Six pages and nobody has named the worst book EVER written?
I'll give you a bottom three list, in descending order.
Number Three: The Still, by David Feintuch. I enjoyed the first two Nicholas Seafort books, but the character was starting to really grate by the fifth book. Then I picked up The Still, and began missing Seafort's insane obsession with 'duty.' The Still is about a 'prince' of some sort who is supposed to inherit some sort of power, BUT he loses the power if he loses his virginity. So he spends the first third of the book whining about pretty much everything. Oh, but he finds sexual release in his best friend's offer to pleasure him by hand. His male best friend, of course. Anyway, I say he whined in the first third of the book, but he probably continued whining all the way to the end; I'll never know, because I took it back to the library and asked for my money back.
Number Two: The 'Song of Fire and Ice' series by George R.R. Martin. I got through two and a half books before I realized that there was little to no plot advancement, lots of people dying, main characters being killed often enough that you don't know who the protagonists are supposed to be, and side plots that have absolutely NOTHING to do with anything else for the first two and a half books. Finally I'd had enough, and paid the library to take them back.
Number One: Who Has Seen the Wind, by W.O. Mitchell. The absolute WORST book EVER written, bar none. 'Song of Fire and Ice' is #2 because this book, while not nearly as long as even a single book of that series, is twice as boring in every possible way. Worse, I was FORCED to read it, because it's required reading in high school in Ontario. Depending on the school district you're in, you'll read it in different grades. I read it in Grade 10. Then, after we moved, I found it was on the reading list for Grade 12. I told the teacher flat out that no force on this earth could make me read that piece of utter waste again. I also said that I could write a better book than that, and she asked me to prove it. So that became my Grade 12 English project; I got my best mark ever in English that year.
But, back to the book. Believe me, my head is pounding just at the thought of how atrocious this experience was. But as a public service I shall sum up the book for you, so you can be excused from reading this 'classic' of Canadian literature.
A young boy who's name thankfully escapes me learns about life through the deaths of various creatures and people that pass through the pointlessness that is the life of a six-year old in Depression-era Winnipeg.
Note that Depression-era Winnipeg is a lot like Depression-era Omaha, without the exciting night life. Homer and Shakespeare could not combine their talents to write an interesting story about Depression-era Winnipeg. Nor would they be foolish enough to do so. Unfortunately for Canadian high school students for the past few decades, Mitchell was foolish enough, and since there is so little Canadian literature worth mentioning, they get stuck reading this. And people wonder why today's kids have so little interest in reading.
You know how sometimes you'll see a review of a movie or book that describes how awful it is, and you want to see for yourself just to see if it's really that bad? Please trust me. Given the choice, claw your own eyes out to spare yourself the sheer emptiness of this 'masterpiece' of Canadian literature. Hold yourself hostage with a shotgun, string yourself up by the neck, whatever it takes, don't let them make you read this.
I'll take fifty Wuthering Heights and a thousand Catchers in the Rye before reading this unfathomably bad book ever again. I'll even write a note for my son when he gets to high school exempting him from reading it. Now that's parental love.
) the other confusing thing, beside the Catherine vs young Cathy, is the difference between Edgar Linton, Catherine's husband and Linton Heathcliff, Heathcliff and Isabella's Linton's son. so i guess there is more than one Heathcliff, technically, but they don't really call him by his last name, they just call him Master Linton. agghh! it's annoying me just thinking about it! 
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