Worst Book Ever?

[Sensenmann]

I'd say Twilight for being a rather 2d story, but I won't. It gets teens reading. One day they're reading Twilight, the next they may be reading Dracula, then maybe normal fiction (I say maybe to avoid a slippery slope fallacy, but this actually happened to me, through the ages of 15-present, so from books like Twilight to currently Primo Levi's The Periodic Table). So it has worth, even if it did kill vampires.

My worst book would be Eon by Greg Bear. It's about a TARDIS-like comet with another plot of a ghostly-world. Turns out it's about one chappy in American History - not even a well known one. I could also say Albert Camus' The Plague, but I actually finished that one.

 

[mikecoulter]

I think any autobiography by UK "celebrities" could just be burned and nobody would notice.

I'm reading Frankie Boyle's autobiography right now, actually. He's a Scottish comedian, though I don't think he comes under 'celebrities' in the way you meant it.

It's not a great literary work, and the parts where he inserts his own scripts and monologues I skipped, they were rather dull. It's by no means a bad book...just...not as funny as I'd hoped.

Nonono, I didn't mean people with an actual talent haha.

 

[KissofKetchup]

"Justin Bieber: My Story"
[image snip]
ALSO Twilight and anything involving spies (Aside from Chekists)

Anything with spies? That pretty rules out anything by Tom Clancy. Those may not be the best books ever written, but they're not shit.

Umm... and also Ian Fleming? Jesus... possibly the greatest spy novelist ever and you think of Tom Clancy first? He's written some great books sure but there's not a bad book writtten by Fleming. Partly cause he drew on his own life as inspiration, sure but still,
Ian frigging Fleming! Also, I quite like some of Rachel Caine's works...
-Tabs<3-
P.S people saying Twilight... you're cheating in my honest opinion.
Worst book I've read would most likely have to be the Mass effect novels.
In particular, Ascension.
Drew Karpyshyn really is a hack writer.

Ian Fleming pretty much goes without saying though...

 

[Daedalus1942]

"Justin Bieber: My Story"
[image snip]
ALSO Twilight and anything involving spies (Aside from Chekists)

Anything with spies? That pretty rules out anything by Tom Clancy. Those may not be the best books ever written, but they're not shit.

Umm... and also Ian Fleming? Jesus... possibly the greatest spy novelist ever and you think of Tom Clancy first? He's written some great books sure but there's not a bad book writtten by Fleming. Partly cause he drew on his own life as inspiration, sure but still,
Ian frigging Fleming! Also, I quite like some of Rachel Caine's works...
-Tabs<3-
P.S people saying Twilight... you're cheating in my honest opinion.
Worst book I've read would most likely have to be the Mass effect novels.
In particular, Ascension.
Drew Karpyshyn really is a hack writer.

Ian Fleming pretty much goes without saying though...

But you said anything with spies. Fleming's work would fall under that category most assuredly.
The difference is he actually lived it, hence why he was able to make it so realistic and believable in his books.
A quality that Daniel Craig has almost but not quite brought to the film series.
-Tabs<3-
-edit- disregard "you said anything with spies" that was aimed at the guy that you quoted...

 

[dlsevern]

Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", I'm a big King fan but this one was pretty bad.

So Stephen King then, He is a literary Shayamalan with misery as his sixth sense, and people genuinely think they're clever for liking it.

Lmao, I have met alot of King fans who think they are clever for reading his works. I do love King but it's a genuine love for his style of writing, I'm not the type to rank him above the rest in his genre because their are so many great horror novelists and each has their ups and downs in writing.

 

[AngelSword]

For me, it'd have to be:

Spoiler

It's as if someone played the adventure and said, "Wow, that was really cool. We should write a book based on our party!" And it's just as awful as you'd think. The characters are one-note stereotypes with any interesting characteristics disappearing by chapter 4, the plot is predictable, even for a novel based on a D&D adventure, the villain is demonstrably cruel yet completely ineffectual, and it got eight of my dollars.

>_<

 

[tehfeen83]

The Book With No Name by Anonymous. Embarrassingly wanna-be cool, Tarantino rip off. Utter shat.

After reading a description on Amazon.com...

I honestly wanna read that book.

The premise sounds pretty interesting(bit silly, though).

Gonna give it a try. And I can totally see what you mean by "Tarantino rip-off" just by reading the description.

You can have my copy lol! Reading the amazon reviews is what made me want to read it too, hopefully you'll enjoy it more than I did...

 

[The Boy in the Hat]

I once read a book called Questors, which was about three kids (one boy, one girl, and one asexual kid) who were supposed to be the greatest heroes ever, but the Big Bad messed around with their genes so by the time world-saving time rolled around they were ten years too young and clueless.
Some of it was alright, but I couldn't get attached to the three heroes, so it was always a relief when a chapter about the Demi-gods who keep the universe in balance came around. Plus, for such a quest related book, I didn't get the sense of epic adventure that I felt was appropriate for such a book.

Plus, Twishite and anything by Dan Brown.

 

[Thyunda]

I think...so far...the ratings we have...let's see.

The top three most hated books...

1. Twilight. This series has been mentioned in practically every first-post, with all of one person defending it. Not to say it wasn't a valid defence - my only problem with it was that although Twilight readers would move on to more serious literature, it breeds a form of vampire-obsessive who will read the other vampire literature, and decide they don't like the tone or tension. And then they'll complain. What happened when fantasy-readers tried to get into Lord of the Rings? Complaints, that's what.

2. 'Classics'. Perhaps this is more to do with forced reading and over-hype. I disagree with a few of the mentioned ones - I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Gatsby and Of Mice And Men. I found it a little strange that In Cold Blood hasn't been mentioned at all. I did not like that. Not one bit.

3. Stephen King and Dan Brown take joint third. Although I'm a large fan of Stephen King, I will say I've not read a good number of his work. The Dark Tower is a personal favourite series, I mean, post-apocalyptia is always awesome. And so are Westerns. So if you mix 'em, you get awesome. Naturally, this isn't to everybody's taste, and although pop-culture references add realism to King's books for me, they cheapen the experience for others. As for Dan Brown...I can't really comment.


As for personal choices from what I've seen....I think I'd settle on that book about abortion and priesthood children being stolen or something. It's somewhere in the first few pages. I read a bit on the Amazon link, and by God it was awful.
Second place would be Justin Bieber's autobiography. Why? Because he's yet to grow a single hair on his face, obviously struggles with the more elaborate words in the English language, and has quite frankly had a life that I would find very dull.

 

[Thyunda]

I think...so far...the ratings we have...let's see.

The top three most hated books...

1. Twilight. This series has been mentioned in practically every first-post, with all of one person defending it. Not to say it wasn't a valid defence - my only problem with it was that although Twilight readers would move on to more serious literature, it breeds a form of vampire-obsessive who will read the other vampire literature, and decide they don't like the tone or tension. And then they'll complain. What happened when fantasy-readers tried to get into Lord of the Rings? Complaints, that's what.

2. 'Classics'. Perhaps this is more to do with forced reading and over-hype. I disagree with a few of the mentioned ones - I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Gatsby and Of Mice And Men. I found it a little strange that In Cold Blood hasn't been mentioned at all. I did not like that. Not one bit.

3. Stephen King and Dan Brown take joint third. Although I'm a large fan of Stephen King, I will say I've not read a good number of his work. The Dark Tower is a personal favourite series, I mean, post-apocalyptia is always awesome. And so are Westerns. So if you mix 'em, you get awesome. Naturally, this isn't to everybody's taste, and although pop-culture references add realism to King's books for me, they cheapen the experience for others. As for Dan Brown...I can't really comment.

As for personal choices from what I've seen....I think I'd settle on that book about abortion and priesthood children being stolen or something. It's somewhere in the first few pages. I read a bit on the Amazon link, and by God it was awful.
Second place would be Justin Bieber's autobiography. Why? Because he's yet to grow a single hair on his face, obviously struggles with the more elaborate words in the English language, and has quite frankly had a life that I would find very dull.

Agreed that some classics are absolutely over-rated, and from personal decision I will never read A Clockwork Orange, but to bunch them together is a bit much. I mean, if you go from Ender's Game to Sense and Sensibility you'll probably hate the latter, but that is with a specific frame of reference. So people who just say classics (not you necessarily, good sir) because they aren't clever enough to appreciate them/don't have an attention span and haven't actually read the aforementioned material can't really talk.

I generalised them for the sake of convenience. The arguments against them seemed very similar, so I figured I'd put them together since they were hated for the same reason.

 

[MistressGarbutt]

Miley Cyrus - Miles to go. I have not read it but then again I don't feel the need to either. Just looking at the cover screams terrible.

 

[northeast rower]

Never, EVER, in a million years, read "Beloved" by Toni Morrison. Feminist bullshit all throughout, then wrapped in symbolism to make it a sure candidate for awards.

Also, Jane Eyre was pretty fackin awful.

 

[FoxyStig]

http://whitemaleoppressor.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/everyone_poops.jpg

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I agree anything that comes from Katie Price (Jordan) is just plain drivel. The women can not write to save her life. How she managed to get where she is without any discernible talent is beyond me. Oh wait no it's because she has huge tits my mistake. That enough to make someone a celebrity these days apparently.

JOrdan doesn't actually write those books, she has a ghost writer to "interpret her thoughts".

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Can I get a source when Stephen King said that?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/05/stephenking-fiction

I'll have to give it to Twiglet as well. Not just for the atrocious way it's written, but the multiple PoV changes, failure with basic facts, Mary-Sues, Marty-Stus, lying to the readers, glossing over important plot points, writing out interesting characters, complete failure on biology, alienating half your fanbase on Breaking Dawn, re-writing one of the books and then crying it off; and having two of the most nausea-inducing protagonists ever.

At least The Da Vinci Code had people interested in religio-politics.

 

[flim.geek.chic]

"Justin Bieber: My Story"

ALSO Twilight and anything involving spies (Aside from Chekists)

Yep, yes, and Hell Yeah.

 

[Nouw]

If you say Moby Dick, I will slap you with a fish!

I'll have to say Twilight, yes I read it. Probably worse ones out there but the Bible was more interesting to me!

 

[TonyVonTonyus]

"Justin Bieber: My Story"

ALSO Twilight and anything involving spies (Aside from Chekists)

I believe this to be the truest thing I've seen today but seeing as it's 3:00am, it's not really saying much is it. Best thing I saw today and yesterday.

 

[Thyunda]

Left Behind,
It's not bad because I'm an Athiest, it's bad because I read Left Behind: the Kids first, and I liked that series a lot better.

Out of curiousity...what is it that makes the Left Behind series so bad?

 

[CharrHawk164]

TWILIGHT! Oh my actual god. I think I'm the only girl who CANNOT stand it. Would rather kill myself than sit through a book/film.

A close second is Maya Angelou's 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings'. Now it might just be because we were forced to read it for GCSE but it was actual torture. I know it's a biography and it's quite touching but it's very depressing with the KKK and rape and opression. Yes I feel sorry for her but there were a very tiny amount of happy moments in it. Plus we were 15 at the time so we were going to be immature about it...