Worst Book You've Ever Read

The Westing Game. If you ever see it on the shelf at your library, follow these life-saving instructions.


Instructions

1. Run away screaming and sue the library for owning that book.

Seriously. It was an intensly boring and confusing book.

Ohh my word....Found by Margaret Haddix
We had to read it for battle of the books and the first chapter is horrid plus the characters bore me and the story line is flat





Oh and whoever said Eragon and Lord of the rings im with you on that!!!!!!!!

I love the Hunger games series, but the last book, Mockingjay," was really bad. You start in district 13 and then it moves right to the capitol. The book moves way to fast and I couldn't keep up. The book is just overall really bad, and I think Suzanne Collins should have just stuck with the first book.

Orcs, by Stan Nicholls. I know, most of you would probably back away from the book just after seeing the title, but I'd read something by the author before, which was quite good. This was not.

The entire book was cliche; not just the subject, but the wording, the phrases, the action scenes......I think that if you're going to write a book that's half action-fight-scenes, you're obligated to make them cool ones. These weren't.
The characters were flat and predictable, and the creatures the author created were hard to picture and way too overdone. All, in all, awful book. I'm glad I read it though. It's now in the reference part of my bookshelf (Yes, I organize my bookshelf) because it's a reminder of how NOT to write books.

Wouldn't recommend it to anybody, unless you want to use it for those purposes.

Oh my god, Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber. It's a pseudo-mystery thriller that I couldn't even finish. It's about a woman who believes she was raised by monkeys, not an adoptive mother and father, and sets out to prove it. I'm serious. I had reservations as soon as I opened the book because it's written in present tense, which I generally hate, but I powered through a couple of chapters until I could stand it no longer. The book tries really hard to be creepy, but it fails miserably and is sort of reminiscent of how uncomfortable you feel when someone is trying to tell a ghost story and gets really into it themselves, but you're left going 'Ooh, gosh, stop, I'm so scared" in that half-sincere way. I just... agh. The protagonist is whiny and annoying, too. I just couldn't do it. Abu-Jaber's writing isn't necessarily bad- some passages are pretty enough- but this book was a failure in my opinion.
I have technically read worse books, like Twilight, but I tend to discount YA books in my best/worst categories because they have a different set of standards.

I hated, hated, HATED The Call of the Wild by Jack London. I know it's a classic, but it just irritated me every time I opened it. To me, Buck was extremely flat and horribly overpowered. For what was supposed to be a book that defined American realism, it didn't seem very realistic.

My lord, I used to be a magnet for these types of books. I coud say "Some of the novels posted here", but that is a little obvious (AND some are actually really good). But the worst book that is published, and that I actually finished is... oh boy I can't even remember the name. Its like THE FIRE by Gary Paulson. It is where people go riding up to a lodge, they light a match, and they die in a forest fire. His absolute WORST book.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I was forced to read it by my Honors English I teacher and was bored out of my mind until the very end. I've NEVER said that about a book! I love to read, but seriously, it was awful. .

I know you said no Twilight, but... Twilight.
Holy Mother of Mary Sues and purple prose.

I don't read bad books because they just make my head ache.
But I have read one: Sideways Stories from Wayside School. IDK but it makes me dumb I don't even want to open it. I thought it was a good book when I bought it at the bookstore. I was wrong. HAHA. I just read it because I don't want to waste my money by not reading it.

)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates.
DON'T READ THESE. EVER.

Anything by Kevin Brooks. I bought two of his books from Amazon.com because of his great reviews but his books aren't for me. In 'Lucas' 45% of each chapter is spent explaining England weather, which doesn't really vary. It's either cold, rainy, cold and rainy, or cold windy and rainy. I made it a quater through and believe it or not the character whom the book was named after had yet to speak! Even with the huge "mystery" that made me want to read the book, I had lost interest and now it sits on my hutch under some foreign money, collecting dust.

The second book, 'Being', I forced myself to finish even though it seemed as though Mr. Brooks had forgotten he was supposed to eventually finish the book and made the worlds most rushed ending to meet deadline with his editor. I was VERY dissapointed.

Now on to an actual good book call Mockingjay By Suzanne Collins!

I honestly loath books that are force fed to me from the spoon that is school. i absolutley hated To Kill a Mockingbird and I just finished Great Expectations. why do the books we have to read in school be the worst ones in the whole word and all because they teach good morals. Happily I can say I am looking forward to reading The Odessy in school next semester and i hope its not a let down like all the others.

The Watsons of Birmingham--by far the worst book that I have ever read. I tried to get through it, I really did. At least seven times over the course of several months. And I failed each time, though I managed to get a couple pages farther every time. The book bored me to death, nothing happened, and the sort-of but not really exciting parts that could have been exciting if the author had bothered to look over their work were flat and predictable.

*shudders*

I'm glad that's out of my system now.

It would have to be hands down... The Stand By: Stephen King. I know that loads o college students have read it and loved it but the first part of the book was just boring to me. The end was interesting enough to keep my attention but sadly I had to read this "bestseller" in parts. Ugh!!!

Defo The Little White Horse. I bought it because it looked and sounded ok in the store (It sounds childish, but its really complicated and adult) it had NOTHING to do with horses and it just seemed like the author was moaning about how she didn't like x person and x person had a funny leg. Just mind-numbing!

Twilight is my fave. I love romance books, it makes me feel like at least some people can think of anything but horses! lol.
Eragon is really good, but i didn't like the long tedious journeys across the dry plains and it seemed like the author was desperate to keep a good idea so he made them do stupid things so he could keep his bacic idea.

The harry Potter books. I just couldn't get into them. Once i put them down i had no desire to pick them up again. But i do think J.K Rowling is a good writer. I admire her work, just don't like the characters.

I must say, I'm rather shocked about some of the books people hate (Slaughter-House Five, To Kill a Mockingbird, His Dark Materials, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies).

I'm going to be really original and say I liked Twilight. Period.

That being said, I disliked The TIme Traveler's wife. I refuse to even watch the movie. To make the characters go through so much crap and not even let them end together? Sucks. But I'm a sucker for happy endings.

Also, I really, really disliked the Tairen Soul series by C.L. Wilson. It was so long and tedious. I made myself read the first one, then half way through the second I dropped the book. The plot was good but the in-between was a snore.

I have not really read a bad book. Well, that is a lie I forgot the title just because it was that bad, and I would never want to remember it. The book was rather predictable and there were no twists and very little detail. It rather felt like it was a child's book when it was not. So lets say...it will never reach my bookshelf again.

The worst book I've ever read was "Midnight Fox" we had to read it as a class in English when I was in first year, and it was so boring, pretty much about a boy going to his aunts for the summer and seeing a fox which was black ---> I have to say our whole class pretty much fell asleep, it was so boring, there was nothing exciting in it and at the end we didn't even finish it.

Okay, this is worst as in sad, not worst as in a I've-read-the first chapter-and-it-is-so-boring-that-i-want-to-put-it through-the-paper-shredder-even-though-it's-a-library-book book. This book was sad. I cried the whole thing. it's called 'Mick Hart was here'. It's about a girl name Pheobe, and she has a brother named Mick. Mick was at his friends house riding bikes, and Pheobe walks by. Mick askes her to take his bike home, but she says no. It ends up that a truck comes by, and he accedentilly gets hit and dies. This story is through the eyes of Pheobe, and how she gets over Mick's death. It was so depressing. The last line was...

I never wanted to make you cry, so if you did, I'm sorry. I only wanted to share the story of my brother. My brother Mick Hart.

Whoever said that they were tempted to say Lord of the Rings and the fifth Harry Potter book ... I would just like to agree with the person who said 'TAKE IT BACK, TAKE IT BACK, TAKE IT BACK!!!'
Glad I got that out of my system.
Twilight. All of them. I know that I'm forbidden to say that, and I know that when anyone does it makes the poor reader want to head-desk. But really - gross. Terrible writing, terrible plotline, terrible characters. If I had my way, I'd round up every single copy and burn them on a pyre whilst quoting Harry Potter.
Urrgh.
Also, Salt, by Maurice Gee. It was depressing, even though I suppose it had the potential to be a good book.
I really just dislike books with no moral warmth. They show up the authors for someone they might not actually be, and degrade every other story of their genre.
Books that I like partly because of astonishing moral warmth are: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Artemis Fowl (the cold, calcuating boy who finds a spark of warmth inside him), and Watership Down. That book was sad.
And to the person who said Redwall - I would like to beg to differ! Although the actual book 'Redwall' is not the best one, the series is brilliant, despite the repitition of plot.
Enough rambling.

Sadly, I'm an avid reader, and I have a few for this list.

- Romulus, My Father by Raimond Gaita.
This book, is by far the worst book I have ever had to read. It's so dull. It numbs the mind for weeks to come.

- Finikin Of The Rock by Melina Marchetta.
I absolutely adore her work, but this book...it does my head in to the point that I loved it at one point, and I hated it the next. I barely got through it.

- New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.
While I know you said no Twilight, and this technically is part of the saga I just think that it went on for far too long and it bored me to tears.

I could think of more, but those are my top three picks for worst books that I have ever read.

Invisible Man. Yeah, it suggested moral value and our literature class thinks it was geared towards the civil rights movement. I thought it was hard to get into. Our advance placement literature teacher admitted to falling asleep while attempting to read it, so she was behind a section. The idea of the book wasn't bad, it was just so dull I found it hard to even want to read it.

This is going to seem blasphemous seeing as this book is considered a pure classic, but I really couldn't stand "The Last of the Mohicans." It isn't that the concept wasn't fantastic. That wasn't the case at all. Heck, I thought the movie was fantastic! The very thing that brought the novel down was the writing. It was probably some of the driest writing I had ever seen. Despite the imagery and metaphors, it felt like a textbook to me. I couldn't get through a good portion of it. Perhaps if the concept/story itself was worded differently, I would think otherwise. Unfortunately, my opinion is set in stone.

Personally, I really found Tuesdays with Morrie BORING! I began to read it because 1.) it was on this list my english teacher gave the class and 2.) my friend recommended it. I didn't get past page fifty before i decided it just wasn't for me.

Also, The House of Night Series , like someone has all ready mentioned. It was just so . . . Blah is the word that comes to mind. I really liked the whole goddess thing with Nyx, lol especially when I figured out that she was actually considered a real goddess for the Romans - thank you Latin class- but that still does not make up for its dullness !

Where the Red Fern Grows, but only because it made me cry so hard.

I know it's a classic, but I didn't enjoy Lord of the Flies that much. Mainly because I didn't feel anything when something bad happened to one of the characters. My thought process just went 'Oh, that's nice... And tragic I guess.'

Eragon (and two following books).

Sweet.

And a more recently read book about a lawyer being accused of murduring his former lover, which he didn't do. Innocent Unit Guilty, or something like that. Anyway, absolute rubbish.

TIGERSPRITE

Redwall. Really dull...

Wait, Eragon? I loved that book! Then again, I read it three years ago. (Maybe I should read it again?) Oh, and I used to love Twilight.

Enough said.

Anyway, I was looking through the comments, and the weird thing is most of these books have been recommended to me as great books (that I haven't read yet.) Except How I Live Now-my best friend (at the time) read it and was constantly lamenting about how 'retarded' it was. Oh, and I loved the Artemis Fowl series. Still do-maybe that's because I first read it aged ten, and reading it again has that 'slipping into comfy old pyjamas' feeling.

I read Lord of the Rings when I was ten, and had basically no idea what it was about, but I ploughed through anyway. I tried to read it again this year, y'know, now that I'm all mature and stuff, and I put it down after, oh three chapters? I could understand what was going on that time, but Good God it was boring. I now have a LOT more respect for my ten-year-old self.

The Lovely Bones, I read when I was-yes, ten,(I had this whole "I'm-mature-enough-for-BIG-kids-books thing going on) and I loved it, then I read it again last year and ended it bored and quite possibly scarred for life.

I'm waffling about all this because I'm trying desperately to think of a book I didn't like... Oh, The House of Night series by Kristin Cast and P.C. Cast. They went on and on and on without any kind of conclusion to ANY problem, and the writers were trying so hard to relate to teenagers that all the characters were disgustingly shallow and cliched, never taking anything seriously, until the writing made sudden switches to purple prose and cheesy dramatic scenes straight from Hollywood's most terrible films. Avoid. Them. Like. The. Plague.

Maximum Ride, I loved the first one, but when I got to the seventh one and nothing had happened except non-stop action, no conclusions and no explanations, I seem to remember throwing it against the wall. It was like, "Hmm, something else strange and unexplainable has happened, I've got a new magic power, hahaha, let's go to Disneyland, oh no more guys with guns! Fly like the wind!" Over and over and over again.

The Princess Bride would have been good if he hadn't added all that BS about Simon Morgenstern.

When We Were Saints by Han Nolan. Noooo idea what the author was on about there.

I was going to end this by saying I can't really remember any books that I hate, I usually block them from my memory. Then I looked up at alllll those paragraphs and went, "Ohhhhhhh...."

I'd have to say Julie of the Wolves, I forced myself to read it in 4th grade for AR points.
My Side of the Mountain, as you can see I'm not a Jean Craighead George fan.
Skinned by Robin Wasserman, it was the most depressing book ever. Started depressing, got slightly less depressing, then ended more depressing than ever.

So, I've read quite a few bad books in my day, unfortunately.

Now, the worst has GOT to be The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry. Basically it's about these two people: a twelve year old girl and an aging concierge, both who (live/work) in a Paris hotel. Basically, they complain about how much smarter they are than everyone else, and complain about "snobs"...when they're the biggest snobs of all. The funny thing is, they're TERRIFIED of being smart. They try to hide it. The most "suspenseful" scene in the book involves the concierge almost being caught reading a book on philosophy in an apartment she broke into. There's also this bizarre, disturbing fetishism of Japanese culture.

Just all around, an awful, pretentious book.

"100 Years of Solitude" by Marquez.
Worst book ever written... I'm serious... I hated it, hated reading it, more like trying to force myself to read it. It was just... boring and terrible and depressing... and I DID NOT LIKE IT.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman. No structure whatsoever. Just rambled on on....

I'd have to go with You are so undead to me. Dear God, I kind of liked it at the beginning, but the farther I got into it, the more I wanted to put it down and just stop.

Also, there was this anthology called Witch High. Wonderful book, but of course there was one bad apple. It was the last story. The story started by describing about how gorgeous the character was, and how she was the most powerful kid in the school and how all of the students were scared of her and noone wanted to be her friend. Mope, mope, mope. I put it down after the first page. Yes, that was the first page. I couldn't really fathom reading anymore. It made me kind of sad to finish such a wonderful book on such a bad note, but if a story is bad, it's bad. And that story was.


Obviously I dislike the Witch High one more, but I wasn't sure it would count since it was only a short story...

A book called the left hand of god.

I bought it was then like, what the hell is this on about.

I've got a few books that are my worst ever read.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - a boring load of drivel about a man trying to sound metaphorical while talking about darkness and night while riding on a boat up the Congo River with a black crazy woman in search of a crazy man.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong!!

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff - a very strange, very weird book about a girl's relationship with her cousin when war breaks out. Not very descriptive and very bland and just purely wrong.

"100 Years of Solitude" by Marquez.
Worst book ever written... I'm serious... I hated it, hated reading it, more like trying to force myself to read it. It was just... boring and terrible and depressing... and I DID NOT LIKE IT.

bluewaterlily wrote:Vampires?
Seriously! How cliche! *rolls eryes and makes gagging nose*

I don`t care that I` not suppose to say it, but Twilight is the WORST book ever written!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Vampires?
Seriously! How cliche! *rolls eryes and makes gagging nose*

rygel wrote:The worst book I've ever read was... Debatable Space. I can't remember the author's name since it has been so long since I read it. The characters were too basic for the novel and the story kept jumping back and forth so long it was hard to keep up with it

One book I read made me think god would strike me down on the spot. Nobodys princess by I don't remember. I thought I'd like it for the fighting and even though it was Sparta It was medieval and I love those kind of stories about medieval times. But the main character, some beautiful strong heroine princess, talked so much about gods and goddesses! I couldn't go a page without the princess saying something like "I prayed to Adonis" or whoever it was.

The worst book I've ever read was... Debatable Space. I can't remember the author's name since it has been so long since I read it. The characters were too basic for the novel and the story kept jumping back and forth so long it was hard to keep up with it

One book I read made me think god would strike me down on the spot. Nobodys princess by I don't remember. I thought I'd like it for the fighting and even though it was Sparta It was medieval and I love those kind of stories about medieval times. But the main character, some beautiful strong heroine princess, talked so much about gods and goddesses! I couldn't go a page without the princess saying something like "I prayed to Adonis" or whoever it was.
Also The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd. The story was long and It took me 20 minutes to decipher exactly what was happening. The narration was super confusing and The story was patchy.

I loathe these books with a passion:

Hatchet
Julie of The Wolves
Anything by Henry James
2 out of 3 of the unspeakables mentioned in the first post (I'll let you guess which one I like ;D)

Yeah.
Also, I would like to add one thing:
I LIKE Artemis Fowl. A lot. A lot a lot. And Maximum Ride is just a fun read. Admittedly it's stupid at some points, but it's good for picking up at say, an airport or a long drive, when you don't really need to focus too much and just need to rest your eyes on something constant.

The Lovely Bones.

The narrator is boring, and her family's reactions to her death are so cliche. And just why exactly did a, however old the girl was, decide to have sex with a grown man when she had the opportunity to return back to Earth, instead of seeing her family again? The book had bland scenic descriptions and was just horrendous through out. The killer was a joke and the protagonist was like a creepy peeping Tom, watching people's lives from her heaven.

I mean really, she watched her sister have sex, some random teacher, her mother, with a guy who wasn't her husband. And the author called it, "merciful adultery." I mean really, that is such a ridiculous term for such a thing. Why the book was so popular? I have no idea.

I kind of want to say Blue Moon from the Immortals series, but...yeah, I'll say that it is the worst.

The first book in the series, Evermore, was amazing. I loved it. But I really didn't see a need for a second book. I got bored with it halfway through and put it down. And there is even a third book. I haven't even tried the third book, but my friend who read it said it was even worse than the second.

I just hate it when authors ruin an awesome story by adding unnecessary sequels...

Goblin Woods. It has the most boring characters and the plot is slow and choppy. It's inconsistent and the story doesn't flow smoothly like it should. It's a great plot if you summraize it, but the format and the way it was written makes me want to throw it on the ground and set it one fire. If you're looking for a great book, don't read this one.

Ciao!

Mutiny on the Bounty. Read it back in 3rd or 4th grade...definitely 4th because I got it after I read To Kill a Mockingbird. Hated it! Boring, long, and not at all exciting high seas adventure like it should have been. To quote Anon....DO NOT WANT!

Evermore by Alison Noel, hands down. I wanted to stop reading it after the first page, but I had (stupidly) promised a friend I'd read it. I curse myself for not having read the summary before I promised. Basically, it's a really, really bad version of Twilight (and this is coming from a very adament Twilight hater), only instead of reading minds, the main character sees auras. So boring and unoriginal... In fact, that's the only book I've ever thrown across the room, and then upon picking it up, been tempted to throw into the fireplace. So the main character falls in love with a vampire, almost gets killed by another frantic vampire (Victoria, anyone?), and the author doesn't even TRY to hide that it's a Twilight copy-cat. She called the sequel "Blue Moon." The entire book really just disgusted me.

And then there's Aurelia by Anne Osterlund (or something to that effect) which was almost as bad as Twilight. It's just one of those typical books about a princess who doesn't like her privileged life and falls in love with some childhood friend or something like that. Really cliche. I couldn't get passed page 30.

Anyway I must add Stephen Kings It. Yes I went there. Some of his comparisons are too long winded and I can't stand his crass mouth. He compared the males body part to a exclamation point. WHY?

Sorry for the caps but really why?

Whale Singer
I doubt you've even heard of it

THe plot was see-though, the girl was a major Mary-Sue. Go read Whole Rider instead.

I'm going to have to mention Twelve and Thirteen, the second and third books in a trilogy by Lauren Myracle, the woman who wrote those chatroom books. There's a first book called Eleven, which I'm sure is just as equally bad, but I haven't read it so I guess it isn't really fair to put it on the list.

It's basically about this girl called Winnie, and each book last the course of the year, and her age corresponds with the book title. They're all terrible. They have no plot; it just follows a teenage girl's daily life as she gets older with random occurrences taking place, something that Myracle never follows up on. Winnie is a total b**** and completely ungrateful, when they try to make one of her other friends look a jerk. The dialogue is laughable, and the first person narration by Winnie gets tedious. Oh, and the entire thing is so predictable. Do yourselves a favor and don't read those books. That is all.

All this time I was thinking you were American, Prokaryote.

Anyway, I read a few pages of The Scarlet Letter, got bored and stopped reading it.

Cheshire-Writer wrote:You may be surprised but Twilight has been taught in quiet a few schools now.

Prokaryote wrote:

JaneThermopolis wrote:(Btw - I read all the Twilight books because our English teacher made us read them

This is just perverse. I suggest you go before the school board and protest.

JaneThermopolis wrote:(Btw - I read all the Twilight books because our English teacher made us read them

I would have to agree with many others on here. I'm quite an aivd reader, with a keen eye for detail, and if the beginning doesn't hook me, I put it down. If the middle falls apart, I put it down. In short, I don't read crap books at all - at least, not from start to finish!

Okay, so there were two books I was made to read by teachers that I had to slog my way through because they were so boring. Firstly - and don't throttle me for saying this - I didn't enjoy 'Of Mice and Men' in the slightest. Even worse was the film.

The second book that comes to mind is 'The Chocolate War'.

Thankfully, most books I've read have been fantastic - else, I wouldn't have read them.

The worst book I've ever read...Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn by Sarah Miller. It's about this boy (Gideon) who ends up going to this private boarding school where his pot smoking friends challenge him to see how many girls he can have sex with in 4 months.
Really, I know, just by the summary you can probably tell that it was a terrible book. I don't think people would actually say they liked this books unless they were smoking pot (like Gideon's friends).
-Jane

(Btw - I read all the Twilight books because our English teacher made us read them and I've got to say the best one was Eclipse. Eclipse actually has some action and a good plot..New Moon is so depressing and makes me want to become a feminist, and Breaking Dawn kind of creeps me out since Jacob is in love with a little baby. The HP books are definitely better, at least Rowling has some skill and imagination.)

Ok first of all because everybody else is:
1. Twilight - the whole time I was thinking "is this going to get better?"
2.Lord of the Rings - way to wordy!

1.Gaia Girls by Lee Welles! I read them when they first came out and the are the worst thing I have ever read. I couldn't get past the middle of the first one!
2. Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls by Meg Cabot!
I know both these books are the kind you read when you are 7. But even then I HATED them!

I cannot remember the name of the book, but it was set up as if we were reading a play script. I hated it. There was too much dialogue and not enough description. To make it worse, we were forced to read it in school as an assignment. Ug, . I absolutely love books, however when I am made to read one, I cannot seem to get the same effect of it (except if it's one I have already read). The book was about this kid who did not want to say the American National Anthem. It was the only book that I hated on the first chapter.

The worst book I have ever read would be....um.....The Scarlett letter. I couldn't read the first chapter. I think it killed some of my mind.

Okay. THE worst book I have ever read? Well that's easy.

The whole twilight series. they make me sick.

Elfstones of Shannarah by Terry Brooks or its sequels. I managed to drudge through LOTR because it held my interest, but this just put me to sleep.

The worst book I have read is by an Indian bestseller authgor, Chetan Bhagat. The book's name is 'Five Point Someone'. And you would be surprised to know that the film based on the book grossed the highest miney a film here has ever done.But the film's gr8. No doubt about it coz' they have changed a lot.

OK, I am going to commit literacy sacrilage and say this(sorry for breaking the rule) Harry Potter (spits in abosulute discugst). The thing is that the characters aren't that belivable, the story gets way too complicated half way through and for most of the way through the last book, Harry is very depressing. I had to put it down and start reading the Skulduggery Pleasentseries (Which is, infact, a better read...)

The Shack.

Oh My Gpd. Today during study hall we had to read our English book, which is October Sky AKA Rocket Boys (amazing book might I add), I had already finished it so my teacher gave me the book she was currently reading. A seperate peace is the most boring book in the universe. Litteraly. I sucked that much. Its about two boys growing up in New England going to boarding school during WW2. REALLY BORING!! STAY AWAY!! CAUTION! CAUTION!

The worst book I ever read is The Fire Within in the Dragon Series by Chris D'Lacey. It was horrible. You know the saying "don't judge a book by its cover"? Well I didn't listen. The Fire Within had an amazing book cover and I couldn't resist. The cover had an amazing detailed picture of a dragon. Even though I knew nothing about the books I wanted to get the series. Finally, one day, I found the book series in the local library and I was so excited! And then I brought them home and read the first book, it was horrible! Believe it or not the darn thing was about squirrels! Not kidding! Needless to say I didn't read the rest of the series. And I never intend to.

Twilight.

To tell you just how horrendous I think it was I did not get further than a few sentences. Seriously, I was like, what is this? The writing was so odd. I think I could have written a better opening with my eyes closed.

Sadly, I did finish the other books. They were somewhat easier to read. And I learned that vampires should never be allowed to be shiny. But, the series does make for a great parody, even though it already is a parody of itself.

The Wheel of Time series.

I kept plugging away and finally read
book four The Shadow Rising.
Thing is... the characters don't do much changing.

Ugh worse books ever:

Across Five Aprils-SNORE, I used this to help me go to sleep on nights where I was hyped up on Monster and Red Bull

Jacob have I Loved-Pedophilia if I ever saw it

The Girls- AHHHHHH!!!! This should have a DANGER DANGER CAUTION BEWARE OF TERRIBLENESS sign on it

The Cheat-OMG! The WALL was more interesting than this!

Elsewhere-WTF? A waste of 10 bucks. Litterally I went back to store and said that and returned it.

Personally, I hate Shimmer by Dallas Reed. I mean, the actual story wasn't that bad, but the writing was really repetitive and annoying. Plus, the characters were either, cliche, unrealistic, boring, annoying, or all of the above.

Terrible book...I don't want to talk about it.

I generally like to read classic novels and such, but by force (e.g. my English class), I was able to read two books which I most certainly disliked. Those were "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson and "Nothing But the Truth" by Avi Wortis. There was no message or theme in the second book, and the first book was about a girl falling in love with someone as old as her grandfather. The author described a scene, where this girl stands in the boat with her "crush", so-to-say, and then she hugs this poor old man - with butterflies in her stomach and such. I'm sorry, but that's a little creepy. I understand that the character was raised loveless, but that doesn't mean that she needs to act this way to get attention and have love with this character instead. As it turns out, the girl's grandmother has also been in love with him when the man was younger. The thing that bothers me most is that both books got awards for educating the young about the life they're about to live. I don't understand how critics got away with this, sorry. Did anybody else read these two novels?

I know many fell in love with this book the time travelers wife but, i was deeply disappointed. There was almost no romance and their connection was based on sexual attractions. I didnt fall in love with the caharcters and the ending of the book one of the characters randomly changed drastically. Maybe i just thought it was going to be amazing. I havent seen the movie yet but, i want to watch it but i hope it will be better than the book.

The Mortal Instruments Series (City of Bones/City of Ashes/City of Glass), I read the first chapters of all of them. Uh... Extremely unrealistic, totally hate Clary and Jace, such annoying characters.

And I think I really dislike The Uglies, atleast teh first couple of chapters. I couldn't get into them at first, but I was spenidn the night over at a friends and she practically held me down and forced me to read it. Got better towards the end, however.

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'engle
I just thought it was so boring and stupid, and uncreative. Jeez!
Nearly all of the books in my school library. So cliche, so everyday boringness. I guess that's what I get for going to a private Catholic school...

The worst book I have ever read has got to be Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Sorry Dickens fans...) It was exceptionally dull.

Twilight, I gave up after a few sentences.

I'd have to go with every book I've ever read as a child before high school.
But in recent times it was the vampire series by darren shan. It was okay in the beginning and I could CIRQUE DU FREAK! There we go.
But anyways, so I tried to read it, but once I got to like, the fifth book, I couldn't take it. Vampire Mountain? Seriously? I like The Demonata thought. <3

Oh boy. This is a hard one! I have read ALOT of atrocious books in my life. But out of the ones i remember most, "Across Five Aprils" would have to be my least favorite. It got sooooooooo boring! I would NEVER read it again!

Fellow wrote:The worst book(s) ever read by me - Narnia series. I finished all 7 off them in 2 days -.-` and i had hard time following the action and the characters...

Okay I'm sorry, I had to comment again.
The Series of Unfortunate Events is absolutely hilarious and I love Lemony Snicket to death. He's brilliant, I tell you.

GOOD GOD!!! I consider it a SIN to say that the Lord of the Rings was a BAD BOOK!!! Holy crap, that is one of the most wrong statements I have ever heard. Tolkein was a freaking genius. The only reason his writing seems boring today is because we've all become dulled in our pathetic society, and we are practically attention deficit. I mean, when it first came out, did you know it was the SECOND MOST READ BOOK AFTER THE BIBLE???? Cause it was. I mean, I'm not just pointing fingers at everyone in our society, I admit that I'm attention deficit too, and I find stuff like that boring at times, but there is no way you can say that the Lord of the Rings was the worst book you've ever read!!!

I'm sorry, I must apologize for my rather heated response there. I'm very much in love with Tolkein and the Lord of the Rings, and therefore I'm very defensive about it all.

Anyways, one of the worst books I've read was Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. I didn't really see the point to it, I couldn't enjoy or relate to any of the characters, and the writing wasn't exactly phenomenal either. I really did not have fun reading it. Now, I'm sure I've read much much worse books then that, but they're probably not worth mentioning anyways.

ps. HARRY POTTER IS FRICKING AMAZING

Brisingr

By far the brickiest and most boring of the Inheritance Cycle so far.

Ha ha. I heard it was bad. Apparently it was too condescending, did you get a sense of that, too?
I want to continue reading that series, but the negative reviews of the book put me off.

The Final Warning by James Patterson. Oh, the horror! It lacked voice, was too cliche, the plot was totally unrelated to the Maximum Ride series and overall, it was a horrible novel. I'd be embarrassed to call myself a writer if my name was on the title of that book.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Well, it's probably not the worst, but it's the worst I've read recently. It was just kind of boring and all through the book I was waiting for it to really start. Does that sound weird?

You know, when you read a book and you keep waiting for things to start happening and the intro to end, but it doesn't.

But because you keep wondering if eventually it does pick up, you keep reading. Brain damage. Don't fall for it.

I just read this post over, and it struck me that there are a lot of italics.

It's just a phase folks, I'll get over it.

~Mel

The House of Night Novels for now. I'm tacking up more books on the list. It does to a point have an okay story, but the stereotypes make it a god awful book.

The Harry Potter books. They were all terrible! J.K. Rowling is such a terrible author, and I hated those books! Aagh!

Just kidding.

American Wife by Curtis Stiffenfield. First, that was freaking boring. One of the reasons on why I don't usually read biographies. Second, that was um- too graphic? Tsk, tsk. Chucked that aside since.

I think it's fair to say that all of our first books written (or short story, novella, etc.) all sucked in one way or another...no use denying that now. But that's what's cool about being able to look back over ten years and see the improvements you've made. It's a great feeling.

~Volant~ wrote:

Eimear wrote:My first book I ever wrote.

It was horrendous, really, very bad.

However I hear the writer is very good looking so that makes up for it.


XD

XD omg so very very true!!! My first book S-U-C-K-E-D. It was titled "Evil Unicorns" that's how bad it sucked. lol!

Hmmmmm...
I would definitely have to say "Just In Case" by Meg Rosoff. It's about a psychotic boy who thinks fate is out to get him, so he tried to escape it by changing his name and running away. It's boring, with an obviously psychotic boy, to whom a series of events happen that are completely unconvincing.
Do NOT read, on pain of supreme irritation, and danger to others: you may be prone to throw the book.

In my opinion, there are two books that tie for the title of worst book ever. Space Trap by Monica Hughes, and Luke Baldwin's Vow by Morley Callaghan. I had to read them for school, and I basically just skimmed them for answers after the first couple pages because they were so terrible... They were the most boring, irritating books ever!

*kicks the person who didn't like LOTR* I actually like that book now. I guess I'm cured of a bad case of twisted judgment. My current least favorite book is City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare. XO It was just Twilight with a better vocabulary and maybe a subplot or two. I think I'll go throw up, now... It was terrible!!!!

The first that pops into my head is "3 mistakes of my life" by Chetan Bhagat. It was a pure waste of 200 pages. I actually gave up after 2 chapters. I bought the book thinkng it'd be good as his previous 2 books were good.
And then, I don't like "Persuasion" (I can hear a bunch of lit freaks yelling "No Way!" but I just don't. Live with it.) I'm not anti-Jane Austen, I just don't like this book.

I honestly can't remember the name of it. I was looking for a book to read in 6th grade and i found this one book that looked good cause someone got murdered in it. It was like over 200 pages of nothing. In the beginning the guy got stabbed in the back cause he told someone he liked his shoes, then the rest of the book was just the guy floating around the town seeing his old friends and meeting some other ghost girl. Very slowly they start dissapearing body part by body part. In the end they were about to dissapear to probably heaven. Trust me, VERY BORING.

have anyone read "The City of Falling Angels"?

The title was captivating.. super.. but the content?!?! haha.. it's just like a diary written by a foreigner who, for the first time, saw Venice...

It's all about his 'unadventurous stay' in Venice stating all the building he saw, and stating all those whom he met! there are like.. tons of names written there.. I love the place.. but the story he made out of it.. BORING..

when I really got bored in reading chapter 3.. I turned the page to the "Author's Note"... stupid me.. the book was a non-fiction.. every name and places stated were real......

why give it such a TITLE??...

he really got me there!.. ahahhaha.. ^^

Well I think it was a novel written by Ahlam AlMustganmi (Algerian writer)

I'd have to say Witch Season. I found the descriptions depthless, the characters boring, and the plot absolutely dreadful. Who's with me?

Same here. I loved the Artemis Fowl series. Admitedly, it was my younger brother who introduced the first book to me and it took me a while to get my head around the concept, but when I did, I enjoyed every little bit!

Other than that, I won't say I hated, but I extremely disliked GENESIS by Bernard Beckett. There was so much philosphy in there that I had a bad headache by the time I was through. Plus, not much happens in real time. The MC is retelling the entire story behind a closed door to Examiners who will jugde her on the extent of her knowledge.

In a nutshell, it was utterly boring and a waste of time. No spoilers, but the ending was horrible and completely uncalled for.

HC wrote:Bit upset to hear Artemis Fowl mentioned! I'm very, very ashamed to say I LOVE those books -- mostly ashamed since they are probably meant for a slightly younger audience. But good books nonetheless. Have yet to read the Time Paradox, so I can't really say anything about that... As for how anyone can like little Arty -- you just kind of wish you were that smart, I guess. And his humane side does come out a bit more in the Arctic Incident.

Eimear wrote:My first book I ever wrote.

It was horrendous, really, very bad.

However I hear the writer is very good looking so that makes up for it.


XD

Krupp wrote:I guess I'm confused more than hateful. Doesn't Silmarillion drag on more than the Fellowship did? Maybe it's just me..

The Talisman.

H-A-T-E doesn't even begin to describe the boredom I felt. My friend told me it was so good, and would get better as it went along... but I couldn't even stand the two chapters. Full of boring!

We had a quick thirty second

The worst book I ever read is probably Across Five Aprils. It is about a sixteen year old that fights for the Union even though he was a Confederate. I don't read very many bad books though. The second worst book I ever read is probably Spongbob camp firejokes I can not remember its real name, but thats what it is about. I was 4 when I read it.

Hm....I've narrowed it down to three.

Twilight series. All of it. :p
Dragons of Autumn Twilight. or something like that. Rapid mood changes, cheesy lines, no flow, and a baaaaad magic system.
Hexwood. I got about halfway through and then all the time paradox and such got really confusing...and I wasn't interested enough to make sense of it lol.

Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O'Brien. I think that's the right author, but it was just awful... I barely remember why, but it was something to do with the MC being totally pathetic. All I know is, along the way I managed to somehow endear myself to the English teacher, despite it being her favourite book and me slating it the entire time, and I will forever remember it as the worst book I ever read. I couldn't find one negative thought about it on the net, though, so I wonder if anyone else has read it?

I'm really surprised at some of the books people name on here. I mean, I expected Eragon, Twilight, even Harry Potter (I'm not that big a fan myself), but Tolkein and Lord of the Flies? Still, it's interesting.

Mr.Knightley wrote:I know some people will hate me, but I didn't like the Fellowship of the Ring. I've heard so much impossible praise forit, and from so many great authors, that I had to read it. Well, I ended up hating it. I love the setting and the storyline, bu the way it was written was just plain bad! It didn't really give me a clear picture, and the chapters dragged on and on. The one part I did love, though, was the chapters with Tom Bombadil, but I think everybody loves that part.

That being said, I'm not a hater of Tolkien. One of my all time favorite book is the Silmarillion, which goes so in depth into the world Middle-Earth.

Hate me if you want.

I know some people will hate me, but I didn't like the Fellowship of the Ring. I've heard so much impossible praise forit, and from so many great authors, that I had to read it. Well, I ended up hating it. I love the setting and the storyline, bu the way it was written was just plain bad! It didn't really give me a clear picture, and the chapters dragged on and on. The one part I did love, though, was the chapters with Tom Bombadil, but I think everybody loves that part.

That being said, I'm not a hater of Tolkien. One of my all time favorite book is the Silmarillion, which goes so in depth into the world Middle-Earth.

Hate me if you want.

I don't like Harry Potter, Eragon, or Twilight earthier.

I'll leave out Breaking Dawn which was horrible...

Jane Eyre- I liked the film adaption so I thought I would give the book ago but seriosuly, I just could not find a passion for it.(I may actually re-read someday)
Great Expectations- (zzzzz)

Can't think of anymore right now though

Has anyone read "Witch" and "Curse" by Nancy holder and Debbie Viguie? I hate those books. They make no sense at all and there's no emotion in any of the 500 pages. The story switches from past to present and back again so much that it drove me crazy trying to read it. And the "magic" just isn't logical.

xD Wow, there are more of me out there? I thought I was alone.
And just one other complaint about that series:
In the third series of the, er, series, there is this character called Jaypaw. He is blind. Basically, all you ever hear is, "Why doesn't anyone treat me like I'm normal?" and then someone treats him like he's normal, and then all you hear is, "But I'm blind! I need the extra help!" it's endlessly frustrating. I mean, I'm all for flawed characters, but all this guy does is angst, yell at his friends and family, angst, get in trouble, angst.

I'm reading part of the Magyk series. It's fantasy, but it's all with castles and princesses and stuff. It's pretty boring stuff, when we've heard it all before :L

Im only reading it because i like to finish books.

It's a poorman's Harry Potter.

I agree Lucinda, I didn't like the Warriors series at all. A lot of people love the books but I don't understand why. The characters had zero personality and they all blended together for me. And I just didn't get why cats would band together in a "clan." I could see feral dogs forming a pack, maybe, but why would cats live together? And the "warrior's code" was really dumb too.

I'll leave out Twilight, 'cause I'm sure you've already heard that rant.
The worst book I've ever read is Warrior Cats (and the others in the series). The main character, Firepaw, is a total Gary-Stu, and most of the other characters don't have much personality at all. This creates a problem because the characters are
1. Introduced so quickly and then leave so quickly
2. Have similar names
3. All talk in the same manner
that I couldn't remember them *at all*. Also, the book has some bad cases of purple prose.
And also, this really bothers me: I understand cats to be pretty indepentant and flighty, so *why* would they adhere to a code that says where they can and can't go, what they can and can't do, who they can and can't fall in love with...it just doesn't make any sense.
So...yeah. I'll be hiding behind my chair now.

The Riddle by someone not worth my small memory space.
It was just..... Boring!

And trust me Never ever ever ever ever ever ever read "Autobiography of a Face" by Lucy Grealy.
Had to read it during school. Never again. My friends destroyed their copy when it was done.
Seriously i should too

The Villa, by Nora Roberts. Supposedly, it's supposed to be a romance, but I'll never know. 150 pages into it, and she's still introducing all of the characters at an auction thingamabob. Few pages dedication to talking about Joe Doe, then a few talking about Jane Joe, and then some talking about John Smith, etc. It goes on and on and on and on. I stopped while still in the middle of the character introductions, so can't vouch for the actually story part of it. As far as the book goes though, I think it's a bust.

Robert Newcomb's The Fifth Sorceress. Regurgitated Hero's Journey knockoff made notable by its misogyny, homophobia and Nazism.

I've already said The Handmaid's Tale, but I just read something nearly as bad. It was Area 7 by Matthew Reilly. If you want to know how bad it is, here's something he said in an interview at the back of the book:

if developing characters slows down the action, then developing characters gets the chop.

The worst book I ever read was Missing May. It was horrible
It was about a girl whose mom died and her dad made windmill things. It
was awful

sunnygirl40

I can't really make up my mind. I think it has to be "Body and Blood" by Michael...eh, I can't spell his last name.

Anyways, I particularly love romance. But there was too much sex. There has to be when the main characters do the deed within 15 minutes of meeting each other. Plus, the characters were depression to the max. Made me want to scream at the publisher who had the sense to publish a work as bad as that. Dear God...

Cade wrote:The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I'm serious. Worst thing I've ever read. I got it for Christmas.

I feel a self obligation to finish books. Because usually I've paid for them and even if I haven't; I do it out of respect of the author. You can't fully judge a book until you've seen the entire picture.
And I've read so many terrible books..... I'm going to say PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Fiollet. I bought it because it had an OPRA'S BOOK CLUB AWARD! Sticker on the front. But it was nine-hundred pages of miserable characters that I hated completeley.
And it was, nasty,nasty, nasty gruesome. The kind of thing that would be rated XXX if posted here. Just really awful.
But even bad books have their ups. The plot was so complex, i felt smart for comprehending it. It was set in the Middle Ages; but it showed how over-simplified most power struggles set in that time period are. There wasn't one battle between two people; there was nine hundred, each a win for a different side and each pretaining to different things. It was written by a well-known historian so I suppose that is understandable.
Pillars of the Earth. Don't read it if you're squeamish.
Oh! and I thought Series of Unfortunate Events was sublime; a word which here means "everyone who does not agree with me is an idiot."

mtempleton wrote:
I really can't say Twilight? Fine. New Moon was the worst anyway. Until Eclipse...

Aaagh. How can you dislike Mortal Engines? It was my favourite book as a kid. I don't even care that Shrike was the Terminator and that the next three books sucked in comparison.

As for my least favourites...
I read some Dr Who and Star Wars adaptations. Don't ask me why. If you're looking for a proper book, there's an author called Catherine McPhail. It was something about a cave... and a giant worm? That was dire.

I really can't say Twilight? Fine. New Moon was the worst anyway. Until Eclipse...

Pretty Crazy - I think the book you're talking about is 'Only you can save mankind' By Terry Pratchet (Did I spell his name right?) I really enjoyed it and-That's not the point is it. Back to topic.

Umm, let me think...worst books...

Bog-child (not sure who wrote it)
The Mortal Engines (series) by Philip Reeve

And that's all I can think of at the moment-Oh wait! The Hunger Games (not sure who wrote it)

Afeefah

On my own time
Gone by Michael Grant

It had bad writing, the characters were flat and acted out of their age. The prose was repetetive, and the dialogue was just plain silly. I was about to slap one of the people for always using surfer lingo.

At school.

The Grapes of Wrath. I just don't like Steinbeck in general but this was so boring.

It was some Agatha Christie book.I just read a few pages and stopped at that.Boring beginning.

OK, so one of the worst books I've read is Eldest(the second book in the inheritance series) and a book that I think only one person knows about it and that might be me and obviously the author: "The gavedigger's daughter" by Joyce Carol Oates it's so awfully boring!! and ther's another one that Ican't even remember it's name because it was so stupid, I only know it talked about tessellation and weird stuff and humans who turned into unicorns.

Crazy!

I know which book you're talking about! I read it a long time ago, and when I did a reivew for it for school, the teacher had NO idea what I was talking about and I said "Welcome to how I felt for that entire book!"

The guy's uncle made the computer game based on his childhood where the MC stays now or something... Piece of rubbish.

Worst book... I wouldn't even put Twilight here, because it wasn't the worst. I can't even think what the worst was. I just wanted my 2cents worth!

I must say, I'm rather shocked about some of the books people hate (Slaughter-House Five, To Kill a Mockingbird, His Dark Materials, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies).

And then there are the books that certainly weren't my favorite, but I do think people were a bit harsh on (City of Ember, Maximum Ride, Elsewhere, etc.). First of all, these books aren't exactly written on a very high reading level, and second of all, they're really just what I call beach reads, something to keep you occupied on vacation while you're just hanging out.

A lot of the books I really hate are on here already.

The Pearl was terrible. Steinbeck described all the wrong things I felt. I had no empathy with the characters, yet he described some crab on the beach for an entire page.

I wanted to kill myself reading Across Five Aprils. Same goes for Number the Stars. Both of those books had no climax so far as I was concerned. I didn't think it was possible to read a boring war story, but apparently I was wrong.

The House of Night series made me want to vomit. It started out as something that could have been good, but it was just horrid. The writing was bad, as well as having an unoriginal and stupid plot. It was really just another book about teenage vampires. And most times it barely even dealt with being a vampire! It was basically a book about high school, plus some vampire stuff on the side, but mostly about the girl's social life.

Okay! This has been killing me!!! Arrggghhhh!!! How can the Gemma Doyle series end up here! "The Worst Book You've Ever Read" *dies* "A Great and Terrible Beauty" is one of my favourite books. Libba Bray is an amazing writer and she doesn't stick anything that isn't related to the actual book. Although, the realms in the 3rd book did get a little tiring.

A few minutes later and somewhat composed.

How did Anne Rice end up here? Okay, interview with the Vampire is a little too descriptive, but it is such a riveting read. Ha ha, it's probably the first book where I also love the film too. *squeals* Lestat!

Lemony Snicket series. Okay, I'm getting angry just thinking about it. Why does he have to go and explain the words like it's a dictionary rather than a supposedly interesting book (series)??? I KNOW what it means okay! Can we move on now?

Darren Shan series. I thought it was pretty cool - in primary school. re-read it and was like: oh dear lord, the patronising tone kills. Cheshire-Writer - You are so right - it is such a Gary-Stu story.

Dum de dum de dum... what have we next. *goes upstairs to her bookshelf* One minute!

Back!

Okay: Shadowmancer. Seriously preachy stuff going on there.

Lionboy - I don't really know as I think I read one page or something and .. didn't read the rest.

Swallows and Amazons - might be amazing. I don't know. I attempted it quite a few years back and found it to be the dullest thing I'd ever laid eyes on. But maybe as I'm maturer now (ha!) I might get into it... o_O

Ha ha ha, last but not least. When I was a Doctor Who freak (am not now as I seriously can't stand the &£@#) I got a few books. So, Doctor Who: Winner Takes All.
There's this once scene where it is *groan* Mary Sue! The writer is Jacqueline Rayner. And there's a character called Robert and he sees Rose (yes, that's how old it is) and is like... Well, here's the bit that was Mary Sue to me:

[spoiler]And then the second person came out of the box, and Robert forgot all about the man, and all about Sarah the blonde sneering girl, and about his mum, **who was taken away by aliens and there was a rumour saying they got eaten!! I mean, sheesh! Nice character - not** and even all about Suzie Price, because this was the girl he was going to love forever. **freak. This one goes for looks instead of personality >:| As the reader I was not amused.** She was totally beautiful and utterly cool and just, well, perfect. **Seethes at the writer's terrible attempt at trying to sound like a teen. Just terrible!** She was probably about eighteen or nineteen, but that wouldn't matter because he was really mature for his age, **I don't think so** and she had dark blonde hair past her shoulders and a wide, smiling mouth that was even more desirable that Sarah the blonde sneering girl's, and as she left the blue box her eyes met his and she smiled, and he knew that she felt it too, the connection between them. **The only brilliant thing here is his imagination. Sheesh!**[/spoiler]

Oh well. I think that's done.

And I didn't even mention Twilight.

Ooops.

~Emma

The worst book I have ever read was about a computer game that came to life and a boy had to save the aliens or something like that. I read the whole thing, giving it every chance to get better but it didn't. I can't remember the name of it, but boy was it dumb! So from now on I make sure I'm positive I like the book before borrowing it from the library.

No wait, I remember one, but I can't remember the authors name. The name of the book was Feather Boy, or something like that.

alwaysawriter wrote:Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer (The beginning was too confusing)

Worst book ever Flush! I hate it. It is the crappiest book ever.

goldcomet wrote:Ishmael. Its about a monkey (that talks) that tells the world how mankind is viewed from another perspective (Stranger in a Strange Land??) a whole bunch of philosophical fluff, basically.

Moody wrote:Lord of the Flies is one of the worst books I've read. It seems like the whole reason it was written was to be studied in school, not to be enjoyed.

Lord of the Flies is one of the worst books I've read. It seems like the whole reason it was written was to be studied in school, not to be enjoyed.

There are actually several books that I couldn't stand.

1. The Wind In The Willows-couldn't stand it! i read 100 pages of it and put it down.
2. The Lord of the Flies- i got totally sick of all the symbology that was supposed to be represented. plus the teacher who taught it to us was crazy, and she probably ruined it for me.
3. Fahrenheit 451-it was an interesting concept, but it bored the heck out of me.
4. A Separate Peace- soooooooo boring! the ending was sad though...but the rest of it..urgh! i had to read it for school.

Hyunthesosarian wrote:My university's writing publication is pretty atrocious -- you have prose wanting to be poems and poems wanting to become prose -- the end result is a bunch of esoteric slip that basically says, "Yeah, bad stuff happened after I got drunk."

My university's writing publication is pretty atrocious -- you have prose wanting to be poems and poems wanting to become prose -- the end result is a bunch of esoteric slip that basically says, "Yeah, bad stuff happened after I got drunk."

Slaughterhouse 5.

-Jared

A passage to india by EM Forester. Don't hate me but ugh...dreary narrative of an otherwise memorable story and the ideas may have been ground breaking at the time but have been superceeded. Too bad, I was expecting it to be much more enjoyable

"We Can Build You" by Philip K. Dick

I like Dick. I like him a lot. His books are funky and futurustic and thought-provoking. This book, though... This book is awful. I liked the premise. It got a little loopy in parts, but it's an interesting plot. Then there's the end. It just stops. Nothing gets resolved. I wanted more. I wanted to keep reading. But instead, it stops.

To be fair, even with more resolution at the ending, it wouldn't be a great book. Without it, though, it's a pointless read.

That said, go read a Dick novel though. It's good stuff. Just avoid this one at all costs.

The House of Night series by Pc Cast and Kristen Cast.

Could not stand these books at all. I'm pretty open to books, even those that many others haven't enjoyed. However, Zoey(the main character) annoyed me to the point that the damn books gave me a migraine to read. Her narrative sounds so much like a cliched sixteen year old that I just couldn't finish the series. A lot of others in my grade enjoyed these books, and I just can't see where they could be coming from.

Maybe if a different character had been the narrator I might have enjoyed the series. But, I didn't.

Palip wrote:i cant believe some of u say eragon and harry potter are amongst the worst books, theyre some of D BEST BOOKS ever to be written. Anyway, I don't read books I don't like; if the beginning is boring, I put it down immediately. Please don't take offence about my eragon and harry potter comment, every1s got his opinion

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the worst book I've ever read.

I don't mind women's lib, it was just a flat-out poorly executed book imo. Too preachy.

i cant believe some of u say eragon and harry potter are amongst the worst books, theyre some of D BEST BOOKS ever to be written. Anyway, I don't read books I don't like; if the beginning is boring, I put it down immediately. Please don't take offence about my eragon and harry potter comment, every1s got his opinion

thunder_dude7 wrote:

ANCIENTS:

The Odyssey = minor death.

I'm doing that book for a school project - I love it. It is a bit hard to understand, but that's because it's really an epic poem, not a novel. As such, it has to be read as a poem. Otherwise, you just end up getting irritated by it.

But I love it. It does start out kind of slow, but once you get to the part where Odysseus(butchered spelling) recalls his story, it's great.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood has to be the worst book ever. I'm reading it for English at the moment and I can't read any more than 10 pages at a time because it's so boring. Did the author ever hear about plot?

Then when it looks like it may be getting slightly interesting, it goes off saying "I remember the time..."

By the time the flashback is over you've forgotten what was going on. You can't tell what's a flashback and what's happening now. What's wrong with chronological order?

Anyway, that's my rant over. I haven't read Twilight or Eragon so I can't comment there. Harry Potter was good, especially the last one.

This might cause some controversy around here as I know there are several fangirls/fanboys but Twilight was easily the worst book I've ever read in my life. The author was smart, the book was so intelligently laid out and marketed for the teenage demographic. However, the plot was horrible; I'm pretty sure Disney made sequels have a much better story than Twilight. To think I lost a bet on purpose to teach my friend a lesson...but did the tables turn on me. This is the last time I'm going to wager my mind, body and soul...I would rather be a crackwhore....

Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin.

Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin.

I thought the concept was really interesting (once you die, you go to this sort of limbo-afterlife and steadily grow younger until you're reborn on Earth) and there were some good moments, but I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters. Zevin had a really detached style throughout the book, almost monotonous, to me. I'm going to try another of her books, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, and I hope not to be as disappointed.

And as for Maximum Ride, I completely agree. I thought the characters were actually very interesting a pretty well-developed too, and I loved Max's narrative voice, but the moment he threw in 'the moral of the story' he lost me. I don't read books to be preached to. I read them to be entertained, however haughty that might sound.

And the Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty being the first book) was a disappointment also. I managed to get through the first book fairly satisfied, but I always get bored in the middle of Rebel Angels and I can't bring myself to finish. I've re-started numerous times with the same result.

Don't go bashing HP.

ANCIENTS:

The Odyssey = minor death.

I rather liked Turnabout. True, not her best work, but still not the worst book. I'm also a bit of a fan of The Giver.

But everyone's entitled to their own opinions. *Shrugs*

And yes, I like the HP books too.

The Bronze Bow

I don't know who the author is but I did not like that book. I thought it was very boring and kinda dumb.

I also read a trilogy--fantasy genre--but for the life of my I do not remember the titles or even the authors name. But I thought they were the worst books ever. I didn't have a favourite character, they all irratated me. The only character I liked was in the second book and he ended up dying at the end.

"Turnabout" by Margaret Peterson Haddix.. I love her books, but this one was horrifyingly confusing and I had to keep rereading pages before I got the general jist of it.. I've tried to read it several times, but I've just given up on it! xD

I used to be obsessed with Twilight in a nearly psychopathic way, until I kind of got over the "OMG he's so sweet!" phase and reread. Then I noticed her writing was kind of.. blah?

Um, don't kill me for asking, but what's wrong with Harry Potter?

The Wings of Merlin, by T. A. Barron. I don't know what possessed me to read it through, but I did, and when I looked back, I realized how closely it resembled a badly written copy of LOTR and Narnia mixed up. Tolkien would be ashamed. xD

Also, if I may throw it in, The Giver by Lois Lowry. The only part I liked was the part where--oh, wait, I'd be giving it away. Glad I caught that. 'Hem, 'hem. Anyways, there was one bit I liked, and the rest, ugh. Hardly any character development at all, and that that there was never failed to be abominably cliche.

So there we go.

-SELA

I remember reading that back in fifth grade! I thought it was cool back then.

Probably because all the main character does is swear or smoke, but...

Tithe by Holly black.

I absolutely hated that one. It made very little sense, and all the main character ever does is swear and smoke. there's no depth to any of the characters.

I forgot to mention this awhile ago but one of the worst books I have read is Cut by Particia Mccormick

http://www.amazon.com/Cut-Patricia-Mccormick/dp/0439324599

This book lacked real depth and emotion. The MC cutting issues are only a gimmick and her reason for cutting is just.... lame.

I think this book has been mentioned before but I still felt I should give my vote on it.

James Patterson's Maximum Ride series.

Those books broke my heart. Thing is, the idea's pretty good and the characters have room for some seriously interesting flaws, if only he'd bother to develop them.
Instead, he chose to mass-produce books with a "good message," aimed the series toward tweens/younger teens, and digressed hugely from the original plot line. I still muck around in the fandom, but I just wish the concept for MR had been given to a better writer. The books are full of plot holes, don't make sense, don't follow any sort of timeline, and have no character development whatsoever.
Just because you're writing for teens doesn't mean you can write books that require the antithesis of thought, Mr. Patterson.

/rant

The worst book I've read?
Don't die, my love by Lurlene McDaniel was really terrible.
She's like, one of those writers that come out with cruddy books every few months, and you can tell she's kind of old because she does not understand teenagers.
I mean, I make an effort of finishing books that I've started, but it was impossible to get past the fourth chapter.
Please, if you want to protect your mind from terrible literature, please, and I repeat, please, do not read most of the stuff she writes.
I learned the hard way.

Not sure if this really counts, but Eye of Argon was laughably terrible. It was bad enough that I initially mistook it for a parody.

Um... The Old Man and the Sea. It wasn't necessarily bad. Just incredibly dry, dull, and lacking in subtlety. If you insist on making a metaphorical novella, Hemingway, you could at least make it less blatantly obvious from page one. =_= I did not enjoy reading this book in the least. Every other page made me want to kick puppies.

Nope, it's by Barbara Conklin. I love how it got great reviews on Amazon.com, while I hate it.

Not the Celia Ahern one then? (the one that Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler with his awful accent star in the adaptation of)... I've never read Celia Ahern, but I would have to defend her because, well, I want her dad to be President .

A really short book I picked up from my grandmother's basement: P.S. I Love You.

No, it has nothing to do with the movie starring Hillary Swank.

It lacked emotion! When a character died, I was crying because I felt sadness for the character, while the person who was "in love" with the deceased character showed a very poor reaction. The author tried to capture sadness, but it didn't work.

Then, in the the beginning, they meet, introduce themselves, and boom- they're in love. There was no initial attraction- just two characters poorly thrown together.

Okay, I'm back for some more defending of books:

-somebody mentioned Emma, which I can't believe. I absolutely adored that book! I thought it was her best novel- although I'm yet to read Mansfield Park.

-The Catcher in the Rye. When I first started this book, I gave up. I found out we had to read it for school and I thought "oh... no..." But I really enjoyed it, and I know I wasn't the only one. People who never usually read, and just mess about in free classes actually spent their time with their nose in the book. We asked our Bio teacher what happened to ducks and fish when the pond freezes over. I heard one of the girls, who I would consider sort of fake, saying how she hadn't sung as well as she could have at her last feis because she usually sings classic and that was popular music, and she hated the girls who sang in the popular music category because they were so phony. My friend told me she loved the book because she was a female version of Holden Caulfield. We changed one of the guy's names to Holden as a joke because he was so whiny.

I think you need a good teacher to help you through it, but I thought it was really enjoyable...

-A Great and Terrible Beauty -I just don't understand why you didn't like this, whoever said that...

Now, some bad books...

The Case of the Cottingley Fairies. The case has always intrigued me, but this was just a guy trying to persuade you that fairies (which he called "nature spirits) were real, and that you could see the little girl's aura in the picture- one of the pictures, mind, that the girls had admitted was a fixed one. He annoyed me so much I never read to the end. I couldn't believe it when he said that "Fairytale: A True Story" was based on his book. I loved that film.

Uh... Watership Down certainly wasn't the worst book I ever read, I just didn't understand the hype about it. It started out interesting and just... not that it was bad, but...

Little House in the Big Woods. I think I was prejudiced against it because my mum made me read it but mostly I think the people just really annoyed me. Then again, I was about eight and maybe I didn't fully appreciate it or whatever, but I've never liked it since. Mum adores them though, if that counts for anything...

The Vampire Diaries
by L.J. Smith

It's not that its written poorly, just that there are inconsistencies and the fact that the characters assume so much (at least in the beginning) about Stefan it annoys me.
I mean really I got the fact that he was supposed to be "romantic" the first time she said it, she didn't need to say it another 2 times (maybe more) in 3 paragraphs...Not to mention he is "romantic" because:
A. He lives in a boarding house with an old lady.
B. He "is thought" to have a terminal illness...(really? That's romantic--tragic sure, but romantic?)
C. (Extension of B) He refused to take his "mask" off during class. Which I get its her writing thing, but really--just say he's wearing aviators.

True, I do have a personal objection to Stefan:
A. He feels bad about drinking a rabbit's blood--really? Man you're supposed to be a vampire...
B. He has "the devil's curly hair." (Thank you Simpson's)

And as an objection to the writing, with in 4 pages she contradicts herself. He has *see above quote* hair, and then 4 pages later he has wavy hair. True from how its written it's only an assumption, but it also seems to go from short--to long. Maybe its a vampire power?

I'm still struggling to finish the first two books; mind you not, because they're above my reading level, but they're just so...bleh.

Could just be me though...

What happened to no twilight harry potter or eragon?

Even more irritating then the people who brought them up anyways, the people who mentioned an individual book out of a series, ignoring the fact that still counts as bringing them up or those who mentioned them said stupid stuff like "oh we can't mention that?".

Need to tell you people who did mention them this...
NOBODY and I do mean NOBODY cares if you hate those books anymore. We've all heard it a billion times before!! AND YES, You people who defended those books, are just as annoying.

Now that that's out of the way... Worst book I've ever read?

can't say Ive read many bad books... The one book I don't remember the name, I didn't get past the first 2 chapters. Got it in an old fashioned classics book set. Had pride & the predjuice & like 2 other books besides the bad one in the set.

I think most people who hate Twilight were looking for a vampire story instead of a love story.

Oh my goodness! I cannot for the life of me see what is wrong with Twilight. Yes, I am a fan, but i'm not totally crazy for it. But, lord I love watching people waste their time bashing that book. It's very funny seeing people try to. But, as I said not the BIGGEST fan of it, I liked the host better <-----now there's a good book to read!

hmm..the worst book i've ever read.

I'd have to say...
Beauty
Dude if you know what i am talking about I swear I tried reading that book 28 times. I cannot understand it and it is so boring D;
I'm not sure but, I was falling asleep reading that.

Jeez I hope my books don't get bashed as harshly as twilight o.o
Then again i dont plan on having sparkly beings in my book...soo...

Before I Die was an awful, awful book. I can't believe I got all the way through it. I also can't believe people don't like To Kill a Mockingbird. I loved that book even though I had to do about a million essays on it (slight exaggeration there but it felt like it at the time).

Well, I was in the school library which really doesn't have many good books. I asked my friend to give me a random book and she gave me this one called "Lucky T." I don't know who the author was.

So, I was reading it and it was well written, but horribly boring. I got to page 160 or so and there was a note written on a page that said "don't finish reading this if you got this far. The rest is boring." I didn't finish it. It was boring from the beginning.

SAI01 wrote:Lets see books I don't like
"The Hobbit"

i really disliked Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. It might have been alright if it had been cut down from 650 pages. but as it was, it was boring, repetitive, and overly sentimental. i read half of it (still 300 pages!) before i conceded that it really wasn't going to redeem itself

Wicked Lovely and Madapple...
Unfortunately, I didn't finish them so my opinion may be void.
In this world there are books like Eragon and Twilight that are so horrid that they're actually amusing to read.
These, however, are just plain bad. Most realistic fiction YA authors I've read recently have been a disappointment.
It may seem like all teenagers are stupid, overly sexual dopes, but this is not the case. I dislike the fact that some authors try to gain approval by vulgarity alone.
3:

Jenny Green's KILLER Junior Year.
It was just really really weird with a bizarre ending.

No Time To Say Goodbye was a so-so thriller, but put it this way, I could have read the thing and worked out the plot even if I was sitting in a lift going up and down on the sharp end of a broom, wearing a pair of black out glasses.

What utter tosh.

Yes paolini is terrible.
and icaruss, it's called an opinion.
I don't agree with dick and huck fin but I thought the lord of the rings books were terrible. like filing a tax report. however, I loved the hobbit, I just hated the style tolkein wrote in for LOTR.

Paolini: it helps getting famous when your parents OWN the company that publishes your books.

Ah, but see--while Emma may be boring (not to me, but I know others don't like more archaic styles), it's not a bad book. It's actually very subtly done with a lot of attention to detail.

But I agree. Paolini is crap.

For me, the worst book I've ever read has to be... anything by Mercedes Lackey. I liked her a lot when I was in elementary/middle school, but I picked one of my favorites up a few months ago and almost cried. It's horrible.

I won't lie, I found Jane Austen's 'Emma' to be a terrible bore.
However, the worst book I've read is probably 'Brisingr' by Chris Paolini. I read on after Eragon out of sheer curiosity as to whether the man would actually bother improving/put down his copies of LOTR and think up his own damn ideas. I was wrong.

I'd have to say Al Gore's book, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About IT.

Long, boring, and hundreds of pages of boringness.

I don't think you should be complaining on a fully opinionated thread. It's not the person's fault that they dislike a book you enjoyed. It's all what they thought. Not what they thought others would react in a pleasing manner towards.

And while I'm here,
I absolutely hated a Certain Slant of Light. Worst book in the world in my opinion.

Dahlia >> I don't think people are sad/concerned that others dislike classics. If anything, that's kind of inevitable with any group of people. I think it's problematic though that people are calling them the worst books ever.

There's no reason to be sad...I mean you can expect everyone to love a book, be it classic or not. Everyone has different tastes. Like, I know I loved The Great Gatsby, Lolita, Animal Farm, and 1984 and I know people who absolutely hated them. I think they're brilliant, but I don't find it upsetting that people hate them. It's all a matter of opinion. I love reading, but just because I don't enjoy a couple of classics doesn't mean that I have silly opinions. Just my two cents.

Yeah, I'm with you guys. Just looking at the page before this and seeing Lord of the Rings, Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn - three spectacular novels, with Moby being widely regarded as the finest novel ever written - makes me sad.

Not gonna check the rest.

It makes me sad that people have silly opinions.

Well, no. o_O Darn, you've foiled me, Pork.

It makes you two sad that people have opinions?

Prokaryote

I agree. Kinda sad I made it. Did not think there would be so much brilliant literature mentioned.

This thread makes me sad.

Lets see books I don't like
Gossip Girl( worst book ever)
"The Hobbit" by JRR Tolkien (Really Hate this one)
The DarkAngel by Meredith Ann Pierce(one word Boring)
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray(too slow really boring)

I usually don't even finish reading a book if I think it's awful. Walking in Circles Before Lying Down is near the bottom of my list though. It isn't a bad book but it didn't hold my attention. It was kind of boring yet strange at the same time.

Hm, I'd have to say Across 5 Aprils by Irene Hunt. That book was so stretched out and nothing happened! I'm not sure what exactly made it so bad. Just when we had to read it for school, our entire class was sitting there and half of us were nearly asleep (including me ). God, we hated that book so much...it was absolute torture having to read it...I agree with 'dreamintechnicolor', those supposed 'classics' which are so 'deep' and 'meaningful' generally tend to suck...
fluteluvr77<3

Damn can't mention the big 'T' series. Though I guess I could say somethings about it else where. And most of what I got to rant about it has already been said.

I hated the Book 'The Loki Wolf' by Slade.

The story line was so horribly rushed and badly written that I would have burned the book if it didn't belong to my schools libary. He claims to be a fan of Norse Mythology but why would he twist it until it was unreconizable if he did He gives canadain writers a bad name, I seriously want to hurt him. Or destroy his books. Whatever is easier.

It's sad to see so much old literature on here. As a future English teacher (in two years), let me tell you that when I teach these books, you're going to be going "oh my god! I get it!" and having fun with them.

*very ideal* >_>

Huckleberry Finn, ooh I hated that book so badly. I read it for English and I had to read a lot of it repeatedly to understand what they said. Like when Jim was talking about his daughter (who turns out to be deaf) and he said "I told her to shut the door" but he said it so backcountry I couldn't understand it until I read it for the eighth time aloud.

I understand the satire and how it's supposed to be in Southern dialect, but it's just not my cup of tea. After spending weeks analyzing the passages for literary devices, plot devices, etc. It pretty much sealed it. I think the reading and over analyzing of many a classics ruined them for me.

Twilight. Of course! It's absolutely dreadful, and I mean every little bit of it. In my opinion, Edward is an abusive boyfriend disguised to look like a Prince Charming, and Bella is just a totally clueless damsel in distress who is obviously blind, deaf and spineless to be with a vampire! It's so...dumb.

Four Truths and a Lie. I can't really put my finger on what I didn't like the most about it. I just did not like it one bit. It was the first book I have ever returned.

Earlier in the thread someone brought up 'Jodi Picoult.' I tried reading one of her books because a friend of mine said I should, but I only got to page seventeen of 'Vanishing acts,' before I gave up. The prolouge was interesting, but I couldn't get into the actual book at all.

Another couple of books I hated was 'Spies,' by Michael Frayn and 'Birdsong,' by Sebastian Faulks. Both were utterly boring and I'd have stopped after chapter one if I wasn't reading them for school.

'Vernon God little,' by DBC Prerie was weird - (another book i had to read for school) and it took me ages to get into 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time' by Mark Haddon, but it wasn't that bad once I got a third of the way in.

I agree with 'dreamintechnicolour' in that the books we're made to read at school are usually mind-numbing in one way or another.

xDudettex

Ok, at the risk of being shot by all the people who think it is the greatest literary work since sliced bread...
To Kill A Mockingbird is the absolute worst book that I have ever read.

Sure Harper Lee is a good writer, I could see the story playing out in my head and all, but I just wasn't impressed. It had a boring storyline and by the time you get to the end of the book nothing has really changed. If I hadn't been forced to read it for school I would have stopped after the first page. Instead of reading 3-4 times like was suggested I read it once and spark noted the rest.

I see a pattern, all the books we have to study in school are exemplary works of boringly 'good' literature.

Does it count that have never been able to get through the book?

If it does then definetly Lord of the Rings. It is so overwritten. It takes like 30 pages just leading up to Biblo's birthday party.

and If it doesn't then I guess it would be the Fear Street Series by R.L Stine. Like last year my friend was like Tori you have to read these they are so scary. So I got a binch of them from the library by my house. It was hilarious that someone actually thought they were scary. They were litteraly like "As I walked down the dark hall, I thought that I heard a noise as I started to turn around I heard the heavy breathing." I was so like the 7th Friday the 13th movie.

American Psycho. Not badly written. Just a vile, vile book. Had to stop reading because I couldn't take it any more. one of the most depraved characters and gruemsome, relentless violence. The Christian Bale movie this version is not.
If you ever pick it up, and manage to finish it, let me just say you will be desensitized to violence. absolutly.

I'm afraid I have to toss Their Eyes Were Watching God and Where the Broken Heart Still beats in there. very boring school novels, uneventful and uninspiring.
Must say I didn't care for Tale of Two Cities or Gone with the Wind either. (shudder)

All of the older books that your school makes you read for projects:

The House on Mango Street.
The Red Badge of Courage.
Tale of Two Cities.
The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass.
Moby Dick.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

They are all so BORING!
So, I mostly Sparknote-ed them. ;D