Worst Books Ever!

[linda22003]

The last time I put down a book was in junior high. I cannot remember the name of the book but it was about a fishing crew. The book got you really attached to the characters and then all of them die.

Moby Dick? :p

My worst book entry is "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. Its publication was the first time I remember a Muslim outcry in this country to ban a work, and many bookstores would not stock it. I went out of my way to buy it because some group was telling me what I COULDN'T read....

Then got it home and found it was, in fact, unreadable.

[bijou]

I borrow quite a lot of books from the library and often take a risk on something new and then fail to finish it (those ones are more than balanced out by the unexpected treasures), but they are pretty unmemorable. The 'worst' list contains those book which were so bad they stick in the mind years later including:

Silas Marner
The Bluest Eye
Prayer for Owen Meaney
The Mayor of Casterbridge

[linda22003]

I have a fifty page rule on books and a half hour rule on movies. If you don't like them at that point, cut your losses.

[Lager]

"Lisey's Story" by Stephen King was the last book that I just put down and never finished. I don't have as much patience with books as I used to. I don't love everything King produces, but I usually finish anything of his that I start. This book just seemed like a bad copy of one of his earlier works without any feeling to it.

[jendf]

Both of these I read through to the end, however, I found myself looking for sharp objects as I did this.

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I've definitely put down books without finishing them. I just can't recall their titles. They were that memorable.

[Gingersnap]

"Lisey's Story" by Stephen King was the last book that I just put down and never finished. I don't have as much patience with books as I used to. I don't love everything King produces, but I usually finish anything of his that I start. This book just seemed like a bad copy of one of his earlier works without any feeling to it.

When he's plowed, he's a genius. When he sobered up, he's just intensely wrong about all the numerous female characters he attempts to create. Desperation was excellent and the last books of the Dark Tower series were awesome. The Cell just vaguely passable.

[Gingersnap]

I also have to state that like all normal people, I detest Toni Morrison.

[DarkScribe]

I like Koontz but I can't make it through that book! I've tried maybe 5 times now. I don't even know what the problem is with it.

Shannon made you say that, didn't she, Ginger, just to spite me?

You mentioned Poppy Z Brite...she writes great short stories and I really liked her ghostly, haunted house novel Drawing Blood...as for the rest of her stuff I have a hard time getting past all the gay sex...especially her novel, Exquisite Corpse, easily one of the most repulsive books ever...

[DarkScribe]

"Lisey's Story" by Stephen King was the last book that I just put down and never finished. I don't have as much patience with books as I used to. I don't love everything King produces, but I usually finish anything of his that I start. This book just seemed like a bad copy of one of his earlier works without any feeling to it.

Honestly, I enjoyed Lisey's Story more than I thought I would. I think mostly because of the fact that the story was more of a "writer's life" tale (albeit a weird one) and his relationship with his wife. I dunno. Not ashamed to say I really liked this book (and followed by a snarky reply from You-Know-Who shortly...).

[megimoo]

I simply don't enjoy reading novels. I like a good story but, based upon the type of reading that I have done throughout my life, novels just become too laborious to enjoy. I'm used to reading scientific/technical papers, articles, and books. You have to thoroughly understand every phrase within a sentence before you move onto the next or the whole thing will not make much sense and you have to backtrack. This has been my style of reading for so long that I cannot shut it off for a novel. Since the novel is so laborious to read and isn't providing me with any truly tangible benefit of knowledge, I find it a waste of time. Since they usually aren't too long, news articles are OK.

To each their own, I guess.

You sound like an engineer ?