well, THAT was the worst book ever!

[Animala]

My sister gave my son a book and we just finished it.  I hated it.  It was called Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians.  I had considered starting a thread on it.  The first page or three of each chapter was spent speaking directly to the reader and hitting you over the head with how the (fictional) writer chose to narrate the book and what an awful person the writer is.  I suppose the actual author thought that was clever but it isn't.  I would guess if all those parts were removed the book would be at least a third smaller.  I think the worst part is that the story is good, you just have to get to it.

[Hexie]

Every single Twilight book.  My friends and sister RAVED about them - and I just thought they were terrible.  I agree with PP about Bella.  She's horrid.  I seriously hated her by the end of the first book!

[Cz. Burrito]

Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying."  We had to read it in high school.  It was so bland, so boring, so...not good.  I later saw it on my mom's bookshelf, as it was the Oprah Book Club selection, and I warned her about it.  She later agreed with me after reading it and will not be reading any more Faulkner. 

[Poirot]

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. And anything else by her.

POD. Jodi Picoult, Jackie Collins and Dan Brown are on my NEVER read list. I actually didn't mind the Twilight books though. Diverting, mindless fluff when I was ill in bed.

[Cz. Burrito]

Every single Twilight book.  My friends and sister RAVED about them - and I just thought they were terrible.  I agree with PP about Bella.  She's horrid.  I seriously hated her by the end of the first book!

I've heard more than one person say that the story wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for Bella.  A blog that I follow calls her "Isabummer."

[Hillcatlady]

The Magicians by Lev Grossman -
       Self centered characters - check
       Badly ripped off plot points - check
       Plot that goes utterly nowhere - check
       On the NYT bestsellers list - check

This book was total dreck and I want my two hours back from trying to read it

[RocketScientist]

Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying."  We had to read it in high school.  It was so bland, so boring, so...not good.  I later saw it on my mom's bookshelf, as it was the Oprah Book Club selection, and I warned her about it.  She later agreed with me after reading it and will not be reading any more Faulkner. 

For me it was "The Sound and the Fury."  I can sort-of, kind-of see the genious it took to write that type of novel, if I squint really hard.  But that book turned me off Faulkner for good.

[QueenofAllThings]

Oh, Lord - The Shack. Unreadable.
Twilight Weird guy watches you while you sleep, and this is romantic? Can you say stalker?
Guernsey Potato Peel Literary Society or whatever it is called - there is, for me, nothing worse than a story in the form of letters written back and forth. Couldn't get past the 3rd page.

And all that chick lit stuff - fab nannies in the big city, fab young advertising geniuses in the big city, adorably ditzy young things with romatic foibles. Aaaack. I lived it. It's nothing like that.

[Horace]

"The Life of Pi" - I couldn't understand it, I had no idea what was going on.  I wanted to love it because my favourite teacher recommended it to me but I had to give up.  There are very few books that I've actually stopped reading but this was one of them.  I also hated "Wuthering Heights", I just couldn't get into it, had to keep re-reading passages to make them stick in my head.

[TeamBhakta]

Goodnight Nebraska. Found it on the bargain table at B. Dalton's and thought "ooh, sounds interesting." What a mistake. I'd still like my dollar back, please.

I tried reading Flatland once. I felt so stupid and confused. Couldn't even finish a few pages before my head starting hurting from going "Um, the intro said this book was genius and insightful. Either this is way over my head or this is drivel. "

[sisbam]

The Man Who Cried I Am - the first fifty pages drone on and on about the protagonists' medical problems. The rest is supposed to be a political thriller... or something... I don't know. I wanted to shoot myself afterward.

Then again, that was during a class called "African American Literature During the Age of Insurgency," aka Civil Rights and Black Power Movement Lit. Most depressing class in my life.

[Lisbeth]

I've been struggling and struggling to read Mrs. Dalloway and because of Virginia Woolf's style I just can't get through it.  She goes on and on and on with so many run-on sentences that I end up not being able to figure it out.

And I've already read The Hours by Michael Cunningham.

[Giggity]

Wicked ... really what was that all about ...

I wanted SO MUCH to like this book. What a fantastic premise! But the author just went on for days and days and DAYS about feminism and gaaaaaaaaah.

[Just Lori]

Adding my vote to The Shack.  I couldn't plow past the first few pages.  I thought the author was trying too hard to be a Great Writer.

With apologies to Ehell's Lisbeth, I was meh on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  The main character turned me off with his amazing ability to attract women who wanted to sleep with him.

On the other hand, I like most of Jodi Picoult's books.  Obviously, tastes vary.

[lipli]

Last of the Mohicans.  EVER.  I had watched the movie years and years ago and hated it.  Then I had to read it for an AP History class.  When I bought the book, the cashier apologized to me.  He told me (haven't bothered to verify if this is true or a story based on how the story "worked"), that the author would send the book to his editor.  His editor told him, it needs to be longer.  He would just add to the story without reading what he's already read.  And apparently he did this a million times.  And it showed. Characters would drop in and out of the book at random.  One girl (Cora I think) was traveling with the party.  She was not mentioned for about 50 pages.  And then she came back with nothing about what she had been doing for the last 50 pages.

As it was summer reading, when we got to class the first day, the teacher apologized to us for making us read it.  She promised she wouldn't do it to future students.  It could have been a good story but the writing & character development made it impossible to get into the story.