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The Worst of 2005

abecedarian

abecedarian

Well-Known Member
Be honest, we all have them. Which books did you read this year that made you wish you hadn't? I won't even ask for a list of ten:rolleyes: Just share a few duds from your 2005 reading list. I'll start with the one I just finished: The Grass Dancer by Susan Power. Admittedly, it was probably pretty dumb for me to read this after a book of the magnitude of A Game of Thrones, but I did.. What a waste of paper. The so-called story is told from the viewpoint of every character except Chuch Norris the three-legged Pomeranian. And he was the best character too! Ok, now that I've unburdened my soul, it time for the class to share..
 
Chuck Pahalniuk's Haunted. Bleck! I have read all of his books. Choke, for my two-cents, is the only really decent one. The others I read because people kept recommending them to me. This year it was Haunted and, like most of his work, I found it to be dull, unispired drivel: the same bag of tricks regurgitated yet again.

I really can't grasp the appeal. I wish I had rather spent the time accidentally dropping sharp things on my feet.
 
  • Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
  • Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
  • The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
  • Daughters of the Vicar, D.H. Lawrence
  • The Actual, Saul Bellow
  • Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
    [*]The Fahrenheit Twins, Michel Faber
 
The worst one for me was Saul Bellow's Ravelstein. One of the most horrid books ever written. I can think of books in which I lost interest after a certain number of pages, but none that gave me intense feelings of revulsion like this one did.
 
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough
Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
The Devil & Miss Prym, Coelho
 
Stewart said:
  • Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
  • Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
  • The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
  • Daughters of the Vicar, D.H. Lawrence
  • The Actual, Saul Bellow
  • Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
    [*]The Fahrenheit Twins, Michel Faber
Click to expand...



I tried to read Perdido Station, but tossed it back into the closet with the other library books after about an hour.
 
Surprised to see "Perdido Street Station" on a list. But then again if we all had the same taste it would be boring around here. ;)

My addition to the list would be "Black" by Ted Dekker. It is the first book of a trilogy. It actually started the second book ("Red"), but it only got worse.
 
I was over 200 pages into Handling Sin by Michael Malone when I finally gave up on the book. It was highly recommended but I just could not get into it.
 
My Sister's Keeper - Picoult
Lost - Maguire
Running With Scissors - Burroughs
Choke - Palahniuk

I know there were more, but I've got to go look through my list to find them.
 
Iain Banks – Dead Air: gratuitous 9/11 imagery put me off.

Amy Tan – The Bonesetter’s Daughter: over-rated chicklit.

Paul Theroux – Blinding Light: a one-hand read for perverts, with a vague storyline. A bit like a jazz mag, really.

Jeff Noon – Falling Out of Cars: what in the hell was all that about then?

Jonathan Safran Foer – Everything is Illuminated: no, it isn’t.
 
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