To ask what is the worst book you ever read?

[Joey1471]

And why

I would say mice and men , had to read it for my GCSEs , so boring

How the dead live by Will Self. I bought it years ago as a pretentious 21 year old. It's completely unreadable. I strongly suspect Will's other novels will be the same.

The Death of Bunny Monroe by Nick Cave. As an obsessive Nick Cave fan I had massive hopes for this book, but the characters were so unrelentingly awful. It starts off with the protagonist masturbating at his ex wifes funeral and goes downhill from there...

Wuthering Heights. I couldn't finish it. Really don't get why it's such a classic. Again just awful, utterly unsympathetic characters.

I read absolutely loads of books (15 so far this year), and have read most of the books on this thread. I read what I think was my least favourite book ever last year, based on a recommendation on here; step forward If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino. Hideous. He might as well have written LOOK HOW CLEVER I AM! and just left it there.

Agree with Ulysses and Jane Austen.

I'm surprised Marian Keyes' hasn't appeared yet. Watermelon sticks in my mind as being spectacularly shit. I've not attempted any of her other books though, perhaps they're all of equal quality. I realise I'm in the minority though.

A suitable Boy. I did my best to finish it but failed.

There are lots of books I've enjoyed less than others, but I've had to make a decision to stop reading the books of two authors.

The first was James Patterson. I liked his first few books, but his writing got darker and darker, and it was always, it seemed to me, about the brutal and sadistic killing of women. I started to think that if someone could write like that, they could think like that, and I didn't want to read their books.

The second is Martina Cole. Much the same reason. I liked a couple of her books, but Goodnight Girl was so detailed and graphic, unnecessarily so, that it felt almost voyeuristic and seedy just reading it.

I've read so much crime fiction by so many authors, with really detailed descriptions of crimes and murders, bodies and crime scenes, and I've never felt like those books have made me feel. They're just...off, IMO. So I won't read them, because I don't want that stuff in my head.

The worst book I’ve ever finished is Digital Fortress which is Dan Brown’s first novel. For all the people on the thread who’ve nominated The Da Vinci Code; imagine how bad he was before he’d spent several years and three novels practicing. That said, although the prose and the fact checking/use of research are properly atrocious, I was never tempted to give up - he’s nailed the mechanics of getting you to keep turning the pages so I can see why he gets the big bucks.

Worst book I’ve ever re-read is Wuthering Heights, which I read multiple times at school and then again as an adult for personal interest. Poorly constructed and unpleasant. I was surprised to find out that she was in her late twenties when she wrote it because it reads like a (talented) teenager.

Worst book I’ve ever tried to read is a random Marion Keyes. She seems lovely but the page I tried out of interest because she seemed so lovely was tosh. (I’ve not tried 50 shades though - I’m sure that’s worse).

The people who said Emma are beyond help.

I agree that Ready Player One is not a book for adults, or objectively good in any way, but I did kind of enjoy it anyway.

Anything by Jane Fallon is bad too. She’s caught me out a few times by having intriguing blurbs (and being at airports), but her writing is shocking.

Ready Player One is a brilliant book for teens. Heavyweight literary fiction it ain't, but my teenager was inspired to read more by it, which is a win in my book.

When God was a Rabbit actually made me cross it was so bad.

Other contenders are, the Martian, I just couldn’t finish it. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. Fifty Shades obviously and Gone Girl was just awful.

Confessions Of A Wall Street Banker actually made want to pull my eyes from my skull so I could scoop my memory bank clean to remove any traces of it. And I will read anything

Ready Player One is light fiction with no literary aspirations, but it is for those of us who were around in 1980s. All those references to popular music & culture of the '80s are great to figure out, even for someone who hated everything about that period and have the pictures with wild hair & shokder pads to prove it

Shoulder pads, even

The Girl on the train.

I just hated every single self involved character, felt no empathy or understanding for any of them. Maybe that was the point though, and therefore not the book for me.

I didn't particularly like Girl On The Train but... you had no understanding or empathy for a woman manipulated and driven to alcohol & ruin by a man?

Thought of another one
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Read this because a friend recommended it. She is a slush pile reader and normally has excellent taste in books.
But this was horrendous. It was very poorly written and the language used by the characters really grated - they just wouldn't have talked like that. Every noun was preceded by at least 3 adjectives.
It ended up with something to do with Dracula coming back to life but I can't really remember what happened.
I struggled through 750 pages of absolute drivel and the final scene which should have been dramatic was over in about three sentences.

50 shades. My GCSE students write more eloquently.

I cannot believe that no one has nominated Shantaram yet. A festering turd of self-absorbed introspection by a small time career criminal, sold as the ultimate gap year read.

Any other Tim Winton non-believers out there?

Noooooo - I love him. I don’t live in Australia at the moment and he captures the banal grimness of certain communities’ lives so well.

I agree with How the dead live. I couldn’t get past the first chapter.

The worst book I think I have finished and was disappointed with as I had read rave reviews was ‘The Slap’. I hated every single character and felt utterly frustrated by it all. It had the potential to be so interesting but it was just so shit.

Farenheit 451 - a classic - a wonderful totally engaging storyline - totally ruined by the writing - death by metaphor and simile

"self-absorbed introspection"

Is there another kind?

My problem with Shantaram was that apparently much of it was fictional although it was marketed as a true story.

I enjoyed the story, from prison to India's slums and beyond but was at the adoration of locals. Some RL characters came forward after the book was published and pointed out the fiction iirc.

Particular sadness of lemon cake is literally the most ridiculous book ever - I almost want to recommend it to you all so you can share in the lunacy of a child turning into a chair. Ffs.

The island by Victoria hislop very nearly made me wrap with boredom. I remember my mum grabbing it off me and refusing to give it back as I was moaning so much. She took it to the charity shop.

The alchemist by Paul Costello - what a crock of shit that was

Is there another kind?

Yes, the kind that leads to self-awareness . The author was a bit of a tosser and remained so, no matter how much navel gazing he did!

*weap not wrap. Maybe wrapping would be more interesting?

I found Perfume a very disturbing book (I guess everyone does) I didn’t enjoy it but in a different way to not enjoying 50 Shades which was what I expected a load of rubbish

Perfume left me feeling grubby other books are just annoying then some are just terribly written (50 Shades)