Bad Reads

[Looger]

i don't know aboot other CP'ers but i have read some dreadful books over the years.

"cat who walks through walls" robert heinlein - starts out interestingly but ends up another 'lazarus long' book. hey reader, guess what, all that story buildup is useless, and yes i get the subtext, it's not clever. yawn...

ALL of the bean series, orson scott card - these books are so awful i got through the first three to see if they got better, then gave up. the ender books i thought got weaker as they went but were still readable, not like this newer series, which is total trash. card focuses on minor insignificant details from "ender's game" and expands it so much in the minds and lives of the characters that any meaning ceases to exist. this 'achilles' character having no mind-warping youth training and becoming an unstoppable general - no scratch that, all these kids being unstoppable and it being stated as bald fact with no description and no battle randomization gets to be such a ludicrous concept, that i tune the story completely out - and the story is the quality of saturday morning cartoon fare - only ONE way for anything to go, and everyone knows it. yawn. the real killer here is that the base idea for the books, the takeover of earth by kids on message boards, was intriguing in the original books. card should have left it at that.

"rogue squadron" series, michael stackpole - i'm a huge fan of stackpole's work, so this laboured and hamfisted approach to star wars left me bitter.

"bio of a space tyrant" book one, piers anthony - this book just spews out such drivelous sick stuff that it loses any meaning by the end, it's just 'oh more rape. fascinating.' anthony is one seriously deviant dude.

others?

[REDVAN]

Freakonomics- I don't think it was very good because it didn't provide anything useful, and the writing was terrible. (It's just my opinion so if it's your favorite book ever don't go nuts)

[V]

I just read Var the Stick by Orson Scott Card. It was really, really weak. It amazes me that a guy who wrote Ender's Game could write trash like this.

Davinci Code. Put aside all the religious crap that's happened because of this book. It was just really poorly written. I barely made it through the book.

The Shanarra Series by Terry Brooks. OK, take any one book from the series and it's a good book. But every single book is exactly the same formula, the same everything. I kept reading through more and more of them hoping for a change, but I never got it.

Any Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) book past book 7. Wow does it ever drag on now. I was so into that book, but I never even made it halfway through book 10. What a snoozefest.

[Flame On]

State of Fear - Michael Crichton was terrible propaganda pap! Not even a good read at face value. That was the last poor, poor book I read.
Fountain Head - Ayn Rand was well written but just so laborious and long winded, couldn't finish it, even though its a classic.

[@theCBE]

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies... I have seen a few lists that rank it in the top 10 or top 50 books of the twentieth century. I thought it was brutal, so scattered and a still don't know what its about. Maybe I read it when I was too young, but everytime I pick it up to give it another shot I remember how much I hated it and put it down again.

[metallicat]

Originally Posted by Flame On

State of Fear - Michael Crichton was terrible propaganda pap! Not even a good read at face value. That was the last poor, poor book I read.
Fountain Head - Ayn Rand was well written but just so laborious and long winded, couldn't finish it, even though its a classic.

I picked up State of Fear because I thought I would like it, but I think I made it 50 pages in. Big disappointment.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by @theCBE

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies... I have seen a few lists that rank it in the top 10 or top 50 books of the twentieth century. I thought it was brutal, so scattered and a still don't know what its about. Maybe I read it when I was too young, but everytime I pick it up to give it another shot I remember how much I hated it and put it down again.

One thing to note for this one is that Fifth Business is only part one of the Deptford Trilogy (part two is "The Manticore" and part three is "World of Wonders"). That isn't to say that the books aren't a bit scatterbrained but it might make a bit more sense. I personally enjoyed the very detailed plot being based around one thrown snowball (with a pebble inside).

As for books I hate but everyone else seems to rave about (I think they're just going along with the pack though) the book that definately comes to mind is "Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs. Burroughs is a homosexual junkie and the book is just bizarre, disgusting and disturbing all at once. Actually, come to think of it I still haven't been able to finish it yet because I always get too disgusted and quit. Maybe I shouldn't give a full review before trying once more. . .

[TheCommodoreAfro]

American Psycho is a bad book. Still the bottom of my list all these years later.

Good movie, though.

[kermitology]

I'd have to say that Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat which I couldn't stand because of the simplistic arguments he was making that made me feel like he was treating me like a ######, and Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor. I've never read something that comes off as being so holier than thou and pompus as that book. Hated it.

[J pold]

To pile on Chuck Palahniuk invisible monsters is one awful book, in a word WTF?!?

Also Dean Koontz Winter Moon I found pretty bad

[JerzeeGirl]

Wow......I was shocked when I read this thread and saw so many books I love being dissed by you all..... / .....*lol*

I would suggest that if you like the genre of the books (like the fantasy epics - Wheel of Time, Shannara series etc) but you didn't like one specifically, try it again in a year or two. I couldn't get thru the Lord of the Rings when I was a teenager but I picked the trilogy up before the movies came out and then couldn't put it down.

I tend to be really picky about the books I read (generally cuz I buy them so it's too expensive to buy something I don't think I'll like) so I don't remember the last time I read a "bad" book....altho The Pearl back in grade 9 sure has stuck as one of the worst I was ever forced to read.

[Bobblehead]

I think a lot depends upon when you read a book. I thought Fifth Business was great.

But bad books is hard to measure. There are some books that I read that have a great story, but the writing style turns me off (anything by Stephen King - great stories, but the writing style doesn't agree with me).

But the worst thing I forced myself to finish was "The Mill on the Floss". I had to read it for an English course in university, and couldn't finish it. A few years later I forced myself to try again, and read it all, but will never again consider reading anything by George Eliot.

[fredr123]

Freakonomics was an interesting book in my opinion. I too didn't like the lack of information but found pretty much all the research the book was based on to be freely available on their website. As for being poorly written, trying to bring complex economic principles to the general public will necessarily involve walking a fine line between dumbing things down too much and not making things understandable. Probably just a matter of taste.

As for the Davinci Code. Yuck. I found it to be really poorly written but not nearly as bad as the Robert Langdon book that preceded it (Angels and Demons). Even if you swallow all the conspiracy/religious theories the events that unfold are still so terribly implausible (falling out of an airplane into a raging river then popping back up again to save the day) and the plot benefits too much from deus ex machina that I couldn't stand it.

[Staypuft]

Because I don't think theres a better thread to put this in.

Has anyone read "Jpod" by Coupland?

I skimmed it the other day, thinking I would like it because I'm a nerd like that, and it just looked like it was all over the place.

Is there a decent plot in there? easy to get through some of the crazier parts?

[Footscray]

The Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh, I usually like the author but what a shock value piece of crap that was. Literally threw it in the garbage after I read it, never has a book had such a strong adverse reaction. I guess I did at least make it to the end.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Staypuft

Because I don't think theres a better thread to put this in.

Has anyone read "Jpod" by Coupland?

I skimmed it the other day, thinking I would like it because I'm a nerd like that, and it just looked like it was all over the place.

Is there a decent plot in there? easy to get through some of the crazier parts?

Haven't read Jpod yet but Microserfs was awesome! A friend read it and said it was awesome though.. and the crazy parts are the point!

EDIT: Oh, and totally agree with Wheel of Time (book 7, try jumping the shark at book 3), and Davinci Code (the worst part is most of the readers think it's reality).

[Weiser Wonder]

Originally Posted by kermitology

I'd have to say that Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat which I couldn't stand because of the simplistic arguments he was making that made me feel like he was treating me like a ######, and Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor. I've never read something that comes off as being so holier than thou and pompus as that book. Hated it.

A lot of my friends love Palahniuk, but his books come off as pompous shallow ramblings.

[RougeUnderoos]

I'm nearing the end of Fifth Business right now. I think it's a great book and I'm looking forward to the next two. You fellas that don't like it is crazy!

Angels and Demons is the worst book I've ever read. Like someone said, what takes place in the book is so ridiculous that you spend half the book, and the entire conclusion, shaking your head as you read.

I'm a little ashamed to say it, but I agree that The Fountainhead is no fun. Not that it's a "bad book", but it's just dull and thick and painfully long. I have a copy of several of her books and I've never read a single one of them through. I guess I'm too dumb. Oh well. What I've learned about her from the Simpsons tells me I wouldn't agree with her anyway.

[@theCBE]

Wow.. lots of love for Fifth Business. Maybe its time I have it another shot, I read it 6-7 years ago when I was still in high school. I knew it was a trilogy but after the first one I couldn't bring myself to read the second two. To be honest I can't even remember what the hell it was about, all I know was that I didn't like it. I think I'll try it again for my next book.

I liked Fountainhead, not nearly as good as Atlas Shrugged though.

[Circa89]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

I'm nearing the end of Fifth Business right now. I think it's a great book and I'm looking forward to the next two. You fellas that don't like it is crazy!

Angels and Demons is the worst book I've ever read. Like someone said, what takes place in the book is so ridiculous that you spend half the book, and the entire conclusion, shaking your head as you read.

I loved Fifth Business but enjoyed it even more after reading the whole trilogy. The second book makes the first one even better.

I'll be the only one to admit that I enjoyed reading Dan Brown. I read Davinci code well before the hype and current it's cool to hate Dan Brown movement and thought it (not good) but very entertaining. I also enjoyed Angels and Demons simply for the fact that Pope John Paul died while reading it. (that didn't sound right).

If anyone else is brave enough to admit they enjoyed reading Dan Brown I don't suggest picking up the Romanov Prophecies. It was touted as a Dan Brownesque book but I have been reading it since January and still have no desire to finish it.