• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Which is the...

Since you're asking about novels, not nonfiction, I'd have to say Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson and Winter Study by Nevada Barr tie for the dubious honor of Worst Read So Far..I honestly didn't have high expectations with the Davidspn book anyway;Sweet Revenge is just the latest title in a fluffy mystery series about a caterer in Colorado. Nothing earth shattering in this series, just a fun, light read. Barr on the other hand, often teaches me something with each post Anna Pigeon serves. This time, I felt let down and glad the thing was over. Either both writers have slipped or my tastes have changed. The jury is still out.


Note: Apologies to TFS members for cross-post.
 
I think Falling Man, by Don DeLillo, is the only book I've had to quit midway through, so that would be the worst book for me so far this year.
 
Gasp of gasps! And heresy of heresies! Just at the moment I am completely underwhelmed by Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. :sad:
I'll finish it, and my reaction may improve, but so far the humor seems adolescent at best, and any comparisons to the far more literary Joyce's Ulysses are farfetched. IMO of course. Many think otherwise.
 
Peder said:
Gasp of gasps! And heresy of heresies! Just at the moment I am completely underwhelmed by Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. :sad:
I'll finish it, and my reaction may improve, but so far the humor seems adolescent at best, and any comparisons to the far more literary Joyce's Ulysses are farfetched. IMO of course. Many think otherwise.
Click to expand...

:D Oh, is it humorous? :innocent: I don't see it myself, but it is not particularly to my taste.


I was rather disappointed in Marguerite Duras's 10:30 On A Summer Night, I did finish it, but it rather droned on, mercifully it was short.
 
sparkchaser said:
The fiction book I have enjoyed the least this year has to be Madame Bovary.
Click to expand...

I've never read it, but I heard it was great. I've heard about Flaubert's obsession with the writing form, the way he elaborated carefully each sentence in search of perfection, what took so much of his time that he wrote relatively little in his career.

Now I see someone saying it was the less enjoyable fiction in seven months of readings, so I'm wondering if Flaubert was so busy developing his writing perfectness that he forgot to work harder in the story itself...
 
I'd say Perks of being a Wallflower has been the worst book i started this year. I only made it about 30 pages in and it was just so unoriginal and annoying that i had to stop. I can understand that the style is similar to Catcher in the Rye, just with the narration by a young man, but at least Holden had a personality and some actual personal disapointment with life.
 
I've just given up on Elric. I'd quite like to shove his evil sword up his pale, brooding arse.
 
"The Serrano Legacy" by Elizabeth Moon

Why is someone clearly obsessed with interior decor, clothes, cuisine, and horses trying to write sci-fi ?? I hardly ever give up on a book but flicking through to random pages and reading yet more about the plush purple cushions that were in the spaceship, and the matching carpet, someone galloping through the fields on a horse riding simulator, and what the captain had for lunch I despaired and threw it aside in disgust.
 
A tale of two cities. I had stopped somewhere even before 1/3rd of the book. Could not figure out what the heck's going on. I was reading some synopsis of the book at a library, and found out one person was to be playing another character? Now I see why some teens are rebelling against adults. I should read Spark notes and try it again.
 
Twentieth Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

I was so excited about getting this book as a gift, and now I'm glad that I didn't spend my hard-earned money on it and feel a little sorry for my mother-in-law who did. There was one, perhaps two decent stories in it, but the rest were rubbish and I was highly disappointed. I have only started three books in my entire lifetime and not finished them, so I forced myself to read to the end. I will say that the binding is quite nice and it looks great on my shelf, but I cannot see it ever entering a "re-read" list for me.
 
This is embarrassing for me to say, but I'm in this book club where we usually pick out works that are of certain literary value...but someone decided to pick Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier - by far the worst book I have read not only this year, but certainly my entire life.

It is ridiculously long, and while yes, it is a teen novel, it was riddled with clichés that made the whole thing sound like a disgusting joke. Thank God we read the Bell Jar after that...
 
For me it's a tie between The Scroll of Seduction: A Novel of Power, Madness, and Royalty by Gioconda Belli and Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones. I just couldn't bring myself to finish them.
When I was younger I would always finish the book I was reading, even if I had to force myself to do so. As I get older I have come to realize that life is too short and there are so many good books to be read in this world that there is no point in wasting my time finishing the ones I don't like.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top