Books you think are shite

[5t3IIa]

There's some books wot I think are very badly written and therefore crap (Da Vinci Code) then some what are crap cuz they are cunty but readable (Crichton, Patricia Cornwell) then some that are crap cuz the subject and tone are baws (Diceman, Zen & teh etc)

 

[ringo]

Bored of and gave up on:

Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
DeLillo's Underworld
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

 

[Hellsbells]

I tried to read it about 5 years ago. I found it really irritating, like the author was trying to hard to be...not sure what, I was going to say whacky, but that's not right. Trying too hard to be offbeat or something.

Really?
I first read it when i was about 14. Maybe it helps when you're younger and less cynical about stuff. (assuming you're not 14 now of course....)

I have to say i enjoyed reading much more before going doing an eng lit degree where i had to disect every sentance.

 

[ringo]

A Confedaracy of Dunces

No idea what the fuss is about with this book. Just not funny.
Never thought much of Catch 22 either.

 

[May Kasahara]

Silas Marner George Eliot can fuck off and die...oh, she already has.

 

[ringo]

Ibsen - Hedda Gabler

 

[Blagsta]

No idea what the fuss is about with this book. Just not funny.
Never thought much of Catch 22 either.

I liked Catch 22.

 

[danny la rouge]

I have to say i enjoyed reading much more before going doing an eng lit degree where i had to disect every sentance.

I never read introductions to books for much the same reason.

 

[the button]

I never read introductions to books for much the same reason.

I don't anymore, either. I was put off reading Moby Dick for a long time by the ridiculously "scholarly" introduction to the Penguin Classic edition.

 

[Gromit]

noooo That's one of my favourite books. How dare you think it is shit! What's wrong with it?

I think you have to be female to enjoy it. From a male pespective it was just dull dull dull drab.

 

[Hellsbells]

I think you have to be female to enjoy it. From a male pespective it was just dull dull dull drab.

yeah i was gonna say - it probably is a book females like more than males.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Catch 22. Never got into that at all, and I have tried, quite a few times.

 

[Gromit]

I'm amazed so many don't like Catch 22. I love this book and read it over and over.

 

[rutabowa]

a lot of the books mentioned aren't really bad though. i just finished reading Richard Allen's "Suedehead" (sequel to Skinhead), now that is some really unbelievably bad writing, i finished it tho, it was like a car crash thing.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

OK yeah Catch 22 just belongs more in a 'overrated books/books you just can't get into' thread rather than 'books you think are shite'.

Thing is I tend to block out the really crap stuff so I just can't remember...

 

[N_igma]

A farewell to arms.

 

[DexterTCN]

Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon, any western religious literature.

Most biographies.

 

[May Kasahara]

a lot of the books mentioned aren't really bad though. i just finished reading Richard Allen's "Suedehead" (sequel to Skinhead), now that is some really unbelievably bad writing, i finished it tho, it was like a car crash thing.

That's true (although Coldheart Canyon really is bad ). Those Yardie books by Victor Headley are pretty shite; I seem to remember the first one being ok, but by the time I got to Yush! the terrible, terrible writing was just too bad to ignore.

 

[nick301171]

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One of the few books I was unable to finish, due to sheer tedium. Came highly recommended as well.

 

[ringo]

That's true (although Coldheart Canyon really is bad ). Those Yardie books by Victor Headley are pretty shite; I seem to remember the first one being ok, but by the time I got to Yush! the terrible, terrible writing was just too bad to ignore.

You can add the Wheatley books and just about any other attempt to write about Brixton to that too.

 

[SpookyFrank]

A farewell to arms.

I didn't care for that, I like some of his other books though.

'On the road' by Kerouac anyone? What a bag of shit that is, give me Woody Guthrie's 'bound for glory' any day.

 

[Chairman Meow]

Veronika decides to die. What a load of old cock.

 

[chooch]

Another for Life of Pi.
And that piss-poor Murakami thing Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The follow-up, Lila, is fucking awful.

 

[Vintage Paw]

A Confedaracy of Dunces

I really enjoyed that. However, I'm with you about On the Road

 

[Vintage Paw]

I think you have to be female to enjoy it. From a male pespective it was just dull dull dull drab.

It's one of Alan Titchmarsh's favourite books.

 

[ViolentPanda]

The entire output of Mills and Boon, ever. Because!

Anything by P.J. O'Rourke post-"Holidays in Hell".

 

[Random One]

don't know if i'd go as far as calling them shite...but they were definitely not very good:

Curious incident of the dog in the night - boring
Bigfish - close to being a pile of shite

 

[saucisson]

surprised that there are already mentions for three books I hated
- confedaracy of dunces
- catch 22
- on the road...

all I found tedious beyone belief.

recently i hated half of the yellow sun....

might stick to classic rock magazine.

 

[felixthecat]

Pride and Predudice and everything else by Jane fucking Austen. I've tried and I've tried, but I cannot for the life of me see how anyone ever manages to finish one of her novels, let alone enjoy it.

Twee, smug and just plain irritating.

 

[Blagsta]

Foucault's Pendulum
Weaveworld