Books you finished and just thought: "Well...that was shit"
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I can agree to this. I don't read too often, usually only when I find a book or series I really like, and Hitchhiker's and its sequels were one of those series that I found myself constantly reading, even when I could be doing something else, which is rare. Then, I got to Mostly Harmless and just couldn't stay interested. It just plain wasn't as good.Hero in a half shell said:
OT: Halo: Cryptum, personally. I like Halo and quite enjoyed most of the books, but I could not finish Cryptum. I lost interest fairly early on and just stopped reading. It could just be me not enjoying it due to the fact it wasn't actually all that relevant to the Halo universe featured in the games and books I read before that, maybe it's a good book for people who are more into sci-fi than I am, but it didn't feel enough like Halo for my tastes.
If I reckon a book is shit, I stop reading it before I finish it, as I did with Lord of the Rings
Shadowland by Peter Straub: bored me to tears and took so long for anything to happen that I quit about 100 pages in.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Tried to read these when the movies were in theaters but by the time I finished The Two Towers I just didn't care anymore. They're just so dry and slow. To this day they're the only books where I liked the movie better.
I wasn't thrilled by the ending to the Eragon series but Inheritance gets some points for finally giving Galbatorix some "screen" time. I always hated that the villain never gets a single line until the end of book three and even that is through someone else.
The Dark Tower series: I really don't know why I hate this one. It seems like it should be right up my alley but I got through the second book and I have absolutely no desire to read more. My brother likes it and has read more of them but I don't think he's finished it either.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Tried to read these when the movies were in theaters but by the time I finished The Two Towers I just didn't care anymore. They're just so dry and slow. To this day they're the only books where I liked the movie better.
I wasn't thrilled by the ending to the Eragon series but Inheritance gets some points for finally giving Galbatorix some "screen" time. I always hated that the villain never gets a single line until the end of book three and even that is through someone else.
The Dark Tower series: I really don't know why I hate this one. It seems like it should be right up my alley but I got through the second book and I have absolutely no desire to read more. My brother likes it and has read more of them but I don't think he's finished it either.
I'm sure I'll get shit for this one, but A Clockwork Orange.
I enjoyed the fact that by the end of it you had almost learned a completely different language... but damn was it dull. The pacing was fucking terrible, throughout the entire thing.
Edit: But yeah, I'll have to agree with the guy above me. If I realize that a book is going to be dry, I'll probably just put it down. A book needs to be extremely engaging, such as the Dresden Series, in order for me to actually read the whole thing.
The only reason I went through A Clockwork Orange, was because it was for school, and the Sparknotes kinda sucked for it.
I enjoyed the fact that by the end of it you had almost learned a completely different language... but damn was it dull. The pacing was fucking terrible, throughout the entire thing.
Edit: But yeah, I'll have to agree with the guy above me. If I realize that a book is going to be dry, I'll probably just put it down. A book needs to be extremely engaging, such as the Dresden Series, in order for me to actually read the whole thing.
The only reason I went through A Clockwork Orange, was because it was for school, and the Sparknotes kinda sucked for it.
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
Culminates in, essentially, pedophilia. Even after a long struggle of "Oh, no, I couldn't, she's just a child!" *barf*
I'm sure there are more, but that's the only one I can remember at the moment.
Culminates in, essentially, pedophilia. Even after a long struggle of "Oh, no, I couldn't, she's just a child!" *barf*
I'm sure there are more, but that's the only one I can remember at the moment.
Finished? Not since required reading in high school.
For leisure reading, I put down mediocre books long before I finish them (never did make it through the first Harry Potter book... not that it was bad, per se), never mind truly shitty books.
There was one about a missionary sent somewhere in South America in the late 1800s... the protagonist was a wrongheaded fuck who learned a few things but in the end remained a wrongheaded fuck, just in a different way. On top of that it was quite boring, despite barely topping 200 pages. It pretty much went "arrive, set up, argue with the locals, remove aid from some locals, something exciting finally happens once and lasts half a page, return aid to the locals (oh, I guess I was wrong to mess with that, let's put it back the way it was), leave". There was also the matter of poor editing... overuse of run-on sentences, a few nonsensical sentences here and there... my book report was scathing, to say the least. Read more like a highly critical review. The teacher gave me a C on it because she disagreed vehemently with my appraisal but could find no technical flaw in it. I got the feeling she really wanted to fail me over that one. I don't remember the title, thankfully. That was 15 years ago.
Also thankfully, I was only ever assigned mediocre books in college.
Also thankfully, I was only ever assigned mediocre books in college.
Don't even get me started about that book! Seriously, fuck this book! The whole thing was bullshit, below a crappy B rate movie, but it was the ending that did it for me.The Wykydtron said:
Okay, so all the bullshit has been done right. But our main protagonist (who might I say was acting...fucking retarded in this book) sees one of their allies talking with the bad guy. Just causally talking to them. So this is the part where I thought:
"Ohohohoho, I smell subterfuge!"
Flip to the epilogue: The protagonist is now randomly on a beach living it up and the ally we saw in the last scene? They were talking to the main villain, saying that they were gonna expose their corruption...what. the. fuck?!
No, no I'm not gonna pretend that makes sense, Mr.Patterson! Fuck you! You want me to believe that one of the characters just waltzed up to the villain, who just happened to be in the same building as out "heroes" and told them that they were gonna reveal their crimes...the villain had an underwater base with mutant whales for fucks sake! Why would he just stand there and not do something?! His goons were with him too, they could've just-fuck!
Seriously, the books got a bit iffy around the third book but ended on a nice note. The fourth book on the other hand is fucking garbage! How garbage? He made a ghostbusters joke. No literally a character says, "Who you gonna call." And outside the door someone says, "Ghostbuster!"
...this was on a military submarine. Fuck this book.
I hear there are three more books out and one more on the way...how and why?! Seriously, if I can say anything good about this book, it's that it gave me an example of truly crappy literature.
"Ohohohoho, I smell subterfuge!"
Flip to the epilogue: The protagonist is now randomly on a beach living it up and the ally we saw in the last scene? They were talking to the main villain, saying that they were gonna expose their corruption...what. the. fuck?!
No, no I'm not gonna pretend that makes sense, Mr.Patterson! Fuck you! You want me to believe that one of the characters just waltzed up to the villain, who just happened to be in the same building as out "heroes" and told them that they were gonna reveal their crimes...the villain had an underwater base with mutant whales for fucks sake! Why would he just stand there and not do something?! His goons were with him too, they could've just-fuck!
Seriously, the books got a bit iffy around the third book but ended on a nice note. The fourth book on the other hand is fucking garbage! How garbage? He made a ghostbusters joke. No literally a character says, "Who you gonna call." And outside the door someone says, "Ghostbuster!"
...this was on a military submarine. Fuck this book.
I hear there are three more books out and one more on the way...how and why?! Seriously, if I can say anything good about this book, it's that it gave me an example of truly crappy literature.
OT: Now that that mini-rant is over, let me tell you about a REALLY crappy book. Written by the same author as the one above, right after that book. This book hurt me especially, Witch and Wizard by James Patterson. You see, I was already a bit heartbroken by the fourth Maximum Ride book. I heard about his new book and thought, "Okay, he fucked up. But perhaps this book will be alright."
I was wrong. So horribly wrong.
Character development is literally non-existent, the pacing is terrible, and-you know, I'm not gonna go any further. I'm just gonna say this:
This book is literally the worst book I have ever read in my entire life.
Really, I'd say that about Twilight, but I didn't read Twilight all the way through hoping things would get better. I realized Twilight was terrible, jumped ship, and saved myself a lot of time. Sadly, I didn't do that here. I read the whole damn book through and through, and it was the same terrible dribble it was at the beginning. Oh, but this is what really, really irks me about the book. This his quote on this book.
"This is the story I was born to tell. Read on, while you still can..."
...fuck you James Patterson, fuck you.
Now, when I start reading a book but can barely stand chapter 1, I just say, "Fuck this shit, I'm going on the internet!"
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Honorable mentions go to Superhuman and Daniel X, but I actually got some form of enjoyment out of those books.
If I had to mention something that hasn't been mentioned... Agatha Christie. I read two books by her before I decided, no more.
"And Then There Were None" and this other one that I can't remember but apparently was one in a series of detective novels with her Miss Marple character.
They were just... so slow and monotonous. At least the first one had some semblance of murder. I don't think the crime in the second book was worth anything! Nothing was happening! Nothing!
Hell in the first book, the murders were all just there. You knew they were coming of course but then it happened and blah. And the ending? I understand nothing. I dunno why it ended the way it did but it did.
"And Then There Were None" and this other one that I can't remember but apparently was one in a series of detective novels with her Miss Marple character.
They were just... so slow and monotonous. At least the first one had some semblance of murder. I don't think the crime in the second book was worth anything! Nothing was happening! Nothing!
Hell in the first book, the murders were all just there. You knew they were coming of course but then it happened and blah. And the ending? I understand nothing. I dunno why it ended the way it did but it did.
Oh oh! Can manga count? If so I nominate Bleach, specifically the bullshit defeat of Aizen at the end of his particular arc.
Basically they build him to be an absolute unkillable monster with him waltzing through the combined might of the entire good side of the cast (bar the main character) and later just shrugging off a pretty badass assassination attempt by his former second in command.
Seriously if either of those things had killed him i'd have been totally ok with that. Power of Friendship ftw.
Basically the main character exploits a loophole in time and space to have infinite training time. This, being a Shonen manga equates to "holy shit watch the fuck out" territory
Then Aizen's power source (being kinda a seperate entity to him but not really) decides that "sorry dude i'mma just gonna jump ship for no reason k thx" and just leaves him to (not) die.
Fuck it, i'm out!
Might be slightly misremembered when it comes to the details but I doubt I could forget that amount of bullshit in one arc.
Basically they build him to be an absolute unkillable monster with him waltzing through the combined might of the entire good side of the cast (bar the main character) and later just shrugging off a pretty badass assassination attempt by his former second in command.
Seriously if either of those things had killed him i'd have been totally ok with that. Power of Friendship ftw.
Basically the main character exploits a loophole in time and space to have infinite training time. This, being a Shonen manga equates to "holy shit watch the fuck out" territory
Then Aizen's power source (being kinda a seperate entity to him but not really) decides that "sorry dude i'mma just gonna jump ship for no reason k thx" and just leaves him to (not) die.
Fuck it, i'm out!
Might be slightly misremembered when it comes to the details but I doubt I could forget that amount of bullshit in one arc.
The House on Mango Street. While the rest of the freshman english classes were reading actually interesting books like the Alchemist or To Kill a Mockingbird, my class was reading this uninteresting book and listening to the audiobook, as read by the author who sounded like she had an ice pick in her frontal lobe.
tell me about it, the books were only written and brought out a few years prior to the movies. I mean just because a story has a fanbase doesn't mean it'll translate well to film.Tony said:
To me, the Hunger Games is just ripping off a better story of true events and trying to capitalize on it - like the remake to The Haunting (nostalgia critic review opened my eyes) and Twilight is just lame and full of holes and idiot characters that shouldn't have the following that they do
I know you said no books your school made you read, but I'm going to put one anyways.
Goddamn was "To Kill a Mockingbird" horrible. It sucked balls, and while it was only what? 250 pages? It took me a couple days of straight reading to get through it(it was for a CP English summer project). I could not stand it.
Also, I read the first "Twilight", so yes, I can make an informed opinion about it. It was shit. Really, the ending was the only part that I actually liked remotely.
Goddamn was "To Kill a Mockingbird" horrible. It sucked balls, and while it was only what? 250 pages? It took me a couple days of straight reading to get through it(it was for a CP English summer project). I could not stand it.
Also, I read the first "Twilight", so yes, I can make an informed opinion about it. It was shit. Really, the ending was the only part that I actually liked remotely.
the movie was just as bad, couldn't get through the first twenty minutes but I guess you're supposed to read the book first. But the point of the movie was to open up the story to newcomers but everything just jumps at you and you're supposed to pick up on everything like you knew it already. The info is thrown at you like a strobelight flashing in your eyes.Questalace said:
so was catcher in the rye.Mayhaps said:
I don't read books that I'm not enjoying unless it's for school. That said, I have read a few books that have good stories but were poorly written, like the deltora quest series, but nothing that was utter shit.