Worst book you've ever read?

[Ming the Merciless]

50 Shades of Grey

You should try 50 Sheds of Grey

 

[Chris S]

Mein Kampf

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Poltergeist.

There is a loooonnnnggggg tedious section in the book that gives a back story to the parapsychologist that turns up. It kills the flow.

 

[Dirk]

J.D.Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye.
What the heck was that all about?

 

[simongt]

Ray Mears' autobiography.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

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

I started and bailed out - tedious, sterile drivel imo.

 

[Baldy]

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.

Still uncomprehensible stitte even if it's supposed to be beautiful language.

 

[Reynard]

Still uncomprehensible stitte even if it's supposed to be beautiful language.

Why is it incomprehensible? It's no harder to understand than Dickens or Austen or even Dylan Thomas.

 

[Alex H]

Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie, about 20 pages anyway.

Anything that has won a literary prize.

 

[welsh dragon]

Too many big words?

Very funny

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Not the worst, but certainly the only book I gave up on was A Suitable Boy. I just couldn't stomach reading another page when I was a quarter through its 1300-odd pages.

 

[Drago]

Mein Kampf

I've read it in the original German.

Barking mad.

 

[Reynard]

I've read it in the original German.

Barking mad.

I've read it too, albeit an edition that was translated into English. It's dry, stodgy, difficult to follow the logic at times, and quite clearly the product of someone who was a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

But I guess when you're suck in the slammer as a result of a failed putsch and have an axe to grind as a result...

 

[delb0y]

The most recent book I bailed on was Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I really like King and I love Straub, but just couldn't get on with the narrative style.

Read many a Jack Reacher and have always been disappointed, and yet weirdly I keep going back for more.

But I'm sure the worst book was probably a Guy N Smith horror novel, most likely one of his werewolf ones. Can't recall the title of the very first one but they were bad....

 

[SpokeyDokey]

The most recent book I bailed on was Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I really like King and I love Straub, but just couldn't get on with the narrative style.

Read many a Jack Reacher and have always been disappointed, and yet weirdly I keep going back for more.

But I'm sure the worst book was probably a Guy N Smith horror novel, most likely one of his werewolf ones. Can't recall the title of the very first one but they were bad....

Jack Reacher novels are awful; my BF has read them all and raves about them.

On his recommendation I tried one years back.

Dreadful storyline, characterisation & prose.

Written in the style of 'my first grown-up book' for a 12 year old.