Worst book of all time

[//Gracie//]

A Seperate Peace by John Knowles
Anyone else suffer through that in high school?

*raises hand*
Yep. Right here.

<sigh>...

 

[Dust and Ashes]

i think most 'classic' american literature isn't good, horribly boring must be one of the qualifications

Actually, it's all a matter of taste. People go on and on about some books that I think are pathetically stupid and pointless, not to mention boring, yet everyone goes on about how good they are. Same with movies and video games. People rave about Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia but I don't care for them myself. I just don't care for children's books.

That said, I love classic literature and most other serious fiction that requires me to think. I don't care for the Left Behind books because they seem amateurishly written although I was a big proponent of the series for a long time simply because I was a pretrib dispensationalist and thought they were eschatologically important.

 

[Nienor]

i love to read books that make me think. but i haven't read much classic literature that does that.

 

[Dust and Ashes]

i love to read books that make me think. but i haven't read much classic literature that does that.

One thing to keep in mind is that what makes classic literature classic is that it is written from a different world view or at least from a different cultural perspective so the nuances will be very different. Most modern fiction is very straight-forward and means what it says whereas classic lit contains more metaphorical content.

But sometimes I just love a good old fasioned adventure like The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers or some of Natty Bumpo's adventures.

 

[Nienor]

hmmm....
it seems that most of the ones i have read haven't felt applicable to my life. I do enjoy some of the stuff like salinger and steinbeck. One flew over the cuckoos nest was a bit wierd for me. it was a good story, but i think i missed some of the symbolism. i don't think it usually is the story line that turns me off, mostly the style.

 

[Nienor]

ps: I LOVE the Count of Monte Cristo- such an amazing book

 

[Dust and Ashes]

hmmm....
it seems that most of the ones i have read haven't felt applicable to my life. I do enjoy some of the stuff like salinger and steinbeck. One flew over the cuckoos nest was a bit wierd for me. it was a good story, but i think i missed some of the symbolism. i don't think it usually is the story line that turns me off, mostly the style.

I think a lot of it is that serious writing was hard to do back then and many potentially great authors just didn't have the drive. Can you imagine writing The Count of Monte Cristo (the original, unabridged version) longhand with a quill? Where, today, anyone can sit down, open Word or OpenOffice and churn out prose with spellcheck and auto-correct on.

I mean, seriously, if you are writing longhand are you really going to describe the "faint imperfections in the surface of the object which seemed to denote great age and exposure to the elements or possibly the passage of some great cataclysm ages gone..." or just say, "It looked old and weathered." I think that's why a lot of classic literature comes across as being dry; because it is, well, dry.

 

[Ithilwyn]

I simply couldn't stand Catcher in the Rye. Why do I want to read about some kid whining about how terrible his life is? I can get that at work.

I also never got into Keith Roberts' book Pavane. I have more than a passing interest in both historical fiction and fantasy, so I thought it would be interesting to combine the two and read an "alternative history". Bad idea. This books is so poorly written. The novel is organized into short stories that are VERY loosely tied together, but you don't know that until half way through the book. My biggest frustration was that Roberts never gives you enough information about this alternative world to really understand it; I mean, I don't mind a trail of bread crumbs, but in order to be fulfilling, there needs to be enough crumbs to make a meal.

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

The entire left behind series... talk about a bunch of books that have given people the wrong assumption about the end times.
Gotta love theological fiction books

 

[theotherguy]

Macbeth or anything by shakespear is surely the tortus peices of writing ever concived. The pain of British English lessons! The defination of classic used by most people seems to be either totally boring or totally incomprehensable. Shakespear manged both in everything he wrote

 

[Nienor]

no! not macbeth! or hamlet! they are amazing

 

[Dust and Ashes]

no! not macbeth! or hamlet! they are amazing

I still remember a big chunk of Marc Antony's funeral speech from Julius Caesar. We had to memorize the whole thing and recite it for English Lit in high school. I love Shakespear. Bill rawks!

 

[Cordelia]

Blow me! I thought someone was going to use this as an oppertunity to take a swipe at the Bible (not allowed, right?). Macbeth or anything by shakespear is surely the tortus peices of writing ever concived. The pain of British English lessons! The defination of classic used by most people seems to be either totally boring or totally incomprehensable. Shakespear manged both in everything he wrote

Eeeep, that's interesting... Shakespeare makes me ache with joy. I'm not sure why.

Hmmm... a friend of mine used to rave about Christine Feehan's Dark series (sort-of vampire romances) so I cheerfully bought the first four books in it. I started reading the first one and wondered how this woman ever sold a single book...

 

[MrsGnomeCrusher]

A Seperate Peace by John Knowles
Anyone else suffer through that in high school?

I liked "A Separate Peace."

 

[MrsGnomeCrusher]

"Lord of the Flies." Urgh! Horrid!

 

[Ithilwyn]

The key to Shakespeare is the language. Once you get the language (or get past the language if you must), the stories themselves are really fantastic.

 

[MrsGnomeCrusher]

The key to Shakespeare is the language. Once you get the language (or get past the language if you must), the stories themselves are really fantastic.

I can agree to a certain extent. However, there are some of his works that I enjoy quite a bit and others bore me to tears.

 

[SnowDove]

I hated Little Women. I always wanted Jo to end up with Laurie. I know, I know: it's girlish and dumb, but I never could forgive Louisa for putting Jo with the old man. And AMY with LAURIE! So ridiculous. Ugh. I wish I could rewrite the dang book.

Lol...that's my all-time favorite book! I liked the outcome of Amy and Laurie...it made a lot more sense in the book than in the movie...I liked their relationship! But to each his own! I WILL say that I was rather disappointed with the character of Professor Baer...I liked him in the movie better.

Sorry, the worst book ever written...hmmm: The Bourne Identity? I didn't even get all the way through...I was pretty disgusted with much of it. I have to say that the movie was SO much better based on what I did read.

 

[savvy]

Shakespeare is cool. I got to go see a play at the Globe last summer and it really helped me appreciate The Bard a lot. I can't remember what it was called...it's the one with a guy named Benedick?
Oh, Cordelia, I too had a friend who was obsessed with that series...I couldn't understand it!
And I love Lord of the Flies. Thought A Separate Peace was stupid.

 

[HappyMomof4]

I liked the Old Man and the Sea! I read it in like three hours.

I don't remember the name of the worst book I ever read. The main character was a man named Ignatius P Reilly or something. He always wore a plaid hunting had with ear flaps and had a digestive problem that he constantly referred to as in "my valve is bothering me". He was a total weirdo with a domineering mother who was mean. My sister made me read it because it was hip and cool years ago. I still make fun of her for that.