Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet

rickman · 28-11-2009 11:48AM

think we should avoid the old chic lit stuff - it's beginning to melt the nations' brains.
try hornby's " juliet, naked"
bateman'S "mystery man"
mccluskey's "here come robert kingdom"
albom's "for one more day"

pixiegaga · 18-01-2010 06:37PM

For me its The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks..dont get me wrong its an awsome book and you cant deny the author is talented...he should have just stopped half way throught the book and ended it there!!!...At least thats what ill be doing if i ever read it again!! The ending brought me to tears screaming whyyy.... not because it was so sad but because it had so much potential to have an epic ending and yet he wasts the potential!!!

Hermy · 20-01-2010 12:31AM

I think The Ghost by Robert Harris is more than deserving of inclusion in this thread.
I have previously read Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel and Pompeii and they were all great reads - well written and well researched, pacey thrillers with convincing plots, concise English painting vivid scenes.
The Ghost on the other hand was no such thing. Indeed I was left wondering if it was written by another R Harris.
If anyone else has read this book I'd be interested to know what you think.

pixiegaga · 20-01-2010 07:21PM

Hermy wrote: »

I think The Ghost by Robert Harris is more than deserving of inclusion in this thread.
I have previously read Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel and Pompeii and they were all great reads - well written and well researched, pacey thrillers with convincing plots, concise English painting vivid scenes.
The Ghost on the other hand was no such thing. Indeed I was left wondering if it was written by another R Harris.
If anyone else has read this book I'd be interested to know what you think.

sooo true!!!! I was surprised to love pompeii (read it for history project) and bought ghost as I thought it would be as good but it was a huge let down!!! honestly i havnt read his other books so i can only compare it to pompeii ....:P but there was a big difference between the two books...

steve_r · 09-02-2010 09:33PM

I really struggled to make it thorugh Empire of the Sun by J.G Ballard and I've no idea why.... wierd. Dunno whether I should try annother of his books.

Rickman - Did you enjoy Juliet, Naked, by Nick Hornby. I was a little underwhelmed myself

randomguy · 15-02-2010 08:54PM

The Shadow of the Wind.

I had never even heard of it till recently. Then read about this book that had sold 10 gazillion copies in UK alone, that was compared to works by Umberto Eco, JL Borges, AS Byatt, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and was liked by people who like books. I couldn't believe I'd never heard of something so lauded first time 'round. So I went out and bought it.

Completely disappointed. It was ridiculous without being fun. I recently described the writing in The Book Thief clunky in a post. The Shadow of the Wind makes The Book Thief look elegant. I finished it, just to make sure there wasn't some in-joke I was missing out on, like that it was meant to be narrated by a child or idiot. No, just a crap author. Complete tripe.

Only consolation was that I bought it second hand so only spent €2 on it. Still €2 more than it was worth.

Raemie · 15-02-2010 10:13PM

Probably been mentioned but i'm trying to read Twilight and i'm really stuggling. It's been flung across the room several times in frustration. I dont understand why so many people love it.

gaf1983 · 16-02-2010 11:21PM

Hermy wrote: »

I think The Ghost by Robert Harris is more than deserving of inclusion in this thread.
I have previously read Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel and Pompeii and they were all great reads - well written and well researched, pacey thrillers with convincing plots, concise English painting vivid scenes.
The Ghost on the other hand was no such thing. Indeed I was left wondering if it was written by another R Harris.
If anyone else has read this book I'd be interested to know what you think.

Would agree that The Ghost was below par by his standards.

I recently finished Lustrum and have to admit I struggled through it. Just found it hard to sympathise with any of the main protagonists. Saying that I really enjoyed Imperium, the prequel to Lustrum.

Blush_01 · 16-02-2010 11:53PM

Raemie wrote: »

Probably been mentioned but i'm trying to read Twilight and i'm really stuggling. It's been flung across the room several times in frustration. I dont understand why so many people love it.

So many people love it because it's chocolate - cheap 10p chocolate, mainly sugar and very little cocoa or milk solids.

I tried to read Catch 22. Bored me to tears. I'll give it a bash again this year I think.

I also read The Catcher in the Rye and wanted to poke Holden Caulfield's eyes out with a hot poker so he really had something to whinge about.

The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold. Oh dear lord, avoid. The only people who can possibly have bought it are people who hoped for something similar to The Lovely Bones and they were in for a major disappointment.

I tend to block out the books I don't enjoy most of the time, but I will not let myself be bested by a book.

Stargazer7 · 17-02-2010 09:41PM

theCzar wrote: »

Something Happened by Joesph Heller, I just. Can't. Finish. I have never ever ever not finished a book so technically, I'm still reading it. been reading it for two years now, woeful.

What disappointment from the man who wrote my fav book.

I haven't read catch 22 but did read something happened....it did take me an age though. However, while it is a difficult read I think the meaning of the book comes across better because of the style of writing. We get a great sense of the main character. Maybe it is because I could relate to him in a number of ways.

Denerick · 17-02-2010 10:19PM

Someone mentioned Robert Harris. I loved Imperium and Lustrum, but thought Pompeii was very lacklustre! Maybe its because I think its not written particularly well, but he writes an interesting plot and creates interesting characters by way of compensation (His depictions of Caeser, Crassus, and of course Cicero etc. are fantastic) Sort of like a better kind of historical thriller. But I wouldn't place him among the pantheon of literary writers I'm afraid!

Eliot Rosewater · 17-02-2010 10:33PM

Denerick wrote: »

Lustrum ... lacklustre!

Intentional kind of pun?

Is Umberto Eco also in the same genre as Harris - historical fiction? Or have I totally misunderstood my cursory glance at Wiki? I got Baudelairo off of BookMooch.

Denerick · 17-02-2010 10:40PM

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

Intentional kind of pun?

Is Umberto Eco also in the same genre as Harris - historical fiction? Or have I totally misunderstood my cursory glance at Wiki? I got Baudelairo off of BookMooch.

Baudalino (Sorry!) was really very enjoyable, but maybe not everybody's cup of tea. I'd recommend you read In the Name of the Rose too though.

Baudalino verges off into fantasy around half way through the book. Eco recreates the imagination and mythology of the medieval world. In that sense, it is historical fiction. But in an altogether more grand scale, he takes on human prejudices and a host of other themes I half understand. I'll probably have to re-read him to fully 'get' him, but he is really really thought provoking.

Eliot Rosewater · 17-02-2010 10:44PM

Apologies about the typo, that was the nearest thing Firefox threw at me!

I hear Name of the Rose mentioned a lot, but it wasnt on BookMooch. It will be interesting to read something different for a change.

Lollymcd · 17-02-2010 11:35PM

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

Plowman · 17-02-2010 11:48PM

This post has been deleted.

sexdwarf · 26-02-2010 02:51PM

On the road - Jack Kerouac: Dull dull dull, not to mention pretentious, poorly written, could tell it was thrown together in three weeks. All the pretentious nonsense surrounding 'the scroll' irritates me too!!

The Gun Seller - Hugh Laurie: Tried to read this on last year's summer holiday and left it on the train after strugging to care what happened to the boring main character all the way through. Avoid like the plague!

The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry: Don't get the hype, another snoozefest

MUTINEER · 27-02-2010 12:10AM

The Alchemist by paulo coelho, highly rated fiction about following your dreams and not giving up blah blah blah.Should have known better when there's a quote from madonna on how much the book means to her on the cover.

Millicent · 05-03-2010 11:21PM

Dunno if it has been mentioned and this may be considered sacrilege by some but Crash by J.G. Ballard. My God, I've started it about five times now and I can't get more than five chapters in.

It's not the subject matter because I know I'm a slight depraved individual but the fact that someone could make kink boring!

allprops · 16-03-2010 02:47PM

Brooklyn by Colm Tobin

BarbaraAless · 19-03-2010 10:55PM

'The House of Spirits' because it has been rated as highbrow fiction and it's just another cheesie best-seller, poorly written.

'Far from the Madding Crowd' or Jane Austin's novels...oh...how boring!

'Everything is Illuminated' (Jonathan Safran Foer) I tried my best, but could not go on reading...zzz

patff · 28-03-2010 09:57PM

The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer

I think this may have been his final novel before he died. Clearly, he'd already gone crazy. Now that I think of it, Why are we in Vietnam, also by Mailer is probably worse.

Great writer though!!

DazMarz · 30-03-2010 03:14AM

I found the Hannibal Lecter books by Thomas Harris (Red Dragon, The Silence Of The Lambs, Hannibal) all to be very tough going to try and read. The films (espcially Lambs obviously) were all good enough thrills (obviously Hannibal was a bit of a letdown) but the books were not of any great quality for me. Did not really like them and found them hard to read.

30-03-2010 03:24AM

BossArky wrote: »

How about a thread which highlights books to be avoided at all costs? - i.e. waste of reading time, no educational value, biased, waste of ink, paper and some poor writers nerves.

Sarah Palin's Going Rogue

Censorsh!t · 03-04-2010 03:21PM

Ok, well it was ok, but really only very mediocre - Nocturnes by John Connolly. I liked one of the stories in it, but the rest was so very meh.

If you are easily disgusted, don't read American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. If you like disturbing stuff, it's good! I read it when I was 12...bit of a shock to the system, but i liked it.:p

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...it really should have been aimed at younger children. Thought it was very over-rated

blue_steel · 05-04-2010 06:02PM

"The interpretation of murder"
Puerile psycho babble. THE worse book I have ever read.

"The historian"
Unbelievably dull and derivative. The second worst book I have ever read.

femur61 · 06-04-2010 07:49AM

blue_steel wrote: »

"The interpretation of murder"
Puerile psycho babble. THE worse book I have ever read.

"The historian"
Unbelievably dull and derivative. The second worst book I have ever read.

Ditto (and I am avid reader). Actually thought I was alone because of all the rave reviews for both these books.

TMH · 06-04-2010 08:04PM

I'm gonna say Terrorist by John Updike.
Someone once called Updike "a penis with a thesaurus". Accurate description. Full of unnecessarily mealy sentences.

Zooey · 25-04-2010 12:03PM

Dues to whoever that was who dissed On the Road. Its genius is totally illusional and the narrator irksome. I read this while travelling, too *cringe*. My contribution to the list is Follett's the Pillars of the Earth, impressive only by its sheer bulk (1000+ pages of utter tripe). That said, I finished it...

TMH · 25-04-2010 12:22PM

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Sarah Palin's Going Rogue

You didn't actually read that tripe did you? I pity you if the answer is yes.
:pac:

Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet

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