What's the worst book you've ever read?
black box -- nick walker
close second: the girl with the dragon tattoo -- stieg larsson
www.triplebeard.com
http://darkroomreview.blogspot.com
“...There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one's head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people's pain. You ought to have some apprehension that the man you see before you was once even younger than you are now and arrived at his present wretchedness by imperceptible degrees.”
-James Baldwin
I almost put Black Box down too. I remember when we did a book club discussion of it. I felt lost after reading it. Like wtf was that. Thank you for wasting my time!
But I disagree with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I really liked that one a lot.
An abridged version of The Tale of Genji. I don't think I would ever be able to suffer through an unabridged version.
The Things They Carried was also too much typical Vietnam fodder for me to really feel like I got anything out of it. Probably b/c in high school all my teachers were from the Vietnam generation so they really piled that stuff on and it was an assigned read.
Anthem by Ayn Rand was horrible as well. A whole book dedicated to a fallacious argument. It's a prime example of weak literature and weak argumentation.
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury
my grandmother told me I should read Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, she thought it was very exciting
I can't post in this thread anymore... You guys are killing me!
The Things They Carried was amazing!
The Things They Carried was amazing!
I agree I liked it.
There would be about a hundred teenagers dancing in front of a huge screen on which the videos were played; the images dwarfing the teenagers--and I would recognize people whom I had seen at clubs, dancing on the show, smiling for the cameras, and then turning and looking up to the lighted, monolithic screen that was flashing the images at them. Some of them would mouth the words to the song that was being played. But I'd concentrate on the teenagers who didn't mouth the words; the teenagers who had forgotten them; the teenagers who maybe never knew them.
The best thing I can say about that whole paragraph is that there are no misspellings. What else does it have going for it? It's not offensive to the senses?
This is why we can't have nice things.
The Things They Carried was amazing!
Perhaps it's just when I read it. I was in high school and they were really bombarding us with Vietnam stuff. And I read it at the last moment so I was really rushing through it. I actually don't remember too many details about it except that I didn't want to read it at the time.
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury
The Things They Carried was amazing!
I agree I liked it.
I read this in high school and it was one of the few books in my public school career that I ever really enjoyed.
I have to agree with Tuffy, Less Than Zero was rather weak. I liked it when I was 14, because I thought the characters' decadent lifestyle was 'cool' but it's nothing special.
Huxley's Brave New World
NO WAY!
How can you, I don't even....to each his own.
But damn, that is an amazing story.
This one came to mind for me too. But I wouldn't officially label it that though because the story is brilliant. It was way ahead of its time, and it is so thought provoking. But, it was written like in the late thirties or something? I guess I would put it in a 'hardest book to read' list. I just remember being very relieved to finish it.
Like Alecia(I think) said- to each their own. Unless it involves BEE. He's off limits. 
"There’s no use in denying it: this has been a bad week. I’ve started drinking my own urine." -Patrick Bateman
I am curious as to what exactly you hated about it so much. Do you care to elaborate?
Oh god no. I love this book to pieces. I actually prefer it over 1984.
NO WAY!
How can you, I don't even....to each his own.
But damn, that is an amazing story.
Um, this. BNW is one of my all-time favorites. Someone else said it was hard to read, I think, which is not at all how I felt about it. I breezed through it because I felt it was so well-written. I realize most people who DO actually read this are forced to do so because of school, but I read it on my own and fell in love with it.
Also: I was not impressed with LTZ, either. I mean, I read it all, but felt mostly apathetic about it, really.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig)
The best thing I can say about that whole paragraph is that there are no misspellings. What else does it have going for it? It's not offensive to the senses?
Imagery? Grace? The feeling of falling--falling out of your peer group, along and through the cracks of a roboticized social hive that has long kept your drone instincts drunk on the illusion of unity?
The best thing I can say about that whole paragraph is that there are no misspellings. What else does it have going for it? It's not offensive to the senses?
Imagery? Grace? The feeling of falling--falling out of your peer group, along and through the cracks of a roboticized social hive that has long kept your drone instincts drunk on the illusion of unity?
That requires a set of experiences that not all people have. I'll admit that it was a fairly well put together paragraph, but I agree with Tuffy. Nothing about it wow'd me. I wouldn't use that in a pitch to try and hook readers. I've never read BEE, but that wouldn't make me want to.
Kiss Me, Judas.
Controversy!
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
I tried to read this once and gave up after about the second chapter
This is so offensive to me. What is bad about Infinite Jest?
Disclaimer: I only read the fist 100 pages [because I thought it sucked so much].
I don't know, I basically agree word for word with Dr. Joseph Suglia's review. The prose is unbearably, pointlessly turgid.
Fuck your life.
In other news:
Fuck this book. I want my two days that it took to read you back.
There is hope, but not for us.
Less Than Zero is pretty fucking great, although it's one of Ellis' weaker novels, ie. not one of the greatest American novels of the last century the way his last 3 are.
I'm glad someone feels qualified to say what the last century's Big Books were!
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
really Jane? that's been on my to-read list for a while.
I really didn't like Less Than Zero at all, but by then I realized that Ellis didn't do it for me whatsoever, so I couldn't really hold it against him/it. As I recall, I read it because it was around, and was the only book on the shelf that wasn't a cookbook.
There is hope, but not for us.
I know there's a few people around here that really like it (like Mirka) but ugh. Things this book did not have:
1. a plot
2. character development
3. quotation marks
4. proper nouns
Basically I felt that I could've torn the chapters out, mixed them up, glued them back into the binding, and it would've been the exact same book. Not to mention it was hypermasculine and often archaically wordy for no reason that I could really understand.
There is hope, but not for us.
Fuck your life.
In other news:
Fuck this book. I want my two days that it took to read you back.
Yesssssssss.
Blood Meridian is on my book shelf waiting to be read.
I'm glad someone feels qualified to say what the last century's Big Books were!
Oh sorry, in future I'll be sure to qualify all statements with "I think" or "in my opinion."
I would've been offended by you even mentioning Infinite Jest in this thread, but now I just see that you just have awful, horrible, horrible taste. If Bret fucking Ellis has written 3 of the great American novels of the 20th century - I just see no reason to live anymore. That's just fucking absurd.
It's still absurd if prefaced by "I think" or "In my opinion"
I don't read bad books, bad books read me.
“The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Fuck your life.
In other news:
Fuck this book. I want my two days that it took to read you back.
Man, you can read fast. That book took me forever to read and I had to keep a dictionary and Google translate close at hand (never took Spanish). I also thought it was a great book. The crazy part is that a lot of it is true.
But McCarthy does have a lot of annoying traits with his prose. At times the description was way too florid and he'd use archaic words too often.
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury
I tried to read this once and gave up after about the second chapter
<--- 
Best book of the twentieth century.
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury
I tried to read this once and gave up after about the second chapter
<---
Best book of the twentieth century.
Oh jesus, you too?
Twilight is the best book of the 20th Century! 
Controversy!
I just defriended you on facebook.
not really...
Worst book I have ever read is burned in my memory, it came straight to mind. It was so terrible from the very first page that I couldn't help but turn page after page. I went on a four day long rant about it's horrificness after I finished it.
I tried to read this once and gave up after about the second chapter
<---
Best book of the twentieth century.
Oh jesus, you too?
Twilight is the best book of the 20th Century!
Twilight is the 21st century 
(I had to check Wiki for that one)
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury
I tried to read this once and gave up after about the second chapter
<---
Best book of the twentieth century.
Oh jesus, you too?
Twilight is the best book of the 20th Century!
Twilight is the 21st century (I had to check Wiki for that one)
Nah. It's so good, that it transcends Centuries.
This is so offensive to me. What is bad about Infinite Jest?
Disclaimer: I only read the fist 100 pages [because I thought it sucked so much].
I don't know, I basically agree word for word with Dr. Joseph Suglia's review. The prose is unbearably, pointlessly turgid.
You are such a fucking idiot. You said before that you mananged to "slog through it." That means reading 100 pages? And, really, you are agreeing with Suglia? Have you never even been to this site before?
"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism." -Carl Sagan
"Am I cruel? Probably. Is she an idiot? Yes." -jane s.
scubasteve's avatar is looking pretty appropriate right now
The mustache? I'm sounding manly for a change, or what?
"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism." -Carl Sagan
"Am I cruel? Probably. Is she an idiot? Yes." -jane s.
Yeah it do. He's a fighter.
okay i know this is against popular opinion but i really disliked A Catcher In The Rye a lot. not because it was terribly written but it evoked a lot of really awkward feelings. it wasnt the worst book i've ever read but i really disliked it the most.
the worst book i've ever finished...hmm....
a teacher gave me a copy of Stealing Athena by Karen Essex and the entire book was just a list of facts about the characters and i kept sighing because of how much i just didn't give a shit about anything happening! it was given to me because i said i wanted to read Bettie Page: Life of a Pin-Up Legend but after Stealing Athena...hell no.
This is interesting. Tell me more.
"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism." -Carl Sagan
"Am I cruel? Probably. Is she an idiot? Yes." -jane s.
i think i just read it too late in life. i don't ever need to feel like a sexually molested 14 year old boy.
I also disliked Catcher in the Rye. Maybe I waited too late to read it, maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind. I just kept thinking "get your shit together and stop whining, Holden!"
I was hoping he'd get mugged a few times.
Yeah - I love Less Than Zero...
eh, at least we know we are a diverse bunch here.