[Tuesday's Child]

Twilight... The 5 pages I read of 50 Shades of Grey... and Anna Karenina. Oh lord - ramble on for hundreds of pages, then she throws herself in front of a train!

[vxf111]

Ack! A lot of the mentioned books are my favorites.

I didn't enjoy the Lord of the Rings books but muddled through so I could see the movies... which I subsequently also didn't like.

Sarah Gruen takes the cake for me. Garbage. Reads like something a non-profressional wrote while challenging herself to write for a contest. The horsey books are worse than Water for Elephants.

[HopeandJoy]

Ditto on Life of Pi, horrible, boring, could not get through it.

As a teenager hated Moby Dick.

More recently despised Life of Pi.

I dont count the "beach books" - I know they are just brain popcorn. But I really object to a "good" book gone bad - especially preachy and pretentiously bad!

[danceronice]

"As I Lay Dieing" I had to read it in High School.

My brother would agree with you. "As I Lay Dying" put him off Faulkner forever. (I read "Absalom, Absalom" in college and don't remember it being that bad.)

I'm trying to think of a book I just HATED/could not finish, and I'm coming up with nothing, because I think I just don't pick up books that I'm going to LOATHE (like I am not even bothering with "Fifty Shades" as if I want Twilight porn, which is literally what it is with the names changed, I know where AdultFanfiction.net is located. Likewise, I'm not reading anything by Cassandra Clair....)

Oh, right, FLeventer reminded me... "L'Etranger"/"The Stranger" in French class. Honestly, it's hard to get into a book when all you're really thinking is "Wow, this protagonist is an ASS and not the equine kind, why can't he just die sooner so it's a shorter book?"

[Judysmom]

Oh jeez, I love some of the books that others hate. Love everything written by Tolkien and Austen.

Worst book: American Psycho by Ellis. I started to throw up at the rat scene and put the book down, never to pick it up again.

Other than that, I just stay away from books written by men about women. Have yet to read one that isn't some variation of the madonna/whore issue.

Oh, and I stay away from popular history (think no footnotes). Recently forgot why I don't read that crap and bought "God's Jury". Total sensationalist crap.

[Epona142]

Land of the Painted Caves by Jean M Auel.

I waited all those years for THAT? It upset me so badly, not just the content which made me hate the characters, but also how poorly written and BORING it was.

I seriously wanted to set the book on fire and I was furious. Better she had not written that "final" book at all and let us use our imaginations.

[Marshfield]

Of Mice and Men was also not worth the time it took to read

[Judysmom]

The book about the girl with the tumbs was pretty bad too. Even cowgirls get the blues? I think that was the title. Books written by men about women. nuff said.

Oh-Plato! If I die without ever having to read Plato again- anything written by Plato- I will be happy. Blech.

[Bristol Bay]

Another vote for Bridges of Madison County. A friend and I used to take turns reading the bad parts aloud and laughing. i used to have a big crush on the guy I had borrowed it from, but after seeing that he had underlined parts of it, I lost respect for him.

I also hated Lady Chatterly's Lover and Secret Life of Bees. Could not get through Life of Pi, and now I can't wait to not see the movie.

[vacation1]

1) Middle-brow fiction catering to middle-class, middle-aged, middle-of-the-road white women. Think Alice Hoffman.

2) Middle-brow fiction and nonfiction catering to middle-class, middle-aged, middle-of-the-road white men. Think Rick Bass.

[Louise]

I finally thought of the name of this one. Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle. I was supposed to read it for a college course, but I JUST COULDN'T. I literally couldn't get beyond two pages without falling asleep. I never did read it, totally blew the final exam questions that referred to it, but, luckily, managed to pass the course anyways. For years afterwards I kept that book by my bedside, and tried to read it every time I couldn't fall asleep. It worked every time, sound asleep within two or three pages. I still have no idea what it is about.

[IveGotRhythm]

I agree with so many of these (and I have an English degree too): Middlemarch, War and Peace; I tried so hard to make it through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (I have it in one volume) but after forcing myself through 900 pages I still couldn't force myself to finish it.

I do love Austen, Hemmingway, and Shakespeare.

But above all things, even to the point where I can't stomach the family friendly movies made about it, is Gulliver's Travels. We spent a whole semester on it in Freshman English and all I can say is thank God for Cliffs Notes. I've never hated a book that much ever. BTW, my freshman year of college was 25 years ago and I still hate it that much.

[alabama]

I was an English major, too, and have read my share of books that I hated. Since graduating, I have to say Stephen King's "The Long Walk" has to be one of the most depressing. I generally like King's books and I HATE not finishing a book. I finished this one but it was pushing it.

[wsmoak]

The Red Badge of Courage.

To this day I *still* do not know the answer to "What is the significance of the corpse in the bower?" (That was one of the exam questions. In high school. Which was a *long* time ago.)

[tle]

Not a huge reader, but have to say the one "bad" that has stuck with me for over 25 years is ANYTHING written by Steinbeck. BLECH!!!

[Capall]

100 years of solitude. LONGEST. BOOK. EVER. So hard to get through, and I think because it was translated into English that made it worse. I had to read it for a class and I was ready to spork my brain out through my nose.

I also read only the synopses to "The Hunger Games" series, and I could barely get through those, I couldn't imagine reading the books. The whole premise just ooged me out, and I don't get why everyone raves about them. Not really my cup of tea I guess. My mom tried reading the first book, and couldn't get through it. She and my dad went to watch the movie, and they hated the movie too.

[Kairoshorses]

I had to read Moby Dick FOUR TIMES in college/MA. I couldn't stomach four times through the waling vessel descriptions. Ugh. I appreciate it, and I actually liked it better the last time, but still....

I recently read several badly written memoirs. Not many good ones around.

I finally read Heart of Darkness and liked it when I was working on a PhD (tried earlier and failed). Similarly, I tried to read Life of Pi, and couldn't get past the second chapter--but recently I listened to it while on a long road trip, and it's amazing when it's read TO you.

My spouse and I read to each other, and she's a Joyce scholar...so last year, she read every friggin' word of Ulysses. Ugh.

Sad--I love a lot of the books others hate.

[SolarFlare]

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I had to force myself to finish it, and I am a voracious reader. I would just tell the patient to hurry up and die already! Many years later, I picked up a different Ondaatje novel to give him a second chance, because how could it possibly be as bad? Silly me...I hated that one too. I must be a glutton for punishment because I'm pretty sure I tried a third one, and with that I finally gave up on him completely.

The Sound and the Fury. Maybe if I had read the Coles Notes before starting, I wouldn't have hated it so much. There were three characters with the same name - 2 male and 1 female plus the time bounced all over the place with no context so you couldn't keep the story straight at all. I nicknamed it "The Sound of MY Fury".

[jennywho]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenence. I can't tell you how many times I have tried to read that book and have never finished it. My beloved high school lit teacher adored that book and had us read it if we wanted to. I tried a couple of times ad couldn't finish it. She passed away a few years after I graduated and I tried again nada. Every couple of years I pick it up, but I. Just. Can't. Finish. It.

[Trakehner]

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series....The movies were so much better.