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?

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Absolute up itself wank. See also On The Road and that Philip Roth one about wanking Jewish teenage boys.

American Psycho, I had to skip lots of parts as they made me feel physically sick. Other passages boring as fuck. Total waste of time.

American Psycho was gross for the sake of shock value, other than that it was just boring

I think i triird readinh omr Nettle and have seen them in Asda they are always some twee little stoey about a xmas love story or a family getting back together for xmas after a fallout .

Agree with those saying The Slap. I hated all the characters and only read the first few chapters.

The Autograph Man or whatever it’s called, by Zadie Smith. I tried it twice at an interval of a couple of years, and lost the will to continue each time at around a hundred pages in. I thought it was an exercise in being clever rather than telling a good story. All style and no substance.

The Miniaturist - terrible book but shows what a lot of money spent on marketing and PR can do for mediocre writing as it sold so well

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. A retelling of Macbeth set in modern day Wisconsin....with dogs taking the place of spirits. About 600 pages long and even more shit than it sounds.

I've had a look at my book downloads, not many have been completely finished.

The one I just cannot finish, yet quite a few friends recommended it is My husband's secret, Liane Moriaty.

100 years of solitude. i just cant stand gabriel garcia marquez.

Red Sparrow

I don’t tend to persist with terrible books, so I rarely finish a book I don’t like. But American Psycho had to be finished because it was so appalling and sickening I needed to finish it in the hope of some kind of resolution or catharsis. Didn’t happen, so I had to endure hundreds of pages of pretentious, self-important, pointless drivel interspersed with awful vile torture scenes.

Tooextra, the one about wanking Jewish boys is portnoy's complaint by Philip Roth. The most misogynistic pile of crap ever.

The Treatment by Mo Hayder. Awful, nasty book with the plot hinging on a couple of highly unlikely things.

I read one of those Christmas at the Twee Cakeshop kinds of books last Christmas in a fit of wanting something fun and seasonal. It was the literary equivalent of those awful, made for tv “films” C5 shows at this time of year.

Having thought very carefully about what's worse, 50 Shades or Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance I am going for the latter. Or rather, the sequel Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals which is just as self righteous and up itself but with an added dose of misogyny.

See i liked that book Lived and i do like Liane Moriarty.

Twilight/50 shades, life of Pi, night chills by Dean R Koonz - total rape fantasy, any self indulgent twaddle where women are used and objectified and that’s ok - this includes the Bond books

Anything by Dorothy koomson. I'm not big on Cecelia ahearn either.

I thought The Miniaturist and The Lovely Bones were brilliant. The Slap was a really interesting concept but badly done.

Most of the books mentioned here are ones I've started and not finished.
YY to Dorothy Koomson and Cecilia Ahearn.
I've taken to reading either non-fiction or psychological fiction.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse and The Essex Serpent. Both felt so contrived and like the authors were desparate to shoe horn as much historical research into them as possible, I just couldn’t get through the first chapters
Lots of people saying the Goldfinch though and I just loved it, totally engrossed

Ooh, I quite liked the Husband's Secret have read it twice

Absolutely hated A Gentleman in Moscow. Most boring book ever despite the hype. People kept telling me to persevere, but it never got better...

The Hobbit - nuff said

Anything by Maeve Binche or Danielle Steel - formulaic, sickly sweet and totally annoying.

I read a book last year by Jane Green that was absolutely terrible. I can't remember what it was called, but it was about a woman who had an affair, justifying it because she wanted another child and her husband didn't (they already had two). She was then devastated when he left her after she got pregnant. It had a ridiculous ending where the heroine and her DH reconciled and played happy families with the affair partner, his new girlfriend and the various DC. Utter, utter garbage.