/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5075121]

What is the worst book you ever read?

Pic related, not even trolling

[Anonymous No.5075124]

Plato's republic

[Anonymous No.5075131]

Fuck Infinite Jest, fuck David Foster Wallace.

[Anonymous No.5075133]

>>5075121

That doesn't surprise me. I liked the movie because of Christian Bale's performance, but I hear that the book is unduly gruesome. Not really a gore fiend, so would probably put it down as soon as the descriptions came in.

Worst book I ever read has to be Pride and Prejudice.

[Anonymous No.5075138]

>>5075124
god this, and western civilisation fawns over it

[Anonymous No.5075143]

Nah, the novel American Psycho is pretty good. Surprised at OP>

[Anonymous No.5075150]

Frederick Forsyth - The Cobra

[Anonymous No.5075172]

>>5075124
>>5075138

>Plato's Republic
>not the single greatest written work in philosophy ever

[Anonymous No.5075189]

>>5075121
Some pulp fiction about a doctor who was kidnapped by pirates and then became one. It was the literally equivalent to Troma films.

[Anonymous No.5075193]

Ready Player One
>a poor, tubby, atheist neckbear becomes famous when his knowledge of 80's trivia helps him solve a puzzle in a popular virtual reality game which could make him the richest person in the world
>he gets the money
>he gets the girl
The author sold the film rights to this abortion for major dosh years ago and it just got the green light.

[Anonymous No.5075197]

>>5075189
The Black Lagoon of literature?

[Anonymous No.5075201]

>>5075172
Are you baiting?

[Anonymous No.5075202]

>>5075197
Never saw The Black Lagoon.

[Anonymous No.5075206]

>>5075121
>trying to read this book
>about 15 pages in
>6 pages consisting of 1 paragraph and with like 3 sentences per page

[Anonymous No.5075210]

Ulysses is simultaneously the worst and (likely) best book I've ever read.

I never thought I'd make it through the doldrums (i.e. almost every chapter in the middle of the "novel"), but I was supremely grateful to find Mrs Bloom's SOC at the end.Is Joyce's masterpiece the pinnacle of literary success? Couldn't say. Many times I was convinced it was far more impressive in his head than it was on paper.

Also, OP, what da fuck? American Psycho is, IMHO, genius in its rambling, cerebral portrayal of the decadence of the late 1980s/early 1990s. BEE kills it with his descriptions of cultural icons of the day, almost as if he's inventing a new iconography.

[Anonymous No.5075214]

>>5075121
Why didn't you like it? I thought it was pretty good, better than the movie.

[Anonymous No.5075216]

i thinkt hat the book was dumb and i didnt liek it

[Anonymous No.5075239]

>>5075210
American Psycho is nothing but a desription, there is no development in the story whatsoever. That's why I think it's pretty mediocre, no new ideas, only stating relatively obvious things.

[Anonymous No.5075268]

>>5075214
it has nothing to say. its supposed message is just vague criticism. i'm convinced a lot of it was just an excuse for ellis to play out his woman hating fantasies

[Anonymous No.5075399]

the last of the mohicans. cooper will spend ten pages describing a blade of grass

[Anonymous No.5075421]

>>5075239
>>5075268
>>5075121
As someone who was cognizant during the 80's, I would say that American Psycho is the perfect representation of the era, but that this is not by any measure a good thing.
Why do people say "by any means?" I almost said that and then caught myself, I don't think it means anything.

[Anonymous No.5076509]

>>5075193
Oh God, thank you for reminding me such abomination existed. Truly the worst book I've ever finished.

[Anonymous No.5076518]

>>5075399
Fuck you bro, I loved that book.

[Anonymous No.5076532]

>>5075121
Some terrible fucking murder mystery my mom gave me, featuring some bland pastry chef as the main character. I can't even remember the name, but the word "Tart" was in it. Mom thought I'd enjoy it because I like to cook, so I must love any book that features cooking, right? I never even finished it.

[Anonymous No.5076847]

>>5075121
I've technically read worse books but this is definitely also the worst "real book" ive ever read

[Anonymous No.5077249]

>Atlus Shrugged in high school
didn't help that all my dumb piece of shit classmates were lazy fucks, and we had a substitute who let us read aloud and guess who fucking ended up reading that garbage to the rest of the class for an hour and a half?

[Anonymous No.5077254]

No contest at all. Confederacy of Dunces.

[Anonymous No.5077260]

>>5075172
this

[Anonymous No.5077264]

>>5077249

A kid with a stutter or speech impediment?

[Anonymous No.5077287]

World War Z

[Anonymous No.5077290]

>>5077264
No, it was me.
Everyone else was black, dumb, or a combination of the two, so they're all lazy cunts who voted to "read aloud" in order to get someone else to do it. And the substitute being a piece of shit INSISTED that we read aloud after, and the idea of reading silently as per the rules the teacher left was impossible at that point for some arbitrary reason.

Yes I'm mad.

[RIcky No.5077292]

>>5075193
I've probably read worse but RPO is up there alright.

[Anonymous No.5077305]

Walden, so fucking terrible

[Anonymous No.5077368]

>>5075121
American Psycho has its purpose, but it has the subtlety of a sledgehammer and is read by edgy teenagers instead of the targeted audience (those for whom a critique of the 80s consumer culture would be valid).

Pic is far, far worse

[Anonymous No.5077376]

Why is American Psycho so discussed and famous? I liked the movie so I started reading it and by page 80 I gave up. As far as I remember there wasn't any gore at all (up to that point), it was just rich psychopaths complaining about their champagne being slightly too cold and laughing at poor people. Plus the author spends more time describing everyone's clothing than something actually useful

[Anonymous No.5077378]

>>5077287
oh you have wronged me alright

the shit is wrong with you that book was GOAT

[Anonymous No.5077383]

>>5077376
I agree with you but on the subject of the clothing, a persons personality (ignore the alliteration) can be expressed by what they wear. So I can understand why he did that.

[Anonymous No.5077386]

>>5077378
>anything with zombies
>good
pick one and only one

[Anonymous No.5077388]

>>5077383
well I guess I'm too much of a clothing pleb to draw personality from clothing then. To me it seemed everyone had extremely expensive suits and shirts, even though the narrator liked some and not others

[Anonymous No.5077392]

>>5077386
surely you knew the book was about zombies when you started

it's the best interpretation I've seen so far

and bear in mind I automatically block out any zombie movie or video game

[Anonymous No.5077399]

>>5077388
That's fair enough. I think over-description tends to be a hit and miss in most cases unless its done extremely well.

[Anonymous No.5077452]

>>5077378
Brooks is a terrible writer, literally every single character is exactly the same, nothing is interesting, everything hurts

[Anonymous No.5077490]

>>5077264
Oh no, now you've reminded me and I'm mad. It was always me or somebody who was barely literate when I was in school.

I hated English, any book we looked at I ended up hating because of having to listen to idiots stumble through it over the course of a month rather than just read it at home because they won't.


Worst book I've ever read? I liked Eragon as a kid but looking back now it's fairly bad. Not the worst thing ever, but I've never finished anything worse.

[Anonymous No.5077495]

>>5077490
That was exactly it. For some reason I'm socially retarded but reading aloud is really easy shit.
Everyone else who talks a million kilometers per hour stumbles over a few paragraphs like they're completely fucking braindead.

[Anonymous No.5077503]

>>5077386
They were good, and they still can be. The problem is that they've lost their soul because a few years ago movie and vidya producers found out that there was money in it and starting cranking them out for all they were worth. And now they're trendy so all zombie crap made lately just seems to be trying to appeal to the masses more than anything else and you rarely get anything inspired from that.

But there's been good stuff in the past. George Romero's FIRST AND ONLY three Dead movies are amazing.

[Anonymous No.5077512]

>>5077495
I don't get this, I am the most productive spaghetti producer outside of Italy but I read like a champion. People have told me I should be on Radio!

But if I try to carry on a normal conversation with normal people my power level spikes up so hard and fast that every scouter within a kilometer explodes.

[Anonymous No.5077532]

The Ring - Kōji Suzuki, hated it so much for wasting my time I cant even try the movie>

[Anonymous No.5077571]

>>5075121
I somehow for some reason read the entire Wheel of Time. It was terrible throughout.

[Anonymous No.5077602]

>>5075210
>>5075210
>>5075210

[Anonymous No.5077634]

>>5077368
Surely you jest. What was bad about that book?

[Anonymous No.5077646]

Easy

[Anonymous No.5077713]

>>5075121
ugh

[Anonymous No.5077724]

[Anonymous No.5077822]

>>5075121
Have you noticed that most people's selection for their 'worst' book are well known? That's because they've read it, missed the point and have been annoyed at how it has received popularity.

[Anonymous No.5077841]

>>5077822
Oh, is that why?

[Anonymous No.5077846]

>>5077376
The point of the clothing description is that the clothes they're wearing would look ridiculous and horribly mismatched in real life

[Anonymous No.5077849]

>>5077841
Not him, but consistently I see readers hate on American Psycho for unsubstantial reasons. Ellis' haters are generally influenced by a bunch of interviews in which he expounded upon his "intent" with AP, so some seem to have let that ruin the book for them too.

[Anonymous No.5077898]

>>5075124
>I bet he isn't even using axiomatic hyperbole to prove a point
>I bet he believes in a communal semen stream so no one knows their fathers
>I bet my narrow, cynical world-view is in holding with reality
Probably between Hatchet and Atlas Shrugged for me; and mind you, The Fountainhead is on my short list of favorites.

[Anonymous No.5078075]

>anon, it's about Dracula!
>taking book recommendations from girls

[Anonymous No.5079491]

>modern masterpiece
more like piece of shit.
Awful in every sense of the word.

[Anonymous No.5079517]

Great Gatsby

[sauce(dead)pan No.5079620]

I think it's a tie between Ender's Shadow and Beowulf but both of them I've only read some pages in.

[Anonymous No.5079623]

Bleachers by John Grisham


So, so awful.

[Anonymous No.5079626]

Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card. It's part of the Ender's Shadow series, and it's fucking awful. I read Ender's Game, Speaker, Xenocide, and Children and loved those. Then I read Ender's Shadow and thought that was great, but the two direct sequels I read were fucking awful.

[sauce(dead)pan No.5079634]

>>5079626
That's terrifying,. God forbid he gets another video game deal.

[Anonymous No.5079658]

>>5078075
What I realized that book was truly irredeemable shit I was already 500 pages in. Definitely a regrettable read

[Anonymous No.5079661]

>>5079491
>taking book recommendations from my mom and sister

Never again.

[Anonymous No.5079670]

it is so, so bad
I try not to judge people for their reading tastes but if someone enjoys Shantaram I just don't think we can get along

[Anonymous No.5079672]

>>5079658
I was traveling just like le main characters!, with little other reading material. So I trudged through, naively hoping "it can't get any worse. Surely the payoff will be worth it!"

who knew Drac was a faggot bibliophile who would get killed so easily?

[Anonymous No.5079678]

>>5079661
The only good thing to come out of it was writing a paper on it that was 100% bullshit and getting a really high mark. I didn't finish the book because it was so awful, just looked up various summaries and included about 3 paragraphs on feminism. My teacher loved it of course because anything even remotely good related to "feminism in literature" is like an instant turn on to her for some reason.

[Anonymous No.5079706]

A Song of Ice and Fire

[Anonymous No.5079721]

>>5079706
>l'edgy opinion
>guaranteed replies

[Anonymous No.5079744]

The Descent by Jeff Long. A slightly more retarded World War Z.

[Anonymous No.5079751]

Angels and Demons. Yeah, that crap by Dan Brown.

[Anonymous No.5079763]

I was seventeen and got really hyped to read Vonnegut so I could impress a girl.

Both were disappointing.

[Anonymous No.5079776]

>>5075189

Captain Blood? If so, it's not great literature, but it's decent for a light read.

[Anonymous No.5079778]

>>5079763
we share both those things in common, but I really like Vonnegut.
cat's cradle is filth

[Anonymous No.5079779]

>>5079721
>disliking a series is edgy

[Anonymous No.5079783]

>>5078075

Hah, I remember this as a prime example of a woman author that can't write male characters. There's a part where a straight bookish but manly professor thinks of another man 'he must have looked magnificent on horseback' about halfway through the book. Put that shit down, and have happily avoided it ever since.

[Anonymous No.5079789]

the alchemist is the worst book with the most cliche ending

[Anonymous No.5079795]

>>5075268
It's not about social commentary. It's actually fairly rare that that is the exclusive point of a novel, because often an essay is better for that kind of thing.

It's an intentionally hysterical story about egotism, appearance, being desensitized to violence, and the relationship between a character and his environment (both in a perception of the world sense and in a metafictional sense). It's about them, it's a novel where they interact with each other, not just a list of stances on each.

This is in a sense why novels exist, because if you think of literature in a utilitarian way, essays are the only thing that should exist, but also by this thinking, most poetry doesn't make any sense at all.

It's an art form, you have to remember. This standard of a direct message is held only to literature, and arbitrarily. There aren't many paintings about how socialism is a natural conclusion, or music compositions about the catholic church being corrupt.

[Anonymous No.5079796]

>>5079778
I'd give him another try, what's one of his better novels?

[Anonymous No.5079800]

>>5079517
if that's your worst book, good job. from a narrative point of view it got tedious but i liked how discriptive it was

[Anonymous No.5079807]

>>5079706
this book is legit bad, why would you read it

[Anonymous No.5079822]

>>5077376
>>5077383
>>5077388
the point of the clothing description is to point out that that's one of Bateman's obsessions. Caring only about the clothes people wear is extremely superficial. AP is full of patterns formed by the various things Bateman is hung up on, like clothing, Les Miserables, restaurants and reservations, etc. Part of the irony is that blood and gore are in these routines as casually as any other element of the list.

Like the music chapters, these are elements of the story that are ostensibly repetitive and tedious. The familiarity with the routine puts you into Bateman's shoes. There's great contrast between tedium and violence, and one of the most striking parts of the novel are that those two are not mutually exclusive.

These patterns are also important when they are played off of and disrupted in the later part of the novel when Bateman begins to snap.

[Anonymous No.5079847]

in terms of expectations/disappointment

how did this happen?

[Anonymous No.5079916]

>>5079779
You know that's not the worst book/series you've ever read. You wrote it to troll.

>>5079783
kek, (thankfully) I don't remember that.
the book is just a travelogue for bookish girls who think they're above Twilight, but really aren't.

[Anonymous No.5080057]

>>5079847
This was the first Pynchon book I read, still haven't read his other works, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I wonder if my liking it will dissipate after reading Gravity's Rainbow and The of Crying of Lot of 49 of.

[Anonymous No.5080063]

>>5079822
Ever compared AP's structural elements to those found in Moby Dick?

[Anonymous No.5080116]

[Anonymous No.5080122]

godfucking awful

[Anonymous No.5080138]

>>5080122
Epic

[Anonymous No.5080173]

>>5080122
>heroic
Well, he surely an hero'ed.

[Anonymous No.5080177]

>>5080122
i thought it was p goos

[Anonymous No.5080181]

>>5077368
I remember reading that hunk of shit in sophomore English and for the rest of the year it became an in-joke for me and my friends to try to walk like Ethan Frome

[Anonymous No.5080194]

>>5079847
he purposefuly avoided his grandiloquent narratives and themes to write a late 60s pulp novel, that's all, really

[Anonymous No.5080215]

Posted this in another thread.

Holy shit this was just awful. It was so full of "Murrica numba 1" but without even a hint of irony. or self awareness. Muh small Texas town, muh Texas pride, Texas this, Texas fucking that. After I read this I remembered why I fucking hate Texans.

Not to mention the guy who ghostwrote it, Patrick Robinson, is obviously a total hack. The structure of the book is terrible. He goes for the Full Metal Jacket approach and starts with grooming and training before getting to the meat. Problem is it's just not very interesting. It takes 200 pages to even get to where they start operating and by then you really couldn't give less of a fuck. I haven't seen the movie but I can only imagine that it's much better. It just felt like I was reading written by a modestly talented high school senior.

[Anonymous No.5081538]

>>5079778

No I just bought it!! Is it really that bad?

[Anonymous No.5081580]

>>5080122
naw man that was good

[Anonymous No.5081616]

I couldn't even finish it. EBay bothers me more is that I cannot fully articulate everything I dislike about it so much.

[Anonymous No.5081619]

>>5081616
*What (not EBay)

[Sebastian Cuello No.5081641]

>>5079789
This. All that plagied bullshit.

[Anonymous No.5081653]

>>5081538
It's just Vonnegut doing his thing, satirizing religion, science, banana republics. Read it, it's pretty amusing.

[Anonymous No.5083433]

reamde... fucking SUCKED

[Anonymous No.5083483]

American Psycho? Closer to the best book I ever read.

[Anonymous No.5084161]

>>5079763
it wasn't amazing, but I liked it. It was alright.