# Bottom five reading picks for 2010 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 30, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835 "2010-12-30T16:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/1 "2010-12-30T16:25:30Z")
In thi[s thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=590736) **twickster** has asked people for the ten best books we read in 2010. I’m asking for the opposite: what were the five worst books you read this year? Help your fellow readers out, and tell us what you didn’t like and why. 1. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters This book had a lot of trouble deciding what it wanted to be. Did it want to be a period piece? A tale of unrequited love? A horror story? It’s widely billed as the last, but a more tepid horror novel is hard to imagine, and the ghost story is absolutely incidental to the plot. This is not a novel for people who actually enjoy horror. Tales of depression, resentful longing, and decadence, yes, horror, no. 2. Darkwood by M.E. Breen You know how you wake up in the morning and remember your dreams? Then, later in the day after you’ve done a bunch of other things you try to remember the details, but realize that there’s a lot missing from your recall and stuff that no longer makes much sense given the lack of cohesion to your memories? That is how this young adult novel reads, and it’s not a good thing. 3. Breathless by Dean Koontz Let’s take a bunch of characters and alternate chapters to tell their completely distinct stories. Then, in the last 30 pages realize that we were supposed to be writing a novel, and make a lame attempt to force some connections between them in the rushed final pages. 4. Just After Sunset by Steven King I think after this short story collection and Everything’s Eventual, I’m not going to bother with Steven King’s short stories any more. Remember when they were meant to be scary? I don’t know what the intent was here, but it’s not horror for the most part. 5. Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz This book **really** wasn’t worth the years of waiting. Very little happens over the course of this novel, and almost nothing advances the plot(s) established by the first two novels in this was-supposed-to-be-a-trilogy. I’m not a fan of Kevin J. Anderson or Edward Gorman, but Koontz on his own has devolved to embarrassingly poor writing that doesn’t match the first two books. Of course, after waiting four years for this book, maybe my memory of the first two has soften and they weren’t much better. who knows. So, what are the five worst books you read this year? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/2 "2010-12-30T18:39:12Z")
I really liked _The Little Stranger_ – psychological horror – you don’t really know what’s real and what’s in his head. It was my favorite read in 2009. My least favorite book in 2010 was _Under the Dome_ by Stephen King. It ties with _The Historian_ for godawful why was this even published. I also dumped these books: _Anansi Boys_ – didn’t care what happened to any of the characters _True Evil_ by Greg Iles – too much exposition, too early in the story _Matterhorn_ – wanted to like this but it was too matter-of-fact _A Dark Matter_ by Peter Straub – can’t remember why I didn’t like this one _Black Hills_ by Dan Simmons – Simmons dumps historical facts when he’s not having Custer write Penthouse letters to his wife ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/3 "2010-12-30T19:20:43Z")
I disliked: _Star Island_, by Carl Hiaasen - I can’t recall exactly what I didn’t like, but I do remember that I didn’t laugh much and after 50 pages or so, couldn’t wait to finish the thing. _I Know This Much to be True_ - which **twicks** summed up perfectly with her remark “oy, the tsuris!” _The Great Influenza_, by John Barry. I really wanted to like this one, but thought it was repetitive and dull. _Paths of Glory_, by Jeffrey Archer, which just plain sucked. I couldn’t agree more with **AuntiePam** about _A Dark Matter_, by Peter Straub, which had tedious characters and a hilariously ridiculous climax, but differ on _Matterhorn_, which, IMO, was a masterpiece and my favorite book of 2010. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/4 "2010-12-30T20:03:21Z")
The bottom of my list, from worst to … not worst. _Under the Dome_, by Stephen King. What **AuntiePam** said. I am a huge King fan, too, and this was too awful even for me. _Flicker_, by Theodore Roszak. I know people love this book, I was astonished by how much I disliked it. Premise is good - crazy conspiracy theory hidden in classic cult movies … but wow, was it ever like an old guy braying about “kids today.” OMG, get off my lawn. _Alice I Have Been_, by Melanie Benjamin. Novel told from the POV of Alice what’s-her-name, Liddel? The Alice in Wonderland girl. I think it’s trying to be shocking in a Lolita kind of way, it’s mostly a snooze. _I Was Told There’d Be Cake_, by Sloan Crosley. I was told this was a funny memoir, it’s actually mostly not very funny essays by someone way too young to be writing memoirs about anything. _We Used to Own the Bronx: Memoirs of a Former Debutante_, by Eve Pell. This was well-intentioned, but not very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/5 "2010-12-30T20:09:40Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I really liked _The Little Stranger_ – psychological horror – you don’t really know what’s real and what’s in his head. While true the character was such a jerk it was hard to care what was real and what wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/6 "2010-12-30T20:46:33Z")
I won’t usually finish a book if I’m not having a good time, but there was one this year that I listened to in its entirety as an audio book and I thoroughly hated it. My review from Goodreads: > [@](#): > > Finished my audiobook, _Thirteen Reasons Why_, a YA novel by Jay Asher, about a high school student who receives a package from a classmate who committed suicide. In the package, several cassette tapes detailing (you guessed it) thirteen reasons why. > > Despite the extremely hokey premise, I was really rooting for this book at the beginning. Who hasn’t wanted to know WHY? However, the narrator reading for the dead girl had a really bitter, sarcastic tone. Probably very appropriate for the character, but soon she was just unlikeable. > Interspersed with that, there was the male reader playing the listening boy, who just thought dead girl had been greater than sliced bread. If it was reverse psychology, it worked. > > On top of that, when I added together all thirteen of her reasons, it only equaled maybe one reason. If you were a big whiny angsty teenage pussy. Dishonorable mentions to: _How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove_, by Cathy Erway. Trendy young New Yorker; I couldn’t relate. _Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison_, by Piper Kerman. I don’t remember. _After_, by Amy Efaw. A girl throws her baby in the trash, but she’d be annoying even if she hadn’t. _In An Evil Time_, by Bill Pronzini. Weak, thin, airport-novel sort of book. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/7 "2010-12-31T01:08:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Alice I Have Been, by Melanie Benjamin. Novel told from the POV of Alice what’s-her-name, Liddel? The Alice in Wonderland girl. I think it’s trying to be shocking in a Lolita kind of way, it’s mostly a snooze. I dumped this one as soon as the Lolita crap showed up. Lewis Carroll panting after an eight year old is just too creepy to ever make a good book. There’s a reason I’ve never read Lolita. I don’t need to read books trying to glamorize pedophilia. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottom-five-reading-picks-for-2010/565835/8 "2010-12-31T22:58:33Z")
Almost all my friends recommended Yann Martel’s _Life of Pi_, so I finally started reading it six months ago. I haven’t finished it, and probably won’t bother. I must be some kind of weirdo, because I just can’t seem to love this book. Another vote for Stephen King’s _Under the Dung_… er… _Dome_. Much as I love Uncle Stevie, sometimes he lays a colossal stinker, and this was one of 'em. A while back I swore off Patricia Cornwell. This year I recanted and tried to read a Kay Scarpetta novel, but for the life of me I can’t remember its title. I’m not gonna try any more. Cornwell is off my list. Michael Connelly’s _Nine Dragons_ was the first Harry Bosch book that I didn’t like very much. Greg Iles is another author who struck out with me this year. _The Devil’s Punchbowl_ might make a good movie, but as a novel it just didn’t grab me.