The worst book you have ever read.

[paulguitar]

Inspired by another thread, ‘giving up on a book’ I would like to know what you would consider the worst book you have ever read?

Mine, as posted in that thread, are:


1: 'When the Wind Blows' by James Patterson. This is about, and I am not kidding, ‘secret flying children’.

2: ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls... Astonishingly awful.


So, everyone, your nominations?

[valiant]

Car Wars I think it's called and I can't remember who's it by but it was the first book I downloaded onto my kindle so I persevered.

Premise was an accountant who happened upon some dodgy accounting by a Japanese car company who are secretly trying to bring down the American auto industry by installing dodgy software into their cars making them crash killing loads of people.

But wait, our 'accountant' is actually an ex........Navy Seal! So, cue lots of retribution stylee action while getting the girl and saving 'Merica. Hoo and rah.

Seriously bad on sooooo my levels but as I was reading it I was imagining it was EricMc for some reason....

[leglessAlex]

Twilight, it remains the only book I've ever actually thrown away.

I thought I'd give it a go just to see what it was like, and even aside from the poor story and characters, the actual writing itself is just awful. I have no idea how it got published, it's that bad.

[kev b]

The Catcher in the Rye, seems to be regarded as a classic but the best I can say is that it is probably of it's time.

Possibly the only work in fifty years that I regret wasting my time reading.

[knk]

Jeffrey Archer.
Any of them, but his collections of short stories are the worst.

[PurpleAki]

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The hype would suggest it was the second coming, the reality is that I used it for kindling, because I refused to even have it on my bookshelf.

[Stickyfinger]

The "Book" the traffic police threw at me

I hate unhappy endings

[miniman]

kev b said:

The Catcher in the Rye, seems to be regarded as a classic but the best I can say is that it is probably of it's time.

Possibly the only work in fifty years that I regret wasting my time reading.

My review for my wife's book club:

[PurpleAki]

miniman said:

My review for my wife's book club:

Bet they loved you for that!

With a turn of phrase like that, you should be a published author.

[Ilovejapcrap]

miniman said:

kev b said:

The Catcher in the Rye, seems to be regarded as a classic but the best I can say is that it is probably of it's time.

Possibly the only work in fifty years that I regret wasting my time reading.

My review for my wife's book club:

Tell me this is true

[miniman]

Ilovejapcrap said:

Tell me this is true

Very much so

[schmunk]

kev b said:

The Catcher in the Rye, seems to be regarded as a classic but the best I can say is that it is probably of it's time.

Possibly the only work in fifty years that I regret wasting my time reading.

This fking awful book for me, too.

Nothing happens.

[kev b]

Not just me then!

[marcosgt]

"American Psycho" - MAYBE it was satirical of an '80s lifestyle when it was written (it's so heavy handed, I doubt it really was...), but now it just reads like a book a 14 year old would write to upset his parents.

Definitely the book I've hated the most.

M

[TwigtheWonderkid]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=120...

End the thread here.

[bad company]

knk said:

Jeffrey Archer.
Any of them, but his collections of short stories are the worst.

That's what I was about to post. I tried a couple of his books but couldn't be bothered to finish them. Why's JA so popular as an author?

[Hugo a Gogo]

I can't remember the author, but it was one of those 'airport novel' names you'd recognise

some crap about evil Americans trying to start a war and take over Britain, and the hero with his band of cockney taxi driver hard men saved the day

at one point they were in Germany "what's that dark shape over there? Oh that's the Black Forest"

utter ste

[Johnnytheboy]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=120...

End the thread here.

If we are going to insult the classics, I'd say Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was one of my most disappointing.

Heavy handed expressionist nonsense written largely in sort of salty sailors' dialect for extra impenetrability.

Specifically ghost stories: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was surprisingly un-ghosty, but certainly waffly.

[Gargamel]

The White Plague by Frank Herbert

Just so utterly dreadful in its pretensions of being a serious book about a future scenario that is it so up its own arse it could spit.

Also The French Lieutenants woman by John Fowles, a stinker of a book in which nothing, but nothing of any consequence happens, including when the main character meets the author of the book in the third person on a train.

[Bradgate]

Pride and prejudice.

I accept that as a bloke, I'm not in the target market, but I just couldn't bring myself to give a toss which sister ended up married to which unsuitable bloke, or why.