the worst book you have ever come across

[Oblivion]

Fight club

[Babyguile]

White Noise was hilarious. Up there with A Confederacy of Dunces.

The worst: Atlas Shrugged. The Fountainhead is only better to the extent that it is shorter, so not very much better. Anything interesting Rand had to say had already been said incomparably better by Nietzsche. Anything else Rand said was rubbish. And she was just a poor writer. That d'Anconia speech covers, what, 70 pages? Ridiculous.

Rand once said the only philosopher who ever influenced her was Aristotle, or some other Greek, but certainly not Nietzsche. I doubt she just brushed over him in complete ignorance

But if what you say IS true, and Rand is so needless, why are her novels compulsory reading in US schools (as it sounds like they are)? I'm not arguing your point (I've haven't read Rand yet), I'm just curious because I always hear COMPLETELY polar opinions on her.

[mal4mac]

I though Rand was only "compulsory" for Wall Street illiterates? Where do you get the impression that she is taught in school? Have things got that bad?

[Seasider]

Kalooki Nightsby Howard Jacobson. Unlike Jacobson, I am not a Jew, but if I were I would mortally offended by it.

[Babyguile]

I though Rand was only "compulsory" for Wall Street illiterates? Where do you get the impression that she is taught in school? Have things got that bad?

It is just an impression, but someone in this thread said they had to read her in school and a few other people from the US said she's also on their syllabus.

[hawthorns]

Personally, I rather enjoyed The Fountainhead. Then again, I read it at 18, when I was a great deal more (impressionable?). Atlas Shrugged I couldn't get into at all--way too pedantic. But I can at least appreciate the spirit of her work. The business owners I know thank their lucky stars they aren't operating in a communist/socialist regime. Writers, inventors, artists, successful business people, etc. should have the liberty to be nonconformist and hold personal standards/aspirations in their work. Still, spirit is where it ends with me, especially as I grow older. The consequences/practicalities of practicing Objectivism on any large scale would be disastrous--except for small businesses who can say FU to their entire client bases simply because they have 1 Gordon Gecko "in the bag." And don't even get me started on its application to love/relationships. Warped worse than spacetime.

[Darcy88]

Saw thread title, immediately thought of Ayn Rand, clicked on it, now see I need not state the obvious.

[Darcy88]

Rand once said the only philosopher who ever influenced her was Aristotle, or some other Greek, but certainly not Nietzsche. I doubt she just brushed over him in complete ignorance

But if what you say IS true, and Rand is so needless, why are her novels compulsory reading in US schools (as it sounds like they are)? I'm not arguing your point (I've haven't read Rand yet), I'm just curious because I always hear COMPLETELY polar opinions on her.

In her book For the New Intellectual I think it is she offers up her understanding of certain key aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy. Her grasp of Nietzsche's philosophy was so crude and simplistic I actually burst out laughing when I read that book. Much of her philosophy really does come off as Nietzsche dumbed down, an average mind messily regurgitating the ideas of a great mind. Maybe it was just her inability to write well, her vapid prose, I don't know, but damn was that ever a bad read.

[mona amon]

I read a lot of Ayn Rand a long time ago, when I was a teenager, and though I was never a big fan like my sister, I thought the novels were quite OK. I was reading far worse books at the time like Mills and Boon romances and Sydney Sheldon.

The worst book I've ever read is The Cleft by Doris Lessing. I didn't quite make it to the end but read quite a bit of it for the 11 new books challenge. I've read New Moon by Stephanie Meyer and The Da Vinci code but this beats them all because obviously the only reason it was published is because Lessing was a nobel prize winning author, and not because of any literary or commercial merit whatsoever. This bit of mindless drivel does not have even the cheap popular appeal of the other two I mentioned.

[PoeticPassions]

I refuse to read Ayn Rand... or well, maybe I should just so that I can broaden my tolerance.

I generally try not to read 'bad' books, so if I really dislike a book, I won't finish it.. but for some ungodly reason I read all of The Notebook, by the unbearably awful and cheese-infused Nicholas Sparks. It kills me that he makes so much money writing such crap....

[Svidrigailov]

The worst book I've ever read is The Cleft by Doris Lessing. I didn't quite make it to the end but read quite a bit of it for the 11 new books challenge. I've read New Moon by Stephanie Meyer and The Da Vinci code but this beats them all because obviously the only reason it was published is because Lessing was a nobel prize winning author, and not because of any literary or commercial merit whatsoever. This bit of mindless drivel does not have even the cheap popular appeal of the other two I mentioned.

Well, what possessed you to start with a book written when the author was pushing ninety and couldn't be expected to be at her best? Practice due care when introducing yourself to literary luminaries, and your reading will suffer the less for it. There's a reason The Golden Notebook is so renowned, and even if it is long(and might fit uneasily with a reading challenge) it should be the first point of entry for anyone other than sci-fans, who could dive into the Canopus in Argos quintet instead. The Golden Notebook is quite episodic, with a timeline that jumps around a lot, so it needn't be read all at once; just sampling a few chapters would reassure most readers that they're on sure ground with Lessing and can trust her writerly instincts. Otherwise, there's The Summer Before the Dark or Briefing for a Descent Into Hell for those wanting shorter lead-ins to her oeuvre.

[Seasider]

I think Lessing's best book is The Four Gated City. It is the last book in herChildren of Violence series. It begins with the young heroine coming to England after the end of WW2. It much resembles Lessing's own experiences in post-War Britain.

[rubsley]

Ulysses, by James Joyce.

The Da Vinci Code, obviously.

Although probably the worst written of all was this sub-Mills and Boon dirty romance I picked up off a market stall in India for about 30p. The writing was ridiculous, the sex hilarious. And if I remember rightly it just ended in the middle of a sentence.

Still, it had comedy value.

Other 'classics' I saw little merit in: Midnight's Children; The Great Gatsby; The Catcher in the Rye; A Thousand Years of Solitude; The English Patient.

[hanzklein]

Although probably the worst written of all was this sub-Mills and Boon dirty romance I picked up off a market stall in India for about 30p. The writing was ridiculous, the sex hilarious. And if I remember rightly it just ended in the middle of a sentence.

Still, it had comedy value.

That was called "Finnegans Wake" by James Joyce.

[Svidrigailov]

I think Lessing's best book is The Four Gated City. It is the last book in herChildren of Violence series. It begins with the young heroine coming to England after the end of WW2. It much resembles Lessing's own experiences in post-War Britain.

I was captivated by Walking in the Shade's account of Lessing integrating into 1950s London society, so I expect I'm destined to love The Four Gated City too. Is the series best read in sequence, or is it similar to the breakdown books(which all work as standalones)?