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/lit/ - Literature

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6506653 No.6506653 [Reply] [Original]

what's the worst book you've ever read?

>> No.6506657

>>6506653
the bible

>> No.6506666
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6506666

>>6506657

>> No.6506703

>>6506657

Bible is actually quite good mate, bet you didn't actually read it - tails off in the new testament though.

>>6506653

Worst book was probably the Friedrich Engels commentary on the Communist Manifesto. Read it when I was an edgy anarcho-communist teenager and totally agreed with it, read it again recently and I can't see how I ever thought it was right.

>> No.6506710

>>6506653
In junior high I read this book about some teenagers getting stranded in a car somewhere in snow and they START A FUCKING FIRE, INSIDE THE CAR, TO KEEP WARM. Even back then I realized that you would rapidly die of CO poisoning or burn yourself to death. What a piece of shit, I guess it had some themes about muh struggle or love. Does anyone know this book? It's probably YA

>> No.6506712

>>6506653
I've never finished a book I thought was truly awful.

>> No.6506720

The bear and the dragon by tom Clancy. Put book down, forgot about. Not sorry

>> No.6506726

Actually on second thought it was 50 shades of grey. Started reading...

... How could this possibly be the most popular book if all time

Stopped, never continued, no regrets.

>> No.6506730

>>6506710
Nevermind, found it. Snow Bound by Harry Mazer. Do not read.

>> No.6506754
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6506754

>>6506710

>> No.6506776

>>6506754
Slav engineering at it's finest.

>> No.6506819

>>6506653
Hmmm, I'm not sure. That's a good question. I had a friend that hated No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. Death of An Ordinary Man and Girlfriend in a Coma were rank, but it could've been depression.

>> No.6506835

>>6506703
>the Friedrich Engels commentary on the Communist Manifesto
wats that

>> No.6506851

>>6506835

My father gave me the book - I think it was just the communist manifesto with a foreword by Engels but the title of the book was "The Communist Manifesto with commentary by Freidrich Engels or something".

>> No.6506854

>>6506851
Obviously the "or something" wasn't supposed to be in the quotations there!

>> No.6506863

>>6506851
so... one of the prefaces to the Communist Manifesto was the worst thing you read? Or was it the manifesto itself?

What are you talking about here.

>> No.6506887

Atlas Shrugged is the worst book ever written

>> No.6506894

>>6506863
He just be saying stupid shit m8

>> No.6506900
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6506900

>>6506653
It was cheap and i was in the mood for sci-fi. It's Warhammer 40k lite (space catholics with an empire make a super soldier to conquer everyone, there's elves and some freaky shit on the edges of space that are only briefly touched). It tries to be grimdark and realistic, but it ends being painfuly mediocre. It's also part of a series so it has to leave a bunch of shit open for a sequel.

>> No.6506906
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6506906

>> No.6506925

>>6506653
Old Man's War and Das Kapital. Also Name of the Wind.

>> No.6506932

>>6506925
>Das Kapital
Am I the only one who really really hates it when someone calls Capital Volume 1 'Das Kapital'?

Also, what the fuck did you expect to get from a bloody economics book? Why do people go into reading Capital without knowing that?

>> No.6506947
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6506947

>>6506925

>> No.6508807

>>6506653
Probably Catcher in the Rye. Unlikable protagonist, virtually no plot, resolution was shit, characters were one-dimensional, boring style. To add insult to injury, it's rammed down most Americans' throats by educators who think it has some magical appeal to young, confused minds.

>> No.6508814

Walden

>> No.6508821

>>6508807
my nigga

>> No.6508826
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6508826

>>6506925
whoa nigga did you read all Das Kapital?
Because there are lots of volumes.

>> No.6508832

>>6506932

People get overwhelmed with the "Glorious revolutionary manual" trope.
Ignoring the economic part is pretty much why teenage "marxists" fail to convince.

>> No.6508858

If you don't count books read as a kid probably Heart of Darkness or Taipei. both still pretty enjoyable. I don't pick out books I don't think I'd like.

>> No.6508861

>>6508807
He rapes his sister, Phoebe.

>> No.6508891 [SPOILER] 
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6508891

>> No.6508906

>>6508891
This. In the highest

>> No.6508924

>>6508891
same


and I lapped it up

because I like swords

>> No.6508928
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6508928

>>6508858
>comparing HoD and Taipei

>> No.6508930

>>6508861
>I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Phoebe.

>> No.6509298

winter moon by dean koontz. its the plan 9 of horror novels

>> No.6509325

The Awakening was fucking putrid.

>> No.6509396

A Desumanização by Valter Hugo Mãe
Hopefully it never gets translated into english and so no one in any non-portuguese speaking country will have to suffer through it.

>> No.6509409

maybe Pay it Forward by whoever wrote that
or the one Palahniuk book I read, it was terrible

>> No.6509427

>>6509409
I'm reading Snuff right now and wondering how the hell people even like this guy.

>> No.6509430

>>6506653
Gatsby

>> No.6509432

Had to read David Copperfield in Freshman year in high school over the summer and I loathed all 1200 pages of it. I went back to it this year because I thought I couldn't "enjoy" it at that age when I was hoping to enjoy summer break but nope, still horrendous. Am I missing out by not reading Dickens? A Tale of Two Cities was ok but he would never be an author I would actively seek out to read.

>> No.6509454

Ham on Rye. It was like if Hemingway couldn't write and had an even bigger ego.

>> No.6509460

>>6509432
copperfield definately lags but I doubt it is the worst book youve ever read

>> No.6509468

50 Shades of Grey; read it just to see what the hype was about, and it was so terrible. Not even in a self-aware or so-bad-it's-funny way, just very poor, semi-coherent prose, unnatural and inconsistent characters, and the sex scenes read like the author had one hand down her pants at the time and was just crudely typing "oh yeah, oh your dick and wallet are so big, ohh" garbage with the other.

>>6509325
This probably is the worst "real" book. Protag was the biggest self-absorbed cunt, and the author unironically portrayed her as a misunderstood heroine. Really foreshadowed the victim complex that's become so common recently. Boring plot, tedious prose, most was inane gossipping women.

>> No.6509586

>>6506653
H. G. Wells - The Time Machine

>> No.6509938

>>6506653
Tell me something, O' droogy of mine. Where'd you find this karteenatchka?

>> No.6509970

Clarice Lispector's A Paixão Segundo GH and Jorge Amado's Capitães da Areia.

The first is a pseudo-kafkaesque book by a troubled woman who wrote a lot of gibberish fit only for teenage girls. The second is a commie who wrote melodramatic commie stuff.

>> No.6510019

Either the Halo novelizations, Mein Kampf, or Atlas Shrugged.

I can't decide.

>> No.6510027

>>6509970
>The second is a commie who wrote melodramatic commie stuff.

Sounds like my kind of read. Thanks for the recommendation.

>> No.6510051

>>6510027
He's very well known. A classic here in Brazil, and many respectable people like him.

I find him shallow, though.

>> No.6510067

>>6506657
epic

>> No.6510093
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6510093

Atlas Shrugged

>mfw the autistic speech at the end that goes on for 70 FUCKING PAGES

>> No.6510112

>>6506653
I legitimately couldn't tell you, I've read some stinkers definitely, it's just that I don't remember the books I don't enjoy, I sort of erase them from memory.

>> No.6510217

http://www.wired.com/2015/05/kindle-ebook-review-tender-kiss-russian-werewolf/

Wired publishes horrible book reviews occasionally. It's amusing

>> No.6510221

>>6506653
The Icemark Chronicles. worst trilogy of books i ever read! the story is fantasy and suffers from a variety of tropes and poor characterization. Every nation in the book is based off of a real historical one, and a lot of names/ titles are ones you'd find in a history book or latin dictionary. Seriously, authors need to stop using latin to make symbolic names and the like. It's been done to death and it's boring for people who actually speak a bit of latin.

but besides that minor detail, the biggest flaw of this story was the characterization. the main character, a thirteen year old norse princess, is way to powerful. in the first chapters we see her out performing housecarls and other soldiers in tournaments. Then, when she ascends to the throne after the death of her father, she has to make allies to stop a nearly invincible army advancing on the capitol. She makes these allies by insulting their leaders, and acting like a complete bitch to anyone who doesn't agree with her. and we're supposed to root for her?

And then there's the enemy general, this moron has managed to conquer every nation he has invaded thus far. He has the most advanced and the largest military at his disposal and essentially runs the empire. But guess what! he looses to a thirteen year old girl with a rag tag army of werewolves, ghosts, trees, and snow leopards. And it's so obvious why he looses! he doesn't change tactics at all, just throwing soldier after soldier at his enemy in a basic charge. and when that doesn't work, he executes soldiers and lieutenants. He's Slaughtering his own damned men!
cont.

>> No.6510243

>>6510221
let's also not forget the countless number of characters in this story that exist only to make the protagonist look "smarter" and "better." They're one off characters that disagree with the queen, are 'proven wrong' by her, and then disappear for the rest of the story.

subtlety is also non-existent. In an attempt to foreshadow where the male protagonist came from (son of Satan) te author puts in a scene where he argues with the queen, then get's incredibly angry and filled with rage, only for it to go as quickly as it had come. it was so blatantly obvious what he was trying to hint at. a baseball bat to the forehead would be far more subtle!

>> No.6510263

>>6510243
And that's only the first book! The next two are just as bad, if not worse. They all suffer from the same problems listed above, but far worse! if i had time to go into more detail, i would. But screw it, i'm done for tonight.

oh! forgot to mention. the epic showdown between the young queen and the evil general? yeah, that lasts about one paragraph, in which the general is defeated with ease. Seriously, i've read fanfiction better than this.

>> No.6510296

>>6510221
>>6510243
>>6510263

That sounds fucking terrible, and not even in an entertaining way. So then the obvious question is, why'd you read it?

>> No.6510329

>>6510296
I had the faintest glimmer of hope, the smallest sliver of a dream, that the atrocious main character would die in the end. that for once, she would be proven wrong. That one of the more likeable characters would take over as he main character.

>> No.6510335

>>6510296
it never happened...

>> No.6510358

Turner Diaries. I read it, because of what it is, but damn the writing is fucking awful. It's so bad.

>> No.6510382

This
>>6506712
and this
>>6510112

Most recent book I dropped because I couldn't force myself to read another page (and fuck if I didn't try) was Kerouac's On the Road. Having heard and read so much about it I thought I would like it or at the very least find it tolerable, but no.

>> No.6510449

>>6510296

I've done this before, I just get too invested in a book and I have to see it through, I understand you anon >>6510329

>> No.6510612

>>6510093

>Not liking the teachings of John Galt.

What are you? A communist?

>> No.6510627

Call of the Wild

>> No.6510634

>>6508891
>>6508906
>>6508924
i heard that these were good. something about when the character narration switches the prose changes. sounded interesting to me.

>> No.6510639

either 1984 or 1Q84

>> No.6510648

>>6510627
why?
i mean i didnt think it was particularly deserving of its "classic" reputation but id like to see why you think it's so bad

>> No.6510657

>>6506819
>I had a friend that hated No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
I like that book, but then again I like Tao Lin

>> No.6510665

>>6509325
I really enjoyed it, but I can't remember why. I know the fucking introduction spoiled her suicide at the end, so I think that kept the whole thing in perspective for me

>> No.6510736

>>6508807
It's good as a cautionary tale of self-righteousness and paranoia

Holden ends up in a mental hospital and the author was a reclusive pedo, and it may or may not have inspired John Lennon's murderer

>> No.6510812

>>6510648
The relationship between John Thorton and Buck felt very flat but the story acted like it was something the entire book had lead up to. When John dies, Buck just goes off and joins the wild, completely dismissing Johns death. Their relationship was extremely contrived and forced. There were some other things I really disliked about it but that's the big one that I walked away complaining about.

>> No.6510826
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6510826

ready player one.

The fact people rave about it in the VR/AR pulp scene. Though not too surprising when the audiobook is done by Wesley.

It also makes me sad that this is how smarter people read and see some of 'the classics'. But you're to dim to see it.