Books We Hate

[FrodoFriend]

Must-not-reads:

1) The Left Behind series - GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! One of the most hideous things I've ever attempted to read in my life!!! Horrible! Manages to make the Apocalypse boring! DIE DIE DIE!!!

2) Anything by Michael Crichton - Especially Timeline! Character development? What character development?

3) Great Expectations - Normally, I love Dickens, but this was just cruel.

4) Moby Dick - Not as bad, but I could really do without those loooong chapters classifying whales as fish and explaining the symbolism of the color white (off topic? naaah)


Well, that's all I can think of . . .

[mirrille]

1) Some of Michael Crichton's stuff is actually not bad. Like the "Andromeda Strain" or even "Jurassic Park" if you can ignore some of the more sensationalized parts, it qualifies as good sci-fi. But "Timeline" was horrible. The whole story was about people running around while depraved medieval people try to kill them. I skimmed the last 2/3 of the book because that was all that was going on.

2) The Cay. I was forced to read this in elementary school. By this time, I had had about as much as I could take of "stranded on a deserted island" stories. The whole story is told by this racist white kid who whines whines whines about/at this black guy who is actually very nice and trying to protect the spoiled brat.

3) Anything by Margaret Atwood. I don't understand why she is so popular here. I can only assume that it is because Canada suffers from a lack of really good authors. But that's hard to believe. I'm pretty sure we can do better than that. Still, why would anyone read her stuff if there is anything else around to read? Her characters are either so confused or so maladjusted or so annoying, you want to slap them all. Well, there was one character that was kind of cool. That was in only one of her books i read. She killed him off. People are not allowed to be sane in her novels.:mad:

4) Beloved by Toni Morrison. I was forced to read this in university. I believe there was a movie made this. In actual fact, the story was not too bad. Or the idea behind the story was not too bad. But the style just killed any interest I might have had. It's one of those books that skips all over the timeline, sometimes several times in the same chapter, without any explanation that that's what is going on. Then every once in a while, it inserts sections of chopped up phrases, which may or may not be punctuated and make no sense whatsoever. This can go on for pages at a time. *shudder*

I might be able to think of more, but the worst ones, i think i've suppressed.

[emplynx]

Originally posted by FrodoFriend
1) The Left Behind series - GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! One of the most hideous things I've ever attempted to read in my life!!! Horrible! Manages to make the Apocalypse boring! DIE DIE DIE!!!

Good books!

[FrodoFriend]

Nooo! You lie!!

Somebody recommended them to me as very good books, and I was just horrified. The characters are so predictable and whiny, and the whole thing is pervaded with a massive Christian Superiority Complex. And the writing is so . . . simplistic. No depth whatsoever. I seriously think it's the worst book I've ever tried to read.

[Kamyel]

The Left Behind books start out a little slow, but they get better the further into them you get. However I'll admit they can be a bit predictable, but over all they're not bad IMO.

[FrodoFriend]

Oh well. Maybe it's just me, but they really made me want to bang my head against the wall in protest.

[Starr Polish]

Mooo...I liked Timeline.

Do not read "Meet the Austins" by Madeleine L'Engle. That is a terrible book. Her others are okay, but I hated this book with a passion (and that's saying something, since I love to read).

Also, why is Tamora Pierce so popular? She's not that great of an author. I read her Lioness Quartet books and they were amazingly BAD.

[Finmandos12]

If you've read Left Behind, read Right Behind. It's a hilarious parody. That said, the series started out good. The last two have just been rather... I don't know, bad.

[Alethes]

Originally posted by Starr Polish

Also, why is Tamora Pierce so popular? She's not that great of an author. I read her Lioness Quartet books and they were amazingly BAD.

I haven't read the Lioness Quartet, but I have read some of her other books. The Circle of Magic series was pretty boring. I used to like the Protector of the Small series (despite the obviously feminist message). However, in the third book, the main character's mother began to blatantly encourage the main character to do something that I feel is morally wrong. It was very obvious that Tamora Pierce agreed with this activity. I don't plan on reading any more of that series, or any more books by that author.

Other books I hated:

The Cartoonist (by Betsy Byars): It's been a while since I read this, but I remember that it was depressing and pretty dumb.

Children of Time: Almost every character gets killed off, and it is implied that the ones who don't will live a pretty depressing life.

Flowers for Algernon: I didn't finish the entire book, but I have had it described to me and I know the ending. Why anyone would want to read a book this depressing is beyond me. Also, I wasn't too thrilled with some of the underlying themes.

[FrodoFriend]

Originally posted by Finmandos12
If you've read Left Behind, read Right Behind. It's a hilarious parody. That said, the series started out good. The last two have just been rather... I don't know, bad.

LOL! The Left and Right Behind . . .

[Starr Polish]

Flowers for Algernon made me cry. I like depressing books once in awhile, I just get in the mood for a good cry, but I don't read them all the time :) I like to be happy. Tamora Pierce is just...not a good author.

There aren't many books I hate though, so I may not be able to contribute to this thread much more. :)

Oh yes. The Scarlet Letter. I hated that book with a passion. Not so much the story, but the way it was written. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a horrible writer...our English teacher pointed out a sentence that was nearly a paragraph long, and the language was terrible (not as in...swearing, just badly used)

[FrodoFriend]

LOL, yeah, Polish, the so-called "interrupted sentence". We studied that one in detail. I liked the ending of SL though, it was touching.

[Starr Polish]

I suppose. I didn't like Dimmesdale though. He was kind of...meh...weak, in my mind, but not. It's hard to explain.

[gdl96]

Oh yes. The Scarlet Letter. I hated that book with a passion. Not so much the story, but the way it was written. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a horrible writer...our English teacher pointed out a sentence that was nearly a paragraph long, and the language was terrible (not as in...swearing, just badly used)

Amen.

[Twilight]

I remember being forced into reading the scarlet letter. I think that the length of the book could easily be cut in half, if not more, and still retain all of its meaning. I dislike books where you can read entire pages, and no new information, insights, or plot is given. To many authors just go on and on about nothing.

[Sakata]

-scarlet letter
-Death of a salesman
-and both were young
-plain truth
-red tent
-The Lord of the Rings -jk :D

[Twilight]

Right now, my organic chemistry textbook. I would burn it if it wasn't worth a hundred dollars.

The three musketeers. That book was really bad. (the movie was very good though)

The Man who was Thursday - the ending had no meaning at all. I had to read it for class. Most of it looked like it was going to be good, but it sudenly got strange in the last few chapters and made no sinse at all.

[Laurelyn]

Yeh . . . Tamora Pierce's lioness quartet was TERRIBLE! And I love books, I love to read, and whatnot, but those were just bad.
I didn't like the war of the worlds either . . . don't ask me why not . . .

[Alethes]

Basically anything by Edgar Allen Poe. I know some people like scary books, but I despise them. I tend to remember things that frighten me for a really long time, so it's not a good idea for me to read scary things. I've read several of the "Great Illustrated Classics" versions of his stories, and all but one scared me to death. (The pictures didn't help much. I could have lived a long, happy life without seeing a picture of a man getting bricked into a wall to die.)

I also dislike certain myths (especially Norse ones) for similar reasons. In one Norse myth I read, a man killed the two sons of the evil king and queen. Then, he made a necklace for the queen out of her sons' eyeballs and drinking cups for the king and queen out of the sons' skulls. Once the king and queen learned about this, they went mad. And they all lived happily ever after. :rolleyes:

There's a really dumb sci-fi book called "Away Is a Strange Place To Be". It tried to take themes like child slavery (some aliens had human children for slaves) and incorporate them into the book, but the book just ended up being incredibly stupid.

I didn't like A Wrinkle In Time either. It's been several years since I read it, but it creeped me out when I did.

[Liviaine]

I'm being forced to read The Cay for a school assignment. I don't like it.

After my dad finished Moby Dick, he said, "Herman Melville sure needed an editor." I mean, it was a great book, but it went on about some things forever.

There's some more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

[FrodoFriend]

A Wrinkle in Time . . . I remember when I first read that, the part with all the balls bouncing exactly in time together scared me. I love Poe though!

Don't really like Kurt Vonnegut either. I'm sure his books have many meaningful messages about society & stuff, but they're just weird and confusing to me.

[galadriel88]

Last year, my teacher read us 3 books, all by the same author, about survival. They got on my nerves! One was about a boy who went skiing and got buried in an avalanche. I forgot how long he survived, but his brother found him eventually. Then there was one where a boy was driving in the woods and went off a cliff. His leg got trapped under the dashboard, and after several weeks, he pried it out, climbed up the cliff, and got picked up by a trucker. the last one was about a boy in Scotland a long time ago who went on acargo ship that crashed. He was the only one who survived. He lived on an iceberg for like, 3 years before a passing ship picked him up. They were all very predictable, and I couldn't stand them!

[mirrille]

Yes yes!
:mad:
That happened to me too. One year, I had to read "Island of the Blue Dolphins" about a girl who gets abandoned on an island when the rest of her villiage flees. The year after it was "The Cay" with the racist whiny brat. Then it was "Banner in the Sky" about some kid who tries to climb a big mountain, so it's all about not freezing to death and not falling down a crevasse. Then it was "Lost in the Barrens" about 2 kids who (surprise surprise!) get lost in the barrens somewhere in Ontario.
And they wonder why kids aren't reading!:rolleyes:
I've had it with survival stories.

Another thing. Do not read "Gulliver's Travels". The superior European attitude of the narrator is really too much to take.

[Starr Polish]

Island of the Blue Dolphins is a good book! :P :D Well, I liked it. I cried when her dog died.

Hoo boy, I don't know how I'm going to get through LOTR without flooding my house!

[mirrille]

Scott O'Dell is actually not a bad children's authour. He has a very simple, clean style of writing, and his historical fiction is typically well researched. I've read lots of his other stuff.
but the solitary survival theme was getting on my nerves.

[Vanimdil]

Well, this may be weird, but I absolutely hated Gone With the Wind. It's interesting and well written but Scarlett O'Hara grated on my nerves like the scream of a Nazgul. :D Normally I'm a very peace-loving person but about half way through the book I was ready to karate chop her. Three fourths through the book I quit because I just couldn't stand her any longer. She was so deceitful, narcissistic, cruel, manipulative, controlling.....Argh! Hmm, I discovered that I feel very strongly about this. :D But I mean after all a HEROINE should have at least a few GOOD qualities, right?

[Starr Polish]

I hated it the first time as well.

I've read it, what seven times? It's fun to hate her though. I know I shouldn't, but she is only a book character. The second book kind of 'redeems' her character.

[mirrille]

Really?
I liked her. Not because she had a sweet personality or anything because she didn't, :D but because she was a tough person who always concentrated on what needed to be done, and went and did it while everyone else just kind of sat there and complained. And then treated her badly because she couldn't keep them fed/alive and be nice at the same time. Her only really annoying feature was her obsession with Ashley Wilkes, which led to some of her only major bad decisions. If it wasn't for him, she would be really cool. I like resilient people. But she is in no way a sweetheart. She's not even nice, but she doesn't deliberately hurt people for fun either. It's kind of like that. I'd say as a heroine, her redeeming quality is in her ability to bounce back after any setback, definitely not in her people-skills, because she's really bad at that.
Trust me, it's even more annoying reading about deceitful, narcissistic, cruel, manipulative, controlling people when they do all that and are still failures (memories of high school english classes :p )

Sequels written by other people long after the real author is dead as a cheap cash grab are evil evil bad bad bad! They are not what the author intended. I'd put them on the same level as fanfics, only fanfics are not intended to make money, so they're alright. The only way I'd agree with these fake sequels is if I know that they were written from the real creator's notes. i.e. a novel they couldn't finish before they died, but the notes or half-finished story was complete enough for someone else to put it together and be reasonably faithful.

[Starr Polish]

Hmm. Good points you've got there. I hated Sue Ellen more than I hated Scarlett, but Scarlett is a manipulative little girl. I understand that she was set in hard times and such, but some of her choices were horrible. I guess I'd have to say that most of the bad choices were because of Ashley Wilkes, but how could someone be so childish over a man?

Meh, maybe it's because I haven't 'loved' before, but I was infatuated with a friend of mine for nearly three years, and I never resorted to her ways. :D

[mirrille]

True. She was VERY childish over Ashley Wilkes. I suspect because her troubles started when she was 16, and therefore pretty much a child as far as love was concerned, she was unable to act mature later when it mattered. The war was on and she just didn't have a chance to grow up emotionally. As a businesswoman, she was superb, but the social conventions of the day meant she had to go through less...conventional routes - hence the manipulation.

I think the contrast between Scarlett and Melly was perfect. They complement each other well. They are each something that the other would like to be, because they both have their opposite strengths. But Scarlett reacts to it with envy, Melly with open admiration. In a way, that's the big tragedy of the story.

I love that book, up until the part where Bonnie dies. It's just too sad after that. It's like watching a house that you built so lovingly in the process of tumbling down. Everything can still work out up to that point, and then it all comes apart. It's painful to read.

Suellen was what Scarlett would be if she truly only cared about herself (I think Scarlett cared about her friends and family, she just showed it by trying to look after them because that's what she understood) and was much less mentally tough. She is annoying.

[bropous]

Flowers for Algernon was a fantastic book, Alethes. You should have finished it. I can understand not liking Edgar Allen Poe, though, since his works scared you so much. I found him quite an interesting writer. Stay the heck away from H.P. Lovecraft! But oh, you start slamming Norse myths and you get my Irish up! I absolutely LOVE all the Norse myths, the Aesir are absolutely fascinating. Methinks, if you like LotR, you might give the Norse myths a re-read. As for the tale of the cups from the son's eyeballs, I have yet to run across that one. Sounds more like something from Greek mythology. I love all mythology, even Hindu mythology. I can't understand why someone would like the mythos of Middle-Earth, and not like other mythologies.

I agree, Starr Polish, I despised The Scarlet Letter. I hated it so much that for the thesis paper I had to write I used selective quotes to prove Hester Prynne was involved in lesbian satanic rituals at night in the woods, then playing the innocent victim in court. I also despised my English teacher at the time, and wrote that just to make her squirm. I didn't give two hoots for grades, obviously.

I'm not familiar with the "interrupted sentence" FrodoFriend; is that something like verbum interruptus? ;) Anyways, I agree on Vonnegut, I find him overrated, the only book by him I could read was Slaughterhouse 5.

LOL, galadriel88 and mirrille, sounds to me like your teacher forced you to read True Life stories from Readers Digest!

As for books I really hated, any book forced on me I really despised. So, in the "hated it" category:

"A Light in the Forest"; "Great Expectations"; "The Crucible"; "Moby Dick"; Billy Budd"; "Silas Mariner".

I also despise any works by Shakespeare, 'cause I read his collections in the third grade on my own and hated 'em [yes], any works by Henry Miller, any works by that idiot who wrote "Death of a Salesman", and any works by Tony Morrison. I hated the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R Donaldson (after I read them), can't stand any Stephen King book [overrated], or any book my elder sister recommends!!!!!!

[Starr Polish]

That's a whole lotta hate, bropous.

I liked Great Expectations when I read it in sixth grade, but having to read it again in ninth grade was incredibly redundant, and since I already knew what was going to happen, I just breezed through the stupid story. I would have to disagree about Shakespeare though, I am quite a fan :D I especially like " A Midsummer's Night Dream" and hope to play one of the characters in it (the short one...can't remember her name for some reason) in it one day (kind of a 'dream' of my own). Iambic pantameter, indeed!

Some of Poe's work is amazing, and I love it, but "The Fall of the House of Usher" was pretty horribly written, I think. Also, my English teacher put some pretty morbid pictures of the Usher siblings relationships in our innocent (hah!) minds.

[bropous]

I gotta admit, Starr, I didn't care for "Usher" either.

[mirrille]

I have a problem. I have not liked a single one of the Shakespeare plays that i have either read or seen performed. Not one! I'm sitting through class reading Othello thinking "man! this guy is stupid! Iago is the only semi-intelligent character in the story" Through Macbeth, it's "This guy is an idiot. He may be really good in battle, but his mind is so weak." Through "A Merchant of Venice" it was, "I wish Shylock COULD get a pound of flesh from Antonio. The man is an arrogant, despicable prick who thinks he can treat people like dirt. Antonio would deserve it."
Yeah. I was annoyed with all the characters that i was supposed to like, or feel sorry for. As for the comedies, like Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night's, and so on, I was just apathetic. Personal taste, but it is unfortunate that Shakespeare is so emphasized, because we don't get much choice to do something else. I just thought through high school that there must be something wrong with me.:rolleyes:

[FrodoFriend]

Awww, I like Shakespeare! At least, the dramas, not the romances or comedies so much. Julius Caesar and Hamlet are both great.

Bropous - Must agree on Great Expectations and Billy Budd!! Seems like Dickens and Melville just had a "who can use the most words to say the least" contest there!

Speaking of interrupted sentences, we had to write one in english for some reason; as I recall, it was at the beginning of the year, at the time when cross country was still going on, and I was extremely busy trying to get situated in Honors English III; the class being full of people older than me was a bit unnerving, especially since my friend dropped out the first week, plus band was grating on my nerves as it has been doing all year; and a hot guy sat next to me in class; i had a crush on him, but he never looked at me twice, which is all right because he turned out to be rather a jerk, and his interrupted sentence wasn't half as good as this one!

LOL, Nathaniel Hawthorne would be proud of me.
Speaking of, I rather liked the Scarlet Letter, especially the ending.

[Starr Polish]

I don't know, I may have liked the ending if Dimmesdale wasn't such a jerk. He got on my nerves from the start. I just couldn't shake off how much I hated him. I think I hated him more than Chillingworth!

[galadriel88]

Well, bropus, the first book she read to us was kind of interesting. But after that, they were all basically the same story line - probably b/c they were all by the same author. :rolleyes: but I kinda like the True Life stories in Reader's Digest - they aren't predictable, really, and tend to keep me on the edge of my seat!

I found Much Ado About Nothing in my history teacher's classroom, and started trying to read it, but it got too confusing. I'm so not used to 17th century England language... :confused:

[sun-star]

The most fun thing about Shakespeare is decoding it, when you go "yes! I actually understood what that meant!". It makes me feel all clever.

Anything where the author uses twenty words where two would do irritates me. Actually, the last book I really hated was Women in Love. Everyone else seems to like it but it drove me crazy. It had no character development, in my opinion. Perhaps I just didn't understand all the long words :(

I also don't like Margaret Atwood, or any of those books they make you read at primary school about issues. When I was that age I just wanted a story.

[Alethes]

Originally posted by bropous
Flowers for Algernon was a fantastic book, Alethes. You should have finished it. I can understand not liking Edgar Allen Poe, though, since his works scared you so much. I found him quite an interesting writer. Stay the heck away from H.P. Lovecraft! But oh, you start slamming Norse myths and you get my Irish up! I absolutely LOVE all the Norse myths, the Aesir are absolutely fascinating. Methinks, if you like LotR, you might give the Norse myths a re-read. As for the tale of the cups from the son's eyeballs, I have yet to run across that one. Sounds more like something from Greek mythology. I love all mythology, even Hindu mythology. I can't understand why someone would like the mythos of Middle-Earth, and not like other mythologies...

"A Light in the Forest"; "Great Expectations"; "The Crucible"; "Moby Dick"; Billy Budd"; "Silas Mariner"...

I also despise any works by Shakespeare, 'cause I read his collections in the third grade on my own and hated 'em [yes]

Some of the Norse myths weren't bad, like the one about Thor's stolen hammer. I just got sick of the horrible punishments given to people. I'm pretty sure the "cups from the son's eyeballs" story was Norse; I think it was called "Nidud the Cruel". I can't remember the name of the book with the story in it; it was something generic like "Myths and Legends" and it had a lot of myths from different cultures. I love most Greek mythology, although even that sometimes has stories I don't like, such as the one with the man who was turned into a stag and killed by his own hunting dogs because he saw Artemis bathing.

Does H.P. Lovecraft write books that resemble Poe's books? I've heard of him, but I don't know what he writes.

Is "A Light in the Forest" a story about King Arthur and his knights? I think I read a book by that name that was about the search for the Holy Grail, and I was wondering if it's the same book.

I've never read a real Shakespeare play in full, but I have read "modern-day" versions with the real text on the left page and the modern translation on the right. Some I didn't like -- I couldn't even get through King Lear -- but others I really enjoyed, namely Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth. I don't know why on earth I like Macbeth, since everyone dies, but oh well. Othello has always sounded interesting, but I've never read it.

Starr Polish, I think the name of the short character in Midsummer Night's Dream is Hermia. I like her character, but I'd rather play the other girl, Helena :D. We read that play (the easy version) in English last year, and we got to read parts of the play out loud in class. I got to play Helena during the scene where Lysander and Demetrius were both in love with her. It was quite fun. :)

[Starr Polish]

Well, I'm short, so I'd be more likely to get Hermia (thanks for giving me the name!)...And I love her line "For once I have not a thing to say!" Bwhaha...so me.

[Laurelyn]

I also got the survival- book overload in school. We read Hatchet, which was an okay book, but then after that our teacher made s read the two sequels as well. Neither of the sequels were any good, IMHHO. Then we read this other book called Adrift (or something like that) which was awful, pointless, confusing, and after a while it got so predictable that I almost wrote my book report w/o finishing the book. :(

[IronParrot]

I think Shakespeare is studied because he set so many firsts, and has been given apt time to be overanalysed to death. I respect his work more than I like it. I quite like A Midsummer Night's Dream, though.

What books do I hate?

The trash being passed off as "literature" that blasphemously tarnish the sacrement of the Star Wars logo.

It's scary that the publishing industry has sunk even lower than that... now we have Doom, Starcraft and Battletech "novels"? Thankfully, they don't touch something that has a truly sweeping foundation, like the Star Wars films. The amount of paper being wasted on this talentless commercial ****... if only the environmentalists knew the true cause of the destruction of the rainforests.

God I'm glad my nine-year-old brother got hooked on Rowling and Tolkien nice and early. I see reading Roald Dahl to him at the age of two helped set him on course.

[ryan]

I hate all books, books are bad.

[RosieCotton]

You hate all books!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!
Thats really sad, you're missing a lot.

Jacob Have I Loved was the worst book ever
Island of the Blue Dolphins was bad

As for Wrinkle in Time, I loved that book
Michael Crichton: Jurassic Park was good, but I haven't read Timeline yet.

Anyone read The Hot Zone? Thats a good book.
~Rosie~

[Alethes]

Originally posted by ryan
I hate all books, books are bad.

You must have an awful life. (just kidding :D) Did you like LOTR?

I almost forgot about Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. The first half of the book was pretty boring, but then came the surprising part of the plot. After that, the book wasn't boring, but it wasn't really fun to read because the characters almost had to go on trial (and would have been convicted), but escaped at the last minute. The book was told from the point of view of one of those characters, so it was told very realistically, with lots of details about how the main character and her husband felt when certain things happened. The book was so realistic that I could picture everything happening -- the villain's triumph, the hero's despair, etc. I didn't like thinking about the horrible predicament of the narrator's husband. In the end, it seemed as though the villain had won after all.

[CardenIAntauraNauco]

Medea... It's a grecian classic but honestly I hate books(or plays in this case) that end that way. I can't stand greek Tradgedy. I enjoy a few sad things in a book, but the Hero should always have won SOMETHING by the time the end comes around.

[Starr Polish]

I actually liked Island of the Blue Dolphins. AND I like SOME plays that end where the 'villian' seems to have won, because too often in real life it seems that way.

[CardenIAntauraNauco]

In Medea, Medea's husband leaves her so she gets back at her ex-husband Jason by burning Jason's bride to be. the Father in law tries to rescue his daughter and is burnt and is disembowled in the process. She then hunts Jason's two children (who are also her own) and kills them by stabbing them. She then esapes . Like I said I enjoy a little bit of tradgedy. Not sensless stupid tradgedy like Medea

[mirrille]

I don't like stuff like that either. I felt sorry for Medea, except that she goes way too far. Of course there's no excuse for going nuts and killing everyone in a jealous rampage, but there's no excuse for Jason to be such a prick either. I don't like stuff where everyone (heroes and villians) is equally annoying. I like there to be at least one admirable person.

[Khadrane]

Sounder. That book stunk. It was boring. I hated it. I also hated Anne of Green Gables. It was retarded. I hate more books, but I can't think of any at the moment.

[Earniel]

At school I always had to read those depressing books, books about young boys dying of aids, books about children being sold during a war, books of people who found out that their life generally sucked and that the had no purpose in life, books of people who get suckered into neo-nazi-groups,.... When we asked for some less depressing books the anwser that we got was: "Real life isn't all fun and games, there's a hard and cruel side to it too." As much as I respect that view I just can't stop wondering that we only had the cruel side of it. Since then I have a distinct dislike of books that don't end well.

[Khadrane]

Frankenstein. That was seriously the worst book I ever read. It was so boring. They spent like three pages talking about how they ate dinner and one measly paragraph on how the monster came to life.

[Radagast The Brown]

I hate the books of Amber. they're so boring! I read the first and it was the most horible book I ever saw!

[IronParrot]

I think Medea is a highly overrated Greek tragedy that doesn't even fit into the mold of a Greek tragedy very well... the role of the Chorus is not as well defined, and Medea herself is not a tragic character tormented by fate and the will of the gods like Oedipus or Agamemnon, but a villainess. I don't feel that there's much to sympathize about her, and furthermore, Euripides' play itself has little sense of closure.

Of course, I don't quite hate it. "Hate" is a word I reserve for all the merchandise disguised as literature on today's shelves.

[bropous]

Well, after having Greek tragedy rammed down my gullet for so many years in school, I may be able to identify main themes and structural norms, but as far as ENJOYING it, I'd rather have a root canal.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Heart of Darkness Argh! I couldn't stand that book!!! Not that I finished it. . *shh! don't tell the Humanities teachers!* I know there are a lot more books I cant' stand, but I'll spare you the details. Oh! That "trashy romance novel" I had to read for Women's Studies. Now that was bad! Well, duh.

After being in Electra this past fall, I am not particuarly fond of Greek Tragedy. Maybe if I give it a few years, I can learn to appreciate it once again. But I loved Antigone!!!

[snoopy]

I have never been able to get in to the red wall series. No matter how many times I trie i usually end up being bored out of my mind.

[FrodoFriend]

I liked Heart of Darkness. Am I destined to like books everyone else hates? :confused: But seriously, that's a great book.

I never got into Redwall either, snoopy. Just seemed boring.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Well, I do know a lot of people who liked Heart of Darkness. That's fine, I just happened to not like it. I never got in to Redwall either, the anthropomorphic animals were driving me crazy. I would have liked them if the characters had just been human.

[BeardofPants]

Judith Krantz, and all historical romances! Bleh. And I still don't like Terry Brooks.

[mirrille]

Well, I really like Heart of Darkness and I think that Joseph Conrad is an absolute genius. But I can appreciate that it's not for everyone. I really like his writing style because I find the way he forms his sentences to be very intense visually and emotionally. But it's just this kind of writing style that makes it really hard to get into at first. It's almost like...it takes a while to get into the rhythm, and once you do, you get sucked in. But if you can't, you won't have a clue what he's talking about. So that's why some people love it and some hate it. This is only my theory.:)

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
Judith Krantz, and all historical romances!

I can't stand them either!!!! Oh, wait, I have only read one, and it was an assignment (yeah, I go to a really wierd school) but it was still terrible. *shudder*

Good theory, Mirrille. I know lots of people who don't like it, and lots who do. :)

[FrodoFriend]

The movie based (loosely) on Heart of Darkness is really, really good too. It's called Apocalypse Now. If you haven't seen it yet, go rent it!

[Khamûl]

Has anyone tried to read Catch 22 by Joseph Heller? I tried to read it twice and never got past page 75. It bugged the stew out of me how he would start an idea and never finish it. Like that one dude and the crab apples in his cheeks. I never really understood it. The only reason I tried to read it was because I wanted to know what a Catch 22 was.

[FrodoFriend]

Yeah, I tried Catch-22. I almost finished it, but then stopped about 50 pages from the end. It was confusing as heck! He kept switching people and jumping around in time. And the thing about the army cook controlling the whole country's market really confused me. Oh well, someday I'll try again and maybe it'll make more sense. :confused:

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by FrodoFriend
The movie based (loosely) on Heart of Darkness is really, really good too. It's called Apocalypse Now. If you haven't seen it yet, go rent it!

I REALLY want to see that!!!!!! Renting it, right now! :)

[BeardofPants]

Apolcalypse Now is a great movie!! And Martin Sheen is amazing in it!

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
Apolcalypse Now is a great movie!! And Martin Sheen is amazing in it!

Yay! Martin Sheen!! :) Anyone here watch 'The West Wing?' I LOVE that show!! :D

[RosieCotton]

I love West Wing! (Well, actually, I love Josh, but I love West Wing too!)
Rosie

[FrodoFriend]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
Apolcalypse Now is a great movie!! And Martin Sheen is amazing in it!

Yes! Martin Sheen kicks butt! Is it just me, or is the scene where he's coming out of the swamp and his face is all painted and he's on his way to do Kurtz in REALLY COOL?? For once a movie really captured the heart of a book - the heart of darkness itself. :)

Plus it's got a ceiling fan at the beginning. Ceiling fans are cool (Bladerunner is another good movie with a ceiling fan). They deserve more attention! Revolving is hard work, you know. :D

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by RosieCotton
I love West Wing! (Well, actually, I love Josh, but I love West Wing too!)
Rosie

Hooray! More West Wing fans! :) I might have to start a thread in the entertainment forum. .. :D

[Jadera]

Hmmm.....Maybe I should try watching the West Wing. Sounds like a pretty good show, from what you guys are saying. (And may get me out of my Invisible Man slump. Ack on Sci-fi)

The worst books I can think of right now are Harriet the Spy, which was majorly depressing, and The Man in the Iron Mask, which was also depressing. (The movie was okay, I'm a Jeremy Iron fan:D )

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by Jadera
The worst books I can think of right now are Harriet the Spy, which was majorly depressing, and The Man in the Iron Mask, which was also depressing. (The movie was okay, I'm a Jeremy Iron fan:D ) [/B]

Hey! I liked Harriet the Spy! :mad: :)

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

I liked Harriet the Spy as well, but that's okay :D

Yes, Jader, do start watching West Wing, it's really good! Martin Sheen for President! :)

[Jadera]

The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles was a horrible book, now that I think about it. I couldn't even finish it, which is strange for me. Julie Andrews/Edwards is good author though, her book Mandy was fantastic, I'd reccomend it to anyone. :)

And biographys. I can't stand reading biographys, for some reason. I like doing reports on them even less. I might read J.R.R Tolkein's though. :D

[emplynx]

Originally posted by mirrille
4) Beloved by Toni Morrison. I am having to read this for Honors English "Summer Reading". Naturally because I am being forced to read it I hate it, but I would hate it anyway. The style is puke!! I just finished Section One...

[mirrille]

emplynx,
I feel for you...
:(

[Willow Oran]

::cowers in a corner:: People are so judgemental about books it's scary. Just because you don't like a book or a style of writing doesn't mean it's a bad book. And before you go around saying that it's a horrible book you should stop to think about how you can say it so that you don't make people who feel otherwise think badly of themselves for reading and liking it. Especially when you didn't finish the story. I personally have never come across a book that I truly hate. There have been books that I wasn't particularily interested in or that I thought were boring the first time I read them and I have to admit that Lord of the Rings was one of those books. Then I re read them this last year when the movie came out and I found that I was now old enough that I could understand what was going on and what they were about and because I was older I found them much more enjoyable. And I've found that that holds true for many books. So before you decide that you hate a book, it's best to forget about for awhile then go back and read it again when you've grown a little. And if you still hate it. Then it's safe to say it's a bad book, but chances are you'll understand it better and it won't be quite so hateable.

[Draken]

Catch 22 is a brilliant book - it aims at (and hits) so many targets, all done with wonderfully understated black comedy. And I was surprised to find that the film version does (I think!) a good job of conveying what the book is all about.

[mirrille]

Originally posted by Willow Oran
So before you decide that you hate a book, it's best to forget about for awhile then go back and read it again when you've grown a little. And if you still hate it. Then it's safe to say it's a bad book, but chances are you'll understand it better and it won't be quite so hateable.
:p Alot of it is personal taste, but it's also true to say that just because something gets published, doesn't mean it's good. ;)

[Erawyn]

west wing west wing west wing!!!

i really didn't like the Chrysalids! i really thought i would especially cuz of the whole anti religion aspect (sorry!) but i found it really dry and we analyzed it to death which didn't help (english class) i know there are more cuz i read a lot but can't thimk at the moment!

[Willow Oran]

Of course it doesn't mean it's good. But Just because a few people don't like it doesn't mean it's bad either. It is as you said personal taste.

[BeardofPants]

If you want bad, try "Red badge of courage." Ergh. While every other class was fortunate to study shakespeare - we got lumped with some bullshit patriotic war novel. :rolleyes:

[mirrille]

Yup. I just wanted to point out that not everything that gets published is what you could call quality. After all, there is such a thing as a trashy novel. Now, to be fair, alot of the stuff listed here is "classic" in a way, so somebody must have liked it enough to put it into the curriculum. But just because someone published it doesn't mean it can't suck. :p Fake sequels are particularly bad, I find.
Oh yeah. And Beloved: neat premise, neat characters, yucky style, disasterous delivery. When you look at it, the story isn't actually bad. But the writer just tried to be a little too fancy and the convoluted style actually gets in the way instead of enhancing the story.
BoP,
Patriotic war stories can be so tiresome, it's true. For every genuinely good one (and there are some out there), there must be a hundred that are boringly propaganda-ish.

[Handmaiden of Yavanna]

"Bridge to Terebithia" *shudder* I HATED that book it was stupid and pointless and I can't believe everyone of my friends loved it!! Ugh makes me sick!!!

[Shadowfax]

Someone I know recommended Judy Blume to me and I read half of one of her books - "Summer Sisters" I think. Worst book I've ever tried to read. Horrible writing style, and the content isn't exactly that great either! I felt like it was an adult book, but the reading-level was about grade 3! ICK! Never read Judy Blume!

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
I felt like it was an adult book, but the reading-level was about grade 3! ICK! Never read Judy Blume!

Hate to break it to you buddy, but the reading level IS about a grade 3! :D I really enjoyed her books when I was 7 or so... :p

[Shadowfax]

Originally posted by BeardofPants


I really enjoyed her books when I was 7 or so... :p This book I don't think was meant for children. It said it was a New York Times Bestseller, or whatever. It full of sex and stuff, so I think it was meant for adults.

[cassiopeia]

I thought Judy Blume was for about 10 -15 year olds. It is full of that puberty stuff (boy and girl things :rolleyes: ) I think I read some of her books when I was about 13. I think teenagers would like that kind of thing, I know I did. :D Did you know all that stuff when you where seven, Bop?:D

I hated all the books they made me read at school, except that tomorrow when the war began series, they were good.

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by cassiopeia
Did you know all that stuff when you where seven, Bop?:D

Errr. :o Mostly: and you can blame that gawdawful show "Eastenders" for lifting the sweet little innocent childhood blinkers! :mad: :eek: But actually, I was thinking more along the lines of "Superfudge" rather than, "Are you there God, it's me, Margaret"....

[Lizra]

I think "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath was the one that made me thrown down my hands in disgust and vow never to waste my time with someone else's mucky mess. That book is so depressing! I hated the Scarlet Letter too!

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

I read about half of "The Bell Jar," and I liked it, though I thought it was incredibly depressing! Lizra, have you read any of Sylvia Plath's poetry?

ooh, I hated The Scarlet Letter!!!

[Lizra]

I must have, I can't remember it now tho. I just hate that angst filled stuff, I have so much real troubles to deal with! I can't remember Sylvia's stuff. Do you like it?

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

I do like her poetry, but generally I kind of like that awfully depressing, angsty stuff. It's pretty disturbing, though.

[Rei]

Books I hated...well, though they are few and far between here is my list of books that stink

The Great Gatsby
By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
I'm sure I'm going to get yelled at for that one but I just couldn't get into it. It was so...boring.

The Lord of the Flies
By: William Golding
Ick. Another one I was forced to read in school. AM i going to get yelled at for this one too...

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

I won't yell at you, Rei, but I will politely disagree. I loved both those books, even though I had to read them for school :)

[Katt_knome_hobbit]

I hate the book I'm reading right now. "All the Presidents Men"

My mom is making me read it. Blah! Politics!

[Rei]

I've never read the book but I've seen the movie and that was pretty good!

But I have come to the conclusion that I want to live where you do!

[galadriel]

I think you either like The Great Gatsby or you don't. It's a matter of connecting with the characters and the plot, because the writing style isn't the can't-put-it-down type.

As for Lord of the Flies, I saw the movie and thought it was at least interesting, but I never actually read the book (shh! don't tell my english teacher!! it was the end of the year, and I knew we weren't going to have a test....)

My own list of stinky books:
A Walk to Remember - All of my friends loved it. It was the blandest, most melodramatic excuse for a novel I've read for a while. If I wanted a cheesy romance with one-dimensional characters, I could've just watched a movie.

Centennial by James Michener - Reading it right now for AP history. This is kind of unfair, since it's very well written, and has some really good parts... but as a whole, it's much more boring than his other novels.

The Stranger - Wait, I take that back. It's an amazing novel. Everyone should read it once. The concepts are so... massive. But it's also boring as Hades in some parts, because the main character has a pointless life, and the writer does a very good job of demonstrating this. If I ever had to read it again, I'd die.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

ooh! The Stranger! I love that book! But I don't think I'll be reading it again for a long time...I've already read it twice (for school) but that was enough for now :)

[Renille]

MY list of bad books-

The Jungle- Upton Sinclair. It's okay at the beginning, and some of the themes are powerful, but by the end, the story is a BIG ad for Socialism.

I can't think of more right now, but I'll edit this later.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by Renille
the story is a BIG ad for Socialism.


*mischievous grin*
So? :)

[BeardofPants]

You should know better EG - socialism is EVIL! ;) Of course, you Americans are the biggest commies I know. :p

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
You should know better EG - socialism is EVIL! ;) Of course, you Americans are the biggest commies I know. :p

Um. . .no we aren't :p
But there are quite a few things I could say about our government, and especially the current administration, that aren't exactly. .. flattering ;)

[Lucy Brandybuck]

Has anyone tried to read Catch 22 by Joseph Heller? I tried to read it twice and never got past page 75.

I have tried once a year for the last three years and I just can't do it!

[Willow Oran]

I just remembered, there is a book that I can't stand anymore. The Mists of Avalon. It took a perfectly good legend and turned into a horrendously long melodrama containing everything from murder and incest to betrayal and kinslaying. It ruined the characters from the Arthurian Legends. But what I really hate about it is how it emphasizes all the bad points of catholisism. A lot of people I know say that it's really good and I thought so at first when I read it and then came the movie (which was true to all the objectional bits of the book) and the story was subjected to the critisism of my family who were quick to point out just how corrupt the story is. My advice is, don't read it. If you want to read a really good version of the Arthurian Legends then read the Pendragon cycle by Stephen Lawhead. It's a bit slow to start with but once you get into it it's very well written.

[mirrille]

Another good one is the Mary Stewart trilogy, starting with The Crystal Caves. But it is something to remember that the Arthurian legend IS full of murder, incest, betrayal, and kinslaying. It's not a proper Arthurian story if it doesn't have at least three of those four. :rolleyes: It's a very dramatic story.
It's odd. I've read alot of Arthurian fantasies over the years and I've never yet read one I didn't like. Except maybe Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" series, but I think that's just because I didn't get it. :p

[BeardofPants]

Ack. There was a REALLY bad one that I read when I was a kid. Can't quite remember what it was called... Something like, Yankee in Camelot? :confused:

[mirrille]

A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, perhaps?
Never read it.:p I think I saw a movie of it, but don't remember much.
But it's Mark Twain, isn't it? He almost...doesn't really count.:) haha!

[BeardofPants]

YES! That's it. :) I vaguely remember how he used his knowledge of an eclipse to freak people out. Very, very bad.

[Draken]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
You should know better EG - socialism is EVIL! ;) Of course, you Americans are the biggest commies I know. :p

Reminds me of Iain Banks' rationale for the Culture in his sci fi novels - he said he wanted to create a futuristic communist utopia just to irritate his American friends!

Like your current signature btw, reminds me of two things I like (Pink Floyd and parachuting!)

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Willow Oran-I read the Mists of Avalon about five years ago, and then it was one of my favorite books. Now, I can't stand it, but possibly because I read it three times? Perhaps I like the fact that it was from the perspective of the women. Now i just find it boring. But I still like some of the characters; like Vivian, the Lady of the Lake. Okay, I only liked her. And I think she was a creation of Marion Zimmer Bradley, rather than part of the legend. Unfortunately, that book was my real introduction to Arthurian legend, causing a very biased view of the story on my part. Anyway, I don't like it much anymore, but I did back in 7th grade. . .:eek:

[Celandine]

I liked a lot of the books i have read except for ones that I was assigned

[Sylvee Estel]

Originally posted by Rei

The Lord of the Flies
By: William Golding
Ick. Another one I was forced to read in school. AM i going to get yelled at for this one too...

I just had to read Lord of the Flies this summer for school. I HATED it. It was wwritten well and everything, and the whole little symbolism moral thingie was kinda cool, but I still HATED that book. It was depressing, it was DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, I get a little carried away sometimes...lol.

[Pippin'sGirl]

Jaws. It's the only book I've ever read, where the MOVIE was better

[BeardofPants]

Jaws, huh? Yeah, the book *was* pretty bad.

The wheel of time series. I've only read the first one, but ever since, I've been giving the rest a wide berth - and to think that I gave precedence in my reading order to that pile of guano over the Sil. :rolleyes:

[Archbob the Elder]

I enjoyed moby dick although I didn't like writing about the symbolic meaning in it in an essay. That book is difficult to understand on a deep level.

[mirrille]

I read Moby Dick WAY too fast and didn't understand what was going on, as a consequence. Didn't make much impression on me. :p

[Mithrea]

I really only have one:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

When I was in High School, after we finished with this book, many of the students ripped their books into shreds and lit them on fire. I didn't do that, but I did despise the book :p

[silmälasi]

i´ll have to say that the most hideous thing that i have ever read is narnia .the firs three book are okay but as the numbers get bigger the quality of the narrative drops below par.especially the grotesque finale with its christian allegory is just too much to bear. i have read somewhere that j.r.r. did not think highly of narnia and i have to agree.

[cassiopeia]

. i have read somewhere that j.r.r. did not think highly of narnia and i have to agree.

But he was a good friend of CS Lewis. I suppose it could be true. I havn't read Narnia for years.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned these but I used to read The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley series. I still have lots of those books. I used to like them, but now I think they are so so bad.

[BeardofPants]

Well, I never sunk as low as Sweet Valley High, but I must admit to reading the Babysitters Club when I was a wee lass. :o :eek: My favourite character at that time was Kristy. :D

[cassiopeia]

I learnt a lot about the USA from the Babysitters club. Kristy was good, I hated Mary Ann, what a cry baby. Claudia was dumb (she was!) I can't believe how much I remember!:o :eek:

[BeardofPants]

But Claudia had her own telephone, and Mary-Anne had a boyfriend! :eek: Aw c'mon, they weren't nearly as annoying as Stacy, or Dawn... (Methinks I remember too much as well...)

[cassiopeia]

But Claudia couldn't spell! Mary-Ann had a cute boyfriend, Logan wasn't it? Stacey and Dawn would only eat healthy food (Stacey had diabetes). Oh, that Mallory was a geek. She had an Australian boyfriend who talked funny and said Maths and had weetbix for breakfast.:rolleyes: I think I better stop this now......

[BeardofPants]

Yeah, and Dawn was a stereotypical healthfreak/californian, and Stacy was a stereotypical/NY shop-a-holic. And Logan was from Louisiana... :eek:

[Diaxion]

I would have to say:
1)The tripod sereies
2) the red keep

[Starr Polish]

Sweet Valley High, I only read one, but I used to be obsessed with the Babysitter's Club. Later on, I read the California Diaries. Those were actually kind of decent, but there were discrepencies (like Dawn hoping some of her clothes looked leather...wait, isn't she a vegetarian?)

[Sylvee Estel]

I used to love Sweet Valley and Baby-sitters Club. Now I also don't like them. Baby-sitters club was better than Sweet Valley though.... Yuck!

[Elenka]

I have to agree about the Baby-Sitters books. I was really into em, but, looking back...They really suck

[tulc711]

Anything by Terry Brooks is unreadable by me.

[Sylvee Estel]

You don't like Terry Brooks?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?:eek: :eek: :eek: OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that! I love the whole Shannara series!!! Okay sorry bout that little outburst, everyone has different tastes, so I guess that's your opinion...:)

[BeardofPants]

Bleepin' plagiarist.

[FrodoFriend]

Originally posted by Diaxion
I would have to say:
1)The tripod sereies
2) the red keep

You don't like the Tripod series? I admit the main character isn't so great, but the story's still cool!

[Blackboar]

Whats The Cay about?
In school we have to read a book called The Black Fox. I can't remenber who wrote it but is was ssooooooo boring!!!:o :o :o :o :o

[crickhollow]

The Cay is about a racist little white boy who is blinded during a shipwreck. He and Timothy (a black man) are stranded on an Island in the Cays.
Timothy dies, boy learns to survive on his own, boy is rescued.

The end.

[elendili]

I hate all the english lit books i've ever had to read especially Goodnight Uncle Tom and To Kill a Mockingbird

[Khamûl]

Why were you reading 'To Kill A Mockingbird' in English Lit? It was written by Harper Lee, an Alabamian. Unless 'English' means the English language, not the country.

[Blackboar]

All the books we have to read are soooooo boring!!!!!
We have to read like a 100 page one for 1 1/2 months!!!!

I usually bring in another book and hide it behind the other one and read that!

[sun-star]

Why were you reading 'To Kill A Mockingbird' in English Lit? It was written by Harper Lee, an Alabamian. Unless 'English' means the English language, not the country.

It generally does in British schools. I'm studying 'A Streetcar Named Desire' for English A-Level, which is can hardly be called an English play :D

Why is it that reading a book at school makes you hate it? I had to read 'Memoirs of a Survivor' last year, and I wanted to tear the book apart page by page half the time :mad:

[Wayfarer]

I really hated all frank herberts books.

[BeardofPants]

Boo Hiss. Heathen. :mad:

I can now safely say that I hate "Fingerprints of the Gods." Ai. Moronic co-workers lending me flaky tomes to read. Argh!

[Diaxion]

Well these are books that they made me read at school so If your woundering why I read these is because they were for school and I did not want to fail.
In order of most hated throughout grade school and eary high school.
1. Red Keep
2. A Door in the Wall
3. I heard the Owl call my name
4. April morning
5. The Last Silk Dress
6. Tuck Everlasting
7. A house on Mango Street
8. Walking across Egypt.

[durin's bane]

"Cowboys Don't Cry" by Marilyn...i forget: A very weird and a bit graphic book. Discriptions of wounds and stuff... It's about this boy who's mother's dead, his father is out of work and is an alchoholic...and it mainly just goes through the kid's life being 14. Not really much plot or a certain problem...just a bunch of everyday life scenes thrown together and called a book.

"Deltora Quest" by Emily Rodda: Well, not exactly a "hate" but a "dislike". A bit of a rip-off for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. A bit boring after a while and cheesy endings. No real character develope meant and after a while, you can't even tell what's going on because either there's too much description or too little, and plenty of corny violence. Their not one of those books that you'd enjoy reading over again.

[Evenstar1400]

where the red fern grows.... it was too sad.... and i love dogs.... so i couldnt stop crying!

[durin's bane]

Barney's Manners...

[Aralyn]

Oh Brother Barney's manners?:rolleyes:
I don't like Madeliene L'engle's book at all but I won't say anything bad about them because my whole family likes them.

[Admiral Ackbar]

1) Dune: House Harkonnen. Possibly the second worst book I've EVER had the displeasure of reading. He died? Wow. I saw it coming FIVE FRIGGIN CHAPTERS AGO.

2) Anything by Marianne Brandis, particularly Fire Ship. This woman is not a Canadian author, she is a literary abomination.

3) Most Star Wars EU novels, particularly the X-wing series and New Jedi Order. This crap isin't cheese--its Lindberger cheese.

4) The Chrysalids--don't even try to defend this one.

5) The Pearl, by Steinbeck. Not all that bad, but a boring and relatively flat/depressing book.


Ackbar

[Aralyn]

The last Silk Dress is a GOOD book. I love Rinaldi's writings.

[Baby-K]

Setting Free the Bears & The Water Method Man - both by John Irving, I was very disappointed as I loved the World According to Garp & A Prayer for Owen Meany (both of these rate in my top 10)

[Silverleaf]

I didn't like Izzy Willy Nilly (or however you spell it) nor Ransom by Lois Duncan

[wahine]

Anything by Hubbard. His books got SOME rave reviews, so I suppose I'm a heartless bashturd.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Not a book, but it might as well be!! Surely the Grateful Dead of literature—goes on for far too long and only sounds good when you’re stoned.


Robert James Waller - The Bridges of Madison County
OK, an obvious choice. But it truly is one of the worst things I’ve ever read.

Margaret Laurence - The Stone Angel
This “classic” of Canadian literature is about a cranky old woman named Hagar who is dying. She hates everybody and everybody hates her. Thinking back on her life she realizes she’s treated everyone who ever cared about her like ****. She feels bad about it, but not really. She especially regrets lying there like a dead trout during sex with her husband because, although she pretended she didn’t like it, she really did! Back in the present she runs away and hides in some seaside shack. A seagull dies, which is, like, heavy symbolism dude. Eventually she dies. The reader rejoices.

Octavia Butler's -Clay's Ark
The book is set in the not-too-distant sorta-apocalyptic future. An interstellar probe called Clay’s Ark returns from its mission to a faraway planet only to bring with it a terrible plague which turns people into super bad-ass freaks. At first the plague is contained to a small ranch on the outskirts of L.A. But because the infected feel the need to pass on the virus (preferably through sexual intercourse) the residents kidnap a doctor and his two teenaged daughters. Things quickly deteriorate and the book concludes with some a 30-something getting it on with a 15 year-old, some gang-rapes, gun fights and a be-heading. And oh, yeah...then the world is consumed by the plague. Marvelous!! If Butler wasn’t a woman you might accuse the book of being misogynist. But she is, so I guess we’ll just have to settle with calling her a talentless hack.

That's it for me.

[Fili]

Mabye Many Waters by Madlen L'engle

[elvendrummer87]

i think madeline lengle had alot of off days. i loved a wrinkle in time and that series, but all her other books stink!!!

sounder by i-forget-who: it was terrible! i was made to read it in fourth AND sixth grade! the dog gets hurt, the humans are mistreated... terrible...

the old man and the sea: how in the world did THAT thing get to be a classic?! he's fishing;he's eating;he's fishing'there he goes fishing again; hmmm, let's catch some more fish 'cause i don't think we've described FISHING enough already! Geez!!!

across five aprils: yuck! it was SO BORING!!!! and what is with the grammer?!

grapes of wrath: .............snore...............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzz...............................

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Definitely agree on the Grapes of Wrath! ych!

Right now I'm really not liking Democratization and Expansionism. . .so very dry, I'm afraid. . .this be the problem with big research projects. . .*sigh* :rolleyes:

[Aeryn]

Nearly anything by Shakespeare, he was an ill-tongued fiend.

Can't understand the SoB.

[Starr Polish]

Thou speaketh blasphemy! This maiden doth profess her love of the Old Bard. ;)

[Aeryn]

Thou shutteth upeth or though must dieth at the handseth of me-eth...like. ^_^

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I can only think of one book I really hated. "The Crystal Star". Don't remember the authors name. One of the Star Wars books. It was awful.

[Aeryn]

I thought George Lucas did Star Wars...could be wrong....

[Gwaimir Windgem]

He did the originals, but there have been tons of books by other authors since.

[Starr Polish]

Basically published fanfiction. Bleearg.

[Belle]

'Amsterdam' by Ian McEwan was soooooo pointless I cannot believe I took time out of my life to read it.

[sun-star]

Originally posted by Belle
'Amsterdam' by Ian McEwan was soooooo pointless I cannot believe I took time out of my life to read it.

I haven't read 'Amsterdam' but judging by some of his other books, I agree with you :)

[Belle]

Thank you Sun-star, McEwan is so over-rated. none of his books have been very good.

[Ninquelote]

Do you know what books I hate? The Wheel of Time series. They just go on and on. And people even think they're better than LoTR.

[BeardofPants]

I read the first one, and gave up on them. I can't believe there are people out there that swear by them!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Damned books! ;)

[Willow Oran]

You know what I really hate, Shakespear ADAPTATIONS, not the original plays but horrible manglations of them. In drama right now we are committing the most abonimable atrocity against shakepearian literature that you can possibly imagine. Our teachers are forcing us to put together a... a highschool adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Admittedly the script has turned out much better than I thought it would, at least it's amusing, but they wrote it using a combination of modern english and shakespeare's words and some of the people in our drama class, are not particularily competent with such things... it's gonna be an interesting production to say the least.

Back on topic: I have decided that David Copperfield is one of the slowest moving books in the history of the world. It's lovely writing but the plot moves at a snail's pace and the characters are either truly annoying, truly boring, both, or trulty loveable but don't have large enough parts to save the story from the other types of characters. Even the most depressing parts of the Sil are easier reading than that book.

[Aralyn]

Unicorns of Balinor are kind of annoying.

[elf queen]

Stones in Water was the worst book I have ever finished.

[Elf Girl]

Never, EVER read the self published 'The kingdoms of the Elves and the Reaches' or 'Ruin Mist'. My god, they are awful. The good reviews on Amazon are the author's friends.

[zinnite]

Although I love Clive Barker (or used to, since I don't really read him much these days), I think Galilee is, um... not very good at all. It is silly and boring.

Johnny Tremain - I was forced to read this in 7th & 8th grade. Utterly excrutiating. I remember the only part I liked was, after the bandages had been removed from his burned hand, his fingers had healed together and he had a fin or flipper instead of fingers. I loved that part.

Anything by Dickens or Poe. Blah. And Nathaniel Hawthorne.

[LutraMage]

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy was over hyped and over rated :mad:. I gave up about a third of the way through book three.

At first they seemed quite good, if a little quirky. Then, towards the end of book one, it all seemed to go awry. I perservered with book two, but got more and more agitated as he seemed to just throw things in without any real thought, as if he was making it up as he went along and was just desparate to put something unusual in to keep it moving.

Poor writting, poor story, poor everthing - and yet people raved about it. I think it was 'emperor's clothes' the hype kept saying they were epic and brilliant, so everyone had to keep finding something 'epic and brilliant' in them. Won't touch his stuff again with a barge pole.

[Starr Polish]

"The Bluest Eye"...can't remember the author, for some reason. Toni Morrison? That doesn't seem right.

I HATED that book...it switched around without explaining and though I know it was supposed to be sad, it didn't bring any emotion from me at all. Huh..

[IronParrot]

I gave up on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time after Book Seven, when I realized that it wasn't just a coincidence I tended to fall asleep during his several-hundred-pages-long drivel sequences. The more I think back to when I read them, the more I want a refund those weeks upon months of reading time.

[Elenka]

My friend's friend's gave her the first Wheel of Time book for her birthday. Over the next two months or something, she read them all. Her friend actually thought she'd like them more than Tolkien!! As if!

Book I hate: Robinson Crusoe. God this, blah blah blah. Thank the Lord that, blah blah blah. My stupid slave worships me, blah blah blah. Urgh.

[Sheeana]

I'm so glad I was lucky enough to realise that the first WoT book was complete drivel. I feel for those people who are still waiting for the next books to come out.

[Macka]

I hated the Hardy Boys books. Read one(didn't read it all, just lied about.:p ) , , but I can't remember the name of it. Very very boring, that's all I got out of it.:eek:

[hectorberlioz]

no. 1. boxcar children.
no.2 harry potter.
no.3 those wierdo authors who try to be romantical by calling thier books things like: "moronic chocolate"

[Ruinel]

I absolutely hate, without any doubt, Moby Dick.

[hectorberlioz]

I'll tell you whats worse. IVANHOE. so boring.
Ilike classics, but ivanhoe is just...it has a good story, but the wy its written is horrid!

[Sheeana]

Originally posted by Ruinel
I absolutely hate, without any doubt, Moby Dick.

hehe. I tried reading that when I was 11. Only got about half way before giving up in disgust. :D

[Elfhelm]

Might I suggest you try it again after some years have passed?

I love Melville. I love the way he bubbles over and exagerates everything.

Is it that people think ALL books are supposed to be easy like Harry Potter? If so, I hope they will consider that the words of the current sentence are the most important ones, not the ones from later in the paragraph or the paragraphs later in the chapter. To extend that ... it's like food. If one thinks only of eating the entire piece of pie, one might lose her only opportunity to savor (savour) the morsel that is presently in her mouth.

That's the trick with poetry and poetical writing such as Melville. Being forced to read anything for school tends to dissuade one from savoring the beauty before one. One must give in to pleasure to enjoy it, otherwise it is just sensation.

[Elfhelm]

I really do not like Robert Frost's poetry. I don't know. It just sounds too slick and perfect. I want rough and jagged, I guess.

[sun-star]

Originally posted by hectorberlioz
I'll tell you whats worse. IVANHOE. so boring.
Ilike classics, but ivanhoe is just...it has a good story, but the wy its written is horrid!

I agree about Ivanhoe. I wouldn't say I hated it, but I couldn't get more than a few chapters in, though I was determined to like it. I might have to try again soon - normally I love literature from around Scott's time.

[Evenstar1400]

i read this really bad book for a book club... called....um.... oh yeah
The Enchanted Castle. i cant remember too much about it but it was so unbelievably boring it wasnt even funny.

[hectorberlioz]

yeah i think i'll try to re-read it myself, sun-star, when i can tolerate sitting and not having to be busy with other stuff at the same time.