Ever read a book so bad that you actaully stopped reading?

[Ninjat_126]

His Dark Materials series.

I actually read Northern Lights, but gave up a chapter into the second book. I don't remember a thing that happened, except there was a bearfight at some point that managed to make a duel to the death between polar bears boring.

 

[Badassassin]

Atlas Shrugged. Still got it but I haven't really tried picking it up again for awhile.

It's not necessarily "bad" its just I got bored quickly.

Same here. It wasn't bad though, it's just... well this is really my personal experience, but I had happened to read The Fountainhead right before it. If you've ever read either, I'll just let you know now, they're both the exact same language... It gets old... gets old.

 

[Jimmybobjr]

"Maximum Ride: Angel"

I had read the first three books (Which were fine), but the next 3 were shite. I kept reading hoping that it would get better, but it never did. I quit about the 7th book.

"A Game of Thrones"

Although im thinking of picking this up again, the reason i dropped it was because of two things; i felt that there were too many characters in quick secession, and i was having trouble with who had killed whose father, and who had sex with which sister and so forth.

The second, and vastly more important reason, is that on page 100 or so, a man has sex with a 13 year old girl in great (Or... Too great) detail. This was against my liking. However, i have since learned that this is actually in some greater context and not just a scene thrown in for shock factor or the like.

 

[game-lover]

I came close with two Agatha Christie novels.

One was "And then there were none" and the other I can't remember but it was a Miss Marple novel. I was never so bored in my entire life than reading those books. I forced myself to finish 'cause I was going through this phase where I'd never read a book that I never finished and I wasn't gonna start now.

 

[Nemesis729]

I made the mistake of buying Witch and Wizard without reading any of it first, got home, and realized it was written on a second grade level, That was a let down

 

[Siege_TF]

I remember a couple Dragonlance books booring me out of my skull fifteen years ago, but that's probably because I prefer sci-fi over fantasy. If manga counts then Naruto Shippuden's prime on the list because it's Harry Potter: The Manga.

The only diffference I can notice is instead of having Ron and Draco they simply have Ron do a face heel turn. What galls me (very mildly; fans gonna fan) is that fans of one series or the other points this and a few very minor cosmetic differences (Harry never had a crush on Hermione as Naruto did on Sakura) out as proof that they're different as night and day...

Or at least different as Star Trek and Star Wars.

 

[newguy77]

The Knight by Gene Wolfe. May not be a bad book, but the main character is such a self entitled prick that I could not finish it.

 

[Commissar Sae]

Never, I fought my way through the absolute piece of shit that was 'grunts!' loathing every page with a fiery passion but I finished it. I've dropped series before, having lost interest in them after the first few books but I've damn well finished every book I've started.

Oh crap, forgot to finish 'Young Stalin' because I decided to take a break to read some fiction. I guess that counts, but I do intend to finish it and it was actually a pretty good read so not sure that counts.

 

[Dr Pussymagnet]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

It was a funny idea, until I started reading it and found it to be as boring as the original Pride and Prejudice.

 

[Neonbob]

Great Expectations. No other book has managed to put so much drivel on one page. There were insignificant details upon inconsequential observations upon the mind numbingly slow plot movement.
It felt like he put more useless information on one page than the entirety of the Guiness Record book.
I was assigned that book during High School, and it was the only book that I ever hated so much that I actually considered burning. I probably stopped at the third chapter, and just let myself fail that entire section of the class. Thankfully, there were enough other books to make up for me doing so.

 

[Commissar Sae]

Cthulhu's Reign: a collection of short stories about what a world post Eldritch horror takeover would be like, which I thought was interesting and I'm a big fan of Lovecraft mythos stories in general. But when Cthulhu downsizes a human size Cthulhus (that keeps saying "thooloo," you konw, like a Pokemon) and basically stalks a group of survivors and gorily rips them apart B-movie sci-fi style, I could not keep reading. THAT IS NOT WHAT THE LOVECRAFT MYTHOS IS ABOUT!

Yeah that one kind sucked, some of the stories were decent though. The one by the Japanese author was pretty creepy if nothing else.

 

[Sagacious Zhu]

Breaking Dawn (Up until the werewolf falls in love with the hell-fetus)

You should really read the birthing part, it's so worth it.

I did. I stopped shortly thereafter when the lycanthropic pedophilia began...

 

[spartan231490]

Actually, The Silmarillion was sooo boring I had to stop. I just couldn't keep reading. The problem only book that I couldn't keep reading just because it was bad was . . .

I can't remember the title, but it's the 3rd book in the "Game of Thrones" series by George R.R. Martin.

 

[Dalmonite]

Crime and Punishment.
To be fair, it isn't bad. It's just wordy as FUCK. I suppose the Russian translation is to blame. I could make jokes about how long that one letter is.

 

[Daniel Ferguson]

Three of them, all for University.
Alastair Duncan's disgusting Metro (in the bad way).
Michael Crichton's hyperactive, bipolar Next.
And a Mills and Boon/Harlequin novella (that should tell you all you need to know) titled SOS: Marry Me: pilot meets bridesmaid, sudden romance and mutual understanding ensues on deserted island. The lecturer couldn't keep a straight face.

 

[Jacco]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

That is all.

 

[BringBackBuck]

The Bible. Has anyone else tried to pick it up and read it like a normal book? I didnt get very far through it before it was just lists and lists of people begatting each other. Not a great read.

 

[Ruzinus]

Yes, many times. Of course a book doesn't have to be super terrible for me to quit it. I'll put a book aside as soon as I think "yknow, maybe I'd enjoy other book X or even other activity Y more."

 

[DJDarque]

and to this man... Though I adore Lord of the Rings and Tolkien, I can see where you're coming from with this. It does get quite slow. I will accept 'boring' as an adjective for LotR, but what I don't like, is when people call it stupid. That is when I would start 'giving people shit'.

It also starts ridiculously quick in Fellowship. I've never made it past Fellowship because of the onslaught of characters. The Harry Potter series is a good example of books which handles having many characters well.

It is like 7 books long. It'd be pretty easy to introduce characters gradually over the course of 7 books.

Unless I'm mistaken Lord of the Rings was originally published as six books. Not that big of a difference.

I dunno about originally but I've always seen it collected in three books. And by page content it's noticeably smaller. Also, HP's annual format gives it a very easy way of introducing new characters on a book by book basis.

The version I have is also three books, but each book has two separate parts each labeled as a book. Perhaps it's just the format.