What is the worst book you ever bought?

[Kimberly]

Echo I bought this years ago because I wanted it so bad and I hated it!!!! I returned it for my money...the author tried to be to artsy with her writing style.

[Barb]

Far and away the worst book I have EVER read was Eat, Pray, Love aka Eat, Pray, Whine.

Unquestionably the most self-absorbed human being ever.

[Joanne]

Somehow Barb, I knew I shouldn't attempt that book.

[Lianne]

Gomez-Jurado's God's Spy. Luckily it was a bargain book, but still, taht was a few days of reading that I'd like back (and the few dollars) =(

[Denise]

For me, it would have to be Edward Rutherford novels. I tried reading both London and The Forest. I somehow got through the first quarter of each, and had to decide whether to give up or scratch my own eyes out. So tedious- and if you could get into the story, bad news...it would come to an abrupt halt and start another. I finally gave away all his books hoping someone else might enjoy them.

[Angela]

Wookie Book

[Marsha]

Barb wrote: "Far and away the worst book I have EVER read was Eat, Pray, Love aka Eat, Pray, Whine.

Unquestionably the most self-absorbed human being ever."

You aren't alone - our Goodwill has a HUGE book section and I peruse it often. And, among the books, I always find several copies of Eat, Pray, Love. I figure if it was so wonderful, people wouldn't be giving it away, but passing it along to their friends or keeping it for a re-reading.

[Sophie]

The Book With No Name by "Anonymous"
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
and (most recently) Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

[Huw]

Sophie wrote: "The Book With No Name by "Anonymous"
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
and (most recently) Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway"

I can sympathise with your choice of Hemingway. I have never been able to enjoy his works. I think it has to do with his brevity of style and his gung-ho, straight line writing.

[Neko]

A book I purchased either last year or the year before that has topped my one of my worst purchases-

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't get around his style of writing and it felt poorly edited so I gave it the flick.

[CD]

Huw wrote: "Sophie wrote: "The Book With No Name by "Anonymous"
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
and (most recently) Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway"

I can sympathise with your choice of Hemingw..."

I've come to view Hemingway as an industry that just happens to include a Nobel Prize winning author. Long have I preferred reading about Hemingway than reading his works. With a couple of minor exceptions this seems to continue to hold true, even decades after I first was introduced.

Hemingway wrote some magnificent passages in his books, but they need to be dug out of the surrounding work. Else it can be dry and obscure.

[Sophie]

CD wrote:"Hemingway wrote some magnificent passages in his books, but they need to be dug out of the surrounding work. Else it can be dry and obscure. "

I find this to be true. There are certain lines and the odd passage within his books, which stand out as truly wonderful pieces of writing. However, the books, when considered as a whole, do not impress.

[nikki]

mine was THE LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER..i hate the characters.its kinda interesting from the start..its sort of heart breaking..its about a girl who got through accident with amnesia she doesnt remember any..but with the help of the recent letters that she has and her husband..the story got twisted..

[Aoibhínn]

This book The New York Trilogy was the most boring book I've ever read.

[Casey]

The worst book I ever bought was Sexing The Cherry. I bought it by mistake since I was buying several books by one author and thought she wrote this one too. When my order arrived I was surprised to see a differen author and realized my mistake was "people who ordered this also ordered. ___". I thought I would give it a shot. HORRIBLE!!! I only finished it because I am stubborn. It is no longer In my home and I hope to never see it again. I would rate it negative stars if I could. What surprises me the most is that many people gave this book 4 & 5 stars???? I don't get it!!!!!

[Ellen]

I actually went out and bought the hardcover of The Da Vinci Code and then just couldn't get into it at all.

Luckily, I had a friend who wanted to read it so I was able to give it as a gift to her.

[J.W.]

"Alice in Deadland"

I can't believe as many people liked it as I've seen. Maybe as a writer I just view a book differently.

It read like a poorly constructed article, and the prose was terrible. And the fact that each "action" scene was preceded by a full recap of our heroine's combat expertise in list-like fashion (and this was done to excruciating lengths), paired with the misuse of too many words to count and the monotonous pitfall of, "wrote myself into a corner, gonna take a cheat now and pretend what I just wrote didn't really happen," made it unbearable.

Got halfway through and could suffer no more. There was nothing worth sticking around for.

First book I've ever left unfinished.

[Maureen]

Without a doubt, White Oleander.

[Melissa]

The entire Twilight Series, House of Night series, Red Riding Hood, The Alibi,Hot Iceall come to mind.

[Angela]

Woodie book 1 and 2 by Russel Brand.

[Asha]

Time of my life

[Karen M]

Maureen wrote: "Without a doubt, White Oleander."

I found it haunting. It stayed with me for weeks so I guess you could say I was sorry that I had bought it and read it.

[Nicole D.]

was just horriable and can't believe I even finished it let alone spent 8 bucks on it.If I had spent 1 cent on it it would have been too much.

[Terri]

Atonement and Eat Pray Love. Atonement was flat out boring and the eating part of EPL was the highlight of that book

[Jenna]

The Road. Awful book made no sense at all!!!

[Maryalice]

Large print copy of Pride and Prejudice, I just don't like Jane Austine.

[Thom]

The Swiss Family Robinson Without a doubt this is the worst book I've ever bought. When I finished it I tried to take it back and get my money back. I was refused and that only confirmed my belief of its undesirability.

[David Jay]

Confessions of a Fat Bride. I thought the title was funny and the cover picture was also amusing. The book was horrid. Like they say, don't judge a book by its cover...

[Lára]

Definitely Twilight saga. I have no idea why and how that happened.

[Kristin]

The Great Gatsby. I used to think I hated it because it was assigned in school, but no I just hated the style and felt the need to get in the Tardis and smack each of their silly, fictional faces.

*some of this hate may also be directed towards the actors in the movie which I was forced to watch as well.

[Terri]

I found the Great Gatsby over rated

[Jocelin]

I read "Twilight" and it was one of the worst books that I have ever read. I can't put it on this list because I didn't buy it. I will say the one book that I did buy that was the worst was: A Hunger Like No Other by Kelsey Cole. Couldn't wait to finish that one. It was like reading a bad soap opera.

[Afsana]

Terri wrote: "I found the Great Gatsby over rated"

i so agree

[Melissa]

The worst worst worst book I ever bought and did read all the way thru hoping it would get better but never did was .

[Lára]

I´ve recently discovered that 89% of the books I own are bad. really bad. I probably shouldn´t have bought them before reading them first. I´m working on it this year. No more bad books on my shelves. Every single one goes to my probation shelf before I buy it

[Jenna]

Another book would be " where'd you Bernadette". No sure why it got so much hype, but I obviously missed something because I found it awful. Thankfully it was a library borrow so money wasted!

[Louise]

- man I didn't like that one, so lame and so looong.
Runner up is

[Amber]

I absolutely hated A Confederacy of Dunces. I couldn't even really finish it. I read about half of it and then skimmed through the rest. I wrote a review(in which I openly admitted that I had not finished the book but gave my opinion on what I had read) and then got attacked for my obvious stupidity...because, apparently, one must be stupid if he or she dislikes this book. From what I could tell after reading the responses to my review, it's either one of those books you love or hate. There is no in-between.

[Empress]

The great Getsby. I don't understand how this is a classic and has such a high rating, but obviously there is something wrong with me. Gladly the book was just about a 100 pages!!!

[Margaret]

For me, I had an awful time with The Griffin Mage by Rachel Neumeier. Somewhere between the characters with no personality to each book in the trilogy written with new characters, it was just a drag.

[Robert]

Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. One would think that with a title such as this it would be a great read, especially if you have an interest in history and or martial arts but no. This book was incredibly dry. 600 plus pages of dry.

[Thom]

The Swiss Family Robinson This children's classic is one of the worst stories I've ever read.

[Kelly]

Was the worst for me... After Twilight this book was a huge let down! Couldn't even finish it.

[Ava Catherine]

For me Pet Sematary by Stephen King was the worst. I could not finish it, and I had nightmares about the part I had read. I know some people think that is the very best Stephen King ever, but I could not deal with the violence and gore.

[Thom]

I would say Connie that you've described it to a tee and that is exactly what endears Stephen King to millions of readers. His books tend to stay with you which is the mark of a truly great writer.

[Christine]

The Shack. It was so terrible. I definitely didn't realize what it was actually about before I bought it. I'm definitely not anti-religion in any way. The book was just awful.

[Ceren]

Chuck Palahniuk's Damned. -___- still makes me want to throw myself from the top of a building.

[Joei]

Very interesting. I too got the book not knowing what it was about and absolutely LOVED it. For me it was food for thought. It's a good thing that over 250 thousand books are published each year.....gives us lots of choice.

[Bonnie G.]

I am going to say Anthropology of an American Girl. I do not understand how that book found a publisher! Some of the books listed here really surprise me. In the past months I re-read (in my "book club" which includes me and my 15 year old son) Confederacy of Dunces and Gatsby. We both loved both books and had wildly different perspectives on them. My son found Confederacy a very tough read, but now counts it among his favorite books of all time. We are going to another of the books here, Moby Dick, soon. I read that in high school and did not love it, but I am thinking it is better read by older people like me.

[Joei]

I had read so many of Ken Follett's books, Pillars of the Earth being my ABSOLUTE favorite that when I saw Whiteout on the shelf I just had to get it. What ABSOLUTE crap. It was like his publisher said that they needed a new book within the next 20 minutes and he sat down and wrote one. Crap - I hate wasting my time and money on rubbish. Number 1 worst book. Joei at www.joeicarlton.com