# Worst Book You've Read **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 7, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832 "2000-04-07T21:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/1 "2000-04-07T21:27:00Z")
OK, we’ve talked best book you’ve read…what’s the worst book you have ever read that has come highly recommended. You have to have finished the book for it to count. Mine are the Thomas Covenant books (Stephan R. Donaldson). Kept thinking they’d get better, they were so well recommended by so many people I knew, but it was like hitting my head against a concrete wall. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/2 "2000-04-07T21:37:00Z")
The “Gor” series. I thought it would be similar to ERB’s “John Carter” series. And it did start out not quite so offensively, but then it started changing. It did have some decent story arcs, but the slavery aspect became more and more prevalent until the “stories” just became links between dissertations of the submission and subjugation of women. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/3 "2000-04-07T21:40:00Z")
If you’re talking in relation to how touted they were, I’d have to go with most everything I’ve read by Dean Koontz, and the last 4-5 books by John Grisham. Give me a room full of monkeys any day. * * * I ask not what you can do for me, but what you can do for me right now. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Derfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lord\_Derfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Derfel)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/4 "2000-04-07T21:49:00Z")
One of the few books I’ve ever completely loathed is _Pride and Prejudice_. I found it to be a boring, whiny piece of crap with absolutely no redeeming qualities. Great literary masterpiece my ass. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/5 "2000-04-07T21:50:00Z")
I sure that this won’t be a popular choice, but I hated The Firm. If I wanted to read a screenplay, I would have bought a screenplay. * * * Gee, I don’t think any of us expected him to say that. ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/6 "2000-04-07T21:59:00Z")
I don’t know if this qualifies as a book I’ve read, since I’ve tried to read it six times and I still haven’t finished it, but I’d have to say “Moby Dick”. It just doesn’t work for me. Keith * * * You want brilliance BEFORE I’ve had my coffee!!! ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/7 "2000-04-07T22:00:00Z")
“Message in a Bottle.” I flung (flung?) it across the room when I was done. It proved that 100,000 fans CAN be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/8 "2000-04-07T22:21:00Z")
“Earth” by David Brin. While it had some interesting bits (man-made black holes, 3-D computing, REALLY good internet search engines 🙂 ) it just moved soooooooooooo sloooooooooowly. I had gotten to the point of being able to read no more than 2 pages at a time before I had to put it down. Sheeeez, and I thought Stephen King was wordy! I did finally force myself to finish it, but the ending was NOT worth the effort! ---
**Author:** ![MadPoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MadPoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPoet)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/9 "2000-04-07T22:31:00Z")
## Well, I don’t know about well recommended… but the worst books I’ve ever read were the Mission Earth series by Elron. 10 Books of utter tripe, but I finished the entire thing because it’s all I had with me to read while I was on a trip, and I can’t stop reading a story once I’ve started it. But what a waste of life that was. [http://www.madpoet.com](http://www.madpoet.com) I am human, and I need to be loved Just like anybody else does ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/10 "2000-04-07T22:40:00Z")
Worst book I’ve read? “The Sun Also Rises” Was the most painful book I’ve read. It absolutely sucked. The entire story was one perpetual party across Europe. * * * “Bones, help that man!” – “Damnit Jim, I’m a doctor not a doc…I’ll get right on it.” ---
**Author:** ![Dirty\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Dirty\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dirty_Devil)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/11 "2000-04-07T22:42:00Z")
I read the _Catcher In The Rye_ a few years ago. It sucked so hard I almost didn’t finish it. A complete and total waste of time. I’ve read a couple of Salinger’s other books, and I think they’re just as bad if not worse. He is way, way overrated, IMHO. * * * All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren’t noticing which makes you see something that isn’t even visable. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/12 "2000-04-07T22:45:00Z")
I love literature, but _Silas Marner_ and _The Awakening_ bit. I also hated _Forrest Gump_ which is one of the very few times the movie was better than the book (and in this instance, by a long shot). And being a Stephen King fan, I have to say he really crapped out on _The Tommyknockers_, _The Regulators_ and _Insomnia_. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/13 "2000-04-07T22:58:00Z")
I’ll cast my vote for _Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue_ by Neale Donald Walsch. Turns out God is alive and is a mediocre author! I’m not overly religious, and I found this book blasphemous. In case you don’t know the premise, this guy claims he channels God. What he imagines God to be saying in response to his written questions is _really God talking_, according to him. And – surprise, surprise! – God forgives him for being a deadbeat dad and husband! The guy’s absolutely full of shit, and trying to pull an L. Ron Hubbard and get ridiculously rich off gullible people. * * * “We are here for this – to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out.” Primo Levi ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/14 "2000-04-07T23:05:00Z")
The wheel Of Time series, or The series That Never Fucking Ends. I actually read 4 books in the series (well over 2000 pages) telling myself that it _had_ to go somewhere eventually. It finally did. Straight to my literary shit list. * * * You say “cheesy” like that’s a **BAD** thing. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/15 "2000-04-07T23:08:00Z")
_The Scarlet Letter_ is the worst book I’ve ever been required to read. That whole thing could have been done in 10 pages, tops. Hawthorne had to drag it out into a novel. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/16 "2000-04-08T00:11:00Z")
Bridges of Madison County – phtooey! ---
**Author:** ![Suzeanne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Suzeanne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suzeanne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/17 "2000-04-08T00:12:00Z")
Piers Anthony, Bio of a Space Tyrant. Yuck. I had the entire series. I made it through the first book only by forcing myself, the literary equivalent of staring in horror at a train wreck. I gave the whole series away and spent the next three months trying to forget the entire experience. ---
**Author:** ![SINsApple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SINsApple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SINsApple)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/18 "2000-04-08T00:24:00Z")
I have to disagree with Divemaster, the book Stephen King really crapped out on is “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.” That book is so bad, I have a hard time believing that he even wrote it. It is far and away the least convincing and developed main character I have ever encountered!! I love SK, but I hate that book with my whole heart and soul. I loved Insomnia divemaster, wanna email me and discuss? I would love to hear your opinion if you are a SK fan. * * * Rather, I was in the position of a spore which, having finally accepted its destiny as a fungus, still wonders if it might produce penicillin. –Ayi Kwei Armah ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/19 "2000-04-08T00:41:00Z")
“Number of the Beast” by Heinlein. It had a great premise (multidimensional travel), but as Graham Chapman’s British colonel would say, “No, no, no. Stop the book. Too silly!” * * * Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832/20 "2000-04-08T00:45:00Z")
_Deep End of the Ocean_ by Jaquline Mitchard (sp). Most offensibly implausible book ever, and terribly written. (One major character disappears halfway through the book never to be seen again.) I’d read it on a visit to my parents and left it behind with a warning to my mom: “Be advised – this book sucks.” Sure enough, she read it and bitched me out for leaving it in her house, lol. Michelle Pfeiffer is supposed to star in the movie version (or did it come out already?) I hope they can somehow improve on it. I also agree with _Forrest Gump_ (how did they get the idea for such an interesting movie from THAT?!?!) _Tommyknockers_, and _Catcher in the Rye_ (they banned that? What the hell for?) * * * “That’s impossible! Cartman doesn’t know a rainforest from a Pop-Tart!” “Yes I do! Pop-Tarts are frosted!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-book-youve-read/15832.md?page=2)