The Story of Edgar Sawtelle?
Which I loved lol.
I was a Stephen King fan, but his books started getting more and more depressing. Pet Sematery and Cujo finally did it for me. I did, much later, try Cell, which was OK (although really just another zombie story), and Under the Dome, which was so awful I skipped to the end, which was both awful and stupid. One problem I have with King, especially in some of his later books, is that the bad guys are so obviously and totally bad from the very first time you encounter them.
Nobody has mentioned Atlas Shrugged, which is probably the longest terrible book I ever finished. I also hated The Women’s Room, which I read to raise my consciousness, but thought was absurd.
Most hated book of all time: Jude the Obscure.
Oh, yes, the pile of crap that is Atlas Shrugged. I read it back in business school because so many of the bros were obsessed with it and coming from an untraditional business school background I didn’t really know about it and wanted to know why all the hoopla. I’ve found I have a low opinion of anyone who cites it as their favorite book.
I enjoyed many of the books I read in high school, but boy do I hate The Scarlet Letter. I could not stand how Pearl kept being described as “the elfin child.” Blegh.
I enjoyed Wild, perhaps because I didn’t expect that much from it. I thought her writing was quite moving.
I love YA literature, and I love to keep up with the new books, especially since they are very quick reads. Many are excellent–but others are awful. Of the bestsellers, I’ve read several of John Green’s books (Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns) and was not impressed. The characters are annoying, pretentious hipsters who are constantly smoking cigarettes. I wonder if I’m just too old for them now, maybe I would have related to teen musings on the meaning of love if I were still a teen. But I suspect not. Why do I keep reading them? You tell me.
I was too. It’s creepy, but mesmerizing. And having gone to boarding school for a year, I knew the claustrophobic atmosphere.
Poor Jude! I have a soft spot for Thomas Hardy - there were a number of really good Masterpiece Theater productions of his books. I got through Jude and several others, but just could not finish The Mayor of Casterbridge- just too much of a downer!
^The Mayor of Casterbridge is my H’s favorite novel. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I didn’t love it, but I found Jude to be even a bigger downer.
If I had another copy of “The Art of the Deal” I would really enjoy throwing it out again.
Agree with “Wild”. What kind of dumb a$$ goes into the Sierra without checking snow conditions.
Agree with “Poison wood Bible”. Terrible. Just a device for the author to spout her politics.
Agree with The Sun Also Rises". I read it before going to Pamplona and I cannot make out why it is considered a classic.
Three Cups of Tea. Self-indulgent drivel. The book group I belonged to read it, and I was the outlier. I was put off by the grandstanding of Greg Mortenson. I couldn’t believe that his work was altruistic at all.
I would add Outliers to this list. I know many people think he’s great, but not a Gladwell fan. He seems to take a lot of leaps from correlation to causation.
Didn’t it turn out that a lot of the Three Cups of Tea story was fake and fabricated?
Yes, John Krakauer called him out about fabrication. Mortenson also had to repay money to the charity he founded because of misuse of funds.
@Onward, “Eat Pray and Love” is the most irritating book I’ve ever read. It is as if I wrote a book but wasn’t as good at writing. I’ve only traveled Europe, yet who knew that the average life of a divorced person could make someone millions. I liked “Wild” because there is no way in heck I would ever attempt to hike anywhere even if my Mother died and no matter how many drugs I used in the past. Inspiration comes from thinking about someone doing something you would never consider doing.
I’ve read this thread with interest. I liked early books by Grisham. Piccolt Tyler etc. I liked bel canto. I also
Like JV books. Shmaltzy. Like Me before you. Gone girl. Girl on the train. We’re a waste of 2 hours each of my life.
Yet I don’t mind time wasting on BInche and the outlander books. And I will reread Agatha many times
I think I’ll post on a thread of likeable books
I hated eat, pray love and when I saw the author’s Ted Talk it was like nails on a chalkboard… and it is kind of ironic that since that book, she left the 'love of her life" from in the book and is with someone else now…personally, there was a brilliant parody of that book written from a man’s perspective “Drink, Play, <anglo saxon word for species recreation”, I think that was a lot more honest.
Another of my pet dislikes, any of Stephen Ambrose books about world war II, he was so busy mythologizing the times, the people and the people fighting that he forgot their humanity IMO (I was probably influenced by my dad, a WWII veteran, who also didn’t like Ambrose was too gung ho about using the military to solve problems, but that is another story).
Geek Love by Katerine Dunn. Circus people intentionally poisoning invitro to get “freaks.” Not a nerdy romance.
ANYTHING by Malcolm Gladwell. His logical fallacies hurt my brain. I had to read Outliers for work, and yeah, almost through across the room.
Judy Blume’s adult books! I loved her teen books, but couldn’t relate to the adult ones:
Wifey: I actually felt sorry for husband Norm. Between wife Sandy, his job, and his mother, I’m surprised Norm wasn’t more uptight. I thought Sandy was a brat.
Summer Sisters: too dark. I don’t know which character we were supposed to like? I didn’t like any of them.
Smart Women: no they weren’t. Poorly written.
In the event: couldn’t finish. Too many characters. Tangled plot.
Most of Erica Jong, serial exhibitionist. Her poor husbands. Jonathan Fast had to sue her to prevent her from putting their daughter’s photo on the cover of her “divorce” book. He obviously couldn’t stop her from publishing a detailed description of his penis.
We could have another thread about YA writers we love. One of my absolute favorites is K.M. Peyton.
Someone above mentioned Sue Grafton, author of B is for Boring and E is for Enough Already. 
I LOVE K.M. Peyton. (Well except for the very last Flambard book she wrote, that qualifies for this thread’s topic!)