What is the worst book(s) you have ever read?

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Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen Donaldson (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever). SRD has some interesting ideas and settings, but I dropped the book when the whiny protagonist raped a woman. Sorry, I’m not investing any more time in this character.

The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence. Another decidedly unsympathetic character. Hard to believe, the most uplifting thing about the book is that she dies in the end.

The Walking Drum, Louis L’Amour. I liked L’Amour’s westerns – he does a lot of research, although some of his plot points become cliche after you get through a few of his novels: not great literature, but fairly good yarns if nothing else. However, Drum was very haphazard, slapdash, disjointed, and too full of “it just so happened” coincidences that save the hero that border on “Deus ex machina”, or, more likely, “I’m bored with this storyline, let’s scrap it and go somewhere else”.

I did A Separate Peace in high school. This is what I remember about the book:
  • It was green.
  • There was a character named Phineas.
  • Someone fell out of a tree and died.
  • Did I mention it was green?
So I’m sure I didn’t enjoy it, but other than that I have no opinion, because what I have mentioned above is literally all I remember of it – I kid you not.

Most of my contemporaries in Newfoundland schools would include The Lure of the Labrador Wild. Many have told me it had turned them off reading as a pastime. By a stroke of luck or a blessing from Above, my class didn’t do the book. Although from their reviews, I’m sure you’d get time off Purgatory for it.
 
Ghoti said:
I did A Separate Peace in high school. This is what I remember about the book:
  • It was green.
  • There was a character named Phineas.
  • Someone fell out of a tree and died.
  • Did I mention it was green?
So I’m sure I didn’t enjoy it, but other than that I have no opinion, because what I have mentioned above is literally all I remember of it – I kid you not.
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I read this book in high school, too. You remember far more about the book than I do. 😛 Seriously, I don’t think I could have told you anything about the book. I do remember somewhat liking it, though. :o
 
Animal Farm by George Orwell was a big no-no and a disappointment for me. :nope::tsktsk:

I’ve read a couple books (sorry I don’t remember the names of the books) 🤷

It is about two women who claim to be Catholic, they also claim to have private revelations from Jesus and Mary. I was really disappointed with these books because the women claim that Jesus and Mary told them that their, “Book would be a #1 seller.” and “You will be rich and famous if you do this or that”

I don’t mean to be judgemental but sounds too worldy for this Catholic.
 
*The Handmaid’s Tale * by Margaret Atwood.

Very boring :yawn:

And I have to wonder if Ms. Atwood truly thinks women are dumb?

God bless
 
abort73catholic said:
I guess I’m not really one for classics…

🤷
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‘Classic.’ A book which people praise and don’t read. - Mark Twain.

In Creative Fiction writing class, our professor implored us not to choose classic books to read in his class. He wasn’t knocking classics, but said that if we don’t read modern authors, then we won’t get any more classics.

With that, he gave us a great book to read, "Why Dogs Chase Cars’ by George Singleton. FANTASTIC BOOK!!!
 
Honestly, I’m gonna have to go with a few classics.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier was pretty bad. The entire novel was the main character complaining about her husband’s lack of affection for her, yet she insisted on trying to make him completely forget about his previous wife and replace her in his heart. Then, when it turns out her husband killed his first wife, the main character rejoices. What?
Tom Sawyer pretty much drove me insane. I don’t think I really have to get into this. As much fun as collecting dead rats and painting fences is, there’s other things I’d rather read about.
 
I actually loved Rebecca, I had to read it in high school and it’s one of my favorite books 😃

The worst book I’ve ever read is The Burning Girl by Holly Phillips. I love reading, and I never start a book without finishing it, but I’ve read about 3/5 of this book and it’s almost torture to continue. The first chapters were ok, but then the author starts using a really bizarre style, with random words popping in brackets in the middle of sentences, or sentences in italics in the middle of a paragraph that have nothing to do with the story. I’m all about being creative and original, but I find those random words and sentences really distracting when trying to read through an already confusing plot. Now I just skip them. When I’m really bored I’ll read a page or two, but I don’t have the motivation to just sit down and finish this book.
 
goforgoal said:
I know there are discussions on “What book are you reading?” I’m sure we’ve all read books that we don’t care for.

What is the worst book(s) you have ever read?
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Reading Lolita in Tehran

Sorry, I don’t remember who wrote it. The content was decent, but I simply dislike it for its structure and style. It didn’t appeal to me. 🤷

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood
 
“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. Probably the only time I found myself in agreement with a decree by radical, Muslim clerics. (Said ironically–not literally.)

Pure, unreadable, rubbish.

Paul
 
T700 said:
“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. Probably the only time I found myself in agreement with a decree by radical, Muslim clerics. (Said ironically–not literally.)

Pure, unreadable, rubbish.

Paul
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I have to read that for my Senior project. :sad_yes: It’s enormous. 😦
 
T700 said:
“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. Probably the only time I found myself in agreement with a decree by radical, Muslim clerics. (Said ironically–not literally.)

Pure, unreadable, rubbish.

Paul
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Uh oh. I just picked it up. I’ll slug through it after I’m done with Why I’m Not A Muslim.

Worst books: (hide the kids)
  1. The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide (French Homosexual High School Angst :eek:) Had to read for a Philosophy of Literature class.
  2. Confessions of Felix Krull (for the same class)
  3. God Emperor of Dune (aka the 143,564,345,981 lives of Duncan Idaho) Loved the rest of the Dune series though.
  4. The Bear by William Faulkner. It’s only a novella but it burns and hurts for weeks afterwards.
 
Siddhartha, eck. My CATHOLIC high school made it required summer reading along with 5 other useless books yet they never required any Catholic books!!!

Last I heard, the assistant principal was thinking of using Protestant books for the religion class. :mad:
 
Babylon, Mystery Religion by Ralph Woodrow
  • I read this during my 15 years in the desert prior to my reversion. The bad part is that I enjoyed the anti-Catholicism that it spewed, the good part is that he had many mistakes that led him to stop its publication which in turn led me to think that if he was wrong about x, couldn’t he also be wrong about y?
The whole Left Behind series
  • I read these books during the same time frame and they were pretty bad from every angle. They are not very well written and the theology they contain is absurd. I’m not exactly sure why I read so many of them, but I guess it is like a soap opera and I just wanted to know what was going to happen.
 
Lots and lots. Of course, The Da Vinci Code was dreck. But I really, really hated Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I mean, really hated!
 
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