Tell me about the worst book you ever read. Did you struggle to the end or give up halfway through?
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The Bible. Portrayed as Non-fiction, but full of implausible events, full of violence and sexis
In a world of “safe spaces” attacking Christians doesn’t apply at Bored Panda. Interesting concept to allow this but protect everyone else. We are all entitled to our own opinions but not Christians. The Bible has helped many people overcome addiction, trauma and abuse. But their stories don’t matter I suppose……
Fifty Shades of Gray. In my experience, most erotic fiction tends to be bad, but this was quantum levels beyond bad. My wife wanted me to read this when it first became popular, but it was so awful that it is one of the only books in my life that I could not force myself to read all the way through. It is one of the few books I can think of with absolutely no redeeming qualities: the actual writing is probably the worst I've ever read; there is not a single character who is even remotely likeable; and the sex scenes which are supposedly the main draw are laughably insipid--you'd be better off reading a volume of Penthouse Letters from the 1970's. An awful fan-fic based on an awful movie based on an awful book. How they managed to publish three volumes of this utter dreck is one of the great mysteries of the universe, but I truly hope that there is a special circle in Hell reserved for the editor that actually approved this garbage for publication. I know that Stephanie Meyer did not actually write Fifty Shades of Grey, but I still consider her one of the great villains of human history for all the evils she has unleashed on the world, such as sparkly vampires, Kristen Stewart, and narcissistic sociopaths masquerading as open-minded lovers. I feel dirty just writing this--and not because of the kinky sex scenes.
Catcher in the Rye. I will never understand the love for this book or why it's considered a classic. If I was not forced to read it for a school assignment, I would have thrown it away and stopped reading it 50 pages in.
Oh, my list is long. I didn't touch "Twilight" but heard it was bad...
However, for my money, anything by Ayn Rand, particularly "Atlas Shrugged" or "The Fountainhead". Read them for a course, would sooner suffer intestinal parasite than have to even hear the word "Rand". No idea why people adore her philosophy, nor those books. You can hate me if you like, but I see nothing in her/the books but pathological selfishness and arrogance.
People like Ayn Rand's books for the same reason they like Donald Trump: because they get told that all of their despicable impulses are actually something to be proud of, and they get to wallow in it.
The Art of the Deal by Tangerine Palpatine..
I am a huge bookworm and for most of my life would read anything to the end. I am much older now and have no patience for ridiculous and poorly written novels. If I get a quarter of the way into the book and found nothing to appeal to me I get rid of it (donate it). There are too many other possible books to read and I no longer have the time to force myself through a book.
The Da Vinci Code is on this list for me.
I felt INTENSE HATRED for that book. Such poor and sloppy writing.
The DaVinci Code. It made me so angry I threw it out of my car, backed up, and ran it over.
Wuthering heights by Emily Brontë
I am sorry but I hated the two main characters with everything in me. They were both selfish, arrogant and self-centred! They didn't care about anyone or anything.
I had to read it in High school and regretted reading it. So not worth the time I spent reading it.
The telephone book. Great cast of characters, but the plot was almost non-existent.
The books in college towns had interesting casts of characters from time to time.
Allegiant, from the Divergent series. The first book was fine, but they got progressively worse to the point where I couldn't even get through a third of this book before giving up.
There was soooo much buildup for what was behind the fence and it was just disappointing. Like, I wanted something cool, not whatever the heck the author gave us.
The Shack, by William Paul Young. Grating prose examining first-year philosophy as envisaged by a concussed illiterate.
Hate to admit this, but the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. UGH and I read all three because I was hoping they would get better - they didn't.
The Girl On The Train. Not a single likeable character in the whole book.
The last of the Clan of the Cave Bear books by Jean Auel. I loved the first book and liked the second one, but they just got worse and worse. The last one, The Land of Painted Caves, is sitting unfinished on my bookshelf. I can't get past about 1/3 of the way through without getting bored to death.
Fifty Shades of Grey. One of my good friends recommended it and I bought the trilogy thinking it was some kind of cool murder mystery series or something. We're not friends anymore.
(Just kidding, we're still friends! But the books were donated after I couldn't even finish the first one.)
"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. That book is poorly written, with cardboard characters and a silly plot. In sum, "The Fountainhead" is some sort of Junior-High-School Neo-Fascist fantasy.
I believe people read The Fountainhead while whacking off to pictures of Mike Huckabee in a wig.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I really wanted to like this book about the beat generation, but couldn’t get past the first few chapters. It may have been his writing style.
He supposedly wrote the final version in 1 continuos (and I'll assume drug filled session) on a single role of typewriter paper. I find this hard to believe but that is the legend that might explain the writing style issues.
Fifty Shades of Grey. Beyond terrible.
Dune. Tried reading it multiple times, but have never been able to stay awake past page 50.
The bridge to terabithia. I might reread it, since I read it in 4th grade. I hate that my favorite character had to get killed off, and it wasn't even a good death! Just fell in a river, bonked her head and drowned. I remember really hating that part specifically
I hated the movie for a similar reason. The trailers made it look like a fun fantasy world of two friends. It most definitely did not end up fun. I felt like a victim of a bait and switch.
The "Story of O." Holy poop. What did I just read?
The Story of O is often called a classic because it is considered to be the first "modern" work of BDSM erotic fiction (as opposed to "Justine" by the Marquis de Sade), but it is a mediocre work of fiction at best, with under-developed and not particularly interesting characters. Plus, "modern" being a relative term--a lot of the behaviors that were considered shocking and scandalous when The Story of O first came out in the 1950's are now fodder for your average middle-of-the-road sit-com.
Twilight. It’s so weird and toxic.
Also anything by Dickens, we had to read A Tale of Two Cities freshman year and y’all, it’s f**kin’ sucked.
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist happen to be my very favorite books. Dickens' long novels are padded because the way they were originally published. And of course anything read as an assignment in classes you dislike in the first place will be boring as hell. I hated To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm and Great Expectations when I first read them because they were assignments to the class of my least favorite teacher. I loved them now...
The Satanic Verses ..... Should have declared a fatwa for insulting literature..... Rambling, pointless piece of tripe....bored the absolute tits off me.... I want the week back that I wasted reading that pile of shite....
Verity by Coleen Hoover.
All of the characters are unlikeable, selfish and cruel. The main character is a Mary Sue (so average but everyone is very attracted to her), the love interest is objectively a monster who we're instructed is amazing and the only interesting character is abused both by everyone else in the book and the author.
All of Colleen Hoover's books are bad, but this one struck me at the worst.
Can't decide between the sandman (E.T.A. Hoffmann) and the Metamorphosis (Kafka)
We had to read them in school
I have a vivid imagination, and those just made me feel sick
I think the worst book I ever read was "The Woman who went to bed for a year" by Sue Townsend she is a very famous author in the UK. I've never read a book where I wanted to punch every single character. I struggled through to the end because I wanted to find out what happened and I wish I hadn't bothered.
Yeah, I begrudgingly finished it as I’ll never not finish a book. Hated everyone in this book. Everything else by her is brilliant.
Starship Troopers. I was excited to read it becuase the film is silly, satirical and good fun. It was absolutely garbage. Incredibly dull which is difficult when you're in spcae fighting aliens, even the fights were boring. Incredibly right wing and sexist as well without any satire in the mix. Only bothered finishing it because it was short and I kind of hoped it would get better. It did not.
The movie took a humorous take on a serious book. Heinlein extrapolated modern ideas into the future if they became dominant. Starship Troopers is what happens if fascism becomes so dominant we don't even care if most of our soldiers die before they ever see battle. It was a mental break he wrote in the middle of Stranger in a Strange Land. That book examines polyamory, religion, and social libertarianism. He wrote Starship Troopers because fascism was the opposite philosophy and it helped him think about his main project. Side note - his Gorilla Suit was a genius invention.
Five Quarters of the Orange. Horrible people and so boring. I was lent it by a friend who usually gave me great books, but this one was so awful! When I returned it, she told me she just wanted to see if it was really as bad as she thought. It was! Thanks Sue for making me waste my time on a book you knew was horrible!!
Wildlife by Richard Ford. It was terribly boring and I couldn't relate to anything going on. It just seemed like the story of an unremarkable kid in 1960s Montana who's parents hot divorced. I admittedly did not finish. I was assigned to read it in AP English as a modern counterpart to the classic "one day in the life of Ivan denisovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, which was awesome and I highly recommend.
The Celestine Prophecy
Yes, have to agree with this. Interesting concept, but dire book.
Probably the bible, very boring with poor character development. New Testament better-written but super repetitive, like first four books almost identical and clearly plagiarised each other, some lines verbatim. The pauline epistles tedious praise rambling. The OT full of fury and vengeance and genocide and sexism and mass murder and scatology. (Really) Ezekiel 4:12-17 etc. Caused so many genocides, so much death, justified slavery etc etc. Plus did I mention boring. Yep, read it a few times.
some charming verses if you want to "yes but" me: judges 19:21 to 19:29 . Exodus 21:20-21 Psalm 137:9
Any/all of William Faulkner's books. I know he's a great writer and he made his books complex to read for a reason but dang - it was next to impossible to get through them or understand what I had read. I read a lot - at least 30 books a year and every once in a while I try Faulkner again - nope, just can't do it.
I read Sound and the Fury not sure what happens and having several narrators telling the same story didn't help.
You think I know how to read
Let's poke the fantasy nerds: Silmarillion. It's a convoluted, needlessly hard to follow history text book about a fictive world. I'm sure it's filled with good stuff, but I for sure am too attention deficit to ever enjoy going through it. I just feel that a good book, including text books, should still be easily enough read that even people with minor disabilities can understand them.
Serious reply. If you gave up on the Silmarillion early, go back. But don't go back and try and read it like a book. It's a collection of short stories. Just read "of Turin Turambar". It's the most complete, and best of the tales and you'd be crazy to like Tolkein and not read it.
I had this one book I had to read for a French class called "Les Enfants de Dracule" (The Children of Dracula).
2/3 of the main characters were unlikeable, and the book opened up with both a sex scene, had poor pacing and also included an offensive/stereotypical portrayal of a member of the LGBTQA+ (hope I didn't miss any letters).
If I can say the best part of the book was this graded presentation I did where I portrayed a member of the Belmont Clan from the Castlevania series, retelling the demise of Dracula and one of his more unlikeable children following the events of the book (where I had full creative control), then that should be all of the indication of it's quality.
Screwed up my phrasing, and I only realized it after the fact. Meant to write in the first phrase that it opened with both a sex scene, and an offensive/stereotypical portrayal of a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy, by Jon Gordon
Just so, so awful. Incredibly boring and filled with pseudo-science and toxic positivity. This whole book is weirdly cult-like and has just a soupçon of racism for good measure. Ugh.
'Beloved' by Toni Morrison. Had to read it for a class in college. Supposed to be great.
Could barely get through it.
Meg, by Steven Alten. There's a point in the book where the main character manages to commandeer the USS Nautilus, a floating museum no longer capable of movement and uses it to search for the shark. Tossed the book straight into the trash.
insomnia by Stephen King, so boring I couldn't finish it, sorry, I like most of his books
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.. it won the booker prize and so was interested. Plus, she is Indian.. so thought of trying her book. I could not go beyond second chapter... found nothing exceptional to continue. Nothing against her and her book.. she must be good to have followers. But just could not pick it up again.
i have read all of the Twilight books lmao 💀
Kristen Stewart was the worst in the movies though. 100 times more insufferable than bella originally was. Especially wheb she became a vampire and looked like she was trying to take a s**t every time she used her powers.But I still read the books and saw all the movies
This was an easy one for me: The book, Leave the World Behind.
I love to read, and while I've read so many things from really fantastic to, "ok, that was fine", this was definitely the worst book I've ever read. All the characters were unlikeable. There is no real plot. The characters do nonsensical things. The main driving force behind the conceit of the story is never explained. And the book just ends. Unresolved.
I had ordered it upon a review from NPR(and I can never trust that reviewer again). It was painful to get through and when I was done, I angrily threw it in the recycling bin, something I've never done with a book. I usually pass finished books along to other people, donate them, or keep them if I want to reread them. Not this one! My feeling was that I didn't want to contribute to another unsuspecting person wasting their time reading it, and at least the paper could be recycled into something more useful.
The Road. Or really any Cormac McArthy,
This is one of my favourite books. Why didn't you like it, may I ask?
Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie. It was a disjointed, melodramatic mess.
I personally didn't really like many of Agatha Christie's works, though some of the tv adaptions are good.
Heart of Darkness. I had to read it in high school, and I thought, "Cool! This isn't a very long book! I should be able to finish it in a couple of days!" Nope. Not a chance. The language and wording of that book is so dense and indecipherable that I couldn't read it for more than 15 minutes without getting a throbbing headache. I just could. not. get. through it. I never finished, and have no desire ever to do so. My worst hangover was less painful than reading that book.
A dream about lighting bugs by Ben Folds. Read it on a day off and would rather have gone to work. He just comes off as your typical campus brah. And not a little misogynistic as well. Thinks he's way cooler than he is
the dictionary. everything else is just a remix now
The thesaurus is just different words for the same object, idea etc. ;0
Catcher in the Rye. I will never understand the love for this book or why it's considered a classic. If I was not forced to read it for a school assignment, I would have thrown it away and stopped reading it 50 pages in.
Thomas Harris: Hannibal. Once you've lived though that reading experience you will acquire a new appreciation for the work Ridley Scott did with the movie version. It's a so-so movie, but in comparison to the crappy novel it's a masterpiece.
Gonna have to disagree here. Absolutely loved the book and hated the ending of the movie. Book more true to the character of Lecter.
I loved Robert Heinlein's books in the 1980's, except The Number of the Beast, terrible book.
Yeah but read them now. I loved them then and reread many but now I am so disgusted with his assumption that any daughter would want to have sex with her father. It makes me want to throw up. If my deeply respected and loved father would have tried to have sex with me I would have killed myself.
But not forsake. The main character sits around judging people while her children fight to survive. Also every chapter contains a mini sermon.
Secondborn (Amy Bartol). Main character is an incredible Mary Sue and the book has such an impossible plot. Straight trash.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. I am fully aware I am not in these books demographics, but my issue with this book is that the background and world look really interesting, but in the end is another pointless boring snowflake story of the magical orphan in a barely explored world. The sequel, however, Six of Crows, is incredible.
loved all of the Grishaverse books. if you want world exploration, King of Scars is good
A Painted House by John Grisham. I’ve read all of his other books and to this day, that one just doesn’t seem “Grisham.”
I loaned this book to my sister, and she got so angry at me for recommending it.
"The Lovely Bones" Not that the story is bad, but dear God!! was it an absolute gut-wrencher!!!
The last Harry Potter book. I read them while petsitting someone’s goldfish because the books were just there. Enjoyed the first one but that last one was just too depressing and made me want to smack the back of every character’s head.
hmm I think the entire series could be obviated if harry had just said to dumbledore 'look he really is coming back you need to do something and I want to opt out, ta.'
Y'all don't hate me but the Hobbit. I couldn't read past the party, I got bored reading it.
I loved The Hobbit, but found the Lord of the Rings trilogy ponderous.
"Holy Blood, Holy Grail" Author spent first three quarters of book "proving" how there is a conspiracy to thwart him from getting any proof that the Scion of Christ is somewhere in France and the Knights Templar are hiding him. One quarter of the book goes into proving this theory. I did finish it only out of fascination of the theory that the fact he found 0 proof of his theory proved he must be right.
Unpopular opinion, but I really disliked A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. There were wayyyy to many extremely heavy topics that were written about in such a tone that it almost felt as if it were trying to make light of them. The characters were also so flat and the dialogue was really unbelievable. I'll probably get down voted for this XD
I sort of agree. I liked the book for the most part but it didn't have that much depth to it. The characters could've been more developed. Upvoting you for having an unpopular opinion and being willing to share!
It was a book called "The Wild". It was disgusting. It caused all kinds of uproar in the idie author community several years ago and I decided I'd read it to see what was going on.
I wish I hadn't.
The parents take the kid(s??) on a trip, mother dies, father ends up shacking up with the daughter. So many taboos, just for the sake of taboos. It was beyond disturbing and triggering. There isn't enough bleach in the world to cleanse my brain.
Peter Pan. Peter is so unlikable
I am convinced that peter pan is the real villain of that story.
I read and loved many of Robert Heinlein's books in the 1980-90's. But I remember being unable to finish 'The Number of the Beast'. Terrible book
I recommended Heinlein to my Uncle, but told him to get any book except 'The Number of the Beast'. So of couse he bought that book and said it was a terrible book, lol.
I've not read many awful books. I'm one of those "don't try new things" people, but Without Remorse by Tom Clancy. It's a great book as an origin story. But (major spoilers) there is a character who is in a bad situation, rescued, recovered, happy and then gets brutally snuffed out halfway through. I was so disgusted I had to do a Joey and put the book in the fridge for months before I could bring myself to read the rampage of revenge that followed.
yeah it is a great origin story for a minor well maybe not so minor character in the Jack Ryan novels, but definitely sets him up as a dude you don't want to mess with.
IT. Read the whole book to find out "it" was a spider. I threw the book across the room.
Of Mice and Men. I've had to read it this year for school and I just find it sad. The 2 main characters start the book with a dream of living together and being happy, but it ends (spoiler alert) with one getting getting shot by the other! I think it is ok as a book to study from, but as a book to read normally just don't bother.
American Psycho was terrible. Couldn’t even make it halfway through. Terrible book
I couldn't finish AP so my son recommended I read it as a comedy. I did. Was able to finish it, did find it humorous at times but still didn't like it.
Artemis Fowl (it was annoying how self centered the character was, and I felt like I was celebrating every time he made a mistake)
A wrinkle in time (Really just a boring book, mediocre characters, and a not interesting plot)
Emma (had to drag myself through the first few chapters, but it was bone dry. If it hadnt been written by Jane Austen, no one would even remember it)
A wrinkle in time is one of the few cases where the movie is better than the book. The book is just really boring
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Well-written, but it's just tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy and I couldn't take the line "Done because we are too menny", misspelled like a child would write. When conservatives yearn for the "good old days" in our green and pleasant land, I always think: What, like the rural England in this book? Hell no.
The Grapes of Wrath… soooooo boring!
'The Great Gatsby' - boring and about despicable people living it up at the expense of others. Was torture to read (for a University course). Even 'Bleak House' was better, and that's a marathon! Dickens spins a good yarn - but a long one. Victorians, eh? Mind you, my personal reading choices are SF and fantasy, so reading 20thC mainstream does not attract me. There's little 'wonder' in it. It's like eating dull bland food when your palate yearns for spice and stimulation!
Cinder
Red Scarf Girl (to be fair this was for English class)
Noooooo! I loved Cinder! That entire book series was amazing in my opinion.
I started reading Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" and had to put it down early. It didn't hook me and I usually last a long time before giving up a book.
The same thing happened to me with "Ulisses" by James Joyce, but perhaps here it is more understandable, due to losses in translation, etc.
It’s not a matter of translation, altho Joyce refers to many Irish cultural things you might not know much about. Neither of those works is in the typical style of modern novels. Both are “difficult.” Try Joyce’s short story collection “Dubliners.” Very accessible. Or Joyce’s beautiful short story, “The Dead.” And check out Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.” Same thing.
Catcher in the Rye. Just didn’t get it. A few hours wasted I’ll never see again.
how i live now by meg rosoff. dumb plot, awful writing, weird cringey incest stuff, annoying main character. did not make sense and rosoff did not use a single quotation mark which i found infuriating. 0/10
"The Vorrh". My goodness it sickened me within the first two chapters. Once I started to understand it I was too disgusted to continue. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm oversensitive, but it was the way the author described exactly how a dead girl was cut up and made into a bow and arrows... or maybe it was the crude sex scenes. Can't decide. Either way, yes I know it's a great science fiction book of our time, but I had to quit about a fourth of the way through.
Forrest Gump. I didn't even have to think about the answer. Books are generally better than the movie, not in this case. How they made such a good movie from that book is beyond me. I can't understand who read that book & thought "I could turn this into a movie."
I found it gimmicky to an extreme. As if an SNL skit went on and on and on.
The Great Gatsby. I taught high school literature, had to read and teach it year after year after year. Lifeless, annoying characters. Ridiculous imagery. Gatsby reaching out to the green light across the water, the whole "but these shirts" Daisy scene, owl-eyes in the library, all just ludicrous, deep and profound as a tide pool. And the weird "here, you drive mine and I'll drive yours" car-switching plot device that is required to set up the big climax has never, not even once, made sense to me. Like a guy in a boat rowing upstream in the river of time and regret blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Dreck.
I loved this book, but I read it in high school with an amazing teacher who really brought a ton of insight into the nuances of the characters and made it very interesting. Also very decadent, but it was the 20's.
Any book by Clive Cussler. I tried. Good stories, badly written.
Gather The Daughters by Jenny Melamed. I thought it was going to be a great story about a bunch of teens camping in the woods for the summer before they settle down and get jobs and become adults but instead I get a town of men who believe having sex with their preteen daughters is an acceptable form of birth control. In a town of 200 or so people only 1 man doesn’t do it. All the women are miserable but they don’t do anything to stop the men or protect their children. Awful book
"Mein Kampf" ('My Struggle')
No further explanation needed.
I get the freedom of the press, but WHO THE HELL IS STUPID ENOUGH TO READ THAT!? Screen-Sho...71-png.jpg 
I don't remember what book it was, but some book written by Rush Limbaugh given to me by a conservative relative. It was vile. He was attacking everyone and everything. I got about 5 pages in. It wasn't just his politics. It was the way he was just mean. I know he made his money that way, but you aren't going to change anyone to your way thinking by beating them over the head with your beliefs.
I actually did lean Libertarian at one time, but that's a different animal than conservatism. I still believe that the legalization of most drugs would solve a lot more problems than it creates. People are going to get them anyway and the war on drugs just fuels crime and violence. Just make them legal, put a reasonable sales tax on them that would go toward education in schools and treatment for addiction, and call it good. Cartels are probably the biggest opponents of legalization, which should tell us something.
First that came to my mind: "Revival" by Stephen King. 80% of it was really boring, but I powered through it somehow, hoping for something great in the end. The end was so bleak and depressing that I regretted picking it up. Exactly the kind of stuff that leaves me absolutely miserable for some time, so it's not even the "good" kind of horror.
Starship Troopers. I was excited to read it becuase the film is silly, satirical and good fun. It was absolutely garbage. Incredibly dull which is difficult when you're in spcae fighting aliens, even the fights were boring. Incredibly right wing and sexist as well without any satire in the mix. Only bothered finishing it because it was short and I kind of hoped it would get better. It did not.
When I was a kid--the Animal Ark book "Foals in a Field". Animal Ark was (is? Don't know if they're still being written) an awesome book series for kids about a girl whose parents are vets and her experiences with different animals. They aren't heavy reading, they may have some drama but they don't break you. Except this one. After spending the whole book saving these twin foals, they've finally made it--and then at the end the smaller one, that they fought so hard to save, has an accident and breaks two legs and has to be euthanized. It was an unexpectedly jarring and devastating twist in a series where you wouldn't expect anything like that to happen. Awful book.
Idk if you're being sarcastic or smthn bc that sounds like a great book💀💀
Steven king's IT was awful awful awful couldn't finish it
Michel Criton's travels was so boring
YES! thank you! IT was awful. I mean, a 12yo girl decides to do a g******g in a sewer before fighting a spider monster? please spare me. The writing is clearly coked-out and the product of a binge on alcohol. Dr Sleep, written post his addiction phase, is better-written and easier to read. IT is particularly horrid, and not because of the monster. Just the awful writing. It could be TLDR'ed down to 100 pages.
Catcher in the Rye. Monumentally overrated.
Monumentally misunderstood 😃 yes, it's of its time, but the story of disaffected youth dealing with trauma and mental health is timeless.
Wetlands by Charlotte Roche. I will never look at an avocado the same way again. The book is gross and pointless.
The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I couldn’t even finish it; why would you write a love story for a person who steals life?
to be perfectly honest, I loved this book up until it devolved into a weird love story. Fascinating concept for aliens
Dead Witch Walking. Hands down, never again.
I just noticed this got submitted twice. Thanks, phone lag 😆
The David walliam books. full of toilet humour, bad writing and casual racism.
The Giving Tree.
After hearing a lot about how "moving" this children's book was, I read it in my early teens and was left legitimately horrified by the experience. It haunts me to this day...along with the concept of inevitability as illustrated by an event horizon, and death by extreme radiation poisoning.
Layla, by Colleen hoover. the plot was all over the place and none of it made much sense.
I have two:
The Divergent series
And The Darkest Mind
I read the first book of the Divergent series, it was decent, but I got to Insurgent and I couldn't stand it. Probably because it felt like it was trying too hard to be dark
As for The Darkest Minds, same reason. I'm all for characters having powers and s**t but it felt like it was trying too hard to be dark and knock off The Hunger Games
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
I picked this up at a thrift shop as I tend to gravitate toward older works and vaguely recalled the title. This is a controversial novel from the 1950s narrated by a paedophile. Holy hell.
I thought it would provide some psychological insight that would give the reader something to think about, almost sympathize with the main character's situation. It did not deliver.
The entirety of the novel was just a prisoner recalling his paedophilic escapades without remorse. The writing itself was not bad, but if someone could find any point or meaning behind this drivel, I would gladly hear it.
Unfortunately, I like to read a book to the end, even if it's not promising. Given the age of the book, it began falling apart in the extended amount of time I suffered through it. I gradually recycled the pages falling off along the way. This is one of those novels that you could just put down, over and over again.
I finished the book on a beach and defiantly burned the last page. Threw the remainder into the recycling bin in hopes thay no one else would ever have to read this copy of Vlad's vicarious fantasies.
TLDR: a paedophile's manifesto, tossed out, probably recycled into toilet paper
Most "devotionals". The ones for girls talk mostly about Marriage and bearing kids. The ones for boys are mostly towards getting a job. They also immediately assume all people want to have kids with the opposite gender. They don't consider asexuals, gays, or trans either
anything by Joyce Carol Oates. Why would someone think up that sick weird stuff and write it down
The cloud atlas, was lost almost immediately, just couldn’t get into it
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I slogged through the first 100+ pages, and the only thing I remember is a crazy chase after a stray dog. Everything in the book is so over-described, reading it is like swimming in molasses.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
The main character is a complete jerk that you can't help but hate. He's basically guilt-tripped into befriending a girl with terminal cancer. The main character seems more concerned with focusing on his simultaneously self-deprecating yet obliviously arrogant self than actually forming emotional connections with the reader or, AHEM, the girl that is literally dying.
I think the author was trying to make the book relatable to high schoolers/young adults? But it just comes off as trying way too hard.
All romance novels. They're just not my kinda thing.
“May the best man win” by some a*****e. Basically, judging by the blurb I assumed it would be a cute trans love story involving neurodivergence.
The trans guy character is sexist as hell, and the book acknowledges how screwed up it is, they just don’t do anything about it???
The autistic character was portrayed mostly okay, until the trans boyfriend literally threatened to tell the whole school that he had autism to ruin his reputation. How f****d up is that? The worst part is that they get back together three chapters later.
There is a lesbophobic comment claiming that all lesbians are TERFS. You could have explained what TERF means without bringing lesbians into this. Not to mention, many of us are trans and non-binary.
The main character(trans bf) is a genuine jerk to everyone. And the other boyfriend literally tries to set a school on fire after comparing d**k sizes with his ex.
Oh! I forgot to mention, the only character of color is this Asian girl who is the epitome of stereotypes. All of it,
-100/10, screw this book
Most of Jane's Austen books. I find them really corny and boring.
Issue probably is that I read Brontë's sisters' novels prior.
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, I couldn't put this book down. I live just outside Detroit and it takes place in Grosse Pointe and Detroit. I have read it many times. Excellent book!
The Little Prince. Had to suffer it in high school. Almost put me off reading.
We had to read it in French for our French exams. I always found it a bit twee and embarrassing.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Couldn’t finish it. One I did finish and hated? Anna Karenina. Spoiler Alert. I was glad she got hit by the train.
'IT'. wasn't badly written, I just didn't like how it sexualized kids. movie slays tho.
My brother just was assigned a book for class called “shadows of war” it was utterly horrendous and I couldn’t find anything to salvage from it lol
Sorry about the accidental double post btw my phone glitched out
(I suck at explanations so please forgive my horrible explanation of why I hate the books)
The Infinity Cycle series (YA series btw) by Adam Silvera. Other books by him may be good (haven’t read them), but this one is not. The third book isn’t even out yet and there are bad reviews for it on Goodreads. All the characters but one are uninteresting and annoying. Brighton, the main characters brother, is the one of the most unlikable characters in the history of books. I want to shove flaming bamboo under his fingernails, rip his teeth out with rusty pliers, I hope he gets stung by murder hornets, and then dies alone, only to be tortured in the fiery pits of hell. The main character, Emil is so spineless I want to slap him in the face. I get that he doesn’t want to fight and all, but he needs to grow a pair and actually do something. Wyatt is just… there. He seemed to appear to just create a love triangle between him Emil, and Ness. Ness was the only character in the books I truly liked. He should end up with Emil.
The world building is okay I think, but the characters are awful.
I'm a voracious reader, and I've read many, many classics that I adore - they're classics for a reason, right??
I know I'll catch some flak for this, but I got about a quarter of the way into Moby D**k and stopped. It's the only time I've ever not finished a book I've started. The exhausting descriptions of the whaling industry that went on and on... I just couldn't take any more. I hated it. Perhaps someday I'll try to conquer it, and it will become my great white whale. Don't hold your breath, though.
Thanks for censoring the BOOK TITLE, BP. Sorry I missed it when I submitted it, but thanks to you, no delicate minds were destroyed.
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass. As it was something I had to study, I started to read it but threw it away within a chapter. I tried again. This time it went whizzing out the window into a thunderstorm and a large puddle.
A Prayer for Owen Meaney - I had the book recommended to me by so many people. I tried to like it but it was an ordeal to read. Perhaps with all the hype, I was expecting more.The capitalization of Owen's dialogue grated on every fiber of my being and detracted from any enjoyment of the story, which in retrospect was interesting ... but what a frikken ordeal!!!
The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
The plot was basic. I could predict what was going to happen EASILY. The plot twist was so predictable it was painful. Full of clichés. The characters were so 2D, it was painful. Sure, there was character growth, but it was basic and expected.
Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell
A good premise, but it is so soooo boring. It feels like it takes forever to say anything, and then anything it DOES manage to say could be summed up in a few words. It's like someone was trying to reach a word count. Not only that, but half of every page is entirely dedicated to footnotes! If they wanted to write multiple books then they should have instead of taking up half the page in smaller print with asterisks next to them. It's ridiculous. I tried to like and I tried to finish it, but lord it was a slog. Just....no.
The World According to Garp.
Oh boy, this is one of my favorite books of all time, but I'll concede that John Irving is a bit of an acquired taste
The World according to Garp
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
At one point I threw this across the room shouting g “JUST BUT THE FÜCKING FLOWERS!!!!”
It took me about eight months to read this because after three pages I would get a humongous headache, it felt like I was being bashed on the head by a bridge whilst my toenails were being pulled out by wild horses.
I read this 25 years ago and just hearing the name causes irrational hatred.
My brother just was assigned a book for class called “shadows of war” it was utterly horrendous and I couldn’t find anything to salvage from it lol
The cricket in the hearth by Dickins. Thought it would be another great Christmas tale like a Christmas Carol. It is not. Its only a novella and pretty much unreadable.
Faust I.
Part II is full of adventures, trips around the world, battles, kings and emporers....
But part one is just an middle-aged guy with a midlife-crisis who pays the devil to knock over a 14-year old girl (while killing her mother and brother in the process)
Why is this book part of school curriculum?
I have a few.
First and foremost -
The Handmaid's Tale : I was so confused by the lack of any punctuation that it stopped me enjoying the book, although I really wanted to.
Oranges are not the only Fruit : Hated the writing style, liked the series with Charlotte Coleman though.
The Institute : Had to say Stephen King had a miss there.
Haunting of Hill House : I knew it wasn't supposed to be like the series but even as Gothic Horror, I considered it pretty bad storytelling.
Fairie Tale (Feist) : The characters were terrible, loved the idea but wasn't executed very well.
These are mine, if you liked them... by all means let me know why :)
I have been trying to find a copy of the series of Oranges are not the only Fruit to stream for ages but can't find it anywhere
The graphic novel version of brave new world. I really wish I had never read it. Stupid mom forcing me to read it. If you’re 18 or older, you might like it, but kids would definitely find it a bit… not sure the right word for it, but I know I hate the book.
Brave New World is a great book, though - maybe just not that version of it.
To Kill a Mockingbird. I found many of the characters annoying and unlikeable, and the way she wrote the accents also really annoyed me. I'm not a fan of when authors attempt to fully write the transcription of accents into their books, because it just comes off as annoying many times (not always, though, with books like Outlander being able to do it well for the most part).
Also, Breaking Dawn. Honestly, I read the first three and thought they were good. Not amazing or anything, but fun, short books. While Breaking Dawn is still short, I found that it took characters' worst qualities and dialed them up.
I love having accents written into books. That was one of the things I loved about the Redwall series, especially when reading aloud to my sister. The exception for me was Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn because it was so thickly accented (and used so much slang) that I could barely understand a thing.
I've never been able to make that far into religious writings of any religion. If you feel like I'm attacking you or your religion in particular then I know exactly which religion you are, but I'm talking about the other one so quit pretending you're being attacked this is not about you.
Steinbeck's The Pearl. Total s**t.F**k the school system that made me read that.
I did The Pearl at school. It's not s**t. Just because a book is sad doesn't make it s**t.
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt.
After I was significantly into this very thick book, I read a review that called it Dickins-esque. And that made sense. It was a very depressing, drawn out, negative story of a young man. How he was neglected in this situation so he stole stuff, and this other situation he came up with a con just to line his pockets (and hurt a friend), and that situation which was just un-glorified drug use. Depressing. Dark. And probably some prosaic symbolism about the human condition.
Hitchhikers Guide series, the first book is well written, great concept, amazing story, etc. Then they progressively get worse, become nonsensical, no questions are ever answered, certain plot lines and characters are forgotten about, it’s like Adam’s forgot what he was writing about 1.5 books in.
Yeah mine scares the c**p out of me too.
Load More Replies... I enjoyed reading these posts. A commonality noticed is almost everyone hates books they read because they had to in school. I'm sad that they were turned off of some author's entire body of work because of an assignment. School is supposed to broaden our minds, not limit them. Seems many art classes have had a similar effect on imaginative souls. It's such a shame.
I didn't mind reading in school. It just depended on the teacher, for me. To Kill a Mockingbird is the only book I read in school that I hated. But I loved Othello (maybe because I got to be Iago and read in my English accent), Romeo and Juliet, and Shardik.
Load More Replies... Yeah mine scares the c**p out of me too.
Load More Replies... I enjoyed reading these posts. A commonality noticed is almost everyone hates books they read because they had to in school. I'm sad that they were turned off of some author's entire body of work because of an assignment. School is supposed to broaden our minds, not limit them. Seems many art classes have had a similar effect on imaginative souls. It's such a shame.
I didn't mind reading in school. It just depended on the teacher, for me. To Kill a Mockingbird is the only book I read in school that I hated. But I loved Othello (maybe because I got to be Iago and read in my English accent), Romeo and Juliet, and Shardik.
Load More Replies...