The Worst Book You've Ever Read?

[PeterL]

Don't know if I would call them "bad" books but I find myself unable to enjoy fantasy books as well and I am glad to see that I am not the only one.

Considering the number of people who love this genre and list LoTR as their favorite I wonder why I don't like it.

There is a huge amount of variation within the sub-genre. If you haven't read any of the recent generation of fantasy, then you should be happy. I called them "bad", because many of them are poorly written as a whole; the narrative structure. Imagine reading six hundred pages that mimic a good news report of an ax murder, without any change in the characters or the tone; that is far from a perfect analogy, but it gives the feeling.

I wonder why people love that sub-genre. Could it be that they have never read anything better, or maybe they have lots of time to kill reading stories that just go on. There is something similar to TV soap operas to them, and some people manage to watch soaps for decades.

[Dark Muse]

Considering the number of people who love this genre and list LoTR as their favorite I wonder why I don't like it.

Funny, I know a lot of people in the fantasy world would consider this Blasphamous, but I am an avid fantasy reader, and yet, I do not care for Tolkien. Despite so many in fantasy heralded him as a genus, I do not find him to truly be that good of a writer.

I acutally enjoyed the movie LOTR more than reading the books

[Scheherazade]

I will read almost anything... Always believed that there is a time and place for everything. I will read Harlequin or whatever between Camus and Dickens.

I just can't seem into get into fantasy books. Recently I have been reading some Pratchett books, for example, and even though I sort of enjoy reading them at the time, I don't particularly look forward to reading the next one.

Maybe we should start another thread about this

[moose gurl]

Funny, I know a lot of people in the fantasy world would consider this Blasphamous, but I am an avid fantasy reader, and yet, I do not care for Tolkien. Despite so many in fantasy heralded him as a genus, I do not find him to truly be that good of a writer.

I acutally enjoyed the movie LOTR more than reading the books

Interesting. I feel the exact same way about Tolkein. I just don't like the writing. He's a great story-teller, sure, but his writing was just lacking, in my opinion. I've gotten into a lot of arguments over that one! You are the first person I've met who actually shares this opinion.

Have you read any of the DragonLance? I was really obsessed with the first three in that series in 8th grade. But only the first three. After that, they got really stale. I read a lot of fantasy in the 8th grade, but really haven't read any since then. Oh well. Not big into that genre anymore.

[Dark Muse]

I know the feeling, usually I am afraid if I say this around any fantasy readers I will get rotten tomatos thrown at me LOL

I have not read any of the Dragonlance books

Right now I am enjoying The Wheel of Time books and The Sword of Truth books

[quasimodo1]

Any novel or play from the "Restoration" era.

[Lulim]

I said it many times but it bears being repeated...Middlemarch by George Eliot. I actually did finish it though, (…)

Actually, this is my favourite book; i read it at least three times and I translated it into german — the result is not a very good one, though …

The worst book I read was "The Da Vincy Code" — in my opinion the most superfluous book ever …

[djy78usa]

Have you read any of the DragonLance? I was really obsessed with the first three in that series in 8th grade. But only the first three.

Ah...DragonLance... I was such a DragonLance dork in elementary and middle school. In fact, I dressed as Raistlin for Halloween as a kid I haven't read one of those books since Dragons of Summer Flame came out in 1996...

[Bramblefox]

Christopher Paolini's Eragon series. No offense to him but his main character is a total Mary-sue and the story is basically Star Wars with dragons. The first book was okay, but I never could struggle through the second and I'm not even going to look at the third.

Ivanhoe was another that I just never finished. I got about half-way through and just stopped reading. Nothing was happening, and there were so many characters to keep straight...meh.

[ntropyincarnate]

I never could finish War and Peace. I will someday though! And I am currently reading a pathetic book called The Song of an Innocent Bystander. I'm going to finish the book, because the story's interesting, but the writing itself is awful. Lots of misused vocabulary, and poor grammar. It irritates me.

[Oniw17]

The Elven Exiles Series set in the Dragonlance setting was the most inane and boring thing ever.

[bounty]

just joined---my first post---i have not looked through what anyone else has said (i look forward to doing that), and i am almost sorry to have to say it, but moby dick and a catcher in the rye. the two worst books ive ever read.

[Dark Muse]

just joined---my first post---i have not looked through what anyone else has said (i look forward to doing that), and i am almost sorry to have to say it, but moby dick and a catcher in the rye. the two worst books ive ever read.

Though I have not read Moby Dick, I am familiar with Melville's writing, and I can say I understand your feelings there, as just his short stories can be exhausting to read, though he is not the worst I have read, he is not my favorite, and I cannot imagine reading an entire novel of his.

Though I absolutely loved Catcher in the Rye and rank it among my favorites

[Equilibrium]

I said it many times but it bears being repeated...Middlemarch by George Eliot. I actually did finish it though, I refused to let it beat me but it took awhile.

Really!? I just finished Middlemarch and I loved it, still, we all have different taste I suppose.

One book I've assaulted a few times but not finished is Don Quixote, got to page 390/549 last time but just drifted off to another book. Thats the trouble with long books, its much harder to just grit your teeth and wade through without loosing the will.

The worst book I've read though was Wuthering Heights, I just hated all the characters.

[Bramblefox]

Oh man, Don Quixote...I tried reading that when I first got into classics, got maybe five chapters in, and just stopped reading. It was way over my head at the time. I need to try again.

Another one that's terrible: Phantom of Manhattan!! That is THE MOST AWFUL Phantom book I have ever read--Forsythe must have been on something when he wrote it. Seriously.