What's the worst book you've ever read, or tried to read?

Snow falling on cedars was a beautiful book.

Chocolat – a load of flowery, over-the-top-prose tosh.

Trust me when I was working 18 hours a day a looking for something to help me escape from work that book was not doing the trick, but horses for courses.

Woeful

War and Peace. Gave up after about 150 pages (and nearly as many characters) after nothing had happened. Maybe try again one day if I get marooned on a desert island…

Something Happened – Joseph Heller

Should have been called 'Nothing Happened'! Catch 22 was good, though.

I found Carlos Castaneda to be pretty dreadful, too.

Never got very far with Zorba the Greek, either.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I don't usually give up on books but I was gone by the first 20 pages. I have been told it improves a lot after the first 100 pages, but I am never going to find that out personally, too many interesting things to do.

"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.

Great title but utter pish.

Another vote here for Naked Lunch. Just finished it, what a waste of my time. Less a book, more a collection of random words thrown on a page.

I really liked White Teeth, but my girlfriend just struggled through it and thought it was dull.

Worst I read to the end is probably Celestine Prophecy – tripe.
Didn't get far with The Silmarillion.

+97 for Ulysses – had a couple of goes but never got very far. (Initially had trouble with Dubliners but perservered and enjoyed it).

Read 'Snow Falling On Cedars' when it first came out and enjoyed it – was not really aware of the whole Japanese in USA thing even though I knew the Billy Bragg song on a similar theme.

don simon – Member
The Algebraist- Iain M Banks, dull, boring sleep inducing tripe. Bit of a surprise that it comes from the same hand as The Wasp Factory…

Yep loved The Wasp Factory.. different author couldn't finish Glue by Irvine Welsh

With you on "The 7 Habits". Utter gibberish. Had a boss once who used to tell us to "make sure we read it". Did not improve my opinion of him.

Fiction, "Popcorn" by Ben Elton. Definitely the worst book I've ever finished.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I don't usually give up on books but I was gone by the first 20 pages. I have been told it improves a lot after the first 100 pages, but I am never going to find that out personally, too many interesting things to do.

the (Swedish) film's very good though. Please please please don't let the Anericans remake it

anyway, for me, the hardest thing I ever tried to read was Lorna Doone. The words are English, but…

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks – dreadful LOTR rip-off.

I read it when I was around 14 and remeber thinking "this is bobbins"

Snow falling was a great book, makes you think about the folks who are emmigrating all round the world now following war and famine etc and how they are received when they turn up in a new country.

Without a doubt 'Angels and Demons' was the biggest load of tosh for me. I finished it simply so I could bitch about how bad it was without anyone telling me 'oh you didn't finish it, it has a great twist' Shite, wouldn't even use it to wipe my arse.

saxabar the Quran…

A book by Eddie Shsh (remember him, Today newspaper and all that)can't remember the name of it but it was utter shite, along with the book by the vicar from Yorkshire G P Taylor Shadowmancer complete tosh.

Another vote for The Naked Lunch. Incomprehensible ramblings. Awful.

bought my blind mate a cheese grater last xmas
he phoned me up on boxing day thanking me for the present
and said it was the most violent novel he had ever read

Catch 22 – I know others will love it, but I really tried to get into it and got about half way before giving up. Utter dross imho!

The communicative turn in planning theory and its implications for spatial strategy formations by Patsy Healey

I can guarantee it is way more boring than anything else on this thread!!

I quite like a medium-trashy easy to read book for when I am on nights, either for the quiet 3-5am bit when your concentration isn't at its best, or to get to sleep in the morning.

I liked all the other Louis De Bernieres stuff, partiucularly the south american ones, but i found 'Birds Without Wings' really hard to get into: gave up after about 100 pages.

'A suitable boy' by Vikram Seth was also too much for me. I don't think I get on with 'sagas'.

We did Ferdinand Céline's alleged 'classics' entitled 'Death on the instalment plan' and 'Journey to the end of the night' in a literature module at university: couldn't get into either of those in French or English.

Halfheartedly chugging my way through 'interzone' by william burroughs this month: thank god its in short chapters/segments! Ideal toilet book!

Utter Arse!

and total bilge below:

awww, I love both those books! ^^

The comments about The 7 Habits of Highly Defective People does explain why deffective people recommend it.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, is a puzzling thing, what is it about nothing happens there is nothing in it. Time spent reading it is time that you will never get back again

bellerophon – Member

don simon – Member
The Algebraist- Iain M Banks, dull, boring sleep inducing tripe. Bit of a surprise that it comes from the same hand as The Wasp Factory…

Yep loved The Wasp Factory.. different author couldn't finish Glue by Irvine Welsh

If you mean Iain M Banks and Iain Banks are different authors, they aren't.

Finnegan's Wake. But I'm not sure it was intended to be readable.

Had to read 'Of Mice and Men' at school. Never been more bored by a book.

'Heart of Darkness' was like wading through Treacle. I did finish it but it was both one of the shortest and longest books I've ever read.

I'd second 'War and Peace'. The war bit was ok but the peace bit (and the people in the peace bit) was soooo dull. Gave up.

Iain (M) Banks has really lost his touch. I loved his older stuff, with and without the M. I thought 'Matter' was a return to form but it ended very abruptly and in a way that made the preceeding couple of hundred pages pretty pointless.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

If you google the author, he had some pretty heavy mental health problems. Explains the contents of the book a bit!

Another vote for catcher in the rye. total mince.
Read an awful book called "white crosses"- virtually nothing happens in it.

cycling wise Chasing Lance is a hard going read

"Had to read 'Of Mice and Men' at school"
same here.
And its probably put a lot of people off reading for life.

But for a bike book that has less to it than meets the eye
http://icelord.net/bike/thecustombicycle.pdf
some of the pictures are OK.

"Had to read 'Of Mice and Men' at school"
same here.
And its probably put a lot of people off reading for life.

I love "Of Mice and Men". Maybe try reading it again – the language is wonderful.

OMG. 😯

I've never given up on a book – I just can't, its like leaving food on my plate – it just pains me.

However, Catcher in the Rye, Slaughterhouse 5 (in fact anything by Brett Easton Ellis), and beloved by Toni Morrison stand out as painful.

Just reading the everyone's choices above, one thought strikes me is that there is a large amount of "stream of consciousness" writing that people dislike. I think that personally, I prefer to be told a story, than inhabit the characters' thoughts and mindset.

I've never given up on a book – I just can't, its like leaving food on my plate – it just pains me.

A few years ago I'd have agreed, but these days I don't have so much time for reading and life's too short.

Slaughterhouse 5 (in fact anything by Brett Easton Ellis)

BEE didn't write Slaughterhouse 5 😕

Any of the books "written" by Lance Armstrong.
Alan Robbe Grillet has always been a challenge that I've been unable to meet.

Oops Kurt Vonegut – I meant less than zero for BEE.