# Disapprove of a book list-Don't read these! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132 "2013-04-19T13:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/1 "2013-04-19T13:54:38Z")
Sorry, I couldn’t think of another antonym for “suggesting” a book. Instead of saying what books we should read, let’s warn others about bad choices. Books that are just no good. Twilight’s an easy choice, what are some others? And give some reasons, don’t just crap on stuff you don’t like. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/2 "2013-04-19T14:02:01Z")
So what didn’t you like about twilight? (I haven’t read them, I’m just playing devil’s advocate. Can I be the first to mention anything by Dan Brown? Man oh man, that guy is a horrible writer; plus many (all?) of his stories are basically the exact same story repackaged with slightly different circumstances. Next to Dan Brown, #1 on my list would be Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. My reasons? Well to me it was slow tedious and boring. I ended up using the book to make a hiding spot by cutting out the center of the pages. ---
**Author:** ![glaeken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@glaeken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glaeken)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/3 "2013-04-19T14:12:37Z")
I am not sure a negative recommendation thread works. I know whenever I look for book reviews of a book I have just read and liked you never fail to find someone who hated it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/4 "2013-04-19T14:13:21Z")
Most of the ones I’d recommend against are so obscure most people wouldn’t read them anyway. A moderate bestseller I hated with some passion was [The 19th Wife](http://www.amazon.com/19th-Wife-Novel-David-Ebershoff/dp/0812974158), one of the most boring and worst researched and identity-crisis/characters that wouldn’t be nuanced enough for _GLEE_ pieces of crap I’ve ever come across; I can only assume the author must be one hell of a nice guy because the only way he could get 4 stars on Amazon is through friends astroturfing. I have never been able to finish a novel by Dean Koontz and stopped trying long ago, but apparently many disagree. I also couldn’t stand _A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius_, but again, millions seem to disagree. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/5 "2013-04-19T14:14:07Z")
The _Sleeping Beauty_ trilogy by Anne Rice. Never was sex soooo boring. Maybe she was paid by the word. (She did use a pseudonym.) ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/6 "2013-04-19T14:17:51Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > The _Sleeping Beauty_ trilogy by Anne Rice. Never was sex soooo boring. Maybe she was paid by the word. (She did use a pseudonym.) I concur. I read about three pages of the first volume. Ouch. I skipped ahead about 100 pages and checked the prose there. No improvement. Not sure why anyone would like these. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/7 "2013-04-19T14:58:58Z")
A hard question to answer, as I don’t usually force myself to finish books I don’t like, and frankly, I didn’t finish this one either: [House](http://www.amazon.com/House-Frank-Peretti/dp/159554156X) by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. I picked it up on a whim at the library. As a horror fan, I thought it would be right up my alley. However, the writing was beyond atrocious (see the first chapter at the link). For some reason which I do not now recall, I forced myself on and on, until I realized that no matter how it all turned out, it had been a sorry-ass waste of paper. I actually felt slimy in some indescribable manner for having read it. Around this time, I discovered that this Dekker person is some sort of Christian author, though I hadn’t detected any religion in the book. I put a comment on a post-it, stuck in the early pages of the book, and gladly returned it to the library. Hopefully I was able to save at least one other person… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/8 "2013-04-19T15:22:17Z")
_Memoirs of an Invisible Man_ by H.F. Heard. I’ve never seen a main character so stupid in my life. I gave up when he noticed that the FBI had surrounded his apartment, and watched them carefully for a half hour as they cut off all exits and _then_ decided to leave. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/9 "2013-04-19T15:28:04Z")
L. Ron Hubbard. I’ve written about this here before, so you can search for earlier times when I had more time to spit the amount vitriol this crap deserves, but his “epic” ten-volume _Mission Earth_ series is far and away the foulest, nastiest, worst-written steaming pile of dung I’ve ever been exposed to. I forced myself to finish it just so that I could warn people away without any nagging doubts that it might have gotten better. It doesn’t. It’s awful from the first word to the last. Just a stinking, horrid, festering wad of disgustingness infesting our nation’s libraries and bookstores. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/10 "2013-04-19T15:33:32Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > The _Sleeping Beauty_ trilogy by Anne Rice. Never was sex soooo boring. Maybe she was paid by the word. (She did use a pseudonym.) Annie Couscous? ETA: I’m gonna nominate _Angels and Demons_ by Dan Brown. Even more stupid than _The DaVinci Code_. Which I’ll also nominate, as long as I’m here. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/11 "2013-04-19T15:37:22Z")
Maria V. Snyder’s series about the glass blower. they all have “glass” in the title. The Poison Study series was entertaining if a bit bubblegum-y. The glass series was overwrought, crazily plotted, and ruined completely in the last 30 pages of the last book when the main character made one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen in a novel (well dumbest decision that the reader is supposed to sympathize with and support.) I also have not been able to enjoy any Heinlein book I’ve ever read. I’ve stopped trying. I know there are thousands who disagree with me, though. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/12 "2013-04-19T15:38:15Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > L. Ron Hubbard. I’ve written about this here before, so you can search for earlier times when I had more time to spit the amount vitriol this crap deserves, but his “epic” ten-volume _Mission Earth_ series is far and away the foulest, nastiest, worst-written steaming pile of dung I’ve ever been exposed to. I forced myself to finish it just so that I could warn people away without any nagging doubts that it might have gotten better. It doesn’t. It’s awful from the first word to the last. Just a stinking, horrid, festering wad of disgustingness infesting our nation’s libraries and bookstores. Don’t hold back: tell us how you really feel. 😛 And, for the record, you’re right and I agree. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/13 "2013-04-19T15:39:38Z")
Surely there are _some_ books that Dopers can agree are complete crap. Dan Brown, for example? I read Da Vinci Code when it came out all those years ago to see what all the hoopla was about, and it turned out to be one of two, maybe three books I’ve ever regretted reading, and I read a fair bit. Reasons: [ul] [li]The writing is…clunky - the literary equivalent of trying to shove a bunch of footballs into a sack full of potatoes. You may remember [this](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html) little piece of criticism that made the rounds back in the day.[/li][li]The material itself is lowest common denominator World Conspiracy tropes, poorly imagined, poorly used. The video game [Deus Ex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex) did it a hell of a lot better. As did the graphic novel [Preacher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preacher_(comics)).[/li][li]The writing is just downright ugly, even by airport-lit standards. The Telegraph compiled a delightfully snarky [list](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6194031/The-Lost-Symbol-and-The-Da-Vinci-Code-author-Dan-Browns-20-worst-sentences.html) of his 20 worst sentences, but wade into any of his books and you can easily find more, and worse. [/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/14 "2013-04-19T15:41:31Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Annie Couscous? > > Good one! 😃 > > ETA: I’m gonna nominate _Angels and Demons_ by Dan Brown. Even more stupid than _The DaVinci Code_. > > Which I’ll also nominate, as long as I’m here. I haven’t read _Angels and Demons_, because \*The DaVinci Code \*was the only book I ever read that made me angry at the author. It angers me because I know there are people reading it who will believe every single false fact. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/15 "2013-04-19T15:50:37Z")
> [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](#): > > The writing is just downright ugly, even by airport-lit standards. The Telegraph compiled a delightfully snarky [list](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6194031/The-Lost-Symbol-and-The-Da-Vinci-Code-author-Dan-Browns-20-worst-sentences.html) of his 20 worst sentences, but wade into any of his books and you can easily find more, and worse. God, yes. There was a line where he was practically oozing over the handling of a car as they sped through Paris, leading one to believe it was a fabulous sports car. Nope, he’d given the make and model (of course), and it was some terribly dull Citroen sedan. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/16 "2013-04-19T15:51:09Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > I haven’t read _Angels and Demons_, because \*The DaVinci Code \*was the only book I ever read that made me angry at the author. It angers me because I know there are people reading it who will believe every single false fact. Ugh, don’t get me started. A old friend of mine, a high school history teacher, said that a couple of his students started citing the damned book in his classes. This was back in the days before Wikipedia was a big thing. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/17 "2013-04-19T15:52:44Z")
Thanks for bringing back my repressed memories of _The Da Vinci Code_. The bill for my therapy is on its way. I nominate the _Left Behind_ series. It started off with a semi-interesting premise, and then fell victim to its own delusions of adequacy. The books became more and more shamelessly padded as they progressed, to the point where Armageddon came as a blessed relief. Interspersed were detailed accounts of theological controversies I never knew existed, to the point where the return of the Lord Himself to earth was anti-climatic. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/18 "2013-04-19T15:56:26Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Thanks for bringing back my repressed memories of _The Da Vinci Code_. The bill for my therapy is on its way. > > I nominate the _Left Behind_ series. It started off with a semi-interesting premise, and then fell victim to its own delusions of adequacy. The books became more and more shamelessly padded as they progressed, to the point where Armageddon came as a blessed relief. Interspersed were detailed accounts of theological controversies I never knew existed, to the point where the return of the Lord Himself to earth was anti-climatic. > > Regards, > Shodan I was in an advance Bible study class studying the Book of Revelation fairly analytically. A new student to the class tried to insert something to the discussion that he’d read in the _Left Behind_ series. The majority of the class laughed for about five minutes. The class teacher did talk to the student afterwards to explain we weren’t trying to humiliate him. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/19 "2013-04-19T16:01:14Z")
A “classic” that is just a bad soap opera is _The Law and the Lady_ by Willkie Collins. It’s about a brave woman who is determined to prove that her husband wasn’t just _not guilty_ of killing his first wife, but actually _innocent_. And it’s terrible, unbelievable, and vapid. A little bit of supposed regional-flavor writing that made me grind my teeth was _Big Stone Gap_ by Adriana Trigiani. There are sequels now. The Virginia-isms just felt so forced, the plot was stupid, and she didn’t know a lot of what about she wrote (mines and caves in particular). It makes me angry just remembering it. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132/20 "2013-04-19T16:09:03Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I nominate the _Left Behind_ series. It started off with a semi-interesting premise, and then fell victim to its own delusions of adequacy Yeah that’s a good one. I admit that it is a great premise. Mel Gibson could make an insane-but-interesting movie out of a literal unfolding of the events fundamentalist Christians believe are coming any day. But it’s so bad from the get-go. Chapter One of Book One immediately shows Jenkins failing to do any research or think about ‘real’-feeling characters. So, good choice. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disapprove-of-a-book-list-dont-read-these/656132.md?page=2)