What is the worst book you have read recently and why was it so bad?

[Miaou]

I've been reading light stuff atm and just grabbed this off the "chick lit" stand at the library just before having ds2 - I struggled valiantly through to the end but was really disappointed in it. The story was turgid and predictable, the characters one-dimensional, and I felt that what could have been an interesting story with the potential for some really sinister turns, was in fact incredibly dull. The final "showdown" between the mother and son was jaw-droppingly badly written and really let the whole book down.

However I have had lots of fun picking it to pieces so maybe it was worth it

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kind of lol but also at pruni

worst was abortionist daughter, closely followed by that other book by the same woman about the mad mother. To read to the end felt like rubbernecking

am working through barbara kingsolver atm and feel in much better hands

and oh feckin hell, the book about kevin

it said in her biography tht she had no children. i don't think that needed pointing out, really

was she the poisonwood bible or somethign like that? i liked that book.

What's wrong with "One Good Turn"???????

oh yes have done that and am now doing pigs in heaven.

also tove jansson the winter book. she is such a splendid writer though that i am rationing myself a bit.

oh I have another crappola one from the last month (it hasn't been a good reading month), jd salinger's daughter's book-dreamcatcher. VERY bad.

was given a copy of everything is illuminated while expecting ds2 -- couldn't see the point. which brings me to another point, slighlty off topic: what do you do if someone lends you a book you don't like?

There's a winter book as well?

Oh yes, I do like that Barbara Kingsolver. And Barbara Trapido. But not Barbara Cartland, obviously.

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I was really worried that someone would pick that Kevin book for our book group. I really do NOT want to read it.
Horrific books I have suffered through recently
Five people you meet in Heaven.
What a load of shite.
Brick Lane.
Tedious beyond belief. How anyone could care what happens to any of the characters is beyond me.
The Ukrainian tractors thingy.
Funny? My arse.

DH has just saved me the trouble of reading The Interpretation of Murder - he has been reading it with his head metaphorically in his hands entertaining me with a appalled commentary as he does so. Would be even funnier if it hadn't be a birthday present - from me.

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I clearly have no literary taste and will surely rot in some weird book hell. I loved everything about One Good Turn (to the extent that I wanted to start re-reading it immedietely), loved Ukrainian Tractors thingy and Brick Lane.

ukranian tractor ok I thought, two caravans (same author) a lot better.

couldn't finish Brick Lane. Lost all interest in protagonists.

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I don't know Cod,my mum liked it but DH really really hated it - mind you he really, really hates Jane Austen too so we don't always agree. He says none of the characters were sympathetic and there was a lot of unnecessary explaining of stuff that most people would know - Freud, Shakespeare etc. He read me out some stuff about Hamlet that sounded like the worst sort of undergraduate essay for instance.

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Couldn't get beyond the first chapter of Kathy Reichs. She is meant to be very clever, but OMG talk about over-use of the sodding simile. Every-bloody-thing she mentions is like some-bloody-thing else. I was shouting 'Just tell the story, woman' at the pages! And she was so patronising towards speakers of other languages (not even foreigners, as this was supposed to be in Canada, iirc). So a character would say 'Bonjour' and she'd explain 'She understood, having lived in this area for 10 years now, that Bonjour is the French for "Hello"'. No shit, Sherlock?

Like I said... I had to give up.

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Ha! I've finally thought of something at least middle-brow I hated - On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I usually enjoy his stuff - this was just plain dull. Beautifully written shite.

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agree tractors was bad.
liked brick lane.
am reading interp of murder at mo; teach a level psychology and parts of it read like an intro to freud, and he has a wierd aversion to jung, plus the whole thing is clunky but haven't given up on it yet.

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