What are the worst books you've read this year?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Having read the What is the best book you've read this year? thread I was wondering what the worst book you've read so far in 2012 is?

Mine would have to be either 50 Shades or Before I Go to Sleep.

Pets in a Pickle. I downloaded it for some fun holiday reading, complete crap.

50 Shades. By a really long stretch.

Before I Go To Sleep was fairly shabby.

The Slap was shite.

But 50 Shades is the crappiest book I've ever read. Ever.

Before I Go To Sleep - total, utter bollocking bollocks and what made me even more irritated was that I really wanted to like it.

50 shades of grey. It was awful.

Oh and the slap too, I was disappointed by that.

I also quite enjoyed 'We need to talk about Kevin'....although not keen on the ending. Thought 'The Lovely Bones' was poor. I've got 77 Shadow Street - but pointythings has just said it's awful, so I don't know if I'll bother, lol.

Room. Although I didn't finish it,flicked forward to see if it got any better, decided it didn't and gave up. Over rated tosh.

Why do you people all read the same books? Genuine question and I'm honestly very curious about this.

Do you buy & listen to all the music in pop charts?

If not, why do you read these overhyped books by bad authors, pumped into Bestseller charts through publishers' marketing efforts?

I've started and not finished The Slap, same with the one written by Ford Maddox Ford with the central character Titless. Can remember the man but not the title of the book.
I have now stolen DDs kindle.

Cote I've mentioned three books I didn't like this year, BIGTS and the Paris Wife were chosen by others at our Book Group and I've already explained why I read 50 shades.

I've also read some great books this year, and lots of them were book group choices too.

I didn't mean you or anyone else in particular. I'm just curious about this phenomenon I see on MN and in RL where women just seem to be reading the same (new) books at about the same time.

I honestly don't understand why this happens and would appreciate it if someone could offer an explanation.

I'll tell you, Cote:

I go through phases of reading these new 'talked about'/best seller books out of pure curiosity.

They're not the only thing I read - far from it. But a book is discussed and discussed and discussed (as Room, 50 Shades, The Slap etc. were), I really want to know what the big deal is. So I read the book.

Very often these books are bland and disappointing, sometimes there's some good stuff in them (Room had some quite good writing, but could have been about a third of the length and the writer seemed to have got so pleased with her tropes and gimmicks seeing the world through the eyes of an imagined child that the book ended up hackneyed and twee), sometimes they're just awful beyond belief (50 Shades). I'm always glad that I've read them, though.

Was I missing something when I read 50 Shades? I felt the pain was inflicted on the reader! What a mysogonistic author. Weak heroine, damaged but rich male, Mills&Boone with whips. Can she fix him? Who cares! Back to Game of Thrones which is much better (have finished the first three on my fantastic Kindle).

The Hare with Amber Eyes - a book club torture, arty, historical and very very dull. I must just be a philistine because it's had loads of good reviews but I just couldn't stick with it, and I very rarely give up on a book.

And while I hated The Slap, I did think it was a very clever writer who could make every single character so flawed and unlikeable, but I really resented the authour's generalizations that everyone does casual drugs and sex as a matter of course. He set out to provoke, and he certainly succeeded.

Zero Day by David Baldacci.

First of his "thrillers" I have read and it will be the last. Cliched writing, bland and unrealistic characters, sexist and patronising in parts and a flimsy plot. Definitely one to avoid!

Cote - you asked why so many (inlcuding me) read the latest releases. Time, my friend, time! I have very little to spare so usually when looking for my next book I google or search on Amazon for the most popular/downloaded book and go for that one hoping that so many avid readers cannot be wrong. Sometimes I am lucky and sometimes it is torture. I do not suffer from guilt about ditching a turkey. That said I have read most of those mentioned: BIGTS, One Day, Hunger Games and also Fatherland (but GofT is my fave currently).

I am going to DEFEND 50 shades as being in the "so bad it's good" category - I found it (unintentionally) hilarious and quite the page turner. I read all three, by the third one I had to skip through the sex scenes as I couldn't take another exploding orgasm. Lol at You'llLaugh, indeed!

Separate Lives - really awful. One of the reviews on the cover said something about "characters who act like people you actually know" !!

Me before You - just bizarre, couldn't get over the heroine not knowing how to do an internet search and never having seen or heard of Pimms before. Again,

The Bell, by Iris Murdoch. Had to do it for a book group. At least I can tick Iris Murdoch off the list of people I feel I should read now.

I really liked The Slap - I thought it was morally complex and I didn't dislike most of the characters. I also loved Room.

My worst book of the year was a book group choice: A Dark Redemption by Stav Sherez, a extremely unthrilling thriller with cliched characters and a laughably poor structure and plot.

Headhunters by Jo Nesbo was disappointing in the extreme. Just plain silly, and totally shattered any credibility of the author in my view.

But not the worst of the year. Simon Cowell is in a class of his own there.

couldn't get over the heroine not knowing how to do an internet search and never having seen or heard of Pimms before. and who says that MN is too middle class

Oh, another one for Me Before You. Contrived.

I only read the Kindle sample of 50 Shades, so I can't count that. Or I would...

BIGTS was a great idea but fell apart completely in the execution.

BIGTS could have been a brilliant novel. SJW had a good idea, but ultimately I found myself not liking the central character, and really not caring that much about the story. Disappointing. It won't have put me off trying his next novel though, whenever that's published.

Me Before You, whilst it wasn't great literature, and had some big holes in the story, was an enjoyable read for me. I do, however, think that Patrick Gale covered the right to die point better in A Perfectly Good Man, which is one of my favourite reads of this year so far.

I'm going to have to defend Iris Murdoch's The Bell, though, halfnhalf. I studied it for A Level, and loved it. One of my favourite books of all time, but I can't say that I love all Iris Murdoch's novels (I've read a few more).

To answer Cote d'Azur's question - why do we all read the same books? I think I'd have to say curiosity some of the time. If someone's talking about a book they have read then I might want to read it too. I don't read everything - no intention of ever reading FSOG. Again, time factor for me. I have young children so don't get much time to read or visit the library without them. I'd love nothing better than having a couple of hours to myself to browse the library shelves and see what I can find but that's so rare these days. Normally it's a quick dash in, see what's on the quick choice shelf, grab it and go :o

I read 50 shades' even though I hated the sound of it. I suppose I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I did hate it and deleted it off my kindle before I got to the end.

Yes but JiltedJohn, I really think that a twenty-something from any class would be familiar with the concept of Google in this day and age! And fair enough, maybe not everyone knows what Pimms is (I don't know what's in it) but surely you'd realise it was an alcoholic drink - it was just a really contrived way for the heroine to get accidentally drunk- bad writing!