Worst book.

[Uncle Ivan]

You've ever read?

While stuff from Emerson and Thoreau were Teh Suck and I truly hated Billy Budd, The Scarlet Letter and My Antonia, the all-time worst book for me is:

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

Holy mother of Frick it was bad.  I'd rather jerk off a rattlesnake with a handful of cockleburrs than read it again.

I'm having a hard time believing that Bill actually gave it to Monica.  I'd give it to some girl I want to dump, not get laid by.

Anyone read anything worse?

[SandLizard04]

I may like it now, I don't know. But at the time I read it, I despised everything about Heart of Darkness. Ugh.

[The Reality is back...]

Any of the tween fantasy novels like Twilight and Harry Potter, that are marketed as adult literature when if you're over 13 and enjoy them, you need electro shock.

Also, anything by Nicholas Sparks or John Grisham, aside from A Time to Kill.
These two dudes don't even write novels anymore, just hardback screenplays.

[Texarkana_Piggie]

wicked: the true story of the wicked witch of the west. 
the broadway musical may be a hit, but the book was terrible.  i read it for a book club i was in several years before it was a musical.  it was awful.

and p.s.  i love the harry potter series.
i also hated 1984

[True Believer]

Me too so get the electro shock ready.  I am going to have to think about this one.  I guess I have read a bad book.   Get back later.

[The Reality is back...]

wicked: the true story of the wicked witch of the west. 
the broadway musical may be a hit, but the book was terrible.  i read it for a book club i was in several years before it was a musical.  it was awful.

and p.s.  i love the harry potter series.
i also hated 1984

So, you hated Orwell, and you love Rowling?

Shame on you! lol

[Texarkana_Piggie]

i read 1984 in 1984 for sophomore english in college.  it was ok in places, but for the most part, i thought it would never end.

[AllSmiles]

Wuthering.

Heights.

Any of the tween fantasy novels like Twilight and Harry Potter, that are marketed as adult literature when if you're over 13 and enjoy them, you need electro shock.

Shame, shame, SHAME on you!

[HorseFeathers]

I may like it now, I don't know. But at the time I read it, I despised everything about Heart of Darkness. Ugh.

I agree with that.

[SandLizard04]

I had deliberately blocked this out of my mind.

BELOVED.

Absolute worst piece of garbage I have ever read.

[True Believer]

LOL...I have that one and have never read it. 

[SandLizard04]

LOL...I have that one and have never read it. 

Burn it. Or use it as toilet paper.

[True Believer]

That might be kinda rough.  I think I will burn it.   Someone gave it to me and I stuck it in my bookshelf and just never got around to it.  What's it about that is so horrible?   If you would like to enlighten us. 

[AllSmiles]

I had deliberately blocked this out of my mind.

BELOVED.

Absolute worst piece of garbage I have ever read.

LOL!

I start reading Beloved next week!

[SandLizard04]

I'm sorry.


Another crappy book--"The Reader." We had to read that in one of my history classes this semester. I hated it.

[Razorback121]

Billy Budd going away.

HELLOOOOOO Sparknotes.

[Uncle Ivan]

Cliff's Notes got me through high school.

I've still got a stack of them worth about a Ben Franklin.

[stina_ar]

Any of those porn screenplays "cleverly" disguised as "romance novels". I had an aunt who collected those. I found them one day when I was 7 or 8 and, being the nerd I am, decided to read a little bit of them. Those books F***** me up... I never recovered...

[Uncle Ivan]

Those books F***** me up...

How so.

[stina_ar]

Umm...well...   

[The Reality is back...]

Those books F***** me up...

How so.

paper cuts.

[Uncle Ivan]

I got a nasty little cut right now on my right index finger.  It bled some.

It was from a knife, though.  Apparently cleaning it off with your fingers isn't a smart idea.

[stina_ar]

Try your tongue next time. I hear that works.

[SandLizard04]

Try your tongue next time. I hear that works.

[RD™]

Any of the tween fantasy novels like Twilight and Harry Potter, that are marketed as adult literature when if you're over 13 and enjoy them, you need electro shock.

DON'T TASE ME BRO

Death to Potter and Twighlight

[The Reality is back...]

Any of the tween fantasy novels like Twilight and Harry Potter, that are marketed as adult literature when if you're over 13 and enjoy them, you need electro shock.

DON'T TASE ME BRO

Death to Potter and Twighlight

....my...god..........we agree.

[W]

wicked: the true story of the wicked witch of the west. 
the broadway musical may be a hit, but the book was terrible.  i read it for a book club i was in several years before it was a musical.  it was awful.

and p.s.  i love the harry potter series.
i also hated 1984

I actually rather enjoyed "Wicked" the book. I definitely enjoyed the musical a lot more--they changed the story quite a lot anyway--but didn't think the book was too shabby. I thought it was really cleverly written, though I did have a hard time getting into it. I made myself read it anyway, because I knew I'd probably be seeing the musical soon, and ended up kind of liking the book and rereading it. I can see how you would dislike it, though. It's a tough read at times.

[Texarkana_Piggie]

wicked: the true story of the wicked witch of the west. 
the broadway musical may be a hit, but the book was terrible.  i read it for a book club i was in several years before it was a musical.  it was awful.

and p.s.  i love the harry potter series.
i also hated 1984

I actually rather enjoyed "Wicked" the book. I definitely enjoyed the musical a lot more--they changed the story quite a lot anyway--but didn't think the book was too shabby. I thought it was really cleverly written, though I did have a hard time getting into it. I made myself read it anyway, because I knew I'd probably be seeing the musical soon, and ended up kind of liking the book and rereading it. I can see how you would dislike it, though. It's a tough read at times.

we read it a good while before the musical was even out.  as i told  the club members...(i was the only one who actually got through the whole thing) it was an interesting character study.  it was interesting to see the back story of the wicked witch and what shaped her into being the wicked witch.  but re-read it?  no thanks.  i'll pass.

[Ballfan2]

I liked the Harry Potter books and the Twilight books for a quick, fun read.

Like Grishom, but The Appeal is the worst book I have read lately.  Hated it!!

[Uncle Ivan]

Grisham's legal mind is his best asset, because calling his writing simplistic is giving him a compliment.

[Ty]

The Harry Potter books are so complex and have numerous allusions in them. They are truly great pieces of literature.

Billy Budd was dreadful. I went into it thinking it would be relatively easy because of the length, but it seemed to drag on forever.

At one point, HOD was my least favorite book. Now, I love it.

Summer of My German Solider. Gross.

[Uncle Ivan]

Summer of My German Solider. Gross.

That book actually was written by an Arkansan, and is set in Parkin and Wynne.

I assume most people know that, but it's still an interesting fact.

[Ty]

Summer of My German Solider. Gross.

That book actually was written by an Arkansan, and is set in Parkin and Wynne.

I assume most people know that, but it's still an interesting fact.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't she live in Jenkinsville?

[True Believer]

I loved Summer of My German Soilder.

I guess because it was set in the delta. 

[Uncle Ivan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't she live in Jenkinsville?

Jenkinsville is a fictional town based on a combination of Wynne and Parkin, if I remember it right.

"Silk Stocking Road" in the book is based on Hamilton Avenue in Wynne.

[koopa]

Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights!
Also, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Heart of Darkness, The O'Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families, Any Ann Coulter book, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight.

[the game]

 some are

[Uncle Ivan]

Mein Kampf is pretty bad. 

Most rambling, discombobulated book ever.

[SLC]

Billy Budd was terrible, just terrible. 

[Mike Bonds]

Ulysses by James Joyce.  Hands down, not even close.  Why anyone thinks Joyce is great will forever be a mystery to me.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is also an insufferable bore. 

[johnharrison]

eco, " the island of the day before"

[The Reality is back...]

Grisham's legal mind is his best asset, because calling his writing simplistic is giving him a compliment.

No, he dumbs down the judicial stuff so we can understand him, that's fine.

I call his dialogue, development, and characters simplistic.

[Mike Bonds]

I also forgot to toss in a vote for Naked Lunch, by William Burroughs.  Total dreck.

[Death_Knight]

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair God I hated reading that back in the day.....

Harry Potter sucks bad!!

[Wampus_Cat]

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair God I hated reading that back in the day.....

Really?

That's one of my favorites.

[koopa]

Harry Potter sucks bad!!

Harry Potter does not suck. It's arguably the best young adult series ever written and one of the greatest fantasy series ever written. J.K. Rowling is an exceptional writer and the fact that she had the tapestry for an entire seven book series worked out in her head from the very beginning is absolutely phenomenal. The third book and beyond are masterpieces, in my opinion.

[The Reality is back...]

Harry Potter sucks bad!!

Harry Potter does not suck. It's arguably the best young adult series ever written and one of the greatest fantasy series ever written. J.K. Rowling is an exceptional writer and the fact that she had the tapestry for an entire seven book series worked out in her head from the very beginning is absolutely phenomenal. The third book and beyond are masterpieces, in my opinion.

That's only argued by people who haven't read any other young adult series.

[Wampus_Cat]

Harry Potter sucks bad!!

Harry Potter does not suck. It's arguably the best young adult series ever written and one of the greatest fantasy series ever written. J.K. Rowling is an exceptional writer and the fact that she had the tapestry for an entire seven book series worked out in her head from the very beginning is absolutely phenomenal. The third book and beyond are masterpieces, in my opinion.

That's only argued by people who haven't read any other young adult series.

Yeah like Animorphs.

Animorphs is the greatest young adult series ever.

[koopa]

Harry Potter sucks bad!!

Harry Potter does not suck. It's arguably the best young adult series ever written and one of the greatest fantasy series ever written. J.K. Rowling is an exceptional writer and the fact that she had the tapestry for an entire seven book series worked out in her head from the very beginning is absolutely phenomenal. The third book and beyond are masterpieces, in my opinion.

That's only argued by people who haven't read any other young adult series.

That's not true at all. That was a sweeping generalization if I've ever seen one. It's a matter of opinion and with 400 million book sales, probably not an opinion that I share solely. Stephen King once said "[Harry Potter] will indeed stand time's test and wind up on a shelf where only the best are kept; I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck, Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages." Before you lump me into a group of people that has only read one young adult series, have an open mind.

[RATTLER43]

This entire thread is opinion. I, too, despise Potter. Even if you were being sarcastic about Animorphs(couldn't tell) I loved them. They are not young adult, though. They are just young!!!

My daughter suggests Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Unwind.