ITT: the worst book you've ever read
The Ice Storm. Can't remember the author but it was made into a movie. The book sucked so bad i couldn't finish it. That is the only book to date i never finished.
the missionary by lady morgan
Song of solomon
>>7295827
Jane Eyre
>>7295827
twilight :D
the alchemist
>>7295827
Ethan Frome and The Awakening
The Communist Manifesto
>>7295948
oh fuck i forgot about Ethan Frome. i hate that book more than anything.
>>7295827
Madame Bovary is pretty awful
A Separate Peace is definitely the bottom of the barrel though
your favorite book
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Jesus what a horrid book.
>>7295977
yuo asshole. yoy fcuking piecce of shit. fuck u
Infinite Jest
>>7296127
>he actually fell for the dfw meme
>>7296127
Surely you jest
The one school book I disliked enough to actually drop. I had a high enough grade in LA that I would pass no matter how badly I did on the test
>>7296161
I loved that one when I was a kid. Still got a bit of survivalist daydreamer in me.
A majority of the EU was shit but this woman wrote like she had never seen two human beings talk to each other, let alone Star Wars.
itt: fussy people
Y'all need to learn to be okay with reading non-high-brow reading
Garbage. I would de-canonize this pussy if I could
Of Mice and Men hands down
The Outsiders
its at least the worst book that people think is good for some reason
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Literally Reddit, the book
I'm embarrassed that this rests on my bookshelf.
>>7296349
It's about exposing hypocrisy and revealing that we all have a seedy nature. Sounds more like 4chan than up vote land.
>>7296196
I'm either eating this bait right the fuck up or you should pretty please deep throat a shotgun. Fuck you nigger.
>actually triggered
>>7295948
The Awakening is such a shit book
Thank you
That is also my answer
>>7295827
Three way tie between
The Outsiders
Why Us?
and A Separate Peace
>>7295827
Just reread it for the first time since high school (currently 26). I found it to be a terrific book, extremely well-written. Lee explains and connects her ideas in powerful and compelling ways, including the symbolism and references, some more explicit and obvious, others more subtle. Even the psalm that is sung at First Purchase is poignant and brilliantly appropriate in the context.
Why do you hate it so much? Or did I just take some bait?
>>7295827
Blut Memeridian or The Eventide Dankness in the Windbag
Maybe falling for the bait.
I read the Spanish translation of this garbage.
>>7296393
Fitzgerald literally gargled cum for a living. You can tell because every copy is soaked through with his pussyboy juices. I'm so tired of pseudo-intellectuals trying to defend his shit. There is nothing of substance in anything he's written.
I didn't read a single bad book, thanks to /lit/.
Maybe not the worst in terms of quality and talent but Proust is boring as hell
>>7296048
i too like ethan frome, a cozy lil novella
Hunters of Dune
Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction
>>7296358
well why don't you donate it or something? someone else might get it for cheap and enjoy it.
>>7296603
s a m e tbqh
>>7296472
I would have to rank the garbage he wrote about Freemasonry as one of the worst books I've ever read.
>>7297560
The backstory of the villian being a nyphomaniac on a greek island was funny though. And I guess it described a few sights in Washington.
Other than that it was pure garbage.
>>7296306
what? is this book bad? i've read that it is a quite good book and i have been thinking about buying it for some time now.
>>7297586
opinions dude. i love it
>>7295827
Catcher in the Rye
>I love homosex, I really did you know
>>7296342
This tbh
>that feeling when it rests on the bookshelf looking prestigious but inside you know it doesnt belong there.
I CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS GOOD
The Giver
Hatchet
Candide
stardust
I didnt expect a ton from gaiman, but that was turbo lazy hack mode
>>7296358
>NYT best-seller
>USA Today
You can only blame yourself.
>>7296306
Get fucked
>>7295827
Ready Player One
>>7296342
This. I was given this for English and didn't read more than five pages that we did in class. Cheated for a B+.
>>7297750
Honestly this book is really good. It's pretty tragic, and Quentin's part was very interesting in terms of concepts like time and trying to hold onto the past.
I know why the caged bird sings. That shit is garbage.
>>7296322
came here to post this
I don't know whether it's because I dislike steinbeck, or if it's just a god awful book all around.
>>7297491
There are enough shitty books at Goodwill as it is.
And I refuse to take any part in perpetuating this filth.
Tie between the jungle book and walden
>>7295975
A Separate Peace sucks so much dick
>>7299478
this
catcher in the rye
holden is too autistic for me to handle
>>7295873
fuck you that book is amazing
You all ain't read shit when it comes to bad books.
I've never been able to get through To The Lighthouse. It's been that long since I last tried that I couldn't even tell you why anymore.
>>7300127
What did you expect from self help? Might as well post Excel For Dummies.
>>7300134
At least Excel for Dummies could theoretically help out some dummies.
I had to read this shit for a class, and it only helped me into moving that much closer to a bullet in my head.
>>7296306
Nice b8 m8.
>>7299420
Isn't it supposed to be (at least in part) based on Hamlet (or am I mixing it up with another Shakespearean tragedy?)? Faulkner is the next American author I want to become more familiar with after I read some more Hemingway. I enjoyed As I Lay Dying, and I think I would enjoy other works if his if they are similar in style and substance.
>>7300133
bad taste
>>7300133
Picked it up several months ago. Dropped it pretty quick myself. I just wasn't getting anything out of it, and I found the style to be just insufferable.
for whom the bell tolls
>>7300572
Faulkner is probably the best author of prewar American fiction
read Light in August, The Sound and the Fury and Absalom Absalom!
>>7300577
>my subjective experience is of a higher class than yours
I didn't say the book was terrible, just that I have never been able to finish it. There were things about it that I could see were worth merit but ultimately it wasn't for me. Deal with it.
brave new world
Maybe not the worst ever, but the first book in a long, long time that I can remember simply putting down cause I couldn't take it anymore. The writing is excruciating.
The whole freaking Catteni series.
ITT: /lit/izens reveal themselves to be the utter plebeians I have long suspected them all of being.
>>7296303
Yep. Madame Bovary is well written, Flaubert wanted to write a book about nothing : He did great I think.
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons.
Fucking awful.
I now understand why some people retch at the thought of continental philosophy.
utter tripe. if she hadn't killed herself IRL then this book would've been totally forgotten about, and it should've.
ITT: 11th graders mad that the teacher gave them a C on the reading assignment
>>7302249
>projecting
>>7302030
poor pleb :(
>>7295827
I have to think all the way back to middle school because I'm no longer obligated to read a book if its shitty.
>>7295827
I actually just realized that I have never read a horribly shitty book.
Bottom of the barrel are still passable. Those would be Things Fall Apart, The Sun Also Rises, Survivor (Palahniuk) and Status (Erlend Loe).
>>7300146
Nice taste sheep
>>7303385
Oh yeah, The Alchemist too. That was pretty bad. Narcissistic entitlement disguised as spirituality. Pronoia is nothing but a solipsistic god complex.
>>7302955
Not a high schooler.
I'm in college.
I did read Jane Eyre in high school for my AP English though.
It's shit.
>>7296306
kill urself :^)
>>7296306
>tfw literally my favourite novel
I know this is bait but I hope there aren't too many people who unironically dislike this book
>>7303814
Sya pleb, pleb. Perhaps one day you'll do some thinking for yourself :^)
>>7295827
I bought this for twenty dollars at an airport, and I appreciate I should have known better to not by Airport Thrillers, but I could have used a simple knock-off Indiana Jones to pass a few flights
>First chapter is %100 utterly mediocre prologue, I know this book will not be great
>By the second chapter DeMille has contrived a reason for the three leads, two male and one female, to all be naked in some ancient ruin "Bath" with inexplicably clean water. DeMille fails to describe the two male leads in any way, skips straight to multiple paragraph physical description of the naked female lead, paragraph ends with both men being erect, and after a single page the young male lead attractively jerks off while staring at her like a serial killer, before ejaculating into the water they're all swimming in.
And by the way the female lead was ostensibly the older male's (not the one that was jerking off) girlfriend, although the two males fuck her back and forth about seven times each throughout the book.
Every time I finished a chapter, I thought to myself "Wow, that was it, that's the nadir. It can't get worse" and it would keep proving me wrong.
Highly recommended.
Dragonlance, anything by Weis & Hickman. High school sucked
>>7302955
>reading Madam Bovary for "Masterpieces of World Lit" course in college
>told it's a founding document for Realism
>Charles' first wife dies for no good reason 25 pages in
okay den
>>7303992
Yeah, in real life people who die always have a good reaon.
>>7296306
This. I never completely understood was Zizek was talking about when he went on about ideology until I read The Brothers Karamazov. If you want to tell people how to live, write a philosophical treatise, not a novel.
>>7304065
it was complete coincidence and so fast it just didn't make sense. Painted it like she died because she was worried about his parents?? It was just completely silly
>>7296613
I think he just doesn't click with some people. To me he's one of the least boring authors I've ever read.
>>7295827
Ulysses is fucking unreadable, can't believe such pretentious shit is considered a classic.
>>7304098
one day you'll grow up and feel silly
>>7296306
>>7297650
This...
>>7301584
I had the same experience. I forced my to continue turning the page for awhile, threw in the towel by around page 20.
>>7295827
Roxana
Nowadays I almost never finish books I don't enjoy. However back when I was in my early teens, when I did finish every book I was handed, there was one, the first in a series, which I absolutely hated and wanted to be over with. It was called Tomorrow, When The War Began and it was about a group of teenagers hiding out in the bush after a foreign power invades Australia.
I found Candide to be one massive masturbatory sequence by Voltaire to show everyone how clever and witty he was. I doubt that smug frog even cared though.
I can't remember the name that's how bad it was, but it was some cliché shit about vampires or something. Girl moves in next to a graveyard or something, then something about a man with "absolutely extraordinary eyes". Couldn't even bother finishing half of it
>>7296358
I actually had to read this shit for high school and I've tried to force out all memory of it. I had completely forgotten I read it until now. Fuck you
>>7304647
As an Australian, I apologise for that experience. It was part of the curriculum when I was in high school. Just awful stuff.
>>7304846
Did you also read The Slap?
Ozzie HS curriculum is slightly ridiculous
>>7296342
yes this was very bad
>>7295827
Briar rose
Had to read in it high school. The author is a female, it is about a concentratiom camp amd such, it is factually wrong and terribly written, characters are unrelatable, the story wraps up I 2 pages and to top it off their is gay sex scene
I fucking hate the Tim and Eric tier attitude this book has
>>7296358
I like the whole idea behind it but now that I try and remember what happened in the book I draw a massive blank
>>7296584
I want this engraved on the tombstones of my enemies
>>7304876
>hating on Tim and Eric
>>7296196
Honestly this. If you aren't interested in that time, and you're sick of people telling you why this is such a good piece of art, it fucking sucks. I really do think they need to give kids options in HS lit classes.
E.g., A lot of people I know hate Catcher, but it's the book that made me realize I can be a productive person and do something with my life, instead of being afraid of constantly fucking things up, and not trying anything because of that fear. However, I wouldn't ask someone who has their shit together to enjoy the book.
>pic related is not the worst thing ever, but it's not near as good as people make it out to be...felt like I wasted a month reading it
>>7304851
Didn't read it in high school. I have read it though. Bit rubbish, but not all bad.
There's not much in the way of Aussie lit for high schools though. All I can think of is Oscar and Lucinda and A Fortunate Life.
>>7304897
Not my thing, I might actually go back and try it out again, I've gained a little appreciation for irony after enjoying Finnegan's Wake
>>7304867
Fuck off kike
>>7304851
>>7304917
>The Slap
Greatest/Only Australian contribution to any medium of entertainment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm_niiQfeWc
>tfw I saw this and thought it was some comedy
>google and find out it's a 4serious drama based on a dumb book
I don't know what the hell they were thinking, but I'm glad they were.
I think any books shown in this video will fill that quota
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoTZcrtFXsY
>>7304914
holy shit, that's one of my favorite books. like ever. :(
>>7304950
But anon, this is a parody of the show. It's intentionally funny. Literally one kid gets slapped one time. That's it.
>>7304914
>tfw ex-gf recommended East of Eden to me as her favorite book
Fuck you, ho, this thing sucks and you were a pleb.
>>7304998
I know it's a parody, but it's also an advertisement for it.
As in, this is the thing that is supposed to draw in an audience based on what's shown.
Somewhere there was a bunch of bro Aussies gearing up for a comedy night from this funny thing they saw on TV and getting a completely straight-faced drama before one of them switches the channel after ten minutes of awkward silence.
Also I forgot Mad Max, I guess Mad Max was pretty significant Australian contribution
>>7304996
you liked all the foreshadowing, over-the-top judeo-christian imagery (or Jungian if you aint cucked m8), and stereotype reversals?
>Huehuehue, me speak very little english mr. trask
>Ret me get you summ tea, okie okie?
>It's all an act Mr. Hamilton, I actually can articulate myself very well in English, but I choose not to, in order to not unsettle social expectation. Oh yeah, btw, I like to smoke opium and do philosophy with all the other old Chinese guys, that's not a bad stereotype tho lol, ty Johnny!
The Pearl
Half Blood Prince
Beloved
>>7297761
Damnit, Candide is wonderful.
>>7296472
This is actually one of his better books. Still dumb as hell but its fun and basically everything you could want from an airport novel.
>>7304083
Zizek has never said anything substantive even once.
>>7305081
idk man, I just remember being enthralled for the entire 3 or 4 weeks it took me to read this. It might not be the most subtle novel or aspire to anything new or experimental or whatever, but I loved how it felt like I was reading an american mythos spanning generations.
I may be a pleb, but it was the moments where the narrator (Steinbeck himself? or some literary alternate Steinbeck) shares that anecdote about his mother selling the war bonds and getting the free military plane ride, or the opening chapters where he describes the geological history of the Salinas valley; I ate that shit up. And I did like how the 'timshel'/Cane and Abel story tied everything together. But it's cool m8, I don't pretend to have the best (or even good) taste in literature, and there's still so so many books that I haven't had the chance to read and even more that I've probably never heard of.
My best to you and yours, and I wish you not only a good day, but good luck in your future /lit/ (and non /lit/) endeavors.
>>7305081
Not the guy you're replying to, but yeah, I did. I really did. I found it profound, amusing, tragic, captivating and beautiful.
Racial stereotypes aren't problematic to me.
The Name Of The Wind
>>7304914
is this a fucking joke?
>>7305956
>>7306003
>>7306168
EoE guy here.
I seriously think that the last 200-300 pgs. of this book are inexcusable. Sure, Steinbeck does some beautiful things with landscape and familial story-telling in the first half of the book, but Joe Valery, Kate, and Aron are some of the flattest characters I've ever read. Maybe there is someone as stupid as Joe that has existed, but Kate and Aron simply cannot exist in the real-world, especially not when this is a fiction that Steinbeck is constantly reminding us is interwoven with reality.
I almost didn't read the last 80 or so pages, because I knew as soon as they have that scene with the recruiters, our whiny twin is dead.
If you can justify the last third of that book, or even try to reason to me that the first two-thirds of that book can make up for it, please try, otherwise, stay keked and stop putting this book in the top 10 of the /lit/ books poll.
>>7306201
EoE guy again, the chart above just goes to show how much more pleb this board is now. This list is from 2013? EoE is #37 on this chart. IIRC it was somewhere between 8-15 on the current top 100, fucking inexcusable /lit/.
>>7295827
I'm actually quite into Buddhism and general eastern philosophy but this book really rubbed me the wrong way. I gave up about 60 pages in. The main protagonist is not at all relatable and begins as this "great guy" respected and loved by everyone.. give me a break. Literally vomit inducing.
>>7306552
i gave up around that much in but out of boredom. literally nothing happening
>>7304104
Hopefully not
>>7304096
I don't think he's boring at all either. I like the way he catches daydreaming to paper. Maybe you have to be someone who daydreams all the time.
Atlas Shrugged
>>7295827
>implying TKAM isn't top-tier
You're actually so fucking retarded, OP. Tell me how it's the worst book you've ever read.
Catcher in the Rye. I fucking hated Holden. What a whiny little bitch.
>>7296584
I honestly think that's the point,old sport.
>>7296358
Honestly, it was a pretty enjoyable read. But holy fuck, Gaiman, you're not a edgy goth in the 80's anymore, Shadow is a cringey as fuck name for your MC. Also, the ending shit itself completely.
Anything John Green
Jesus Christ his pretentious faux-intellectual style pisses me off so much
>>7295945
The only non meme answer here.
>>7296303
I recognize the writing and certain elements, but I have never in my life read something so dull and pointless.
>>7306213
That list is from 6 months ago by Aaron D. It's a better list, but less of a representative because people got to vote any number of times so much of it is skewed.
Infinite jest, I can't understand why people like it so much. Absolute rubbish
>>7295945
i loved this book :{. I did did hate to kill a mocking bird
Mrs dalloway is the one that made me the angriest
>>7304917
There's so much good Aussie kids literature though :(
Iron mountain, the nargun and the stars. Why is it always shitty John Marsden
Catcher in the Rye.
Jude the Obscure.
VALIS.
>>7303992
Retard.
>>7295827
>>7295873
>>7295975
>>7296196
>>7296306
>>7296342
>>7297650
>>7300111
>>7300133
>>7300589
>>7300667
>>7304098
>>7304690
>>7304857
>>7304914
Why does /lit/ consider itself intelligent again? What I'm getting here is that you basically all just read Gravity's Rainbow, Finnegans Wake, and Infinite Jest then used that as an excuse to not appreciate ANY OTHER LITERARY MOVEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE.
>>7311364
to be fair, you linked maybe 2 or 3 great books
>>7311373
if you dont think ulysses, to the lighthouse, madame bovary, and candide at least are great ur a pleb
>>7311392
I'll give you To The Lighthouse and add Catcher In The Rye. I havent read Madame Bovary or Jane Eyre
Candide and Ulysses are fun to read and might afford studying but I'm pressed to say great
>>7311410
lol a guy who hasnt read madame bovary thinks he has opinions
"The Giver" was so bad. IT WAS SO BAD.
>>7311416
lol at a guy who has this opinion saying anything at all
A fucking community college professor made me read a fucking ayn rand book for class. It was called Anthem, I believe. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway fuck you), it was a fucking steaming pile of fucking shit.
>>7311447
you haven't read madame bovary leave /lit/
>>7296306
get fucked
>>7305065
>implying Danger 5 isn't one of the best mini-series ever made
S2 is worse than S1, but it's still fucking great.
>>7302030
>>7296342
Nah nah, brae brae. Taste is objective and you are dumb.
Great Gatsby is essential. /lit/ just hates it because it's not inaccessible.
>>7297839
>jewyork time best-seller
>>7311928
>Ulysses is obviously an incredible achievement. But it's hardly a real book. It's a mockery.
>Portrait was miles better.
Jesus Christ.
>>7311928
How is Ulysses a mockery? What's it a mockery of?
>>7312001
It's still fucking funny that it actually got published
>>7311972
not him but Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, while contestably serious works of art in their own rite, could really be read as satire of high modernism and heavy symbolism a trademark of literary fiction at the time
>>7312005
Well, pic related is available on amazon right now.
uncle orson has shit out some terrible fiction in his time
>>7306552
Ok, same poster here. I forced myself to finish this book tonight. The last 30 pages or so were actually pretty decent and tied the whole thing together nicely. I still have to say that I don't enjoy his writing style very much and I thought the characters were pretty weak. Decent message but poor delivery.
>>7312001
>those actually got published
>professional covers
>stealing two different IPs from two different companies
>no one has stopped this
Fan Fiction was a mistake
>>7299740
It's really not that bad.
>>7304647
I read that whole damn series, it was tragic. fuken Marsden
>>7296306
Memes
>>7311454
>yfw it's her best work
>>7295827
Expected something good after reading -and loving- Journey to the Center of the Earth. Extremely boring and annoying.
>>7312153
>Hasn't read Melville
OH BOY
>>7296358
Dat Shadow
Dat Evil Odin
Dat Plot
That book was a fucking train wreck and I should have stopped at that god awful opening with prison and meeting Loki or some shit.
missionary by lady morgan
Ham on Rye
Hellen Kellers Diary
its a real book
about a blind, deaf and dumb woman
who wrote letters all day
Worst book i've ever read.
>>7312657
How would Hellen Keller even know what a book is?
>>7312586
i thought it was ok
>>7312693
it wasn't
Island by Aldous Huxley. The part where they rewrite Oedipus Rex as a New-Agey-self-help guide made me want to shoot myself.
You don't know shit.
This whole trilogy is the worst kind of YA shit, but pic related makes the immeasurable pile of feces that was Mockingjay feel like masterpiece in comparison. I'm not saying this lightly, it is THAT bad.
>>7296472
>>7296358
>>7297859
these are valid answers too
This whole thread just went to hell
http://i.imgur.com/2BALvKW.gif
The Alienist
Every Day
>>7313067
>imgur
Go home Reddit.
>>7297750
just ordered this. I hope you're wrong lol
>>7295827
La Fuerza de Sheccid. Fuck Carlos Cuhautémoc.
>>7313610
He couldn't be more wrong
>>7313529
name a more convenient image host
the 40 laws of power by robert greene
>>7313067
>on an image board
>links to Imgur
This is an imageboard you pleb, not to mention the gif you posted comes in sizes small enough to fit on 4chan
Turbopleb
>>7313958
http://postimage.org/
>>7295845
The movie was excellent, at least.
Good example of shit lit that made for fantastic cinema.
>>7313110
>top pleb
It's 48 You stupid fucking faggot piece of shit
>>7314130
You sure got him! Veteran 4chan user!
>>7296306
Were the other books you read Don Quixote, Madam Bovary, The Sound and the Fury and In Search of Lost Time?
>>7300127
I agree. The movie was mint though
Bleeding Edge. I had to put it down because I was annoyed. (Actually it probably wasn't the worst; just the first that came to mind.)
>>7311364
What literary movement involves whinging incessantly about first -world problems?
>>7315633
Ha. I wanted to get into Pynchon and the dust-jacket gave me the impression of some Gibsonesque type thing. I took it out at the downtown library, read 15 pages on the train and returned it at a suburban outlet not even an hour later. It just feels tacky to namedrop real brands every couple paragraphs.
>>7311991
Your pendantry
Wuthering Heights
>>7312657
Is this real? Must be hilarious, I'm buying it.
>>7295827
Heart of Darkness
>>7316576
I will sodomize your dad you fuck
>>7316608
kind of like reading the book reddit
>>7295827
Your diary desu
>>7295945
this
>>7295827
By far this. Absolutely worst book I've ever read in my life by an absolutely massive margin.
The Hobbit
The Reader by Schlink. My God.
>>7295873
At least you didn't say Great Expectations. That would be a reddit-tier response.
>>7296342
Either this or anything written by Kurt Vonnegut.
>>7318151
What the fuck do you know? What could you possibly have against Vonnegut? Have you read one of his books in entirety? Did your highschool English teacher make you read Slaughterhouse 5 and you barely paid attention to it?
>>7295827
The Sound and the Fury
Real, unbiased answer: some shitty steampunk book
>>7295827
Sense and Sensibility
Twain was right
>>7318339
I like Vonnegut and all , but he isn't the fucking genius people make him out to be. His books aren't aging very well. Also I am not that anon.
>>7315621
nah
>>7318522
You don't have to be a genius to be a good author. However, I do think he has a great style and very smart writing. I don't see any reason for someone to think that any of his books are bad enough to be "the worst thing they've ever read". Especially with most of the shit that gets published
Princess of Cleves
Hunger Games Series
Harry Potter Series
Lord of the Flies
Pride and Prejudice
Jude the Obscure
Hard Times by Dickens
The novel instilled in me a passionate hate of the fucking sentimentalist cunt.
the bible
