This is not The Haters Club You're Looking For discussion
Worst book you read this year
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Either The Professor of Desire by Philip Roth or Herzog by Saul Bellow, both books by authors I'd admired but who let me down.
Part of me wants to say The Historian. I'm conflicted, because it's pretty good, it's just so daaaaaaaaaamnn loooooooooooooong. At this point, I think I'm just reading out of habit. I'm almost done, but I don't even know what I'm reading. I guess I'll stick with the Historin. Basically because it has given me reader's indigestion.
Swimming Inside The Sun by David ZweigReviews:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Deleted Member wrote: "Part of me wants to say The Historian..."Oh yeah, The Historian made it to my worst-ever shelf, but I also had the misfortune to read The Witchling, and there's so much wrong with that book, that it beats Historian tenfold.
reviews:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Why do you put your threads in The Ghetto, Rusty? They're first class, for sure.
I was lucky with books this year. I didn't read any poorly written or crappy books. The books I didn't personally like at all were Exit Ghost by Philip Roth and The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway.
Most of the books I read this year I loved and gave either 4 or 5 stars.
I was lucky with books this year. I didn't read any poorly written or crappy books. The books I didn't personally like at all were Exit Ghost by Philip Roth and The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway.
Most of the books I read this year I loved and gave either 4 or 5 stars.
I know, Rusty! I had to un-important one of the "important" threads in the ghetto because your thread wasn't even showing up on the main page.Great year, Sarah!!
I didn't read anything I hated this year either. (I don't think...) Mostly because I've adopted a more liberating "boot it" attitude towards books I start and don't like. But what I really want to know is how the hell you know what you read in 2009 vs 2008? I can't remember when I read what past about 6 months ago. I set the date on here but is there a way to sort by date read?
Or you could have increased the number of threads per folder, that would work too.
Gretchen, you can definitely sort by date read. I also have a shelf entitled "Read in 2009". I have many, many shelves. Have I mentioned that I'm slightly OCD?Tambo, this may be related to my OCD as well, but if the topic isn't strictly about "Things I hate about myself", or "Things I hate about others", I throw it in the "Ghetto".
so, uh.....How, Rusty?!?! HOW do I sort by date?
Even if your books are in cover view, when you scroll to the very bottom of the page, you have the sort and the per page boxes there.
Thanks Kasia!Then the worst books I read in 2009 were:
Haunted
Thunderstruck
Little Brother
Tell No One
Why don't you just put the threads in the top section? "General?" Doesn't that work? The Ghetto is for retired threads, so really you're putting them in the wrong spot. How does your OCD like that?
Okay, Tambocita, I did not realize it was for retired threads. And you are correct, the OCD is not pleased.
I still think you guys could increase the # of threads per folder. With 4 folders, I think it won't hurt.If you don't know what I'm talking about it's in the advanced options at the very bottom:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/edit/2...
I like 7s they always remind me of scythes, they look like them. Go for it.
Yay 7! Thanks.((((((((((((Gretchen))))))))))))))
"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." I made it through about 40 pages - trying to cut through the prose - before tossing it aside. I felt like I was in a medically-induced coma.
A caveat: I've never been much for the classics. Shakespeare put me right to sleep in high school. If I have to sit and think about every word I read, I'm done like dinner.
A caveat: I've never been much for the classics. Shakespeare put me right to sleep in high school. If I have to sit and think about every word I read, I'm done like dinner.
Late to this party but pretending that it is still the end of 2009, the worst book I read this year was The Alchemist. It simultaneously made my blood boil and bored the shit out of me. Although that is admittedly not the easiest task, I don't think it is what the author set out to do.
I think it was last year I read it, but it easily qualifies as the worst book I've ever read in my entire life: Rosemary's baby, by Ira Levin. No horror, no suspense, no good writing, and the worst, most unimaginative ending you could ever think of. The one we used in our compositions for school when we got bored of thinking.
This is not The Haters Club You're Looking For
Books mentioned in this topic
The Alchemist (other topics)Haunted (other topics)
Little Brother (other topics)
Thunderstruck (other topics)
Tell No One (other topics)
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Although I read a lot of crap this year, this is an easy decision for me. It was definitely Traveling Vampire Show. It started out with some potential, but quickly switched gears to stupid and worthless. Richard Laymon (the author) took his "sexy scenes" straight out of 60's porn. They were ridiculous, and lacked any originality. The main character was supposedly (kind of ) narrating this story from the modern day. He would interject (taking the reader completely out of the crappy story) to explain the most mundane and uninteresting things about life in the 1950's, like the fact that there weren't huge recycling centers back then.
Really? No shit? Wow!
What he failed to explain is how a mysterious show tauting a vampire could generate enough interest to compel hundreds of people from the surrounding area to show up with one day's notice, and pay $10, when two bits could buy a meal, snacks and a movie at the time. But I digress. See, that's how you do it. When you start off on a tangent that no one cares about, you say "I digress" and get back to it. Simple.
Any way, this is the second and last book I anticipate ever reading by Laymon. Beast House was okay, and this was just dreck, so I have concluded that he was really not that great an author and not worth my time. May he rest in peace.