well, THAT was the worst book ever!

[Giggity]

Y'all are not the first place I've heard The Road bad-mouthed. We own it, and Gentleman Friend either has read it or has it on his to-read list. I have ZERO interest in it. (Also because of the whole no-quotation-marks thing.)

[Giggity]

And utkvolfan just reminded me ... Mama Iz has frequently tried to loan me Jan Karon's Mitford books. Just reading the blurb on the back cover puts me to sleep.

[Xallanthia]

I really liked "Wicked" (and would love to see the show!)

Just so you know, the show bears only a passing resemblence to the book.

[Firecat]

Rousseau's Confessions - I had to read it (in translation, of course), for a class on autobiography in college. By the time I got through it, I was having fantasies involving this book and a lighter. Hated the book, hated Rousseau by the time I was done...he just seemed so self-absorbed and WHINY.

[PitBullMom]

The only book worse than Twilight is the fourth one in the series, BREAKING DAWN.  Worst book ever written, imo, and I am not exaggerating in the least.  I was actually really into the series - then I read the finale.  She should've wrapped it up with Eclipse, that's all I'll say.  (And the first three aren't great writing at all, but it is an engaging story up through the third book).  
...

I'll POD that.  The first three weren't great writing, but the story was entertaining, "Brain Candy," if you will.  But the fourth was. just. awful.  I felt like the author wanted this big happy ending without too much conflict, so she just threw together a totally unrealistic plot line.  Gah.

And put me down for another Faulkner book, "Light In August."  So very dry.  I couldn't get into it, even with Cliff's Notes, and had to stop a few chapters in.  I took an F on that test in English that year.   

[Piratelvr1121]

Twilight: Ick.  My eldest is named Edward and in the 4th grade, where many girls seem to associate the name with "Twilight".    But if I have a daughter and she wants to read them, I won't forbid them, but I will use them as a teaching tool to point out what a healthy relationship is NOT.  

The Wideacre series by Phillipa Gregory.  I only read two of the series and didn't want to read the third (learned my lesson about pushing through whole series after reading "Breaking Dawn") but a ? for others who have read her other books, is she just all around the historical fiction version of V.C. Andrews?  I mean..gah, the incest!! *looks for brain bleach*

[geordicat]

Wicked and Memoirs of an Ugly Stepsister.  I tried.  I TRIED!!  I really did.  But holy wow they were dull.   Could not get into them at all.  Forced myself to read them all the way through.

The Lovely Bones.  Depressing.  OH so depressing.

The Time Traveler's Wife.  Gah.

I picked up The Shack, read the first 2 pages and had to put it down.   Not my style/stuff at all.  Pass. 

[AlephReish]

Put me down for an agree on Wuthering Heights - what horrid characters. And everyone having the same name! The only thing that has ever redeemed it for me is the Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde - he puts them all in therapy.

I have a different problem with Wicked - I really enjoyed it the first time I read it, but I've never been able to get all the way through it a second time. It goes well for me til the final section, then it just falls apart completely.

My most loathed is Kafka. I loved The Metamorphosis, so I decided that my senior year high school English paper would be Kafka. Compare and contrast several works by one author, look for themes, etc. Well, I didn't know going in that Kafka never finished anything, and was a completely paranoid human being.  I wrote a scathing evisceration of the works, and my teacher loved it. At least I got an A out of struggling through The Trial, The Castle and Amerika.

[Winterlight]

Similarly, The Devil Wears Prada--I couldn't see the humor in the protagonist letting herself be treated that badly.

I thought the protagonist was a pill. Gee, I have to work and can't call my BF every day at 4pm. Bummer! Not to mention she was so snotty at the thought of working at a fashion mag in the first place. I wish they'd canned her and found someone who didn't cop a "you are all peasants" attitude.

[Kiara]

Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell. Couldn't stand it.

Oh good LORD don't get me started on this one.  She didn't do her research well, and it shows.  I did get amused by reading the negative reviews on Amazon, however.

For me?  "Great Gatsby."  We had to read it in 8th grade.  I hated it with a passion.  Thought the characters were stupid, the book was stupid...you name it.

Oh, and Thomas Hardy.  Read him in AP English, and the entire class begged our teacher to skip it.

[bobsyouruncle]

I just read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.  Oh my gosh....592 pages and NOTHING happens! NOTHING - it was very frustrating to read because every time it seemed like something interesting might happen it did not.  There were maybe 3 points of action in the entire thing. Seriously there are "bad guys" but instead of actually fighting them or figuring out how to solve the problem the main characters run away - which might make sense IRL but is pretty unsatisfying as a conclusion to a story (Spoilers because the book was only published in Feb)

I was so annoyed when I was done that I actually tossed the book across the room in disgust.  I'd have thrown it out but it was a library book.  

[Dorrie78]

Maybe this isn't the worst book ever, but I was seriously irritated by the book Ahab's Wife. I wanted to like it. It was well-written and an engaging story. My book club read it. But I was constantly annoyed by the fact that this woman just kept on meeting everybody famous who was alive during the time frame of the book. Walking down a path? And here comes famous author! At a party? Famous astronomer! At a church meeting? Famous abolitionist!

Not sure why, but it really made the book ridiculous to me, although I would probably recommend it to folks who aren't as easily irritable as me.

[sisbam]

Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell. Couldn't stand it.

Oh good LORD don't get me started on this one.  She didn't do her research well, and it shows.  I did get amused by reading the negative reviews on Amazon, however.

For me?  "Great Gatsby."  We had to read it in 8th grade.  I hated it with a passion.  Thought the characters were stupid, the book was stupid...you name it.

Oh, and Thomas Hardy.  Read him in AP English, and the entire class begged our teacher to skip it.

Far from the Madding Crowd left much to be desired.

[hobish]

Not The Worst Book Ever; but Blood Music was dissapointing. I loved the premise, and i usually really like Greg Bear; but the end of Blood Music just stunk. I don't think i have ever been so dissapointed by a novel i had so anticipated reading.

The Da Vinci Code may just fit the bill as The Worst.

[Giggity]

And put me down for another Faulkner book, "Light In August."  So very dry.  I couldn't get into it, even with Cliff's Notes, and had to stop a few chapters in.  I took an F on that test in English that year.

That's a pretty big statement about a book: "This sucks so bad I would rather fail a test than read it."

And it's one I wish I'd had the nerve to make about Moby-D!ck a LOOOOOONG time ago.