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Original poster

What is the worst book you have read recently and why was it so bad?

361 replies

Miaou · 30/07/2007 20:41

I've been reading light stuff atm and just grabbed this off the "chick lit" stand at the library just before having ds2 - I struggled valiantly through to the end but was really disappointed in it. The story was turgid and predictable, the characters one-dimensional, and I felt that what could have been an interesting story with the potential for some really sinister turns, was in fact incredibly dull. The final "showdown" between the mother and son was jaw-droppingly badly written and really let the whole book down.

However I have had lots of fun picking it to pieces so maybe it was worth it

OP posts:
Slubberdegullion · 31/07/2007 16:24

Autobiography of Ellen Mcarthur.
Can't even remember what it's called.

I will sumarise it for you.

I am in a big expensive sailing boat.
I am very wet, and very bruised and very very tired.
There is some more sea.
Did I mention how tired I am?

hannahsaunt · 31/07/2007 16:22

Mo Hayder's Pig Island was awful beyond belief and had to give up but at least I knew it was meant to be trashy from the outset. Winner of all time has to be White Teeth; nothing has quite surpassed that yet.

hercules1 · 31/07/2007 16:21

I started the memory keepers daughter but found it pretty awful and jumped to the last chapter to see what happened. WOnt read the rest.

bundle · 31/07/2007 16:21

shadow of the wind >

LittleBellatrixLeBoot · 31/07/2007 16:20

I had to read "The Other Boleyn Girl" for my book club recently and ti was the biggest pile of crap I've read for ages

MuffinMclay · 31/07/2007 16:08

Jilly Cooper - Wicked. Could have done with some serious editing, and lots more sex.

expatinscotland · 31/07/2007 09:20

, moony. No, but I lived with a Jewish guy for a couple of years and his mother and I go on like a house on fire.

FillydoraTonks · 31/07/2007 08:55

billy elliot is as bad as it gets really

jodi picoult pales into insignificance

I once ended up reading a lot of jodi picoult when had fininshed my own books on holiday-there was an inexplicable abundance of them on the camp book swop shelves . They ARE strangely compulsive.

I would say the absolutle, absolute worst is that one about the two kids where one of them kills the other. But they are all pretty rank.

Califrau · 31/07/2007 00:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Aitch · 31/07/2007 00:27

whhhhyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

maximummummy · 31/07/2007 00:24

but i did finish it through pure bloody mindedness

and i liked the lovely bones

maximummummy · 31/07/2007 00:22

the memory keepers daughter (as recommended by mum's net)
big disapointment could've been really good i thought BUT it wasn't it was slow and dull

moondog · 31/07/2007 00:18

I laughed in BE.
Am sour old cynic.
He is a bit of a wuss (despite being manly 6 foot agricultural type used to wrestling with maddened bulls)

Funny old world.

Aitch · 31/07/2007 00:17

Har! billy elliott. pleasant enough but another over-rated hit that i didn't cry at.

moondog · 31/07/2007 00:15

He sobbed out loud in Billy Elliott so frankly,wouldn't be surprised.

Expat,are you sure you are not Jewish???

Aitch · 31/07/2007 00:13

find out if he cried, moondog, please. don't divorce him too hastily.
i waited to cry... i wrinkled my nose a couple of times but it turned out to have been in disgust.

expatinscotland · 31/07/2007 00:12

It is tripe, moondog, but I could see where a person could be lead to convince themselves it passes muster if they're stuck on a boat. I felt the same way about 'Moby Dick' when I read it in a stormbound tent. Clarity appeared in the form of clear skies.

Honestly, it is tosh.

moondog · 31/07/2007 00:11

Dh sailing around the baltic at present but will pass on withering comments.

expatinscotland · 31/07/2007 00:09

He probably filed for the divorce. Because I would have if my spouse read that depressing load of steaming dung on our honeymoon!

It begs the question, 'Um, where you the girl at parties who always got drunk and then locked herself in the bathroom sobbing hysterically?'

Aitch · 31/07/2007 00:07

it truly is a wretched book, moony. i am horrified. mind you someone on here read it three times on her honeymoon. i think she was posting on the divorce threads...

expatinscotland · 31/07/2007 00:06

Every copy of The Lovely Bones should be sold with a box of matches and a gerry can of lighter fluid. Because the most enjoyment you'll get out of that book is when you toss it on a pyre.

moondog · 31/07/2007 00:05

Dh just read that Aitch.
He said he quite enjoyed it.

Aitch · 31/07/2007 00:04

couldn't BELIEVE how bad the lovely bones was. that sex scene. ugh. her poor friend.

moondog · 30/07/2007 23:08

OMFG

Dave bloody Pelzer

I spied loads in my cousin's house last weekend. She has Munchausens by proxy and massive 'victim' issues. Why am I not surprised therefore that huge fan of The Pelze???

Tony Parsons is a vile snivelling sorry excuse for a man.Seeing his picture makes me shudder.

electra · 30/07/2007 23:05

The worst book I ever read was "The Lovely Bones". Emotionally manipulative, mawkish and unsophisticated. Yuk.

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