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.

What was the name of that enormous Salman Rushdie book? I made it to half way through and just lost interest, probably not helped by the fact that the book was too heavy to lift to carry around in my bag. Ahh those halcyon pre kindle days when the weight of a book actually mattered!

Ooh most of them are huge glasto! I love all his books apart from the one about the pop singer 'The ground she walked on' or something like that. Midnight's Children was my favourite.

I read White Teeth but don't remember disliking it.

I am enjoying Bovary as a potrait of marriage as someone just mentioned and also now Rodolphe has arrived.

White Teeth was ok, I got through it but wasnt wowed as I expected to be, the same with Brick Lane, I got through but I fell for the hype.

That tractors book...I was told it was really funny.....................the pain of reading it lingers on...............................

I did quite like the tractors book - but I had somewhat, erm, eccentric grandparents so it was very familiar to me. Perhaps that's a pre-requisite of reading that book - must have a certain sort of weirdness in the family. It was the trays of apples everywhere that did it for me.

I also think I quite liked the Crimson Petal and the White but it was a long time ago. Was it a sort of Victorian story of good-hearted hookers? I think I did like that one.

Having read this thread, I will not be reading Labyrinth.

I bought 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Frye' by Rachel Joyce for MIL and it seems like a sweet little story. In a similar vein, I enjoyed 'Major Pettigrew Takes A Stand' which is again, a light read.

I adore American literature; fiction and non. Michael Lee West is a particular favourite as are Rebecca Wells (the second and third books in the YaYa trilogy are no walk in the park-incest, alcoholism).

I'm no fan of Victorian 'pot boilers', even the Sarah Waters books. That's a reflection upon me, not her writing. I lost the will to live after suffering through Dorian Gray and some of the 'great' Greek plays.

Victoria Hislop - yawn
Peter Carey - yawn

I'm adding William Faulkner's As I lay Dying and everything written by that misogynist Norman Mailer.

I liked As I lay Dying and I think The remains of the Day is a masterpiece.

Never liked Zadie Smith (read White Teeth, Brick Lane AND On Beauty...why did I bother as I never thought she was that good).

However, the worst of the lot must be (has it been mentioned yet?) The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst....How on earth did that win the Booker???? Couldn't finish it - was on holiday and almost threw it into the sea it was so bad.

Unlike some, I really like the Time Travellers Wife, but agree that the next book Her Fearful Symmetry was just horrible, horrible, horrible.

American Psycho which was a big rave in its day: utterly disgusting and just thinking about it now many years later makes me feel sick.

I'm trying to read the second book by the Salmon Fishing guy, something about breakfast. It's too boring to carry on with I think.

Hilary Mantel, title something to do with Black. Thought it was pointless and not well-written. Haven't bothered to read another of hers.

I, too, thought White Teeth was over-rated. Read it a few years ago and it has left such a mark on me that I cannot remember anything about it.

I liked A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel. It's the only one I've read. But I've heard such mixed reports about Wolf Hall that I hesitate to read it. Also, it's scarily long.

I loved Wolf Hall but it is a bit of an effort. I really didn't like her memoirs though. Can't remember what they were called - too boring.

Jux I hated Beyond Black, such an overrated book!

However am glad I gave Hilary Mantel another go as I loved Wolf Hall and her book set during the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety. Can't wait for the Wolf Hall sequel...

Labyrinthe wasn't a complete waste of money, it was big enough to use as a doorstop...

Really didn't like cloud atlas but ghostwritten is one of my favourite books

i don't get Kate atkinson's appeal though i have repeatedly tried

i hated hilary mantel's one about the medium and place of greater safety but wolf hall was a pleasant diversion and quite an easy read

i like lionel shriver apart from the post birthday world,

my joint winners are the sea by john banville, Flaubert's parrot and talking it over by julian barnes and almost anything by kingsley amis but i give you girl 21 as a prime example

OK, marshmallowpies, I'll keep an eye open in the charity shops. Thanks.

The birth house was blooming dreadful. Anyone mentioned that yet?

I nominate "Not Quite White" by Simon Thirsk.
It's described as a satirical look at the fraught relations between Wales and England, but the plot hinges on a violent gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl, who then has emotional problems due to - wait for it - her blaming the rapists! Salvation and healing come when (with the aid of a knight in shining armour - clearly the author himself in disguise!) she finally admits that she is to blame; weeping in his arms, she confesses:"I wanted them to have me".
At this point I threw the book across the room. Couldn't bin it - library book.

PS It's also very long, badly written and full of inaccuracies about Wales.

bestemore that sounds truly dreadful

can i add mrs smillas feelings for snow...i don't care how many words there are for snow in copenhagen, it's just a dreary whodunnit and now "21 years after its first UK publication, Vintage are reissuing this classic Scandinavian crime novel for a whole new audience" don't get sucked in....

Oh yes Polly, that was a really shit book. Any takers for The Historian? Started well,but my god sis it drone on and on and on, about 300 pages too long.

Oh, I quite liked Miss Smilla's Feelings for Snow. It taught me more than I previously knew about the Greenland/Denmark political landscape, anyway.

No no no polly! Miss Smilla's feeling for snow is a great book. I loved it.

The book actually sounds like my kind of read. I'm currently reading dean koontz new book, 77 Shadow Street- it' brilliant!

Thedudesmummy The time Traveller's wife was an unlikely hit with me. I really don't "do" romance stories but I'm a ucker for anything sci-fi and it doesn't get more sci-fi than Time Travel!

I thuroughly enjoyed it!

Some god awful thing by Kathy? Reichs. And anything backwards, piss poor chick lit fairy take by Marian Keyes shudder