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Worst book of 2011??


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Land of the Painted Caves by Jean Auel. She wrote such a crummy book to end the series that it wasn't even worth me buying (and I have all the rest). The writing was sloppy, to include duplicate paragraphs, and the entire book read like she was doing it just for the money, not because she wanted to finish the series. I was honestly mad I wasted the time waiting for it.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:

 

I am pretending this book never happened.

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Mine was Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel. All I can say about it is that it is truly an odd story that captures your attention. But as time goes on, you feel like you are walking down a garden path, that is slowly getting choked by weeds, and you are getting pricked by thorns. The story was just a bit too morbid for me. Unlike Life of Pi, which I loved, all I can say is meh!

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Land of the Painted Caves by Jean Auel. She wrote such a crummy book to end the series that it wasn't even worth me buying (and I have all the rest). The writing was sloppy, to include duplicate paragraphs, and the entire book read like she was doing it just for the money, not because she wanted to finish the series. I was honestly mad I wasted the time waiting for it.

 

 

 

I just got this at the library and haven't started it yet. I loved her others.

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I just got this at the library and haven't started it yet. I loved her others.

 

Let's put it this way:

 

It has 1,043 reviews on amazon with a 2-star average :P

 

It is seriously one of the most awful conclusions for a series I've ever, ever seen :(

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Hands down, The Book Thief.

 

OH! I forgot about The Book Thief. I only made it about 20 pages in. Just couldn't do it.

 

What?!?! To Kill a Mockingbird is on your worst list? That's my favorite book of all time!:)

 

 

 

I know, I know. But it was just so...BORING! UGH!

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog by muriel barbary

 

It is still on my nightstand -- I may have to go back and try again in a few months. There was alot of sadness and bad news that I had learned of when I began reading it and that may be why I could not get into it. I will probably give it one more try.

 

I loved that one. :tongue_smilie:

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the worst for me this year was "the girl with the dragon tattoo" which was well written and I couldn't put down, but I think the author has a problem. I don't want that kind of ickiness in my mind. :tongue_smilie:

 

This exactly. I flew through the series, but I can't say I enjoyed it. In a similar - but not as full on in the crazy department - vein was 'The Slap'. It's huge here in aus, they made a mini-series. I read it, but I didn't enjoy it...

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Craptacular stuff I read (or started to read, but couldn't justify wasting time finishing) this year - rated by ugh factor

Water for Elephants :ack2: :ack2:

Hunger Games :ack2: :ack2: :ack2:

Whatever the last Sookie Stackhouse book was :ack2:

Sing You Home (that's the last time I'll waste time on Jodi Picoult) :ack2: :ack2:

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I loved that one. :tongue_smilie:

 

Thank you for this -- I really think that I just wasn't in any frame of mind to be doing anything other than sitting and staring and crying -- two families with whom we are friends suffered two totally unrelated heartbreakingly devastating tragedies -- I will give the book another try. I think I am in a better frame of mind now.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. One hundred pages into it, when I found that I just didn't care, I stopped reading it.

 

:iagree::iagree:

 

I agree! :ack2: I read the whole thing because I was sure it had to get better, based on all the rave reviews. Ick! Brain bleach.

 

How about the worst books I started but couldn't finish? LOL!

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

 

Well, my smilies quit working, so pretend there is a swooning smilie here. This is my FAVORITE book of all time!

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In the Company of Others by Jan Karon. It was so boring, I couldn't finish it. And so disappointing, because I loved her other books and was looking forward to this one for a long time.

 

Confession: I just started reading Twilight and am finding it oddly compelling so far. I reserve the right to change my mind though.

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The worst book I read this year was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. I know, I was supposed to be inspired and love it to pieces, but I just found it boring and depressing. I finished it, but I felt down for days afterward.

 

I'm betting it was an Oprah bookclub pick...I learned early on to avoid books on her list, they are depressing imho...

 

Craptacular stuff I read (or started to read, but couldn't justify wasting time finishing) this year - rated by ugh factor

Water for Elephants :ack2: :ack2:

Hunger Games :ack2: :ack2: :ack2:

Whatever the last Sookie Stackhouse book was :ack2:

Sing You Home (that's the last time I'll waste time on Jodi Picoult) :ack2: :ack2:

 

The last two Picoult books I read were impossible to put down and very well written, but emotionally wrung me out. I decided I didn't need to go through all the emotions, so I don't read her anymore....!

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Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. Trite, formulaic, and predictable every step of the way. I mean, I knew it was going to be a light read, but ugh. I almost bought it on a whim but decided to delay gratification and get it from the library instead. It was the best $10 I never spent! I'm sorry, I hope I'm not offending anyone, but really, I think it was the worst book I've read ever, not just in 2011! I was so bummed :(

 

I read my first Kristin Hannah book a month or so ago, Winter Garden. I don't expect reality from fluff fiction, but this book was so completely stupid that I will likely never pick up another book by this author again.:tongue_smilie:

 

I hated Firefly Lane, but I loved Winter Garden!

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo....I just couldn't get into it at all. I read maybe 50 pages, and couldn't take anymore. I felt so alone since most people I know IRL seemed to love it.

 

Hunger Games....I couldn't get past the entrails of the dead cat in the first couple of pages...not a book I needed to read, so I put it down. Another one of those books where I feel so alone in my opinion.

 

The Time Travelers Wife...I read several years ago and I remember thinking I felt like I had schizophrenia trying to keep up with the story. It jumped around a lot and for me was hard to follow.

 

:iagree:Looking over my list from this year, I'd have to agree on these choices as the books I finished that I really didn't like.

The Hunger Games is one of the worst books I've read. I just couldn't get past the fact that it is about kids killing kds with little or no remorse. I really don't like dystopian society novels either, but it really bothered me that this book was marketed to middle school kids.

:iagree:

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Sarah's Key (Tatiana de Rosay)

Fiction. This fictionalized account of Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv might have been a worthy addition to Holocaust literature had it not been so badly (awfully, terribly) written. Not only is the resolution of the book's central mystery and horror apparent by the middle of the third chapter, but the compelling story of Sarah and her family is sandwiched between dull, predictable bits about a middle-aged American journalist growing weary of her cheating French husband.

 

Close runner-up for the worst book read during 2011?

 

101 Things I Hate about Your House (James Swan)

Non-fiction. This silly book, which suffers from a grievous lack of both substantive and copy editing (a reflection of the publisher (HC 1) or the state of publishing in general?), gave me nothing new or bold to think about in terms of home decor. Hand towels? Soap? Really?

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The Hunger Games is one of the worst books I've read. I just couldn't get past the fact that it is about kids killing kds with little or no remorse. I really don't like dystopian society novels either, but it really bothered me that this book was marketed to middle school kids.

 

 

I just saw a stategy game at B & N based on the books. I loved the books but the game seems really creepy to me.

 

Nakia- I finished Little Bee last year but it was haunting.

Edited by laughing lioness
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Graham Greene's The Honorary Consul. If only I had learned my lesson from A Burnt-Out Case earlier in the year: don't read anything written after Our Man in Havana.

 

Interesting how Greene had some good work while he was losing his faith; but when he lost it altogether, his writing talent seemed to go with it.

 

ETA: Honorable Mention for Henry VI, Part 1. Shakespeare shouldn't bore. And I hope the first thing he did when he got to heaven was apologize to Joan of Arc.

Edited by Sharon in Austin
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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I should have stopped reading - it was awful compared with the first two in the series.

 

I completely agree. I quite enjoyed the first two; they were disturbing, but I found the stories engaging. That third one, though? Stieg (and I know you've died, but perhaps you still enjoy WTM boards?), there's a reason people hate meetings. They're really boring. So 50 straight pages about a meeting? Of bureaucrats? In Sweden, so unless you're Swedish, all the names kind of run together? Not compelling reading, there!

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44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. Irritating people doing irritating things that are supposed to be amusing in their irritatingness.

 

My mom read and enjoyed a later book in the series (not realizing that it wasn't the first book). Maybe I'll try that one, because we tend to have similar taste in books. But I didn't finish this one.

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When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. What a load. As soon as I caught on to the "feminist awakening!" theme (early on), it was sadly predictable.

 

It's a futuristic re-imagining of The Scarlet Letter, so I was hoping for something provocative, but the author just decided to take every hot-button modern issue for women and throw them into one character. Not very realistic and the character development lacked so much because the author needed to proselytize more than create a real, honest conflict within the young woman which would have meant struggling against all of the feminist issues rather than just grasping onto them in a matter of what seemed like hours. ("Hey, sleeping with this woman I just met sounds like a great, freeing idea!" Yeah, a person brought up in a religious home that was strict--as was society--and yet loving naturally goes that route because her inner easy l*sbian was being repressed and it just took being punished for killing her unborn baby to release it?? Oh, I forgot, this week she's throwing off years of her upbringing and even her own ideas of love and morality to just do whatever.) This made her a *weaker* character and I thought it was pathetic.

 

Now, how many of you are going to read it just to see what I'm talking about? LOL!!!

Edited by 6packofun
..s
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44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. Irritating people doing irritating things that are supposed to be amusing in their irritatingness.

 

My mom read and enjoyed a later book in the series (not realizing that it wasn't the first book). Maybe I'll try that one, because we tend to have similar taste in books. But I didn't finish this one.

 

What?! Those are fighting words ....:boxing_smiley:

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