I have just read possibly the worst book in the world

[Mrsrobertduvall]

A Cold Season by Alison Littlewood.
Disclaimer...I bought it in Smith's on a buy one get one half price, and grabbed it as the cover looked good.
It's about a mother and son marooned in a small Lancashire village with unfriendly locals...a bit Wicker Man-ish. And of course there are witch/devil undertones.
It is utter tripe.
It is now in the charity shop for some poor sod to buy.

Lucky Jim. One of the most appalling pieces of sexist filth I ever mistakenly read as literature.

Linerunner - oh thank god for your post - Kingsley Amis is such a self-important bore. Can't stand his books but that's probably because I am frigid.

And Morriszap. Sorry, I missed out your post.

Can I add, and therefore out myself as a total pleb not capable of passing judgement on what counts as literature, that Lolita is a piece of self-pleasing crap. Well-written, if you like child-abuse as fantasy, but otherwise not so much.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse was the most godawful awfulness I have ever endured. My DP bought it for me realtively early on in our relationship and it is testament to how much I love him that I actually completed it. All 5,210,750 pages.

The main character is such a Mary Sue it was actually quite sad.

Time Traveller's Wife, too. Utter nonsense.

:) 'Lolita' is one of my favourite books ever.

Is anyone else weirdly tempted to read that Kate Mosse book now? It is getting an awful lot of mentions,oh god life is too short......

I am - I have a copy from Oxfam (surprised now there was only one to choose from!) and started it. I didn't think it was dire from the bit I read but I actually was wondering if we'd spawned some kind of new 'horror book club' where once a month someone chooses something utterly dreadful and then everyone else reads it to see if it really is that bad.

I'd rather read the weasel in rehab book, though. Unless the Kate Mosse book also has weasels in it.

I just looked it up on Amazon Glasto I think it says a lot that I couldn't even be arsed to finish reading the blurb

But I'll give him 'quasi velvet shoes'.

In fact, that was my runner up choice of user name :)

And I'll happily read anything by Mr Bradbury just as soon as he aquaints himself with my good friend, the paragraph.

Sarge Jackson, (sorry not quite on iPhone!)
I downloaded Nipped in the Bud, twas awful!! I hated the god stuff, why don't they alert you to the genre!!
I hated Dan Brown, Kate Mosse but loved Cloud Atlas.
I always thought you must finish a book, I didn't have access to many as a child so thought they were to be valued and never rejected.
Now I know life is too short and regularly abandon them.
I love Georgette Heyer and Terry Pratchett and always finish them after the umpteenth re-read

Late to the party, but I thought Pillars of the Earth was dreadful. One of the few books I have not managed to finish.

Every chapter seemed to have the same scenario. The bad guys do dreadful things happen to the good guys, usually in the form of violence, rape or just general nastiness. How the heroes manage to overcome these "difficulties" and progress onto the next chapter (where it all happens again) seems to form the basis of the book.

The characters seem to come straight from EastEnders central casting in their both their 21st century behaviour and the plot lines.

Also, on a roll here, I hated PD James - Death Comes to Pemberley, what a disappointment, the only link with Austen is the names of the Characters, certainly nothing else linked it

Sorry everyone but I must tell you that The Worst Book In The World is in fact Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L James.

Mills and Boon for people who have never had sex with other humans. Or ever had a conversation with other humans. Or ever met another human (etc...) My fault but I actually, usually, have a pretty good knack for picking decent books by the art work blurb.

If there was any kind of integrity left in publishing the jacket would have had actual people on it - the true sign of utter bilge
Those tricky, publishy bastards.

I read the blurb on a Kate Moss in a charity shop and decided it was a waste of paper. DH, however, bought it and has bought more since reading it. I am happy to say that not a word of her writing has made it way to my eyes, let alone my brain. Waste of good processing power!

Another book I couldn't even start was Quiet Belief in Angels. The first paragraph was so overwritten and annoying that I threw it across the room.

Can I add sophie's world?
Have been trying to read it for years and never managed to finish it

The only way I could finish Sophie's World was to have it as my "loo book". I had to restart it about 3 times but I refused to be defeated by it. It wasn't worth it.

I read Catch 22 the same way (loo book) and it was fine that way - not sure I could have sat and read it all through in one sitting though! So it's not the methodology that's at fault (IMO).

I am a writer. Just read this entire thread with growing nerves, and slow reassurance as I remembered that actually different people like different books and this is OK. I read Hare with the Amber Eyes, twice, and loved it. I didn't really expect dramatic plotting in a book about netsuke. Yes, please, to distinguishing things we don't like from things that are just crap writing. It's OK to like crap and it's OK to dislike great writing, but important to know the difference.

Sophie's World is balls. I've never managed to finish it. It was a gift from a friend, and I feel bad that I haven't finished it, but it was such a slog.

Another friend works in a bookshop and has offered to get me a copy of 'Shades of Grey', the Twilight fanfic. The masochist in me is looking forward to it. I bet it's still better than the actual Twilight.

Oh dear. I must have a terrible taste in books. I love Kate Mosse.
I must admit digital fortress was bad and I hate the Shopaholic books. Other than that I read any old drivel really. I'm not picky

I love Catch 22! It's one of the funniest books I've ever read (but then, I loved the Samuel Marchbanks books by Roberson Davies, and I've not met anyone else who thought they were hilarious, so maybe I don't know anything).

(Of course, I don't actually believe that!)

Robertson Davies that should be (all time fave writer).

The Ivy chronicles - quite simply the worst piece of chick lit ever (and it is a low bar) - example- heroine is supposedly struggling money wise but happens to have a kind and generous best friend who happens to be married to a multi millionaire; all about the difficulties in getting toddlers into nursery in new york (written by someone who's job was to get toddlers into New york.

Other than that anything by Dan Brown - all badly written and derivative but worse, read by people who think its high quality.

and Jodi Picoult. I have just given all of mine (airport buys) to charity - and I never give books away (actually I deliberately left the Ivy chronicles somewhere with a written warning)

Anything at all by Danielle Steel she writes like a 5 year old its all and she said and and and awful.

loo book Thumbwitch?