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.

[CoteDAzur]

I'm glad you like it I'd love to discuss it all, so do come back to that thread once you've read the book and add your thoughts to mine.

[MarshmallowCupcake]

I would've said 50SOG as well- it became boring and predictable but I bet the 'author' really doesn't care! Anyone who churns 3 books out so quickly can't have too much talent and is jumping at the space in the market and she's made a fortune ! I though they were shite and only read all 3 cos I'd downloaded them all onto kindle before they peaked and all the true reports started comin through. I read an interview with Tina Hobley and she didn't like these books but recommended Perfume by Patrick Suskind - what a pile of tripe!!! She must be related to this guy cos she couldn't possibly have enjoyed the book!

[LastMangoInParis]

Perfume is another one I love. You're the first I know of who hasn't enjoyed it, Marshmallow. I think it's a gem of a book! What's not to love about it?

Made a start on Cloud Atlas (audiobook so quite a way in already ).
Loving it, can't wait to get further and on to the other thread. (Don't want to look at thread just now, enjoying own thoughts on Cloud Atlas.)

(Must also confess to previous lit-crush on David Mitchell - after reading a mere short story of his. I thought I was over it, but it's back again now. )

[NicknameTaken]

Ooh, I've got another one! Just finished Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others. Truly dire. We spend ages following the meandering thoughts of the main character, Isabel Dalhousie, and the author keeps telling us that they are profoundly philisophical when they are utterly inane. The plot relies on absurd coincidences, so it totally fails as a story about investigation. The character is always going on about morality, but doesn't think twice about making totally unfounded (and as it turns out, incorrect) allegations about individuals applying for a job. Awful.

On the plus side, I used to suspect this author of being patronising towards Africans with the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency stories. I wanted to like them, because it's nice to have everyday scenes from Africa, not famine and war, but the characters struck me as simplistic. Now I realize that this is how he portrays everyone - all his characters are one-dimensional.

[Whatiswitnit]

50SoG - clearly abysmal but not my least enjoyable read of the year so far. I just couldn't stop reading and hated myself every minute. I had to delete it off my kindle as soon as I'd done with it so I felt cleansed.

Other crud I read this year:

Wetlands - Charlotte Roche
The Whisperer - Donato Carrisi
The Fear Index - Robert Harris

All just very silly.

I would add The Alchemist and The Finkler Question to the 'worst ever' list but I read them last year.

[lobsters]

Hated

One Day
The Hare with Amber Eyes

I loved Room, and quite liked before I go to sleep and me before you.

[Luce808]

Before I Go to Sleep - dreadful.

[LastMangoInParis]

Before I Go To Sleep: trop trope = tripe. IYSWIM.

Loved Wetlands. Very silly indeed, made me laugh out loud loads. Even days after I'd read it.

Agree, Alexander McCall Smith's twee 'gentle humour' (trans: condescending treatment of his characters) is nauseating. Have never got beyond the first chapter of any book of his that I've tried as his writing makes me so irritable that I start feeling physically unwell.

What is this 'Hare With Amber Eyes'?

[Whatiswitnit]

I tried twice to read The Hare with the Amber Eyes but it was excruciatingly dull. Shame really as it could have been really good; the story (it's non-fiction) is quite interesting but the writing is execrable. My reading group all loved it.

[50smellsofshite]

These threads always shock some people who can't believe their beloved book is loathed

I hated Cloud Atlas, Perfume and A prayer for Owen Meany.
I am affronted that anyone didn't enjoy We need to talk about Kevin, I mean it's a bloody masterpiece you freaks

[50smellsofshite]

The hare with amber eyes = a big pile of steaming shite

[CoteDAzur]

Could it be that people just roll their eyes at those who come on these threads and declare that they have understood absolutely nothing of what are clearly not only good but great books?

If you wait long enough on such "worst book" threads, sooner or later it is the turn of very good books. There are always a few people who just didn't get them.

[50smellsofshite]

CoteDAzur you're such a tiresome book snob. The passive aggressive smiley doesn't hide it, you know that?

[CoteDAzur]

I'm sorry that you were offended by my smiley. I just didn't want my comment to look overly serious and aggressive.

No more smileys for you. HTH.

[MaBaya]

Fifty Shades was GARBAGE. Nuff said.

[Myliferocks]

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
Ash by James Herbert

[ShirleyRots]

The Children's Book. Sooooooo long winded and boring.

[LastMangoInParis]

But Cote... the fact that someone didn't like a book that you consider 'good' doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't understand it.

On that basis, Cote, unless you really are a bit if a snob modern day Queenie Leavis, you'd have to argue that those of us who didn't like 50SOG simply didn't 'get' it. (Maybe we didn't... )

[LastMangoInParis]

Just wanted to add that I loved, loved loved Dark Matter, though.

And I'm not really shocked by people's different opinions*. I'm interested.
More interesting discussing something with someone who's view contrasts with you own, non?

*So please excuse earlier use of emoticons. Not intended as passive-aggressive/narc-ish/sociopathological or indicative any other MN-sofa-psycho-condition.

[babybythesea]

Hmm, have been pondering why I choose the books I do as a result of this.

The Slap (which I hated), I heard being discussed on R4 the week it came out and made a note to myself it was one I wanted to read. It turned up on a second hand stall about a year later and I bought it. It then sat on my bookshelf for several years until I got round to reading it. I hadn't heard loads of bad things about it before buying it. Once I'd bought it, I might as well read it! It sounded interesting in the original discussion, and I think it could have been, but he was more interested in making all the characters one-dimensional, quite nasty, caricatures and that completely drowned out the original idea.

50 shades - knew almost from the first I heard about it that it wouldn't be my thing so I won't bother.

I don't 'browse' on Amazon though. I go to Amazon to order a specific book I've heard about. (I listen to a lot of Radio 4, so might hear books reviewed on anything from Woman's Hour to A Good Read to Open Book!!). If I hear a review of a book I think is interesting, I go to Amazon and put it on my wishlist. My wishlist is currently over 500 items long.... Sometimes, I follow up some of the 'people who bought this also bought that' suggestions, especially for more obscure books (like lost classics) and if the blurb and comments sound interesting I'll stick that on the wishlist too.

At the moment, I've got well over 500 books at home that I haven't yet read. Somewhere in there, I will guarantee that there are books that got rave reviews when they came out that people since have dismissed as over-rated. By the time I get round to reading them, I'll have forgotten who said what and need to read them myself to see what I think!
I do keep an eye on best-sellers, but not indiscriminately -I know what kind of stuff I like and if the best-seller doesn't fit that, I don't bother, whatever anyone else says about it.

[babybythesea]

Oooh, the Suspicians of Mr Whicher - I loved!
I quite liked the murder story but more than that, I loved the way in which she traced how the murder, and others of the time, affected the development of detective novels. I read the Moonstone a few years ago and thought it was brilliant - I really enjoyed seeing how murders like the one at Road House played out in fiction of the time by people like Collins. It made me want to go back and re-read the Moonstone to see more clearly how it was influenced by current events of its day, now I know more about them. And I found the history of the fledgling police detective service interesting, with little bits of language history etc fascinating details.
It was far far more than just a murder story, it was history and social history and literary history and language development all rolled into one!

[NicknameTaken]

I love The Moonstone!

[Luce808]

I find it really fascinating that if I utterly detest a book (e.g. The Time Traveller's Wife) I will read 50 responses on Mumsnet who say they LOVED it, thought it was INCREDIBLE and WEPT buckets at the end. I love how people's minds work so differently that one person's utter shite is another's book they couldn't live without.

[DuchessofMalfi]

I read The Moonstone when I was a teenager and loved it. About time I re-read it. Off to Amazon now to see if it's free on kindle :)

[DystopianReality]

Loathed with vengeance

Sister

BIGTS

The Island

One Day

Loved

The Hare with Amber Eyes (First 100 pages are quite hard work but it really gets much better after that)

Dark Matter

English Passengers (Don't miss it)by Matthew Neale

The Colour by Rose Tremain