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What's the worst book you've ever read
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Ais
 09 Jun 2009, 11:39 #60824 Reply To Post
Quote: sulcus, Tuesday, 9 Jun 2009 07:15

Didn't it's modish title tip you off that it was likely to stink ?

I can be somewhat slow at times...witness the fact that I believed the reviews without reading a page or two for myself, like I normally do - dumb, dumb and dumb.

Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation - Alasdair Gray
Miller
 09 Jun 2009, 12:00 #60827 Reply To Post
Talking of the cream of contemporary Brit lit: 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan. Handy if you run out of toilet paper. You'd learn more watching paint dry. Vastly overrated, superficial, maundering tosh.

sulcus
 09 Jun 2009, 12:26 #60831 Reply To Post
Quote: Miller, Tuesday, 9 Jun 2009 12:00
Talking of the cream of contemporary Brit lit: 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan. Handy if you run out of toilet paper. You'd learn more watching paint dry. Vastly overrated, superficial, maundering tosh.




I thought it was alright. Nothing more. Nothing less.

And being such a slim volume, you would have to ensure getting in the Andrex restock pretty sharpish.
This post was last edited by sulcus, 09 Jun 2009, 12:27
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle

"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
awrigley
 09 Jun 2009, 12:27 #60832 Reply To Post
The worst book I ever read?

I don't know, I never finished it. Has anyone else read that one?

Andrew
Memory... What was that?
sulcus
 09 Jun 2009, 12:32 #60834 Reply To Post
Quote: awrigley, Tuesday, 9 Jun 2009 12:27
The worst book I ever read?

I don't know, I never finished it. Has anyone else read that one?

Andrew



Don't think I've ever given up on a book midstream (except on this site possibly).
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle

"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
Athene
 09 Jun 2009, 17:38 #60871 Reply To Post
I give up on plenty of books - on the principle that if a book hasn't grabbed my interest after twenty or thirty pages, it's not likely I'm going to enjoy the rest of it. There's so much good stuff out there to read, why waste time finishing something you're not enjoying?

I did once break that habit, for The Da Vinci Code: I just had to keep on reading to see if it could possibly get any worse. It could and it did. I still find it hard to believe that the writer had somehow missed all the publicity when The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was admitted to be a fraud - in The Da Vinci Code he's quoting it as (sorry) gospel. And as for all the cryptic stuff ... did anyone take more than 5 seconds to solve the clue about Newton? (the one which took the protagonist several days, as I recall).


Athene


Scias te fortasse Romanum esse si animal convivialissimum arbitreris esse caprum
(Henricus Barbatus)


my website
sulcus
 09 Jun 2009, 17:54 #60874 Reply To Post
Quote: Athene, Tuesday, 9 Jun 2009 17:38
I give up on plenty of books - on the principle that if a book hasn't grabbed my interest after twenty or thirty pages, it's not likely I'm going to enjoy the rest of it. There's so much good stuff out there to read, why waste time finishing something you're not enjoying?


Athene


I pick up books on the basis of their blurb or subject matter and rarely get it wrong enough to not want to get past 30 pages (dishonourable exceptions already mentioned on this thread).

But I will probably be more indulging of books that take more than 30 pages to get going since that fits in with my tastes anyway, though I suspect not with many of those on YWO.

This post was last edited by sulcus, 09 Jun 2009, 17:54
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle

"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
Athene
 09 Jun 2009, 18:04 #60876 Reply To Post
I think we've all had it drummed into us that a book needs to grab the reader's attention from the outset, if any agent or publisher is going to consider it; so most writers on YWO will be (or will try to be) strong starters. Whether the rest of the work matches up to the carefully crafted, attention-grabbing first line is another matter.


Scias te fortasse Romanum esse si animal convivialissimum arbitreris esse caprum
(Henricus Barbatus)


my website
sulcus
 09 Jun 2009, 18:36 #60879 Reply To Post
Quote: Athene, Tuesday, 9 Jun 2009 18:04
I think we've all had it drummed into us that a book needs to grab the reader's attention from the outset, if any agent or publisher is going to consider it; so most writers on YWO will be (or will try to be) strong starters. Whether the rest of the work matches up to the carefully crafted, attention-grabbing first line is another matter.


fair comment
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle

"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
awrigley
 09 Jun 2009, 18:44 #60881 Reply To Post
Athene

That is first time authors only.

Someone gave me State of Fear by Michael Crichton for Christmas, because of the science in it and because they know that I am a nutter about the politics of weather. Let's just say it was someone whose Xmas present cannot quite be ignored. So I read it.

Took four chapters to introduce the main characters. By chapter six, speed reading as I went, I was totally confused. Basically, there were baddies and goodies, and the baddies were environmental nutters who where trying to create an environmental catastrophe. It would go nowhere on YWO.

There was some interesting science mind you, somewhat contradictory to Al Gore's opinions. And a buttonhole, tell don't show discussion on the politics of fear was worth reading, albeit pinched from some impoverished academic somewhere on the planet.

So worth the read on that account, but... But I prefered this persons 2007 Xmas present: The speeches of Nelson Mandela. Along with Federer, someone I admire.

Andrew

Memory... What was that?
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