What is everyone's least favorite book? Please, try not to put ones you were forced to read for school. I want ones you read for your own pleasure and found none. Mine would be:

Eragon- wanted to slap the main character. I've never hated a fictional person more. Not to mention the plot felt cluttered and dull.

Please, Stop Laughing at Me- supposidly it was a true story too. The main character got teased a lot and didn't fit in. It was your own fault girl! Not to mention she had some kind of breast deformalty and would take her shirt off for anyone who wanted to see. All I could think was, what a bimbo.

I know What You Did Last Summer- irritating characters, hard to get into, cluttered, and overall unenjoyable.

There are others, too, but most of them I never finished. Anyone else have any to share?

Danse Macabre by Laurel K. Hamilton. I loved the early books in the Anita Blake series, but as they became increasingly pornographic, I lost interest. I got a quarter of the way into DM and realized that the exposition on said topics just wasn't going to stop or get interesting. I flipped thorough the rest of the book, saw an explict intimate encounter on every page I glanced at, and donated the book to the library.

I am hardly a prude - I've published erotic poetry - but this was ridiculous!

The Shell Seekers. I was told it was really good, they could not put it down, it was a must read.

But I could not get into it at all, I kept waiting for the good parts to start. When that happens sometimes I will read the book again to see if my first impression was correct, but I have not felt like doing that with this book.

Another book I read was the start of a series and I did not realize that fact. It was getting to the final pages and the plot was not wrapping up and it hit me, it's going toward a "to be continued" ending. It went on for 4-5 books before I finally found out how it all ended, and then it did not end well. I can't remember the names of the books right now, but it was about a family of daughters of an unpleasant man. WWII was starting and they were all separated, one in Russia, one in the Philipines, one in CA. It sounded really good, but ended up being just ok.

I found that with the Anita Blake books Stu, up until Narcissus in Chains they were good thrillers, but gradually the sex crept in more and more until it just took over and by Danse Macabre there was no story left. If I wanted porn I'd read a Black Lace or similar!
I did buy the next AB ones and they are very gradually getting some story back, but they are nowhere near what they were. The last one did set up some story lines though so I have hopes the next one will be better - if it isn't I may well give up and I have never done that so far into a series before.

There are only two books I haven't enjoyed reading.

1) 'Far From the Madding Crowd', by Thomas Hardy.

I am not going to say anymore than I found it hideously dull, boring and ordinary. Any Hardy fans out there?

2) Anything by WILBUR SMITH - oh dear me - they are even worse than Hardy's books.

Jon

Cosmic Banditos by Allan Weisbecker.

While In Search of Captain Zero was somewhat laugh-inducing, Banditos was a pile of pretentious crap. Never seen a writer talk down to his readers in such a way. I lost a LOT of respect for that author because of that book.

The worst book I ever read was called Oceana Fine, and it was so bad i can't even remember the author !
I bought it because it was set in West Australia and i knew the area it was set in, but what started off as a detective style story rapidly degenerated into a confused mix of witchcraft, satanism and incest.
I very rarely destroy books, but i threw that one into the bin.

Definitely "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy; I must have started reading that book half a dozen times, but the furthest I've ever got with it has been the Battle of Borodino.

I know that's not all that far from the end, but I just couldn't go on!

Jonnowales, I totally agree with you about Wilbur Smith books, I know people that love them, but I have never got further than three chapters of any of them.However I totally DISagree with you about Hardy. Maybe you will like some of the others more. My favourite is Tess of the Durbeyvilles, but have enjoyed his others many times. The trials and tribulations and comic adventures of the village people are very real to me.

I read so many books that it's hard to keep up so I'll just go with least favorite book that I read in 2008. "Mabon Celebrating The Autumn Equinox" by Kristin Madden should have been titled A History of Thanksgiving. It had nothing to do with Mabon. I was so disappointed!

Hey, i posted a topic on this a couple days ago, book you hated.

Yes, AFLrover, but this thread has been here since September, 2007.

Thanks Clara Sue. I have pointed out before, there are often threads that your post will add to, without starting a new one. Please check back. Thanks.

A former coworker recommended the book Violets are Blue by James Patterson to me a few months back. I had never read anything by that author so I figured what the heck. Now, the story flowed and it wasn't dull in the slightest but it was extremely predictable. Figured out who the "Mastermind" was in just a handful of chapters. Wasn't really that hard to predict either. Still was an OK read but that took a lot of the luster out of what should have been mildly suspenseful.

Oh well. Will always be other books!

James Patterson is just one more in the long long list of authors who achieve blockbuster bestsellerdom based on - shall we say - modest writing skill. Not bad, exactly, in fact perfectly adequate. But why oh why is he a millionaire when other, much better, writers, struggle to get published?

I think the blandness and predictability that I find detracts from this type of author must be exactly what the broader reading public is after - it's kinda the literary equivalent of Campbells mushroom soup. It's not good, but it's not bad either, and you always know what you are getting....

True that. Or like a Kinkade painting.

I know this isn't supposed to relate to books necessary for school but Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis was the rock-bottom worst. Nothing happened! I had to switch to the Cliff Notes and THEY put me to sleep. It is beyond my comprehension how that could be considered a classic. I am still scarred as a result - I should sue his estate because I developed narcolepsy from it.

Ok some these 2 are one's I read for school but I was not forced we got to choose. We had to read something by one of the same authors of the books we were studying in Literature.

1. Emma by Jane Austen - didn't get past the first few chapters.
2. Portrait of Dorian Gray - I finished it but didn't really like it. It didn't live up to the plays that were written by the same person.

Others I haven't really got into are Great Expectations, Jane Eyre - I heard a documentary while I was reading it and it ruined it for me.

Worst books, worst books... Well, I've read a total of one "romance" novel, as in the bodice ripper type, in my entire life. It was really, really horrible in a formulaic kind of way. I swear the author had a list of about 10 synonyms for the male genitalia, and she used them in rotation. Unfortunately, she needed about two a page, and they got pretty tired by the end.

Next on the list is the one and only book by Dean Koontz that I've ever tried to read. I couldn't even get two chapters in. I think it was called Dragon Tears. My husband has a few Koontz books lying around, and I was on a quest to read everything I had in the house before getting anything new. I've officially exempted myself from Koontz.

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King. Good King: Christine. King so bad it's good again, if only for the kitsch factor: It. The Tommyknockers was just plain bad, though.

I have an antique book by James F. Cooper called The Two Admirals, and I really enjoyed it. I thought, "Gosh, I should read Last of the Mohicans. I own it, and haven't ever read it. I liked the movie, after all..." Boy, what a mistake that was. I've read some reviews, and it just might be that The Two Admirals is the only actually good Cooper book out there.

But see, my least favorite book of all time doesn't technically fit this list, because I DID have to read it for school. However, I hated it so much that I have to mention it. That would be The Grapes of Wrath. I know all about how historical it is, and blah blah. But it was a B-A-D book. All the way unenjoyable. I can't even think of enough words to describe how little I liked it.

I read "Watchers" and "Whispers" by Koontz years ago - I thorougly enjoyed them.

I've read a few more over the years but they are terribly formulaic - two lonely people, at least one with a terrible childhood, a wonderful dog, possibly someone with a mental handicap, a large unstoppable force....
it's as if he works from a checklist.

I can't say I've ever really hated a book, which is why I'm posting here instead of the other thread. Been frustrated, depressed, and confused, sure.

There is one I've started several times, and been unable to finish. It just gets too weird. And turgid.
This would be Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I do hate this book.
I liked his Wolfling well enough, making allowances for the times in which it was written.

Emma by Jane Austen. I enjoy classic novels but this one was mind-numbingly tedious. I found the character of Emma extremely dull and I just wanted to wring Emily's neck while yelling "Get a grip!"

I know this is a comedy of manners,but evidently in Miss Austen's world, good manners meant never doing or saying anything of interest least you offend someone. Most of Austen's work I find a little too tame, but "Emma" made me want to tear out my hair.

I like Austen's contemporaries; Eliot, Dumas, the Brontes, but Jane is definitely soporific. Maybe I should find the old film version starring Marie Dressler. I don't think she could put anyone to sleep.

Another great hate was Jaqueline Susann's reprehensible scribblings "Valley of the Dolls". I refuse to call this disjointed garbage a novel. At one time, this mess of words was outselling the Bible! I can only surmise there was a world-wide toilet paper shortage. At least the film version is loaded with unintentional humour and the worst acting of the 20th Century.

I've had a very hard time getting into "Joseph Andrews" by Fielding, though I will finish it one day. I also never could finish "Treasure Island."

I am about to die of shock, though, at finding "Far From the Madding Crowd" and "Emma" at the top of others' lists.

Oh, well...

"Scarlett' is without a doubt the worst book I have ever read all the way through. Perhaps if it stood alone it would be okay, but as a sequel to "Gone With The Wind" it just didn't make it.