Most Infuriating Book(s) You've Ever Read?

[Ace Morologist]

The most recent George R.R. Martin book (A Dance With Dragons).

It feels like every book in the series is moving farther and farther away from the conflict hinted at in the prologue of the first book, but this book was the worst of the lot about that. With the first three books, I never felt like things were being drawn out for the sake of selling more books, but books 4 and 5 made me feel that way. Too many new characters, not enough development of the established characters, wheels of the main plot spinning with no traction...

I have to resist the gravity of a rant, but there's my answer.

--Morology!

 

[Queen Michael]

I have to resist the gravity of a rant...

I'd be interested in hearing one, actually.

 

[Superlative]

Ordinary People. its right people with problems and a much too large slice of male masterbation. I have never given a smaller fraction of a fuck about a piece of text ever. there was so much fail packed into that thing I ended up dropping Senior English because high school me couldn't handle it...which is kind of a bad thing for an aspiring English major to do. luckily, my college also didn't give a fuck.

Also, Murder on the Orient Express is pretty awful. 100 pages in and no one is dead, just some BS about someone who stole someone else's man and the Ex is super mega ultra salty. if your book is about a murder and 100 pages in no one is dead, under threat, or hurt then you done goofed.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

The Great Gatsby. Dear God, that book. All the characters are horrible people, the only remotely relate able character is a crook, the plot is about obsession and shallowness, and it has the most thinly veiled symbolism ever. And it doesn't help that I was forced to read the book 5 times.

 

[Joffas16]

The most recent George R.R. Martin book (A Dance With Dragons).

It feels like every book in the series is moving farther and farther away from the conflict hinted at in the prologue of the first book, but this book was the worst of the lot about that. With the first three books, I never felt like things were being drawn out for the sake of selling more books, but books 4 and 5 made me feel that way. Too many new characters, not enough development of the established characters, wheels of the main plot spinning with no traction...

I have to resist the gravity of a rant, but there's my answer.

--Morology!

Couldn't agree with you more, as much as I love George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, I really, really struggled to finish A Dance With Dragons, and my brother, who had read the previous four books over the past couple of months gave up after about one hundred pages, he just couldn't take it.

I don't know how I got to the end, I swear, at about three or four points while I was reading that book I thought I had skipped back and was reading an old chapter, the plot moves that slowly and is that repetitive.

 

[soren7550]

The Great Gatsby. Dear God, that book. All the characters are horrible people, the only remotely relate able character is a crook, the plot is about obsession and shallowness, and it has the most thinly veiled symbolism ever. And it doesn't help that I was forced to read the book 5 times.

I have similar feelings on it as well, although my hatred of it comes from the fact that I had to read it as a part of a group project that the rest of the group didn't help with.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath . I don't care about its political and social comentary, it is utter crap as a book. The pacing is terrible, the presentation is sorely lacking, mand it's just plain boring.

 

[Queen Michael]

There was this Olsen twins book that I found in a second hand-store when I was there on my birthday. There was this part in the beginning where the Olsen twins went to the offices of this huge teen girl magazine, and one of them said "Look! There's Kelly Rix! She's my favorite singer!" or something like that. And the problem with that is of course that no teen girl would say that, she'd just say "Look! It's Kelly Rix!" just like nobody would say "Look, there's Justin Bieber! He's my favorite singer!" Nobody would actually feel the need to explain that to somebody that she's been living with her entire life.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't remember reading anything infuriating, aside from some boring ass short stories in school.

And the problem with that is of course that no teen girl would say that, she'd just say "Look! It's Kelly Rix!" just like nobody would say "Look, there's Justin Biever! He's my favorite singer!" Nobody would actually feel the need to explain that to somebody that she's been living with her entire life.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Slaughter House 5. I was recommended the book by one of my college teachers and I couldn't stand it. My teacher knew I liked interesting or weird ideas and the story certainly has one with it not going from point A to point B to point C but jumping from point A to E to L to D, ect. However, the story itself is really poorly written, it is not high level stuff by a long shot and most of the characters are either uninteresting or despicable. I'm given no reason to care for the main character and the story itself seems to be giving the message that nothing matters anyway. I like interesting ideas but an interesting idea does not inherently make a book good.

That's funny, I think Vonnegut is a hell of a writer. I mean, you were bored by it, that's fine. "Poorly written", though?

 

[game-lover]

Lately, I've found myself getting infuriated at all the books with infidelity as a main part of the storyline. Queen Michael's mention: West of the Moon makes me want to punch a kitten just based off the brief summary of it. Just... argh.

Previous book I read was More Than Friends by Barbara Delinsky. I couldn't even finish it properly, I was so pissed. Just dived straight into the ending and resisted the urge to burn as it was a library book. Never reading her again. Never ever.

But I've also discovered that I'm hating a lot of contemporary romance novels because of the way their heroines are portrayed. Even some urban fantasy novels are up there too.

Most recently comes to mind is a novel by Sharaon Sala's Second Chances. Stupid secretive, whiny, unintentionally manipulative, weak-willed, skittish females!!! Honestly, the first part of it was fine. Really. But when the second half came, it just spoiled everything for me. She didn't deserve the fucking hero. And I'm pretty sure if this damn book wasn't a romance novel and therefore deemed to live fucking happy ever after, the guy would have cut his fucking losses.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Slaughter House 5. I was recommended the book by one of my college teachers and I couldn't stand it. My teacher knew I liked interesting or weird ideas and the story certainly has one with it not going from point A to point B to point C but jumping from point A to E to L to D, ect. However, the story itself is really poorly written, it is not high level stuff by a long shot and most of the characters are either uninteresting or despicable. I'm given no reason to care for the main character and the story itself seems to be giving the message that nothing matters anyway. I like interesting ideas but an interesting idea does not inherently make a book good.

That's funny, I think Vonnegut is a hell of a writer. I mean, you were bored by it, that's fine. "Poorly written", though?

When the height of the comedy is to have a sketch showing a locket because the woman wearing it is naked and so the sketch also shows her boobs, and when the characters have the depth of a piece of cardboard and the likability of a rash, yes, I consider that poorly written.

 

[mireko]

Most recently I found myself incredibly annoyed at Patriotism, by Yukio Mishima. It's a short story and it kind of feels like it's all about how sexy and wonderful the protagonist is for committing seppuku sexily and wonderfully with his demure and sexy and wonderful wife.

Reading it you can practically feel Mishima's erection poking against you as he peers over your shoulder going "Eh? Eh? That's some great seppuku they're doing there, right? Shit's so hype. I bet all those murderous traitors in the February 26 incident were totally sexy and rad, man."

I guess I should've expected that, though, what with his political views and the way he tried (or pretended to try) to implement them.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

The Great Gatsby. Dear God, that book. All the characters are horrible people, the only remotely relate able character is a crook, the plot is about obsession and shallowness, and it has the most thinly veiled symbolism ever. And it doesn't help that I was forced to read the book 5 times.

I agree: It's almost like a Precursor to Modern Reality TV in a way.

 

[TheKangaroos]

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho is super annoying: Trying to spread some sort of philosophy that's basically saying "Do Stuff and you'll achieve greatness", but in a very snooty way. It's boring most of the time. The Alchemist isn't even the main character, and he only appears in like 4 chapters, so naming the story after him is stupid. And the twist at the end makes me angry (I am not gonna spoil it). Just stay away from this book. It's lame.

Agreed. I got the impression that Coelho was really impressed with himself for coming up with what can only be regarded as the most underwhelming twist in literature.