What's the worst book you have ever read?

Post by **Muttley** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 7:59 pm 0

Inspired by Chuffy's post.

So what is it?

For me it was the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake. Utter, utter, UTTER bollox. I've seen stuff written by 12 year olds that is far superior to this nonsense.

Muttley

rowan · Post by **rowan** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:03 pm 0

Astonishing the Gods by Ben Okri.

It had .. an adverse effect on me.

TheGoodbyeGirl · Post by **TheGoodbyeGirl** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:04 pm 0

I dragged myself through

The Laws of our Fathers by Scott Turow

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

and quit 61 pages in to The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl, lifes too short for books that dont grab me within 20 pages.

teamonkey · Post by **teamonkey** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:05 pm 0

The Halo tie-in novels, unfortunately

mattley · Post by **mattley** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:23 pm 0

I wouldn't say worst, but the most dissapointing ( and IIRC you really like 'em Muttley ) Would be the LiveShip trilogy by Robin Hobb. I loved her first work, but this just drags.... I pick it up now and again, and after a couple more chapters I just don't care any more...

It's a rich world, it's well written but... I dunno... does't work for me..

Xwards · Post by **Xwards** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:23 pm 0

It has to be the Da Vinci Code.

A 2000 year secret that a yankee proffesor cracks in one night?

America..FUCK YEAH!!!

grue · Post by **grue** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:23 pm 0

The Alchemist

I'm Merphy's fan

Fuseball · Post by **Fuseball** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:26 pm 0

Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Nothing happens and I felt nothing for the characters. It's one of those love/hate books apparently. Maybe some folks love the literary equivalent of watching paint dry.

Post by **Jedburgh** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:30 pm 0

Moderato Cantabile by Marguerite Duras. It's packed with symbolism and fuck-all else, and has left me with an abiding distrust of magnolias.

Kemper_Boyd · Post by **Kemper_Boyd** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:45 pm 0

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice.

Not just the worst book I've ever read, but the worst
book I've ever read by a country mile. Astonishingly
badly written, and just about the only book I've ever
stopped reading. In fact if I've still got my copy I'm going
to destroy it in order to protect others from its purple
prose.

Gorecki · Post by **Gorecki** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:57 pm 0

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.

I only read the first chapter before giving up in disgust. But in that single chapter it managed to pack in every single oirish cliche bar a white horse running down a windswept, desolate, cobbled street.

Total rot.

Matrixxx · Post by **Matrixxx** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:12 pm 0

QBasic

Rod_S · Post by **Rod_S** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:02 pm 0

The Photoshop WOW book.

Fil · Post by **Fil** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:07 pm 0

I like the Gormenghast trilogy myself.

Worst books i've read have to be Mein Kampf, Hitler couldn't write for shit and Lord of the Flies.

I probably would have liked Lord of the Flies if i'd had read it for the first time now, but I had to study it at school, 100% certified way to suck the fun out of a book.

Cloudane · Post by **Cloudane** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:44 pm 0

I haven't read an enourmous amount of books...

I'd probably have to say books 3 and 4 of the old "Doom" novels, I think they were called Infernal Sky and Endgame.

The first 2: Knee Deep in the Dead and Hell on Earth were brilliant and linked back to Doom 1 and 2 very well whilst adding their own slant, even if they had perhaps slightly too much religious side-story to them.

The last 2 broke away from the game altogether and became utter drivel. It's quite strange - in some ways it seemed that the authors had very wild imaginations, almost as if they were on drugs or something it was so surreal in places. In others the complete lack of imagination for things like names shines through - the 'masterminds' behind it all were called Freds, and the 'real masterminds' behind even them were called Newbies. Then you have that ridiculously annoying Sears & Roebuck (named after a famous department store in America I believe).

Books 3 and 4 were about 5% content consisting of a wild goose chase across the galaxy, 50% religious and political agenda that didn't belong there (IMO... ok one or both of the authors are mormons... we get the message already) and 45% sat in spaceships bitching to each other about time dilation sending them several hundred years in the future by the time they get home.

Inconsistency and plot holes abound, too. Despite having been stripped naked, wedding rings and all, by stepping through a teleporter in book 3 all of a sudden they have standard issue earth military gear and everything back in book 4, and the alien ship suddenly transformed between "cannot rotate at the speed of light so it's zero g" to "suddenly there's gravity, on with the show, and let's forget what we said about faster than light travel being impossible". Let's not even mention the number of times people's hair mysteriously changed colour...