December Daily: bad novels

[resonant]

out_there asks: What's the worst novel you've ever read, and why?

I don't finish very many bad novels; my time here on earth is limited, so normally I give a book 50 pages. My Goodreads account is full of books that I started but found too dreadful to waste my time with.

The last bad novel that I remember reading all the way through was The Bridges of Madison County. The main thing I remember about that was that it was so precisely targeted toward a specific demographic of women -- it was like that creep in the bar who says, "I like a chick with a little meat on her bones," only a thousand times more sophisticated.

Also, it was lent to me by a co-worker who thought it was the Best Most Romantic Thing Evar, and so not only did I have to read it, I also had to discuss it with her.

Comments

[out_there]

This post made me snigger. Only thing worse than a bad book is being expected to talk about it, and not be critical. Thank you for answering.

[krait]

It is!

This was exactly my feeling when a coworker lent me her Sookie Stackhouse novels. I spent a lot of time wishing she'd tell Bill to get lost, get a restraining order against Bill, and (later) wishing she'd break up with him and he'd subsequently die in a fire... Needless to say, my views were not shared by the coworker involved, so I had to severely limit my horror and stunned dismay.

At least we can all snigger together, years later. :D

[princessofgeeks]

You have my complete condolences.

[dira]

Every so often I try to read whatever thing has 400 holds at my library, just to know what people are presently super-interested in, but I couldn't make it more than 150 pages through Fifty Shades of Grey or Gone Girl, and I'm gonna be deeply disappointed if watching all of this year's Oscar nominees means I have to watch the Gone Girl movie. Ugh. (Although at least no one thinks that one is romantic.)

[mific]

I remember when I was travelling on the big OE many years ago, throwing a paperback into a wood stove in Scandinavia because I hated it so much. It was some crap novel about multiple personalities. I still felt guilty about burning a book at all, even though I also felt I was doing the world a small service by removing even one copy.

[realpestilence]

I've never read it, or seen the movie; nor have I any wish to. I thought it sounded horrible at the time and wonder why it was so popular. But not enough to find out.