The Worst Book You've Ever Read?

[Zybahn]

Oh, I love, love, love Don Quixote. And Wuthering Heights. And Middlemarch. LOL Literature is really very subjective and that's good.

I'm with you on this Antiquarian. Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote and Moby Dick are among my favourite novels. I also really liked Lord Jim, etc., etc., and while I haven't read Middlemarch yet I own a copy and am looking forward to starting it when I get a chance.

Even though my vote for least favourite unfinished book is Adam Bede. I gave it a hundred and fifty pages and then gave up.

My least favourite finished book is The Robber Bride. I'm usually indifferent to Atwood's fiction but this was downright awful.

[bounty]

hi dark muse---i read billy budd and was okay with that. what i was hoping for out of moby dick was a high seas adventure, anywhere along the lines of horatio hornblower, mutiny on the bounty or the sea wolf. the latter two are amongst my favorite books.

technically i dont know what makes a book a novel, but moby dick was so much less "story" and so much more treatise on whaling. given what youve said, im guessing you wont be reading it, so this really wont be a spoiler but my goodness, the whale himself doesnt appear until the last few pages of the book. false advertising!

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

[Dark Muse]

I just recently got the Sea Wolf, and look forward to reading it. I love Jack London, and find him to be very interesting.

[bounty]

I just recently got the Sea Wolf, and look forward to reading it. I love Jack London, and find him to be very interesting.

its been years since ive read it, i remember the story itself being pretty harsh/brutal. i'll look forward to hearing if you like it.

theres a pretty neat star trek: the next generation episode where the characters travel back to earth's past and among other things, meet mark twain and jack london, and in fact, end up having a direct influence on london's futire in writing. its neatly done...

[lakeside_girl]

moby dick was probably the first classic novel i ever read and it was daunting then. good grief! but as an older student/college i had to reread it. i needed a professor to help me was what it turned out. once i learned the psychology driving it i enjoyed it thoroughly. the worst book ever for me was Northanger Abbey....oh my....i don't like jane austen's idea of a gothic good time. modern books, Where the Heart is by billie letts. everyone told me it was great. they lied.
right on..

[kelby_lake]

moby dick was very hard-going- although i did read it when i was 13 so...although i don't think it will be less hard-going if i re-read it now.

[bounty]

moby dick was very hard-going- although i did read it when i was 13 so...although i don't think it will be less hard-going if i re-read it now.

my gosh yes, and the whale doesnt even appear in the book til the last few pages! ack!

[Silvia]

I have just finished "Cinco Horas con Mario" by Miguel Delibes.I can't claim it is the worst book I have ever read, but still, I didn't enjoy reading it at all!
I liked the first few pages a lot, but then it got sooo boring and repetitive that I actually had to force myself through it.
Now that it is over, I can finally breath!

[Akeldama]

"The Zero Game" by Brad Meltzer. I bought it at an airport, having read all of the other books I'd brought along. Bad idea. It's a "Government conspiracy uncovered now they run for their lives" type of plot. Poorly written. Not compelling in any way.

[Dark Muse]

Right now I am quite tempted to say A Portrait of the Artist as a Yong Man, becasue this is my second time reading it, having to read it now for school. And the frist time I read it I did not particuarly enjoy it becasue I really did not care about the character of Steven at all, and I was not drawn into the story.

And now I am currently trying to get through Chapter 3, which is just absolutely painful, becasue it is basicaly just an entire sermon written word for word, of a priest rambling on and on and on about the same thing for a ridiculous amount of pages, when really I got the point in the first couple of paragrahs.

[ThePianoMan]

Black by Ted Dekker. Also, House by Dekker and Peretti.

[samah]

The Nonexistent knight by Italo Calvino.

[moose gurl]

Great Expectations! Seriously, that book made me want to set it on fire.

I didn't like this book too much either. Had a hard time getting through it, but it's not the worst thing I've ever read.

[Hank Stamper]

the worst thing I ever read was doing it by melvin burgess... i think i managed two chapters before it went in the bin... how it was ever published i don't know... utter utter utter garbage and deserving of the gallows

[Kafka's Crow]

Right now I am quite tempted to say A Portrait of the Artist as a Yong Man, becasue this is my second time reading it, having to read it now for school. And the frist time I read it I did not particuarly enjoy it becasue I really did not care about the character of Steven at all, and I was not drawn into the story.

And now I am currently trying to get through Chapter 3, which is just absolutely painful, becasue it is basicaly just an entire sermon written word for word, of a priest rambling on and on and on about the same thing for a ridiculous amount of pages, when really I got the point in the first couple of paragrahs.

This one is meant to be painful. Joyce is setting the stage for his most lyrical and beautiful prose. Stick with it, the beauty of next chapters will amaze you. This sermon will dissolve in the sheer beauty of art. This is the whole point of this book. Go to your local library and look for James Joyce Audio Collection after finishing reading the book. There is a selection from The Portrait read by Cyril Cusack on CD 2. It will make you hold your breath, it will make you swoon with joy, it will make you fall madly in love with James Joyce!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...0/thelibyrinth