nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet

BossArky

We have threads for:

- 10 books to read before death
- books we are currently reading
- general book threads and queries.

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.

Of course, most books no matter how bad teach us something.... but there must be a few gems out there ready to clobber the unwary reader into an early snooze.

Try to give a brief desciption of why you want the book on this list.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Loreida

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.
Actually, anything by Evelyn Waugh...

Lorrs33

Anything by Christopher Ransom and The Haunted by Nikki Valentine.

JC43

The timekeeper by Mitch Albom.

Desperate read, read it for my bookclub and not one f the nine of s enjoyed it,

Waste of time and mney

Tom Joad

a0ifee wrote: »

From what I've read, people seem to either love it or hate it!

Absolutely - I would say that if you put a poll up it would be 50/50 on Lord of the flies - Catch 22 and On the Road would also be on that list - they are just like marmite

a0ifee

Tom Joad wrote: »

I liked Lord of the Flies - think its one of those must read books..

From what I've read, people seem to either love it or hate it!

Tom Joad

a0ifee wrote: »

I have to agree with the people who've said Jack Kerouac, On The Road was a pain to read..

I must say Lord of the Flies was one of biggest disappointment for me. Think my expectations were too high!

Agree with you on On the Road - pointless with no structure to it - no idea why its so highly rated.

I liked Lord of the Flies - think its one of those must read books..

a0ifee

I have to agree with the people who've said Jack Kerouac, On The Road was a pain to read..

I must say Lord of the Flies was one of biggest disappointment for me.

Think my expectations were too high!

Giruilla

REAMDE by Neal Stephenson. I can't describe how much I hated this book. Stopped reading after ~400/1100 pages. Most self indulgent over drawn out book I've ever read.

Call Me Jimmy

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Anything written by Jack Kerouac. Appalling writer. Criminally overrated.

Yea I was surprised by this, I was really in the mood for his story but the writing was just so hallow imo I couldn't finish it.

CrowWoman

Thargor, I agree with you about the Hater series. I've read (and hated) the first two. Haven't bought the third which isn't like me (I usually have an OCD "started so I'll finish" view when I start a series.

My contribution:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. He takes what could have been an interesting story and turns it into dry-as-dust dreck.

Anything by Iain M Banks -- I've given him a fair shake and tried about five of his books across his SF and non-SF genres. I hate his characters and find his writing to be distant and unconvincing.

Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. Again, he created an interesting premise and good characters, then buried them in boring, irrelevant minutiae. I gave myself permission to give up about half-way in.

maughantourig

I would advise people to avoid The Hunger Games!

The first book was alright, but they got more ridiculus after a while, (shooting down aircraft with arrows -_-).The second and third books are mostly concerned with how the main character thinks she loves two poor gob****es.

I believe that it was one of the most unrealistic and frustrating novels I have ever read in my life, (even taking into account the futuristic context)

catallus

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.

Scouter123 wrote: »

about 3/4 way through after 4 months its a hard sell but i got it ordered through chapters. i had to try to read it backandforth all the way. "did i read some of this before" kept going through my head

This is sacrilege:D Something Happened is probably the greatest American novel of the 20th Century.

The worst I've ever read was The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen. It's the only book I've torn up with my bare hands it was so obnoxious and offensive and disgusting and so dismally and blindly dumb. It's really bad.

Censorsh!t

I did my Masters on Beowulf and in the process read some pretty terrible adaptations, one which was called Grendel's Mother. It was so atrocious, and unintentionally hilarious ("with my penis alone I have slain horses" was one line in it). But what did I expect when there were no reviews ANYWHERE on the internet. Stay well away!

Colonel Kurtz

Scouter123 wrote: »

about 3/4 way through after 4 months its a hard sell but i got it ordered through chapters. i had to try to read it backandforth all the way. "did i read some of this before" kept going through my head

Have to say I gave up on "Something happened" too. Barely made it half-way through. Seemed like Heller poured most of his best ideas into his first novel. Still, what a first novel though!! He was probably entitled to the odd mis-step!

Colonel Kurtz

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Anything written by Jack Kerouac. Appalling writer. Criminally overrated.

Always controversial, Mr. Kerouac! I'm inclined to agree though, somewhat over-rated. I always grin when I think of Truman Capote's mischievous comment on the creative slog that was the writing of On the Road

Scouter123

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.

about 3/4 way through after 4 months its a hard sell but i got it ordered through chapters. i had to try to read it backandforth all the way. "did i read some of this before" kept going through my head

Harry Angstrom

Anything written by Jack Kerouac. Appalling writer. Criminally overrated.

the_monkey

The Catastrophist - by Ronan Bennet ? --- TRIPE

Thargor

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Well it's probably a mix of both. Some writers will have already been writing that kind of thing, some will jump on the bandwagon and pedal out as much as they can while it's the "in thing". Probably publishers and book shops have a lot to do with it too.

A mix of both is right of course but God there is some bilge out there these days, I feel like an old man tut-tuting over what I see people buying whenever Im in a bookshop these days.

Wise Old Elf

Falling Man by Don DeLillo, hope it hasn't been said already.

+1 for the slap.

Reading part 3 of 1Q84 by MURAKAMI and struggling. Loved parts 1 and 2 but part 3 very slow.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Thargor wrote: »

Disagree, I think there's a new breed of parasitic writers out there ready to jump on any new trend and capable of crapping out a book in a month or two, just take a look at the new releases section in any bookshop these days

Well it's probably a mix of both. Some writers will have already been writing that kind of thing, some will jump on the bandwagon and pedal out as much as they can while it's the "in thing". Probably publishers and book shops have a lot to do with it too.

Thargor

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

It's probably like trends in music. Something new and different comes along and is randomly very successful and then people start to notice all the similar books that were there all along. Like this trend for "Nordic Noir" at the moment.

Disagree, I think there's a new breed of parasitic writers out there ready to jump on any new trend and capable of crapping out a book in a month or two, just take a look at the new releases section in any bookshop these days

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Ormus wrote: »

There was definitely a glut of them after the Da Vinci Code. I haven't noticed it as much recently.

It's probably like trends in music. Something new and different comes along and is randomly very successful and then people start to notice all the similar books that were there all along. Like this trend for "Nordic Noir" at the moment.

Ormus

zyanya wrote: »

Lately there's been an excess of books along the lines of: "Mister Whoeverton thought he had a normal life, until he finds himself with a (mysterious object) that links him with (some interesting period in history) and (its main characters). Now, he's in the middle of a quest that could change the way we see the world / the fate of mankind!" You can even make your own, with that template. There are several good ones, but in general, I'm getting sort of annoyed of those.

There was definitely a glut of them after the Da Vinci Code. I haven't noticed it as much recently.

Thargor

David Moody writes apocalyptic sci-fi which is one of my favourite genres, his 2 main series are the Hater trilogy and the Autumn series but they are really really tiresome to try and read, they're so bland for one thing, like he never identifies the town/place/country he's in, never mentions the name of a product or tv channel or anything like that, all he says is stuff like "He remembered going into town to watch the local football team here in this place in the good times", it makes his worlds so dull and boring, seeing this in a lot of new authors these days, seems to be the more hype you hear online about a book the blander it turns out to be.

zyanya

Lately there's been an excess of books along the lines of: "Mister Whoeverton thought he had a normal life, until he finds himself with a (mysterious object) that links him with (some interesting period in history) and (its main characters). Now, he's in the middle of a quest that could change the way we see the world / the fate of mankind!" You can even make your own, with that template. There are several good ones, but in general, I'm getting sort of annoyed of those.

Ormus

Ecarg wrote: »

I have to disagree, I enjoyed both The Historian and Labyrinth. However regards a book to avoid, it has to be Anita Shieve's Testamony.

Labyrinth is tripe. I found the Historian to be an enjoyable caper though.

Honey-ec

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse recently as I'd heard they were making an "epic" mini series out of it, so I thought it must be good if they're making it for TV, right?

Wrong. Load of balls, basically.

It made very little sense, was really confusing at times as to who or what the author was talking about. At one point she was calling a character by the wrong name. Just a load of nonsense really.

Apparently it's a massive seller and has made the author filthy rich, just goes to show being on the best sellers list isn't always a sign of quality.

Agreed, absolute twaddle.

Shiny Cactus

just finished going through this thread many of the "Greats" both novels and authors are put down, resulting in me putting some of them on the back-burner(going to read them sometime).

surprised no one has mentioned frankenstein, got to around page 70 and stopped to save my ability to enjoy a book also the Innocent Mage was rubbish after giving it a chance from others advise.

p to the e

Recently got about half way through "The Ice Man" by Philip Carlo. It documents the supposed true story of a mafia contract killer who's story is soon to be made into two high profile movies. However, how anyone could get through the entire book is beyond me. It was either the amateur writing or the extremely tall tails but I just couldn't take this serious at all.