# What is the worst book you ever read?



## sheiler1963 (Nov 23, 2011)

I'm sure this has been done before but I thought I'd take a poke at it. What is the worst book you've ever read and what did you hate about it? Did you read it to the end and if so, why?
For me that book would be 'A Child Called It' by David Pelzer. I hated it because it was such over the top melodrama and glaringly obvious BS to boot. I read it to the end because I kept thinking surely there would come the part where I would learn that the book was MEANT as a parody and not to be taken seriously. That never happened. What made it all even more painful is that on another (non book related) forum someone posted about it in glowing terms. I couldn't believe that anyone had fallen for it. I posted my thoughts and included a link to an article titled, 'Dysfunction for Dollars' that was in the NY Times. Many of the folks on that forum chose to believe in the book anyway.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

Having learned to usually have checked out the book or the author BEFORE reading or having previously read the author I don't make too many mistakes. But, I'll give you two clunkers:

#1."The Quest" by popular South African author Wilbur Smith. I had previously read The River God and Warlock and was enjoyed with both books, so when I saw The Quest I got it and started reading. It was just terrible, nothing like his other books and this was a series. I kept reading expecting it would get better, but it only went downhill. Horrendous plotting and story and I just could not believe how bad it was. I'll sum it up: 150 year old Egyptian Wizard travels up the Nile to it's source and finds the ancient Witch (she does cloning too) who beguiles him, yet he escapes and finds the Fountain of Youth and is transformed into a strong and virile 19 year old who falls in love with a 12 year old and gets her pregnant and they go riding off into the sunset. Weirdest book I ever read. No editor here. He must have been on LSD and I felt like I'd been on a bad trip. 

#2. "Land of The Painted Caves" by noted author Jean Auel.  Years ago I had read Clan of The Cave Bear and liked it though it was too long and too descriptive with problems. Caves was nearly 800 boring pages long with much flashing back to previous books in the series with cut and paste and descriptions and narratives that could bore you to tears. No not that again, Ayla's so perfect her baby never needs her diaper changed. Then she keeps hauling out the 8 page Song of Life  every once in a while and I'm skipping and skipping and wanting to cry the story is so bad. Ayla's now in her 20 somethings and what a wreck she is, has she got baggage. Auel gets so many things wrong you want to scream. The caves aren't in the right millennium. No editor here. One to avoid.


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## Shawn Mackey (Mar 28, 2012)

_Invisible Monster_ had me cringing the whole time. The author was trying way too hard to be edgy. It had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I would have just finished it and moved on, but the twist at the end was so poorly executed that I nearly tore the book in two. I had to return it to my cousin, who highly recommended it. To this day, I'm pretty sure he was playing a joke on me.


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## Ergodic Mage (Jan 23, 2012)

That one is easy "The Eye of the World" from the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
After the first 100 pages two characters walked through a forest and into a town. At that point I was so bored I could care less what particular shade of olive-green-mahogany the leaves on the tree to the left 15 feet back from the path, the one without broken branches. It has a purple and red striped canary sitting on one of its branches feeding the five chicks worms from the mud spot that was recently uncovered during the storm. One of the chicks was unusual in that it was red and purple striped and ate voraciously. Oh and the characters name where ... never mind.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

jackz4000 said:


> Having learned to usually have checked out the book or the author BEFORE reading or having previously read the author I don't make too many mistakes. But, I'll give you two clunkers:
> 
> #1."The Quest" by popular South African author Wilbur Smith. I had previously read The River God and Warlock and was enjoyed with both books, so when I saw The Quest I got it and started reading. It was just terrible, nothing like his other books and this was a series. I kept reading expecting it would get better, but it only went downhill. Horrendous plotting and story and I just could not believe how bad it was. I'll sum it up: 150 year old Egyptian Wizard travels up the Nile to it's source and finds the ancient Witch (she does cloning too) who beguiles him, yet he escapes and finds the Fountain of Youth and is transformed into a strong and virile 19 year old who falls in love with a 12 year old and gets her pregnant and they go riding off into the sunset. Weirdest book I ever read. No editor here. He must have been on LSD and I felt like I'd been on a bad trip.


I read The Seventh Scroll which kept referencing River God. Loved The Seventh Scroll. No elephant hunts. I got so tired of Smith's elephant hunts. Eventually I read River God which I also really loved despite the elephant hunts. Try the Seventh Scroll. It's the modern day expedition to find the Pharaoh's tomb. I've been waiting for both of them to be available for Kindle, although I haven't checked in a while.

I can't even tell you the title or the author of the worst book I ever read. It was so godawful I actually (horror of horrors) threw it out. I wouldn't even give it away. It was a western. Young woman living alone in a cabin in the mountains. Three bad guys keep coming after her. Stranger saves her from bad guys so he moves in with her. The whole book was about his seduction of the girl and he wasn't even subtle about it. What made what he was doing to her so different from the bad guys? He was still pushing her physically and doing what she didn't want him to do. He was just wearing her down. Yuck. The "good guy" wasn't even appealing.

I sort of made it about 3/4 through, but I kept skipping lots of pages, hoping it would get better. It actually got worse.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

sheiler1963 said:


> I'm sure this has been done before but I thought I'd take a poke at it. What is the worst book you've ever read and what did you hate about it? Did you read it to the end and if so, why?
> For me that book would be 'A Child Called It' by David Pelzer. I hated it because it was such over the top melodrama and glaringly obvious BS to boot. I read it to the end because I kept thinking surely there would come the part where I would learn that the book was MEANT as a parody and not to be taken seriously. That never happened. What made it all even more painful is that on another (non book related) forum someone posted about it in glowing terms. I couldn't believe that anyone had fallen for it. I posted my thoughts and included a link to an article titled, 'Dysfunction for Dollars' that was in the NY Times. Many of the folks on that forum chose to believe in the book anyway.


I have the omnibus and while I don't disbelieve what happened to him (there are enough stories in the papers about that kind of stuff) I did feel at the time that "abuse-lit" was way too popular. I remember going into a bookshop sometime around 2006 and six of the top ten were personal stories of child abuse. Of this particular trilogy, the third is the lamest.

Chris Ward


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Ergodic Mage said:


> That one is easy "The Eye of the World" from the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
> After the first 100 pages two characters walked through a forest and into a town. At that point I was so bored I could care less what particular shade of olive-green-mahogany the leaves on the tree to the left 15 feet back from the path, the one without broken branches. It has a purple and red striped canary sitting on one of its branches feeding the five chicks worms from the mud spot that was recently uncovered during the storm. One of the chicks was unusual in that it was red and purple striped and ate voraciously. Oh and the characters name where ... never mind.


Haha, this was the best of the ones I trawled through! I actually liked the first two books in the series, but I ground to a halt after book four, which was just 1000 pages of description without any plot. My friend, who's read them all, said some of them are far worse!

Chris Ward


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

For me personally, it was Moby Dick.  No question.  Pile of junk.  If I wanted to know about 18th Century whaling I would have read a whaling history book.  What I wanted to read was a story.  The final three chapters were okay, but I could easily have skipped the rest.  It took me two years to read, and I forced myself to finish it (I was a teenager on a mission to read a "classic").  I will hate that book forever as a result.

Chris Ward


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

I've read _Moby_ Dick three times. For classes. Hated it every time.

But I liked "Bartleby the Scrivener" very much!

Hated hated hated _Hannibal_, though I loved _Silence of the Lambs_.

Most books that I hate, I don't finish. But I had to read _Moby Dick_ and wanted to see how _Hannibal_ turned out (though I was sorry for it).


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## Carolyn62 (Sep 5, 2011)

Land of Painted Caves was a complete waste of my time. I loved the other books in the series but I was very disappointed.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

In the past few years, _The Hunger Games_. It's derivative, puerile, predictable, and jejune. It's not even a predominately violent book given its subject matter. Maybe if I were thirteen or more in touch with my inner child I would have liked it.


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## Lindafaye (Mar 29, 2012)

I hated James Patterson's _Kiss the Girls_....ugh....


Spoiler



what he did with the snake will haunt me forever


. I threw the book away. it's the only book I've ever thrown away and even now I have a hard time reading any of his books.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess.


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

"GRAVITY'S RAINBOW" by Thomas Pynchon.

Although I can't say I actually read the whole thing...

...before shredding it over a dumpster.

Todd


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

headofwords said:


> Haha, this was the best of the ones I trawled through! I actually liked the first two books in the series, but I ground to a halt after book four, which was just 1000 pages of description without any plot. My friend, who's read them all, said some of them are far worse!
> 
> Chris Ward


Same here - didn't even get past Book 4. I gave away all of those books because they were taking up room in my house. ;-)


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

The other books (other than the Wheel of Time book that hit a roadblock - Book 4) that I outright couldn't stand was _American Gods _ by Neil Gaiman. Looooved his _Neverwhere_, so my dislike of AG came as a complete surprise. I guess it has to do with the fact that I liked the ends of the chapters - where he wrote about various gods and goddesses - but I couldn't stand the main story.

Didn't finish it.

The only other book I absolutely, positively could not stand was a Dick Francis mystery. This is going waaaaay back. I devoured his books by the bushelful, and while the story started out well, the ending was terrible. So bad, in fact, that I flung it on to the floor, and haven't picked up one of his books since.

I can't even remember the name of the story - _that's_ how bad it was for me.


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## EStoops (Oct 24, 2011)

For recently -- I bought and read "Matched" as market research.

All I could think was "Please shoot me now."

I think all-time unfavorite was "The Scarlett Letter"


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

I won't name any names because honestly, I wouldn't want the author to see and hurt their feelings but I will say this, the books that I usually end up disliking the most, are the ones that got rave reviews and I was super excited to read, only to be disappointed by how awful they were and that they didn't live up to the hype.

There is nothing worse in reading than being excited about a book you have heard so much about and that has great reviews and you can't stand it and can barely finish it.

It is so so disappointing and unfortunately I have had this happen to me more than once, recently too.


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## laurie_lu (May 10, 2010)

"The Davinci Code" I had to force myself to complete it.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

I'm a huge admirer of Stephen King, but words can't express my unhappiness with The Regulators. I'm sure I've read worse, but that is the most disappointed I've ever been with a book that I can remember. I couldn't believe that was written by the same man who penned It, The Stand, The Shining, or Salems Lot.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

laurie_lu said:


> "The Davinci Code" I had to force myself to complete it.


I actually liked the book a lot more than the film. The flim was kind of lame.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

D. Nathan Hilliard said:


> I'm a huge admirer of Stephen King, but words can't express my unhappiness with The Regulators. I'm sure I've read worse, but that is the most disappointed I've ever been with a book that I can remember. I couldn't believe that was written by the same man who penned It, The Stand, The Shining, or Salems Lot.


Indeed, some of his '90s stuff was awful. Haven't read The Regulators but I hated Rose Madder and From a Buick 8 (or was that published in the 2000s?). I really liked the one he did with Straub - Black House - because while the story was boring it was beautifully written.

Chris Ward


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

I can't decide between Heart of Darkness or Scarlet Letter.  I hate them both with the fire of a thousand suns.


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## Pinworms (Oct 20, 2010)

Dunno if its fair to list, but "Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel.  I enjoy reading religious apologetic literature, but without getting into a theological debate, I just found it an unintentionally hilarious read, based on just the writing style alone.  

My second most hated book is "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin.  To be fair, I was forced to read it in school, and reading about late 19th century feminism was possibly the least interesting thing I could think of as a teenager.


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## Matthew Lee Adams (Feb 19, 2012)

Lyndl said:


> I can't decide between Heart of Darkness or Scarlet Letter. I hate them both with the fire of a thousand suns.


I'll go with "The Scarlet Letter."


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## EStoops (Oct 24, 2011)

Matthew Lee Adams said:


> I'll go with "The Scarlett Letter."


Good call.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

For me it's a toss up between _Empire of the Senseless_ by Kathy Acker (I was supposed to read it for university and the entire class united in hating that book), _Demon Rumm_ by Sandra Brown (very bad early category romance by an author who eventually got so much better with the worst sexual euphemism ever) and _All Quiet on the Western Front_ by Erich Maria Remarque (I was forced to read this in highschool and hated it with such a flaming passion that I took the book to the USB immediately after graduating).


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## jfresh (Apr 5, 2012)

Ill probobly be hung for saying this here, but Great Expectations made me want to punch a baby. It was just so long, and drull  yuck.
I did, however love the count of monte cristo, so I'm not completley against long books


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## EStoops (Oct 24, 2011)

jfresh said:


> Ill probobly be hung for saying this here, but Great Expectations made me want to punch a baby. It was just so long, and drull  yuck.
> I did, however love the count of monte cristo, so I'm not completley against long books


Great Expectations was long, I think, for the sake of BEING long.... which is rather different than just a long book.


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## jfresh (Apr 5, 2012)

Yeah wasnt he getting paid by the word, and it was all just a long drawn out newspaper series...
Just too much havisham, pip, and most importantly, too much paper haha


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## jasonzc (Dec 23, 2011)

After just rereading Anthem by Ayn Rand, I have to say it's terribly written. The worse I've ever forced myself to finish.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Anthem made sense when I was a self absorbed young teen. Now it makes my skin crawl.


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## EStoops (Oct 24, 2011)

OH NO! Someone mentioned the "R" word! NOOOO!

*deep breathing*

Ah, so much better now. You know, I try not to mention this too much, since Ayn Rand fans have a tendency to be rabid (my mother among them) but even Anthem, which was, IMO, the best among them, is lousy on multiple accounts. It's palatable enough to go down compared to her other work, but it's clear that the author wants to convey one message, yet she completely managed to convey precisely the opposite to me. I'm sure I'm not the only kid that thought that the society in which the 'hero' lived had some significant upsides to what was going on in my own country at the time. I'm also sure that I'm not the only person that thought that there must have been compelling reasons for society to have shunned technology and that it was possible that the 'hero' was breaking the world, all over again, and potentially sending humanity back to the stone age with his scientific progress. Instead of feeling like he was a beacon of light, leading the masses from oppression and ignorance, I have to admit, I feel like he was a self-centered, egotistical schmuck.

This was only after rethinking it -- my original reaction was a little less well formed and mostly focused on the fact that the authority seemed one-dimensional and unlikely.


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## Ann Herrick (Sep 24, 2010)

I can't think of a particular worst book I've ever read, but I've read a couple that didn't use quotation marks and found that totally annoying!

Also, the nonlinearity in The Sound and the Fury, was not fun to deal with, especially since it was a book I _had_ to read when I was a sophomore in high school. Maybe if I went back and read it now I'd appreciate it more--but I'm not going to go back and read it again.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

laurie_lu said:


> "The Davinci Code" I had to force myself to complete it.


I couldn't finish it. Left my borrowed hardback copy on the floor beside the bed...and my dog ate it. So then I had to go buy a replacement copy in hardback of a book I hated so much I couldn't finish.

Life can be a cruel jest, sometimes.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

jfresh said:


> Yeah wasnt he getting paid by the word, and it was all just a long drawn out newspaper series...


Ha! So true, but then so was _The Count of Monte Cristo_.

But I'm with you on hating _Great Expectations_. It was forced down my throat in junior high, and I've hated it and most of Dickens since.


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## Matthew Lee Adams (Feb 19, 2012)

Jan Strnad said:


> I couldn't finish it. Left my borrowed hardback copy on the floor beside the bed...and my dog ate it. So then I had to go buy a replacement copy in hardback of a book I hated so much I couldn't finish.
> 
> Life can be a cruel jest, sometimes.


And thus explains this blurb on the jacket of the *Da Vinci Code*:

"I seriously devoured every word!" - Rover


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

jackz4000 said:


> Having learned to usually have checked out the book or the author BEFORE reading or having previously read the author I don't make too many mistakes. But, I'll give you two clunkers:
> 
> #2. "Land of The Painted Caves" by noted author Jean Auel. Years ago I had read Clan of The Cave Bear and liked it though it was too long and too descriptive with problems. Caves was nearly 800 boring pages long with much flashing back to previous books in the series with cut and paste and descriptions and narratives that could bore you to tears. No not that again, Ayla's so perfect her baby never needs her diaper changed. Then she keeps hauling out the 8 page Song of Life every once in a while and I'm skipping and skipping and wanting to cry the story is so bad. Ayla's now in her 20 somethings and what a wreck she is, has she got baggage. Auel gets so many things wrong you want to scream. The caves aren't in the right millennium. No editor here. One to avoid.


I'm with you on Jean Auel. Waste of time.


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## Ann Herrick (Sep 24, 2010)

Jon Olson said:


> I'm with you on Jean Auel. Waste of time.


I enjoyed Clan of the Cave Bear. The next book was okay, but Ayla taming a lion, a wolf and a horse was too much. The third book read like a bad romance novel (there are good romance novels!), the fourth I couldn't even finish. Didn't bother with the 5th. Thought about getting the sixth, just to see how it wrapped up, and to see if maybe her son from book one would make an appearance. But after the experiences with books 2-4 (and decision to skip 5) and reading the reviews for Painted Caves, I didn't bother.


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

sheiler1963 said:


> I'm sure this has been done before but I thought I'd take a poke at it. What is the worst book you've ever read and what did you hate about it? Did you read it to the end and if so, why?
> For me that book would be 'A Child Called It' by David Pelzer. I hated it because it was such over the top melodrama and glaringly obvious BS to boot. I read it to the end because I kept thinking surely there would come the part where I would learn that the book was MEANT as a parody and not to be taken seriously. That never happened. What made it all even more painful is that on another (non book related) forum someone posted about it in glowing terms. I couldn't believe that anyone had fallen for it. I posted my thoughts and included a link to an article titled, 'Dysfunction for Dollars' that was in the NY Times. Many of the folks on that forum chose to believe in the book anyway.


That's easy. "Then again." By Diane Keeton.


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