heartbreaking work of staggering genius... not a fan

TWILIGHT. I don't hate it, but I don't get it. I put in 5.5 hours with the audio edition and then quietly returned it to the library.

The Time Traveler's Wife. (And since I live in Chicago, I get a lot of grief about it).

The English Patient. I was slogging through it 10 years ago when I was pregnant, my water broke one night as I was reading it, I laid it down -- and never picked it up again.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafizi. I couldn't even finish it and I usually finish all books I start.

I really really didn't like "Running With Scissors". Everyone, plus all the blurbs, talked about how funny it was and I didn't see any humor in it. I thought it was much more tragic and disturbing.

Thank you! I HATED The Kite Runner, too! Oh, and throw Catcher in the Rye on the pile.

I did not care for:
The Lovely Bones
The Kite Runner

In fact, both have faired increasingly poorly as I've gained distance from them, especially Kite Runner, which has grown so crummy in my memory that I want to slap it out of people's hands when I see them reading it. As for Lovely Bones, I like it so little that I can just barely be kept from mouthing off, in public, about it, offending all true believers within earshot.

Hey, how about another "true confessions" post about books that EVERYONE tells one to read or that EVERYONE has read that one just...cannot be bothered to pick up. For me, it's "White Teeth."

Ditto Running with Scissors. Extravagant story in mediocre prose. Thought it was self-indulgent. Hated it.

Where do I begin? Love Story, Fear of Flying, Once is Not Enough.

Let's just say, I was underwhelmed.

I know this is an old book, but I'm old. I hated Hawii, by James Michener. I've never spoken to anyone else that didn't love it, though.

For me it was Wicked. I had read Mirror, Mirror and liked it, but I just could not make it through Wicked.

The Liar's Club by Mary Karr. I just didn't care enough and didn't even finish it.

Confederacy of Dunces... Everyone said how funny it was, how they couldn't stop laughing. I only finished it for bookclub. Absolutely hated it and didn't find it the least bit funny.

Everyone just raved about Cold Mountain and I just hated it.
It didn't live up to the hype at all and could have comfortably sat on a shelf with (pardon me) Harlequin Romances and not
have distinguished itself among the group......except for all of the hype. Someone in publicity earned their keep.

Time Traveler's Wife! I, too, am from Chicago, and I've lied about liking it numerous times because I somehow feel disloyal to my hometown if I dislike it.

Also: Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Eat, Pray, Love makes me want to kill Elizabeth Gilbert (not that I actually finished it, but how could I).

Two that I can think of immediately: The Old Man and The Sea <gasp> I know, it's almost a literary sin to admonish the great and powerful Ernest Hemingway, but I just really, really disliked it. Also, in response to Lyndsey's comment on Wicked, I attempted to read the sequel, Son of a Witch, and couldn't even make it all the way through. By the way, I love your blog, Alison, and check in often. You are really brilliant, and your insight is really helping me navigate the ins and outs of the publishing world. I hope to comment soon, as I've never had a chance to do so prior to this. Once again, great work!

Finally, someone else who didn't like Love Story! I can admit it now. Hated Cold Mountain, too. (Don't put me through all that just to have it end that way!) Detested Poisonwood Bible although I've like other books by the author. And what has happened to Anne Rice? Christ the Lord was unbearable.

I did not hate it, but The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon fell apart in the last 50 pages for me. I didn't like the ending. I didn't like the identity of the killer. Fascinating ideas and premise but ultimately it didn't deliver the knockout.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I had no emotional response to it whatsoeve, except irritation that I'd spent time reading it.

I already mentioned The Liar's Club, but a more recent title was The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Ditto to the Lifetime movie, which I made myself watch. The book was okay, but it didn't change my life. I still don't understand why it was so earth-shattering to everyone else.

I too hated On The Road, but it pales in comparison to my hatred of the Da Vinci Code. It was one of the most poorly written books I've ever read.

I couldn't get through The Book Thief. I feel guilty because everyone LOVES it and it's been on the besteller lists for ages. I never quit a book in the middle but I finally got to the point that I figured life is too short and there were other books I wanted to read!

Great column idea!

For me this would be Tom Perotta's "Little Children". I thought it was awful and have no idea what the fuss was about. Insipid characters all wrapped up in college creative writing class prose.

I finished it because I had intended to see the movie. Throughout the book i read and reread the blurbs and could not for the life of me understand why they were attached to this jacket.

Oh, it is SOOOO great (and outrageously funny) to see so many of you getting these guilty confessions of your chest! Keep 'em coming! PURGE! PURGE! (And, Becky, thanks so much for the love!)

ok --- I too HATED "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" -- Irritation beyond belief. Add "The Bridges of Madison County" to the list --- Gag me with a spoon!

Chalk up another one for Cold Mountain. I was looking forward to that book, and, when I started it, I wanted to say, is anything ever going to happen. I just quit, and never finished it. I tried The World According to Garp three times, and I just couldn't get into Confederacy of Dunces.

Lesa Holstine, www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Harry Potter: I couldn't get past the first book in the series, which is as good as about anything I've read as a foundation for a series realm. My daughter said once I'd struggled through book 2, the rest would be well worth my time.
But any of the others I've tried seem to me so much in need of simple editing. Like late-80s, and 90s, Stephen King, once you're such a reliable brand name, readers want all they can get, even if it's more wordage to chew.

Ditto on Twilight. The story is hard to put down but the writing for the whole series is laughable.

I'm going to second A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. Ugh, so annoying. Also underwhelmed by TWILIGHT (though I didn't think it was a waste, I don't agree with the adoration). On the mystery/suspense front, I was disappointed by Chelsea Cain's HEARTSICK. It wasn't as original or shocking (or unpredictable, since I figured out the killer's identity) as I was led to believe.

Nicole Krauss' "The History of Love" just didn't do it for me, even after reading the 3 or 4 pages of praise at the beginning of the paperback ed. "The Da Vinci Code" makes me wince; all I kept thinking as I read was, "was the editor under the influence of cold medication or something?"

I second Twilight and Harry Potter (which is hard as a high school librarian). I also couldn't finish Time Traveler's Wife.

Another thumbs down for Cold Mountain. My own nominee is Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I did eventually slug my way through the whole book, but I confess it took a while because I had to fight the urge to fall asleep everytime I read a few pages of it.

Life of Pi. Painfully boring. It seems like an excuse to detail a gruesome scene of an animal being eaten alive. That’s where I quit. Nothing was happening anyway. I'd love for someone to explain the hype here.

Also Eragon. It reads like a book written by a 15 year old LOTR fanatic. Which it is. I found it stilted, predictable, and a little too similar to LOTR for comfort. I can't even imagine what the unedited, self-published version was like. <shudder>

This year's Newbery winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! -- all very well as a classroom resource for a study of the Middle Ages, but there my enthusiasm stops.
(Hearty seconds to the mentions of Eragon and the cop-out ending of The Giver.)

I'll second "Confederacy of Dunces" (not the least bit funny) and I'll second "Heartbreaking Work of..." (grating self-congratulatory).

The Da Vinci Code -- couldn't get through the first chapter of cheesy, painful descriptive...horrific.

This is the greatest thread ever! Time Traveler's Wife...Memory Keeper's Daughter (ok, but so underwhelming)..Cold Mountain indeed..Reading Lolita (just so disorganized!), Hist of Love also underwhelming but also: Everything is Illuminated. Not.

My latest disappointment was Special Topics in Calamity Physics. I'm told there's substance under all that frenetic froth, but after 100+ pages of rabid gyrations I had no choice but to put me out of its misery.

I hated Secret Life of Bees, and when someone told me the main character in the book reminded her of me, I wanted to slap her. I also disliked All Over But the Shouting by Rick Bragg, and Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All.

I found Love in the Time of Cholera to be painfully slow, but I had heard such good things, so I kept going. When I finally finished the only thing I gained was a certainty that the story was ultimately not worth all the time invested!

Yikes...I agree with Anon1. I almost died from Cholera!!!

A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton. I couldn't stand any of the characters. Ugh, it's been years since I read it and yet I can feel the look of disgust on my face right now from just thinking about it!

I forgot these: Like Water for Chocolate. (Huh?) As hard as I tried, I couldn't finish History of Love and I'm stuck about 75 pages from the end of Grapes of Wrath. I make it a policy not to read anything: that has won the Booker Prize, features a golem, or has a title that has no bearing whatsoever on the subject. 'Magical realism' always manages to be neither.

Boys Men Fear:
Catcher in the Rye
A Separate Peace
The Road
The Sun Also Rises
The Portrait of the Author as a Young Man
Sorrows of Young Werther

Oh this is fun! I've tried to finish A Confederacy of Dunces several times, but I've come to loathe my copy - it feels like a weight around my neck. I'm so glad to finally hear that someone else doesn't like it! Memory Keeper's Daughter was very forgettable. Two books I absolutely hated were Nanny Diairies and American Psycho. Oh, and Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg was very disappointing - sort of struck me as a strange cross between Virginia Woolf and Danielle Steele.

Tree of Smoke. I read the ecstatic press in the NY Times Book Review, so I bought the book. It was sluggish and overlong, had no tension, and I didn't care about the characters. Many hours of my life--ring-a-ding-ding, down the toilet.

The Wheel of Time series... and I'll surely be roasted for this, but OMG, be the dragon, don't be the dragon, just quit whining! The Jude Fisher series reminds me why I only buy the first of a series and never commit to the whole up front. The Night Gardener was supposed to be great and I went crazy trying to find it, and then it was filled with cardboard characters, abject racism, and dialogue scrawled with a crayon. And the best way to get me started on a rant is to tell me that you liked the Da Vinci Code. Oooh! That felt so good!

I hated My Sister's Keeper. I slogged through for a book club and HATED the cop out ending. I still go on a tear about that ending whenever someone brings it up. I also was disappointed in Life of Pi--that one I recommended for book club and ended up struggling to finish. And I didn't even finish Eragon. It was so long and boring and by Brom's twelfth "days of yore" speech, I was through. Love this thread!

Gosh, this is fun. Next can we do "favorite books" and see how many people post the ones we just trashed today?

One Hundred Years of Solitude - it took me so long to get through it, I ended up owing the library $5 in overdue fees. Also, I wanted to like Inkheart, but it just creeped me out.

JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL -- I remember telling anyone who would listen that I thought the author and publisher owed me some sort of payment for my time--oh and a theory that all the reviewers, award juries, etc. figured that if they were forced to read it--then everyone else had to too--misery loves company!

Love You Forever..ACK..SPEW

I'd also have to go with The Kite Runner; great setting but cheesy, contrived developments that had me rolling my eyes by the final act.

The Life of Pi--I've been trying to finish that thing for years!

Atonement. Actually, I know several people who thought it was awful.

I loathed Bridges of Madison County. When asked about it I had to say 'I'm sure you'll like it.' And I still say I liked 95% of Lovely Bones - there was a 5% blip that did not belong there. And I admit I am a fan of the Twilight series but that doesn't mean they are well-written; in fact it's quite the contrary. I stay with them for the suspense.

Ditto on White Teeth (adolescent) and Reading Lolita in Tehran (draggy).

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I didn't finish this doorstop. Much like Running with Scissors, I just didn't care about the obnoxious characters. Also, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. It was was trying very transparently to be an instant classic. How pretentious. Ditto on Eragon (only go to page 12), Secret Life of Bees, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Confederacy of Dunces.

I'm going out on a limb to say I just hated Three Cups of Tea -- I know it's uplifting and noble and all that, but I thought the writing was stilted and juvenile. And I couldn't take any more "revelations" that, gosh, those people think and feel just like us, even if they are Muslims! I'll add my vote on Eragon. You all did better than I - I bailed after the first paragraph.

I hated Corrections too --- Anon & I are on a roll!

Anon, you hated Edward Tulane? Have you no soul?? It was BEAUTIFUL! But, I agree with you on most of the others;)
And Love You Forever is the creepiest book ever written for toddlers...hate the illustration of the mother climbing up the ladder into the window of her ADULT son and rocking him to sleep. Ewww...

I hated 1984! I thought it was predictable and should have ended sooner.

Many already mentioned: Reading Lolita in Tehran(EGO!!), Confederacy of Dunces (Tragic not funny), Life of Pi (alright already, move on), Oldest Confed Widow Tells All(Stifle, Edith, PLEASE). Also,
Water for Elephants -- it's okay, but what's the all the fuss? Glass Castle (shades of A Million Little Pieces in this reader's opinion), ahything by Saul Bellow (puerile). But what about those gems that we LOVED and could not get anyone else to buy and support?

I LOVED the "Twelve Little Cakes" by Dominika Dery. Check it out!

HYPERION --- Big yawn. My husband's friend said it's the best, so naturally I had to read it. Just as you really get into a character's past, you are yanked out and pushed head-first into yet another character's past. After a while I just stopped caring.

HEE! I am among friends!

Okay, I am so in agreement on:

Confederacy of Dunces - what was funny?

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - self-indulgent, much?

Life of Pi - eh.

Corrections - where oh where was the editor? and the former Soviet state part felt completely unreal.



Special Topics in Calamity Physics - I swear I wanted to throw the book across the room at times.

Eragon...awful, awful, awful. And more awful. Plus a little additional awful.

Hated Life of Pi (it was just not believable)
Was bored to no ends by Kite Runner (hokey, cheesy characters and events, too convenient resolution)
And Cold Mountain was just too long.

I'm gonna have to say Catcher in the Rye and The Awakening. Both books on the summer reading list, which I read at the expense of a vast many other books I would have prefered. I thought the characters were whiny and passive. If they didn't like their life, they should have changed it! I guess I'm not a fan of the "we're so oppressed by society" story. I was also not a huge fan of The Tale of Despereaux. I don't mean to say I hate it, it just didn't blow me away. I think if I had read it when I was younger, I would have loved it.

I, too, disliked The Kite Runner and Atonement -- the first read like Mystic River set in Afghanistan. The villian was ridiculous and the whole rescue sequence struck me as beyond believable. Atonement was just plain boring.

Edward Tulane-cold hearted upper-class twit--Then the illustrator slaps him on the cross?? Should have left him there. The book panders, and the endless scenes of Eddie looking up at the stars just milked the poor me meter. Yuck.

One book? Ah, but there are so many -- including many of the Oprah books, anything by Jay McInerney, and some of those mentioned here. I couldn't finish COLD MOUNTAIN, KAVALIER AND CLAY, CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. I hated THE CORRECTIONS and Stephen King's THE GUNSLINGER. Sometimes it's just the rhythm of the language that makes it impossible for me to read. Sometimes it's the storyline; sometimes it's the disgusting images; sometimes I just don't care what happens to the characters.

Once you get started on this, it's hard to stop: Eragon, Edward Tulane, Everthing on a Waffle, DaVinci Code, Catcher in the Rye, and LORD OF THE FLIES.

I just didn't get Life of Pi . . . the whole island situation went right over my head, but I've never admitted it to anyone. Thanks for letting me confess.

I was the only woman in my book group who HATED The Red Tent-and I am a nice Catholic girl! Also, I really don't like Jennifer Weiner-she's not as funny as she thinks she is and she bores me to tears.

Ah, Anon, you just didn't get the message of Edward. It was the journey to find love and salvation, my friend. Think about the Grinch, and you'll get there...

I have to throw a PB in here. I REALLY don't like the pigeon books ("Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus"). My kids confirm this.

I also started "The Book Thief." I'm hoping if I give it another chance, I'll like it more.

I know I risk being kicked out of the Land of Children's Book Authors for saying this, but I HATE Pippi Longstockings. Love her hair, but somebody needs to hide the chocolate from that kid. She is WAY too sugared up for her (or anyone else's) own good!

Great thread!

Andrea Beaty
www.ThreeSillyChicks.com

I have tried to get into The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing.... I even took out the audio of it. Nothing.
Bee Season--hated every character so it was hard to care about them. I did go hear the author speak and I have to admit that the writing wasn't so bad. And I did watch part of the movie on television since I was intrigued to see what the Self STorage Unit would look like...(If you read it, you know.)
The House of Mirth and other Edith Wharton...I love the books until the tragic endings...Poor Lily Barth..if only the hero had come the evening before she o.d.ed...I stayed up late to finish it and threw it across the room when I was done...
I agree about Bilges of Madison County. When this came out, a co-worker at the bookstore hand sold thousands of copies of this---I took it on vacation all set to love it. Yuck...
The world is divided between those who well up at the mention of Love You Forever and those who seize up...Creepy is not the word for it...even the cover art is hideous. There are many other books that deliver the message of a parent's eternal devotion much better....

I can understand why some folks didn't like Confederacy of Dunces, but I hope their comments don't scare people away from what I consider to be the best American novel.

As for me, I loathe Huckleberry Finn.

"I Am Charlotte Simmons." Yuk!! I've never seen an author who used the "f" word more often or so unnecessarily. Plus, the story was just plain dumb! (And might I mention the book is almost 700 pages to wade through!)

I loved some of the books on this list so far, but I am going to loudly second Secret Life of Bees, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and Eragon. I fully expected to like all of them, too, which is frustrating. I also really hate Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.

Oh Oh, I forgot: The Constant Gardener! I HATED that book, and also the movie! This thread is GREAT - though I see some of my sacred cows above (*shudder* Kavalier and Clay, *gulp* Confederacy... oh! my favourites!), I'm loving that we're posting it all!

With apologies to Alison, I really hated Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I just don't get it and I think Greg is too much of a smart aleck. whew. I feel so relieved to tell the world.

ttm: How could I have neglected to mention "Love You Forever!"?? (Though I do love most of the rest of Robert Munsch). And the same goes for "The Giving Tree."

How can I resist this? Eragon (I don't even remember whether I finished it), Harry Potter (read the first one all in one sitting, but wasn't interested enough to keep going after that)... I also tried Octavian Nothing on audio and didn't get into it, but it's possible I'd fare better with it in real paper book form. Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier is another I couldn't finish. It was just boring.

Wow... thank you all for making it okay to not like "Love You Forever." I sell a lot of copies of it every year, and I have to act like I approve heartily of the choice when customers ask for it, but I, too, find it very creepy. And that's really the only remarkable thing about it.

How fun this is!
I did not like Lovely Bones, Love You Forever, Grapes of Wrath.

"Special Topics in Calamity Physics." Self-indulgent, poorly edited twaddle. And "The Post-Birthday World." A tedious waste of time, as I could not have cared less what happened to any of the main characters. Feh.

Amazing how much pent up book hatred we've been harboring, isn't it?? I am just loving everyone's responses! But to "Mary" (and everyone else), THERE'S NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE!! I think the very reason so many people are commenting here is that we often feel like we have to apologize for not liking a book that's beloved by others. But what is there to apologize for? So, the book didn't speak to you, or you found fault with it. That doesn't make you a "bad" reader, it makes you an individual. And if the world weren't filled with individual tastes, we wouldn't have such a wide selection of books to choose from. Imagine a world in which the only books available were the ones embraced by the masses, like most of those mentioned here... I shudder to think of it. So, keep those complaints coming!

Great list, great idea! Is it sacrilege to say anything by Joyce Carol Oates? People I dislike doing hateful things to each other and hating each other doing it..... also The Catcher in the Rye (never understood what made it so popular); with the exception of the parts we underlined to be read quickly behind the barn, Lady Chatterly's Lover (Sorry guys, it makes me laugh), Confederacy of Dunces ( I am SO grateful to see this on folks' lists, I thought I was the only one) and The Old Man and the Sea which is just boring.

If you listen the audio of "Confederacy," the funny will out....do agree with much else mentioned above, especially Lovely Bones (execrable), The Da Vinci Code (laughable), and especially Bridges of Madison County (the worst sacrifice of trees ever)...

Hooray! I find "Love You Forever" disturbing as well! And the message of "The Giving Tree" (destroy who you are for somebody else) terrible too.

Oh, and I know Margaret Atwood is supposed to be an amazing and brilliant author but I couldn't get past the first four chapters in "Robber Bride." The names she chose for her clichéd characters? Couldn't stomach them.

Thank you for this fun column!

This topic is just too good to resist. I'll brave the crowd to stand up for WHITE TEETH (the story ultimately didn't go anywhere, but how can you not love the author's use of language?) On the other hand, I'm with the majority here re: ERAGON, LOVE YOU FOREVER, WICKED (and sequel), CATCHER IN THE RYE, et al. How is it, though, that I'm the first one to mention the bloated, incoherent mess of Phillip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy? I made it through to the end, but it was liked being dragged by my face across miles of sandpaper.

I agree with those who didn't like THE LOVELY BONES (although LUCKY was amazing). I seem to be the only reader alive who disliked THE CHOCOLATE WAR; I didn't like A SEPARATE PEACE either. Or ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.
I thought THE HUMAN COMEDY was astonishingly bad.
And yet I love some of the other books people have listed here: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. I like Kerouac, but agree that ON THE ROAD is far from his best work.

"catcher in the rye." as a high school kid, i guess i was supposed to love it, but i just wanted to strangle holden.

"march" by geraldine brooks, which won the pulitzer, and everyone in my reading group raved about it, but i absolutely hated it.

i second "the secret life of bees" -- i didn't hate it, but didn't really like it that much either.

What is it about the cult of Eddie Tulane that my dislike generates a horrified response by folks-and everyone else gets a pass? I know the Grinch and Edward is no Grinch.

Well, the first book that came to mind was Confederacy of Dunces, and I see I'm not alone. Also, hate to say it, but I never liked Harry Potter. Couldn't get past the first chapter. Same thing with Chronicals of Narnia. Also, really didn't like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Light in August and Death Comes for the Archbishop. On the upside, there is a long list of books I did like.

Oh Goody--Glad to see I am not alone in thinking LOVELY BONES a pretentious mishmash that fell apart 1/3 into the book. I will stand up for WHITE TEETH, a funny and amazing piece of work, and LIFE OF PI, which would make you think.

Well there seem to be a lot of repeats on here! In defense of "Life of Pi" (which I really like) I think that it functions terrifically as a really classic example of magical realism featuring the literary conceits of "unreliable narrator" and "frame stories" (which I'm incidentally writing a paper on right now). Also, I am fed up with how it has become "in" to dislike "Catcher in the Rye" . . . not to demean it in any way (I LOVE Salinger) but it's the kind of book that doesn't really hold up well to reading (or rereading) after age 18 or so, in my opinion.

As for books I just couldn't get into at all . . . Love in the Time of Cholera and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Sorry to include more repeats! Can't think of anything else. Oh I really hated The Grapes of Wrath!

I agree with MANY of the above but thought I'd add some new titles: Girls Guide to Hunting & Fishing (pretentious), Naked Pictures of Famous People (complete rip-off of David Sedaris's superior essays), and God of Small Things (would've thrown it across the room if I weren't on a plane when I finished it. High school creative writing class quality. Boring book, average writing, dreadful ending.)

I have read the first discworld novel 'The Colour of Magic' by Terry Pratchett and just don't get it. I did not find it funny. At all.

JF -- while it may be that Discworld just does not work for you (I love them passionately myself, but no series is going to work for everybody), my opinion is that it took four or five books before the series really hit critical mass. When the online book club I'm part of "did" Discworld, the suggestion I got was to start with Guards! Guards! (the 8th Discworld book published, but the first in the "City Guards" sequence). I think this was very good advice.

'Bridges of Madison County' Friends kept saying
you've got to read it, it's wonderful... It was on
the NYT bestseller list for what, 4 years? Ugh.
One of the worst movies, ever, as well.

I'm so glad other ppeople mentioned a Confederacy of Dunces. I couldn't find a thing funny in that book. I hated most of the books other people listed here as well, the ones that always found their way onto HS reading lists--A Separate Peace, Catcher in the Rye, etc. What about Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone? I didn't totally dislike it, but I didn't get the hype at all.

Almost forgot to include anything by James Patterson

Oh, and forgot to add, anything by Tom Clancy.
Used to think it was a gender thing. But no,
they're some of the most clunky, ham-fisted written
books. His gee-whiz love of every kind of military
and spy gee-gaws just grates.

I hate to admit it, but A Farewell to Arms and almost all Hemingway is at the very bottom of my list (Bad librarian, very bad librarian!)
In addition:
Eragon
Da Vinci Code
Pavillion of Women
Anna Karenina
Emma (loved everything else by Austen!)
Wuthering Heights

Pride and Prejudice. I tried, I really did. Started over about 7 times in fact, but I just couldn't get through it.

Bel Canto. Almost got fired from a bookstore job for telling a customer I thought it was cliche.

The book that is at the top of my "Most Hated" list is SHE'S COME UNDONE by Wally Lamb. I read it when everyone else read it and I hated it and kept going and threw it away when I finished it. I never throw away books, but I felt so manipulated by that one. *shiver* I've stayed away from bestsellers ever since.

I don't hate them but just couldn't get into them (to the shock of my bookie friends) the Jasper Fforde books. Generally they'd be right up my reading alley and I tried and tried (multiple times) to no avail. And don't get me started on Cold Mountain. Slogged through that darn book only to have it end the way it did... I was NOT a happy reader.

John's Grisham's BLEACHERS...that book has NO point...not even a little point!

I am so thrilled to see "Time Traveler's Wife" on this list -- I have argued about it and thought I was alone. And I agree -- "Heartbreaking Work" was not staggering nor genius.

Did anyone else hate Eragon? It was like reading a police report.

THE CORRECTIONS. Bunch of selfish twits. THE DA VINCI CODE. I would have thrown it but it was borrowed. I didn't finish it (and that's rare for me).

What fun! JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB - I love Jane Austen, but didn't get the appeal of the book. THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN - the book was beautifully written, but I hated the characters and didn't get the hype. ATONEMENT - trying to finish, but it's dragging. BRIDGES, James Patterson, DA VINCI CODE - couldn't stand them! THE RED PONY - because of this, haven't read any other Steinbeck. LOVE YOU FOREVER - ick, ick ICK!

I absolutely hated Wuthering Heights. And I feel bad because it's such a classic and everyone loved it...but I could never make it through.

I loved Dracula, but I just couldn't read Frankenstein. I've gotten to the part where the monster comes to life twice and gotten bored.

ooh! ooh! The Red Pony and The Pearl by Steinbeck. DISASTERS!

THE AWAKENING. i wrote a 20-page paper in my american lit class about my contempt for this book, & could probably have written 20 more.

also, i am so glad so many people mentioned love you forever!!!! i have always thought it was unbearably creepy, particularly the last illustration of the son carrying his mother to bed.

but i've gotta say, it breaks my heart that so many people didn't get a confederacy of dunces. i think it's one of the best pieces of 20th century fiction.

Definitely agree about THE PEARL by Steinbeck. I even tried to watch the movie, thinking it might amplify my interest in the book-- instead it was 2+ hours of my life I'll never get back.

What a great concept to confess the books you hate. Can't believe others agree with me hating Time Travelers Wife. The story sounded like a great concept but I just didn't get what it was really about. And, some of the interactions when the girl was younger just plain creeped me out. Also Da Vinci Code, though I completed the book wondering why I was reading it, the ending really made me wish I hadn't wasted my time.

"Bridges of Madison County." God. I wanted to scream. All my friends were weeping over it. Every time I see the book, I want to drop it in a trash can. It's at every yard sale or thrift shop I go to... for good reason. It's JUNK.

well, we are definitely readers. only readers get so passionate about the books they DIDN'T like.
second or third or whatever me on harry potter, octavian nothing, edward tulane (and after the wonderful despereaux), history of love, confederacy of dunces, catcher in the rye, and eragon. as for love you forever . . . eww,eww,eww!!!

47 by Walter Mosely! I thought I was reading historical fiction when suddenly a little alien appeared and took the main character to another planet. I was furious!

Eragon - and as a bookstore manager this has caused me not a little grief!

Catcher in the Rye: I grew up in the 'hood; Holden and his issues weren't anything for me to identify with!!!

"The Road" was SO depressing...he's a great writer but I couldn't take it, and anything by Wally Lamb makes my skin crawl!

"How I Live Now". What everyone else felt was a fresh original voice I thought was false and unconvincing and deeply, deeply irritating. Haven't been able to get past the first chapter of her other books either.

I never want to read another book set in the midst of Bloomsbury, or Elizabeth I's nearest, dearest, secretary, maid etc. who solves crimes. And I'm getting very tired of fantasy novels that go on for 3, 4, 9 volumes. I get it, I got it. Stop already.

My goodness, I'm afraid if I get started naming the books I loathed, I might never stop! The worst offenders for me were: The Book Thief (I'd like to nominate this for most insufferable and pretentious book of the year), Uglies, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Perks of Being a Wallflower (BLECH!), Patron Saint of Liars, and of course, Water for Elephants.

I did not like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or The Lightening Thief, both of which have been on the NY Time bestseller list for months.

And, even though they both won Newbery awards: I could not finish Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson, and I felt that the only redeeming quality of Bridge to Terabithia was the ending.

My former book club read Catcher in the Rye - because somehow we missed it is high school - and I just hated it. I love school. I lovel learning. And something about Holden's rejection of all that was too much for me. I've read plenty of books with unlikeable characters, but still enjoyed the book. But not "Catcher." Maybe if I wait ten years and try again I'll feel differently.

so glad to hear others were not fans of the following: Catcher in the Rye, The Road, DaVinci Code, and worst of all... Lovely Bones! Yuck!

Oh wow. Finally: James Joyce's Ulysses, Anyone who says they love it has to be full of it; On the Road, thank you so much for letting me know there are others out there; The Pilot's Wife, though I should have known better; and Moby Dick. Sorry, but I seriously don't care to read two hundred pages about removing spermaceti from a whale.

Can I truly be the first to mention that holy of holies...Lord of the Rings?? Perservered, because I thought I had to, until halfway through volume 2, then went for dinner and simply never picked it up again. Tedium in bucketloads. Anything I've ever tried by Thomas Hardy has had me weeping with fatigue within a chapter, so I gave him up years ago.
As a non-American, I was never made to read Catcher in the Rye at school, so maybe I'll take a look to see what so many others dislike.
Oh, and Cancer Ward, by Solzhenitsyn. Like sucking wet concrete through a seive...although I think we all need to be careful about translated works, in case it's the translator's fault, not the author's.

With BEA over for another year I'm finally able to catch up on my PW blog reading, and this thread made for great lunchtime reading.

I, too, wanted to throw SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS across the room. In fact, after the tenth unsuccessful attempt to read the book, I got fed up and did just that. It did, however, make for great collage material.

I hated Love You Forever, The Red Tent, Lord of the Flies, and Corrections which was a total waste of my time.

Atonement-I kept waiting for it to pick up. The Scott Westerfield series-everybody I know loves it, I can't get past the first couple of pages every time I pick it up.

I couldn't make it through Love in the Time of Cholera (and I LIKE Gabriel Garcia Marquez) I bought it in 1998 and I still can't get through it.

Also, Eat, Pray, Love? She could have kept a private journal and I would have been fine with the concept.

Please try a latter Pratchett. Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic (or whatever the other one of the first two is called) are not very funny and not much like the rest of the series. Try Small Gods or Reaper Man. Really.

The Red Tent. The rest of my feminist liturgy group/base community/etc love it. It was junk. But then I'm Jewish and the rest of them are ex-Catholics, so they probably didn't see just how thin and dumb it is.

OK. I *hated* THE HISTORIAN. I know, I know. Everybody loves it. I barely got through it.

No, UnJessica, I am a recovering Catholic, and I too hated The Red Tent. Stupidest book I ever had to read. Everyone else in my book group loved it. Sigh...

The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Hated it the entire time I was reading it, and then I cried at the end. Go figure.

Catcher in the Rye. Augh, whiny self-centered little twit.

Great idea to do this & fun to read the responses! I've always said never judge a book by its movie, but Atonement was a semi-watchable movie, but I just could not get through the book (tried twice). I was surprised to see Water for Elephants on the list-it's actually one of my faves & I didn't even realize it had gotten so much hype.

Goodnight Moon. Yuck.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Absolutely terrible. It made me nauseous. I've been waiting for someone to ask me what is the book I hate most!

And also My Sister's Keeper...it was so full of one liners and cliche little messages. I didn't think it would even pass for decent until about the last 5 or 6 chapters.

I love this topic! I hated Pillars of the Earth; A Fine Balance; Red Fish, Blue Fish; and The Kite Runner

Okay, I know I'm putting my neck on the line as a children's bookseller, but I HATE "Eloise." I know, I know, millions of people love that precocious little imp and her precious Skiperdee, but to me it was a book about a nasty little child made that way because of neglectful and distant parents. Yick.

1. I'LLL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. Twisted.
2. BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. Pathetic.
3. GLASS CASTLE. Come on.

Twilight. Horrible, horrible writing. Also The Crime Writer, by Gregg Hurwitz. Cute McGuffin to start the plot going, but after that it just drags its poor sad boring ass from page to page, and me along with it, but I gave up 1/3 in, and I never don't finish a book.

I'm new to this blog and I realize this post comes long after the others, but this is so validating. I'm an author, so I feel as if there's something wrong with me for hating endlessly lauded books such as Atonement, Kite Runner, Lovely Bones, Emperor's Children and The Red Tent. I'm starting to think most such "must-reads" actually suck. I've turned to classics that I've never read. I'm on Madame Bovary and don't get the hype at all!

Suekush, I had to laugh out loud when I saw your complaint about Madame Bovary! That's the book our store (Wellesley Booksmith) chose for this month's Book Group selection, and there've been grumblings about it from some of the booksellers who are part of the group. Should make for a fiery discussion at the very least!

I should have held my comment until I read more: I'm now at the part when she connects with Leon again, so I know it's finally going to get good. I thought the Rodolphe romance was "it" and it just wasn't doing anything for me.

I know your bookstore well, though I have to admit I go to Brookline more often. But only because the town of Wellesley scares me. I live in Sharon.

I'm a little late to the party but also fail to understand why some books are so popular. Da Vinci code was poorly written - and so many great books have been written with similar themes - but they didn't get the hype. I make it a rule now never to read something that Oprah likes. She must be a crying/emotion junkie. Where's the story? Ditto for anything written by that guy who wrote the Notebook.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell bored me to tears. I know Great Gatsby is a classic but I just did not get what all the fuss was about.

The Great Gatsby. It was OK, but fairly forgettable. I see that it's been posted by others so I am glad I not alone in wondering what all the fuss was about.

This is the best conversation ever. Anything by Tim Winton (I have not been able to get through one of his books yet), The Kite Runner, Love you Forever (so creepy I refused to read it to my kids), The Resurrectionist by Jack O'Connell (it was just too much), Life of Pi, Memory Keeper's Daughter, Gilead, almost the whole Twilight series except book one, The Tale of Desperaux, and Stardust by Neil Gaiman (I'm sorry I really love Neil but the story could've been better).

I will have to say that I did not like Octavian Nothing. I know that most people thought it was wonderful, but I found it very hard to get through.

I've tried to read EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED three times,and hated it more each time. Also hated THE TAO OF POOH, and these award winning children's books: Flotsam by David Wiesner , Snowflake Bentley, My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann ,Knuffle Bunny Too, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale,and Sector 7 by David Wiesner.

I've tried to read EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED three times,and hated it more each time. Also hated THE TAO OF POOH, and these award winning children's books: Flotsam by David Wiesner , Snowflake Bentley, My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann ,Knuffle Bunny Too, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale,and Sector 7 by David Wiesner.

OK, it's safe to come out of the closet with my dislike of Desperaux and Edward Tulane. Add to that Ida B. by Katherine which had the ickiest child "voice" ever. The Penderwicks which everyone thought was so "different" and sounded like any book written in the '50's. Oh, and everything by Tolkien

OK - The Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Time Travelers Wife, Cold Mountain, almost any auto-biography (by anyone), Harry Potter books after the first one, One Hundred Years of Solitude!

1. Snow Falling on Cedars.
2. Cold Mountain.
3. Smilla's Sense of Snow.

Then I quit the book club.

Empire Falls - probably the slowest, most boring book I have every read

"The Giving Tree" - I think this is the poorest excuse for a children's classic in print.
Why do we think there is a moral for children in this story? The Tree just gives and gives and gives and the little boy just takes and takes and takes and (this is a spoiler) in the end he chops the tree down. He KILLS the TREE!!!!

I read JOHNATHON LIVINGSTON SEAGULL when I was 19 (many years ago!)I'm still ticked-off about the time I wasted reading the-life-changing-book-that-everyone-else-loved. I hoping that I get over TWILIGHT and don't hold a grudge for so long, but this morning I woke-up hating adverbs!

I love this thread and love the fact that it's so cathartic for so many. "Love You Forever" is cloying, rancid and wrong. "A Heartbreaking Amount of Staggeringly Self-Indulgent Footnotes" is equally un-get-throughable.

The Emperor's Children -- oh how I couldn't stand it!

Whew! So after all these years I see I am NOT alone in hating The Giving Tree and Love You Forever... Also don't get the Pigeon children's books. She's Come Undone was by far the worst book I've ever read, all because Oprah said we had to! Wally Lamb must think women are stupid to believe his writing as a female character could be believable. (Did that make sense? let me rephrase...IT WAS CRAP!). Thanks for letting me vent.

Long ago I went to the movie version of Love Story with two friends, one male, one female. The male friend thought he'd be there with two sobbing boo-hooing women, one on each shoulder, instead Sandra and I both laughed our behinds off at it, it was so overwrought and witless and predictable. Never did try to read the book.

Met a woman a couple of years ago, she seemed nice enough, we had lunch a couple of times, then one day she tried to press a book upon me, it had changed her life, given her an anchor in the dark moments of yadda yadda. The seagull book. Call me a judgmental cow, but the friendship went no further.

I read a lot of book reviews (the best: still PW, after all these years) so I usually manage to avoid buying awful books. But there I was, reading Twilight, the first volume, having read a lot of ink about it, mostly positive. Jeeze. Even for teenage wishful-thinking books, it. is. just. awful. So flat-footed. Can't imagine why it caught on so big. Confirms the old book biz maxim: no one knows nothing'. Did I read somewhere that the author was thinking of writing the whole thing over again only from Edward's point of view? Flabbergasted.

To agree with many earlier posters: yes, Love You Forever is just creepy and mawkish and bathetic. I used to have my own bookstore, and one day two friends were in browsing. One handed LYF to the other and said, here read this. So she did. Then handed it back, tears pouring down her cheeks, saying, "gee, what's next, a book where they kill all the puppies?". There are some books you'd rather die than hand-sell, and that was one of mine.

Me again, what's this, 5 in a row? Having a great time getting all this off my chest. I also HATE Anthony Robbins, that big shiny scary mouth full of horse teeth, ugh. Once, in my late lamented bookstore, I say two people looking at his books (gotta pay the rent somehow), one remarked that he'd been at one of AR's seminars and got to shake his hand. I swear it's the truth when I tell you, the other person gasped and held out his hand, please can I shake the hand the shook his hand? Eulch.

Mary Crabtree back on May 1/08, yes, Cold Mountain, just awful. Let's start another list of books that sold huge but were really Harlequin romances in not-much-of-a-disguise. Pretty Woman (I know, it's a movie, but it's always bugged me that everyone went ape for it). That was the squeakiest cleanest hooker the world ever saw, take away the hooker part, dream up another gimmick to get them together, and voila, Harlequin. Not that there's anything wrong with that;

The problem with being in the book biz is that people keep trying to press their dreadful favourite books upon you. My dear neighbour has several times tried to get me to read Gilead. EUW ICK I'd rather give birth to a chair. (Regrettably not my own line, can't remember where I stole it from, been using it for years.)

I didn't actually hate da Vinci Code, makes an ok airplane book, for when you're not concentrating properly anyhow because half your brain is busy trying not the think about 25k feet of thin air under your butt.

I'm so enjoying this -- you're making me feel better about all the books I haven't read and was feeling guilty about! My contribution: PRINCE OF TIDES. Many sentences don't actually parse, but they have lots of luscious adjectives so people carry on about the gorgeous writing. Gag. Then, every episode ended with, "That was the day before the Terrible Thing happened" or "That was two weeks before the Terrible Thing happened." What suspense. The last straw was when a whale gets stranded on the beach and the weeping children bring water to it in their little hands to keep it alive, but it dies anyway. This creepy author had the nerve to invoke a comparison with MOBY-DICK, which I love. I threw the book across the room right then. I really did.

Love this thread even though some of my favorites have been trashed. Many hyped books just made me go "meh."

Books I've wanted to throw across the room:
1) Anything I tried to read by Bellow, Updike or Mailer -- middle-aged white men confuse their opinions with the VOICE OF GOD
2) Hemingway in search of his missing masculine parts (although I love Old Man and the Sea)
3) The DaVinci Code -- I hated myself for finishing it and would have stomped on the spine, but it belonged to my mother.
4) Cold Mountain -- All those miles for one tumble in the hay? One tumble in the hay and she's satisfied for life? All that hype -- for what?

Walden. That was the most painfully boring thing I've ever tried to read. That and Eat Pray Love. (Oh, and to the Harry Potter haters - it's indeed true that the first and second books are the least interesting of the series. It's the end of the third that turns the series from entertaining to pure brilliance, and it's all a thrilling roller coaster after that. Just saying...)

Wow. When I saw the original question posted I wondered if anyone would comment on what I consider a very strange children's book. How relieving to know I'm not the only one! I think "Love You Forever" should come with a "stalker" alert.

ANYTHING by Ayn Rand enrages me.

It encourages the most selfish, self-centered kind of thinking I've ever seen.

I read 1/3 of the way through Fountainhead for an essay and felt physically and mentally queasy about going on any longer.

Wanted to throw the book out the window, but decided that it would serve better as tinder in a future emergency.

Despised Confederacy of Dunces. Also really disliked The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, which everyone is loving lately. Those boys were so. not. worth it.

The Da Vinci Code; still want my money back from Zadie Smith for White Teeth; Bridges of Madison County;Confederacy of Dunces; still one of my favorite authors, but did not like Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke or the final Harry Potter book.

The Scarlet Letter. As an English teacher, I probably deserve to be pilloried for that one, but I can't help myself. I. Hate. It. Hate. It. Hate. It.

Plus many of the "popular" choices above: Twilight, A Confederacy of Dunces, Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, Life of Pi. Toss in Everything Is Illuminated for me, too. Ick!

Twilight. Without a doubt, Twilight. It was so poorly written. It really seems like the author just got out a thesaurus and found every adjective for "pretty" she could find to describe the lead character. I think it's kind of sad so many girls, and women, are obsessed with that book. I also didn't like Cold Mountain or Wicked. I liked the musical Wicked but the book moved too slow for me.

Can I just say: Wordsworth? Dreadful poet, pretentious and twee. Didn't like "Brighton Rock" or "Brave New World", both of which were foisted on me far too young by an English teacher. I live near where George Eliot was born, so it's sacrilege to say I'll never read her, but I saw the TV version of "Mill on the Floss", and hated it. Everyone dies at the end - for no reason! And since others have mentioned movies: Brokeback Mountain. Wonderful scenery, mumbling lead (yes, I know he's meant to be inarticulate, but I couldn't make out the lines), and homophobic. When I checked, I couldn't believe it was written so recently - that whole all-gay-characters-must-end-unhappily thing should have gone out in the 1950s.

Life of Pie. Everyone told me how wonderful it was. What part was good? When the family and animals drown? When the animals are vividly described eating each other? When he murders the Frenchman? As a whole the book was quite disappointing.

Mrs. Dallaway. I wanted to like it. I had loved The Hours, but this book was obtuse and lacking in focus.

Fellowship of the Ring. I thought they were NEVER going to get out of the Shire. When they finally do, they run into Tom Bombadil. Please, somebody hand me a Shard of Narsil so I can cut out my eyes.
My other one is Jordan's Wheel of Time. I have picked up Eye of the World 4 times to read it, and I cannot get past the point when the author says, "He's a follower of [whoever it was] and you know what that means." NO, I don't, I'm only 10 pages into the book, I have no idea what that means. The editor that let that through should be shot, I don't care if it was done for dramatic purpose- it's lazy.

Mimi, you're my hero. I had to slog through that ridiculous piece of High Victorian crap as a sophomore in high school. Why can't english teachers find books to read that are actually worth reading. No wonder kids and young people stop reading, they're forced to endure utter crap all through school in the name of "an education." I stopped reading Sci-Fi for about 10 years because I took a Sci-Fi/Fantasy class in high school and the only one I remotely enjoyed was 1984. Why couldn't we have read Heinlein or Foster or even Piers Anthony?

I HATED:

1. Catcher in the Rye--As a sixteen-year-old, there was a lot of hype aimed at me by teachers and the like that I would TOTALLY IDENTIFY WITH HOLDEN. I didn't take kindly to the idea that I should see a high school dropout as an ideal to live up to.

2. Walden--I, too, could uncover the philosophical wonders of nature if my friends paid my taxes.

3. Ethan Frome- Attempt to commit suicide by aiming a sled at a tree actually fails. Huge surprise.

4. Allen Ginsberg-- I know everyone loves him, but he always struck me as the shock jock of poetry.

HISTORY OF LOVE and ATONEMENT. Oh, this is so cathartic!

Life of Pi all the way!!! Just didn't get it. I lost count how many times I tried to get through it but ended up falling asleep every single time.

I agree with CHOLERA. I made myself finish but wished I'd spent that time on another book. I will have to stand up for THE ROAD. Depressing, yes. But very powerful, IMO. I couldn't put it down.

Thought I'd never find a book I loved-to-hate as much as Catcher in the Rye . . . and then along came the bloody Da Vinci Code. I'm so glad to hear of others who bogged down half way through Lord of the Rings. Thought I'd finally find out the ending with the movies, but even they put me to sleep. That said, I do like Eragon, along with all the kids I stood in line with for an autograph (that was fun!) . . . and Grapes of Wrath and The Book Thief are all-time favorites. We are all unique readers!

Yet another vote for The Kite Runner. I am so glad to find this blog, I thought I was the only one who found it both boring and not well written!

I hate Eragon. Horrible book. I, too, can't imagine what the self-published version was like--the "

Everything is Illuminated: bad. Heir to the Glimmering World—

Just found this conversation via Omnivoracious. Recently had to defend myself for not finishing 19 MINUTES by Picault

I also agree about avoiding Oprah's choices. Finally, if I had five bucks for every time I had to explain to nine year olds why we don't have the TWILIGHT drek in an *elementary school* library, I could go on a really nice vacation by now. The power of marketing, ugh.

THE GIVING TREE, WHITE OLEANDER, INKHEART, THE GIVER, LORD OF THE FLIES, THE RED PONY, THE SHACK

Wow! What fun! Finally most people in a group agree with me about LOVE YOU FOREVER. I agree with previous posters re PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, ON THE ROAD. Always thought FRANNY AND ZOE was better - and that was in 1963! Most self-help books, esp. MEN ARE FROM MARS, etc.

This is a great thread. I found nothing to write home about in The Mysterious Benedict Society, I don't know why people think it's so great. Because it's different from HP? I, also, am a devoted hater of the Da Vinci Code, both because of its ferocious attack on the Church, and because it was sooo badly written. I was offended as a writer, student of lit, and reader.(when I read the last scene, I thought, you're kidding, right? SO ridiculous I couldn't believe it) I had to read the Good Earth and the Joy Luck Club as a teen for school, and absolutely hated both of them. On the other hand, I loved the Penderwicks. And one of my favorite picture bks from last year is The Way Back Home, by Oliver Jeffers. Wonderful!

Love in the time of Cholera...i haven't given up on a book in years, but i am getting older and can't waste my time on pointless pursuits. i quit.

I still don't get the hype about GIVING TREE -it is not a children's book! In the I-don't-jump-on-the-bandwagon category, I recently read UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN and loved it. Haven't seen the movie. Am now reading CHOCOLAT. I have seen that movie. What else did I miss while buried in the sand?

Glad the comments keep coming here, maybe all yr. Many of the books on my list of Most Loathsome have already been mentioned, especially two of my top (or bottom) three. 3rd worst: DaVinci Code -- hideous writing!. Even though the lore was interesting, that book BITES! [continued next post...]

2nd worst on my list of Most Loathsome Books: Bridges of Madison County. How many times have I bitten my tongue when someone started spewing their love for that piece of drek? I hated that book more than words can express. Best line (approximation): "Jack the dog lifted his head when he heard the truck approaching. 'Oh, it's just him,' Jack thought and went back to sleep." Howl!!!!

Number 1 on my Most Loathsome list, the absolute WORST of all bad books, which no one has mentioned so far. So bad I threw it against the wall multiple times, stomped on it, then chastised myself for reading it to its idiotic end: The Celestine Prophecy. Actual workshops grew up around that inane book with its core earth-shaking revelation: There is no coincidence. GAAGGGGGG! (Oh, I hate Twilight too)

I must be the only person who hates Pinkalicious. Seriously? For starters, it sounds like a porn star name. The name alone would have made me reject it. Then you get to the story and it's a complete rip off of David Shannon's Bad Case of Stripes. I also hated Running with Scissors. I read it in a hotel room while out of town for work. I left it there, which later felt unfair to the housekeeping staff and I wished I would have just disposed of it myself. I could not get into Stephen King's Lisey's Choice.

The Shack (one of the most poorly written books of all times)
Edgar Sawtelle (500+ pages of total boredom)
Secret Life of Bees (poses as "deep")

Hmmm. I liked The Secret Life of Bees. However, I could NOT, as many times as I tried (and there were many) get through CAPTAIN CORRELI'S MANDOLIN. I just did not get it. I also have to disagree about The God of Small Things - I think Arundhati Roy is one of the finest writers of our generation. But like you said, that's what Individuality is about. Let's see...was also disappointed with the ending of Life of Pi - as I turned the last page I thought, 'did I miss something'? Felt the same about She's Come Undone, but loved I Know This Much is True. And as for The Road - could hardly stomach it, but it is one of the most powerful books I've ever read and therefore, one of my favourites. I thought the Da Vinci Code was fun. I'm going to finish with D.H. Lawrence - sacrilege perhaps, but oh my WORD, is it necessary to take three full pages to describe the moment two characters kiss? Drove me crazy.

Lovely Bones - without the gimmick, it would've gone nowhere. Twilight - someone explain to me why this thin, utterly ordinary book has become such a phenom, even before the movie. Velveteen Rabbit, creepy and sentimental, ick.

Lord of the fleapin' Rings. Lots of short people eat, whine, and go camping. Then a bad thing happens and somebody comes and helps them. Then they eat, whine, and camp some more.

The books that I read then luckily tossed halfway because I couldn't get into it are Lovely Bones, Corrections, Eat, Pray & Love, and Bel Canto.

The one book that I read through and still hate myself for is The Secret Life of Bees...I wish I can get back the time I lost in reading that predictable crap.

Eat, Pray, Love. Hated its self-involved voice...

Now I definitely know that any book that is an "Oprah" selection is a warning that it is going to be a book I won't enjoy . . . the latest being "The Tale of Edgar Sawtelle"--what a waste of time!

What a fabulous thread!

Da Vinci Code - we had a party when it finally went off #1 seller in our bookshop.
The Lovely Bones - worst ending I can think of
HP 5 - could have been half the size and twice the book)
Anything that has won the Booker Prize. Strangely enough, many of the shortlisted non-winners are some of my favourite books ever.

Ihated the ending of Angels and Demons (I kept picturing Sylvester Stallone hanging from the helicopter). Memory Keepers Daughter was bad, bad, bad, and Twilight was just too much teenage angst.

The Bridges of Madison County - silly, sappy and overly sentimental. Best thing about it? The small format.
Men Are From Mars...said nothing that any savvy woman of voting age has not figured out.
Any later book by Anne Rice. Does that woman have an editor, or is he/she too afraid to do his job.

Until I Find You by John Irving...one of my favorite authors but this one's unfinishable.
The Historian...cheesy vampire ending on a long-winded and self-important book.
The Known World. I was so surprised by the Pulitzer prize!

I expected to love Johnathon Livingston Seagull, but broad concepts without detail is just frustrating. And I'll try one more time to get through The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but I'm not optimistic.

Eat Pray Love: I'd add "Yawn." If a writer starts high school phrases such as "I'm like..." she looses me right then and there.

and I thought I was the only reader in the world who hated almost every one of Oprah's selections even though I adored her love of books.......

Oh, I just found this thread(let's see how long we can keep it going)and I'm so happy to hear that others agree with me. LOVE YOU FOREVER -- Worst. Book . Ever. I try not to gag when a customer asks me for it.

And I have to throw in another title: M.C. Higgins the Great. For me, the most boring Newbery ever (and there have been some boring Newbery winners). I'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet.

I have to agree with many of books previously posted. I absolutely HATED The Memory Keeper's Daughter -- annoying characters, no resolution. Also Twilight, Eragon. My entire book group hated The Yiddish Policeman's Union. A Thousand Splendid Suns is next, then Eat, Pray, Love. This does not bode well.

And I also hated Wuthering Heights. Cathy and Heathcliff deserved each other. Anna Karenina? Couldn't wait for her to die. Tolstoy really needed an editor. I'm a big fan of the classics, but as my husband once told me, "Just because it's a classic doesn't mean it's good." Well put!

I can't say I hated Eragon since I haven't actually finished it, but I've been struggling with it for several years now. Also The Juggle Book. I thought that was supposed to be a classic! I like Kipling, but I just didn't get The Jungle Book.

Eat, Pray, Love. I thought the author was really selfish, and that just ticked me off. Not a healthy message to send: 'don't like your life? no worries, just leave, start a new one, the heck with everyone who's in it'.

To go back a long time, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Cather in the Rye, On the Road, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. More recently, The Lovely Bones,The Corrections, and Rainbow Fish.

The Great Gatsby. It was the ONLY book in high school I begged to watch the movie rather than read. Grandpa and I went to Blockbuster, rented it, popped it in the VCR. Watched 10 minutes, then decided to turn off the movie because at least if I was reading it, I didn't have to look at those morons...

There are many books about Italy I love, but EAT PRAY LOVE and UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN were impossible to get through or take seriously.

1. Anything by Nicholas Sparks.
2. Love in the time of cholera.
3. The Yiddish Policeman's Union (disappointing after liking Kavalier & Clay)
4. Curious George series: message to children: don't be curious! ("George was a bad little monkey and always very curious.")

I'm another who threw Cold Mountain against the wall and has yet to really be able to read Octavion Nothing. I hated House of the Scorpion, have yet to finish Book Thief, and have yet to find an Avi book that I like. As I child, I read all Beverly Cleary's books but could NEVER understand why anyone would like Ramona - I thought she was the most obnoxious child ever. Can you tell I thought I was Beezus?? ;-)

Yes, Hulahoopes, I am in that little red wagon of Ramona-dislikers as well! I've never met one! And being from Portland you sort of have to like them, but I never did.

Also: The Twilight series, and The Great Gatsby. Bleh. Not for me. :)

I hated Twilight, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Reliable Wife and the big one...The Book of Negroes.

A House for Mr. Biswas. Started it twice once before and once after Naipaul won the Noble and it seemed like one parlor trick after after, and full of a kind of casual misogny.

1. DaVinci Code: You could tell Dan Brown was patting himself on the back while he wrote this book for 'defying' the church. Big deal, people do it every day.
2. The Sound and The Fury: this is the most stiltifying book every-I was a blink away from comatose by the end of the 1st chapter.
2. Celestine Prophesies: or "How I Invented My Own Religion Without Really Trying"
3. Eragon series: derivative, derivative! J.R.R. Tolkien must be rolling in his grave!
4. Twilight series: hmmm. Vampires that don't drink blood and practice celibacy. Why am I supposed to like this, again?

Yiddish Policeman's Union. Couldn't get past p. 25.
The Calamity Physics book--so self-important and awaful.
Sarah Waters--too modern-day Dickens.
Really want to like Nicholson Baker but I started off liking The Mezzanine and quickly got bored.
The Devil in the White City--ditto.

1) The girl with the arbitrary tattoo

I like the DaVinci Code - until I tried to read the one he wrote before it. Can you be any more cheesy??? Same beginning, different city? Ugh.

And I also hated Eat, Pray, Love. I feel Elisabeth Gilbert must have a very annoying voice.

Tossed out The Shack half way thorough. It was like hearing someone's dream every day. Why would anyone care?

Thank you. I have been waiting for decades to tell someone how much I hated Gone With the Wind. I could not believe how stupid Scarlett was!

So many books:
Agree with everyone about Love You Forever, Twilight, Bridges of Madison County. While I could appreciate the writing in Bernard Schlink's The Reader, I couldn't care less about any of the characters; The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas is unfathomably popular; I hate, loathe, despise and detest that nut-brown thing in all its incarnations of Guess How Much I Love You; and Dan Brown's sanctimonious waffling completely eludes me.

Is there anyone who joins me in finding Guernsey Literary blah blah blah a piece of cutesy, gimmicky schlock?

I absolutely loved The Secret History by Donna Tartt, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on The Little Friend. I felt *so* cheated when I got to the end. The freakin' book jacket calls the story 'a mystery'--but it's a mystery that NEVER GOT SOLVED!

A MAP OF THE WORLD
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD
CHERRY (Mary Kary was precocious as a young child acting like a vampy, potty-mouthed southerner, but when the same character is a teenager acting that way, it's no longer charming)
EVERYTHING BY NICHOLAS SPARKS (his writing is so poor; why, then, is he so rich now?!)
THE CORRECTIONS (Yes, Jonathan Sparks, I, too, can write a one-page paragraph-- I just don't care to. It's grating, done over and over.)

And about those blurbs. I am the partner of one who is regularly asked to give blurbs, and many times my partner gives them knowing that the blurb doesn't exactly describe the book, but that it is an excellent blurb from a marketing standpoint. That would be why you might be holding in your hand a book whose blurbs seem unrelated to the pages within. Sad; isn't it?

Jonathan Sparks! Hahahahaaaa! Can't be called a simple typo, but WHAT a wonderful Freudian slip! I absolutely love it. Of course, you know I meant Jonathan Franzen. (Wouldn't he hate to be compared to Nicholas Sparks!)

As an aspiring novelist, I'm often amazed- and sometimes ticked off- by what becomes a "bestseller". The success of mediocre fluff such as TWILIGHT only serves to prove (to me, at least)that even if you are a great writer and/or storyteller,success is still a crap shoot.
Ditto the rotten tomatoes for:
-The Memory Keeper's Daughter
-The Kite Runner (a fairly good story, but so NOT worth the hype)
-pretty much the whole Oprah Book thing

Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Sure the format is appealing, but the main character is unlikable, weak, and mean.