Worst Book.

superisis

superisis

His Highness' dog at Kew
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We have a favorite book thread, let's hear about the ones that didn't knock your socks off. A nice explanation as to why you made your pick would be nice too.

Fiction: A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

utter crap, boring with a lot (A LOT) of redundant conversation. A crappy love story plot to boot, leave this to the next guy. This book was worse than Jane Eyre, says a lot.

Nonfiction: Principles and Practice of Marketing by David Jobber

wow, so much useless phrasing. I guess he was paid per word in this book cause there is just too much writing compared to the substance. Every class before us (for atleast 30 years back) had Kottler in marketing, we have Jobber. Sigh.
 
Great Expectations: Pages and pages and pages of boring, boring set up, then NOTHING HAPPENS and the book is over.
 
Can't remember the title of my least favorite book, but it wasn't something I read in Elementary school/middle school atleast 2 seperate times for class- assigned book reports. It was some stupid thing about a kid who mocked the national anthem, got in trouble, acted innocent, and got the teacher fired from school. Worst book in the history of mankind.

Recently I've read the play Pygmalion, which I thought was terrible. Nothing happens in it, and the real storyline line ends halfway through the play. However, it was short and quick so it is forgivable.
 
Fuschia said:
Catch 22. I absolutely hated that book...
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interesting, I (and probably a few others) think that this book is very well written and very readable. Could you perhaps give us a reason as to why you thought it stank of dead squirrel?
 
The Night the White Deer Died by Gary Paulson. Bizarre, pointless and ********, with no real plot or interesting characters. One of the few books that I've read all the way through and afterwards wished that I could erase my memory of the story.
 
Great Expectations: Pages and pages and pages of boring, boring set up, then NOTHING HAPPENS and the book is over.
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Perhaps its a particularily subtle attempt at post-modern irony? ;)
 
interesting, I (and probably a few others) think that this book is very well written and very readable. Could you perhaps give us a reason as to why you thought it stank of dead squirrel?
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Well, I could probably come up with plenty of worst books, but Catch 22 always comes to mind because so many people like it and I thought it stank.

As for why, I never got the point of the book. I have read it three times and still don't get the point. Maybe I am just not trying hard enough...
 
Beloved, by Tony Morrison. I had to read that back in highschool, it was appalling. But far worse was watching my Literature teachers defending the thing as a reputable piece of fiction.
 
The Great Gatsby.

I was forced to listen to my teacher read that back in high school. If life wasn't so good back then I would have probably killed myself just to get out of the assignment.
 
Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy - after some great ones like Sum of All Fears and Patriot Games this just seems half arsed. Like someone trying to write like Clancy rather than the man himsewlf.

The Enemies of Rome - From Hannibal to Attila the Hun by Philip Matyszak - Book starts good, explaining how the Dark Ages came about as after the Roman Empire fell there was a lack of proper civilizations left afterwards to pick up the slack. I got it under the assumption that it was a description of the various nations that fell to the Romans but instead it's a description of how these nations got it's arsed handed to them. More like a 'The Romans were great, the rest sucked'. Not recommended.
 
Verge said:
Beloved, by Tony Morrison. I had to read that back in highschool, it was appalling. But far worse was watching my Literature teachers defending the thing as a reputable piece of fiction.
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hehe, now you reminded me of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Not totally crap but definately not worth reading (considering you could read plenty of better things). Most guys I've met (who've read Morrison) think the same, but plenty of girls love her though. I was discussing Morrison with a friend of mine (guy), we were both agreeing that she was overrated but usually defended by women and a female friend overheard us saying Morrison. She jumps into the conversation exclaiming: "I love The Bluest Eye! Morrison is my favorite author." :lol: we laughed so hard.
 
I'll restrict my choice to books that are hailed as great by many people.

fiction: tie between The Alchemist by Coelho and A Nectar in a Sieve by some Indian chick. Both completely boring, and extremely poorly written crap that are sufficiently "multicultural" to be forced into my curriculum :(

nonfiction: Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl. Feel good, semi-incoherent crap that we are supposed to automatically respect simply because the guy was in a concentration camp. I sympathize with his story, but going to a concentration camp does not make your silly little theory any less stupid.
 
superisis said:
hehe, now you reminded me of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Not totally crap but definately not worth reading (considering you could read plenty of better things). Most guys I've met (who've read Morrison) think the same, but plenty of girls love her though. I was discussing Morrison with a friend of mine (guy), we were both agreeing that she was overrated but usually defended by women and a female friend overheard us saying Morrison. She jumps into the conversation exclaiming: "I love The Bluest Eye! Morrison is my favorite author." :lol: we laughed so hard.
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:lol:

Yeah, I think women tend to hold Morrison in higher esteem than men, but as far as Beloved goes, the hate was pretty consistent across the sexes. The book was one of the writings that the Literature department designated as a required read for all junior Lit classes, so all 130 of us juniors got to read and gripe about it at the same time.

Better still, there were a few times when all the Lit classes had to meet in the amphitheaters to discuss the book, discussions that invariably wound up as debates between the students and the teachers that forced the piece of crap on us.
 
I have many half read stinkers under my belt.

I recently read one that was supposed to be the most hilarious thing in existens called "A Confederacy Of Dunces". I read at least 60% and chuckled only once.

I read a crime novel by Ruth Rendell called The Rottweiler supposedly about a serial killer, except the 200+ pages that I read were all about other, boring people.
On and on it went, boring page after boring page, and I kept up the entire time thinking it would get better.
It got worse. Consider yourself warned about this lady and her work. :)


Other books that I heard good things about that I thought sucked are:

The hitchhikers guide
Catcher in a rhye
Catch-22

There are many more, but I can't think of them right now.
 
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