What's the most boring book you've ever read?

[CounterReproductive]

Discounting all my old school text books and any other non-fiction. The hands down most boring book i ever read was Stephen kings - insomnia. I don't think I got more than halfway through. It was a struggle to read three pages in a row and I am an avid and fast reader. I guess I just didn't like the book.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

I'll probably draw heat for this, but I loathe "The Eye of the World." I hated most of the characters, I hated the repetitive storyline, I hated the tangents it went on... I realized I wasn't going to like it about halfway through, but when I start a book I just have to finish it.

Dude, I'm right there with you. I really couldn't get into the series at all.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Anne of Green Gables. Had to read that in sixth grade. Three hundred pages of a teenage girl prattling witlessly. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. Almost put me off books forever, and that's really saying something. It also didn't help that it was the favorite book of one of my least favorite teachers, a sour-tempered old hippo who couldn't have told shit from sugar with a mouthful.

 

[cwmdulais]

Tess of the d'urbervilles, had to read it for college and my word was it boring

 

[MrHide-Patten]

The Bible. Zing, Hiyo!

I'll show myself the door.

In all honesty I can't say, don't read too much, but I think Romeo and Jueliet has been hyped way out of proportions.

 

[Pinkros]

Personally, I don't find Twilight that bad as book. It's just so extremely simply written that reading it is akin to slice hot butter with a heated knife. That is not boring, imo. The movie on the other hand...

OT: LOTR is one, but one recent that I've tried to pick up a second time and put back as fast is Diamond sword, Wooden Sword by Nick Perumov. It's just so terribly much exposition! There's no sense of exploring the world or the characters because EVERYTHING is explained as soon as it enters the frame. It's not smooth storytelling, its just *Exposition: 5 lines* *something happens, 2 lines* *Exposition:20 LINES!*.

 

[happyninja42]

By the way those who are saying the Lord of the Rings books, try reading some of Tolkien's other middle-earth stories(except the Hobbit). I read "The Children of Hurin" and he hasn't even tried to make it remotely entertaining.

Yeah, no thanks I don't want to engage in voluntary, self inflicted lobotomization. XD

 

[Fat Hippo]

OT: Umm... I think it was called The Stranger. From what I can recall, it's about this dude that gives no shits about anything. Mother dies? Doesn't care. Gets a hot girlfriend that wants to marry him? Doesn't care. Friend gets the shit beat out of him? Doesn't care. He murders a dude because the sun was in his eyes? Doesn't give a shit. Going to be executed? Gives no shits whatsoever.

What really pissed me off was that my teacher made us do work about how deep the book was, and I think I actually yelled at her that the book was a boring piece of shit that featured a dude that had no traits whatsoever, and that what she was asking us to do was impossible.

Oh, yeah, we read that in french class: L'etranger by Camus. I wouldn't call it quite as bad as you describe it, and it's short anyway, unlike the most boring book I (actually haven't) read. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. Hooooooly shit, 750 pages of small print and pure boredom. Never has so little been said with so many words. I only read the first 100-150 pages, and I can only imagine the serious mental trauma that would've been inflicted on me if I'd actually attempted to read the whole thing.

 

[Hawkeye21]

I saw your "Twilight", "LoTR", "Starship troopers", Dostoyevsky etc. and raise you one Franz freaking Kafka novel "THE CASTLE".

You know those dreams you sometimes have, when you have to get somewhere and do something important? Like you are in college and you have to take a midtearm test you are not prepared for in class you don't even remember taking? And you know for a fact if you don't show up for this test you are going to get expelled? No matter what doors you open it doesn't lead where you want to go, same doors open to different corridors, suddenly you are not wearing any pants, and the whole thing is just SO FUCKING FRUSTRATING you feel like you are loosing your mind? "The Castle" is like that, but times ten. It's this feeling of helplessness, confusion and sheer mindfuckery condensed and distilled for your reading enjoyment.

 

[hawkeye52]

Blackstone's Statute book for the Law of Property 2012-2013 edition. It's either that or the Modern Land Law book by Martin Dixon.

Nigel Foster's EU Law book wasn't that bad but it's still learning about law that is probably going to be completely irrelavent for all British citizens by the time I become a solicitor.

/thread

 

[happyninja42]

This isn't a competition folks We're not supposed to go "Oh, no what *I* read was WAAAY more dull than what you read!! so go read it to see how bad it is!!" *slaps hand* No, bad poster, this is NOT the digital/literary equivalent of giving someone something you ate/drank and saying "Ugh!! this is awful!! Taste it!" No no no.

 

[chikusho]

Catcher in the Rye. I have absolutely no understanding of why that book was even published.

 

[laide234]

Snow Crash.
The main character's name is "Hero Protagonist" ...
Need I say more?

 

[Mitch DeWester]

Insomnia by Stephen King...it quite literally cured mine, I fell asleep like 8 times while trying to read it and only got half way through before giving up

 

[DugMachine]

Fountain Head and Moby Dick in high school. Fountain Head just because I'm not a fan of Ayn Rands work and Moby Dick for obvious reasons.

 

[Ihrgoth]

never finished the inheritance cycle it was so unoriginal and boring. Brisingr was like 800 pages long and nothing fricking happened. And as for people who say that LOTR and the Silmarillion were boring, remember that Tolkien was basically writing a modern Medieval Epic. It was written in the style of the old english writers during the middle ages and that is where the genius lies.

 

[sageoftruth]

Personally, I don't find Twilight that bad as book. It's just so extremely simply written that reading it is akin to slice hot butter with a heated knife. That is not boring, imo. The movie on the other hand...

I know what you mean. I was reading that for a book group shortly after finishing Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The only thing I can remember about Twilight is that compared to an ancient Chinese epic, it was SUCH and easy read. Nothing else about the book really stuck in my memory.