Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. It's bad to the point of parody.
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. It's bad to the point of parody.
"Yes, I was never silent, whatever I said I was never silent" Samuel Beckett Molloy
Well, The most boring book that I couldn't complete is Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
I don't know the reason, I was reading it in order to improve my English, I couldn't complete it though. Maybe because it's about a group of kids, or maybe it's meant to be for children. I don't know. *shrugs*
I think we can all concur that the Twilight series was a disgrace to literature.
Be who you are and say what you mean, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
~Dr. Seuss
Imaginarium, did you catch any of the online backlash when Stephen King dared to say that Stephanie Meyers is a bad writer? The hell storm was so amusing to see. I was already a SK fan but I would like to buy him dinner for that.
I'm really happy to hear this of someone, at last!I think we can all concur that the Twilight series was a disgrace to literature.
I always hated Twilight and really didn't get why it's compared to Harry Potter worldwide sucessfull books. I am a fan of HP, and couldn't go through Twilight without rolling with laghter when Edward glittered
Anyways, Twilight is a romance story with a too simple plot I waited for some actions to be done but alas it all ends up well at the end of each chapter.
Let fans of Twilight forgive me, but I truly can't digest this series.
Twlight! This series made me truly nauseated, someone should tell Meyer to never ever ever write a book again.
I took it as us not even gracing Twilight with the honors of being considered a book.
When I've read all the books in the world I'll get back to you on this...
I can't be sure of the worst books, but I can say some of their characteristics.
I think it's time for a...
The mediocre author always overdescribes conversations. Exhibit A:
"Well, I'd better be going now," said Randall nervously as he took a glance over his shoulder.
"Oh no, you mustn't leave," said Mrs. Connors warmly with a twinkly in her eye as she set a plate of scones down on the table. "You simply must stay for tea!"
"No, I really have got to go," said Randall, turning pale.
"Oh I insist," said Mrs. Connors with a flick of the wrist. "You wouldn't turn down my hospitality," she asked curtly.
What the author really wants to write here is a movie screenplay, not a book, because movies are good at showing things (like flicks of the wrist and glancing over the shoulder) while books are good at telling things. Of course, the author absolutely HAD to include that "flick of the wrist": it was part of the intrinsic essence of the story.
The mediocre author also makes the mortal mistake of describing emotions. Exhibit B:
Her heart sank. The whole world felt like a whirl and all her love seemed to seep out like water down a sink drain. All she felt was her extreme nothingness and a desire to change things. There was a pain in her heart, and it was almost unbearable.
This author does not understand that it is futile to use words to describe emotions; rather, you must use words to convey emotion.
The mediocre author dutifully uses as many literary cliches as possible, such as...
1. When a girl is nervous, she bites her lip.
2. When a boy blushes, his face "turns bright red"; but when a girl blushes "all the blood rushes to her face."
3. Every benevolent grandfather has a twinkle in his eye.
4. If you hear a "cry" that scares you, it is always "blood curdling"; but, if you are scared and let out a "cry" it is never "blood curdling"; if anything, it is "piercing."
5. When a character is scared, they turn pale; this holds regardless of skin color or tan.
6. If a young man is handsome, his eyes are always "dark."
7. You may use a thesaurus. But NEVER, under ANY circumstances, are you to use it to find a synonym for the word "beautiful."
8. Descriptions of scenery must be made as long and excruciatingly detailed as possible.
9. If machine-guns are involved (they usually aren't) their sound must be described as "incessant" and as a "rattle."
10. When a boy and girl first meet, it is imperative that this first meeting be as awkward and "embarrassing" as possible, with much "face turning bright red" and "all the blood rushing to her cheeks."
The mediocre author may also fall into the following traps:
1. Insert lots of foreign-language sentences and phrases. This has the advantage of demonstrating how smart the author is.
2. All characters must talk and think exactly like the author.
Finally, the mediocre author adheres to this motto religiously: leave no noun unmodified; and may no verb suffer the loneliness of not having an adverb as companion.
Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any. — Mark Twain
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for, I have no idea. — W.H. Auden
What are pershap the worst books of all time? I disallow mainstream popular fiction because its too easy and mainstream novels tend to be mediocre at worst. The true **** tends to deservedly obscure.
I say one of the worst books of all time is Rah and the muggles.
I think it may come down to perspective, I know a couple of people that love my nomination, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard (give a crazy woman a pen after getting her high on every drug known to man and you might come close to the terrible ramblingness).
life philosophy: "if one wants to succeed, they must become independent, if one wants to be independent, one must strive past the dificulties, using them to shape future desicions, like a sword being folded, every fold is a hardship overcome, and every fold removes one more imperfection that would destroy the completed version"
# of 1st Dans, Black Belts achieved- 2 (1 Hapkido, Sun Moo Kwan), (1 Tae Kwon Do)
One of the books that I had to struggle to finish was Emma, by Jane Austin. I know it's considered to be one of her best, but it didn't keep me interested long enough. It took me six months to finish the book () and that only because I felt I HAD to finish it!!!
ok, well it was kinda semi, not really mainstream... but
Cirque du freak series was the worst i have EVER read. and thats a considerable amount.
*and the expression is mediocre at BEST. you basically said that mainstream books are actually good and that the Worst one is mediocre
Last edited by tiredstudent; 05-29-2010 at 07:34 PM.
I meant what I say. At best mainstream ficiton is pretty good, the most are average, and the rest is mediocre. The truly bad stuff is just obscure. Being mainstream is neither a a measure of mediocrity. Jk rowling and stephen king for master writers, nor either are they mediocre.Originally Posted by tiredstudent
Alright people!
It's easy to talk about what books you love and what excites you and makes you bubble with happiness.
But what books have you read and been seriously dissapointed with. What books have you stopped reading halfway because the plot lines or language or whatever have bored you.
This is not a place, I repeat, this is not a place for you to slag off books and just call them rubbish. We need reasons people! Was it the narrative? the realistic quality of the book? The characters? The writing? the list is endless.
Personally i find that talking about books that you dont like can be more interesting than waffling on about great ones. Especially if someone disagrees!
So whether its a Meyer vampire volume or a Chekov classic lets get them red pens out and make constructive criticsm.
(sorry for bad spelling)
Personally for me it is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
The plot line = Fantastic
The Language = Fantastic
The Characters = Too Many
Although I'm a sucker for a non linear narrative this was too much for me. The amount of jumping between characters and what they were doing confused me and caused a lot of flicking through the novel to remember. Also being a book of 1000 pages it meant a lot of flicking especially to where the footnotes where. I felt as i was reading a make your own horror story goosebumps book like i did as a child.
I'm annoyed at myself for not finishing it as im sure the characters would of blended into one anothers narratives. However, at the time I was so confused and could only have the book out for 3 weeks so I had to stop.
One day I will return to it anad power through.
The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The only reason why I did not throw the book against the wall mid-way through, and than maybe use it to start a bonfire and dance around it (Ok that last part may be a slight exaggeration) was because I was reading it for an online discussion group so I pushed myself through it to the end.
One of the biggest problems is the fact that I don't do romance, but I had been led to believe by others that the book was more than just a romance, and was a really good Historical Fiction which is one of my favorite genres, so I decided to give it a chance, and found it to be just awful.
For one thing through the entire book I wanted someone to push the narrator off the side of a cliff because I found her unbearable, she was the most useless and incomptant heroine ever.
The writing was bad, the character development was lacking for me, and there is one section of the book in which there is literally like 5 chapters of sex, and I am no prude, but it did nothing to enhance the story, it was just there to wave sex in front of the reader like a shiny object, in addition the book was already longer than it needed to be, so I began to just skip over those parts because they were irrelevant, and not reading them made the book a whole lot shorter.
Last edited by Dark Muse; 10-17-2010 at 03:25 PM.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
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