Worst book you've ever read?

[welsh dragon]

Life of Pi. The most hard going and boring book on the planet. They even made it Into a film

 

[Baldy]

The catcher in the rye, was pity dreadful. Was forced to read it at school, no idea why. Wolfhall, must also be up there as the worst book ever written.

 

[ColinJ]

Lord of the Flies. If I had a Time Machine, I would go back in time, train a small carnivorous dinosaur and then bring it forwards in time to eat W Golding, in 1952.

It's about 55 years since I read it. I think that I enjoyed it at the time.

I've recently been watching Sløborn on Walter Presents (All4) and I was thinking that things had gone a bit Lord of the Flies when one of the characters suddenly said that himself!

 

[Reynard]

50 Shades of Grey.

All my cat show friends were waxing lyrical about it. I looked at a copy while mooching around a book shop and only lasted a couple of paragraphs. It's not the subject matter that's the issue, it was just poorly written. And theoretically, as it's set in a universe belonging to someone else (Twilight), it should never have gotten past the editors. Unless you've express permission (e.g. writing novels for Star trek or Star Wars and the like), fan fiction is technically plagiarism and is strictly not-for-profit.

Having said that, I like to spend time on fanfiction.net - some stuff on there is professional quality, but a lot of it is so bad it makes one's brain hurt.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Not a book, but any of my own short stories!

I love writing them and initially think they're great (sometimes)... but reading any of them six or twelve months later, utter garbage.

Sounds like my artwork. A great thing to do, to get away from the day job. But not a reason to give up the day job.

 

[Reynard]

Anything by Shakespwpeare.

How the hell do these know-it-alls have any idea what all this hidden meaning bollards within Shakespeare's works is all about? It's not like he told them.

Oi!!!

Just because it's written in an older form of English doesn't mean it's impenetrable. Although the iambic pentametre it's written in isn't perhaps to everyone's taste.

But Shakespeare is full of interesting plots, social commentary, and even the macabre - have you ever read Titus Andronicus?

And as a writer, I just find such beauty in the language. For instance...

So long as men can breathe and eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Years ago, early 2010s judging from the train and my commuting history, I picked up a copy of a book that someone had left on a train. I started reading it but I thought it was rubbish and the next day left it on the train for someone else.

Evidently it was picked up by a TV producer who made a bit of a go of it. Slow Horses.

I've not seen the TV adaptation though.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Catcher in the rye. Supposed to be some sort of classic, but I didn't get it at all.

 

[stephec]

Life of Pi. The most hard going and boring book on the planet. They even made it Into a film

Too many big words?

 

[Bristolian]

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin - some king of SciFi thing. So bad I had to read it twice just to be sure

The Redemption of Time, written by Baoshu, is supposed to explain things but it's just as unfathomable as TTBP

 

[lazybloke]

1983 in a school English lesson, we started studying a play, "The Corn is Green".

Even the teacher thought it was tedious drivel, he got only halfway through the lesson before changing to Lord of the Flies. MUCH better.

 

[Elswick Cotterpin]

There have been so many I couldn't even begin..

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance.

Utter codswallop, but a 'must read' for a mid-teens boy back in the 70's.

I quite enjoyed that, oh so many years ago.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Lord of the Flies. If I had a Time Machine, I would go back in time, train a small carnivorous dinosaur and then bring it forwards in time to eat W Golding, in 1952.

Have a word with Chris Rea

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin - some king of SciFi thing. So bad I had to read it twice just to be sure

Like that one and the follow up books.