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Worst book you ever read?

Started by Razgovory, July 06, 2011, 10:41:56 AM

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Malthus

Mine would probably be Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. Just dreadfully bad in every way - boring, silly, pretentious, badly written. Worse than Jonathan Livingston Seagull:lol:

It is about a telepathic gorilla that teaches us that civilization is bad and wrong. 
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

The Brain

While I normally finish books I've started to read I do stop reading if they are really bad. Books are more boring than movies in this regard.
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MadImmortalMan

Pretension seems to be a common theme when discussing bad books.



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Josephus

Quote from: Pedrito on July 06, 2011, 11:03:55 AM
Too many to list.

Luckily, when they were not mandatory for school reasons, I simply throw them in a  corner.
Several so-called "masterpieces" I've found unreadable: Crime and Punishment;Ulysses; almost every theatre piece I've read rather than attended to the play; others I don't recall right now.

I'm crawling through War and Peace right now, if the pace doesn't change in the next 20 pages I'm ready to throw away this one too.

L.

Crime and Punishment is my fave book of all time.  :D

War and Peace I read once and liked but will never pick up again.

Civis Romanus Sum

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Arvoreen

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography  -- required reading for 9th grade English....I could not get through more than 2-3 pages at a time without falling asleep...

And I'll second Tess of D'urbervilles

crazy canuck

Quote from: Josephus on July 06, 2011, 12:19:59 PM
War and Peace I read once and liked but will never pick up again.

Agreed.  Its not one of those books you come back to every few years... :D

I like Crime and Punishment.  Wouldn't put it in my all time favourite categorie though.


Worst book I have read - Any of the Dune books written by the Son.  But I have an odd compulsion to read them all the same.

dps

Probably the 8th book in the Mission Earth decology.  The whole series is pretty bad, and just gets worse as it goes forward.  I've never read the 9th and 10th books, and I'm not sure how I made it thru the first 8.

Pedrito

Quote from: Josephus on July 06, 2011, 12:19:59 PM
Quote from: Pedrito on July 06, 2011, 11:03:55 AM
Too many to list.

Luckily, when they were not mandatory for school reasons, I simply throw them in a  corner.
Several so-called "masterpieces" I've found unreadable: Crime and Punishment;Ulysses; almost every theatre piece I've read rather than attended to the play; others I don't recall right now.

I'm crawling through War and Peace right now, if the pace doesn't change in the next 20 pages I'm ready to throw away this one too.

L.

Crime and Punishment is my fave book of all time.  :D

War and Peace I read once and liked but will never pick up again.
Yeah that wasn't probably the worst book i've  tried to read, but I simply couldn't force myself to continue after some 200 pages.
Russian authors aren't my cup of tea it seems.

L.
b / h = h / b+h


27 Zoupa Points, redeemable at the nearest liquor store! :woot:

Josephus

Quote from: Pedrito on July 06, 2011, 01:46:20 PM
Quote from: Josephus on July 06, 2011, 12:19:59 PM
Quote from: Pedrito on July 06, 2011, 11:03:55 AM
Too many to list.

Luckily, when they were not mandatory for school reasons, I simply throw them in a  corner.
Several so-called "masterpieces" I've found unreadable: Crime and Punishment;Ulysses; almost every theatre piece I've read rather than attended to the play; others I don't recall right now.

I'm crawling through War and Peace right now, if the pace doesn't change in the next 20 pages I'm ready to throw away this one too.

L.

Crime and Punishment is my fave book of all time.  :D

War and Peace I read once and liked but will never pick up again.
Yeah that wasn't probably the worst book i've  tried to read, but I simply couldn't force myself to continue after some 200 pages.
Russian authors aren't my cup of tea it seems.

L.

it is wordy but it's quite good actually. Some good battle scenes later on and even Nappy himself has a cameo.
Civis Romanus Sum

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Ideologue

Quote from: Barrister on July 06, 2011, 10:50:50 AM
It's probably not the worst book I ever read, since it is I guess considered an important work (and I've read my share of objectively crappy fantasy and sci fi novels), but the book I despised reading was Tess of the D'Ubervilles.  It just went on and on, and I had to force myself to read each page. :bleeding:

Yeah, that shit was pretty terrible.

The worst book I remember reading in the last ten years or so was The Awakening.  You'd think a novel about a Louisana woman breaking free of her marriage and fucking a bunch of guys would be more exciting, but you would be more than a little wrong.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

Ideologue

#25
Quote from: Malthus on July 06, 2011, 11:54:16 AM
Mine would probably be Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. Just dreadfully bad in every way - boring, silly, pretentious, badly written. Worse than Jonathan Livingston Seagull:lol:

It is about a telepathic gorilla that teaches us that civilization is bad and wrong.

Are you sure this wasn't a Flash comic?
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

viper37

Quote from: Razgovory on July 06, 2011, 10:41:56 AM
Pretty self-explanatory. 
Some Star Wars book, Crystal Star, I believe.  Horrible.

Mein Kampf was boring, took me a while to read, but it was a good experience, still, as I needed material for a school work.
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Razgovory

Quote from: The Brain on July 06, 2011, 11:59:36 AM
While I normally finish books I've started to read I do stop reading if they are really bad. Books are more boring than movies in this regard.

Same here.  I don't consider books I didn't finish "read".  For instance I tried to read a book called Riddley Walker.  It's written in this weird phonetic argot which really tripped me up.  Never finished it.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Habbaku

I'm going to have to second Mein Kampf.  That was a chore, at best...
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