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

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I have to say the only book that I just could not finish was “Pride and Prejudice”. I couldn’t even get past the first few chapters. And while I did manage to finish it, “Jane Eyre” wasn’t all that enjoyable for me.
 
kimaz said:
I have to say the only book that I just could not finish was “Pride and Prejudice”. I couldn’t even get past the first few chapters.
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😃 What foul things are afoot! <>

Okay, my turn to dislike a favorite novel: David Copperfield. I hated it. But, admittedly, it was not the worst. It was, after all, reasonably well written. The worst was some unremarkable paperback genre novel that I read years ago. There were some others, but I’ll not post them, lest someone be tempted to look them up.
 
The Birth House. Supposedly about the transition from giving birth with midwives to giving birth in hospitals, but it was mostly about sex, and abusive men. I don’t think there was a decent male character in the book. I gave up half way through, it was too explicit… x.x

There was another one that was supposed to be about the life of a couple in pre-historic times, but again: lots of sex. x.x Gave up after the first 10 pages, and threw it out, literally.
 
I’ve read so many books that I’ve stopped remembering the bad ones. 😃
 
“Fatal Remenant” by Stephen Donaldson. A huge disappontment I would think to all fans of the THomas Covenant series.
 
The most recent one has to be “The Shack.” Ugh!😦 Absolutely ridiculous.
 
Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. I don’t care if they did echo the culture–they were boring.

I agree about Beloved–I didn’t get more than about ten chapters finished, and didn’t understand any of it. I suppose that it did have the good effect of making me realize just why there is still such a divide between black and white in the U.S. I felt terribly excluded and left out of Morrison’s story–I literally had no idea what people were saying or what was going on. How disturbing.

I usually don’t bother to finish books that seem bad. The one exception is Watership Down, because someone was kind enought to warn me that the first chapter is rather dull, but then it’s all great. I agree.

But if a book seems dull or pointless or dirty, I just take it back to the library or throw it on the “Salvation Army” book pile.
 
Cat said:
Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. I don’t care if they did echo the culture–they were boring.

I agree about Beloved–I didn’t get more than about ten chapters finished, and didn’t understand any of it. I suppose that it did have the good effect of making me realize just why there is still such a divide between black and white in the U.S. I felt terribly excluded and left out of Morrison’s story–I literally had no idea what people were saying or what was going on. How disturbing.

I usually don’t bother to finish books that seem bad. The one exception is Watership Down, because someone was kind enought to warn me that the first chapter is rather dull, but then it’s all great. I agree.

But if a book seems dull or pointless or dirty, I just take it back to the library or throw it on the “Salvation Army” book pile.
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I have to echo you on Catcher. I really hated that book (although I enjoyed Gatsby).

I had to read Anthem and A Separate Peace as a freshmen in high school. Thank God I already liked to read, or I would have stopped reading entirely thanks to those two.
 
Jon Steinbeck’s the red pony. SO pointless, idiotic, and boring. the first part-pony dies. second part-completely pointless scene about an old man (who appears out of nowhere), third part another horse dies (these people have bad luck with horses.), fourth part, another old man out of nowhere. facepalm
 
goforgoal said:
-Animal Farm by: George Orwell (I read this one back in High School)
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What? That’s a GREAT book. George Orwell is the bomb.

My least favorite book I have ever read:

The Two-Thousand Pound Goldfish by Betsy Byars

I read it in the fifth grade at the insistence of one of my teachers who had never read it herself.

Anyway, it’s terrible. Keep it away from children.
 
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?

My pick of worst books in no particular order:

-Animal Farm by: George Orwell (I read this one back in High School)

-The Chamber by: John Grisham (When people say the book is better than the movie that’s not always true…Not in the case with this book)

-The Da Vinci Code by: Dan Brown (What a waste of time & money)
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In no order:​

  • the Da Vinci Code
  • the General Directory for Catechesis (ET 1997)
  • Salvifici Doloris
The GD for C is unreadable. It repels the most determined attempt. I would bet a tidy sum that it was composed by monkeys, because it treats the English language with a disregard for style & meaning that has to be seen to be believed. Yet even that, barbaric as it is, fails to plumb the depths reached by the Worst Ever Specimen of Prose in English - which is a translation of a document about Communism that emanated from the French bishops. It is heroically bad; unfortunately (???) I can’t at present recall where my copy is; so count yourself lucky 🙂

“Long years ago” - in this case, before 1960 or so - translations of Catholic documents were expressed in good English, were free of “abstractitis”, observed the rules of grammar, syntax & punctuation, & paid due attention to the meaning of words. No longer. 😦 Calvinists can still write - Anglicans & Catholics are the folk who seem unable to 😦
 
I believe the name of the book is Five Hundred Years of Chicano History and I am Mexican American! (Even the title is a lie since they’re referring to when Columbus came but Europeans didn’t conquer Mexico until 1519 IIRC.) It makes my blood boil to see my own people be such racists.

Good choice Beloved. I hated that movie, it was so crude. Oprah you owe me an apology
 
I forgot GRAPES OF WRATH. Boring and looooong.

I totally agree with CATCHER IN THE RYE too…stupid book but short at least.
 
Someone mentioned The Great Gatsby earlier…boring! We are currently reading it in school…😦

I also did not like White Fang and Treasure Island when we read them in seventh grade.

I guess I’m not really one for classics…

🤷
 
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. It was required reading in high school. I recommend that Jack Bauer read it aloud when he interrogates prisoners. It will cause even the most dedicated terrorist to tell all.
 
There is a book called “How to Read a Bokk” by Mortimer Adler. If I remember correctly, it was assigned as summer reading when I was in high school. It was so dry and boring that every time I tried to read it I would fall sound asleep. Never did finish it. I wish I still had it–it would come in handy for those nights when I suffer occasional insomnia.
 
Maverick said:
The Visitation by Peretti, that was pretty bad too. I thought I’d try reading a Protestant Christian novel and that one was enough to turn me off to that genre. Started off OK but the book progressively deteriorated.
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Agree that The Visitation was bad, BUT my huge problem with it was the first-person writing. That just didn’t work.

On the other hand, it’s the ONLY Peretti novel where he used first-person POV. My favorite Peretti novel at the moment is Monster. I think that one is almost at the Michael Crichton level (IMO). I urge you to try reading Monster before giving up on Peretti. The Oath is pretty good, too.
 
Eucharisted said:
I love Animal Farm! My favorite character is the horse.
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I concur! I loved that book!
Cat said:
Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. I don’t care if they did echo the culture–they were boring.

I agree about Beloved–I didn’t get more than about ten chapters finished, and didn’t understand any of it. I suppose that it did have the good effect of making me realize just why there is still such a divide between black and white in the U.S. I felt terribly excluded and left out of Morrison’s story–I literally had no idea what people were saying or what was going on. How disturbing.
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I was going to give my picks, but I think Cat said pretty much exactly what I was going to say, right down to the fact that I started “Beloved” (twice actually, for two separate classes), but never got through it. Although, I don’t think I made it through 10 chapters. :o

I despised “Catcher in the Rye”. Though, the fact that my junior year English teacher sprung it on us two days before Christmas break as an assignment to read by the time we got back may have given me a bit of a sour taste before I even cracked it open. 😉
 
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