Kevin's Watch

Damelon wrote:If I don't like a book I stop reading it. I feel like I'm wasting my time. Probably the book I was farthest along when I did so was Atlas Shrugged.

I had a similar experience with Catch-22. Funny as hell for 10-15 pages, then after reading the same damn joke for the next 30 or so, I had to give it the heave-ho.

The worst book I've ever read is thankfully not translated into English... But if it were it would be called something like "The land of the waterpeople" Augh! Horrible, sexist badly written unimaginative and boooring!

I love the way you just turn up after 8 months and carry on. Welcome back Ermingard.

--A

Queeaqueg said: (some time back)

Plato's Republic... it's like a sleep pill

Wow. I always considered this to be the penultimate argument of good vs. evil. I understand why some might find it boring, but this work changed my life profoundly. I would suggest it to everyone.

Um, worst book ever? The entire His Dark Materials series. The most tragic waste of one of the coolest writing concepts to come along since Melanie Rawn's Dragon Trilogies (which are excellent btw). I loved all the unique elements, which made his horrendous, disjointed garbled nonsense all the more painful. Sorry. I am another one of those guys that finishes every book he starts. So I'm a little bitter about this one. (Three booksin the series, all singularly awful)

On the other hand, I believe this is one of those rare examples of a movie actually improving on a book, and will therefore be seeing it.

Spoiler

Especially to see Metatron.

-B

Thanks fot the welcome. I do read occasionally even if I forget to log on...

On the other hand, I believe this is one of those rare examples of a movie actually improving on a book, and will therefore be seeing it.

Spoiler

Spoiler:
Especially to see Metatron.

Iorek! Byrnison! Iorek! Byrnison! IOREK! BYRNISON!

*ROAR*

[horshack]Ooo-ooooo-oooooh![/horshack] I just remembered the worst book I've ever read:
The Search for Sonny Skies by Mickey Rooney. Let me tell you, it was a crap-fest. I love this comment from a booklist review on amazon:

The plot is ridiculous (Would anyone really care about all this after 50 years?), and the reader risks serious bodily harm from all the dropping names. Rooney should have skipped the last two chapters and the epilogue, which uses the old deus ex machina trick to resolve most of the book's loose ends.

This book was so bad, I couldn't put it down. I actually read it in one sitting. I'm pretty sure that's the only time in my life I've ever done that.

The final chapter was great. Out of nowhere, the main character got a job on the set of a porn movie (I think he was the mop guy), and the final five pages or so of the book was just graphic sex. It was so realistic, that I'm convinced Mickey has done some porn. Awesome!

(Wow, one of the amazon reviews was just added 3 days ago; weird.)

I cant even remember the name of the worst book I ever read... All I do remember is that I struggled for half of it, determined to finish, but I couldn't. It was the first, and only book I never completed.

The "Mission Earth" books by L. Ron Hubbard, which is kinda cheating because there were 10 of them, and yes I read all 10...I have a very annoying habit of finishing things I start to read, no matter how retched. Painful - he should just stick to starting religions.

Zenlunatic wrote:The "Mission Earth" books by L. Ron Hubbard, which is kinda cheating because there were 10 of them, and yes I read all 10...I have a very annoying habit of finishing things I start to read, no matter how retched. Painful - he should just stick to starting religions.

No, no, no, he shouldn't. He should have stuck to writing cheap pulp sci fi and telling people it was cheap pulp sci fi instead of a religion. Heinlein should have won the bet.

Emotional Leper wrote:

Zenlunatic wrote:The "Mission Earth" books by L. Ron Hubbard, which is kinda cheating because there were 10 of them, and yes I read all 10...I have a very annoying habit of finishing things I start to read, no matter how retched. Painful - he should just stick to starting religions.

No, no, no, he shouldn't. He should have stuck to writing cheap pulp sci fi and telling people it was cheap pulp sci fi instead of a religion. Heinlein should have won the bet.

Hard to argue with that...

*shrug* I quite liked the Mission Earth books. They were...different. And at the time, a series of that magnitude was unheard of in the genre.

--A

In Country.

Worst. Book. Evar.

Avatar wrote:*shrug* I quite liked the Mission Earth books. They were...different. And at the time, a series of that magnitude was unheard of in the genre.

--A

Hey, that's just MY OPINION...I didn't like'em you did. Cool!

When I first came upon Battlefield Earth (back in the '80s), I think I was intimidated by the novel's thickness. However, I still thought about reading it...until one fateful evening when I happened to catch a CBC documentary that exposed the Scientology cult. That's when the gig was up and I realized what a creepy croyel L. Ron Hubbard was. Nowadays I wouldn't touch his books with a 10-ft Staff of Law.

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks was probably the worst thing I've ever read, though the 2nd-4th books of the Dragon and the George series by Gordon Dickson were pretty weak, too. And Piers Anthony's Xanth series after book three was a complete waste of paper in my opinion.

My problem is that I don't have enough patience to finish reading bad books. There have been a few that started out weak but somehow I managed to muscle my way through until they became interesting. Dragonflight comes to mind.
I started Sword of Shannara at least three times but the first couple of chapters were such an insulting rip off of Tolkien that at some point I just couldn't stand it any more.

Similar to Tolkein in genre; woefully short of Tolkein in actual ability.

There I edited my post to reflect a more accurate statement.