Top 5 books you would not recommend

[funrun]

I think I am the only one but I hate harry potter books

 

this is not five but I can not remeber the others:irked:

[Janet]

3. The Tin Princess -Philip Pullman

 

Did you like the first three of the series? I've read the first two (I read them just before they were televised) but have yet to read number 3 or this one.

[Jay Landsman]

This is a fun little thread where we can warn our fellow members off the many authors who's work offers no credible source of literary talent.

 

Fire away people!

Edited November 24, 2009 by Kell
Merged with similar existing thread

[Ben Mines]

At Swim-Two-Birds is woeful. The thesis of The Myth of Sisyphus is interesting, but it is presented in the most atrocious philosophical cant you will ever read. The Glass Bead Game is a mercilessly overlong and mystagogic piece of Philosophastering.

 

Those are the three worst books I've ever read. But even so I would still apply Pliny's tolerant maxim that there is no book so bad there isn't something good in it.

 

1. Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

 

What?

 

4. Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte

 

WHAT?!

 

Your reasons, pray.

Edited November 30, 2009 by Maureen
consecutive posts

[Freewheeling Andy]

at swim-two-birds is woeful.

 

 

what???!!???

[Raskolnikov]

I will have a go for the very 5 loathingable souls rejected from my library:

They all might have a literary talent but reading does also mean being demanding towards what one have to swallow...

 

- Jean-Paul Sartre : I've explained why somewhere.

- St-Exup

[BookJumper]

Raskolnikov - I'd second Beckett (only the combined stage presence of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart managed to make me stomach Waiting for Godot); but... The Little Prince? Granted, I haven't read it for about a decade, but I'm sure I remember it being a lovely little book, delivering important messages to children in unassuming terms. The pictures were brilliant, too.

[martymcfly3004]

1. The Metamorphosis by Kafka: Dull short stories that are obviously designed to be dissected word for word. On the surface though its uneventful drivel.

 

2. Lord Of The Rings: Always get stuck on the second book due to spontaneous, awful, cringe worthy poetry and whole chapters devoted to describing the colour of nearby mountains and trees. The films are good though.

 

3. Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy: Got about halfway through this, which would mean I got to about page 6000. This guy needs a better editor. Plus maybe some decent plots and characters as well.

 

4. Desperation by Stephen King: Gave up on King after reading this. Wheras the likes of misery, IT and the Green Mile are amazing this is a cobbled together story with lifeless characters.

 

5. Lord Of the Flies William Golding: Had to read this at school and it bored me to tears. Thought the changes in personalities happened too quickly and therefore found the book unbelievable. Liked the themes the book was trying to put across but I feel it failed to do so due to lack of subtlety.

[BookJumper]

Re: your first two marty, I have beg to differ. I don't read Kafka often as I find him bleak and depressing, but I'll happily admit he's an extremely skilled writer (if he weren't, he wouldn't depress me so much); as for LOTR, yes it requires dedication but the storytelling is magnificent and the descriptions are never superfluous. I didn't think the poetry bad, either; it did the job.

[martymcfly3004]

Hey BookJumper. I didn't get Kafka at all. Im not all that good at seeing the hidden meanings in text, so this is probably the main reason. Maybe if you have the time someday you could explain some of the meanings of his work. The short story 'the judgement' went straight over my head for example. Have you read this one?

 

Regarding 'Lord of the Rings' I know that half the world are of a different opinion to me on this one, I just don't get it myself. To me, it feels like Tolkein wrote it from beginning to end without any planning.

 

"the hobbit went down this road and met someone, he chatted / evaded / killed them. He then went down another road. He slept. He went over another mountain, he chatted / evaded, killed them. He slept and ate elf bread. He walked accross a field, he met someone he chatted / evaded / killed them".

 

Plus random creatures or rules are thrown in at points in a story to save the main characters. Like:

 

"The hobbit got stabbed in the chest and died... Actually no he didn't as he was wearing a magical hat we forgot to tell you about. He is actually ok now. The hobbit then walks up a mountain... etc."

 

I'm sure my dislike is the result of jealousy that i am unable to get joy out of one of the most celebrated pieces of modern fiction. Maybe I will give it another go sometime in the future and give it the patience it probably deserves.

 

I maintain the poetry in it is absolute gubbins though.

[sirinrob]

I read Tolkein when I was a lot younger and enjoyed it. These days I avoid, not for the writing per se, but the attendant baggage.

 

Kafka is one of those authors you get or dont get. I always read him in German ( original language), that way the meaning comes across more readily. Yes he is dark, but also a very capable wordsmith imho. His short stories seem to be more accessible, but still dark. One that will always stick in my mind is 'In der Strafkolonie' (In the Penal Colony). That might be a better way into Kafka, rather than the novels.

[martymcfly3004]

Cheers sirinrob, In the Penal Colony is included in the book of short stories so I might give it a go once i have finished 1984.

[maisy]

Hello, I'm new today and really enjoying reading all you comments: Hope you don't mind if I join in.

 

Most not-recommended:

 

1. Anything by Thomas Hardy - Most depressing!

 

2.Anything by Graham Greene - Almost as depressing! (Sorry i'm sure their are many fans out there - each to their own)

 

3. Metamorphosis by Kafka - Very strange!

 

4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - Had to study this for O'level and actually had a ritual burning afterwards.

 

5. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing - Couldn't even finish this, although I know it is considered to be of great literary worth.

[martymcfly3004]

Brilliant!

 

4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - Had to study this for O'level and actually had a ritual burning afterwards.

[Vanwa]

2. Lord Of The Rings: Always get stuck on the second book due to spontaneous, awful, cringe worthy poetry and whole chapters devoted to describing the colour of nearby mountains and trees. The films are good though.

 

I will just pretend I didn't see this

[MorningGlory]

what a great thread!

 

At the moment I can't think of many, but one author does immediately spring to mind - Thomas Hardy. I still have flashbacks to the tedium of his novels.

Mind you he was a balanced man - he had a chip on both shoulders

 

As to others, a recent one is a Sebastian Faulks book I picked up in a 2nd hand shop and was beyond dull - The Girl at the Lion D'Or. And I'm still cross with myself for bothering to finish it, I should have taken it back after the 1st few pages!

 

I'll have to go and think about others

[Sheeta]

I hated one book only in my whole life:

 

"Les Oubli

[busy91]

I have some...but I will go back to them........maybe.

 

 

1. Bleak House - Charles Dickens (oh lord, so wordy)

2. Middlemarch - George Eliot (sad thing is this is an audio book, I just can't get into it)

 

These are the only 2.

[Nicola]

 

1. Rant - Chuck Palahniuk

 

I gues I expected more for from these authors from previous work. Just turned out to be extreamely twisted.

 

4. Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte

 

I'm crying inside! These are two of my favourite books of all time. With regards to Rant, I love how it's so twisted and just when you think you understand where Palahniuk is taking you, the direction totally changes and you're left gobsmacked. He's managed to do this to me with every book of his that I've ever read....the man's a genuis!

 

With regards to Wuthering Heights...........??????!!!!!!!!! I don't think I have the words! Without a doubt my favourite love story of all time. Heathcliff's pain and desperation at the death of his soulmate is haunting and touching and yet it shouldn't be as they're both awful, distructive people. Ahhhhh......I love it Maybe I could tempt you with a re-read??

 

I'm sure I've mentioned this already somewhere in this thread but I think the warning needs to go out again (I feel awful slating someones work as I'm sure this book was the authors pride and joy!) The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom is terrible. It has the potential to be such a good story but he ruins it with crude sex scenes which I'd imagine girls everywhere will simply cringe at. (I'm cringing now!) A few people I know have read it and we all agree that it's bad.

Edited December 3, 2009 by Nicola

[willoyd]

What a fantastic thread - the most enjoyable I've browsed through so far! It has been so good to find others intensely disliking books that you generally only hear raves about. What a relief!

 

What's could be forgotten, is that these are simply the ones we've read. There are loads of writers who I've dipped into, and just know I wouldn't stick it for more than two minutes (which is about as long as Alice Sebold lasted for instance).

 

For my worst 5, I've limited it to fiction which I've actually made a real go at - finished a book or near as finished. However, for every bad fiction, there are plenty of bad non-fiction, in particular travel books (Tim Moore and pretty much every travel lit book currently in print based on Germany, but also a stream of the 'good life' types, and plenty of others).

 

1. Justine by Laurence Durrell. Probably the rest of the Alexandria Quartet as well, but couldn't get past the first one. Just felt so pretentious and totally overblown.

 

2. The Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink

OK to start, it completely lost it in the second half. Just about finished, but goodness know why.

 

3. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Complete drivel. Skim read the last half or so, as wanted to check whether I was on the right lines. I was, it was that obvious.

 

4. Da Vinci Code and Deception Point by Dan Brown. Read the second, just to see if it could be as bad as the first. It was.

 

5. Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Being, as a child, rather similar physiologically to Piggy, and having had to suffer this as a class reader in my early teens (the teacher being under the mistaken impression that a book about children was a children's book), I grew to hate this book with an intensity bordering on mania. I hate it so badly, I almost feel the need to try it again, just to see if I might have grown out of it. Yet to gird my loins!

 

I so want to include Jacqueline Wilson in that list, but as that's more to do with work (teaching) and children's literature, I'll leave that be!

[Nicola]

4. Da Vinci Code and Deception Point by Dan Brown. Read the second, just to see if it could be as bad as the first. It was.

 

I haven't read either of these books although the Da Vinci Code is on my TBR list....may have to bump it down a few places eh

[sirinrob]

 

2. The Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink

OK to start, it completely lost it in the second half. Just about finished, but goodness know why.

 

 

couldn't agree more- I attempted to read this in German and gave up as its ,to put it bluntly, garbage.

[Lukeozade100]

Thought i'd add a couple more on here;

Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivcha Galken. This is some serious waste of tree right here, the premise is so good, a man sees his wife and instantly 'knows' that's not my wife, it's a doppelganger, there's potential for a wonderful book there in almost any genre you can think of, but the execution is really really terrible.

&

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

I went travelling round Europe this summer and took this book thinking it might be fun to read whilst I was in Paris, it was not, it ends well but man did that guy like writing about architecture, and when you've been there looking at the thing he's talking about you don't need 4 or 5 pages of description that is never poetic and more something a civil engineer who feels theres a bit of a poet in him might write. Though as an adult the ending here probably is better than the Disney one, if a lot less feelgood.

[BookJumper]

I'd heartily disagree about Notre Dame.

 

As for architecture, you need to consider that Hugo (like a lot of writers of the period) wrote in installments, paid by the wordcount - wouldn't anyone ramble on about turrets, under the same circumstances?

 

That said, I find Hugo to be an excellent rambler. Umberto Eco can take three pages to describe a portal and make me abandon a book forever; Hugo often takes ten times as much space, yet he never seems to bore me.

 

I for one find his writing beautiful and indeed poetic, so... may I respectfully ask what edition, i.e. translation, of Hugo you read?

[Lukeozade100]

It was just one of those