Mein Kampf of reading Mein Kampf.

El Weirdo · 08-12-2015 11:34PM

I love Morrissey, and I was really looking forward to his autobiography, but it turned out to be a load of ridiculously verbose bollocks.

Corpus Twisty · 08-12-2015 11:34PM

Anything written by Sidney Sheldon.

Zaph · 08-12-2015 11:45PM

The Female Man by Joanna Russ. It was recommended to me by a guy in a bookshop who'd always been spot on with his recommendations, but I never listed to him again after that. It's feminist science fiction apparently, but all I remember is it being the most tedious pile of badly written sh*te I'd ever come across.

Honourable mention to The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It's about an old man. In a boat. On the sea. It's also about 126 pages too long (Wikipedia says it has 127) as it could all be summarised in a paragraph or two and then nobody would have to endure it for more than a couple of minutes.

The Iron Giant · 08-12-2015 11:55PM

...And Justice wrote: »

Can you just leave the aethiest bollocks out for one thread?

Chill out, it was a joke. Nothing religious at all mate.

On a serious note, I found The Sound and The Fury extremely difficult to follow with so many narrators and their 'style'.
I also tried to pick up Infinite Jest but giving it the usual scan terrified me. Hundreds of endnotes and some of the endnotes have footnotes, not to mention the sheer size of it.

Carry · 09-12-2015 12:12AM

Cecilia Ahern. Tried to read her first book, to learn what all the fuss was about. Couldn't get past the first few pages whithout getting sick 'twas so bad.

De bello Gallico. I Will Never Forgive Caesar. Only Asterix rescued me.

thegreatgonzo · 09-12-2015 12:12AM

The Sun King wrote: »

Like a fascist, one testicled, vegetarian one trick pony comedian (won't name names) this guy keeps hammering away at the same old shtick for near 700 pages. He has about ten points that get constantly rehashed. You'd get more variety in a slew of romantic comedies ffs...... What's the most tedious book you've ever read? Any suggestions?

Atlas Shrugged. I read it when I was stranded in a small town for a few days while travelling and had no other ways of passing the time. You pretty much described it in the quote above.

Buona Fortuna · 09-12-2015 12:21AM

padd b1975 wrote: »

Robinson Crusoe.

I thought he'd never get to the part where he became shipwrecked.

Tried it too years ago. Mainly because I loved the old b&w series that was on tv when I was a kid.

meeeeh · 09-12-2015 12:40AM

Zaph wrote: »

Honourable mention to The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It's about an old man. In a boat. On the sea. It's also about 126 pages too long (Wikipedia says it has 127) as it could all be summarised in a paragraph or two and then nobody would have to endure it for more than a couple of minutes.

Hehehe. I didn't like that one either. I swear there are non-classics I don't like too. I lasted about half way of Gone Girl. There must be some serious twist at the end because it's seriously predictable up to where I stopped reading. Third book from Millennium series is bad. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has good storyline but it's badly written. Second one has weaker story and style doesn't improve and the third one is just bad. Da Vinci Code must be one of the worst books I actually finished.

However I do actually like Russian realism.

The Pheasant2 · 09-12-2015 12:57AM

War and Peace...even starting the book I knew my failure to finish would be inevitable.

blackcard · 09-12-2015 01:03AM

Ulysses

Micky Dolenz · 09-12-2015 01:06AM

The Sun King wrote: »

I actually enjoyed that one. Didn't relate to the guy or anything, just a fun little read

I liked it too.

Junkyard Tom · 09-12-2015 01:36AM

There's nothing you can get from a book you can't get from a television faster.

Samaris · 09-12-2015 03:39AM

Argh, James Joyce! There is something dementedly musical about reading his insanity aloud;

“A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”

And of course, the classic;

“bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-nuk!"

But there is a very limited amount of his lunacy I can deal with.

JPNelsforearm · 09-12-2015 10:28AM

Martin Amis, from Money to Lionel Asbo
Complete hack, just terrible, unfunny, overlong, crude. With Money, its basically a hack version of what American Psycho is, Lionel Asbo is just terrible, Amis is just a dull writer, who cant write comedy, yet persists.

Everything by Brett Easton Ellis since American Psycho,I like large chunks of Glamorama, but all his other work is simply steadily declining versions of what he has already said.

Vojera · 09-12-2015 10:52AM

cml387 wrote: »

Pride and Prejudice. Can't get the point, at all.

Pride and Prejudice is the only book I've ever given up on before the end. I tried reading it twice and both times got as far as Chapter 16 before calling it a day.

I know some people love it, but I found 100 Years of Solitude incredibly tedious. When I got to the end I was just glad it was over. Some scenes stand out to me but if you were to ask me what the book is about, I honesty couldn't tell you.

Wibbs · 09-12-2015 11:04AM

Deleted User wrote: »

'Tis all well and good for you to say that now, but FFS who in their right minds was ever going to tell yer man his book was sh!te?

Quite a few did actually. The non nazi controlled newspapers for one were screaming headlines of warning about this eejit. He was hounded and exposed by a couple of newspapers and reporters. Some extremely brave men and women involved in the German press and a few died for their criticisms later on. One chap whose name embarrassingly escapes me really rattled Hitler's cage and when he came to power this reporter was "disappeared" without trace, tortured and then murdered. A good while later his wife recieved an envelope containing her husbands bloodstained glasses.

Yea LOTR bored me to bloody tears very rapidly I have to say. Those other two on the teenage reading list, Catcher in the Rye and Atlas Shrugged ditto.

Dyr · 09-12-2015 11:33AM

JPNelsforearm wrote: »

Anything by Roddy Doyle, I cringe when reading his dialogue, even worse is when fb friends "like" his Dublin dialogue take on the issue of the day on facebook, terrible terrible writing.

Anything Marxist in nature, its like Ayn Rand, but with boredom and cult levels usually raised over 9000

I've actually banned, burned, unliked, reported and everything else roddy doyle on facebook so I don't have to see the muck dialogue he posts on topical subjects

If he was writing that cringey guff in a south london stylee he'd be strung up for racism innit

endacl · 09-12-2015 11:34AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Moby Dick.

Awful.

Terrible.

Unfathomably tedious.

Finished it though.

You got through it!

Great book.

asherbassad · 09-12-2015 11:39AM

Grapes of Wrath got the better of me. I couldn't finish it.

I was a little down at the time of reading it anyway so I had to sling it back in the book box and find something else.

Howard the Duck · 09-12-2015 12:01PM

Medusa22 wrote: »

I tried to read 'Lord of the Rings' but I gave up quite quickly, the excessive amount of tedious details, yawn.

It's really just the story of a bunch of short people who enjoy long rambles in the countryside..with the odd fight thrown in. He wrote this book for his kids and you can tell he used to read it to them at night in an effort to get them to fall asleep. I'd say they were the best rested kids at their school.

PopePalpatine · 09-12-2015 12:46PM

Wibbs wrote: »

Quite a few did actually. The non nazi controlled newspapers for one were screaming headlines of warning about this eejit. He was hounded and exposed by a couple of newspapers and reporters. Some extremely brave men and women involved in the German press and a few died for their criticisms later on. One chap whose name embarrassingly escapes me really rattled Hitler's cage and when he came to power this reporter was "disappeared" without trace, tortured and then murdered. A good while later his wife recieved an envelope containing her husbands bloodstained glasses.

Are you referring to Fritz Gerlich?

The most tedious book I can remember reading was probably "A Feast For Crows". It just became a bit of a grind to get through, and IIRC that's when GRRM wrote himself into a corner in one of the storylines.

topper75 · 09-12-2015 12:46PM

The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. Supposed to be one of the great 20th century novels.
Stream of concsiousness nonsense that is supposed to ultimately clarify. Just, it doesn't. Stay away.

I wouldn't bother with that rubbish propaganda tome by the 'former chancellor', but when you can link his attitude to jews in Germany with a 2015 western european having to endure random bombings and gun attacks along with hordes of welfare tourists turning up on their doorstep with the hand out - all I can picture is Evil Kneivel jumping over 20 double decker buses on his motorbike.

recylingbin · 09-12-2015 12:48PM

Bulbous Salutation wrote: »

Catch 22. One moderately funny joke spread out over 350 pages.

Came in to say this but think you're being overly kind with the moderately description.

super_furry · 09-12-2015 12:50PM

The Mayor of Casterbridge. I'd rather stab myself in the bollocks than have to read it again.

Sheeps · 09-12-2015 12:51PM

The only way to own a book is to never read it.

c_man · 09-12-2015 12:52PM

I dislike those books whose ideological position/narrative I don't agree with. Funnily enough, they're all badly written and I blame lots of todays woes on them.

Joeface · 09-12-2015 12:57PM

I took up reading some of the "Classics" a few years back , went out and bought a few copies of "Catcher in the Rye" . It was Ok didn't love it didn't hate it. Then Read Lord of the Flies . Actually enjoyed that.

But the Lord of the Rings and Wheel of time series . The amount of detail describing the shape of the leaves on the trees while building up to someone saying a sentence just turned me off them . Couldn't get myself focused on finishing any of them.

I have been toying with the Idea of reading some Tolstoy , just un sure I can allocate that much time to reading.

As for Mein Kampf , was any of it even remotely interesting as a look into gullible madness of an blindly corrupted mind.

Letree · 09-12-2015 01:02PM

Manufactured Miracle wrote: »

The Bible. Meandering character development and inconsistent storyline.

Go on be brave joke about the other one..

KomradeBishop · 09-12-2015 01:28PM

Naked Lunch - the most incomprehensible batshít book I've forced myself to read. It made up for it though, with a couple of unexpected moments that were insanely funny.

To give an idea of the inspiration for the book: The entire last (supplementary) chapter, is an encyclopedia of most known mind-altering drugs at the time, all of which he was likely on while writing the book.

inforfun · 09-12-2015 03:23PM

Great Expectations.

Disappointing.

Mein Kampf of reading Mein Kampf.

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