To ask about the worst book you have ever read.

[Whereisthecoffee]

Title says it all really. What book or books have you absolutely hated and why?

50 shades I think is the only book I couldn't finish such a fucking stupid book I'm usually more high brow in my tastes, but wanted to see what the fuss was all about waste of £4.99

I think it's called the couple next door. Absolute bilge.

Nina feels threatened ,. 'Go away she said hoarsely'
Nico is upset he tried to go In for a hug

WHO WRITES LIKE THAT?!!

90% of what I read on Kindle unlimited.

I've come across quite a few books that I think are dreadful! Here are a few that spring immediately to mind.
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" - terrible book! Utterly ludicrous storyline, totally unbelievable and ridiculously inaccurate in historical detail.
"Fifty Shades of Grey" - seemed to have been written by a group of 12-year-olds, for a laugh, during a particularly boring wet playtime. Very infantile writing style. I stopped reading after 30 pages.
"The Lovely Bones" - I didn't get it at all.
"One Day" - I was very disappointed with it. Had hoped for something good but it didn't deliver at all.

For the PP who asked, fifty shades was a self-published effort after originally being a Twilight fanfic but obviously all references to Twilight had to be removed for general publication. I read a little bit of the fanfic and it makes a heck of a lot more sense. But EL James should just not write anything else ever!

I like Eleanor Oliphant, I could imagine all the places in the book even though nowhere was mentioned specifically by name and I think the stuff with her mum was well done. Not all books need a "big twist" and the ending was calm and nice.

Anyway, I hated The Hobbit. Got so bored and I don't think I even finished the first chapter.

So glad that other people hated The Secret History. What a crock of shite. Pretentious idiots at a dull American college and an author in search of profundity. Yawn.

I finished it, mainly because my husband kept going on and on about how great it was and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of saying, “now if you’d only persevered with it...”.

Although not quite the worst book I’ve ever read (but quite high in the list nevertheless), I can advise against Streets of Darkness by AA Dhand. It is inexplicably being adapted for TV. I hope loosely, because the book is full of cardboard characters and crap dialogue and spends a good two pages going on about the history of a chippy in Bradford called Mother Hubbard’s, which bears no relation to the story.

Agree with @SleeplessMomma about Behind Her Eyes -

Such an annoying ending - I woke my husband up to rant about it!

I liked One Day. Hated, really hated Starter for Ten though
I liked Eleanor Oliphant. I thought the characters were realistically drawn.
I read some comments from Hadley Freeman about Fifty Shades and didn't bother trying to read it. Thanks Hadley.

I know I vaguely mentioned it up thread, but "Barracuda", by Christos Tsiolkas, the same guy who wrote, The Slap.
Why he felt the need to include how the character's shit smelled, when it added nothing to the story, I'll never know.
There's another book of his, "Head on", which is a film on Netflix.
Ugh, I dread to think what that book is like.

I'm comforted to hear about Wolf Hall.
I bought it at Gatwick in August and still have about 200 pages to go. It's lying looking at me from a corner of the living room and I keep dusting it and thinking what a waste of my life the other eleventy billion (seems like) pages (and just as many bloody Thomases) will have been if I don't finish it.

I remember about 20 years ago a friend came to stay and left what I think was Kste Mosse's first book. She'd picked it up in a remainder shop. That was a pile of pretentious shite as well.

For highly entertaining weird piles o shite, my winner would be one I read at university about a nun who gets pregnant through being raped and how all the other nuns are seething with jealousy. (doesn't sound entertaining but it was so crap it was laughable)

Loved the Goldfinch and Wolf Hall. Realised after a dud purchase on holiday the other day that I should never buy anything with 'musings' in the title.

Hate anything by Martin Amis.

Icannot get into Lird of the rings...i didnt hate it but its too dauntingly long.

I enjoy a lot of books where all the characters are vile. I didnt like the slap as a story but i think if the author can make us dislike a character they are doing a good job.

I must finish war and peace...i started it and it was very witty...i just got with dp so was too distracted ! I would say dont be put off by the status and length of War and Peace...the first but was a chuckle and i adore Pierre.

Lord

@seventhgonickname
I struggled with Captain Correlli but 3rd go I did it.
If you can get past the first few chapters it zips along after that.
Then it becomes funny and tragic and beautiful.
Stupid film was fucking awful though. Nicholas Cage ffs.

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep was awful. There aren’t many books I’ll give up on but that was just terrible.

Most of the recent best sellers thriller

Gone girl
Girl on a train
The couple next door

That ilk . Very hyped and very shallow

'The Game' can't remember who it's by. It's the book that teaches how to pick up women with a fail-safe combination of peacocking, ignoring them, making them feel shit about themselves and therefore grateful anyone's trying to pick them up and close-up magic. The only goal is sex, which is described as a 'close'.

Some books cited as classics are problematic to say the least. "Dice man" has a main character who talks about how he is going to rape a woman (and you're meant to empathise with him).

"Heart of Darkness" I tried to read but the constant (and I mean constant), use of the n word meant I gave up. I know both were a product of their time, but as a reader I don't want to keep wincing when reading a book.

On another note I struggled with Elinor Oliphant as I really didn't care about the main character at all.

"One day" also was poorly written. Very saggy middle and the writer kept changing tenses. It was past tense at first " Dexter walked into the room and saw the mess on the table" then present tense "Dexter sees Emma waiting at the gates" then back to past tense " Dexter put on his jacket and left the house". Again I wondered about the edit as it desperately needed a good editor to make it consistent.

I read a Dean Koontz book that was horrible. It had started raining and it was aliens sent to punish us.

Lord of the Rings. I tried I really did several times.

It was called The Taking.

I struggled with Captain Correlli but 3rd go I did it.
If you can get past the first few chapters it zips along after that.
Then it becomes funny and tragic and beautiful.
Stupid film was fucking awful though. Nicholas Cage ffs.

Yes yes yes!!!!!!!

Game of thrones. I enjoyed the series so I thought I would give the book a go. Oh my god. It’s way too wordy.

Instead of things like “he picked up the red flower” it would have said he gently lifted the vivid scarlet blooms of blossom”

Yes to the cursed child , I love the Harry Potter books but hated the cursed child. Hated Harry in it.

Also didn’t like Room.