What's the worst book that you ever read?

Z

Zeniquez

Legacy Member
Yes, you heard me right lol. What's the worst book you have ever read that you consider to have been a total waste of your time. Also what are some of the ways in which you think that particular book could have been improved?
 
I have to preface my response with my saying that I originally started to read this book purely from my curiosity. The book, Twilight, has taken the entertainment world by force and has essentially created a marketing firestorm. I wanted to see what the fuss was about...and I have yet to find out. Not only is the subject matter drab and boring, but Twilight is not well-written. There is no real character development, no deep underlying message or theme, nothing to justify such hype. I equate Twilight to a bag of Cheetos: tasty at first, but bound to leave you hungry or with a stomach ache.
 
I read "The Conservationist" by Nadine Gordimer, a South African writer. It won the Booker prize, so it's generally a well-known book. However, it was the most boring book I've ever read. I could barely tell who was talking, I couldn't follow the story, there was essentially no plot, and when I finished it I felt like I had wasted my time entirely. It was so incredibly bad--I don't know why it was assigned to us for my class. If it wasn't a requirement, I would have put it down right away. There's literally nothing good I can say about it.
 
I do not understand the hype surrounding "Life of Pi". I tried several times to read the book but kept falling asleep before I finish 5 pages. I found the book to be extremely slow. So much so that I did not watch the movie too.

Maybe I should give it a second try since it has been more than 4 years since I last tried reading it.
 
Worst of all time? I don't even know. Worst of the past year or so? Fifty Shades of Gray. I'd heard a lot of buzz about it online and from friends, so I finally read it for myself and...no. The subject matter didn't bother me as much as the way it was written. I just can't in good faith recommend it to others.
 
Indigo02 said:
Worst of all time? I don't even know. Worst of the past year or so? Fifty Shades of Gray. I'd heard a lot of buzz about it online and from friends, so I finally read it for myself and...no. The subject matter didn't bother me as much as the way it was written. I just can't in good faith recommend it to others.
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50 Shades of Grey isn't even really a book; it's more like pornography in written form: All smut, no substance. Whether the story is "realistic" or not really isn't the point, either. If it's as unbelievably poorly written as 50 Shades of Grey, you can't really call it a book.
 
Joker99352 said:
50 Shades of Grey isn't even really a book; it's more like pornography in written form: All smut, no substance. Whether the story is "realistic" or not really isn't the point, either. If it's as unbelievably poorly written as 50 Shades of Grey, you can't really call it a book.
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Why, then, do you think it has garnered as much attention as it has? Is it because it is indeed a pornographic book sold as a main stream novel or does anything with sex attracts people?
 
Oh my god. The worst book I ever read was called "Shift" and it was about the apocalypse. The book was so terrible though, my mom got it from Ocean State Job Lot on sale for a dollar or less. It was so awful, oh my god. It was hard to read.
 
shylock said:
Why, then, do you think it has garnered as much attention as it has? Is it because it is indeed a pornographic book sold as a main stream novel or does anything with sex attracts people?
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I think it's popularity is a bit overstated, but it's no different from the Twilight series in that it's full of gimmicky content. I use the term "gimmick" so much nowadays, because it's starting to become a trend. It's popular because the sexuality in it is somewhat taboo and people flock to that kind of stuff when it's made readily available to them. Another thing it has in common with the Twilight books is it's absurd portrayal of its female characters as brainless automatons with no self-control.

The bottom line is that not all books count as literature. No one is going to remember 50 Shades in 100 years, and if they do it's going to be as "that ridiculous fad" or something to that effect.
 
I really don't have a worst book I've ever read but it seems to me that the trend is that of books types of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' this for me is quite hard to read and not too interesting.. Also books based on movies are quite uninteresting to me :/ That is only my opinion though!

-Paul
 
The worst book I ever read was the first book of the Twilight series. I read it based on a recommendation of a classmate back in college. She was a girl. No surprise there. I didn't even finish reading it. It was so so awful that I gave up after the first few chapters.
 
jose26425 said:
I have to preface my response with my saying that I originally started to read this book purely from my curiosity. The book, Twilight, has taken the entertainment world by force and has essentially created a marketing firestorm. I wanted to see what the fuss was about...and I have yet to find out. Not only is the subject matter drab and boring, but Twilight is not well-written. There is no real character development, no deep underlying message or theme, nothing to justify such hype. I equate Twilight to a bag of Cheetos: tasty at first, but bound to leave you hungry or with a stomach ache.
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I second this. Twilight was so bad it made me give up writing--I'm only recently getting back into it after a five year hiatus. I will never understand the appeal.
 
CrackDSkye said:
You know that a book is bad when it inspires someone to stop writing.

JuneB: I would love to see some of your work.
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Yeah, I'm not exactly a fan...and I'm working on it! I just never like anything enough to show anyone, and what I actually do like I never manage to finish. :/
 
Wild Animus by Rick Shapiro.

I got this book free at a Disco Biscuits concert when I was in High School. I later found out that many of my friends had gotten it for free as well from similar places. It was hilariously bad. The main character takes a bunch of LSD and goes on top of a mountain where he turns into a goat... or something. I don't remember because I was too busy being appalled by how awful it was. For further reviews (all from people who were randomly handed the book on the street as well...), see here:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/424442.Wild_Animus
 
The worst book I've ever read ... do vanity published works count? The Maradonia Saga is worse than basically anything on here. Well, I haven't read the whole thing because I simply can't be bothered to buy it because that shows support to the author, and trust me when I say we don't want to encourage her. Basically, it's what happens when you let a vain teen try to write an epic saga Lord of the Rings-style but falls not just flat on her face, but flat on her face from atop a cliff.
 
Wombles714 said:
Wild Animus by Rick Shapiro.

I got this book free at a Disco Biscuits concert when I was in High School. I later found out that many of my friends had gotten it for free as well from similar places. It was hilariously bad. The main character takes a bunch of LSD and goes on top of a mountain where he turns into a goat... or something.
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That made me laugh out loud. At least there's an absurdity element to it. The Conservationist was just bland as hell. It's just too bad that it wasn't free, but I never would have bought it for myself if it hadn't been required for class. Everyone hated it and I sincerely hope that professor takes the hint and never assigns it again.
 
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