# What's the WORST book you've ever read??



## pomlover2586 (Feb 14, 2009)

Mine would be Wild Animus by Rich Shapero.......It's the only book to date that I had to force myself to finish.

It was about a young man who was a little bit mental. He thought he would do better in life as a Ram, so he moved to Alaska and camped out in the middle of the forest- doing LSD and running around with a Ram skin on his body......it was beyond weird.....


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## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

There are many books I don't finish. But of those I've finished then just shook my head at, Clive Cussler is at the top of the list.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

_The Scarlett Letter_, Nathaniel Hawthorne
I absolutely hated this one in High School.


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## hackeynut (Dec 16, 2008)

I'll leave you with this review I wrote: http://www.amazon.com/review/R14URHIAIE7Z21/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm


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## hackeynut (Dec 16, 2008)

Malweth said:


> _The Scarlett Letter_, Nathaniel Hawthorne
> I absolutely hated this one in High School.


Now there is proof that literary taste is subjective, that is one of my all time favorite books.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

hackeynut said:


> Now there is proof that literary taste is subjective, that is one of my all time favorite books.


I'm not opposed to historically significant books, either. I just don't like that one at all!


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## libros_lego (Mar 24, 2009)

Malweth said:


> _The Scarlett Letter_, Nathaniel Hawthorne
> I absolutely hated this one in High School.


What he said.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

It has to be Milton's _Paradise Lost_. I fell asleep every time I tried to read it - and I was an English major....


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## Concrete Queen (Oct 19, 2009)

Usually I just don't finish books when I don't like them, but the exception was _Bridget Jones' Diary_. Deceived by the witty writing, I finished the book and then realized that Bridget Jones pretty much spent the whole book making stupid decisions then being surprised by the consquences. Like sleeping with her boss (which she knew was a bad idea and did anyhow) then being STUNNED when it ends badly.


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## summerteeth (Dec 23, 2009)

I have to say _Cold Mountain_ by Charles Frazier. I was bored to tears.


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## loonlover (Jul 4, 2009)

William Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_ and I didn't even read it for my own classwork. I read it because my brother (the pre-med student) wanted some feedback because he hated it and didn't understand it.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

loonlover said:


> William Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_ and I didn't even read it for my own classwork. I read it because my brother (the pre-med student) wanted some feedback because he hated it and didn't understand it.


OK. . . .since we've mentioned Faulkner: The only one I ever read is _As I Lay Dying_. I don't suppose I'll ever again voluntarily read Faulkner. I had no clue what was supposed to be going on. Thank heaven for "Cliff's Notes". . . I still got an 'A' on the paper. . . . . . .all I remember about the book now is that I hated it.

Of course, I was only 17 or so at the time. . . . . and I recognize I'd probably have a different response now. But I don't intend to find out. 

There was also something by Joyce Carol Oates that I read for a college course that I just thought was silly. . . . .


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## loonlover (Jul 4, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> OK. . . .since we've mentioned Faulkner: The only one I ever read is _As I Lay Dying_. I don't suppose I'll ever again voluntarily read Faulkner. I had no clue what was supposed to be going on. Thank heaven for "Cliff's Notes". . . I still got an A on the paper. . . . . . .all I remember about the book now is that I hated it.


Your sentiments match mine. I have never understood the attraction of his writing. I have yet to understand why he is revered by a certain group of "intellectuals" here in the south.


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## Digital Tempest (Dec 17, 2009)

_Lolita_ by Vladimir Nabokov.

I hate that book with a passion, and no matter how many other awful books I read, I have never loathed one more than _Lolita_. I'd rather scratch my own eyes out than read that book again. The only reason I made it through the book is because I have the annotated version, and I liked reading the notes.

Next on my list would be _Twilight_. I've been reading that book for WEEKS, and I'm only halfway through.  That is one of the most painful reads. I'm too stubborn to actually just stop reading it. I hate letting a book defeat me, so I'm thinking of this as an experiment in masochism and testing how much I can take before my eyes melt out of my head. LOL.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Faulkner is allegedly a paragon of Southern Writing and the one we are all supposed to emulate.  I've read some of his stuff and didn't really care about it one way or another ...  But then that's one reason I never made a very good English lit. student.  I could never love something just because it was one of the Great Works of Literature ..


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I really like Faulkner, but have only read three of his books.  One of them was a challenge for me.


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## dnagirl (Oct 21, 2009)

The absolute worst was Moby Dick.

I have also attempted three Hemingway books, and like you guys with Faulkner, I can't understand the appeal.  I had to quit all three of them a quarter of the way in.


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## Aravis60 (Feb 18, 2009)

I hated A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I had to read it in college and I detested it.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

I can't answer that. 

There was a mystery I read where a character made a quip and the writer said he "hit it out of the ballpark." I realized that the writer, when you think about it, was really complimenting herself. Found it irritating. 

Um, I've never finished Pride and Prejudice, but I liked the miniseries.


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## mistyd107 (May 22, 2009)

*Ducks Head to avoid the things flying at my head for this* Gone with the Wind Mainly because to I HATED Scarlett's Whiney crap.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

Ms. O'Hara, imo, was not the heroine -- Melanie was. Didn't realize it until I was older, because it was too easy to relate to the histrionics rather than the quiet courage and dignity.


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## RhondaRN (Dec 27, 2009)

I can't really think of the worst book I ever read, but the one that I really had a hard time with in the beginning was Tess of the D'urbervilles.  For over half of the book I kept saying to myself, "if it doesn't get good soon, I'm quitting!!"  It finally did, and though not horrible, it was challenging.  Still glad I read it though.


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## Sendie (Dec 3, 2009)

Malweth said:


> _The Scarlett Letter_, Nathaniel Hawthorne
> I absolutely hated this one in High School.


I hated this so much I used Cliff's Notes to pass the test...

I didn't like "Wicked" or "The Time Traveler's Wife" either even tho both are really popular books. I almost didn't finish "The Time Traveler's Wife" it was so bad.


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## Silver (Dec 30, 2008)

The Magus by John Fowles followed closely by The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles.  Just no accounting for literary tastes, huh?  Both of these are considered great literature, I guess.  I read The Collector by John Fowles and thought it was brilliant.  Just had to get more of his stuff so I read the other two.  Ewww to both.  Needless to say, no more John Fowles for me.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Faulkner didn't write the worst book I've ever read, but he holds a special (bad) place in my heart.

In a literature course in college (and I was NOT an English Major) we read something by Faulkner, I don't even remember what it was now.  A short story or a selection from a novel.  So before she lectured on it, the teacher asked us what we thought of what we'd read.  There was complete silence.  That was when I was young and stupid enough to stick my neck out, so I finally volunteered that I didn't like it, and found the writing style tedious (at the time I could explain why I felt these way, but the brain blocks out unpleasant experiences in self-protection and I don't remember why now).  I was quite eloquent in explaining this.  Several students chimed in to express agreement with what I said.  When I sat down, the teacher explained that she was sorry to hear that, because William Faulkner was her favorite writer of all time.  And she was not kidding.  

She was already down on me because I'd explained that I thought there was a connection between Moliere (French playwright whose work we had read) being made Poet Laureate of France and his publication the year before of "Tartuffe" which ends with the hero in a horrible impossible situation that is fixed by the King of France (who was identified by name) sends policement to walk onto the stage and saying "The wise and all-knowing King of France who sees all and is wise and just knows that you are a good guy hero, and that these villains are bad guys, so off to jail with them, and he's decreeing that the hero gets back everything they've stolen from him."   She was astonished that I thought there might have been a connection between the play and Moliere's subsequent promotion.

No more A grades on The Hooded Claw's essays in that class.....


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

The Hooded Claw said:


> She was already down on me because I'd explained that I thought there was a connection between Moliere (French playwright whose work we had read) being made Poet Laureate of France and his publication the year before of "Tartuffe" which ends with the hero in a horrible impossible situation that is fixed by the King of France (who was identified by name) sends policement to walk onto the stage and saying "The wise and all-knowing King of France who sees all and is wise and just knows that you are a good guy hero, and that these villains are bad guys, so off to jail with them, and he's decreeing that the hero gets back everything they've stolen from him." She was astonished that I thought there might have been a connection between the play and Moliere's subsequent promotion.


that's some serious louis ex machina ....


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

I've only read "The Misanthrope" and I loved it!  This was ages ago, though.  With Faulkner, I've only read "Intruder in the Dust" and I thought it was a great story (a murder mystery, really), but the writing was difficult to get through and hardly worth the effort.

I hated "Tess of the d'Ubervilles."  It made me want to slash my wrists.  And I've never given Hardy another try because I found "Tess" to be so unpleasant.


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## pomlover2586 (Feb 14, 2009)

Though i'll probably get flames for this one the other book I hated with a passion was George Orwell's 1984........couldn't stand that book, I hated the topic, storyline, ending, etc......and to make it worse....I had to read it twice for 2 different classes....grrr

I know it's supposed to be one of the greatest stories of our time....but man...I disagree.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

DYB said:


> I hated "Tess of the d'Ubervilles." It made me want to slash my wrists. And I've never given Hardy another try because I found "Tess" to be so unpleasant.


I never read Tess, but I don't remember _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ as being too bad.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

pomlover2586 said:


> Though i'll probably get flames for this one the other book I hated with a passion was George Orwell's 1984........couldn't stand that book, I hated the topic, storyline, ending, etc......and to make it worse....I had to read it twice for 2 different classes....grrr


Wouldn't the one time have sufficed for both classes?

I never read Red Badge of Courage -- convinced my mother to read it and to helpfully highlight any passages concerning the guy's feelings toward war. For some reason, she did it. Paper was due sixth period and wrote it between classes and at lunch. Got an A.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Also see this thread: Worst / Best Book You Have Read.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

I really despised _The Savage Detectives_ by Roberto Bolaño. I was made to read this the semester before last and it was so so so bad.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I don't think that books we had to read in school count.  If you read some of those books as an adult, you'll have a completely different take on most of them.  That's what my experience has been.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

There are a number I've never made it all the way through because I disliked them so much; a couple by Hemingway come to mind.

Of the ones I read through to the end, _We the Living_ by Ayn Rand comes to mind, and _The Handmaid's Tale_ by Margaret Atwood.

In school I hated a couple of Steinbeck's novels because we had to analyze them line by line during class... the fastest way to kill any appreciation of a book.

And I _loathed_ the two short stories that every English teacher from seventh grade on up had their classes read and pick apart -- _The Lottery_ and _The Scarlet Ibis_. Most other required reading I wasn't too conscientious about... read the first page and the last page and the back cover, then wrote my book report, got an A, moved on. The joke was on me when years later I taught remedial English and had to read the stuff after all, and even lead discussions on it.   Most disliked ones: _Our Town_ and _Lord of the Flies._

I hope to be reading far fewer that I dislike in the future thanks to the wonderful sampling feature that the Kindle offers!


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> I don't think that books we had to read in school count. If you read some of those books as an adult, you'll have a completely different take on most of them. That's what my experience has been.


I think I should add that they had a way of killing the books in school, whether they were good or not.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> I think I should add that they had a way of killing the books in school, whether they were good or not.


I think the biggest issue with school is that it's...school! Everyone is _forced_ to read books there. It's always worse when you're forced into it. Our minds shut down when something is forced on us. I remember in high school we had a couple of teachers who let the class choose the books we read. They gave us options and majority ruled and the results tended to be much more favorable.

(For the record the choices were Jerzy Kozinski's "The Painted Bird" and Candide's "Voltaire" [to be read in conjunction with "The Book of Job" in our Bible-as-literature English class.] And then in another class we had a choice of "The Lord of the Flies" vs. "Pride and Prejudice." Not surprisingly "The Painted Bird" won (what a scary book!) And surprisingly "Pride and Prejudice" won. Both went down fairly easy with much class participation. I think having a voice really made a difference.)


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I did like _The Lottery_. It creeped me out for ages afterwards but I enjoyed reading it.

High school forced reading was horrible. I hated The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce), Great Expectations (Dickens), The Great Gatsy (Fitzgerald) and have never thought of going back and reading any of them to see if I felt differently. I don't teach English but I do think English teachers could re-think the way they get students to read... my daughter's teachers have, to an extent, but they still haven't completely figured it out.

L


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## Carld (Dec 2, 2009)

There are lots of books that are laughably bad, but sticking to "important" works I have to go with "Tom Jones," by Henry Fielding. It's one of the first prose works that could be called a novel. I assigned to read it in school and I was so *bored* I gave up half-way through. I wrote my report on what I read of it, explained that I just couldn't finish it, and let it go at that. I don't remember the grade I got, but the Prof didn't fail me.

Edit: btw, school doesn't always kill books. We read "Silas Marner" for a class and I loved it. I read the whole thing on my own time, even though we didn't have to.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I read Shakespeare's plays in school, and loved them every time, so school isn't an automatic killer for me.  On the other hand, school did kill Anna Karenina for me, which qualifies as my worst book.  I did gut it out and finish it, even though I loathed it (as a senior in high school) and one of my buddies didn't even open the book, but read the Cliff Notes, and made a better grade on the test than I did!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

The worst book I ever read was one I read in high school that was on one of the reading lists. I did read the entire book but I had to force myself to finish it. Unfortunately I cannot remember either the name of the book or the author. (I am not good with names but I usually do not have this problem with authors or book titles. I think my brain deliberately does not want to remember this book title or author.) I think the book title was the last name of the main character and that the name began with Mc or Mac "Mon" or maybe contained "teague". (EDIT: My brain is trying to remember but only fragments. ) My memory of the book is that it was very depressing and that nearly all of the characters died. I think that the main character was mean and violent and came to a bad end. The only two characters, very minor, that I remember that did not die were a man and a woman who lived in adjoining rooms in an apartment building or rooming house. The walls of the building were very thin. These two characters spent their time listening to the other through the walls. These two people were the happiest characters in the book.

EDIT: The setting is in the United States (possibly in California) sometime before or during the depression. I have a vague memory of the main character being large and brutish beating his young and frail wife.

Does anyone know which book this is?


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## evpseeker (May 29, 2009)

I have been an avid reader my entire life. I have to say some of the very worst books I've read have all been freebies or cheapies since getting my Kindle. I can't tell you how many books I have started and just could not finish. Several of them were written by authors we have here so I'm not going to name the books.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

concrete_queen said:


> Usually I just don't finish books when I don't like them, but the exception was _Bridget Jones' Diary_. Deceived by the witty writing, I finished the book and then realized that Bridget Jones pretty much spent the whole book making stupid decisions then being surprised by the consquences. Like sleeping with her boss (which she knew was a bad idea and did anyhow) then being STUNNED when it ends badly.


This matches my opinion of this book. I listened to it as a library audio while commuting. DH checks audio books out for me. His choices are often based on what is new or what has just been returned to the library. After I finished listening to it and returned it to DH, I asked him never to check out any others related to this book as it was a waste of time.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

OK, I realize that not every book is killed by the school experience.  But reading the posts here of people who hated certain books in school is what brings this to mind.

I also liked Silas Marner in our English class soph. year in HS.

I don't have a worst book.


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## Archer (Apr 25, 2009)

C-PLUS! (followed by insane cackle)

You'll shoot yer eye out! You'll shoot yer eye out! (insane cackle)

Actually, the worst book I've read lately (meaning in the last ten years) was 'The Cell' by Stephen King, 
to be followed closely by 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. Blecch! (I quit the series after that one.)


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

Susan in VA said:


> And I _loathed_ the two short stories that every English teacher from seventh grade on up had their classes read and pick apart -- _The Lottery_ and _The Scarlet Ibis_.


I hated _The Scarlet Ibis_ too... I lost the extra credit question "what was your favorite short story (in the big book of them we read)?" because my teacher told us _The Scarlet Ibis_ was her favorite and assumed we'd pick that one... I still think I should have gotten credit for _The Cask of Amontillado_... after all, the question wasn't asking what her favorite was!

In this same class (High School, Freshman English... almost 15 years ago) the teacher spent part of one class asking "Who said," from Romeo & Juliet, giving us only the first word... her quote (probably mangled by time) "Here's one nobody's going to get... 'A'," to which I raised my hand and said "Mercutio." She had to ask me what the full quote was, too... since she was so surprised I got it.

The only thing I never liked about English classes (especially in Honors level courses) was the pace of reading. I like to read at my own pace (which is slower for more difficult books). I read a number of books I liked immensely... and only a few I disliked because of the analysis ("The Grapes of Wrath," for one. "East of Eden" I read at my pace and liked well enough). Those I abhor, I will never like.

I tested out of College Written English (AP) and took "logic" as my Communications elective (which was remarkably similar to my intro Digital Electronics class). I have no regrets.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

Annalog said:


> The worst book I ever read was one I read in high school that was on one of the reading lists. I did read the entire book but I had to force myself to finish it. Unfortunately I cannot remember either the name of the book or the author. (I am not good with names but I usually do not have this problem with authors or book titles. I think my brain deliberately does not want to remember this book title or author.) I think the book title was the last name of the main character and that the name began with Mc or Mac. My memory of the book is that it was very depressing and that nearly all of the characters died. I think that the main character was mean and violent and came to a bad end.
> 
> [...]
> 
> ...


Until the second part of your paragraph, I thought you were talking about Macbeth!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

summerteeth said:


> I have to say _Cold Mountain_ by Charles Frazier. I was bored to tears.


And my husband absolutely loved that book. As has been said, tastes differ!

I tend to think it would have to be the "worst book I never read" as the really bad ones I don't finish, so I'm not sure I would count them as "read." The worst book I actually read might have been one of Trevanian's....can't think of the name right now but I slogged through it and the last chapter was actually worth the effort but boy was that a bad book up to that point.... And I can't believe that I read so many of Danielle Steele's books...towards the end especially, the books seemed like she got to a certain point, had complied with her contract and just finished the book abruptly. I stopped reading them at that point.

Betsy


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Malweth said:


> Until the second part of your paragraph, I thought you were talking about Macbeth!


I liked reading Shakespeare as a child and in high school. I woke up this morning realizing that the main character's name probabably began with Mon... instead. (No, not Montag from "Farenheit 451".  ) Will go back and edit the previous post.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

Leslie said:


> The Great Gatsy (Fitzgerald) and have never thought of going back and reading any of them to see if I felt differently. I don't teach English but I do think English teachers could re-think the way they get students to read... my daughter's teachers have, to an extent, but they still haven't completely figured it out.
> 
> L


If you are talking high schools teacher (I am a public school teacher) in a lot of states the choices the teachers have is limited by what is on the state tests. It used to be, when I was in high school as a student, the teachers picked what they wanted to teach. Now, in a lot of states the state teaching agency gives a list to pick from, and some districts then go in and limit the selection from the state list.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

I've never made it throught James Michener's Iberia. Tried three times. Got about 1/3 of the way through and put it back on the shelf. And I am a BIG Michener fan - he's my favorite author. Right up there, also, is "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galexy". Sorry - I know we have some rabid fans of this, but I get several chapters into it and it's like, "Mehhh, I've got better books to read, why am I wasting my time on this?" I may try again, but maybe not.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

You do have to be in the right mood to appreciate _Hitchhiker_. .. . try it late at night after a couple of drinks.


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## KathyluvsKindle (Apr 13, 2009)

"Ivanhoe" My least favorite book of all times. Had to read it in High school and every minute was one of excruciating pain. Second least favorite - "Paracelus".


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

While the book, name still unknown, that I remember as the worst book I ever read was one I read during high school for an assignment, it was a book I had chosen to read from the list provided. I was not required to finish it as I could have read another book in time to finish the assignment. (I finished it because I had not deliberately given up on a book before after getting past the first few pages.) Also, possibly due to when I went to high school (class of '71), the reading lists my junior and senior years were fairly extensive.

I remember picking and reading _Manchild in the Promised Land_ by Claude Brown. That book made an impression on me that I will never forget. Two books, both describing poverty and its impact on people, that I read during my senior year could not have been more different. One was memorable and the other was very forgetable.

I was very fortunate that none of the books I read during high school or college were ruined for me because of the analysis or because they were required reading. I was an avid reader long before reaching high school. My parents had an eclectic library at home that included novels, poetry, various encyclopedias (including two old medical encyclopedias and a pre-1900 encyclopedia), and a set of the _Great Books of the Western World_. My brother and I both read just about everything we could get our hands on.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

See, I loved "Anna Karenina." At least up until the final section. After


Spoiler



Anna jumps under the train


 - who cares anymore. But up to that point I found the stories to be really gripping, both Anna's and and Konstantin/Kitty's. (Most people may not even realize that there are two narratives unfolding simultaneously, with Anna Karenina and her exploits occupying only half of the novel.) There were just so many things happening, with Anna's husband finding out about the affair, taking away the children, etc. Very dramatic stuff!


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Malweth said:


> I still think I should have gotten credit for _The Cask of Amontillado_... after all, the question wasn't asking what her favorite was!


I liked that one too -- it was my favorite of Poe's stories. Although now they creep me out much more than when I was a teenager.



Malweth said:


> I tested out of College Written English (AP) and took "logic" as my Communications elective (which was remarkably similar to my intro Digital Electronics class). I have no regrets.


Did the same thing (CLEPs for both Freshman English and English Comp) -- and I thought "Logic" was just like solving puzzles. I worked my way through sixteen week's worth of assignments in eleven days, fastest one ever because I sat up every night thinking, _oh I want to do just one more..._ really fun stuff!
OTOH, even the _thought _of an electronics class scares me.


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## Figment (Oct 27, 2008)

In High School I looked forward with eager anticipation to senior year when I would FINALLY have the opportunity to take British Literature.  (Freshman year was all about writing well, so the focus was essays and short stories.  Sophomore year was world literature.  Junior year was a rehash of American Literature.  But Senior Year...ahh, senior year.  You finally had the opportunity to do English Literature!)  Unfortunately, I had a really complicated schedule senior year since I was taking Russian and two French classes, Honors Physics and Calculus (total three blocks of time daily for that) and Senior Concert Band.  This left a single period available for any sort of Senior English Class...and that one was Literature for Jocks!  (This was NOT what they called it...just what the students did).  I was in a small group class with just about the entire football team, all of whom were working very hard to maintain their academic eligibility.  Since our school was known for it's sports teams, the teacher was also helping them with eligibility requirements.  Instead of Shakespeare, I got Zane Grey.  Seriously, the whole thing was:  Read the book...spend the next week watching the movie (and we got a LOT of westerns)...take the test.  I hated it.  (I already had 5 brothers, had lived the first 12 years of my life in Colorado, and had my fill of westerns by the age of 7!)  My least favorite book of that era had to have been:  The OxBow Incident.  (I think we saw the movie twice, because the dumb jocks fell asleep and couldn't pass the test even with the movie as study material.)

I hated Senior English!!!

My second least favorite book of all time is Great Expectations, which turned me off Charles Dickens for life.  What kind of book is that to give to a 6th grade class to read?!?!?


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Figment said:


> My second least favorite book of all time is Great Expectations, which turned me off Charles Dickens for life. What kind of book is that to give to a 6th grade class to read?!?!?


I was forced to endure GE in 9th grade but same outcome: I haven't voluntarily read any Dickens since.

L


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Leslie said:


> I was forced to endure GE in 9th grade but same outcome: I haven't voluntarily read any Dickens since.


I read Great Expectations in junior high school, and liked it fine at the time (admittedly I didn't rush out to buy more Dickens for pleasure reading!). Same for Oliver Twist a couple of years later. On the other hand, I tried to listen to Nicholas Nickleby in audiobook form during a car trip a few years ago and had to abandon the book for safety reasons--Kept running off the road when the book put me to sleep! I've vowed (NY resolution) to read one Dickens novel on my Kindle during January, we'll see how it goes.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

Like others, I'm sure my worst book would be one of the many I started and didn't finish, whether I gave up after 10 pages or halfway through.  The worst one I FINISHED, however, was Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow.  For me it was tedious, boring beyond belief, but it had so many fans and so many rave reviews at the time, I kept plugging away and did in the end finish it.  And vowed never to force myself to read anything that others like and I don't again.


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

There's been a lot of them.  I think the latest one was a book called Don't Tell Alice.  Well, frankly, Alice was a dumb git who deserved everything she got.  I'm still not sure how or why I finished it.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Leslie said:


> I was forced to endure GE in 9th grade but same outcome: I haven't voluntarily read any Dickens since.


I also had to read _Great Expectations_ in 9th, but I thought it was OK. Now _A Tale of Two Cities_ in 10th - sorry, I know it's a "great" book and all, but I just hated it. It's one of a very few assigned reads that I didn't even finish. Although I do wonder if I could appreciate it a little more now, as an adult. I might give it another chance someday.


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## Maria Hooley (Jul 21, 2009)

I've got two that tied for that honor, James Fenmore Cooper's The Pioneers and Jack Kerouak's On the Road.  I loathed those two.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

marianner said:


> I also had to read _Great Expectations_ in 9th, but I thought it was OK. Now _A Tale of Two Cities_ in 10th - sorry, I know it's a "great" book and all, but I just hated it. It's one of a very few assigned reads that I didn't even finish. Although I do wonder if I could appreciate it a little more now, as an adult. I might give it another chance someday.


I don't remember exactly what I thought of _A Tale of Two Cities_ when I read it many years ago but I listened to an audio version while commuting a couple years ago and enjoyed it much more. I have found that many of the old classics seem better to me as audio books than reading them in print. Maybe that is because the slower pace makes more sense as an audio.



Maria Hooley said:


> I've got two that tied for that honor, James Fenmore Cooper's The Pioneers and Jack Kerouak's On the Road. I loathed those two.


You reminded me that I have never been able to get past the first couple chapters of _The Last of the Mohicans_.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

I too despised The Oxbow Incident but I love The Lottery.  As for Dickens... the only Dickens worth reading is A Christmas Carol which I adore.  Anything else I just can't do.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Scheherazade said:


> I too despised The Oxbow Incident but I love The Lottery. As for Dickens... the only Dickens worth reading is A Christmas Carol which I adore. Anything else I just can't do.


They have Dickens' original manuscript of "A Christmas Carol" at the Morgan Library in NYC. Very interesting stuff...


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

Someone linked a .pdf of it. I downloaded it and have it on my Kindle now  Here it is in fact! It's kind of big but I think it's fun to have until I need the room.

http://documents.nytimes.com/looking-over-the-shoulder-of-charles-dickens-the-man-who-wrote-of-a-christmas-carol#p=1


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

For fans of _*A Christmas Carol*_ by Charles Dickens...this isn't a worst book, this is a best book. I read it last month and absolutely loved it. Dickens wrote four Christmas stories in 1845, 1846, 1848, and 1849. *The Dickens with Love* imagines that there was a story written in 1847 and the one-of-a-kind and very rare manuscript is being put up for auction. Wonderful story, great characters, and for Dickens fans, lots of little inside jokes and quirks. Highly recommended. Even though we are past the season, it is still worth reading.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

_Lord Jim_ by Joseph Conrad is the book that is my most hated book. I can't even blame the education system for forcing it on me, I choose to (try to) read it in my junior year. I have made the same attempt many times since then, and with the Kindle made it into the 6 chapter before giving up. I had never made it past the the third chapter pre-Kindle. I don't stop reading many books, perhaps 10 in the last 45 years but this one, I have made my final attempt.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Annalog said:


> I don't remember exactly what I thought of _A Tale of Two Cities_ when I read it many years ago but I listened to an audio version while commuting a couple years ago and enjoyed it much more. I have found that many of the old classics seem better to me as audio books than reading them in print. Maybe that is because the slower pace makes more sense as an audio.


That's a good idea. I don't listen to audiobooks much, but maybe I'll look for a free version on librivox.org to give it a try.


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## Figment (Oct 27, 2008)

I didn't necessarily enjoy _A Tale of Two Cities_, but I did like how Dickens set up the theme of duality in both the title and his first sentence:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

I think that is one of the best first lines to be found in English literature!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

marianner said:


> That's a good idea. I don't listen to audiobooks much, but maybe I'll look for a free version on librivox.org to give it a try.


A great narrator can make a world of difference. The version I checked out from the library and listened to was published by Recorded Books, Inc and narrated by Frank Muller.


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## Melonhead (Jan 1, 2010)

Annalog said:


> You reminded me that I have never been able to get past the first couple chapters of _The Last of the Mohicans_.


I couldn't do 3 pages.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Melonhead said:


> Annalog said:
> 
> 
> > You reminded me that I have never been able to get past the first couple chapters of _The Last of the Mohicans_.
> ...


It took me several attempts to make it that far. I still have the book on my Palm PDA. (It was a freebie.) Until I received my Kindle, I would try reading _The Last of the Mohicans_ when I ran out of other reading material and was very desperate. With my K2, I should never be that desperate again!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I enjoyed _The Last of the Mohicans_ in HS. . . . it wasn't an assignment, I just wanted some background on why Dr. Benjamin Pierce was called 'Hawkeye'.  I never read the later books though. . . . .


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## Airan Gale (Oct 11, 2009)

Twilight. Absolute rubbish, and it just floors me as to why it's been in the best seller lists for so long.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Annalog said:


> I couldn't do 3 pages.
> 
> It took me several attempts to make it that far. I still have the book on my Palm PDA. (It was a freebie.) Until I received my Kindle, I would try reading _The Last of the Mohicans_ when I ran out of other reading material and was very desperate. With my K2, I should never be that desperate again!


I don't recall ever reading any James Fenimore Cooper, but I did recently read Mark Twain's essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literay Offenses," so I guess those of you who don't care for J.F.C.'s works are at least in good company. 

PS: I read the essay in:


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## Margaret (Jan 1, 2010)

I would have to say that my least favorite book of all time is_Moby Dick_. I have attempted to read it at various times in my life - high school, twice in college, and as an adult. I have never made it through to the end. A book that I have managed to finish, but did not enjoy after about the first third was _Wicked_. That book went on for much too long of a time in my opinion.


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## Capri142 (Sep 25, 2009)

Wuthering Heights................I absolutely hated this book. I had to read it in high school and 
write a review. If this had not been the case I would never have made it past the first chapter


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

I think it was called Monster(?).  It was a book by an LA gang member/convict.  It wasnt very well written but I hung in there only to finish it and read some really ignorant comments the author made at the end.  He said something about in his opinion, different ethnicities shouldnt mix.  It was just so ignorant to me.  Here is a guy, who hasnt lived or traveled anywhere but his little neighborhood in LA and then to prisons in California telling us how people should be separated?  What the hell does he know?  And yet, far too much of the press was praising him and getting him an early release only for him to wind right back up inside.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Capri142 said:


> Wuthering Heights................I absolutely hated this book. I had to read it in high school and
> write a review. If this had not been the case I would never have made it past the first chapter


The horror! The horror! Personally I think "Wuthering Heights" is the greatest English-language novel ever written. I've read it at least six times and every time it gets to me. Interestingly I never found it particularly romantic. Heathcliff and Catherine are not a couple in love; they are a couple insane.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Hahaha. Most of my favorite books are listed here. Maybe I should look for another profession.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

NogDog said:


> I don't recall ever reading any James Fenimore Cooper, but I did recently read Mark Twain's essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literay Offenses," so I guess those of you who don't care for J.F.C.'s works are at least in good company.
> 
> PS: I read the essay in:


Thanks for the link. That collection will be on my K2 next time WN is on.

Interesting problem when quoting an embedded quote. It mixed the quote sources.  Mine would be:


Annalog said:


> You reminded me that I have never been able to get past the first couple chapters of _The Last of the Mohicans_.





Annalog said:


> It took me several attempts to make it that far. I still have the book on my Palm PDA. (It was a freebie.) Until I received my Kindle, I would try reading _The Last of the Mohicans_ when I ran out of other reading material and was very desperate. With my K2, I should never be that desperate again!


It could be that my problem had to do with reading the Introduction each time. Next time I try, I will either listen to an audio version by a good narrator or skip the Introduction, skim chapters 1 and 2 and start with chapter 3. (I checked my PDA and I was a couple pages into chapter 3 the last time I stopped.) It could be that I keep quitting just before I would start caring about the characters.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Twain had a way with words.  He once said about the opera composer Richard Wagner: "His music is better than it sounds."


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## ginaf20697 (Jan 31, 2009)

The Historian. At least I now know to steer clear of the new book this slag has coming out soon.


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## Prazzie (Oct 25, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> It has to be Milton's _Paradise Lost_. I fell asleep every time I tried to read it - and I was an English major....


Same here, never been able to get through the blasted thing. I have tried many many times, I get to page 3 before nodding off. Finally I started "cheating", I signed up for it through DailyLit, so they sent me short installments via email. I then tried to get through that with Sparknotes open in another tab, so I could understand the hundreds of references to this and that mythical Greek mountain/volcano/lake. If Milton ever rises from the dead, I'd like to introduce him to full stops.



DYB said:


> The horror! The horror! Personally I think "Wuthering Heights" is the greatest English-language novel ever written. I've read it at least six times and every time it gets to me. Interestingly I never found it particularly romantic. Heathcliff and Catherine are not a couple in love; they are a couple insane.


Lol! I absolutely love Wuthering Heights. I agree about the insanity part, never saw it as a great love story either.

For me, the worst book I ever struggled through was *Don DeLillo's Underworld*. A friend gave it to me, certain I would enjoy it. I hated nearly every minute, but kept reading to get to the good parts. They never came. An utterly pointless novel.


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## bjazman (Aug 1, 2009)

seems like a current under the topic is the most of these books were either pretty popular, or considered "classics" by our HS or College English teachers

i'll toss 3 out (tho i think at least one has been mentioned)

Wicked - especially after seeing the musical was awful. maybe just highlights how good the musical was, coming from such humble roots

On the Road by Kerouac. tried and tried, but just couldn't make it through

Treasure Island by Stevenson. i really wanted to like this one - pirates and all, but just toooooo slooooowww in developing.


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## Varin (May 12, 2009)

Bleak House.

*convulses at the title*

I had to read it for my Victorian Novel class semester, and loved all the other books we read; Mary Barton, Shirley, The Odd Women, The Woman in White..

But I HATED Bleak House. I disliked A Tale of Two Cities as well, when I read it in High School, but this is an entirely different level of loathing.

I HATE Twilight with a passion, but I hate Bleak House so much more- bad (at best average) writing and poor, unoriginal plot line aside, at least Twilight didn't have hundreds of characters that didn't ACTUALLY MATTER!

I wanted to die when I had to do an essay on it.. I don't care if it's a masterpiece. Whenever I hear the title or the author's name now I have this sudden urge to jump off something very high in the air...


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Jeff said:


> Hahaha. Most of my favorite books are listed here. Maybe I should look for another profession.


I admit I've already downloaded half a dozen from this thread, just because I was reminded that I had always meant to read them...


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

Annalog said:


> Mine would be:It could be that my problem had to do with reading the Introduction each time. Next time I try, I will either listen to an audio version by a good narrator or skip the Introduction,


I have a degree in Literature. And one of the big lessons I learned (a professor actually went out of his way to get us to stop reading intro's before the book by using Finnegan's Wake) was to never read the intro before the book unless it is written by the author. This professor insisted the way to read "literature" is to read 1) the 1st chapter 2) first 3 paragraphs of each chapter, then read the last 3 pages of the book and immediately flip to the 1st page of the story and read it page by page. Then read the intro last. (Unless it was written by the author). He said, "to many great books aren't read because readers can't get past the droll know-it-alls that write the intros."


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Anarel said:


> Bleak House.
> 
> *convulses at the title*
> 
> ...


Uh-oh... I've had that sitting unread in my bedside TBR stack for _years_... it keeps migrating to the bottom of the stack, for some reason  ... I dated someone once who thought it was one of the finest works of literature in the English language, and since he was in other respects a fairly sensible sort, I thought I ought to read the tome... I think, after reading your post, I will go take it out of that stack right now, and move it to the little high-up shelf of "Books I haven't Read But Don't Particularly Want To Anytime Soon". Ahhh. What a liberating thought.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Red said:


> I have a degree in Literature. And one of the big lessons I learned (a professor actually went out of his way to get us to stop reading intro's before the book by using Finnegan's Wake) was to never read the intro before the book unless it is written by the author. This professor insisted the way to read "literature" is to read 1) the 1st chapter 2) first 3 paragraphs of each chapter, then read the last 3 pages of the book and immediately flip to the 1st page of the story and read it page by page. Then read the intro last. (Unless it was written by the author). He said, "to many great books aren't read because readers can't get past the droll know-it-alls that write the intros."


In this instance, the Introduction was by the author. 

Why the first three paragraphs of each chapter and the last three pages? Was this to get an idea of the book before reading?


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

The idea was to get in touch with the plot and characters so the reader will be able to read "more actively". He used Finnegan's Wake because if you open it and read cover to cover it is torture. He had us do that 1st. Then he had us do it his way. Very eye opening and I wanted to slit my wrists when I did it his way and realized what it opened up in the work from the beginning. If I only done it the 1st time. I've only read Last of the Mohican's once and the intro wasn't by the author. Apparently a good thing  for me.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Susan in VA said:


> Uh-oh... I've had that sitting unread in my bedside TBR stack for _years_... it keeps migrating to the bottom of the stack, for some reason  ... I dated someone once who thought it was one of the finest works of literature in the English language, and since he was in other respects a fairly sensible sort, I thought I ought to read the tome... I think, after reading your post, I will go take it out of that stack right now, and move it to the little high-up shelf of "Books I haven't Read But Don't Particularly Want To Anytime Soon". Ahhh. What a liberating thought.


I loved Bleak House. Read it in 1985 after I started watching the BBC/PBS series. Never had to read it in school. It's very long. I used to discuss it with someone at work who was also watching it and read the book after I told her about it.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

Red said:


> The idea was to get in touch with the plot and characters so the reader will be able to read "more actively". He used Finnegan's Wake because if you open it and read cover to cover it is torture. He had us do that 1st. Then he had us do it his way. Very eye opening and I wanted to slit my wrists when I did it his way and realized what it opened up in the work from the beginning. If I only done it the 1st time. I've only read Last of the Mohican's once and the intro wasn't by the author. Apparently a good thing  for me.


Now I want to read _Finnegan's Wake_...

$9.99 on Kindle:


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Malweth said:


> Now I want to read _Finnegan's Wake_...
> 
> $9.99 on Kindle:


I love one review there that reads, in part: "This book is the bane of my existence."


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> I loved Bleak House. Read it in 1985 after I started watching the BBC/PBS series. Never had to read it in school. It's very long. I used to discuss it with someone at work who was also watching it and read the book after I told her about it.


Well, someday I'll probably get around to it... when the TBR stack gets low... but at least now I won't keep putting it at the bottom of the stack and then feeling vaguely guilty about it.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Malweth said:


> Now I want to read _Finnegan's Wake_...
> 
> $9.99 on Kindle:


Yeah, this is the same guy who wrote *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man* which I detested. Sorry, not buying this...too many books, too little time to read the books that are supposedly "good" for me.

L


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

I didn't like Portrait either. My favorite James Joyce is  The Dead  . It is a collection of short stories that are actually not painful to read.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

Rex ex machina. 
Sucking up to the king is always a wise move. It seems to me you made a logical connection.

Let's see, as long as I'm here...I once put down a fantasy novel that was way too cutesy. Too many talking animals. I can't remember the title.


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## LindaW (Jan 14, 2009)

Aravis60 said:


> I hated A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I had to read it in college and I detested it.


I wanted to read it in high school - and the librarian had to special order it, but only after she got permission from my parents that I would be allowed to read it. Which of course they gave! I loved it!


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## LindaW (Jan 14, 2009)

Had to read "Catch 22" senior year of HS.  With the book, we were given a list of pages and sections that we were supposed to skip due to the explicit nature - the first day in class we were poring through that list with our books looking up the "smut".  

Anyway, the book was so boring and dull that I refused to read it, and my teacher (who was awesome) gave me "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" - which I fell in love with.  She understood that I was a bookworm, and since my reading habits were more advanced than most of the other students, she pretty much let me do my own thing in class.  Most of the time she had to pull teeth to get the rest of the students to pick up a book.  I used to stay after school and just talk books with her until the very last bus was pulling out with the sports kids.  I will never forget her!


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I almost fainted when you called Catch 22 boring. I laughed my head off and loved it and I was younger than a senior in high school when I read it.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

It really is funny how some of the books people consider their worst are other people's favorites...  and if you look at the threads on favorite books, the same holds true.


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## Debra Purdy Kong (Apr 1, 2009)

R. Reed said:


> I almost fainted when you called Catch 22 boring. I laughed my head off and loved it and I was younger than a senior in high school when I read it.


I liked it too!

Debra


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## Aravis60 (Feb 18, 2009)

Susan in VA said:


> It really is funny how some of the books people consider their worst are other people's favorites... and if you look at the threads on favorite books, the same holds true.


How true. It would be a boring world if we all enjoyed the same things. Not to mention much longer lines.


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## JeanThree (Feb 22, 2009)

Pillars of the Earth!! Oprah owes me a whopping $17 I paid for it. It was so stupid. Rambling, repetitive ... build up the village/church..tragedy strikes it down, repeat until book finally ends (but not soon enough).  I only finished it by skimming and laughing at the stupid parts. Total waste of money and time.

I also didn't like Little Women because I was a  good reader in elementary school and they gave it to me in 4th grade and said, write down all the words you don't know as you read it and it became a very negative thing for me. "Tassels" I remember writing that down and hating every time I "failed" by not knowing a word. Someday I'll try to find where that word is in the book (and maybe see if my memory was right or not).


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

I'm not sure what Oprah bases her recommendations on, but I've started two or three of her picks and quit less than halfway through.


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## Pushka (Oct 30, 2009)

Carld said:


> There are lots of books that are laughably bad, but sticking to "important" works I have to go with "Tom Jones," by Henry Fielding. It's one of the first prose works that could be called a novel.


Ah. I loved "Tom Jones" and read it in my teens and havent touched it until I got the kindle a couple of months ago and downloaded it straightway. In the same lines, I also loved Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" Catch 22 - loved it. And anything by Hemingway.

But back to the topic. 

I have a few. "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is quintessential, self focussed, boring twaddle to me.
Anything by Dickens. 
The Harry Potter series - I do not understand what has happened here, but if it makes children (especially boys) read then who am I to complain. 
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" - I didnt last more than three pages, should I try again. I dont like the letter writing style.

I suspect Oprah gets others to recommend her books.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I think Oprah reads her picks.  I don't know what she was thinking with the most recent one, a set of stories set in Africa.  I'm in the second to last one that is never ending and repetitive.  Guess she wants us to know how difficult life in Africa can be.

I didn't finish Eat Pray Love (in all fairness, although the author and the book were featured on Oprah, it wasn't an official Oprah pick).  I didn't see much point to that one.  Yet now that author has a new one that is sure to be a bestseller.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I've never enjoyed one of Oprah's picks.  Now, if I think a book looks good, but then I see that Oprah recommends it. . . .I pass. . . . .she and I just obviously have very different taste.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

I have only ever read one of Oprahs picks.  It was The Pilots Wife(?).  It was about the same level as one of those grocery store romance novels.  Definately not how I want to spend 5 or more hours of my life....

I also forgot to mention earlier, one of the most hated books I have ever had the misfortune to being forced to read...and reread...and reread....and reread, was The Hounds of Baskerville.  We started it in high school english class and our teacher got mad at us so for punishment he had us read it aloud one paragraph at a time.  If it got to anyone who did not know where to pick up, we had to restart.  I seriously hate that book to this day.


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## LindaW (Jan 14, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I've never enjoyed one of Oprah's picks. Now, if I think a book looks good, but then I see that Oprah recommends it. . . .I pass. . . . .she and I just obviously have very different taste.


I thought I was the only one. I find a lot of her picks to be depressing.


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

I read The Bean Trees over the weekend.  I did not know it was an Oprah pick until after I had bought it.  I decided to give it a try anyway and ended up really loving it.  As a practice, I never buy an Oprah pick.  Although I'm reading Love in the Time of Cholera, and I think that one might be an Oprah pick, which might explain why 30 pages in and I'm still a bit lost. 

I have not finished Eat, Pray, Love either.  Pushka summed up what I had been thinking but had not said outloud.  
I am going to try though.  My kids gave it to me for Mother's Day a couple of years ago and I feel obligated.  
In fairness they also gave me Water For Elephants, which is one of the best books I've ever read.  And another book I can't recall right now, but I know I loved it. 

My own pick for worst book would be She's Come Undone.  Another Oprah pick.  I don't even remember why I dislike it.  I do remember I threw it away rather than pass it on to anyone else.

deb


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

I read Love in the Time of Cholera in its original language, Spanish and loved it.  I wonder if it doesnt translate well or if it just isnt your cup o tea?


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## JCBeam (Feb 27, 2009)

I think it's not some people's cup of tea.  I read both Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude (English translations), and both are my all time favorites!


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## loca (Jan 3, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I've never enjoyed one of Oprah's picks. Now, if I think a book looks good, but then I see that Oprah recommends it. . . .I pass. . . . .she and I just obviously have very different taste.


LOL, yea, Oprah's choices are for marketing purposes anyways.


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## ladydiamond215 (Jan 8, 2010)

The worst one I've ever read was SERIAL! I go thru the first few pages, up until he


Spoiler



sodomized a man with a corn cob then brutally raped him before cutting a whole in his throat and suffocating him by sticking the corn cob in the whole!


 I got there and deleted it! It was too much! I couldn't eat for two days!

_edit: added spoiler block --- Ann_


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## chiffchaff (Dec 19, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I've never enjoyed one of Oprah's picks. Now, if I think a book looks good, but then I see that Oprah recommends it. . . .I pass. . . . .she and I just obviously have very different taste.


I tend to agree - though she picked East of Eden a few years back and I did like that!


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

chiffchaff said:


> I tend to agree - though she picked East of Eden a few years back and I did like that!


I don't know much about Oprah's books, (I can't stand HER), but anyone can pick a classic book and say "This is my 'Pick.'" I suppose if she did it more often, more people would read classic books, so there is some value, but it takes more talent to find the recent ones that will become classics.


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

KindleChickie said:


> I read Love in the Time of Cholera in its original language, Spanish and loved it. I wonder if it doesnt translate well or if it just isnt your cup o tea?


I think it might be a matter of concentration right now. I have a lot of other things going on. Also, I think it actually might be the fact that I'm reading the paperback and the font is really small. I decided to put it aside last night and read something a little easier, and bigger font, right now and get back to it. I don't want to give up on it. 
deb


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## LindaW (Jan 14, 2009)

chiffchaff said:


> I tend to agree - though she picked East of Eden a few years back and I did like that!


Well, I don't think you could go wrong with East of Eden - no matter who recommends it.


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## KimberlyinMN (Dec 30, 2009)

The worst book I ever listened to was "The Road"... by Cormac McCarthy.  Hubby and I listened to this on a trip to and from Minneapolis.  It was SOOOO depressing. I can't imagine going to the movie.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I can't generalize about the Oprah picks. Some are good; some not so good. Most are on the dark side, but they are not all alike. It's how the books are written that matter to me. If I read a book about my favorite topic and it's poorly written, it's not a good book.

Elie Wiesel's _Night_ was an Oprah pick. It's very dark, but it's a very good book.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

The most recent Oprah pick, short stories set in Africa, is on my kindle and I don't like it one bit.  I go back to it now and then.  The next to last story is very long and repetitive.  I haven't finished that one.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Oprah's pick, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I love dogs, so that's why I read this book. The ending was so bad, no, I should correct that, there was no ending - it was left up in the air for you to figure out, that most, 99%, of Oprah's Book Club members were furious with the author as well as Oprah for picking this book, as I was. I also detested Oprah's pick, The Book of Ruth. It was so violent. It's not to say that the writing was bad. The writer was quite vivid with the telling of a violent, sick, perverted character in this book!
    I like Oprah, BTW. I did like, The Deep End of the Ocean...I think that was the name of the book. Also, Night, by Elie Weisel. I guess we just have different reading tastes in books in general.


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## Cuechick (Oct 28, 2008)

Digital Tempest said:


> _Lolita_ by Vladimir Nabokov.
> 
> I hate that book with a passion, and no matter how many other awful books I read, I have never loathed one more than _Lolita_. I'd rather scratch my own eyes out than read that book again. The only reason I made it through the book is because I have the annotated version, and I liked reading the notes.


I have to agree with Lolita, this book made me really angry! I will never forget a part of the book early on, where Nabokov writes about how in some countries they allow men in their 40s or 50s to marry _very_ young girls under the age of 10 and "no one objects". My immediate thought was, yeah except for the child! What about her? These are societies that give a child no choice! It disgusted me so much I could not finish it.

Now maybe Nabokov was being ironic, since he is writing in the voice of a sick pedophile but it did not come off that way to me.

As far as books I have finished there are two that come to mind, I really hated "Good in Bed" by Jennifer Weiner. Full of sterotypes and I though I do not really remember the story exactly, I know I rolled my eyes a lot and almost did not finish it but some how plowed through.

The other tops my list of most hated book of all time! "We Were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carol Oates. I literally threw it across the room at least once!
I also wrote a review on Amazon after, I was so incensed. They even made this stupid book into a stupid movie! 
It started out great, painted a story of a very close, loving family. After the


Spoiler



daughter is date raped by a popular boy, every one goes insane. The father can't even look at the daughter any more, so she is *sent away*. WTF, she is basically punished for what happen by her own formly close family members. The reaction is so unbelievably over the top and extreme it just boarders the ridiculous.


Yuck! HATED it.


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## Cuechick (Oct 28, 2008)

Pushka said:


> "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" - I didnt last more than three pages, should I try again. I dont like the letter writing style.


I really loved that book, I was hesitant about the format too but really forgot about it after a while. If the subject matter appeals to you then I say yes, give it another try.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

> As far as books I have finished there are two that come to mind, I really hated "Good in Bed" by Jennifer Weiner. Full of sterotypes and I though I do not really remember the story exactly, I know I rolled my eyes a lot and almost did not finish it but some how plowed through.


That was the very first book I bought on my Kindle. It came as a recommendation, I read the sample, and decided to buy the book. Mind you, I was new to the whole Kindle thing and giddy with the idea of a book arriving instantly by WN. It's a little disappointing when people say, "What's the first book you ever bought?" and I have to admit it was one I didn't really like and wouldn't recommend. I wouldn't go all the way to hating, but it was just mediocre and I have no interest in anything else by this author.

As for Guernsey....I really enjoyed that and would highly recommend it. Fairly fast, easy read about an event in history that has been largely overlooked (the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands in WWII).

L


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## Megs (Jan 17, 2010)

I didn't read this entire thread, so someone may have already said this, but...Breaking Dawn.

Yes, I read all four Twilight books.  I plead a mysterious brain tumor that then miraculously vanished, leaving me untouched but for the lapse in judgment that led me to keep reading.

In any case, I know someone else said Twilight, and all I can say is...it just gets worse from there.  In the case of Breaking Dawn it's way, way worse.  I literally skimmed the entire second half.

As for college English major type stuff...I'd have to say The Name of the Rose.  Maybe it was because I had about four days to read upwards of six hundred pages, but it seemed to be roughly a hundred pages of theology and philosophy interspersed with tiny bits of plot.


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

Megs said:


> Yes, I read all four Twilight books. I plead a mysterious brain tumor that then miraculously vanished, leaving me untouched but for the lapse in judgment that led me to keep reading.


Thank you for my laugh for the day. 
deb


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## Megs (Jan 17, 2010)

Hehehe, no problem


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## JosieGirl71 (Sep 15, 2009)

The worst book that I have ever completed is _White Oleander_ by Janet Fitch. It was not my cup of tea at all.

Someone mentioned a book by Joyce Carol Oates. The only book of hers I have read is _We Were the Mulvaneys_. I loved that book. It was very touching.

I also love the Twilight series. I occasionally read heavy books but mostly, I like to read fantasy, young adult and "chick flick" books.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I had to read _Them_ by Joyce Carol Oates in college. A lit course. . .comtemporary American or maybe just American and this was the 'contemporary' selection.

I didn't get it. And decided I wouldn't read anything else by her ever.

This did not endear me to the professor as Oates was pretty much her favorite author.


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## JosieGirl71 (Sep 15, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I had to read _Them_ by Joyce Carol Oates in college. A lit course. . .comtemporary American or maybe just American and this was the 'contemporary' selection.
> 
> I didn't get it. And decided I wouldn't read anything else by her ever.
> 
> This did not endear me to the professor as Oates was pretty much her favorite author.


_We Were the Mulvaneys_ was hard to to get through but I really enjoyed the story and was attached to the characters. I recommended it to a friend who has similar book tastes and she didn't like it. Apparently the difficulty of getting through it outweighed the storyline because I haven't read anything else by her and probably won't.


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## Carld (Dec 2, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I had to read _Them_ by Joyce Carol Oates in college. A lit course. . .comtemporary American or maybe just American and this was the 'contemporary' selection.
> 
> I didn't get it. And decided I wouldn't read anything else by her ever.
> 
> This did not endear me to the professor as Oates was pretty much her favorite author.


I had a sudden brain twist thinking that Joyce Carol Oates had written the book the giant ant movie was based on.


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