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Burned once, won't touch again.....


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I'm currently reading my first ever P. D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley. I have 40 more pages to go and miracles do happen, but for the last 100 pages or so I have wanted to just chuck the book out the window. Pretty safe to say I won't be reading any James novels in the future.

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I'm currently reading my first ever P. D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley. I have 40 more pages to go and miracles do happen, but for the last 100 pages or so I have wanted to just chuck the book out the window. Pretty safe to say I won't be reading any James novels in the future.

 

Ouch. That was my first PD James also Frankie. Maybe one of her crime novels might be better?

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PS .. plus all those on Steve's 'I liked these best' list that require an imagination

Fixed that for you :P:giggle2:

I couldn't agree with you more :D

 

.. all the same I don't think I'll bother with James Patterson :D

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Ouch. That was my first PD James also Frankie. Maybe one of her crime novels might be better?

 

Did you like it?

 

I thought this was supposed to be a crime novel, although with a P&P twist. The world is full of great crime novelists, I'd rather go with someone whose books I love than try another PD James.

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I'd agree with Anita Shreve - another one from my book group.

 

I've tried a few of hers and didn't like them at all, although...Wedding in December was quite good I thought.

 

James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell. I had said "No more!" to them both but gave their next reads a try, just in case either had got over their nonsense.

 

Neither had, so I have said goodbye to both and will never return to them again. :no:

Ditto on Patricia Cornwell. She just got toooooo graphic and boring for my taste.

 

I agree with Janet about J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye was truely awful. I also didnt like A Prayer for Owen Meany so much that it has put me right off John Irving for life!

 

Although Catcher in the Rye had one of the most annoying characters ever, the writing was quite good I thought, and husband claims that Franny and Zoe was gorgeous.

 

 

The author I'll never pick up again is John Steinbeck. I've tried to read at least three of his (due to a high recommendation from someone), three chances! For me, his writing has the effect of fingernails on a chalk board. /shiver/

 

Another is Roberto Bolano. I read 500 pages of 2666, and was so depressed and downright upset over it, plus I was snapping at everyone. Nope, none of Bolano for me.

 

Altho.....my motto has usually been, in the past, never say never....... :D

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I've tried a few of hers and didn't like them at all, although...Wedding in December was quite good I thought.

 

 

Although Catcher in the Rye had one of the most annoying characters ever, the writing was quite good I thought, and husband claims that Franny and Zoe was gorgeous.

 

 

I agree that the character was very annoying, I think I would have slapped him if it had been in real life :)

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After slogging through The Twilight Saga, I will never again read anything Meyer ever writes. Nobody can convince me to try The Host and if she ever comes out with anything else, I will be avoiding it like the plague.

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I really enjoyed Along Came A Spider by James Patterson but that was his first (and the only one I've so far read), maybe they deteriorate down th line? I'll definitely read his second and see how I go though.

 

Agree on JD Salinger and the Twilight woman. I read Twilight because I had nothing else to read when staying with my 15 year old cousin. Ugh, ugh and ugh, never reading the rest of the nonsense saga or anything else she churns out!

 

I'd like to add Matt Beaumont to the list - I loved his book E, but recently read the most vile tripe ever in Small World and wont be picking him up again. Also Freya North, I read one of hers years ago while travelling and remember nothing about it other than it was in my top ten worst books ever read.

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Ditto on Patricia Cornwell. She just got toooooo graphic and boring for my taste.

 

I have to agree with this especially when one of the characters did a Bobby Ewing from Dallas, as for the graphic slightly sickening content it was too much I just got fed up with and found myself disliking all the main characters. Give me Tess Gerritsen every time.

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I'm with you on Patricia Cornwell. I enjoyed Portrait of a Serial Killer (about Jack the Ripper), but tthen tried to read one of her Scarpetta books for a reading circle. Fair enough, it was part way through the series, but it was awful! I couldn't get on with the style of writing (constant unneccessary repetition which really got on my last nerve very quickly!) and I didn't care about any of the characters. in fact, the one character I did kind of like a little bit disappeared after about a chapter and I gave up about 10 chapters in and he hadn't returned by that point. I ditched it unfinished and vowed never to read anything by Cornwell again.

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Just thought of another one...David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduory and Denim. It's one of the few books I was happy I'd borrowed from the library and hadn't put money out on..!

To me it was just mean, mean, mean! I can't imagine picking up another of his books.

I know he is popular, but not with me.

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It's Mark Haddon for me! Tried The Curious Incident and just didn't like it at all. Then read A Spot of Bother for my reading group and found it truly awful - I won't be trying any more of his books!

 

Ah! I KNEW I couldn't be the only person who didn't like The Curious Incident. I had heard so many good things about that book, that I really looked forward to it. Was totally disappointed!

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Ah! I KNEW I couldn't be the only person who didn't like The Curious Incident. I had heard so many good things about that book, that I really looked forward to it. Was totally disappointed!

 

I found it very average, although I would never say never with another of his books I am in no hurry to go there again.

Edited by Easy Reader
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Nicholas Sparks is my "will never read again" author. I find his writing mediocre and a bit too gimmicky. I read The Notebook first, which I thought lacked the emotion that I admired in the movie. I have read three others since then- I wanted to give him a chance- and couldn't manage to read them without gagging on the dribble at least once. Sorry to the fans, but it also bothers me when a movie is already being filmed before the novel has even been released ( e.g. The Last Song). :hide:

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It's Mark Haddon for me! Tried The Curious Incident and just didn't like it at all. Then read A Spot of Bother for my reading group and found it truly awful - I won't be trying any more of his books!

Now I've never managed to get past page 20 of The Curious Incident... but I quite enjoyed A Spot of Bother(which was a book group read for me as well) BUT, I don't think I'd read any more of his book based on that one.

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I can't remember who the heck wrote it, or even what the title was, but on holiday once I picked up a book about a voyage to the antarctic or somewhere cold to go collect an old plane which was stranded there or something. I wish I could remember (maybe someone here actually knows what this book is) because I would definitely add that author to my 'never again' list. The writing was okay, as I recall, but it seemed like eighty percent of the book was spent on the sea voyage—which was unremarkable to say the least—and they never even retrieved the plane. Just b-o-r-I-n-g. How it ever got published I don't know.

 

If this happens to be your favorite book and/or author... err... sorry. :)

 

Cheers,

Xander.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What the night knows by Dean Koontz. It was absolutely terrible. I didn't finish it and returned it a few days after I got it. I won't ever be reading another book he wrote.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Stephanie Meyer. I was given Twilight as a present, and as appreciative as I am of the thoughtfulness and generosity shown to me by someone taking the time to shop, purchase, wrap, and present the gift...well, being burnt at the stake might have been a less torturous altrenative to reading Twilight. The most pointlessly verbose book I have ever had the displeasure of reading; pages and pages of description that added nothing to the story.

 

I know they say "never say never", but with utter certainty I can honestly say I shall never pick up (or read! :P ) another Stephanie Meyer book.

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There's quite a few writers who I've dipped into in bookshops and couldn't abide reading more than a couple of pages (several already mentioned, e.g. James Patterson, Stephanie Meyer), but of the ones I've actually had a proper go at, I'd say that two fiction writers that jump immediately to mind are Bernhard Schlink, whose The Reader was only marginally better than the completely dreadful The Homecoming, and Lawrence Durrell, whose pomposity just beggars belief. I also remember Merisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics with a real shudder.

 

In non-fiction terms, quite comfortably the worst writer I've ever come across is Tim Moore, whose excruciatingly awful travel writing transcends anything I've ever tried before or since. I've had a go several times as the topics he chooses are so full of potential interest, but he's so patronising and so contrived in his humour that I can't get past the front covers now. There are a couple of others who come close, but he's the master of everything that is for me detestable in travel writing, otherwise one of my favourite genres.

Edited by willoyd
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Mo Hayder.

 

I read Pig Island, and it started off well... sort of, anyway, but the end it was like an entirely different book, absolute rubbish. I've been told it's not one of her better ones anyway, but nothing on this earth could make me pick up another of her books after it.

 

I also hated The Curious Incident, didn't get very far into it at all, I just couldn't stand it. Wouldn't bother with any of Haddon's other books.

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It's got to be Tom Clancy for me. The straw that broke the camel's back for me being "The Bear And The Dragon". I just got fed up the two-dimensional characters and the awful national stereo-typing that litters his books.

 

Also agree partially with the Mark Haddon comments. I enjoyed "Curious" but found "A Spot Of Bother" very ordinary. Shame.

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Christopher Ransom - I read The Birthing House, and it was beyond awful. To say the writing was terrible would be to pay it a compliment!

 

Also Andrew Neiderman. He wrote The Devil's Advocate, which was made into a not bad film, with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. The book was truly dreadful. The film was very different from the book, which was probably why it was quite enjoyable. (Plus Al Pacino is always great)

 

I think I've already said James Patterson; will never read one of his again!

 

What the night knows by Dean Koontz. It was absolutely terrible. I didn't finish it and returned it a few days after I got it. I won't ever be reading another book he wrote.

I think he's very hit and miss. HIs earlier work is dire, but some of his later stuff was really good (imo). Edited by Ruth
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