Sapiens. Still muddling through it but definitely not living up to its hype.

or to give it it’s byline, Man states bleedin’ obvious

Battlefield Earth. L Ron Hubbard. Scientology. Really, truly a terrible book. Not quite as bad as the movie, though.
Exodus. Leon Uris for its prejudices.
The Silmarillion. Because it started the trend for dead author’s estates publishing shit that was best left unpublished, and pushing it to unthinking fanbases.

Dan Brown – Da Vinci Code was nonsense, so quite why I wasted time on Angels+Demons I have no idea, cos that one was complete and utter nonsense.

LOTR – just goes on and on and on and ariston and on and on – could easily have abridged it to cut out all the waffle and just get on with a bit of story and get it over and done with in a fraction of the book. And 1 DVD rather than a 3 double sided DVD box set for the movie version.

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.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon

I quite liked it

Birdsong, derivative pap not even engagingly written.

Another vote for On the Road, The Road and The Catcher in the Rye. Plus I’ll throw in The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, described by one review as a ‘spirited and exhilarating read’, two words that simply do not describe the author’s aim to try and put the most obscure words in a sentence.

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 Connelly

Absolutely 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.