming it gets better, so I'll keep reading. But so far, my opinion is "eh". I guess I was expecting holy grail of books, so I had no choice to be let down (so far). I'm just not feeling like I'm reading anything that spectacular, and definitely not anything that I couldn't have written myself.

I know....I know....don't kill me!!!!

Totally agree about The Da Vinci Code though. I liked Angels and Demons better.

"The Lovely Bones" or whatever the book is called TOTALLY let me down at the end....

hmmm....what else?

Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" or something like that....hated it.

Oh, and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris.....Didn't "get" it, and didn't like it.


Lol...most of these books are best sellers. I find that amusing. I must have awful taste.
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Edit: I should probably clarify that I don't think any of these books are the "worst" books. Maybe just a tad overrated?
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"Worst" book would go to......I don't know......Mein Kampf?!?!
 
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.
 
HI:

I have a love-hate relationship with Thomas Hardy. Brilliant social commentary, but oh soooooooooooo depressing (borderline morbid). I mean, I almost wanted to garrote myself after reading Jude the Obscure.....

cheers--Sharon
 
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.
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I completely agree! It was awful.
 
Oh the shame!! I LOVE Harry Potter and Dean Koontz!! I am actually rereading the HP series for about the fifth time! And, I also have Winter Moon by Dean Koontz going!! I don''t love Dean Koontz''s new suspense thing! However, his early novels are among my favorites! Speaking of Gross outs, remember in Gerald''s Game, Stephen King, when the woman had to "glove" herself to get out of the handcuffs? And, she could hear the dog licking at her husband!? EWW!

I never read Catcher in the Rye.

STRM~Thanks for the link to the series, I have it bookmarked. Looks right up my alley!!
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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!
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Too funny. That''s my favourite book! I will agree there wasn''t a ton of differentiation between the voices, though. I still love it.

As for my "worst book", it is The Grapes of Wrath, without a doubt! I loved the last 6 pages, but Steinbeck is just too white-hat/black-hat for me. Ugh.
 
Heart of Darkness. Ugh. Hated it. Just really did. Could be just a gender thing though. The Grapes of Wrath and The Invisible Man were miserable too. Just truly miserable.
 
I read To Kill A Mockingbird as an adult and just can''t really understand why it''s considered a modern classic. In high school I read The Grapes of Wrath and thought it was the most boring (and depressing) snoozefest ever. I also didn''t care for the Time Traveler''s Wife. I didn''t find it to be an engaging read at all. Someone mentioned The Red Badge of Courage. I had to read that as well, and thought it was a wonderful book.
 
Date: 9/13/2007 1:08:57 PM
Author: Cind11
I read To Kill A Mockingbird as an adult and just can''t really understand why it''s considered a modern classic. In high school I read The Grapes of Wrath and thought it was the most boring (and depressing) snoozefest ever. I also didn''t care for the Time Traveler''s Wife. I didn''t find it to be an engaging read at all. Someone mentioned The Red Badge of Courage. I had to read that as well, and thought it was a wonderful book.
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I liked To Kill a Mockingbird. My husband and I are always recommending books to each other and after numerous suggestions, my husband took me up on To Kill a Mockingbird and HATED it! He refuses to read any books that I''ve read since then.
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lol
 
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