Worst Book?

My diary.

1984

I wouldn't say it was the worst but I was really disappointed by it and it just seemed dry and boring. I still appreciate it though.

Dexter in the Dark

Old Man and the Sea. That's at least an hour of my life that I'm never getting back.

Fight Club, bar none.

...

the book thief by marcus zuzak is the worst book i've ever read. had to read for 10th grade world lit class. absolute worst book. i got so mad i punched it and threw it at the walls. fucking most pretentious and annoying writing

Tie between two graphic novels, UXB and Ricky Rouse Has a Gun.

Terrible Art+Terrible Writing=Atrocious Reading

This. I made it to like the last chapter and dropped it.

What didn't you like about it?
Old Man is one of my favorite novellas

...

Eragon

You sound autistic.

>being on Veeky Forums
>calling other people autistic

might as well just call me a college-aged middle class white guy

Can't read

One of those I don't remember desu

Gardens of the Moon. Shit is fully retarded.

this

It's one of my fave books, as well as his book "I am the messenger." How was it pretentious?

Ubik.

Uses plot devices to excess and I know this is a bad argument but I truly think it applies to this book is overly complicated without saying anything

We read it in school once. Just everything is shit.

Mary Barton. Had to read it for a history class.

Agreed, and I love PKD. Ubik is massively overrated.

Came here to say this.

>The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
Murakami needs to learn how to write.

Book 6 of Stephen King's The Dark Tower followed by Book 7 of Stephen King's The Dark Tower

The Sun Also Rises

Why didn't you like it?

why didn't you like it?

Lots of people being edge lords.

Worst book of all time. Ella enchanted.

So. Fucking. Bad.

Read it in middle school for our reading class. It still hurts.

being assigned The Alchemist in Senior English was pretty bad

I hated the short and choppy sentences. That writing style worked a lot more in The Old Man and the Sea where it makes a sort of thematic sense, being that you're dealing with the inner turmoil of a single older man who is going to be thinking in that kind of way.

I didn't find any of the characters the least bit interesting, nor did there seem to be any kind of drama or conflict. Immediately when you're shown any of the characters you know exactly who they are as people, which only feels like the same boring, monotone, copy-and-pasted character, but I think that just might be my problem with the writing style here again.

There's more, but I think you see my point. It was a miserable read, but I enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea a lot, which I had read prior to The Sun Also Rises, so I at least intend to take a look at one of his war novels and maybe some short stories in hopes of finding another one that I like.

I just couldn't make myself care about the old man. There was absolutely nothing, no deep insight, no new way of thinking, nothing that held me to the book and whatever it was supposed to stand for. And if the book was supposed to be one big allegory for something, damn if I could tell what it was.

Interesting, I've never heard of King being on a high school curriculum. What else did you read in school?

I thought the beginning was interesting, but it was so incoherent and poorly written I had lost all interest by the end and finished it purely to say I read it.

My vote goes for Year of the Flood. Super disappointing, dry, and pretentious

I was supposed to read that book, as well as joy luck club, gatsby, catcher, and others but the principle of reading a book on a deadline was gay so I didnt. Only book I actually read for a class was A Clockwork Orange, and I still got an A every year

Not that guy, and I wouldn't call it pretentious.

But the fact that you have two plot-driven middle school quality novels as your favorites is pretty weak, user.

>he doesn't get the metaphor
Dude, its basically spelled out in the first 10 pages. The Old Man is a relic of the past. He's immensely skilled, he has tons of knowledge, but the world is moving on, and his abilities are no longer relevant. See: El Mar vs La Mar comment
Even when he uses his skills to the best of his ability, almost kills himself, and gets lucky to boot, it doesn't matter. He hauls in a huge "eshark", but not only does he not have anything left to sell by the time he gets home, nobody but the Boy recognizes that he's done anything worthwhile. See: couple thinking it's a shark
He tries to connect to the present and keep up appearances (thinking about baseball, talking about the food he ate) but he can't even do that too well. He thinks of talking to baseball players about bone spurs instead of the game, tells the same transparent lie every time he's asked about food.
He belongs in the past, and his existing in the present is just unfortunate for him and everyone else.

...

Honestly, just poorly written in every way. The author was extremely hamfisted with his approach and the moralizing got old really fast. There is more nuance in your average Huff Post piece. It certainly wasn't saved by the quality of the prose either. He is trying to be the retard's Rushdie but doesn't even rise to that level.

I actually haven't read anything since middle school because I've been crippled by anxiety, I jut meant I remember enjoying those books when I was still able to enjoy things. Thanks tho

I had pretty high hopes, but who the characters were stopped making any sense after they leave the planet

Did they kill the AI family in the end?
Was the female assassin real or a program?
Does it matter?

> haven't read anything since middle school
> when I was still able to enjoy things
> because I've been crippled by anxiety

Stop jacking off so often and get some sun

What the fuck?! How was that not blindingly obvious. Ok, well shit that does make sense. I'm really trying to remember the class now, and at no point do I recall my teacher framing it this way. What if every classic I hared was just taught by shitty teachers? I wasn't going to figure this book out at 14 without guidance.

That book is not even close to the same level as other well known classics. How will you ever become a cool edge lord hating on books that everyone agrees are terrible?

No idea. I honestly got to the point of not caring. I just wanted to finish it so I could say I finished it.

>What if every classic I hated was just taught by shitty teachers?

[spoilers] They probably were [/spoilers]

wew

I highly recommend re-reading fiction you may have "hated" (or skipped altogether) in high school and middle school

Why else would they be teaching high/middle school "classics"?

Thanks, I plan on doing so. I've always found classics to be more enjoyable when read outside the classroom.

not trying to >meme the Wolfe or anything but, A Borrowed Man

The MacMillan excerpt was so fucking promising--what a concept! I mean, read this: us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9780765381149 and tell me you're not fucking interested. It sounds like it could get all identity concerned, or post-modern playing with the idea of authorship, and then I'm not kidding, every single thing after that is completely worthless writing. Just nothing develops on that idea [I put the book down after 100 pages, it's possible it does but why slog through a horizontal text], or in any idea in general except for narrative progression. The two fucking characters' relationship doesn't even build during this time, the action is blurry and unclear--fuck man, depressing that such an idea was wasted.

It was my first delve into his work. I still want to give him a shot some time.

i've never read this book, but i've heard similar views depicting it as awful. given that it's YA movie-tier trash, i'd agree. however, what specifically don't you like about it?

Second worst book I've read was American Pastoral. That shit was terrible. Was that the wrong Roth to start with? Some okay language, brief moments of, 'oh this is somewhat compelling' that immediately wind into fulsome narratorial diegesis. Probably is redeemed after page 200 but I only made it into 100 pages of this as well.

pleb

pleb

pleb

Please tell me why A Borrowed Man is a patrician book. I am genuinely interested if you are willing to explain that to me.

The Rum Diary or 3001: The Final Odyssey

My mistake. Ignore what I said I only meant to reply to the first guy.

Solid answers.

Personal worst is Ready Player One. I've read some mediocre stuff but that's the only book I've ever thrown away immediately after reading. And I wish I had done it sooner.

Have you read two books?

Disliked as well...esp when one character threw up in another character's mouth. Or did I misinterpret that...and Pynchon lost over coprophelia!!!!

I've read more than two books.

I don't know how much you know about the book, so I'm goint to give you some context before I say what I dislike about it.
Basically, the plot is that the city where the book takes place is divided in five factions, and when one is 16 years old, one must decide in which faction they want to live (literally leaving their family if they want to live with other faction if not the one they've grown up with).

The main character, Tris, leaves her faction, then the whole book is her initiation or something like that. She is also divergent, and that is basically a plot element Veronica Roth uses to justify half of what happens on the book.
So the reasons why I dislike this book
>a) how repetitive it is
I mean, the main character spends the second third of the book almost kissing a guy but 'nonono I don't know if he likes me' and that teenager relatable bullshit, and the rest of it kissing the guy.

>b) how terribly dumb the main character is
I mean, the point of she being divergent apparently is that she's not tied to any faction, like a normal human being from the real world, but she has to be told how she's different from the rest of the other characters all the fucking time, and it's basically almost the same dialogue, someone telling her that something happened because she's divergent and nobody can know about that, otherwise she'll die, which is part of the book being repetitive.

>c) uninteresting writing
I literally texted some random shit trying to immitate Veronica Roth's writing style when I was like 100 pages in to a friend of mine and I was asked if what I wrote was taken from the book or if I had actually written it. This friend of mine already read Divergent, btw. But I don't know if this point is completely valid since I've read a translation of it.

I can develop a little deeper on those points if you want me to, I can also point out other things I didn't like about the book, but I'm kind of tired now

I don't think I made it that far.

The master and margarita
Ulysses
Lolita
As I lay dying.

All beyond shit tier

Easily this. In HS I dual enrolled at our local community college and took an "American Lit" class taught by a guy who used to play for the Harlem Globetrotters in the 60s. His favorite book was The Wizard of Oz, which we read aloud in class. We also read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Child 44 aloud too, to give you an idea about the class.

The absolute worse book though was pic related, book 1 of The Mysterious Gems series: The Black Ruby, written and published by none other than my prof himself. Pretty much just take every fantasy trope you've ever read and combine them all into one book and give it the writing level of a 13 year old writing fan fiction and you've got this. Also, the book's claim to fame is that it is written entirely in the active voice, which my prof drew great pride from. It was also $20 and we had to buy that shit ourselves. And read it aloud as a group. Anyway, a few selections from it

>"Hesitating, the messenger lowered his head again. With a strain in his voice and fearing the queen’s anger, the soldier barely looked up as he spoke. “Yes, your majesty! The king’s last words ‘Mascara … he said... said ... said ‘Mascara ... Mascara’ before he fell over, dead.”
"The queen trembled, her hands shook wildly.... Her expression changed – a look of horror, worst than death, plastered her face."

>“The Black Ruby, a highly polished crimson orb, displayed startling beauty. Although large, it seemed weightless in Rachel’s hands ... it began to glow a deep blood red ... A voice inside the ruby, almost inaudible, whispered, ‘Fear not; fear not.’”
“You have awakened the powerful protective spirit inside this magical jewel; it recognizes you as the rightful owner .... Rachel’s sense of intrigue with the stone grew, even more so when she noticed inside the jewel crooked lines the queen could not explain.”

>"Inside the tattered cloak, Mascara had long, stringy fingers; hooked nails mirrored her crooked feet and claw-like toenails. The witch’s shadowy arms and legs extended outward from a formless body, a black mass devoid of shape and texture. Her shape wiggled in constant motion, as if swaying against the wind. Her skull eyes, iridescent green, dominated the witch’s face. "
"No other physical features appeared on her face, just her glowing green eyes cast against a background of blackness, a fiendish apparition. Her skull-shaped eyes glowed intensely, molded into the stark blackness of her face. Mascara’s hooded robe, shredded and tattered from head to hem, showed generations of wear. But her shadow did not always reveal her form to unsuspecting people or creatures."

What are your favorite books? What do you like to read?

I read all sorts of pulpy trash when I was kid. Before I was even into my teens my mom would buy me 'adult' books at library sales or used bookstores. Most of them were pretty good, some were amazing, and I don't want to be ungrateful to my mom, but some of them were quite bad. Stuff like Dean Koontz, or the novelization of "The Sixth Sense." I don't even remember all the titles, like this crime thriller about an amnesiac FBI special operator (not Bourne) who gets tricked into killing people by these black gangsters. There's a scene that has a narrated soundtrack: two FBI operators driving in a corvette stingray with "Taking Care of Business" by BTO playing. . .wew.

I only remember it because it was so bad and it also had rape in it. I also read this one when I was somewhat older about mercenaries in Africa that was "so bad it's good" tier. This one mercenary is beating his native wife and the white female POV character intervenes, and he only agrees to stop beating his wife to death if the white woman sleeps with him, and she agrees and immediately starts to enjoy it while the native woman slowly bleeds out. I think even at fifteen I questioned the psychological realism of scenes like that.

Gene Wolfe wrote some of my favourite stories but also some of my least favourite.

In recent memory, Farenheit 451.