Books you regret reading

[Hylke Langhout]

I know that's already been mentioned, but Mockingjay was a really crap book. After two books of violent and suspenseful goodness, Collins got waaaaay too caught up in love triangles and whiny teenage angst. The slaughtering of multiple characters I actually liked probably didn't help either.

Secondly, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I don't agree with the accusations of racism that this book has received, but it's just a slog to get through. Conrad takes a lot of time describing the environments and settings, which were supposed to emphasize the themes of the book, but he did it to such an excruciating extent that it just starts to feel really redundant after a while. This may seem like nitpicking, but I need to get it off my chest; there are only 2 characters in the book that have real names, Kurtz and Marlow. The rest are limited to titles such as "The Russian" and "The Doctor". It's supposed to be for thematic reasons, but it's also really annoying.

 

[Havegun]

I don't know if I actually regret reading it, but one book that I consciously decided to put down was the Warhammer Gotrek and Felix Omnibus. I think I made it to Skavenslayer before being fed up with it. I kinda liked it in the start, the short-story format worked fairly well for it.

Safe to say, there are many more books I regret not having read, especially as some them are books I already own.

 

[Danzavare]

I don't regret this because my marks depend on it, but Midnight's Children is a book I would NEVER have read if I didn't have to! Every single situation ends in the most implausibly vile and repulsive outcome and everyone in that book is a terrible TERRIBLE person - and the incest! The constant and disgusting incest! And the supernatural elements! Freak, every bit of fantasy that could've been interesting is used in the most offensive and/or dull of ways!

I hate the book and I hate the author for writing it.

To add to my frustration the quotes from critics on the book keeping praising it as book that'll never go away. GAH!

 

[Scarim Coral]

This Autobiography called Madworld. I can't remember who the bio is on but I think it was some English writer.
At that time I was retaking English class and we were on the subject Biography. Our teacher advice us to read biography and autobiography to know the difference. While I did read a biography on The Sting from Top Gear at the local libery but they had no interesting Autography.
I went to local cheap book store and their had this biography book called Madworld and it was super cheap. I look it up online which had gotten some good reviews so I bought it.
Anyway the book was so dull and boring as I couldn't keep track what was going on. So I guess I regret buying it in the first place (I guess those who gave it a good review were people into literature).

 

[5ilver]

The first book of the Hunger Games. I kept expecting the protagonist to change in some way because she kinda maybe seemed to start an arch and then the story just made a complete 180 at the end. Even worse, I couldn't help but feel bored and annoyed at the actions of the characters. I feel dirtier and cheaper as a person for reading it.

A song of fire and ice book 1- Again, someone had recommended this and I kept slogging through and through, expecting it to somehow become amazing. It never did
If anything, it managed to get worse near the end. I did not care about the characters, the tiny countries and that stupid, pointless throne everyone else deemed so important.

Les Miserables by Hugo. I feel like the author was angry at life and beauty and just wanted to write as much pain, suffering and ugliness and put them all in 1 book. And then my school made me read the damn thing -.- Because you know, teenagers need more reasons to feel depressed and think about suicide.

 

[Infernai]

The books Crusader and Hades Daughter by Sara Douglass- Warning, spoilers.....ah, who am i kidding, not like any of you are gonna read these books anyway..

The first was essentially pulling off the end of a trilogy much like Mass Effect 3 did: What's that? Big bad's dead? Well, time to kill THE ENTIRE WORLD TO MAKE SURE THAT BIG BADS DON'T APPEAR AGAIN! (God, i wish i was kidding when i typed that.). The rest of the series wasn't super awesome, but i still enjoyed reading it and i had fun..

The second has literally the most UNLIKEABLE GROUP OF PROTAGONISTS I'VE SEEN THIS SIDE OF TWILIGHT. The main character, Brutus, is such an unlikeable ************ even by the rest of the casts standards.
He's an emotionally manipulative douche with a penchant for fucking peoples lives up with Disproportionate retribution (What's that? You're planning on trying to send a few assassins to kill me because i took over your kingdom, raped you and left you to suffer ungodly emotional and physical abuse? Then i'll not only unleash an unholy amount of arcane energy that will brutally murder every person in your city not on my side, BUT i'll also go on to blame you horrifically for this by saying it could have all been avoided if you hadn't tried to kill me because did all those terrible things!) whose also praised to hell and back for doing all these terrible things (Admittedly he's called out ONCE on this and one or two minor characters complain about him, but apart from that...NOTHING!). Now, i understand that this is set in ancient greece and naturally the author went for historical accuracy in regards to characters personalities. So, values dissonance applies. BUT, did i mention that Brutus was also responsible for murdering his own father so he could get power which lead to the destruction of his kingdom? And suddenly, even most ancient Greeks wouldn't wanna support this guy. To the point you wander why, when the very people he screwed over and to whom this exploit is common knowledge to, suddenly want to follow him again when he says he's going to get them a new kingdom...somehow...

Needless to say when you're repeatedly calling for every cast member to die horrifically (One of them PARTICULARLY more then others) you know the series can only really go downhill from here..

 

[wintercoat]

To be quite honest, I didn't find Twilight all that bad. I mean, sure, it was a rather mediocre teen romance written by an inexperienced author, but I've read much, much worse from that genre. It wasn't trying to be anything more than what it was.

Can't really say that I regret reading any of the books I've read. They passed the time, fulfilling their purpose. That's all I ask from a book. And like I said, I've read some really terrible teen schlock before, but at least they're somewhat amusing in their terribleness.

 

[Loki_Blackaria]

I don't know if it's been brought up yet, and I've got to go to work so I don't have time to check, but "Johnny Got His Gun" is the most depressing, morose, downer of a book I've ever had the misfortune of making it halfway through.

 

[Scarecrow1001]

To Kill A Mockingbird.... I hate that book. I do not care if it is metaphorical, or whether it is literal. I don't care. It is just so damn boring.

 

[Kermi]

What an odd question. Did I enjoy most of the books I was forced to read in high school? No. But I learned something from them. I have read books I enjoy. I have read books I don't enjoy. Reading those books, as with all things I do, shape me as a person. I would never wish to part with a life experience so trivial as not liking a book.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

The Bible.

Yes. It was overly long, the characters are all two-dimensional cut-outs who blindly do what the "God" fellow says, and towards the third act it got a bit muddled and started talking wildly about some "Jesus" guy who hadn't even been mentioned up to that point. He just appeared out of nowhere, apparently the son of the "God" guy, but with so little fanfare. And don't get me started on the countless revisions and reprintings! Most good books get rewritten maybe once or twice, but I swear this has been rewritten a good half dozen times!

But that said, there is an uncanny atmosphere of self-awareness. There's a scene in which God commands some berk to do something, but then turns out it was a test. It's like the author knows the characters are all complete pillocks, and so points it out to the audience as to assure us that it isn't a mistake. But still, it's horribly written and in verses for some utterly unintuitive reason and it's just not fun to read at all. 1 star.

 

[Nerexor]

The Sword of Truth novels, for pretty much the same reasons mentioned by those who regretted reading the Anita Blake books.

Decent protagonist and his love interest slowly morph into mindless marty stu and mary sue. The problem is that the transformation takes long enough that the by the time you realize it you've already bought 6 books and wasted a ton of money (or if you were smart, borrowed 6 books from the library, and merely wasted many hours of your life). On the plus side it least it didn't have furries and necrophilia, so I feel slightly better than if I'd read Anita Blake from what I've seen of the reviews in this thread. But only slightly.

 

[Nadia Castle]

'The Last Human'by Doug Naylor and 'Backwards'by Rob Grant, the two final Red Dwarf books. It was one of my favorite book series, and read like a really really well refined version of the TV show, then the two writers ended their partnership and wrote them separately to end it. It was like Matt and Trey decided to each write and ending to South Park where one was entirely fart jokes and the other was entirely moral philosophizing. Backwards is probably more guilty because Rob Grant actually went onto write some really good books whilst Doug Naylor just ran the TV series into the ground. It made the other books a lot less enjoyable knowing there was never a real conclusion coming.

Lord of the Rings also, I enjoyed the films and the Hobbit so I know there's a good story in there somewhere but I just can't cut through all the poems, encyclopedia knowledge and pointless tangents. I adore history and English so its not even that all that stuff is there, its just that its all really not very good...

 

[Fractral]

I can't really say that I regret reading it, but we had to read An Inspector Calls for English and it's probably one of the shittiest books I've ever read. I agree with the play's message about socialism and responsibility, but it comes off as so ridiculously preachy and the Birlings are such obvious strawmen that I can't help but think that this play would turn people away from accepting socialism.

The other book we had to read for English was Of Mice and Men, which I loved.

Thats funny, cause I read both of those books for my English GCSE, and didn't mind either of them. Although I hated how lennie acted at the end of 'Of Mice and Men', just cause it seemed so out of place with his character, at least to me.

Which leads me on to the other book that I read for my English GCSE, which was 'Never Let Me Go'. Seriously, so much wasted potential, so many plot holes, only two good characters in the whole book (in the second half of the book the main character loses all personality) and it had no plot until the last section, which is ruined anyway because their aren't any good characters to drive it.

 

[Korolev]

Dice man - I found the characters to be terrible, terrible people.

Also, the "sixth" Hitchhiker's book. Not because the book is itself bad - the book is reasonable and the author does a reasonable job of attempting to imitate Adams. But he's not Adams, never could be, and throughout the entire time I was reading the book, I couldn't help but think "This would be a lot funnier if Adams had wrote it and wasn't dead". All the book did was remind me that he's dead, and that made me sad.

 

[OreoDoublestuff]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Yes, women's lives we're horrid, please just stop now. Just when you think it's heading toward a happy ending, "Nope, this dude's worse than the last guy!" (in a way)

Also, a bit off topic, where's the 180 at the end of the first Hunger games book? I've read it recently, and her actions at the end make sense for her; though granted I have a tendency to add character details that aren't there...

 

[woodaba]

The Planescape Torment novelisation.

(slams head on desk repeatedly)

 

[Ickorus]

I've tried reading some of the 'classics' out there and came to the conclusion that the people recommending them as 'great reads' are faux-intellectuals who only state they like the books because they want to appear superior to other readers.

I'll be in my flame-retardant bunker if anybody needs me.

 

[BENZOOKA]

I discontinue reading books that I find too bad to read. Works well for me.

Maybe the worst reading experience was a book from a Finnish author whose books I liked when I was a preteen/teen. I got his new book three or four years ago as a gift. Those books were and are actually good. The twist, which was mentioned in the beginning and in the back, was that a boy was born, and this pagany old woman delivered him. She told them the day he was going to die. And the title suggested that the man in question was particularly hot-tempered, but cool at the same time.

The boy grows up, there's one or two mildly tight situations around two actual wars, but that's about it when it comes to conflict. Everything works out for him. He is pretty much perfect in every sense; very industrious, intelligent, attractive and so on. He gets rich and all along his projects turn out great, just as planned. He has everything a man could wish for during the date, his 50th birthday, which is supposed to be the day he dies. The whole book culminates into this finale. What happens? Absolutely fucking nothing. He can continue his great life. I literally threw the book in the trash bin immediately after I finished reading it.

 

[FFHAuthor]

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.

Thank god, I thought I was the only one who hated that book. The rest of my english class adored it, I despised it.

On thread, I can add a lot of books to the list that I thoroughly disliked yet had to read for school. Lord of the Flies, Tale of Two Cities, so many others that were required reading...so I won't go into the classics, I'll go into the modern fiction;

DeathTroopers.

I seriously hate myself for spending money on it.