Worst book you've ever read

[general eclect]

i can't believe nobody mention the Da Vinci Code by dan brown. it has got to be up there with the worst book ever written. i can't believe it was on the best sellers list for so long. the story is actually interesting, but man that writting by dan brown has just got to go. probably the worst story teller ever. stay away from anything by dan brown unless you like wasting your time.

Actually breezy, it was mentioned on the first page. Just sayin'...

I hated Da Vinci Code too, thought it smacked of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which I enjoyed many years earlier.

I also disliked Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I got four fifths of the way through it and thought, "I know where this is going," and couldn't finish it.

Again, another popular book in its day, Johnathon Livingstone Seagull, hated it, yet I particularly love one of Bach's other books, Illusions.

 

[general eclect]

I will agree that Stephen King should have stuck to short stories. It gave me temporal whiplash. The Stand started out good, then after the second or third chapter segued into an entirely different, and fairly crappy story about good versus evil. The guy really needs to find a religion or something.

"It" was the first King book I read, and although it took me a week or more to get through it, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I tried to read Catcher in the Rye... just couldn't do it. I guess I was spoiled by reading Brian Jacques' Redwall books (good lord, please stop with the describing the food every fifth page!).

Another one I quite enjoyed.

Spoiler

 

[Hadron]

i can't believe nobody mention the Da Vinci Code by dan brown. it has got to be up there with the worst book ever written. i can't believe it was on the best sellers list for so long. the story is actually interesting, but man that writting by dan brown has just got to go. probably the worst story teller ever. stay away from anything by dan brown unless you like wasting your time.

A friend of mine was given a copy of Angels and Demons, and gave this short review: "By the time I got one third of the way through the book I wanted to throw it out of the nearest window. The fact that I was at 36,000 feet at the time wasn't going to stop me."

Needless to say I've never read anything by the man after that.

 

[qandres12]

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown was actually a pretty good read. But the worst book ive ever read was The Jungle, cant remember who wrote it it, but it was all about Lithuanian immigrants coming to American during the Industrial revolution. It was a horrible boring read for me

 

[Dngrsone]

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown was actually a pretty good read. But the worst book ive ever read was The Jungle, cant remember who wrote it it, but it was all about Lithuanian immigrants coming to American during the Industrial revolution. It was a horrible boring read for me

Upton Sinclair, as I recall.

I just read this book, Old School by Tobias Wolff. Maybe not the absolute worst book I've read, but I certainly wouldn't have finished it if it weren't required reading for my English class. The guy apparently is allergic to quotation marks, and none of the characters were likeable, in my opinion.

 

[Droidunited]

Fun with Dick and Jane, I found the writing to be too simple and I did not find myself engaged in the story.

 

[Dngrsone]

Fun with Dick and Jane, I found the writing to be too simple and I did not find myself engaged in the story.

You might find Green Eggs and Ham a bit more challenging, then.

I don't know, you might need a dictionary, though.

 

[Droidunited]

You might find Green Eggs and Ham a bit more challenging, then.

I don't know, you might need a dictionary, though.

Great Suggestion! I love Dr Seus! my favorite book of his is 'The Lorax' which is obviously an allegory of ecological depletion and symbiosis.

 

[rabidhunter]

The Eighth Scroll by Dr. Laurence B. Brown

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Their eyes were watching god.
We had to read this for school, and usually I read the books, but this one, I couldnt read a sentence without falling asleep.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Hard to narrow it down, I've read a lot of really bad books. Sux, but I am one of those that has to know how the story ends, so they have to be really bad for me to put them down. A few that stand out:

Harry Potter book 2 - liked most of that series, #2 was garbage.

Wheel of time, I think book 5? the one with the wagon on the cover. It goes on and on and never goes anywhere. to me, this was the turning point where Jorden said, "screw finishing in 5-6 books, lets go for an even dozen" then died three books later...

Most of David Drakes hammer slammer books.

Behold the Man.

Books I could not finish:
1984.
David Copperfield - I actually failed a college Lit class because I could not finish this book, it was just really really bad.

 

[myandroid101]

I don't like J.K. Rowling's first adult novel: Casual Vacancy. I find the concept is interesting but the way it is written just somehow makes me sleepy

 

[Thatdad]

The Giver. Liked it a lot at first, then the end came. Hated it worst ending I've ever seen.

And the Lord of the Flies. Stupid book, I actually almost failed the 6 weeks because I refused to read this one. I read the first 4 pages and decided not to continue.

 

[davoid]

I read the first 4 pages and decided not to continue.

Shame. It's a very powerful narrative once it gets going.

 

[Frisco]

Anything written by L. Ron Hubbard, from "Dianetics" to his psychotic works of science fiction (some highly regarded).

I tried. I really put an effort into giving in to his writings enough to enjoy then recommend them. But, alas, the lies, the plagiarism, the intentional (and bragged about amongst he and his circle of friends) effort to "inflict pain on human psychology, one person at a time," finally bored me into moving on.

Close second, to me, is anything by Timothy Leary. Similar to the above, only slightly more honest, so his drug induced psychosis and its progression seem now to be a study in how to ruin an education, a career and a brain.

 

[RigelX]

"And another thing..." by Eoin Colfer. "Worst book" is probably a little unfair because I had really high expectations for another chance to jump into Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's universe. I couldn't really get behind Colfer's take on it and haven't been able to finish it. Although I do applaud his attempt and like that he didn't try to just copy what he thought Douglas would have done.