The worst book you have ever read.

[Ted Mackerel]

Yep, the Joyce borefest. Anyone claiming its Good is lying.

[The_Doc]

Ted Mackerel said:

Yep, the Joyce borefest. Anyone claiming its Good is lying.

The "greatest novel ever written" ?

I've tried to read it twice and failed to complete, and tried three times odd to listen to the audio book, and failed to complete.

That's a pretty poor book in my opinion

I now tell people that I've read it, so that they think more of me, because it seems that's what it's for

[Hugo a Gogo]

the cartoon series is good though

[toasty]

The_Doc said:

Ted Mackerel said:

Yep, the Joyce borefest. Anyone claiming its Good is lying.

The "greatest novel ever written" ?

I've tried to read it twice and failed to complete, and tried three times odd to listen to the audio book, and failed to complete.

That's a pretty poor book in my opinion

I now tell people that I've read it, so that they think more of me, because it seems that's what it's for

Now that's determination!

I battled through the audiobook on my journeys to work, the last chapter was a change as it was written from the point of view of Leopold's wife and read by a woman. It was also a relief to have made it.

I found reading summaries of the chapters on Wikipedia helped me understand what the hell was going on. Apparently, each chapter was supposed to be in a different style of writing which is why it gains such high praise.

Some of it I enjoyed, I daydreamed through the rest.

[Nobaccymaccy]

lots on here reminding me of ghastly dull books (Moby Dick , anything by Dickens etc ) which then reminded me of Gormenghast which was so boring i threw it away and read Nixon's memoirs instead which seemed positively brilliantly composed and exciting prose by comparison

[paulguitar]

Nobaccymaccy said:

lots on here reminding me of ghastly dull books (Moby Dick , anything by Dickens etc ) which then reminded me of Gormenghast which was so boring i threw it away and read Nixon's memoirs instead which seemed positively brilliantly composed and exciting prose by comparison

Anything by Dickens 'ghastly dull books'?

Seriously?

[Goaty Bill 2]

paulguitar said:

Nobaccymaccy said:

lots on here reminding me of ghastly dull books (Moby Dick , anything by Dickens etc ) which then reminded me of Gormenghast which was so boring i threw it away and read Nixon's memoirs instead which seemed positively brilliantly composed and exciting prose by comparison

Anything by Dickens 'ghastly dull books'?

Seriously?

I am afraid I am going to side with the 'norm' here and say I thought Moby Dick was brilliant, I loved the Gormenghast series, though I grant that it weakened in Titus Awakes, completed by his widow.
I have never read anything bad by Dickens. Bleak House was perhaps a little 'wearying' in it's length.

It can be quite easy to fail to appreciate the depth and value of some older works (Moby Dick and Dickens generally by way of examples) as the lessons and morals they were promoting, often seem much more obvious to us, having acquired them through the more general knowledge of and acceptance by our society as a whole.
Often times these writers to 'speaking' to audiences much less familiar with our modern sense of values, but it was their writing that brought these ideas, that we now so easily take for granted, to the fore.

[Arif110]

No votes for Stephen King's IT, then? I bought it, absolutely determined to like it - as really gelled with the recent movie - but he spends like four pages describing rainwater trickling/flowing down the road! I couldn't elicit the energy to plough through!

[tertius]

Do you have to have actually read it? I very, very rarely fail to finish a book, so if I don't it really must be dire:

1. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin - unpleasant people doing unpleasant things to other, equally unpleasant people

2. The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton - really gruesome, visceral violence

3. Possession - AS Byatt - this won the Booker?! Just drags on and on and on; and as for the section in the middle that is letters back and forth ... aargh!

and one I did finish but really, what utter tosh:

4. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

[King Herald]

tertius said:

and one I did finish but really, what utter tosh:

4. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

You are the only person I have heard of who did not like that book. I found the sequel incredibly tedious reading, could not finish that though.

[Halmyre]

tertius said:

Do you have to have actually read it? I very, very rarely fail to finish a book, so if I don't it really must be dire:

1. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin - unpleasant people doing unpleasant things to other, equally unpleasant people

2. The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton - really gruesome, visceral violence

I ploughed through that and resolved never to read another of his books. I don't remember the graphic violence (in fact, looking at the synopsis on Wikipedia, I don't recall anything!) but I do recall the prurient interest in young women.

[4Q]

On the Road by Jack Kerouac, i had to google to check I was reading the correct book. One of the all time 100 best books my arse. Absolute ste about people you couldn't give a toss about not doing much at all.

[toon10]

I'm not one for reading fiction so when I get a chance to read, I tend to pick up a true crime book. I've read some really interesting ones over the years on criminals and gangsters. Books on killers like Pee Wee Gaskins and Richard Kuklinski had me gripped. I'd say the Philip Carlo book on the Iceman is the most fascinating book I've read.

Then there's the gangster biographies. Lenny McClean, Ian The Machine Freeman, Brian Cockerill, The Sears, etc. all entertaining and a real eye opener into a murky world we all know about but most of us will never see first hand if we're lucky. This brings me to the book I class as the worst I've read. As a northerner who grew up with folk law and tales of Viv Graham, I was given his autobiography as a present. I think there's more than one so I won't shame the author as I don't recall which I had (and gave to a charity shop) but it was so badly written I just couldn't finish it.

[sparkythecat]

We need to talk about Kevin .

On no we fking well don't.!

[Vocal Minority]

schmunk said:

havoc said:

Catch-22 is a good book with great satire and interesting characterisation. Not necessarily easy to read, but still a good book.

Indeed, it has no place in this thread.

Afraid I have to beg to differ. Tried twice, gave up twice - I didn't find the characters interesting, just annoying. Then the whole idea of what 'catch 22' was, was just a bit basic in my opinion.

[br d]

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, just bloody excruciating.

I agree fully with On the Road by Kerouac, terrible. And he wasn't stoned when he wrote it, he was speeding his tits off.

I did finish Ulysess but couldn't remember much of it at the end, think I was mostly on auto-pilot.

[brrapp]

toon10 said:

I was given his autobiography as a present.... I won't shame the author

I think you've given us a fair clue as to the author.

[havoc]

Vocal Minority said:

schmunk said:

havoc said:

Catch-22 is a good book with great satire and interesting characterisation. Not necessarily easy to read, but still a good book.

Indeed, it has no place in this thread.

Afraid I have to beg to differ. Tried twice, gave up twice - I didn't find the characters interesting, just annoying. Then the whole idea of what 'catch 22' was, was just a bit basic in my opinion.

You DO realise that Heller gave the name to that particular conundrum, don't you? It may be basic now, but it wasn't then (the problem of reading novels decades out of context).

[Scabutz]

Wuthering Heights. Tried twice to read it and both times was bored to tears a couple of chapters in.

[captain_cynic]

Halmyre said:

I ploughed through that and resolved never to read another of his books. I don't remember the graphic violence (in fact, looking at the synopsis on Wikipedia, I don't recall anything!) but I do recall the prurient interest in young women.

Which is a shame, his other works are much better. The Reality Dysfunction really is his worst work, it wasn't so much graphic violence but psychological terror done quite badly. I never bothered reading the rest of the Night's Dawn Trilogy, I've been told it has a crap ending. Don't base your opinion of his works solely on that book, even to his fans the series was awful.

Pandora Star (the Commonwealth Saga) is a much better read, although Peter F Hamilton really does suck at doing endings, the conflict resolutions themselves are good but drag on like the LOTR movies, story wrapped up 50 pages ago and the main characters are now being interviewed on daytime TV.