# Worst Good Book You Have Ever Read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163 "2004-03-24T18:29:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![TheSundanceKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@TheSundanceKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSundanceKid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/61 "2004-03-25T03:08:03Z")
I’m surprised that it took so long for the Great Gatsby to make it onto here. I hated almost every character in that book. I did, however, love Their Eyes Were Watching God. Sue me. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/62 "2004-03-25T03:17:44Z")
Great Expectations Romeo and Juliet - I’m sorry, I’m not one for iambic pentameter and that plot is trite, imho The Count of Monte Cristo was good for the first 200 pages or so, but it just dragged on and on after that… ---
**Author:** ![Beauty\_Personified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Beauty\_Personified](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beauty_Personified)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/63 "2004-03-25T03:22:59Z")
Worst “Good Book”? The King James version? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/64 "2004-03-25T03:24:54Z")
This thread has gone two pages and no one has mentioned any of J F Cooper’s awful _Leatherstocking Tales_? We had to read two of them as a H.S. sophomore, and then write a paper comparing how dreadful _The Last of the Mohicans_ and _The Deerslayer_ were. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/65 "2004-03-25T03:27:36Z")
I’d like to redub this thread “I Hate The Classics” or “How My 8th Grade Teacher Traumatized Me.” Me, I hated Ayn Rand’s _Anthem_ with the white hot passion of a thousand burning suns. As a result, I have developed an aversion to her so strong that I cannot bring myself to open any of her other books. No great loss, IMO. > [@HumptysHamhole](#): > > I agree that if the writer can not communicate with the audience then the book as a work of art suffers. They say not to read books like “Finnegan’s Wake” and “Absolam, Absolam” unless you are prepared to make sevral readings over several years. What good is the book then? First of all, it’s _Absalom, Absalom!_ and titles of books are not put in quotes. Second of all, I don’t agree that everyone needs to read these books over and over to get them. Faulkner, like so many authors mentioned on this thread, is an acquired taste. You don’t like him? Fine. That in and of itself doesn’t make him (or any of the other greats) a bad writer. There is value in making a distinction between your taste and what is good literature. Keep that in mind. > [@](#): > > If the book is too complicated to understand then the writer is at fault… > So much hatred for Dickens – I love every single thing he wrote. I think part of the problem is forcing kids to read books in High School before they are mature enough to appreciate the books. I didn’t like Great Expectations in high school either. This is a good point: high school kids aren’t genernally asked to do advanced calculus, so why force them to read _Absalom, Absalom!_ before they’re able to comprehend it? That only alienate them from something they might enjoy when they’re a bit older. I cannot see making high school kids read much Faulkner, with the exception of a few short stories like “A Rose for Emily” and “Barn Burning.” Funny that you can say this about your guy Dickens but not for Faulkner, who you didn’t get. Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/66 "2004-03-25T03:30:51Z")
> [@TheSundanceKid](#): > > I’m surprised that it took so long for the Great Gatsby to make it onto here. I hated almost every character in that book. The book was boring and dull, but I didn’t despise it. I despised the three classes afterwards, where the professor insisted Gatsby was gay because he wore a pink suit… And I hated _Last of the Mohicans_, too, even worse cause we had to watch the _dreadful_ Daniel Day Lewis movie, too. One of the few times everyone in class complained about watching a movie. It was almost worth suffering through that dreck to be able to enjoy Twain’s _Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper_. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/67 "2004-03-25T03:36:43Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > First of all, it’s _Absalom, Absalom!_ and titles of books are not put in quotes. Oh god. Not _Absalom, Absalom!_. There were only two books that were required reading in my schooling that I didn’t read. _AA_ was the first. _Orlando_ by Virginia Woolf was the second. Yeurrch. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/68 "2004-03-25T03:38:14Z")
Being a long time sci-fi reader and having read and enjoy most sci-fi classics, the one I have never liked is **Dune**. (I know I’m risking a pitting for this) It seems like it would make a good 200 page book but it’s stretched out into 500 pages. ---
**Author:** ![NightRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/69 "2004-03-25T03:40:39Z")
oh guys, no, not Great Gatsby… But then again, I hated it the first time I read it, too. I think I had to be a little older to really appreciate it… But my contribution has got to be **Woman in White** or **Billy Budd**. Horrible, horrible, one sentence into Billy Budd I was ready to carve out my eyes… it’s the reason I’ve never attempted Moby Dick. ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/70 "2004-03-25T03:59:36Z")
“Wuthering Heights,” hands down. The style is atrocious, the plot is beyond tedious. Nostradamus probably vomited when he foresaw this aberration. Honorable mentions: “The Scarlet Letter” - mentioned above. “A Tale of Two Cities” is awful, but at least one gets the satisfaction of having one of the characters decapitated in the end. “Dune Messiah” sucked like a former White House intern. If the first one was too damn long, this one was mercifully shorter - but had no redeeming qualities (or plot, for that matter). I read this one of my own free will. God help me. (The third is better, but not worth reading either.) ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/71 "2004-03-25T04:06:01Z")
Does nobody else who sees this sort of thread immediately think of Don DeLillo? I had to read _Ratner’s Star_ is a sociology class my junior year of college. I pointed out that it was an incoherent, meaningless mess written by an author who is so obsessed with his own supposed cleverness that he can no longer be bothered to produce any sort of plot or characters to speak of, and that if I never heard one of his cringe-inducing jokes about adolescent horniness again it would be too soon. The professor responded that I was projecting my own flaws onto the book. Among popular literature, I don’t see why Isaac Asimov has such a large following. Some creativity, yes, but as a novelist he’s strictly mediocre. Also, _Rendezvous with Rama_ by Arthur C. Clarke is flat-out bad. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/72 "2004-03-25T04:33:40Z")
Henry Miller’s _Tropic of Cancer_. Lord, did I hate that book. I asked a friend of my sister’s with a Ph.D in Literature if, since I understood the importance of the work itself, I was allowed to HATE the book. She said yes. _Phew._ Another one is _The Witches of Eastwick_ by John Updike. Suck, suck, suck. Like a Hoover. I enjoyed _Silas Marner_. I think I’m a mutant. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/73 "2004-03-25T04:51:49Z")
> [@Paladud](#): > > “Wuthering Heights,” hands down. The style is atrocious, the plot is beyond tedious. Nostradamus probably vomited when he foresaw this aberration. I really tried to read this book–mostly because my sister had, and out of pure perverseness, I wanted to see if it was as bad as she claimed. I spent most of my time flipping to the back of the book where they had a translation of obscure phrases, just so I could know what the hell everyone was talking about. I didn’t get too far, needless to say, before I agreed that this book sucked majorly. And I never finished it. What my sister said she hated most about it was how Heathcliff and Catherine are always made out to be these tragic lovers, when in fact, Heathcliff was a _ **major** _ asshole, and Catherine a silly spoiled little bitch! ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/74 "2004-03-25T05:03:04Z")
I recently gritted by teeth and pushed myself through Starship Troopers. Classic my ass. ---
**Author:** ![FyreFiend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/919ad9/32.png) [@FyreFiend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FyreFiend)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/75 "2004-03-25T05:49:35Z")
I have to throw my vote in with **A Tale of Two Cities**. I’ve tried 3 times to read it and failed each time. I liked **Dune**. The later books went from bad to painful rather quickly though. I loved **Starship Troopers** but to each their own. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/76 "2004-03-25T06:44:01Z")
**Return of the Native** bored me to tears. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/77 "2004-03-25T11:17:36Z")
Even since high school and no matter how many re-reads I’ve tried, I _still_ can’t make it more than one-quarter of the way through **Dune** , which is quite sad because I really want to get the humor in the Harvard Lampoon parody **Doon**. ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/47e85d/32.png) [@Nathan\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nathan_S)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/78 "2004-03-25T12:00:55Z")
Here are just a few of the “good” books which I have found to be practically unreadable: **The God of Small Things** , by Arundhati Roy **Interview With a Vampire** , by Anne Rice Pretty much anything written by **Joseph Conrad**. ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/79 "2004-03-25T12:11:40Z")
While certainly not a “classic”, Norman Mailer’s _ **The Executioner’s Song** _ won a freakin’ Pulitzer!! What a piece of shit. In fact, everything by Mailer is a piece of shit. He drones on and on and freakin’ on about the most mundane, pointless, miniscule trivia of the guy’s life. How he got out of bed, scratched his ass, farted, went to the bathroom, which teeth he brushed in which order, who he saw, talked to, what they said, blah blah blah. All without a point or any relationship to the story. Who the fuck cares what he and the mailman talked about? A pointless crapfest. Shampoo directions are facinating by comparison. Did I say it was pointless? It was. Pointless. ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163/80 "2004-03-25T12:17:06Z")
Oh yeah, **Mayflower** > [@](#): > > …how Heathcliff and Catherine are always made out to be these tragic lovers, when in fact, Heathcliff was a major asshole, and Catherine a silly spoiled little bitch! This is exactly what I thought about this borefest. I wanted the two of them bazooka’d after about a minute. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-good-book-you-have-ever-read/236163.md?page=5)