Books to avoid like a bookworm on a diet

dr gonzo

Probably said already but i have to say 20,000 leagues under the sea. The core of the story is really interesting and when Verne is actually talking about events on the Nautilus the book is excellent, the problem is actual story is very limited in the book and it seems to be lazily sandwiched between long bouts of Verne gushing over various species of sea life, very tedious very fast.

bungler

Roddy Doyle " The Deportees"

I'm a big fan but this book is painful to try read

losthorizon

Saturday by Ian McEwan. God, I havent hated a novel so much in such a long time.

Kayly

Same here..and yet I had to finish it.:eek:

millynew

I'm so glad somebody else mentioned On the Road by Jack Kerouac!! I was beginning to think I was the only person in the world that did not like this book and was feeling verylonely One of the very few books I just could not finish! I disliked the plot (what little there was) and the characters even more so!

It takes a lot for me to stop reading a book e.g. I managed to finish Rule of Four and Twilight (both hugely overrated and hours of my life I will never get back)!

Kayly

Not sure if anyone posted on "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. (similar book name in last post jogged my memory). God this one nearly drained me of the will to live. I like the post-apocolyptic theme, but the unrelenting misery was just so, well, unrelenting.

SuperInfinity

Your Heart Belong to Me by Dean Koontz.

Wouldn't a bookworm on a diet tend to cheat and binge on books and read some books anyway? I mean like a fat person on a diet. A fat person on a diet is unlikely to be great at avoiding foods and will eat a fair bit anyway. "avoid food like a fat person on a diet" isn't hugely avoiding food. Avoiding food like an anorexic on a diet... now THAT would be something.

Just saying...

saerlaith

I don't know if this one has been mentioned already, but I nearly lost the will to live while reading The Shack by William P. Young. One word: painful.

Queen-Mise

i ripped up a book tonight and put it into the bin. Crime to trees that it was ever printed. It was a woeful pile of tripe. I gave it to stories - 1st bad, 2nd unforgivable. A jewish psychotherapist writting christian parables. The 'lessons' were as profound as a demolition ball in your face.

edolan

Had to do Wuthering Heights in school, most overrated piece of garbage ever.

Thargor

Kayly wrote: »

Not sure if anyone posted on "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. (similar book name in last post jogged my memory). God this one nearly drained me of the will to live. I like the post-apocolyptic theme, but the unrelenting misery was just so, well, unrelenting.

Well worth a read though, definitely not to be avoided.

Bodhidharma

The Unlimited Dream Company by JG Ballard. I had never read one of his books before and I picked this randomly hoping that he might be the next author I'd like to get into. Boy was I wrong.

I hated this book. I cannot remember if I have ever had such a negative reaction to a book. Its basically some repressed English pervert writing 200 pages of some sort of sexual fantasy. I got so fed up of reading about the main character throwing he semen all over the place (literally).

I love books and I'm very open minded, but tomorrow I'm gonna bring this to a charity shop just so its not in the same house as me.

Smartly Dressed

Cormac McCarthy's, No Country for Old Men.

How about using some ****ing punctuation, Cormac. Aside from the painful lack of punctuation (which admittedly worked very well in 'The Road'), the book is just boring.

REPSOC1916

fionav3 wrote: »

Okay, I've forgotten to mention this but Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Shockingly dull and one of my biggest disappointments, really thought I'd love it!

I once met a retired French principal from Guingcamp in Brittancy who said they had to remove that from the school after they found cum stains in one of the books in the 60's.

No joke here.

SuperInfinity

REPSOC1916 wrote: »

I once met a retired French principal from Guingcamp in Brittancy who said they had to remove that from the school after they found cum stains in one of the books in the 60's.

No joke here.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was probably something else, for a variety of reasons. For one cum wouldn't stain like that.

Inkblot

The two books that wasted my time like none before were "Lost in the Funhouse" by John Barth and and "Andorra" by Max Frisch.

Not everything that is postmodern is bad, but "Lost in the Funhouse" really goes to great lengths to bore and piss off the reader (I even read that this was Mr. Barth's intention, now well done!).
"Andorra" is a boring, uninspired drama that drops the moral anvil on every second page with totally flat imagery. "The *Black People* want to kill *Jews*. Does this remind you of something?

I had to read both for school/ university. I won't spend my free time on box that I hate. XD

Earthhorse

Inkblot wrote: »

and and "Andorra" by Max Frisch.

And, and, f*cking, Andorra.

REPSOC1916

SuperInfinity wrote: »

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was probably something else, for a variety of reasons. For one cum wouldn't stain like that.

It was something anyway.

Bits_n_Bobs

Underworld by Don DeLillo, it seemed to win every bloody award when it came out. It was huge, turgid and boring and I slogged through the whole thing in what was possibly the most masochistic literary feat I have ever put myself through.

Utterly agree with previous posts on Catch 22 - have tried to read it twice and both times gotten bored with it. Don't think it's by any means a terrible book, just left me with meh'ness halfways through it both times

foxy06

Cant get into Catch 22 at all. Only book I have never finished. Blood Money by Arlene Hunt. Worst.Book.Ever.

Morrigin

foxy06 wrote: »

Cant get into Catch 22 at all. Only book I have never finished. Blood Money by Arlene Hunt. Worst.Book.Ever.

Read a book of hers a few years ago and it was absolutely dire! Can't remember the name of the book but always remembered her name so I wouldn't get caught out again

annascott

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, released in early 90's. Really long and boring. Only recommended novel that I ever gave up on. ..

annascott

foxy06 wrote: »

Cant get into Catch 22 at all. Only book I have never finished. Blood Money by Arlene Hunt. Worst.Book.Ever.

Stick with Catch 22, the first bit is not enjoyable but it gets much better and has earned it's popularity reputation,...

wilmer mclean

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

Underworld by Don DeLillo, it seemed to win every bloody award when it came out. It was huge, turgid and boring and I slogged through the whole thing in what was possibly the most masochistic literary feat I have ever put myself through.

Utterly agree with previous posts on Catch 22 - have tried to read it twice and both times gotten bored with it. Don't think it's by any means a terrible book, just left me with meh'ness halfways through it both times

Liked Catch 22 myself, you do have to read a good bit of it in order to get to grips with the time line which can be a bit confusing. Have never read Underworld but did read another one of his books called White Noise and didn't like it at all. I have heard that the baseball match at the start of Underworld is brilliantly written but the sheer size of it is off putting after not liking White Noise.

beeftotheheels

...am I alone in enjoying awful books (not all, just some)?

you know the books with the awful 2d characters, the authors who really don't recognize their own limitations and try making profound statements about society instead of trying to write a good book. They annoy me and yet some of them I keep reading. Lauren Weisberger would be a case in point

hatful

Skippy Dies, I started reading it because it was hyped up by lots of readers on this forum, surreal and abstract yes funny no, gave up after 100 pages.

BizzyLizzie

**Chick lit alert**

'The Brightest Star in the Sky' by Marian Keyes is the most dire excuse for a book I've read in a long time. I've nearly finished but jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus it's nearly killing me to keep reading. Far too many characters without enough time to get to know any of them. They're all very unlikable too so I don't really care what happens to them all. There doesn't seem to be much of a plot going on either and the way it's narrated by some unknown entity doesn't add to the suspense, it just gets annoying!

BizzyLizzie

'The Rule of Four' by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason.

Bought this a few years ago and tried to read it a few times but always got bored after a few chapters. Made it to the end this time... not sure why I bothered! It's marketed as the thinking man's Da Vinci Code but to me it seemed like an exercise in mentioning Princeton as many times as possible. Had the potential to be a great read but just...wasn't.

Edit: I'm having really bad luck with books lately!

epgc3fyqirnbsx

finished "A Fairwell to Arms"
I told you I started it quite a while back but I'm very bad with books, usually reading a few at a time and leaving some after me.
I found this one to be tough going to begin with, in the last week I was enthralled with it. He has a very matter of fact way of writing. Catherine was a bloody lunatic though...
At the same time, probably for the first time, it made me want to be a slight lunatic for someone
There's the sign of a good book

RubyRoss

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño is cruel. His Amulet was fantastic but the SD is three times the size, recycles the characters from Amulet and I could not be bothered finishing it.