What is the worst book you have ever read?

[stfoskey12]

I had to read The Scarlet Letter in English class junior year. It was the worst book I ever finished. It was boring and it seemed to be written in the language of the time it was set rather than the time it was written, which made it hard to follow.
Bad books I don't finish I forget about.

 

[Narz]

Maybe The Bible?

Actually, Dianetics probably takes the cake (Scientology book)

 

[warpus]

The Stone Angel by Margaret Lawrence was pretty horrid.

It was so boring I read every 2nd chapter and didn't really miss any of the plot.. It basically just follows an old lady as she makes her way through life.. from what I remember. Nothing happens.

 

[PhroX]

The ghost series by John Ringo probably takes the cake.
If you have a few minutes, read
http://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html

It's the most entertaining review that I've ever read. It's even funnier if you've actually read the books.

Ok, maybe it's more that a few minutes, but i was laughing so hard I lost track of the time. No John Ringo NO.

I have to admit, I didn't risk those. If even the author agrees that they're utterly awful, that's too much for me.

 

[rah]

I must admit it was a guilty pleasure. I read the first one and couldn't believe how sexist it was and wondered if it would get any better an was astonished when it kept getting worse and continued to read them to see just how bad he would get. I was never disappointed. Which was the main reason that I laughed hilariously at the review that I posted.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

For me, it is harder to tell whether the book is good or bad, when I look through non-fiction. And sometimes there are very few books on a specific field.

I am very picky when it comes to fiction, so I ignore obviously bad authors, genres, summaries. The only true big disappointment I can recall now is the first of Dexter novels. I read it only because of the show and had thought it would be as great, but it appeared to be exactly the kind of literature I would usually ignore.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

There is this this book i tried to read written by a Spanish author called Fernando Sanchez Drago no one of you probably know anything of, but very known in the hispanic world. It was not so much the book itself which may even tell some interesting things but the pedantic and egotistical style. Maybe i also was influenced for TV where this guy usually appears showing off his pedantic and egotistical style. In any case i couldnt go through the first chapter.

 

[Kyriakos]

There were also some short stories by Stephen King, but i liked at least 3 or 4 in the same book (the night shift) so it was overall worth buying and reading.
Boris Vian was really terrible writing, though. I do doubt it is good in french. This isn't Celine (that said, i gave up on reading the greek translation of Journey to the edge of night)

 

[Commodore]

Anything by Dan Brown. I read "The Da Vinci Code" and got about halfway through "Angels and Demons" before I just couldn't take anymore of Brown's terrible narratives.

 

[AdrienIer]

Dunno, I liked L'écume des jours which wasn't the case for most of the books I was forced to read in high school

 

[Akka]

Well, J'irai cracher sur vos tombes was a purely, 100 % provocative title which was intended to only draw scandal (and was in the end pretty much a flop as far as sales go). It only picked up because it was very, very remotely linked to some murder (in an even more roundabout way than video games are linked to mass shooting). So no, it wasn't really a masterpiece. It's far from being "the worst" book I read, but it's pretty forgettable.
The other Boris Vian books are somewhat more inspired (L'Écume des jours is weirdly poetic, Et on tuera tous les affreux is weirdly dark comical).

 

[yung.carl.jung]

There were also some short stories by Stephen King, but i liked at least 3 or 4 in the same book (the night shift) so it was overall worth buying and reading.
Boris Vian was really terrible writing, though. I do doubt it is good in french. This isn't Celine (that said, i gave up on reading the greek translation of Journey to the edge of night)

When I read the English translation of JttEotN I had to look up five words per page, but I still loved it Especially the first half was just so goddamn funny in an inexplicable way.

 

[Mouthwash]

The Eye of the World, hands down.

 

[Leifmk]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which I trudge through bashing my head on the wall because it was required reading

I read that one voluntarily, as a teenager. It has to be my choice for "worst book I've read". Did teach me one valuable lesson, though: That I should not need to feel obligated to finish a book just because I'd started it. So thanks for that, I guess, Ayn Rand; it's saved me a good deal of time in later years.

 

[JollyRoger]

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”

 

[Mouthwash]

I read that one voluntarily, as a teenager. It has to be my choice for "worst book I've read". Did teach me one valuable lesson, though: That I should not need to feel obligated to finish a book just because I'd started it. So thanks for that, I guess, Ayn Rand; it's saved me a good deal of time in later years.

So this is probably going to sound contrarian but I don't actually think it was that bad? I didn't finish either though.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Hmm...the Eragon series, particularly the last book. Pretty much all of the Twilight Saga...but again particularly the last book.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Hmm...the Eragon series, particularly the last book.

I read the three first many years ago (I checked when my copy of the third book was printed, because I bought it new: 2009, damn). I remember almost nothing and don't really have any desire to read the last book, even though I bought it and it's directly behind me on my bookshelf

 

[Smellincoffee]

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, I believe.

That, or the whole of the Left Behind series. But they weren't so much "books" as "Stuff Jenkins and Lahaye threw together in a month".

 

[PhroX]

Hmm...the Eragon series, particularly the last book. Pretty much all of the Twilight Saga...but again particularly the last book.

If the series as a whole was bad enough to get mentioned here, why would you ever keep reading long enough get to the last book?