Books that sucked

[QUOTE=thirstygerbil;955611]Absolutely agreed. In fact, I'd say that everything Max Barry writes is pretty awful. He's all plot, no character. And, though the plots are conceptually interesting, he just isn't able to support those concepts with this writing. He definitely writes the sort of books that need to be movies in order to be entertaining.[/QUOTE]

Eh, I don't see this as a problem in any way. A book doesn't need well-defined characters to be good. It doesn't even need a well-developed plot to be good. A good book can be almost purely plot-driven, or almost purely character-driven. I happen to love Jennifer Government, and you're right, there is no character-development. But this is not a problem...don't get me wrong - I'm not attacking you for having a problem with it - just saying, it's a matter of preference, not a concrete prerequisite for a good book. I think Choke, by Chuck of course, is the opposite of Jennifer Government, in that it is almost entirely character, with little plot..yet I think it is also a great book. So I think Barry supported the concept (at least in Jennifer Government) very well - but without developing the characters.

the alchemist by Paulo Coelho.... most overrated book ever... worst, most sentimental, book I`ve ever read...
Shouts!

What??? You thought The Alchemist was bad??? I mean...I won't argue opinion, because you're entitled to it. But wow...I can't believe you think it is that bad. What I will argue is your "most overrated book ever" label...because that is just blatantly false. The Alchemist isn't known/discussed/praised nearly enough to even be in the running for the title of "most overrated book ever." I wish it was...it's not in my top ten or anything...not even sure if it'd be in my top 20 or 25...but it is one book I think everyone should read.

I have to say Lord of the Rings sucked....I LOVE the movies and the concept, but i think Tolkien was a terrible writer. And I may think this because I had already read alot of fantasy before reading LOTR. I read The Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, and thought they were the coolest, so Tolkiens world was nothing new to me, so I couldn't appreciate his creativity.

If anyone has seen Clerks II when Randall is talking about how much LOTR movies sucked....I feel that about the book. All it was was a bunch of people walking, and any battle lasted a whole two sentences

[QUOTE=bearchaser;955470]I hate books that are written in english but use a lot of foreign words. Like Henry Miller's [I]Tropic of Cancer[/I], I had to stop reading that. It wasnt like whole pages were in french but it just seemed like I had to have a basic understanding of the language to understand anything, what the characters are tying to say.[/QUOTE]

I LOVE Henry Miller. But I can understand why people would find him annoying....I like that a book with no real plot/story line and is just about sex and bumming for money can keep me so intrigued

[I]mr. overby is falling[/I] by nathan tyree. i’d read a lot of sparkling reviews about it being part [I]fight club[/I], part [I]american psycho[/I]… i just didn’t expect it to be a literal rip of both those books. i’m sure it would have kicked my ass if i hadn’t read what had influenced it. i’d also been on a ridiculous run of great books and was kinda pissed [I]overby[/I] didn’t continue that trend. there was some decent writing in there though, i’ll give him that. has anyone read his follow up [I]king of citizen bands[/I]? other than that, i usually select my books pretty carefully, and if by chance the odd piece of shite does slip in i normally jump ship when things get beyond the point of rescue. there's nothing worse than reading a book just to get it over and done with.

[QUOTE=bearchaser;955334]Infinite Jest. I haven't read this, I own it, but come on, 1079 pages full of acronyms, tennis, and general nonsense? I mean, what the fuck?[/QUOTE]

David Foster Wallace drives me nuts. I read a few essays out of [I]Consider the Lobster[/I] and I thought they were terrible. He thinks he's a great social critic but he makes such obvious and ridiculous points. Example: "Women are in the position of power in the porn industry." Yes, one could easily make that arguement. Thanks for taking 25 pages to point out that they make the most money. He goes ahead and points out that women are in the position of power in the industry and never talks about how the industry exists in a larger world and how that power dynamic works.
Plus, he's into putting in so many footnotes. Part of the challenge of good writing is dealing with the twists and asides of a story. He just thrown them down at the bottom of the page. It makes the text look dense, but it's really just chopped.
He's a bad bad man.

Peeling the Onion by Wendy Orr
A truely shitty book. Ok the first time round if you like hearing about others in pain but the second time the main character is just a whiney little girl. I can understand why she would be like that but i dont want to read about it more than once. This is why i hate school books you have to read and re read them more times than is enjoyable.
Grrrrrrrrr.
Ruins a decent book or makes a bad book worse.

[U]The Bible[/U] - this book is way over-rated. the plot is slow and boring. started to read it but i stopped when a friend of mine ruined it for me by telling me jesus died in the end.

Well, maybe he was just testing your faith about the ending.

actaully he dies about 3/4 of the way through it and then there's a surprise comeback

[QUOTE=MechanicalHound;955966]I have to say Lord of the Rings sucked....I LOVE the movies and the concept, but i think Tolkien was a terrible writer. [/QUOTE]
agreed. I really wanted to read the whole trilogy, but I just couldn't make it.

[QUOTE=MechanicalHound;955966]I have to say Lord of the Rings sucked....I LOVE the movies and the concept, but i think Tolkien was a terrible writer. And I may think this because I had already read alot of fantasy before reading LOTR. I read The Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, and thought they were the coolest, so Tolkiens world was nothing new to me, so I couldn't appreciate his creativity.

If anyone has seen Clerks II when Randall is talking about how much LOTR movies sucked....I feel that about the book. All it was was a bunch of people walking, and any battle lasted a whole two sentences[/QUOTE]

damn, that was like hearing myself speak... or type, rather.
i have tried literally half a dozen times to read LOTR with no success. i did read the Hobbit and i liked it enough to finish it, but anything else by Tolkien just bores me incredibly. Like you, i've read the Narnia series many times while growing up and fuckin' love it.
also, Clerks II sucked. horribly.

[QUOTE=izen;956337]
also, Clerks II sucked. horribly.[/QUOTE]

not to turn this into a movie sucking thread but Clerks 2 wasn't nearly [i]that[/i] bad. It could have been a shitload worse than it was.
I liked it anyways.

The Diary Of Anne Frank.
That is probably the most boring book I've ever read. If it wasn't because my teacher made me read it, no way I would have done it. It sucked. If you want teen angst, listen to emo. But whatever you do, don't read it.

Sorry, that was a rant, but I was just so mad because the entire time I was reading it I thought it'd be better in the end, but there is no end.

ouch

Fight Club, Choke, Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Diary, Lullaby, and Haunted are the worst books EVER!

««««« provocateur

[QUOTE=xec8;956402]Fight Club, Choke, Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Diary, Lullaby, and Haunted are the worst books EVER!

««««« provocateur[/QUOTE]
actually, i gave up on Choke. just didn't do it for me. couldn't even finish it. the last time i mentioned this, people got all psycho about it.

My Antonia - Willa Cather

I only read it because I had to for a high school class. What a waste of paper, ink, and time.

[QUOTE=indietroy;956411]My Antonia - Willa Cather

I only read it because I had to for a high school class. What a waste of paper, ink, and time.[/QUOTE]

that is one of my favorite books. i bet you watch anime.

[QUOTE=Rerre;956397]The Diary Of Anne Frank.
That is probably the most boring book I've ever read. If it wasn't because my teacher made me read it, no way I would have done it. It sucked. If you want teen angst, listen to emo. But whatever you do, don't read it.

Sorry, that was a rant, but I was just so mad because the entire time I was reading it I thought it'd be better in the end, but there is no end.[/QUOTE]

WOW
probably the only time I've ever heard "teen angst" and "emo" used in a description of Anne Frank
A bold statement indeed!

By the way, Hitler was in fact NOT a vegetarian.

But he did, in fact, have only one ball.

The things you learn from reading.

[QUOTE=Thag;956403]actually, i gave up on Choke. just didn't do it for me. couldn't even finish it. the last time i mentioned this, people got all psycho about it.[/QUOTE]
I haven't read Choke, nor Invisible Monsters. And I haven't read Haunted and I'm not exactly excited about reading Rant, either.

Almost all required school reading is painful. They are supposed to be classics but I don't really like a great number of them.

I love, though, when you say you didn't like a book those that love it insist that you simply didn't get it.

well they're right!

... and I liked most of the required stuff! I must be a nerd!

I did too. Except for Heat and Dust. That sucked.

[QUOTE=Thag;956429]that is one of my favorite books. i bet you watch anime.[/QUOTE]

I'm not into anime. About the closest thing I come to anime is Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Outside of that, I don't care for it.

[QUOTE=Thag;956475]well they're right!

... and I liked most of the required stuff! I must be a nerd![/QUOTE]
Me too! Let's be penpals.*

*Seems nerdish.

in fifth grade, we got penpals from some other class of fifth graders in Canada.

In his first letter to me, mine started complaining about Free Trade. i didn't think that was very diplomatic so i never wrote him back.

I had a penpal called Cherish from Hackney in London. She was so ghetto.

[QUOTE=moe.ron;955569]i'll have to disagree, the davinci code, as a book, a plot idea, a theory, etc. did not suck, especially if you're into mysteries. it was an entertaining, quick read for sure.

what sucked was the fact that dan brown plagerized.

additionally, secret santa rocked and i was really into it. my exchangee (or whatever you call it) never replied to me :([/QUOTE]

That sucks! My favorite part was seeing how the person who got my book was enjoying things and having ideas about the book.

[QUOTE=Thag;956403]actually, i gave up on Choke. just didn't do it for me. couldn't even finish it. the last time i mentioned this, people got all psycho about it.[/QUOTE]

You know, I really didn't dig Choke either. It had a few funny bits in it, but overall, I wasn't wowed. But then again, Invisible Monsters is my favorite, and most people don't rate it very high on their Chuck list.

I thought Diary was the most poorly written of all Chuck's books but I would never go so far as to say it sucked
Just didn't live up to the benchmark all his others had set is all

[QUOTE=Thag;956403]actually, i gave up on Choke. just didn't do it for me. couldn't even finish it. the last time i mentioned this, people got all psycho about it.[/QUOTE]

don't feel bad. it took me a while to get through Choke. I did like it, but I didn't read it in one sitting like I did with Survivor or in a few days like I have with his others....

God I hated Diary, true the whole island twist was pretty cool, but any scene with the husband in it, I just wanted to be there, so I could punch seven shades out of him.
This could of course be because he reminded of this arsehole I knew.

Choke is probely my second fav Chuck book, after Fight Club. True some of it is pretty out there, but just the range of ideas and social observations he covers just had me hooked!!

Vicious Spring was a terrible book.

choke used to be my favorite. now id probably rank it third. survivor was also my favorite at one point. now id rank it second. invisible monsters is my favorite, followed by the other two, followed by fight club, followed by lullaby, followed by diary, followed by haunted, and then...stranger than fiction...eh

it took me a while to come around, but im convinced that invisible monsters really is chucks best book...and i really think survivor is his second best...well this is pointless, im just repeating the first paragraph with more conviction. ill stop.

I'm surprised so many people here disliked Choke.
It's probably my favorite of his books. Granted, the plot wasn't a crazy twisty thing like a lot of the other stuff, but it had heart, man. Heart

[QUOTE=tom9d;956836]choke used to be my favorite. now id probably rank it third. survivor was also my favorite at one point. now id rank it second. invisible monsters is my favorite, followed by the other two, followed by fight club, followed by lullaby, followed by diary, followed by haunted, and then...stranger than fiction...eh

it took me a while to come around, but im convinced that invisible monsters really is chucks best book...and i really think survivor is his second best...well this is pointless, im just repeating the first paragraph with more conviction. ill stop.[/QUOTE]
[URL=http://www.iep.utm.edu/t/truthpro.htm]Prosentential Theory of Truth.[/URL]

[QUOTE=xec8;956887][URL=http://www.iep.utm.edu/t/truthpro.htm]Prosentential Theory of Truth.[/URL][/QUOTE]

Hmm..interesting stuff.

Basically any book that i had to read for school sucked. the only one i really liked was All Quiet On The Western Front. that book is the best war book ever written.

The "classics" i had to read that were truly terrible were:

Cold Sassy Tree
The Invisible Man
Crime And Punishment
The Crucible
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations - TOO MUCH DETAIL, NOT ENOUGH STORY
The Great Gatsby (not as bad as the others but still not good)

Homer's [I]Odyssey[/I].

quite repetitive.

[QUOTE=LoneKnypher;957757]Basically any book that i had to read for school sucked. the only one i really liked was All Quiet On The Western Front. that book is the best war book ever written.

The "classics" i had to read that were truly terrible were:

Cold Sassy Tree
[B]The Invisible Man[/B]
Crime And Punishment
The Crucible
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations - TOO MUCH DETAIL, NOT ENOUGH STORY
The Great Gatsby (not as bad as the others but still not good)[/QUOTE]

I'm a big fan of H.G. Wells, but only his ideas are awesome. His prose has a scientific-journalish tone that makes his writing seem kinda monotone, but at the same time makes it more realistic.. its tough to explain but if you read enough of his stuff you get that feeling. I liked The Invisible Man for the most part, but I didnt have to read it for school. His short stories are better than his novels, to a certain extent, because you get more of his ideas with less of his writing. I know no one is asking, but "The Land Ironclads", "The Star", "The New Accelerator", "The Stolen Body", "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" are a few of his short stories that are definantly worth while.

Back on topic, I'd have to agree with what others have said about Tolkien's writing. I tried reading the Silmarillion for the fourth time a month ago, but I just cant get into it, even though my best friend keeps telling me its like the best fantasy book ever.

Also, I was dissapointed with the original Dracula novel. The first few chapters are good, but after that the story seems to be based off of suspense that just isnt there for me. I think its because we all know what vampires are these days. If I had no idea what a vampire was it would definantly be a crazy read, and it was probably like that when the book was first released, but now it seems obsolete.

i thought he was talking about the Invisible Man ralph Ellison version

Bah, never heard of it but the HG Wells version is better because im biased and dont want to think I typed all that for no reason.

ya i was talking about the Ralph Ellison version. i didnt know there was another book with that title. should have specified. but HG Wells is a good author. i read War Of The Worlds and The Time Machine and i liked them both. im sure his Invisible Man is much better than Ralphs

i actually enjoyed crime and punishment. i was probably the only one in my class who did...but i thought it was a great book - its just dense and has lots of names that can get confusing.

i thought the great gatsby sucked..uncle toms cabin, too. i thought...actually, other than gatsby, i cant even remember which books i read and disliked, because i blocked them from memory...

but i must admit...i did enjoy some stuff i read in high school...
cats cradle
crime and punishment
the trial by kafka
the confessions of st. augustine
all the plato i read
all the c.s. lewis i read
time and again (i forget who wrote it)

I haven't read it but I bet the novelization of the movie Private Benjamin sucks