The Worst Book You've Ever Read?

I haven't read that many bad books but I guess if I had to pick Enders game

I don't know how to put this but Ender doesn't feel like a real person to me. I get that he's supposed to be a tactical genius but there comes a point where he feels too perfect. From day one it feels like he's one step ahead of everyone.

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. About a gay Nazi who drinks his own diarrhea. Very highly regarded in France.

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Originally Posted by Fafnir

The worst 'literary' book I've read is American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
I don't think it's a poorly written book and I understand what Ellis was trying to achieve, I just really disliked the graphic descriptions of torture, rape and mutilation which are abundant throughout.
It's strange because I consider myself rather open-minded about violence in visual arts such as movies or even videogames however, with this book, instead of being a mere bystander to the carnage, we experience the murders as Patrick Bateman, a perspective which I found quite disturbing.

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I really don't get how people can get on AP for violence when I think its barely 13 pages of all 400.

Not sure about the worst book but Martin Amis' Money gave me plenty of headache. There are flashes of interesting writing but its characters are mirror images of one another, flat and indistinguishable, all silly maniacs. At no point apart from the opening scene of the chase did it pique my interest and I can't wrap my head around the fact that it's much lauded, so much so that Penguin published it as 'modern classics'.

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I can't believe I bothered to finish it.

I've read so many rubbish books that I forget most. Almost any blockbuster is as dispensable as a newspaper. They aren't even suitable for wrapping round a fish supper.

Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. Flat protagonist and other cartoonish characters - in the midst of historical events that i already knew about.

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Originally Posted by Poetaster

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I can't believe I bothered to finish it.

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Since posting this, I have actually gone back and read Atlas Shrugged cover to cover. I wish I hadn't bothered, it's still the worst book I've ever read.

Poetaster, that qualifies as masochism

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Originally Posted by Poetaster

Since posting this, I have actually gone back and read Atlas Shrugged cover to cover. I wish I hadn't bothered, it's still the worst book I've ever read.

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It's on #78 on LitNet Top 100 books. I have not read it but now I'm interested. How did it find a place in top 100 and be such a terrible book...hmmm.

I have never heard anyone whose opinion I trust have a single good word to say about Ayn Rand or anything she wrote.

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Originally Posted by Lykren

I have never heard anyone whose opinion I trust have a single good word to say about Ayn Rand or anything she wrote.

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Admittedly, I have read only less controversial works of Rand, We, the Living and Anthem but I found her work juvenile at best. One of these days, I will go ahead and read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as well but I often wonder whether she's given more prominence and credit than she deserves.

Had these works were written, say, by an American author, do you think they would have been received in the same manner?

11 Minutes by Coehlo... A girl I was seeing recommended it. It's been like 3 years, to this day, still the worst book I have read.

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Originally Posted by Eiseabhal

Poetaster, that qualifies as masochism

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Oh, it does! Believe me.

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Originally Posted by Marbles

It's on #78 on LitNet Top 100 books. I have not read it but now I'm interested. How did it find a place in top 100 and be such a terrible book...hmmm.

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The philosophy behind it is juvenile, and the writing is abysmal. Greed is good, that's all you need to know about it really.

I'm not going to say give it a miss, but trust me it's an awful novel.

It's still Orlando by Virginia Woolf