Worst book you have ever read?

[Rather.Doubtful]

That "American Psycho".. dude I really hope it is the translation that makes it so bad. 

[murphy dee]

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus. Hot garbage book.

[Jelloicious]

5 hours ago, murphy dee said:

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus. Hot garbage book.

"Hot Garbage" is just the best description I've read!  

[Kaze Wo Hiku]

"Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. It's about a telepathic gorilla...

[Bondi]

9 hours ago, Rather.Doubtful said:

That "American Psycho".. dude I really hope it is the translation that makes it so bad. 

What language did you read it in? I'm just curious, you don't have to answer. I thought the book was all right, but it really is completely plotless, and huge chunks of it were really boring. Less than Zero, which is by the same author, is infinitely worse, though. I couldn't even finish it, and that thing's only 200 pages. 

I've read some bad books, but the worst for me that comes to mind, or the one that I absolutely couldn't stand reading but somehow made it at least to the halfway point, would be Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. It seems like one of those things where the writing is supposed to be super deep because it's so difficult to parse the text and figure out what the hell's going on. I don't know. Maybe people who are more into poetry might enjoy the book more?  At least that's what I heard.

 

[Selene]

"This House is Haunted" by John Boyne.

I really can't stress enough how much I hated that book   I'm sorry if anyone here enjoyed it, but I just... didn't. I read good reviews about it and the author and felt sure that the book would be entertaining. I love gothic novels, ghost storie,s and neo-Victorian novels and was looking for new material when I came across Boyne's book. It started out as expected, but the plot was so obvious and the heroine so unrealistic... it was just too much. Super flat and predictable and didn't do the genre of neo-Victorian ghost stories any justice. At all. I even finished the book, hoping that there would be at least some kind of redemption for it hidden at the end, a grand finale to gloss over all the shortcomings of the rest of the book. Spoiler alert: I hoped in vain.

I recommend Sarah Waters or John Harwood instead. Harwood's probably lesser known than Sarah Waters, but he's a genius when it comes to Neo-Victorian gothic tales.

[MyOwnPrivateSFC]

Anything by Henry James. I believe Virginia Woolf said it best: “I am reading Henry James…and feel myself as one entombed in a block of smooth amber.”

[Stargirl]

I have read some pretty dreadful stuff free on kindle unlimited. Usually I can tell by about page three if it’s going to be badly written and a bore.

[MyOwnPrivateSFC]

4 hours ago, Stargirl said:

I have read some pretty dreadful stuff free on kindle unlimited. Usually I can tell by about page three if it’s going to be badly written and a bore.

This, too. 

[Shay]

I think when I was a kid, Animal Farm was probably the book I hated the most. It was assigned reading in the 6th grade, and it bored the hell out of me. I think I was probably too young to truly understand what it was really about and probably too young to care about all that political stuff even if I did. Sometimes I think I should try rereading it as an adult to see if my opinion would change, but I doubt I will unless I actually run out of things to read that interest me more.

As an adult I've read some pretty crappy stuff from indie self-published authors. I have read some good stuff too from indie authors, but at this point I'm less inclined to sift through the crap to try to find the gems, even if they are free. I'm sure there will come a time when I'm more in the mood to do it again, but I was kind of put off by a couple of authors whose books were so bad that they might as well have been rough drafts, and I felt like I had essentially been tricked into being a beta reader/proof reader with the whole free book for honest feedback sort of deal. One of them was a guy I actually knew, and not only was the book very poorly written, but I wasn't even interested in the plot, so it was a painful chore to get through, and I felt I had to finish it because he was a friend. Then I had to sit him down and explain some of his frequent grammatical errors(which felt really weird given that he's old enough to be my father). It was also really really hard to figure out some positive feedback to give him along with all of the criticism. After that I told him that I couldn't do that for him again, at least not for free because it was a lot of work, and he never asked me again. After the fact he told me that he modeled his writing style after the author that wrote the Twilight books. I've never read them, and if they're anything like that guy's work, I'm certain I never want to. So yeah, that was probably the worst book I ever read as an adult, and I can't even remember what it was called.

[zneeze]

What I can think of right now is "Angela's Ashes." I read it for class in high school and I at one point literally threw the book across my bedroom. I think I was pissed off at how poorly Frank McCourt was treated in his youth, while simultaneously mad that I was supposed to care - plus the writing was plain and not presented in an interesting way and the ending sucked Maybe if I gave it a second chance today I'd feel differently, but the thing is, I don't feel like it.

[Rather.Doubtful]

@Bondi In Spanish, but I actually haven't read any English/American book in English yet . I need to check words in the dictionary from time to time so it gets disruptive. But translation doesn't seem to be the case here, I also disliked the lack of plot. 

[facet]

.

[Chanel_no5]

On ‎2018‎-‎03‎-‎21 at 5:46 PM, Selene said:

"This House is Haunted" by John Boyne.

I totally read this in the same tone (and voice) as Sophia when she says "This watch is broken!" There's your redemption, m'dear, only one you need!  

Blessed that I am, I tend to forget books I don't enjoy, very soon after reading them. I do remember books that are hyped up that I find kind of "meh", though. "The Da Vinci Code" comes to mind. 

On ‎2018‎-‎03‎-‎22 at 10:20 AM, facet said:

then suddenly this book decides that whole passages will be written in untranslated Welsh!

Now THAT is just mean.  

 

[shadows45]

On 3/22/2018 at 9:20 AM, facet said:

This isn't the worst book I've ever read, not by a long shot, but the book I found most infuriating to read is The Grey King from The Dark is Rising series.

You know why this sticks out so readily in my memory?

Because this is like the 5th book or something in the series, I was an invested middle school reader by that point, and then suddenly this book decides that whole passages will be written in untranslated Welsh!

HAVE YOU TRIED READING WELSH????

God, I'm still mad about this over a decade later

Oh god I'd forgotten that was a thing! I loved the rest of the series but the untranslated Welsh in that one was just obnoxious. 

[Selene]

On 2.4.2018 at 6:56 PM, Chanel_no5 said:

I totally read this in the same tone (and voice) as Sophia when she says "This watch is broken!" There's your redemption, m'dear, only one you need!  

Aaah, sweet redemption! Now I will never not be able to think about this when thinking about that book. Makes it a lot less annoying And now I can imagine myself reacting to the end of the book with a Dorothy-face

 

Having large parts of a book in Welsh is really tantalising. I keep imagining turning a page when the plot is just getting super exciting and running into Welsh O.o

 

There is another book that came to mind, but I wouldn't say it is bad. I would rather describe it as my arch-enemy when it comes to books I really want to read but keep failing: "Ulysses" by James Joyce. Certainly, I see the genius behind it, but it is maddening. Tried to read a version without annotations and I just couldn't finish it. I intend to buy an annotated version and give it another go. "Finish Ulysses" is definitely a point on my bucket list

[March Hare]

I don't remember the title, but it was by Jonathan Kellerman. I didn't even get halfway before giving up. Jeebus, what a hack.

[MaiMai]

On 21/03/2018 at 5:29 PM, Bondi said:

I've read some bad books, but the worst for me that comes to mind, or the one that I absolutely couldn't stand reading but somehow made it at least to the halfway point, would be Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. It seems like one of those things where the writing is supposed to be super deep because it's so difficult to parse the text and figure out what the hell's going on. I don't know. Maybe people who are more into poetry might enjoy the book more?  At least that's what I heard.

Oh man, this is interesting because despite being into poetry and stuff, I tried to read this and I couldn't stand it. It's odd because I read McCarthy's "The Road" and adored it, but I just couldn't get on with "Blood Meridian" at all!

Speaking of poetry, when I was 14/15 I had to study a poetry collection called "Manifold Manor" by Philip Gross, and I found it so incredibly dull. I felt like all the poetry was kind of...samey? I disliked it so much that in the essay I had to write about it I analysed the poems and pointed out what was terrible about them, and my English teachers refused to mark it.

[Kicker]

I personally don't think  American Psycho was that bad. It isn't a revolutionary masterpiece. Nor a great literary achievement. And it's kind of pretentious. But at least there's some shock value to keep you from falling asleep while you're reading it. Though this:

On 3/21/2018 at 9:29 AM, Bondi said:

completely plotless, and huge chunks of it were really boring

^^ This is a big problem.

Anyway, in response to your question about what I consider to be the worst book, well.

I present to you the most questionable kidnapping romance about an internet hacker who wears a demon mask throughout a third of this one hundred page trilogy (you heard that right, it's a one hundred page trilogy): Troll. 

There's a wonderful review of this book somewhere on Youtube and it's comedy gold. I don't know what it's called...? But whatever. Trust that this "trilogy" is ridiculous and sexist enough to warrant the title. 

[honkmaster]

The Chocolate War and the Red Badge of Courage, 2 really boring books I had to read in high school. 

[Sitruuna]

Cw: the book is about someone with an ed so skip if you don't want to read about that at all

I've totally forgot the name of the book (I read it like... 11 years ago?) but it was a short novel about some girl who developes an eating disorder and the ed is supposed to be one of the main topics of the book but it's just... Too light? You don't feel the weight of the topic at all and the book just has the same feel as like... You know those books about young girls and their dogs/horses/what ever that are meant for young kids? Like one of those books with the dog/horse substituted with anorexia.

[Pixieflower]

Hmm... probably The Awakening by Kate Chopin, that I was recently forced to read in school. Like, I get that it’s supposed to be really pro-feminism and “enlightening” and all that, but Edna Pontellier is probably my most hated character of all time. The story itself and her actions made me so angry that I probably would’ve ripped the book in half if it wasn’t the school’s property. And the boring writing style doesn’t make it any better.