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What is the worst book you've ever read?

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zee
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11 Feb 2008, 5:07 am

Icheb wrote:
"Passenger to Frankfurt" by Agatha Christie, one of her last novels.

In one passage, she refers to "South America and Peru", as if Peru didn't belong to South America; a German character keeps saying "Ach, so" ("Oh, really") when she means for him to say "Just so"; the French cabinet, having found that tear gas is insufficient to contain demonstrators, seriously considers using nuclear weapons for riot control, etc.! And along the way, Christie manages to insult just about every ethnic group and political faction in the world.


Wow, that's one of the few Christies I haven't read yet. Interesting!

Do you like her other books?



9CatMom
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11 Feb 2008, 10:03 am

I used to love the Lillian Jackson Braun Cat Who...mysteries, but the last few haven't been very good. The presence of the cats is de-emphasized.



Icheb
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11 Feb 2008, 11:29 am

zee wrote:
Wow, that's one of the few Christies I haven't read yet. Interesting!

Do you like her other books?

In general, yes. My favourites are "And Then There Were None" (reportedly the only novel she mapped out all the way through before she began to write it), "Dumb Witness" (aka "Poirot Loses a Client"), "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile". I also liked the movie version of "Death on the Nile" and the TV versions of "The ABC Murders" (with David Suchet) and "The Moving Finger" a lot.



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11 Feb 2008, 4:59 pm

All the Harry Potter books after the fourth one. The writing style dropped me out of the series in the middle of the fifth book.


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11 Feb 2008, 6:24 pm

ihitterdal wrote:
All the Harry Potter books after the fourth one. The writing style dropped me out of the series in the middle of the fifth book.


Did her writing style become more 'cinematographic' or is it just me? :?

It's almost like she's writing something already adaptable to film. Just the impression I got.


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zee
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12 Feb 2008, 5:26 am

Icheb wrote:
zee wrote:
Wow, that's one of the few Christies I haven't read yet. Interesting!

Do you like her other books?

In general, yes. My favourites are "And Then There Were None" (reportedly the only novel she mapped out all the way through before she began to write it), "Dumb Witness" (aka "Poirot Loses a Client"), "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile". I also liked the movie version of "Death on the Nile" and the TV versions of "The ABC Murders" (with David Suchet) and "The Moving Finger" a lot.


I love those ones too. DId you know there are at least 4 film versions of And then There were none? And they all take place in a different location: Indian Island, ski chalet, Iranian desert, African safari. No, I'm not making this up! 8O

One of my favourites is "The murder of Roger Ackroyd", the book is obviously better, but the film was funny. Also, "Murder in Mesopotamia", and "Lord Edgeware Dies".



Riddick124
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12 Feb 2008, 9:19 am

Worst book I ever FINISHED was probably Gone With the Wind, we were forced to read it in 8th grade, it was pathetic.



Irulan
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12 Feb 2008, 9:48 am

zee wrote:
Wow, that's one of the few Christies I haven't read yet. Interesting!

Do you like her other books?


Personally I don't like Christie's books (and detective stories in general) but I have read her autobiography and I liked it a lot. I am fond of autobiographies, biographies and diaries of famous people.


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sartresue
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12 Feb 2008, 11:22 am

codarac wrote:
sartresue wrote:
Some books I would burn if it meant such venomous ideas would burn also topic :x

Mein Kampf, by a hitler (vile sieg heil)
Being and Time, by m heidegger (junk pile)
The China Cat, author unknown (juvenile)
Scientology, by l ron hubbard (puerile)

Any literature/art that sanctions genocide/mass murder/racism/other illogical crap I burn at the stake in my mind. :x


What is it you find so offensive about Being And Time? This is a genuine question; I haven't read the book myself, and i doubt I'll ever attempt it.

Is it just the fact that Heidegger was a member of the Nazi party?


In the Time Being topic

This book is a convoluted waste of time, and yes any nazi is not worth reading, though only enough to identify him/her. heidegger stole his ideas from Edmund Husserl, whose University Philosophy Chair was stolen, again by martin h. Not someone you would want to let in to use the telephone.

This is not recommended reading.

So long in replying, due to a house move.

I think hubbard's book is also called Dianetics. A turd by any other name would stink as bad.


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12 Feb 2008, 12:17 pm

"the worst book i've ever read" can not by definition be any of the hundreds, or thousands, that i have picked up and then rejected after one line, a paragraph, or a first chapter. I don't read books that i think are rubbish, boring/offensive/pernicious/pathetic or irritating. ( this includes many perfectly great books too, because i can't be bothered, or it's not where i'm at.)

So that means the worst book i read must be one that i was obliged to read, in other words one at school. In that case "The Spire" by William Golding. :skull:

Actually i can see where strapples might be coming from because when i remember my experiences of books which i had to read for school i feel a sort of creeping nausea. The whole experience of reading at school was sickening. Claustrophobic, heavy, over-done, close-ups of stuff i didn't want in my face, had no real idea what it was about; sniffing around in a pile of words looking for stuff for teacher.

8)



zee
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12 Feb 2008, 2:58 pm

Irulan wrote:
zee wrote:
Wow, that's one of the few Christies I haven't read yet. Interesting!

Do you like her other books?


Personally I don't like Christie's books (and detective stories in general) but I have read her autobiography and I liked it a lot. I am fond of autobiographies, biographies and diaries of famous people.


Really, why don't you like them? I still want to read her autobiography. I've often wondered if she was a bit on an Aspie herself.



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13 Feb 2008, 7:05 am

Pretty much any high school textbook. They are always ridiculously inaccurate, yet students are forced to memorize all the fictionalized stuff in them anyway.



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17 Feb 2008, 10:46 pm

no published book can be as bad as the literary cesspit/graveyard of talent that is Fanfiction.net

hear, hear...;)

Actually, if you want the essence of badness of fan fiction, go to 'the Godawful Fanfic site' (I think that's what it's called, search on 'godawful'). so bad it's good...;)



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18 Feb 2008, 3:09 am

I once read in a film magazine (which I think was called Empire) an article about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest. It featured too contradictory quotes from film critics from way back when, reading as thus

a. "How did they make such a great movie from a terrible book"
b. "How did they make such a terrible movie from a great book"

I read the book when i was 15/16 before i saw the film and if I'm being honest I much prefer the film. Its not a bad book perhaps, but the fact I prefer the film is the only incidence I recall where this has been the case. (Im 24 now, so maybe i need to give it another bash and missed out)



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18 Feb 2008, 1:27 pm

MissPickwickian wrote:
Strapples wrote:
every single god damn book that the sh***y school system has made me read... also every single god damn text book i have had to read from the god damn schools...


Jeez, Strapples, that's a lot of hate. . .

A lot of people who hated the books they had to read for school did not actually hate the books, but rather the "had to" part. Having to write a paper about something can certainly destroy it.

I always recommend that the person that hated every book they read for school to go and read them all again. 20% of them will be as horrible as you remember (Huckleberry Fin- yechhhhh). 40% of them will be good, but you will not really relate to them. 40% of them will pleasantly surprise you.

Please, please don't hate a book just because somebody made you read it. Some of my favorite books are classics that too many people are forced to read in school. Please give these books a second chance. PLEASE.


I admit that I might not have hated The Scarlet Letter so much if I hadn't been forced to read the entire book, and watch the miniseries. If I had the option of chunking the piece of s**t as soon as I read the first chapter, I wouldn't be filled with homicidal rage whenever I even hear the name Nathaniel HAthorne.



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18 Feb 2008, 7:06 pm

I've read a lot of awful books, but I've only come across one that was so horrible I threw it away. It was a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys collaboration called Operation: Titanic, which I picked up because at that point I'd read anything and everything having to do with the Titanic. Unfortunately, not only was the book aimless, dull and full of characters I didn't overly care for, it had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TITANIC.
False advertising....


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