I'd agree with Bridges of Madison County. As far as worst books I have ever read I would have to say a couple of Romance Novels. That was when I was younger and didn't know better but still I can't believe their popularity. Yuck. Also, I could not finish Time Traveler's Wife. Another one that I did finish but still think wasn't worth it is Chemycal Wedding- very weird.

Oh, yeah, another vote for Bridges of Madison County. That one was awful! I'm from Iowa, plus the author used to come to our town (he had a friend here) every once in a while, so that book was SO popular here.

Another one that I couldn't even finish was Labrynith by Kate Mosse (I think?). Just horrible. I made it to page 80 or so.

Add another vote for The Bridges of Madison County. It was the first thing that came to mind when I read the initial post...before I saw everyone else list it.

A toss up for me - A Secret History by Tartt, with awful characters, a pointless plot and few redeeming features OR something by Alan Gold (mercifully I seem unable to recall the title) which had a reasonable plot, which kept me reading to the end, but absolutely appalling writing.

Astrokath, I know what you mean about A Secret History. I can't say it's among the worst I've ever read, but it's up there. That ending is the worst ending I've ever read, bar none.

I completely agree about Moss's "Labyrinth", as well as any of Robert Weller's books. I would also toss in a few by author Anne Rivers Siddons. I feel her stuff is so derivative of Pat Conroy and other better southern authors.

"DaVinci Code" was poorly written, although I read it and was fascinated. It would have to go on the list, however!

Ought I to be hanging my head in shame here, as I actually liked Tartt's "A Secret History"?

Thought of one more: Jack Kerouac's "On the Road". So repetitive, so redundant, so boring, yet it is supposed to be a "classic" in some circles!

Another vote for Skipping Christmas - purely awful - and The Bridges of Madison County - completely awful. I'll also add Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook to my list as I not only hated the manipulative and schmaltzy story, but his handling of Alzheimer's disease as a plot device was ridiculous at best and horribly insulting at worst. Most recently I read a book entitled Walking to Canterbury by Jerry Ellis that was so ego-centric it became hilariously funny rather than awful, but I'd put it on my worst list as well.

One book I found incredibly disappointing rather than flat out bad was Eileen Favorite's The Heroines. Wonderful premise, beautiful writing, but the story veered off in odd directions and I felt she really couldn't settle on what kind of book she was writing. She set up a wonderful premise and then barely used it.

I think that discovering that the book you thought would be really fantastic but turns out to be a dud is worse than going into a book with no expectations at all and finding the same thing.

I seldom bother to read more than a few chapters of a book that I find to be a waste of time, but I did finish The Da Vinci Code thinking it could only get better; it didn't.

I wouldn't say that The Da Vinci Code was the WORST book I've ever read but it's quite up there! That being said, I couldn't stop reading it. The book was something of a slow train wreck -- you can't help but LOOK and watch to see what will happen.

I imagine a worse book would be one that doesn't even have the slow train wreck appeal -- it would have to be so awful that you CAN look away and stay away. The Da Vinci Code was appealing in its awfulness. I imagine something that is awful and BORING would be worse.

Sheri-
I think that discovering that the book you thought would be really fantastic but turns out to be a dud is worse than going into a book with no expectations at all and finding the same thing.

That is so true, that's how I felt about Time Traveler's Wife. Based on the cover info it was a book that should have been right up my alley but I wanted to throw in my log stove.

Both "Bridges of Madison County" and "Time Traveler's Wife" were dreadful. But I also read--and loathed-- "My Sister's Keeper," "Memory Keeper's Daughter," and "The Mermaid Chair" (or was that "Mermaid's" chair?). These were all books that had gotten some popular acclaim and I was curious. I'd like to throw them in Deborah's log stove.

Looks like im the only one who has not read this Bridges of Madison County. Great, now youve got me curious about a bad book...Two other horrible ones were The Silver Rose- by Susan Carol and The First Princess of Wales- by Karen Harper. The Silver Rose was a cheezy mess romance. The First Princess of Wales I expected to be more history based than it was, and was vastly dissapointed.
CMK

Since I work at a library, there have sometimes been books I feel I ought to read, just to have a clue as to what they are like. Sometimes it's better not to read them, so I can better manage to keep from gagging when people request them. Sometimes people ask if this is a good book, and I have to say "oh, it's very popular!

I don't say (out loud) that any particular book is bad because, as they say, "every book its reader." But there are some that are not my cup of tea. For example, in my library Christian fiction about the Amish is extremely popular, but no Wanda Brunstetter for me, thank you!

I completely agree about anything by Nicholas Sparks -- too schmaltzy for me. I cannot believe how many bad movies have been made from his books! Also agree about "The Mermaid Chair" -- so improbable and far-fetched.

Count me as another one who was disappointed in "Time Traveler's Wife." I really tried to like it and I must say I admire the author's ambitious plot and premise. I just got lost in time.

But - but - The Time Traveller's Wife was wonderful ! Even as a bloke, I loved it.

Another vote here for The Notebook. I have rarely felt so angry about the end of a book - it was truly gut-rocking. And also The Bridges of Madison County.

More recently, Kate Mosse's book The Labyrinth. The worst best-seller I've ever read. I still feel sorry for the fairly important character who was beaten up and left in a cave, and as far as I know is still there!

I've read so many really bad books over the years that it would not be possible for me to pick the worst one.

Fortunately for me, I've read even more really good ones.

;-)

Rosefolly

I pulled up our last thread on this topic so we can compare-so far, Bridges is still one of the most awful!

I've found it pretty easy to avoid stinkers. Advance press usually gives clues to what books like The Notebook and Bridges... are. Although it was only because of Martin and a couple of others here that I avoided Labyrinth. Which doesn't mean I haven't read my share of garbage. I don't get angry about it unless my expectations were not met. I didn't expect much from Nora Roberts, so I wasn't disappointed. I did expect a great deal from J.K. Rowling, so I was outraged at how awfully written ...And the Goblet of Fire was.

But the absolutely worst book I have ever read is John Fowles The Magus a misogynist piece of crap. It is the (impotent) male version of a Mary Sue story, given gravitas by including vignettes of Nazi occupation and suggestions of mysticism. Seriously, Poe could have taken care of the first half of the book in one paragraph, then the 2nd half is wish fulfillment better suited to the pages of Penthouse Magazine. Except that Penthouse (so I've heard) knows their audience and gets right to the point without a lot of leaden pondering.

chris, what is a "Mary Sue" story???

Sheriz, I agree with you about 'The Heroines' a wonderfully original idea that got spoilt.
I usually cannot read more than a few chapters of any book I don't like but I sometimes skip to the last few pages to find out how things worked out, especially if it is a mystery. This can be a mistake though. Last time I did that I found that I was reading a 'teaser' for the author's next book. No wonder I did not recognise the characters!

The Crimson Petal and the White. I slogged through every last page and HATED it. Well, the introduction was interesting, but the rest - blech. I couldn't care about any of the characters.

"Fall on Your Knees". I cannot even recall the author's name, now and don't care.

Right off the top of my head, I have two in a dead heat-
Fall on Your Knees by McDonald and The Tattooed Girl by Oates. Right behind comes Atonement

I had read Knees and Atonement when we had done this last-but not Tattoo. It is nice to know that I have only read one more truly awful book since our last listing! (Although The Last Boleyn Girl would probably be up there if I had not thrown it over the deck railing in front of the lawnmower-unfinished.)

ccrdmrbks- did you see Atonement the movie? Were they very similar? I havent read the book, but I saw the movie and HATED it. The plot didnt make slightest bit of sence. And thought the director was trying too hard to make the scenes 'artistic'.
I haven read or seen Boleyn Girl. Ive been thinking though that I should read the book, to see what the fuss is about. I tried reading one of her (Phillipa, was that the name of the author??) books before (something involving a girl wanting her fathers estate, not wanting to be a female and get married, and making out with a farm worker) and gaged so much I couldnt get through the fourth chapter.
CMK

Woodnymph, a Mary Sue is a wish fulfillment story of little literary merit. Single mother of two meets Lexus driving handsome guy who loves the children and her in spite of her bad temper, her children's ADD, her widening hips, and her inability to get her life in hand. In the case of The Magus balding old guy meets beautiful women who fulfill his every sexual desire and live to serve him. Generic fantasy mates with no depth other than adoration of protagonist.

christin-no, I didn't see the movie...I don't do too many movies as it is, and since I hated the book...

You read Phillipa Gregory's Wideacre or its sequel, I bet! Pretty awful-raunchy without the extenuating circumstance of a good story (as I am told the Outlander books are...good story and good ahemhmhm, I mean) Go ahead and read The Other Boleyn Girl to see what the fuss is all about, but know that the only relation it bears to history is the fact that she uses the names of people who actually lived. I minored in English history in college and have read extensively in the Tudor time period since then for my own inteest, so I could not stand her playing fast and loose with documented facts and arguing that they were not facts in the first place. I understand that movie is pretty to watch, anyway.

Yes, thats it, Wideacre. I couldnt get through it, and didnt even want to try. I may read B.Girl once I read the things waiting on my dresser (which means ill probably never get around to reading it). I adore history too (and love the Tudor period), and it drives me insane when people twist the facts.
CMK

I haven't been here in quite a while, but wanted to say I think I can enjoy most any book if my mind is in the right (or wrong?) place. Of those I just truly could not find any reason to keep turning pages, I've forgotten them, just hope I don't come across them again;)

I've read The Other Boleyn Girl, and really enjoyed it for a light, entertaining read. What's funny about it though is how many readers take it for the gospel truth. It was mentioned on another book group I belong too, and some who had read it really thought it was an accurate portrayal of what happened with Anne.

Oh, and Christinmk, regarding Atonement: I've read the book and seen the movie. I LOVED the book, but didn't care for the movie. The book had so many things in it that just couldn't be brought to film, IMO.

I had the opposite reaction to the film done of McEwan's novel: I thought his book was so-so( and he is one of my favorite authors) but felt the beautiful film of "Atonement" was a definite enhancement/improvement on the work of fiction. Vanessa Redgrave was excellent at the ending. I thought the plot made perfect sense, in the movie.

"The Other Boleyn Girl" was an inaccurate but gorgeous film, IMHO.

Thanks for the definition, chris.

Memory Keeper's Daughter--the worst bestseller I ever read. Made me swear off ever looking at a bestseller list again. Great idea, but the characters were all unlikeable, so much so that I didn't really care what happened to any of them. The long awaited moment in the book came and went with a big ho hum, too. I can't say a good thing about it.

Wow, what diverse responces about B. Girl and Atonement! Its great that everyone here can agree to disagree! Love that, your my kind of people :-).
CMK

that we can disagree without insulting each other is the best part!

I do find it interesting that a book that is 'popular' can also be so hated like Bridges- the person who recommended it to me was a man who I had the utmost respect for and I thought was extremely intelligent, etc and he liked Bridges!!!!!!!

Deborah, so did my good friend who is a PhD and taught literature at the college level. I have wondered about her since!

And my well-educated SIL who knows I cry at a good TV commercial recommended The Notebook to me because she (a non-crier) wept at the end of it and was sure I would like it. Go figure.

Another horror of a book, IMHO, was "The Celestine Prophecy."

"The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. I always wondered if the book had been so popular had it not been for the fatwa issued against him.

Glad to read that others weren't taken with Atonement or Fall On Your Knees as I usually sit in silence while others rave about them. My worst, however, is Brett Easton Ellis' Lunar Park which left me with horrid imagery and a sick feeling; this book gave the vulgar expression "when monkeys fly out my ... " a whole new meaning. Never would I ever read anything by him again and can't figure out what about this book could attract any reader.

Sarah--I work in the library and have deflected the "have you read this, is it good?" question with the "oh, it is very popular, popular with book clubs, got a lot of press, etc." non-answers too.

I glad to read that everyone isn't gushing over Atonement. Some friends and I started a book club a few years ago and Atonement was our first book. No one in our group liked it. We found it pretentious and wordy, and the events at the beginning of the book just really didn't ring true to me. The ending felt like a rip off. I liked the movie a bit more, mostly for the scenery and costumes.

Another vote for Memory Keeper's Daughter. Not as bad as Atonement, but disappointing. Some books that my club has read that I didn't appreciate as much as other members were Broken for You and The Secret Life of Bees. I just don't buy into these types of books.

I associate 'worst' books with being persuaded to read them by overhyped reviews.
Most of the books I abhor are 'current' (usually written by women writers) and anything described as 'holiday reading' or chick lit I wouldn't even pick up - but I was persuaded by rave reviews to buy 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop and I did manage to read to page 14 when I threw it in the rubbish bin. The writing style was an insult to the English language and its beautiful malleability - the novel a good idea extremely poorly executed. What a cheekshe should think so little of her readers.

The absolute worst book I've read (or started to read) recently was "The Almost Moon" by Alice Sebold. Absolutely dreadful. Even her writing wasn't skillful and the topic disgusting.

From an Amazon review:This is a TERRIBLE novel! It was literally painful to read. The premise of the book is interesting enough: Helen, a middle-aged woman, kills her elderly mother, Clair, when she grows sick of caring for her. Clair has tormented Helen and slowly sucked the life out of her every day of her entire life, and Helen finally has enough and smothers Clair with a towel.

I mean a lot or us have had issues with our moms, but we managed not to murder her. I was repulsed by the book and couldn't keep reading.

Oh, I hear you on The Almost Moon! That book was terrible. I've only heard of one person who liked it, and many who loathed it.

I'll have to read The Bridges of Madison County again because I read it so many years ago and I absolutely loved it. Of course, that was back when I was reading a lot of junk. Since then I've grown as a reader so i might have a different opinion about it now. I love the film adaptation to Bridges, and watch it all the time.

The absolute worst book I ever read would have to be "A Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. I had trouble with visualization and couldn't relate to the genre. I felt it was a bit too bit too sterile and metallic for my own personal taste.

I think for pure, unadulterated awfulness, Love Story by Eric Segal beats out the Bridges of Madison County.
But just barely.

I just read a newspaper article about Love Story, the film version. Apparently it is shown to Harvard freshman ala The Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with synchronized heckling. Although it does sound a bit mean-spirited to me, I remember thinking it was all rather silly when I read the book/saw the film so many years ago. The much younger me wasn't very romantic, however.

I see The Bridges of Madison County is still winning...

I think I agree with what deborah47 said - it's the hyped-up book that turns out to be awful which is the worst let-down. So, on that note, let me (not!) recommend two books, one of which I finished and one of which I didn't.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was rubbish, with a truly gut-rocking "return to earth briefly for atonement" bit near the end. (Sorry for the minor spoiler, but I can't feel too guilty about it.)

But The Slap by Christos Tsoilkas was dreadful. The initial premise could have been so good - but the people in it were all, unredeemingly, dreadful people. Casually misogynistic, racist, obsessed with sex (one woman performed a sex act on her lover while her eight-year-old son was in the next room) - it was truly horrible. I gave up about a third of the way through. I gather I've missed out on the best part of the book. but I can live with that.

How that was long-listed for the Booker, I do not know. I think, like Me Cheeta last year, it was an attempt by the judges to be "edgy" and "innovative". OK, that's fine, I guess, so long as nothing as dreadful as this makes it onto the short-list.

THE SHACK...........without question.

I really enjoy books which take me deeper and allow me to find another dimension to life.
This schlock, however, was tedious, poorly written and frankly banal.
Another example of an over-hyped, Oprah-esque waste of paper.

The movie 'Love Story' is in my top ten bad movies. If you have a taste for really bad movies, it is very, very funny.
Has anyone read 'The Horse Whisperer'? It would be a close candidate for worst book - right up there with 'Bridges of Madison County'. It starts off as a story about how to train horses, then morphs into a really sentimental and very sticky love story.
I worked at a small town library when Bridges was popular. The waiting list for it was several hundred people long, most of them women. For many, reading it seemed almost a life changing experience.
Quite often, the books that I have found excrutiatingly bad are bestsellers. But I've become more sophisticated in my old age. I don't even open books like 'The Davinci Code' anymore and when people recommend such books, I just smile politely.
During the time I worked at the library, John Grisham and Danielle Steele always headed the bestsellers' list. They seemed to release new books about every week and a half then. Danielle Steele was very bad, but not bad enough to qualify for the worst book award.
I did learn a very simple rule for judging mysteries by the cover while at the library.
First, read the first page of the book. If there is a spelling or grammatical error there, save your eyes. It won't get any better. If there is egregious, exploitative sexism on the first page, save your time.
Then glance at the back cover. If the author is holding a cat or cats, put the book down and walk away.
In the days that I read science fiction and fantasy, I learned to eschew any book that had a first line something like "Grachilimuki, from the planet Fvrin, was no ordinary spaceman." Having to make up stupid words just showed a paucity of imagination.

Ninamarie: I had a good chuckle at your selection methods! What is the problem with cat fanciers? I agree that a badly written first page can be off-putting, especially if the hero is described in such saccherine words (as I came across in a recently dumped book) that had I checked first I should have gagged straight away and not even borrowed it!