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  3 0 The Shining by Stephen King. Or Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. Or Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. Or The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse (any Hesse will do). No, it's got to be The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. The woman, whatever you think of her so-called philosophy, simply cannot write. She has absolutely no idea what people are like, how they talk, how they act and interact. It has considerably less life to it than a puppet show put on by seven-year-old girls, with cardboard cutouts of Great Ideas being absurdly shoved around by the universe's most clumsy stage manager. Rand wanted to be God. She wasn't; she was a nutcase and a very, very, untalented writer. On the plus side, it's really long. Fnarf answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 7 comments by keshmeshi, TVDinner Redux, and new york state of mind… 0 0 I don't understand what anyone sees in Hesse. I'm tempted to read Rand just to find out how bad it is. keshmeshi commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 It's bad, Kesh. It's really, really bad. TVDinner Redux commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 "St. Petersburg in revolt gave us Vladimir Nabokov, Isaiah Berlin and Ayn Rand. The first was a novelist, the second a philosopher. The third was neither but thought she was both." new york state of mind commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 http://www.alternet.org/story/147133/like_glenn_beck%2C_ayn_rand_peddled_garbage_as_truth_--_why_did_america_buy_it new york state of mind commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Reviews of the Fountainhead also apply to the entire Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, who DESPERATELY wants to be Ayn Rand. The characters just become mouthpieces for Randian ideas and the whole series gradually decomposes. Bleh. Sacrelicious commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 The Fountainhead is a great book, if what you need is a book to hold the door open. Geni commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I completely agree about Fear of Flying. Sphinx commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 0 Twilight. The first and last book I will ever read by Stephanie Meyer. I did finish it, but I wish I hadn't--I guess I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I was a fool. Marconia answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 4 comments by Griffin, new york state of mind, and Geni… 0 0 You got farther than I. I picked a copy up, flipped through about 15 pages, and realized I would go insane if I tried to read writing that bad. Stilted dialogue is the least of its problems. Griffin commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 i was going to say twilight too. and actually, i loved it. (i am not ashamed) but i did recognize it to be a terribly, horribly, no good, very badly written book. ugh, i cringe thinking about it. but, i did enjoy the page turnerness of the story, while bracing myself against the ghastly writing. new york state of mind commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I read the e-book - checked out from the library - on my BlackBerry so no one could see I was reading it. I was too embarrassed. It was okay, I guess, if I were 14, desperately horny, fairly naive, and really bored. Geni commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I've read all of them, but mostly for the hilarity. I spent a lot of grad school taking breaks from my Very Serious Reading to read bits and pieces out loud to my partner when we needed amusement. Very entertaining, but for none of the intended reasons. honeyandlocusts commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 0 The Bible. Didn't finish it. Why? Because it's a 2000 page sleeping pill. Urgutha Forka answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by TVDinner Redux… 0 0 Truer words never spoken. I slogged through it the year I was 15, because some smart guy told me all of Western literature was based on it, and I remember drinking pot after pot of coffee to no avail. It'd still put me to sleep. TVDinner Redux commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 0 The Gormenghast Trilogy. One of my older brothers kept raving about it, telling me how fantastic it was. I slogged through all three books. ALL THREE. Then went to my brother, and said, "um, WTF was the point of all that?" The asshole fell over laughing. He hated the books too, he was just trying to share the misery. And someone's going to probably hurt me for saying this, but I have NEVER been able to get into Samuel Delany's books. I don't know what it is, they just don't work for me. Geni answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 0 Fear of Flying. I finished it, because I hated the self-absorbed protagonist so much I hoped, rather than expected, that she'd immolate by the end. Alas. I was disappointed. TVDinner Redux answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 I remember seeing this somewhere after reading the review online. I had to flip through it, just to see what it was like. There is no way I could read the entire thing, it is *that* bad. But the guy's review is hilarious. http://www.amazon.com/review/R1LPA5YOND6TGD/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm katiedid answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 3 comments by CleverScreenName, katiedid, and Urgutha Forka… 0 0 Based on that review, I want to start a book club just so we can read that book. CleverScreenName commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I figure the only way I'd get through it is with some moral support and MST3K-style riffing, so you may be on to something katiedid commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Oh man... that review is scathing! I love it! "Of all the things to think, he never thought he'd think that." (vomit) Urgutha Forka commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 I read a book called "The Parent Killer" to review for Library Journal. Quoting from my own review: "...Between spicy assignations with his gal, the brooding anti-hero of this first novel hacks his way through a succession of cardboard villains in prose that clanks with the demonstrative verve of a writing exercise. Apart from many clichés ("The log cabin was quiet. Too quiet…"), and derivative touches à la Thomas Harris (the killer's back is covered with a dragon tattoo), the cardinal sin of this thriller is its lack of suspense. Playing on our natural abhorrence of child abuse, Blake presents us with all the cruelty of an Andrew Vachss vigilante story but with none of that author's style, pathos, or urgency. Avoid." Other truly bad books tend to fall into the so-bad-its-good category for me. Case in point, the wonderful world of Harry Stephen Keeler, often referred to as the "Ed Wood" of fiction. Check him out: http://site.xavier.edu/polt/keeler/ There are a couple of good collections of deliciously bad crime writing in the seattle library collection: Gun in Cheek and Son of Gun in Cheek, both edited by Bill Pronzini. If you love inspired dreck, these will lead you down all sorts of bizarre back alleys. David Wright answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by David Wright… 0 0 I also find it interesting to see the range of titles that wind up on people's WORST LISTs are often the very same titles that wind up on other readers' BEST LISTs. Which just shows how varied readers are in what they value and want and need from a book, and how much a part of the reading experience is shaped by the reader. (blah blah blah) David Wright commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 Jemima J by Jane Green. I always like to take trashy chick lit on beach vacations--so I've read my fair share of crappy pink books. But this was so godawful I contemplated giving myself an eye enema. Cedarthvader answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by CrazyCatLady… 0 0 Heh! Eye Enema is so much more evocative a phrase than eye bleach. I'm borrowing it, and I won't be giving it back until it's been rode hard. CrazyCatLady commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 Norman Brown's "Life Against Death." It's a Neo-Marxist work that attempts to integrate Freudianism and Marxism. Around page 90 there was a passage that essentially said this: "the Freudian description of the mind is noumenally correct, in the Kantian sense." I put the book down and proceeded to laugh my ass off. Lilting Missive answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 Life of Pi. I couldn't even finish it. I was driving through central Illinois at the time (books on tape, woot!) and found the corn fields to have more depth than the drivel to which I was listening. Mike Smith answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by MyrnaMinkoff… 0 0 You didn't miss much. It had an awful "maybe it was only a dream" ending, which is like the WORST cop-out ever. Once Kafka used that device, it was done, and should never, ever be repeated in any work of literature. Sadly, the trope still has some life left in it. See the recent Leonardo DiCaprio film about dreaming and not-dreaming. Ugh. Can't people be more clever? MyrnaMinkoff commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 There are so many different kinds of bad books that I don't know if I can pick just one. Sarah Palin's book was atrocious because of its sheer mean-spiritedness and cynicism. Stephen King's Under the Dome had one of the worst endings I've ever encountered in fiction. Neal Pollock's Stretch typifies a whole trend of bullshit books that try to make you believe the author became a better person over the course of a memoir when they're really just trying to meet a deadline. And those are just the lowlights of my last two years of reading! I wrote recently about how Less Than Zero is the only book I've literally thrown across the room. For a long time, I'd call that the worst book I've ever read. But on reflection, it had more to do with my opinion about the world. Fifteen years on, it's a different kind of bad book. So I'd encourage you to hold on to those books after you throw them across the room; maybe you'll learn something about yourself when you reinvestigate them in a few years. Paul Constant answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 A horror novel I found in the park. It was about killer zombie fetuses. It literally involved an Indian burial ground and a protagonist who was a struggling writer. On the other hand I have also borne witness to the free book pile at Amazon, which takes up several walls of book cases filled with things whose authors deeply wish for a review. With print-on-demand technology, even the barrier of "managed to get published" can be surmounted by money and a lack of self-respect. lilzilla answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 2 The Time Traveler's Wife. "Oh boo-hoo I'm a willowy, beautiful artist antagonist and our New England white-person life could be right out of a J. Crew catalog if it wasn't for your naked time traveling." Tragedy! Manipulative drivel, which is probably why it got published. so-so answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Not quite what you're asking, but A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry made me want to stab that book. It starts out all "every character is poor but has hope and a plan and they persevere" and ends with the main woman destitute and shunned from her family and her two friends disfigured beggars. It was so depressing. Another one I hated was that Cormac McCarthy's the Road. So fucking depressing, but I had to read it to see what happens at the end. Also, the Bible. Boring, little character development and inconsistent narrative. Luckier answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 5 comments by keshmeshi, Geni, and honeyandlocusts… 0 0 Wasn't she living with her family? It was a fate she wanted to avoid because she didn't want to be dependent on them, but she wasn't destitute. I otherwise agree about the ending, but I loved how well written the book is. keshmeshi commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I didn't care for The Road either. Post-apocalypse has been done much better (see: Lucifer's Hammer or Swan Song). Geni commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 1 Um, the Bible isn't a novel? Wanting character development and narrative from it ("it" being the wrong pronoun here, since the Bible is a library - it's several books that tend to be bound together) is like expecting a book of short stories to provide you with a recipe for dessert tonight. honeyandlocusts commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 The Bible isn't a novel. It's a lot of things, but the question was "what is the worst book you've ever read?" From my comparative lit perspective, the Bible is terrible. Luckier commented about 1 year ago | Report 1 1 Yeah, I mean, thinking the Bible is terrible is fine, but objecting to it on the basis of a lack of character development and consistent narrative is kind of ridiculous - it's a confusion of genre. honeyandlocusts commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Rubyfruit Jungle. I was a teenager, and going through an "into girls" phase. The book concerns a budding lesbian and her misadventures in the deep South and in New York. I think I knew, even at 15, that it was a terrible book. (There is one very memorable scene wherein the protagonist gets paid to throw grapefruits at a man who has a fetish for people throwing grapefruits at him.) I re-read it in my early 20's for lack of anything better to do, and realized just how dreadfully written it is. I guess it was important for being a relatively mainstream book (in the 70's) about a lesbian, but I think it gave a bad name to queer literature. I also just recently read The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene. This book doesn't really qualify as "the worst book I've ever read" because it was really, really beautifully written. Nevertheless, the main character was a narcissistic whiney-pants who couldn't do anything but feel sorry for himself, while destroying the happiness in two other lives around him. Ugh. What a detestable man. MyrnaMinkoff answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by CleverScreenName… 0 0 Rubyfruit Jungle wasn't great, but Claire of the Moon makes it look like a shining star of lesbian literature. The Ex-Gay movement should pass it out to gay women. CleverScreenName commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Sandworms of Dune. I wanted to pour bleach on my brain after the first few pages. Actually, that applies to anything "written" by Brian Herbert. I got through maybe 20 pages of the promotional copy I found. It's embarrassing that it's still in my home. I am a huge fan of the Frank Herbert books, and have read them all several times. This is a steaming piece of caca. Amabanana answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 I don't remember the title, but it was one the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books. It was just awful - but I was trapped at the airport, so I read it anyway. Not only did I finish it - but when I got home, I took great joy in running each page through a paper shredder. Usually I sell my used books, but in that case I thought it would be inhumane to pass it along. The second worst book was Marius The Epicurian by Walter Pater. Impossible to get through. Rhias Hall answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold and Glory Road, by Robert Heinlein. The first because the main character makes unbelievably stupid choices for no reason, making the book a dreary train wreck I just couldn't finish. The second because Heinlein books seem to have an ongoing theme of male protagonists acting as a mouthpiece for Heinlein himself, and then tearing down and threatening to spank any female character who disagrees. Plus, the damn plot made no sense. Sacrelicious answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 1 The Kite Runner, ugh. It was so full of redundant cliched metaphor's I couldn't finish it. Loewyn Young answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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