Worst Book You Ever Read ... But Still Finished

[colbycheese]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

I get it, you can't truly define the word "quality." Did you really need to write 500 pages to get that point across?

It wasn't about defining "quality", it was about defining "truth". Did you even read it?


My worst book I finished was "Refuge" by Terry Tempest Williams. I had to read it for an environmental literature class I took at ISU. It's about cancer, birding, leaving the Mormon faith, and the desert. Most boring book I've ever read.

 

[bawbie]

Hunger Games are terrible. It's a great concept, but the actual writing... dreadful.

This is false.

 

[Angie]

Here's the deal with that book. Since I've taught it, the kids that have lost someone close (like Holden), get it, but kids that read it without having dealt with a close death see him as whiny. I think to fully appreciate what Holden goes through in the book, you need to have lost someone you were close to first. My class was pretty divisive on the book, and it was pretty easy to tell which students had dealt with death before and those that hadn't.

I think that's pretty apt. It's one of my two favorite books ever, but you have to have a personal connection in Holden.

I just read Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I'm a big fan of classical British literature, but that was many the single most depressing thing I've ever read.

 

[Wesley]

What? How can you consider Catch 22 the worst of anything? That is one of the funniest, best written books ever written. It's an absolute masterpiece.

Not in my book.

 

[klamath632]

This is false.

Sorry that you disagree with me. I actually think it's a great concept, but if you think the concept is awful, I could probably see that point of view also.

 

[IAStubborn]

Yeah, I read the 50 Shades of Grey series as part of a book club. Now, I don't mind smut, but this was such poorly-written smut that it made my head hurt. I bounced from that book club after that.

Wait, there is high quality smut? I thought that was what fifty shades was supposed to be. If it was just regular smut how did every woman in america end up reading it most of them not your typical smut readers. Please enlighten...

 

[bawbie]

Sorry that you disagree with me. I actually think it's a great concept, but if you think the concept is awful, I could probably see that point of view also.

I like the concept and didn't find anything wrong with the writing, espcially for what it is. I'm not saying it'll ever be a piece of classic literature, but I read all three books and never once had a qualm with the writing.

 

[Cyclonetrombone]

In 6th grade we had to read "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor...

no bueno.

 

[Angie]

Wait, there is high quality smut? I thought that was what fifty shades was supposed to be. If it was just regular smut how did every woman in america end up reading it most of them not your typical smut readers. Please enlighten...

I think even stuff like Literotica has better writing than 50 Shades!! Or probably random blogs, although I don't know if that's something that people write a lot of online?? I don't think the Harlequin stuff is smutty enough to rival 50 Shades, and I don't think most are written much better, but I'm not sure.

 

[MNCyGuy]

I like the concept and didn't find anything wrong with the writing, espcially for what it is. I'm not saying it'll ever be a piece of classic literature, but I read all three books and never once had a qualm with the writing.

Yea, for me I was able to finish all the Hunger Games books so quickly, that even though the writing does leave a bit to be desired, it couldn't fall into "worst" territory for me. The only books I really hate are the ones that become a slog to get through.

 

[MNCyGuy]

I think even stuff like Literotica has better writing than 50 Shades!! Or probably random blogs, although I don't know if that's something that people write a lot of online?? I don't think the Harlequin stuff is smutty enough to rival 50 Shades, and I don't think most are written much better, but I'm not sure.

I am so curious to look at your internet history right now.

 

[Angie]

I am so curious to look at your internet history right now.

Haha - I should have added "or so I have heard." :wink:

 

[cyclones500]

"Billy Budd, Sailor" by Herman Melville.

I think I finished it, anyway. It was for an English course — maybe I read only enough to write a halfway-believable paper. It was still too much...

 

[Mr Janny]

It wasn't about defining "quality", it was about defining "truth". Did you even read it?

I don't know where you're getting that. The author constantly talks about the concept of "quality." Now, he does essentially equate quality to truth, if that's what you mean.

 

[CloneLawman]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

I get it, you can't truly define the word "quality." Did you really need to write 500 pages to get that point across?

I feel your pain, Janny. My English 105H course was organized around that book.

 

[Mr Janny]

I feel your pain, Janny. My English 105H course was organized around that book.

Ughh. I only read it for fun. I can't imagine having to do it for class.

 

[Angie]

The only book I've ever been assigned to read for class but couldn't was "A Separate Peace." It was just 100% not something in which I was interested - I think that was for freshman English in high school. It seemed really remedial for high school, and the story just wasn't very interesting to me. I read enough to get an A on our test, but... blah.

 

[IAStubborn]

Haha - I should have added "or so I have heard." :wink:

So they have high quality smut blogs and books called Literotica. Wow. I thought it was just Fabio and 50 Shades, now I find out there is a whole cottage industry of highend word porn. My eyes have been opened.

 

[Angie]

So they have high quality smut blogs and books called Literotica. Wow. I thought it was just Fabio and 50 Shades, now I find out there is a whole cottage industry of highend word porn. My eyes have been opened.

I was just guessing on the smut blogs - I mean, they have blogs for EVERYTHING, I'd guess smut?? But, on the other hand, I think that's what they have pictures for that you can also get for free, so maybe people aren't dedicating blogging time to that. But, on the OTHER other hand, maybe they think they'll get a book deal on their smut?

I think I heard a friend say that the chick who wrote 50 Shades of Grey actually first wrote it as fan fiction for the Twilight series, the main characters are supposed to be... the pasty guy who was Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter, and Kristen Stewart. I don't know their names, not into vampire crap. But, anyway - from what the girl in my book club said, apparently she just changed the names and a few of the circumstances (probably like sucking on people's blood), and 50 Shades was born. I have no clue if that's even a little true, though - but it goes back to wondering if there must be some place where people are submitting these things and they're getting picked up for publication?

 

[nrg4isu]

Two books come to mind - The Destruction of Dresden, a book I read because it was referenced in Slaughterhouse-Five. And the last book of the Dark Tower series by Stephan King. The Destruction of Dresden is as dry as reading a dictionary. Slaughterhouse-Five is awesome. Similarly, The Gunslinger was awesome, but the series went downhill from there. The last book (882 pages) was a brick that when I finished I wanted to burn. It was a chore to finish the series, but I had so much time invested in it that I had to finish it.