Books you regret reading

[Aur0ra145]

"the Village" by David Mamet, it was horrible.

 

[slowpoke219]

I regret starting the Horus Heresy W40k series because I enjoyed the first two so much I have to buy the other 16 or so that are on the market presently.

That's probably around $100 down the drain. Fucking Warhammer, stop being entertaining.

IKR!!! But damn if they aren´t a good bloody read though. 100 Internet Points to you for excellant taste in literature.

 

[RamirezDoEverything]

The worst one I've ever finished, however, is "Catcher in the Rye". I keep hearing a lot of people telling me that I "just don't get it". I get it, all right. It's about a whiny kid being a whiny kid, while telling the world he is the only one who has it right, even when he doesn't. I have never disliked a main character as much as Holden Caulfield. The real phony is the author acting like they are being deep.

.

I agree, the book was just an angsty teen being angsty. He was a spoiled rich kid who didn't like to go to school. FASCINATING.

This is really the only book that I can think that I would have lost nothing if I had not read it.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly.

One of the most depressing books ever inflicted on me by my high school. The premise? An inspector investigates a servant's death - killed herself by drinking strong disinfectant and grills the Birling family abouts who's responsbility it was.

Sunshine and rainbows this ain't. It just seemed like a cheap ploy to get us youngsters to care more about 'responsibility'. Pfft.

Haha, I had to read that too in GCSE English Literature (the shit they make us read; I'm doing Language for A-Level). I didn't find it depressing, just some shitty moral Socialist lesson that Priestly was trying to shove down our throats through his high-horse Inspector character.

 

[putowtin]

There´s been a lot, most were 19th Century English literature. Man that stuff could put me to sleep. Most recently however was the novelization of Assassin´s Creed 2. I usually love video game tie in novels, but that one was just plain aweful. Never mind that I already enjoy the source material and that it´s about revenge and assassin´s and all those really cool things. It was as about as fun to read as the back of a soup can.

Oliver Bowden has managed to take exciting source material and produce four utter shite books, this man should never be allowed to write again!

 

[ZombieGenesis]

'Catcher in the Rye'
'Alias Grace'
The original ending to 'The Prestige'

Everything else I've read was good. I don't tend to pick up stuff I find questionable.

 

[DeltaWolfson]

None, cause I don't read books! HA HA!

 

[Darren716]

The Secret Life of Bees (had to read it for school).

Where do I begin?

1) The protagonist is completely unrelatable. Her constant whining about her dead mom and tendency to do stupid random shit out of nowhere is the opposite of a good character.

2) Only one of the characters gets an arc. Even the protagonist, who has allegedly had a life changing experience, remains completely stagnant throughout the book. Even the death of one of the main characters doesn't affect anyone in the slightest for more than a chapter.

3) The plot is poorly structured. What would've made a shocking plot twist had it been placed near the climax is instead vomited out in the opening exposition, ruining any build up the story could've potentially had. There are problems beyond that, too. One of the main characters gets fucking arrested and the obvious plot point of hiding from the authorities for most of the book has no consequences.

4) Every so often the book touches upon a deep and interesting idea that's never further discussed, leaving the reader frustrated that the author never even attempts to make her book something more than bargain bin schlock.

This book made me hate bees almost as much as Nicholas Cage does.

I second this, when I had to read this book this year I felt kind of uncomfortable as a white male since according to this book all white people and all men are the sole emboyment of the Devil and black women are the true master race and can not do anything wrong and shouldn't be held responsible for their actions such as instigating and fight and hiding an escaped convict.

 

[Yopaz]

Hmm normally if there is a novel I did not like I would just stop reading it and the only one that really comes to mind is the prequel to the Wheel of Time series. I read the first book and while it took awhile to get some action into the book, I really did enjoy the novel and even bought the second one but then I found out there was a prequel and thought that adding some back story would be a nice idea. I was wrong, oh so very very wrong. I probably made it halfway through the book before boredom finally convinced me to do something else. That book was completely boring and was completely pointless. I am sure if I were to finish it then it might make some sense but nah not now.
I might try to re-read it later but I still have a bad taste in my mouth.

If you want the full story of the series I would recommend that book, but the prequel doesn't really provide anything essential to the series. I read New Spring after The Gathering Storm and besides an OK read I didn't get much out of it. I think New Spring is written while he had a writer's block, or maybe the suggestion that he believed that he wouldn't die until the series was done so he decided to drag out as much as possible in order to extend his life has some merit to it. Anyway, if the book bored you at the point where you got there's probably nothing that will spike your interest in the remaining part of it. The last couple of books are great though.

OT: I think I will have to go with Eragon and Avalon. Those books were so boring. I tried watching the movie and that bored me so much that I was on the brink of falling asleep the entire time it was running. The book was even more sleep inducing.

 

[Heronblade]

"the Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Let me put it this way, it puts "Pride and Prejudice" to shame when it comes to plodding storyline and characters.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo

Interesting characters and storyline, but poor execution. I found myself plodding through the text, it may be that some of the prose was lost in translation from the original French, but it is almost unreadable. (If you're thinking of the Disney movie, stop, just stop, the only things they have in common are the title and a few character names)

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

The necronomicon by Lovecraft. I didn't read the whole compilation, but I read enough.

Possibly trying to read them back to back was a mistake, as it highlighted how formulaic a lot of them where. The narrators where invariably annoying, because they'd waste a page going 'the horror the horror' before telling the damn story. Especially when the horrible thing turned out to be a fish-man he saw once for 2 seconds before getting his arse out of there.

I learned to put up with that, as in his longer stories that was less of an issue, and the idea of characters being affected by witnessing horrific things is interesting, as opposed to being unflappable heroes. And there where a lot of genuinely interesting ideas and mosters presented.

What finally ground me down was the relentless racism and snobbery in them. He had backwards idea on evolution which where constantly used as plot devices (people of 'low character' 'devolving' into sub-human monsters), seemed to see the poor as some sort of underclass, and seemed to think all black people where devil-worshippers.

It got to the point where I felt sick after reading them, so I just stopped.

 

[Zetsubou-Sama]

I would like to second (third?) Catcher, with the same reasons. I also hated it because Holden tended to gloss over things that may be seen as rather important. Did you know that he was sexually molested by other guys before? Neither did I. It's brought up all of once, VERY VAGUELY, and then completely pushed aside for something else. Characters are introduced with little closure for them and the story, as a whole, is tragically quaint; it's that stupid teenage angst thing that's been done over and over again. It's like "oh, ANOTHER one of these? [sarcasm]I wonder how this one will turn out.[/sarcasm]" Maybe it's because I don't get it, like people tell the OP, but if people don't get your book when they read it, you have done something wrong.

Also, The Book of Negroes is one of the worst books that I have ever read. The characters are ridiculously unrelatable. The worst part is that it's hilariously dated; perhaps I could relate if I lived in slave-era America, but I am living in contemporary Canada and little to none of the things that happen in the book happen here. And it's a recent novel. How a recent novel could be dated, I would not have known if not for this book. It was an ordeal to read for English class, even more than Catcher.

Firstly you have to understand that the book was the first to deal with the whole teenage angst secondly, Holden glossing over important details is part of the point of who he is, someone so screwed up but does nothing about his personal issues only focusing on those around him and the world.

Secondly the Catcher is part of the mythos of the Caulfields that spans across many books and short stories and gives closure to every Caulfield mentioned as well as going into detail and showing a lot of the episodes Holden mentions or even omits, if you ever give a chance to J.D Salinger's work you'd see it's mostly distributed into two big families (The Glass and the Caulfields) that are part of most of his work and his short stories. Including the final chapter of the Caulfield saga which will only be released in 89 years (90 after J.D's death) or you can go and read it at Princeton where you'll be assisted by the librarian the whole time you read it.

 

[Les Awesome]

"Goodnight Mister Tom"- Michelle Magorian

I Had to Read and Relentlessly Study it Three Times in School For a Question
on a State Examination That Never Came Up

 

[Mebulous]

Old Soldiers by David Weber

It/she/They open up a door by blasting it with some blasty cannon.

She/They considers what It/her has done.

It/Her calculates for .0012 seconds and Her/They/It is satisfied that the door is indeed blown apart.

Her/It cries digital tears of Hers/Theirs/Ours/Bolos/Its primal mechanical joy.

It got pretty damn annoying, reallly damn quickly.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

1984- A really well written book, but its far too depressing to enjoy
Twilight- Do I really need to explain that
The Hunger Games- Up to the third book they were ok but the third book was dreadful. The last 100 pages are dead air and the ending made me regret reading the series

 

[Fat Hippo]

Well, probably the Necronomicon. Ever since I read it I've been haunted by nightmares most terrible. And I see things, things that shouldn't be there. I am utterly convinced that this is not my imagination playing tricks, no, I am sure that it is real, that there is something otherworldly out to get me. Maybe I should take my life, if only to save myself from the constant strain of these hauntings. . .

And so go the last words of JLML. May he find more peace in death than he did in life.

As for myself, probably 80% of the books I've read for school. Especially Buddenbrooks, even though I only read the first 150 of its 700 or so pages, but those 150 pages...THE HORROR! Boredom, as I've never experienced. Staring at a white wall wearing a straitjacket would be less boring than reading this book. Yes, it's that bad.

 

[Vhite]

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/burgess-clockwork_orange.jpg

I'd started reading A Clockwork Orange a few times, and found it an exercise in frustration with the use of a made-up language and a meandering plot that didn't seem to be going anywhere. However, with continued recommendations and praise, I restarted once more and made it all the way through to the end.
I was annoyed that I had done so.

The premise may have been interesting at the time, but it's so poorly executed that it easily ranks as one of the worst reads of my entire life.

The language wasn't made up, it was slavic, mostly slovak. Thats why it was so easy for me to read even in english.

Im now reading Flowers for Algernon and while it's a great book, Im not sure I like where it is going going.

 

[Nazgual]

I don't think I regret reading any books. I've certainly read some that are rubbish but if as someone who is interested in learning to write then I learn something from every book I read. Especially if it's crap. From just a readers perspective I'll pick Twilight and Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever.