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sulcus
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Quote: pam123writing, Friday, 12 Jun 2009 21:15Left on a train and picked up by me to scan through. Biggest load of shite I've ever seen and I only read three pages. A Halo For The Devil by Barbara Cartland. The worrying thing is, the woman wrote over 600 of these little charmers and made millions.  To be fair the book market when she was writing was very, very different from what it has been over the last ten years and what it is today. ChickLit, love it or loathe it, was a response to a hole in the market, which only Mills & Boon & Dame Cartland had previously been offered up to cater for.
"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."
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pam123writing
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Quote: sulcus, Friday, 12 Jun 2009 21:29Quote: pam123writing, Friday, 12 Jun 2009 21:15Left on a train and picked up by me to scan through. Biggest load of shite I've ever seen and I only read three pages. A Halo For The Devil by Barbara Cartland. The worrying thing is, the woman wrote over 600 of these little charmers and made millions. To be fair the book market when she was writing was very, very different from what it has been over the last ten years and what it is today. ChickLit, love it or loathe it, was a response to a hole in the market, which only Mills & Boon & Dame Cartland had previously been offered up to cater for. True, it was a long time ago and I was very into Daphne du Maurier so I suppose one can't make comparisons. But truly, and I will give most things the benefit of the doubt, it was pure drivel. 
"And, in the end, the love you take / Is equal to the love you make." Lennon and McCartney 1969
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sulcus
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Quote: pam123writing, Friday, 12 Jun 2009 22:02Quote: sulcus, Friday, 12 Jun 2009 21:29Quote: pam123writing, Friday, 12 Jun 2009 21:15Left on a train and picked up by me to scan through. Biggest load of shite I've ever seen and I only read three pages. A Halo For The Devil by Barbara Cartland. The worrying thing is, the woman wrote over 600 of these little charmers and made millions. To be fair the book market when she was writing was very, very different from what it has been over the last ten years and what it is today. ChickLit, love it or loathe it, was a response to a hole in the market, which only Mills & Boon & Dame Cartland had previously been offered up to cater for. True, it was a long time ago and I was very into Daphne du Maurier so I suppose one can't make comparisons. But truly, and I will give most things the benefit of the doubt, it was pure drivel. That part gets no argument from me. Only that the industry indulged her in 600 titles or whatever it was.
"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."
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darkspires
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I suppose it has to be Dart Thornton's Ill-made Mute. I don't actually know if it is the worst book I have ever read because I can't get beyond the first five pages and I have made several attempts. As I hit the five page mark I get viciously accosted by a virulent sleepies attack and wake up some time later with a very stiff neck.
I got myself a copy from a secondhand store as I really did want to see if it justified a blistering review given by an Australian Agent at the time of publication. He renamed it 'The Ill-Written Mute' and things went hilariously downhill from that point.
I found myself overwhelmed by the descriptions of settings. Now it could just be me, as I like stories to be character orientated. Yes, setting is important, but not at the expense of the engagement factor.
However, the book does serve a very useful purpose if I get insomnia. Maybe, if I build up a resilience, I might one day achieve page six?
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Phoenix Gracia
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Worst book in all existence: 'Chosen', part of the Buffy merchandise. A volume novelising ALL of the seventh season. CLEARLY released in a rush as soon as the season--and series--finished. Absolutely no sign of proofreading. At least five errors on every page, inconsistency, mistakes on which characters did what. Spelling errors, punctuation errors, grammar errors, name errors...you name it, they did it. That was one hellish specimen from Simon & Schuster.
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leighvtwersky
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Hard to say what the worst book I've EVER read is, but in recent years I found Everything Is illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer the most embarrassingly overhyped flaw-fest I have had the misfortune to come across in a long time.
The best thing about Captain Corelli's Mandolin was that beautiful blue cover.
As for a book I couldn't get past chapter one - Perfume by Patrick Susskind did me in (although the fact that the person who recommended it and I had got caught up in a nasty love triangle may have had something to do with it).
There are others but I can't think of them right now
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sulcus
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Quote: leighvtwersky, Monday, 29 Jun 2009 22:06Hard to say what the worst book I've EVER read is, but in recent years I found Everything Is illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer the most embarrassingly overhyped flaw-fest I have had the misfortune to come across in a long time. The best thing about Captain Corelli's Mandolin was that beautiful blue cover. As for a book I couldn't get past chapter one - Perfume by Patrick Susskind did me in (although the fact that the person who recommended it and I had got caught up in a nasty love triangle may have had something to do with it). There are others but I can't think of them right now Ha ha ha, I liked 2 of those 3 ! Haven't read the third. Hope we don't get assigned each other's work if this is anything to judge by !
"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."
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Gweniver
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Worst for me was Stephen R Donaldson - Thomas Covenant books just couldn't get into them at all...I tried. Also Graham Masterton has done some pretty awful work (in my opinion) although there is one or two that I did actually enjoy reading. Oh and any inctructions that come with flat packed furniture!!! 
"Between the times, the tempting bells were carried by eight purple horses" Frank Bornemann
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victrix
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Not really sure on that. There's at least three high-profile candidates: The Thomas Covenant Chronicles (I agree wholeheartedly with Gweniver on that one) are about the most depressing books ever written, with a lead character who is unpleasant and with no redeeming feature. A miserable soulless rapist. Fantastic. Jude the Obscure is also one of the most unpleasant to my mind. If I remember this right, the plot goes: "Boy meets girl, everything goes wrong, she throws an animal's penis at him, they try to better themselves but fail, they get married, then separate, then she emigrates, but comes back, they have kids and then she kills herself and the kids and Jude is alone and unhappy." Phew. I forget the other one. I may have blanked the author and title out deliberately, but it was a non-fiction book on the Roman Empire. I'm a Roman Historian, and inaccuracies irritate me. My suspicion of awfulness was aroused when he referred to the amphitheatre at Capua as 'a colosseum'. This is like saying 'a Mona Lisa' or 'a Buckingham Palace'. There is only one. He went on to make around half a dozen brazen errors on every page. I stopped reading before the page number hit double figures. Longer post than I meant to. Sorry to bore y'all! Si
'Interregnum' and 'Marius' Mules' are now on sale. Visit http://www.sjaturney.co.uk for more information.
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sulcus
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Hey Victrix - awesome atavar
"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."
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What's the worst book you've ever read
12 Jun 2009, 21:29
