Forum menu
Nomad by James Swallow - picked up because it was apparently like I Am Pilgrim that I enjoyed.
It was god-awful, not even the best book titled Nomad that was released that year - Alan Partridge's Nomad was far superior - back of the net!
Was once given 'The Fourth Estate' by Jeffrey Archer as a Christmas present. Presumably by someone who didn't like me very much. It was genuinely awful.
Also struggled with the last bit of 2001: A space odyssey
Jack Kerouac, yeah man, you had to be there! on the right drugs, dropping out man... I wasn’t, so agree On The Road was shite.
Tess of the D’Urbevilles, ploughed through that auld shite whilst commuting, a struggle and then found my copy had forty pages missing towards the end so binned it off.
Hobbits, they don’t exist and they’re all toss
Can’t say On The Road made much of an impression.
picked up because it was apparently like I Am Pilgrim that I enjoyed.
Totally OT but I’ve had the follow up on pre-order for roughly four thousand years. Occasionally get updates with a new release date, but at this point it’s either not going to get released or be completely shit.
@funkmasterp - was the same here, however I've given up on it, I suspect the author believes it's worth more than the publishers are prepared to pay and I suspect it'll be shit 🙂
picked up because it was apparently like I Am Pilgrim that I enjoyed.
I’d forgotten about I am pilgrim, what a load of old cobblers that was, knock on the road off my list and stick that poorly written, unbelievable old guff on.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Any one who gets through it deserves a medal.
I rather enjoyed Moby Dick.
I'll tell you what is shite though, the No1 Ladies Detective agency books. Smart guy though, he worked out he could spin out a short story plot to novel length by giving everyone long names, elaborate manners and using stock phrases.
Recently read Yellow Dog by Martin Amis.
I do enjoy some of his books despite his self indulgences. That one however, is an absolute stinker.
Did try out a Pratchett book once, but gave up on about page 6 cos it was rubbish too. Forget which one, but must have been one of the first.
I don't get Pratchett at all, just can't get on with that jokey, self referential style.
Another vote for The Island of the Day Before - so tedious I almost lost the will to live, but kept reading (eejit!) hoping something would happen...it didn't.
Catcher in the Rye
Anything by Jefferey Archer.
(Enjoyed Zen and the Art, though)
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby. Only book I’ve ever read and thrown straight in the bin, I was completely scunnered with it. Couldn’t even bring myself to take it to the charity shop.
Top 5 Regrets Of the Dying from Bronnie Ware. Hated her style of writing.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Kept reading it thinking it’d improve but it didn’t. Just not for me!
lance armstrong autobiographies.
I forgot Brave New World earlier. Started OK but just seemed to simper out quite quickly after starting.
Nowhere near as good as it should have been.
But why would you read Jeffrey Archer and expect it to be anything other than shite 🤦
Nowt so funny as taste is there. Moby dick is rightly a classic and a fave of mine as is Catcher in the Rye
Love Lord of the Rings as well - I must have read it 30+ times
I loathed the Harry Potter books and Pratchett is just drivel
Definitely American Psycho.
Utter shite.
I loathed the Harry Potter books
TBF to them, they are for children.
Wuthering heights - Emily Bronte
The Piano tuner - Daniel Mason. Impossible to give plot spoilers, because NOTHING HAPPENS for the WHOLE OF THE BOOK, except at the very end when the blindingly obvious end bit happens.
I can't think of a third one just yet.
came on to say 'brave new world ' but pinkster got in first so i will offer Jonathon Livingstone seagull, WTAF was that all about??
I'm not sure they count as rubbish because they're generally quite enjoyable but I've read a few Haruki Murakami novels such as 1Q84 and The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and I couldn't give you any real idea about what's actually going on in any of them at any point.
Andy McNab (sorry I have to admit trying once)
You obviously haven't tried his famous " I sh*t my pants and ran away"
I think even accepting that Harry Potter's for kids, Rowling basically figured out how to write in about the 3rd book of the series. Pratchett was pretty much the same, the difference between the first discworld novels which are just pure pastiche and the later ones is enormous, as is the world it all happens in... Not that uncommon where a new author writes in the same world/series.
I can't think of a third but for me, The Road and Down And Out In Paris and London.
The Road, because for all the bleakness, the characters just miraculously find what they need exactly when they need it. Oh we're starving and there's no hope of finding food, oh, here's some. It lost all sense of jeopardy, which is kind of important. And in the end, nothing actually happens, other than a general wandering through post-apocalyptic cliches.
And Down and Out, because Orwell's just such a bloody tourist and hypocrite
American Psycho - just awful.
Catch 22 - Started it twice, given up twice.
Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast
by Charlie ConnellyAbsolutely terrible terrible book. Quite the worst I’ve ever read.
What did Charlie do to you? It was a thoroughly harmless, if by-the-numbers, travel book.
I was only disappointed because he didn’t get to land on Rockall which is something I’d love to do: a first coasteering lap would be a great claim to minor fame in the outdoor instructing world.
Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum. Although I did find myself thinking about it a fair bit. But still, mostly impenetrable.
Hmm, Catch 22 and Moby Dick* are two of my favourite books.
I agree about On The Road - didn't get far in that one. Also the highly acclaimed Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom - so wet and cheesy. Hi Fidelity? - I just wanted to slap him out of his self pity.
*I'm a bit obsessed with MD. I've read it around a dozen times and have several copies, one of which I keep by the bed and read a random chapter every now and again.
I loved On the road and the rest of kerouac.
I did finish American Psycho but wish I hadn’t. Right, I’ve got it, the killing is a response to the banality of his life, now what? Oh, that’s it.
Blood Meridian by Cormack McCarthy is not as bad, but is still just a succession of horrors with no real point to it.
Lots on this list that I quite enjoyed though. In fact most books have some redeeming qualities, although I agree, I could have done without the final section of 1984 too.
TBF to them, they are for children.
Nothing wrong with children’s books - they can be equally well written as grown up books. A particular favourite of mine is Holes by Louis Sachar.
Time's Arrow by Martin Amis - completely back to front
I can think of more than a couple of pieces of published work related legislation that can be found in a book that have me going WTF pretty regularly.
Every biography I've ever started has ended up stopped rapidly. Bradley Wiggins book was the fastest I've ever put a book down that wasn't mandated English Literature GCSE material.
100 years of solitude
Wow, really?? I re-read it. At least it's easy to remember all the names...
The Road – Completely over hyped, unnecessarily grim
Hahaha - unnecessarily grim - I think that's for him to decide. I found it grimly great. The ending to the film allows a little more hope for his future.
Actually, Saturday by Ian McEwan annoyed me - got great reviews and much lauded but it sounds as if Banville's review is spot on - from wiki
He described Saturday as the sort of thing that a committee directed to produce a 'novel of our time' would write, the politics were "banal"; the tone arrogant, self-satisfied and incompetent; the characters cardboard cut-outs.
Interesting that a few people have said Catch 22....a close friend thought that it was terrible (she only read about a quarter of it though!)
I absolutely loved it!
Umberto Eco – Foucault’s Pendulum.
I really enjoyed it, was hard going, needed to consult the dictionary regularly (but not too much) it's like a decent version of that 1st Dan Brown book, and it made me feel more cleverer than I really am.
Suspect I might fund it more difficult to reread since not being able to pull myself away from screens anymore.
Catch 22 for me also, but I was about 15 so probably worth another shot.
Most stephen king stuff, it’s like he gets to the end and thinks how am i going to finish this, ooh, i know a giant spider, or whatever.
I thought the God of small things was beautifully written, like lovely poetry, but got half way through and had absolutely no idea wtf was going on or who was who, so gave up!!
+1 for zen and motorcycle maintenance, iirc it started ok and was thought provoking but soon got unreadable.
Also +1 for Catcher in the rye, but, like others, i was early 20’s when i read it so might get it now, deffo didn’t feel urge to kill a beatle!
I've only ever not finished one book - 1984. Really, really boring. Not sure if it was because I started reading it after watching a stage version, or if it was just that it's boring.
Been a while since I've read a book, so can't remember many bad ones, but...
Shadowmancer by G P Taylor. Think it was a bestseller at the time but I found it boring and just didn't get it.
Anything by Terry Pratchett, Dan Brown or Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.
Catcher in the rye is a favourite but apart from that I'd agree with most suggested. Catch 22 and Zen and the art most definitely.
I'll throw in A Picture of Dorian Gray. Could not get into the dialogue at all. That was a recent chucked before finished.
I don’t get Pratchett at all, just can’t get on with that jokey, self referential style.
Terry has said himself that his early books were where he learnt to write.
Anything featuring the watch or moist von lipwig is pretty bloody good, i'd go with jingo as a good example of him being a very clever fella. And Tiffany Aching, i think that they're supposed to be a kids books though they might be my favourites.
think even accepting that Harry Potter’s for kids, Rowling basically figured out how to write in about the 3rd book of the series
If you want books about a school for wizards by someone who can actually write try the Earthsea series by Ursula Le Guin.
Another +1 for Moby Dick
I was also tempted to say Tess of the D'Urbervilles, I so nearly sacked that off, but glad I didn't. The last 40 or so pages, wow, where the aliens invade. Totally didn't expect that.