Worst Book Ever

[Fist and Faith]

I thought The Stand, Deadzone, and Firestarter were fantastic. Carrie was very good, but not as good as them. Bag of Bones didn't do anything for me as a story, but, so very unlike michaelm, I really love King's style. For me, it flows like nobody else. So, while Bag was easy to get through, I didn't seem to have anything when I was done. Some short stories were very good, especially Langoliers.

[Avatar]

I liked Cell. There are some I hate though. Bag of Bones is one of them.

--A

[lorin]

I liked Cell.
--A

I like you anyway.

[Avatar]

Thanks Lorin.

--A

[peter]

I just discovered that somebody [name spared to protect against revenge attacks, hate mail etc] gave John Kenedy Toole's "Confederacy of Dunces" a blagging of at the start of this thread [back in 2006]; God I loved that book! Ignatius J Reilly has to be one of the most.......unnacountable of heroes ever created for the main charachter of a book. I went to New-Orleans for no other reason than to be in the places where he carried out his bizzare war against the world. Imagine my joy at discovering a bronze statue of Reilly outside the D H Holmes store [under the clock] in Canal Street, on the very spot where we first meet him on page one of the book, as he waits impatiently for his mother. D H Holmes was still there when I went [pre-Katrina] but is now gone. Hope Reilly is still there.

[Edit; Just checked it out and perhaps D H Evans had already been sold. I'm sure the frontage was still there even if the hotel was opperating inside - and the clock and statue were 100% in place.]

[Vader]

I also hated The Da Vinci Code.

Word.

Any all that Shannara crap.

I also think Don DeLillo is highly overrated. The first chapter of "Falling Man" was great, but that's about it.

[Cagliostro]

I've actually enjoyed quite a bit of Don Delillo, as pretentious as it has become. I loved White Noise, and that baseball book (if I remember correctly named Underground) was particularly enjoyable to me in my immediate post-English Lit graduate days. Which I hail a victory to make me interested in not only a discussion of a sport, but also reading about a sport. Of course there was more going on than that though. To me, he read like a surreal John Irving.

[Vader]

Don't get me started on Irving. I liked Garp (the novel, not so much the movie) but I stopped reading Owen Meany half way through. I keep asking myself how can such a witty book be so boring? I asked myself the same question while reading "The Man Without Qualities" by Robert Musil.

If it comes to novels I could read over and over again I'd have to mention the Irish genius Flann O'Brien.

[aliantha]

I went through a John Irving period. I loved Garp and liked "A Prayer for Owen Meany". I really liked "The Cider House Rules", both the book and the movie. Haven't read anything new by him in quite a while, though.

[sgt.null]

in high school I read Garp and Hotel New Hampshire.

around the same time I read everything Vonnegut had out at that time.

I remember enjoying the latter but damned if I can remember any of it.

[michaelm]

I've actually enjoyed quite a bit of Don Delillo, as pretentious as it has become. I loved White Noise, and that baseball book (if I remember correctly named Underground) was particularly enjoyable to me in my immediate post-English Lit graduate days. Which I hail a victory to make me interested in not only a discussion of a sport, but also reading about a sport. Of course there was more going on than that though. To me, he read like a surreal John Irving.

I think he's a great writer. I don't have a copy of White Noise anymore, but I need to get one. You're right the baseball one is Underworld - I kind of thought he was going for something of a Pynchon vibe with that one.

[Vader]

DeLillo is pretensious,

I like Paul Auster and I absolutely adore the narrative power of W.C. Burroughs. "Cities of the Red Night" is mindblowing. But for me no novel will ever surpass "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien (or the "Dalkey Archive" or "At Swim Two Birds" by the same Irish author). The greatest stuff ever.

[michaelm]

DeLillo is pretensious,

I like Paul Auster and I absolutely adore the narrative power of W.C. Burroughs. "Cities of the Red Night" is mindblowing. But for me no novel will ever surpass "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien (or the "Dalkey Archive" or "At Swim Two Birds" by the same Irish author). The greatest stuff ever.

Maybe he is, but I like his books, or at least the two that I've read.

Burroughs is good too, and I haven't read enough of his works. I've only read Junky and Naked Lunch.

I've always meant to read some O'Brien too, as I'm a big Joyce fan and his works have rarely been mentioned with at least a passing reference to Joyce.

[peter]

Reminds me of the 'Finnegans Wake' study group started by some Joyce fans in New-York. They abandonned it after seven years of twice monthly meetings due to lack of progress. They had reached the bottom of page five.

[michaelm]

Reminds me of the 'Finnegans Wake' study group started by some Joyce fans in New-York. They abandonned it after seven years of twice monthly meetings due to lack of progress. They had reached the bottom of page five.

I have to admit that the first time I read it I found it really hard going, and by the end of it I didn't really know what it was about or what I was supposed to take away from it. The second time I think I had read a lot more literature in between, and I read it much more slowly. I realized that there is a vague thread of a story in there, but that the story or the characters are not what is important. I actually read a lot of the sentences as standalone puns and didn't worry too much about stringing it all together. It's a great book, but takes a lot of effort to actually enjoy it.

[peter]

I intend to read it one day as a meditative tool. ie Just to let the text flow over me and make no attempt at understanding. To treat it rather like an extended koan.

[michaelm]

That's probably a good way to approach it. No one is ever going to force a coherent story out of it, no matter how hard they try.

[Horrim Carabal]

I liked Cell. There are some I hate though. Bag of Bones is one of them.

--A

Bag of Bones was not my cup of tea.

...but you LIKED Cell?!

[Avatar]

Hahaha, yes, I actually did. I like apocalyptic-type stories...you know...end of the world and all that.

As for Wake, it's a big joke. Joyce said himself that people would argue over it for 1,000 years. Smartass.

--A

[peter]

Yes - he did say that, but that does not necessarily mean it has no meaning; just that the meaning is buried deep!