Worst Book You Have Finished

[akiratubo]

I read SAURIAN, but it wasn't as bad as one I read last year called THE PET.  It was by a popular horror author whose name escapes me at the moment, but what a stinker!

I read some of the reviews for The Pet.  Based just on the storyline I think I would have left that one on the shelf.  It sounded like a real stinker. 

I've read The Pet.  And, boy, was it ever a stinker.  I've read other books by Charles L. Grant and none of them have been that level of bad.  I guess he was soused on the wrong kind of booze when he wrote it.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/charles-l-grant/

[Joe the Destroyer]

A couple others I remembered...



Twilight Realm by Christopher Carpenter
A group of friends are sucked into an alternate universe not unlike the pen and paper game they play.  They are sent there to slay an evil wizard, and as part of their quest they become the characters they've always wanted to be.  Essentially, they become polar opposites of the people they really are.  They find out along the way (or so the ho-hum interactions lead you to believe) that being someone else ain't all it's cracked up to be.  I guess he's supposed to be a highly accomplished author under a different name, but he really wasn't all that good with this book.  The only reason I was able to finish it was that it was incredibly (mercifully?) short.  It would have been better if it were longer, deeper in the character department, rid of about 75% of the pointless adverbs, and smoothed out.  It really felt like a first draft that begged to be so much deeper; god knows it had the potential. 



The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
It won the Hugo award for best novel.
It's critically acclaimed.
It's got a decent cult fan following.
It made me want to shoot myself.
Okay, so I acknowledge that Leiber did something right with this novel, otherwise it wouldn't have the attention and following that it does.  However, it did nothing for me.  I could only stomach five pages of this horrible beatnik science fiction garbage  at a time.  I still can't believe I didn't give up on this book.  I think if I would have read it nowadays, I would have tossed the book out after fifteen or twenty pages, right next to The Cipher and Unhallowed Ground (the one by Gillian White, not the one that was just released and out on newsstands, which I haven't read). 
If you're a fan of Leiber, more power to you.  I just can't give this a passing grade. 

[Ash]

Just After Sunset by Stephen King



Awful book.
Out of all the short stories in it, only one was halfway decent.
Most of King's books take me around a month or so to finish.  This one took almost 3 months.


And Mofo, you can read a 300 page book in 6 hours??
I never understood how people can speed read like that.
To me, that'd be like watching a movie on fast forward.
Books are like a delicious meal.  One should take their time and relish every bite.

[Psycho Circus]

And Mofo, you can read a 300 page book in 6 hours??
I never understood how people can speed read like that.

300 pages isn't alot. I can read a 200-300 page book in about 3 hours, plus I'm never "speed reading". If something grabs me and holds my attention, I enjoy reading further. That's the sign of a great book. 

[indianasmith]

I enjoyed JUST AFTER SUNSET well enough.  The King book I hated was INSOMNIA.

Now, as far as depressing books go, there was one I read in college that just made me want to slit my wrists - Dalton Trumbo's JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN.  Powerful anti-war message, but incredibly depressing.

[Mofo Rising]

And Mofo, you can read a 300 page book in 6 hours??
I never understood how people can speed read like that.
To me, that'd be like watching a movie on fast forward.
Books are like a delicious meal.  One should take their time and relish every bite.

Depends on the book. Most popular fiction I can breeze through 60-100 pages an hour. That's not to brag, it's just that most books are written at a very basic level. If the book is enjoyable, reading with full comprehension doesn't take much work. Fast food, if you will.

Of course, my average speed slows down as I veer towards the so-called "literature" end of the spectrum. I had to put a lot of work into Gravity's Rainbow, one of my favorite books. My reading speed was probably down to 15-20 pages an hour. Something to savor, with subtle nuances of flavor not to be missed.

Science text books usually average less than 10 pages an hour, as comprehension takes a lot of work. Dry and unappetizing, but good for you.

Finally, reading a book I hate may be even slower than that. Swill, not even fit for pigs.