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Worst book you've read recently?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Isabel, Sep 19, 2005.

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  1. Isabel

    Isabel Member

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    The "last 5 books" thread reminds me: anyone tried to read anything recently that they just couldn't stand?

    My pick: "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." I couldn't even finish it. (where's that puking smiley when you need it?) I was going to use it to write a parody, but I couldn't stand to keep the thing open long enough to look at it. How do so many people stand this?
     
  2. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    It must be REALLY bad if a chick hates that book...
     
  3. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    I can't think of one off the top of my head. I can probably ensure it's one I didn't finish though, hence my not remembering of the top of my head. If a book is bad, I see absolutely no reason to finish it.

    Battlefield Earth, which I read in 2000, is the worst book I've ever read. It's also the exception to my rule I just posted.
     
  4. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    I haven't read any bad books recently, but the worst book I've ever read is Great Expectations back in High School. I swear, Dickens uses about five pages to describe a doorknob...
     
  5. KellyDwyer

    KellyDwyer Member

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    "A Catcher In the Rye."

    Pseudo-hipster claptrap based around a phony (no pun intended) anti-establishment persona.

    Fonzi was a more realistic antihero than Holden Caulfield.
     
  6. pradaxpimp

    pradaxpimp Member

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    X-men issue # 314 Where They kill Magneto and he comes back again.....for the 23rd time
     
  7. Mr. Brightside

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    hmm good topic.. why is there so much hate in this world. i can't pick one, b/c mostly i read drap financial books anyways.
     
  8. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Xenophobia or Children of the mind. The first two in the series were so great, but reading about someone tracing wood grains is less entertaining than tracing wood grains.
     
  9. akperez

    akperez Member

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    Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons...........It's Divine Secrets ...only looonger and about women in a book club! Just b/c you are in a book club doesn't mean you HAVE to pick this!!!!! I mean come on! Get creative!!! Sorry...I'm venting. ;)
     
  10. nyquil82

    nyquil82 Member

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    man, you spoiled it for me.
     
  11. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    Killing Time - Caleb Carr

    Carr's two previous books, _The Angel of Darkness_ and _The Alienist_, that I read were great but this one is a turd. The above two books were historical fiction based in turn of the century New York City and well worth a read. The turd is a *futuristic* novel (sci-fi really). The future depicted and the protagonist did not appeal.
     
  12. LegendZ3

    LegendZ3 Member

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    Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass. I can't wait to burn it after taking that quiz on it tomorrow.
     
  13. m_cable

    m_cable Member

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    And it had a deus ex machina ending. Just an unimpressive effort all the way around.

    My pick would probably be Crossroads of Twilight. Book 10 of the Wheel of time series. After a couple books of puttering around, book 9 had a major event happen and I figured that the series was back on track and that #10 would go into the ramifications of that. But no, COT didn't move the story along at all. Every storyline just continued to spin it's wheels and go nowhere. It's really a shame how this series has devolved.

    The Wheel of Time was supposed to be a great fantasy epic in the vein of Lord of the Rings. In fact, if you read the first few books, you'd find the breath and scope of the series far surpasses Tolkein's epic. And then expect that the WOT would eclipse LOTR on all counts. Unfortunately the series has imploded due to the weight of dozens of unfinished storylines and continues to pump out filler books.

    The problem is that I've invested so much into this series that I just can't walk away. I remember reading these books in middle school, and for better or worse I've determined to slog through the rest of the series until it ends, or somebody dies, either myself or the author Robert Jordan.

    Speaking of promising fantasy series that fell of the deep end, I hear that Goodkind's Sword of Truth saga is basically unreadable. I'm glad I got out of that one before it was too late.

    Oh and if Song of Ice and Fire series goes down the same road as these other two epic fantasies, then I might never pick up a fantasy book again.
     
  14. Isabel

    Isabel Member

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    oh no... hopefully not more of the following:

    "Sidda curled up in the very convenient furnished cabin that a friend just happened to let her borrow and stared out into the beautiful pine woods. She thought about her loving, sweet, romance-novel boyfriend, though for some stupid reason she was still scared to commit to him. He did all these impossibly nice things for her. Shouldn't all women be so lucky? Men know how to treat the women of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

    Especially Vivi, who was the Alpha Ya-Ya. All Ya-Yas are not created equal. Everything revolved around Vivi. Teensy managed to suck up to her enough to get the #2 position, probably by providing a conveniently fun mother to hang out with and a hot brother for her friend to date. Isn't sisterly bonding wonderful? Caro and Necie hung around to listen to the top two talk about their problems and were perfectly content just to be there. Caro's husband left her for another man, but hey, no problem. She was the strong, practical type and wouldn't miss a man that much, since she doesn't need love and affection (except possibly from her Ya-Ya sisters). Necie had no life at all, but no one noticed. She was the token good girl at the bottom of the food chain.

    They all loved their female bonding so much! Such emotional good times and flowing estrogen! Especially those secret rituals they performed at night, the details of which were probably left out of the best-selling book. Even their children had no idea just how cozy they got with each other's Ya-Yas.

    Isn't life so emotional and perfect and happy? As Vivi has her friends catering to her every whim in a non-equal sisterhood, as Sidda has her perfect man and is free to act like a little girl even though she's 40. Wouldn't you like to be a Ya-Ya too? Now I bet you can't stand your pathetic life, can you? Time to watch Lifetime or Oxygen and get your estrogen back...
     
  15. tim562

    tim562 Member

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    I said it once, I'll say it again.....

    Books what are those...... :D

    BTW - Worst books I ever read, had to be my college textbooks. What makes them worse, is I was not only forced to read them, but forced to buy them. And they aint cheap.
     
  16. themocitydon

    themocitydon Member

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    karrine steffans. confessions of a video vixen. aka superhead.
     
  17. OddsOn

    OddsOn Member

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    Well seeing as I normally read either history, politics or self improvement I don't have a lot of bad books....but having said that I tried to read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand......geez that is a loooooooong freakin' book. I bought the paper back and it is over 1,000 pages of micro type. Needless to say I got about half way through and just gave up......LOL good writing but too long to keep me interested I guess.
     
  18. MartianMan

    MartianMan Member

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    Moby Dick, by far the worst book I have ever read.
     
  19. RIET

    RIET Member

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    I haven't read a book (other than classroom) in 15 years.

    Completely unread yet highly educated.

    Common phenomenon?
     
  20. Isabel

    Isabel Member

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    Well, Billy Budd was worse if any of you ever got subjected to that. Our high school had the usual English-class rumors about Hawthorne and Melville. (oh, that reminds me, The Scarlet Letter, which sounds promising but is actually really lame... that's got to be one of the all-time worst books) Anyway, I believe it, at least about Melville. He kind of enjoyed his male-bonding stories about sailors getting together and processing the innards of the sperm whale.

    I am not making this up. My friend and I also passed the time by making lists of "Top Ten Suggestive Chapter Titles in Moby Dick". You've got to do something to keep yourself amused... at least that makes it not so boring.
     

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