The worst book you've ever read or had to have read

Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Ivy.Mane, Sep 1, 2007.

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  1. tksmith

    tksmith New Member

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    Franz Kafka "Metamorphosis" Great writer, great thematic refence to its time but boring as boring gets
     
  2. Mistyunion

    Mistyunion New Member

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    Ravenmaster's Secret. Boring! I had to read it to get into a reabing book battle on those books but that one was soo horrible. I have no clue why...
     
  3. kehl

    kehl New Member

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    I think answering this question relative to its fame would be an easier task because if we included grocery store romances then we would all have the same answer.

    I would say Harry Potter, and Catcher in the Rye.

    Harry Potter was predictible and trite. The characters and the plot were so contrived it was unbelievable how popular the book was.

    Catcher in the Rye wasn't badly written I just could never, even after countless arguments with my English teacher, figure out what the point of reading it was. I felt like a book about my life would have been infinetly more interesting than the story of some kid who does uninteresting teenage things.
     
  4. Soul2377

    Soul2377 New Member

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    I don't think I ever had a bad book. But if there were any that I've never finished, it will be 'A Murder is Announced' by Agatha Christie.
    I know Agatha Christie is awesome in crime writing and she was named the Queen of crime, or something of the sort. But it seems like crime wasn't and still isn't my type. I get bored fast and predict the killer before I finish. It's a good book, for those who like crime.
     
  5. eclecticism7

    eclecticism7 New Member

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    I know it's considered a classic, but Robinson Crusoe. I struggled through about a quarter of it, put it down, started again two years later, got a third of the way through, still couldn't figure out if there even was a plot, much less what it was, and threw it out. Maybe I was only 11 and 13, but I read and loved The Lord of the Rings when I was 12, and have been reading (and if not loving, at least understanding) Dickens since I was nine, so it was really frusterating that I just didn't get it.
     
  6. pink.tea.in.the.cup.

    pink.tea.in.the.cup. New Member

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    The Twilight series, especially breaking dawn.
     
  7. Ti Odio E Ti Amo

    Ti Odio E Ti Amo New Member

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    The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I understand it's literary merit and I respect this work, but I personally didn't think the speaker was believable. There's a point when a character becomes to passionate and then can be viewed as being fake.

    His style wasn't so hard for me to understand- almost as an early stage of stream of consciousness- and that's actually what I liked the most, even though lots of people have issues with it.
     
  8. Ti Odio E Ti Amo

    Ti Odio E Ti Amo New Member

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    Oh yeah, and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I respect how deep his book is, but I couldn't stand it. I just wanted to throw the book out my window sometimes.
     
  9. DarkwingSpurgeon

    DarkwingSpurgeon New Member

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    lotr

    not my thing

    silmarillion though is perrty good.
     
  10. Mike Nemesis

    Mike Nemesis Active Member

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    A kestrel for a knave for English back at skool, it was torture haha glad to be free of it. I can understand some people may like it but not for a school class!
     
  11. Dermit

    Dermit Member

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    I'm a dire hard fantasy fan, and I can stomach almost any depths the genre can sink to (I'm looking at you, Harry Potter), but The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson was a simply horrible series. They came very highly recommend and have great buzz online, so I went in with high hopes.

    Within the first twenty pages, the main character rapes a 13 year old girl. The rest of the books were an exercise in tedium, and I read them for the exclusive purpose of either watching the main character die hideously, or finding out that first sequence was some kind of dream. Neither happened. I realize there is something to be said for an antihero, but there is also something to be said against a thousand pages of a whiny, pathetic MC who refuses to develop. I cannot stress my hatred for these books enough.
     
  12. David Hazeel

    David Hazeel New Member

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    The Silmarillion collection by Tolkein was a real trawl for me. I really enjoyed Lord of the Rings and the majority of the other books associated with it, but this one left me with a headache after reading it.
     
  13. mutants vs. vampires

    mutants vs. vampires New Member

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    New moon by Stephenie Meyer. I haven't read many horrible books, but there is just barely anything to be like, "I love this book!" Edward was her soul. And Bella just sat there day after day, doing nothing but mope.
     
  14. de la vega

    de la vega New Member

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    The worst book I have ever read would have to be The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. You can't go an entire page without reading something contrived or cliched in his writing. He is rivaled only by Dan Brown.
     
  15. j.nocera

    j.nocera New Member

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    I try to keep an open mind when I read and even if I don't get a book or necessarily like how it's written, I try not to say that it was awful, but. . . when I was in 5th grade (yeah, forever ago, so the fact that the name of this book is still with me shows just how terrible it was), I had to read a book called Go and Come Again. It was absolutely awful. The only book I've ever read that honestly made me want to cry just out of quality of material.
     
  16. The Absurd Dimension

    The Absurd Dimension New Member

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    Romeo and Juilet. Give me a break. It's the biggest piece of pointless melodrama ever written. Shakespeare in general is the number one most overrated author of all time. How he still is a household figure after 400 years is still one of the world's greatest mysteries, even greater than stonehedge or Atlantis.

    Also. Perks of Being a Wallflower. The author (his name I forget) should be sued by Salinger for plagarism.
     
  17. PrincessGarnet

    PrincessGarnet New Member

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    What? Shakespeare's brilliant. Have you seen any of his plays? Plays are meant to be performed not read. I have to say though romeo and juilet isn't one of my favourite.
     
  18. Kratos

    Kratos New Member

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    I've read some of his plays, but it just seems to be purple prose. You can read a one or two sentence summary of each scene and get the story.
     
  19. The Absurd Dimension

    The Absurd Dimension New Member

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    I've read a few of his others too and I didn't find them anything special. Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Ceaser and some of Hamlet.

    And yes, I have seen his plays before and I didn't like it. I will say that in general I don't like plays anyway. Too often in theater the actors and actresses have a tendecy to over act and play their parts to the point where it fails to ressemble how any actual human being would act and comes off completly over-contrived.
     
  20. sharp_quill

    sharp_quill New Member

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    I had a series of books I was working through called the Sword of Truth. The first book was excellent, the second tied directly into the previous plot...and the next book...and the next book. I don't recall the title of the offending book itself, it was the 4th or 5th in the series, where an 'evil, powerful spirit' had taken over the body of...a chicken. I thought 'you have to be freakin kidding me'. but I kept reading, figuring that detail will work itself out. then the MC's grandfather, who happened to be the best wizard on the story, sent him most of the way back across the continent to the grandfather's tower to break a specific trinket he had. Up to that point magic had been a very intricate undertaking and the MC even questioned him if that was all he had to do. After he left, the grandfather says 'now that he's out of the way, we can handle this evil chicken thing!'....I threw that book across the room.
     
  21. kehl

    kehl New Member

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    People always be's saying "No one would act like that in real life." Well it's not real life, it's a performance. If I wanted to be entertained by what real life people do i'd just ride the city bus all day.
     
  22. Baywriter

    Baywriter Contributor Contributor

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    Twilight and anything else by Stephanie Meyer. Hands down.
     
  23. Acglaphotis

    Acglaphotis New Member

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    Have you read "The Host"? My friends say it's pretty decent.
     
  24. CDRW

    CDRW Contributor Contributor

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    Dude, you're missing the point. That's like saying Metallica are bad musicians because they don't sing properly.
     
  25. Xelothen

    Xelothen New Member

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    The Awakening by Kate Chopin. That book had to be one of the worst. Ever.
     
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