Young Writers Society

What have been the top ten worst books you have ever read?

The top ten worst books I have ever read have been:
1.Bad Girls by Cynthia Voigt
2.The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
3.Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
4.A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
5.When the Road Ends bt Jean Thesman
6.Whistle Me Home by Barbara Wersba
7.Whatever Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci
8.Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
9.Stolen Words by Amy Goldman Koss
10.A Killing Frost by John Marsden

I like this thread

My list isn't neccasarilly a top 10; just gonna list the worst books I have ever read in no particular order:

1. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
2. A heartbreak work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
3. Execution: The Discipline of getting things done by Larry Bossidy et. al.
4. A Conn. Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
5. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
6. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

And I can't recall any others; but there's a whole slew of them from high-school from this one about some girl in India to one that took place in South Africa.

Bad Books? I don't read bad books? I'll just post books we've read in school cuz those are awful. Except for #1, they're in no order.

1. A Door in the Wall by I hated the book too much to know or care.
2. Engraved in stone by See above
3. The Pearl by John Steinbeck (someone explain to me how this became a classic?)
4. Johnny Tremain by see #9
5. Carry on Mr, Bowditch by See #9
6. Ties that Bind, Ties that Break by See #1
7. Lyddie by See #1
8. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
9. The Lottery Rose by somebody.
10. Dar and the Spear Thrower by See#1

I don't have a list of ten, but I do have the one worst book I have ever read:

1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Wow...I don't read bad books. I enjoy them all! But there a few that are just...gah, horrible.

Farenheit 451, whats the point of this book anyway?!

Some of the Goosebumps books, I know they are meant for younger audiences, but they are just....bad, are they supposed to be stupid, or scary?

Xenocide, gah...Orson, Orson, Orson, whats happened to you?

Oddyseus Returns From the Sea, GAH! How I hate this book! Its not even about him, and the author just tells you, and doesn't show.

i know! ender's game wa so good! well, i though anyway.. the next three books in that series just didnt' do anything for me. ugh, the pearl. i remember that one. i didn't like that at all. most school books are not great, though. oh well, only two and a half more years! then college

I liked Speaker for the Dead, it wasn't Ender's Game by any means, but it was enjoyable.
Xenocide just went a little too far though. what does everyone think of the bean books?

I LIKE Fareheit 451. Mostly because I think Ray Bradbury was right in everything he predicted.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. I'm not sure if I love it or hate it.
And just about anything by Joseph Conrad.

As well as most romance novels.

I love the Bean books! I've only read Ender's Shadow and Shadow Puppets, but they both rock. Haven't read any of the Ender series besides Ender's Game. And I liked Farenheit 451, too. Martian Chronicles was better, though. Anyways, worst books...

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
Ditto on The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea (the most boring book ever)
A Light in the Forest
The Red Badge of Courage

asyouwish wrote:I love the Bean books! I've only read Ender's Shadow and Shadow Puppets, but they both rock. Haven't read any of the Ender series besides Ender's Game. And I liked Farenheit 451, too. Martian Chronicles was better, though. Anyways, worst books...

You should read Speaker for the Dead, the sequel to Ender's Game. It's almost better than the first. Past that, the other two (Children of the Mind and Xenocide) are terrible. It seemed like Card was just trying to capitilize on the series without paying attention to plot or character development, or coherence.

Responding to others, I have no idea why I used to love Goosebumps. I can't stand the books now; they're written terribly, and they were never scary to begin with. And in regards to Joseph Conrad, I can't stand anything he has written.

Actually, I should've included some books by Charles Dickens in my top 10 worst books, such as "Great Expectations" and "David Copperfield." I've probably read five or six books by Dickens, and I suffered through each one (always for English class). He may have been a good writer at the time, but his books just go on and on and on (they do that because his books originally appeared as parts in magazines and he got paid by the word). You could honestly throw away three-fourths of David Copperfield and leave the story completely unchanged.

Yeah, Great Expectations was blah. I did like a Tale of Two Cities, however.

Another book to add to my hate list: Pride and Prejudice. Gah.
Oh, and Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block. That book was just... dumb.

Just a quick question here...

Is there a reason that the diary of Anne Frank was on your worst books list Carsandguitars? I mean, I didn't like it either, but it was, you know, the diary of a young girl who lived and died in the holocaust...


As for me? I would have to say 'Beloved'. And yes, it's about precivil war life, and slavery. And it does have an interesting story line. But... the writing style... BLAH... apologies to anyone who liked this one... This was one of the few where I thought the movie better portrayed the story than the book.


Tell me your diamonds... tell me...


(that girl plays that part SO well!!!!)



edit: as for the Goosebumps books, I could write one of those in a day. Make thousands and thousands of dollars off of crap writing like that. Those aren't even creative, those are just... crap. It's like generic really watered down and unimaginative Stephen King...

OLIVER TWIST.

I'm sorry, but I could not get through that book.

Although it was pretty funny when my dad went to read a page out loud, and Master Bates was mentioned..

I loved Tale of Two Cities, though. Excellent book.

What else can't I stand? Ummm.. Lyddie, and The Pearl.. Gah. Stowaway (I still haven't finished it), Grim Tuesday (not enough of a battle), and.. that's all I can think of right now. There aren't too many bad books out there in my opinion.

oliver twist *shudder* bad memories of english.. oh, i don't know if it counts as a book, but romeo and juliet. first off, it is called a romance by most people. that was not romatnic, is was disturbing. and there was this one momologue by juliet, i almost walked out of class. it was wrong.

i loved the bean books! but yes, the last two books in the ender series didn't do much for me. speaker for the dead was ok, but i think the bean books were better.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get clobbered for this or not, but:
THE SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. I couldn't STAND those books. Lemony Snicket's writing style just annoyed the heck out of me.

1. Lord of the Flies by William Goling
2. Of Nightingales That Weep by Katherine Patterson
3. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe