riocoolnes said:

Dan Brown- Lost symbol.

Brown is very hit or miss for me. He has a new one coming out called Inferno. Maybe I'll get it from the library.

babynoz said:

riocoolnes said:

Dan Brown- Lost symbol.

Brown is very hit or miss for me. He has a new one coming out called Inferno. Maybe I'll get it from the library.

I "liked" The DaVinci Code

I LOVED "Angels & Demons"

I have yet to read "Lost Symbol"

I ordered "Digital Fortress" but it's in a box somewhere...need to remember to try & read it.

PurpleJedi said:

babynoz said:

Brown is very hit or miss for me. He has a new one coming out called Inferno. Maybe I'll get it from the library.

I "liked" The DaVinci Code

I LOVED "Angels & Demons"

I have yet to read "Lost Symbol"

I ordered "Digital Fortress" but it's in a box somewhere...need to remember to try & read it.

Loved the Da Vinci Code, Okay with angels and demons. But then after reading them u realized that if u include the lost symbol they are basically all the same booki kinda.

chocolate1 said:

My cousin fancies herself an author. She is self-published... I think she was going for Urban Drama/Romance...

My big mistake was vowing to support her...

That crap was rife with typos, grammatical errors, and things that just didn't make sense.

She used real names & places- we're from a small town!

I actually read three books from the series before I decided that I done my familial duty...

I was embarrassed that she calls herself an "author".

She had a signing/reading for the 6th book recently. I couldn't even "like" the pix on FB...

I love my cousin, but, DAMN!

*checked the bookshelf... only 3*

[Edited 2/9/13 6:41am]

My cousin is getting her trilogy book series published this year. But through a publisher and it will be available in all book stores in the USA. I'm not certain on the roll out for the rest of the world.

I have not read any of them.

I wanted to read Vanity's book, but I hear it was pure poetry and that it would bring tears to my eyes.

imago said:

Same here! I was ticked at how awful it was. Walk in the fog...walk in the fog...walk in the fog...the world is saved.

PurpleJedi said:

There was a book that I was forced to read in High School. It was Russian I think (Not "Crime & Punishment")...it may have been "War and Peace" by Tolsty.

Well, for whatever reason I could NOT get past the first chapter!

I am a good reader, love complicated Sci-Fi, and I even read through the World Atlas books they had in the library in H.S.

But that damn book I could not process.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment)...that was a good one.

I tried to get into The Brothers Karamazov but failed....I may try again one day.

PurpleJedi said:

babynoz said:

Brown is very hit or miss for me. He has a new one coming out called Inferno. Maybe I'll get it from the library.

I "liked" The DaVinci Code

I LOVED "Angels & Demons"

I have yet to read "Lost Symbol"

I ordered "Digital Fortress" but it's in a box somewhere...need to remember to try & read it.

Both were good but I liked Angels and Demons better than The DaVinci Code too.

The Lost Symbol, not so much.

kewlschool said:

I wanted to read Vanity's book, but I hear it was pure poetry and that it would bring tears to my eyes.

Her misuse of vocabulary words is hilarious!!

It reminds me of some of the essay papers I get form students who obviously are writing in their native languages, but using some kind of translator to produce the English versions they submit to me.

Sentences like "I want to dominate the English" are common.

Nothinbutjoy said:

imago said:

?

There are so many, I don't even know where to begin.

First, the sequel to Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz: Forever Odd

Where the first book was just brilliant, this one was tedius. I'm not sure why.

And unfortunately, Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood" bored me to tears,

where I absolutely love his other works, especially Kafka on the Shore.

Same here! I was ticked at how awful it was. Walk in the fog...walk in the fog...walk in the fog...the world is saved.

I gave up on Koontz years ago...my favorite book by him is Midnight.

Another one that surprised me how bad it was:

Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. He had written several brilliant books in the series:

Enders Game : Brilliant

Speaker for the Dead: Brillant x 2

Xenocide: Really good

then, he ended the series with the lackluster Children of the Mind.

Ender (the protagonist in the first book) spends most of his time in a bed in this one.

I found it depressing.

I will say I was amazed at how much I did not like "Wicked".

Nothinbutjoy said:

I will say I was amazed at how much I did not like "Wicked".

Well, this post ^^ should be nominated in my other 'worst' thread.

imago said:

* *

I'm on a roll!

i've tried, tried, tried and tried to read a Jane Austen novel...but goddamn, i am not ment to read her work, she's boring, its like reading the booklet to getting a car license.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

I tried. I hated it.

I keep saying I'll try to reread it as an adult...

My classroon-mate uses it with her 4th-period AP class.

I feel sorry for those kids.

[img:$uid]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Twilightbook.jpg/250px-Twilightbook.jpg[/img:$uid]

my experience with twilight started with the first movie. a friend dragged me to opening weekend of the first movie. after sitting through it, i really couldnt understand the fuss. i found it to be very silly and poorly written. being as the books had started it all, i thought "well the movie must have been a bad adaptation, the book must be better."

oh, what a fool i was. i bought the first book, and read it only to discover the movie is actually better.

when the second movie opened i thought "well, maybe it was just the first book was bad and they get better in the second", so i bought a ticket.

halfway through the second movie i just left, and never returned to any of the books or movies.

[img:$uid]http://worldsstrongestlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/hannibal-186x300.jpg[/img:$uid]

i loved silence of the lambs the movie, so i read the book.

i loved silence as a book so much i read "red dragon' and then watched the first movie version.

and when thomas harris announced the third book in the hannibal series and the return of clarice starling, i got waaaay excited. i pre-ordered a copy and picked it up the day of release.

and i hated it so much that i will never read another thomas harris book again. jesus, what a shit show... the book is so over the top, it should come with a warning label. lecter has gone from a supporting character (as he should always be) to the lead... and youre expected to believe him as a sympathetic lead. the characters are like the kind of slimy stereotype cartoons you would see in a ralph bashki movie. and worst of all; he completely betrays clarice (who was once an icon of a strong feminist woman) with a bullshit anti-feminist ending that no one in their right mind would believe.

when i was finished with the novel i was so pissed i threw it across the room and vowed i would never read harris again.

and i didnt. i never bothered to read or see the fourth book/movie in the series "hannibal rising" and a lot of people didnt either.

he ruined the franchise and characters with this one.

ugh...

[Edited 2/10/13 6:14am]

riocoolnes said:

Dan Brown- Lost symbol.

That book was really disappointing for some reason. I've read all of DB's others and enjoyed them, even though they were all ridiculous at times, and virtually all the same story told and retold again.

[Edited 2/10/13 16:13pm]

Vanity's book was almost impossible to read for any length of time. What with the font and the colored print on black paper, just too much.

One lauded author I just cannot get into is Toni Morrison. I was discussing her books with a friend, and she said, "Shit. Toni Morrison on drugs."

novabrkr said:

Isn't most fiction pretty bad in any case?

I just read philosophy / psychology / other theory books (+ autobiographies), so I can't really say which ones are the "worst". There have been some philosophers and other theorists that have been just plain confused with their argumentation, but I'm not sure if that always results in bad literature. A little bit of "high headedness" usually just makes the books more entertaining. Most film theory books that i've read have been horrible though.

Short answer... no.

chocolate1 said:

Ottensen said:

Chocolate, no!

It was a Hot Mess!

Then she had the nerve to thank the people who acted as editors...
I don't know any of the illiterate people she listed.

Now that's even worse. She sought "illiterate" editors? I guess she didn't have the funds for a professional. Why didn't you offer to edit it for her, especially if it was wrought with typos and grammatical errors?

I love editing, but when a writer is just incompetent and ignorantly, I try to gently steer them in another direction. While I was employed in the dean's office of a major university, I was often asked to edit reports, letters, etc. One day I received a draft of a grant a tenured professor submitted for approval. At the time, I didn't know who had submitted it. After reading/editing the first paragraph, I asked the dean, "Who wrote this? Is this a paper one of your grandchildren wrote for a class?' She just shook her head in disgust and told me to do the best I could. But I tell you, I could not believe the woman who wrote it had achieved full tenured professorship. She wrote on a 6th grade level!

Shyra said:

chocolate1 said:

It was a Hot Mess!

Then she had the nerve to thank the people who acted as editors...
I don't know any of the illiterate people she listed.

Now that's even worse. She sought "illiterate" editors? I guess she didn't have the funds for a professional. Why didn't you offer to edit it for her, especially if it was wrought with typos and grammatical errors?

I love editing, but when a writer is just incompetent and ignorantly, I try to gently steer them in another direction. While I was employed in the dean's office of a major university, I was often asked to edit reports, letters, etc. One day I received a draft of a grant a tenured professor submitted for approval. At the time, I didn't know who had submitted it. After reading/editing the first paragraph, I asked the dean, "Who wrote this? Is this a paper one of your grandchildren wrote for a class?' She just shook her head in disgust and told me to do the best I could. But I tell you, I could not believe the woman who wrote it had achieved full tenured professorship. She wrote on a 6th grade level!

One day, I saw on her FB page that she had written a couple of books, so I wanted to support her... little did I know...

I don't know if they are really illiterate, but I wonder how her friends thought that crap was okay...

(to/too, there/their/they're... words spelled wrong...)

I would have gladly helped her.

Shyra said:

Vanity's book was almost impossible to read for any length of time. What with the font and the colored print on black paper, just too much.

One lauded author I just cannot get into is Toni Morrison. I was discussing her books with a friend, and she said, "Shit. Toni Morrison on drugs."

I read beloved , that was good and vanity's book at a friend's place I didn't care much for it..

jone70 said:

Atonement - Ian McEwan

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

I found all of them very slow moving and boring. Also not a big fan of Faulkner or Steinbeck. I used to feel similarly about Hemingway (hated The Old Man & the Sea and A Farewell to Arms), but I recently read The Sun Also Rises and really enjoyed it so I am going to read A Moveable Feast next and see how that goes.

OMG - I tried to read that once. I now call it "One Hundred Years to Read the First Chapter."

I loved Little Women - but I read it when I was 9. (I still have my hardcover copy, in fact.)

Rococo said:

i've tried, tried, tried and tried to read a Jane Austen novel...but goddamn, i am not ment to read her work, she's boring, its like reading the booklet to getting a car license.

Jane Austen is hilarious! Same with George Eliot.

Genesia said:

Rococo said:

i've tried, tried, tried and tried to read a Jane Austen novel...but goddamn, i am not ment to read her work, she's boring, its like reading the booklet to getting a car license.

Jane Austen is hilarious! Same with George Eliot.

I can't read Jane Austin either though.

I mean, it's really tough when you get back from a long day of huntin' and fishin, and working out in the shed building things, to have to sit down and read something like Jane Austin.

imago said:

Genesia said:

Jane Austen is hilarious! Same with George Eliot.

I can't read Jane Austin either though.

I mean, it's really tough when you get back from a long day of huntin' and fishin, and working out in the shed building things, to have to sit down and read something like Jane Austin.

You have never built a damn thing in your life. I imagine you've sewn a few though.

SimpleSoul said:

Shyra said:

Vanity's book was almost impossible to read for any length of time. What with the font and the colored print on black paper, just too much.

One lauded author I just cannot get into is Toni Morrison. I was discussing her books with a friend, and she said, "Shit. Toni Morrison on drugs."

I read beloved , that was good and vanity's book at a friend's place I didn't care much for it..

That's the one with which I had the most problem!

Shyra said:

Vanity's book was almost impossible to read for any length of time. What with the font and the colored print on black paper, just too much.

One lauded author I just cannot get into is Toni Morrison. I was discussing her books with a friend, and she said, "Shit. Toni Morrison on drugs."

I used to tell my mother to read her books and let me know what the story was about,