Books you can't bloody stand...

"Cry, the Beloved Country"
Probably no coincidence it was the book I HAD to read for my exams.

I'm not afraid to admit it - I hated The DaVinci Code.  I got halfway through and just skipped to the last chapter.  I should have stuck with my rule: the more people tell me I have to read something, the smaller the chance it will be any good.

Yeah, I know what you mean, FunGirl. I kept skipping paragraphs. His writing style is laborious  - and then this happened, and then that happened and then this other thing happened. Absolutely no style at all.

I'm not afraid to admit it - I hated The DaVinci Code. I got halfway through and just skipped to the last chapter. I should have stuck with my rule: the more people tell me I have to read something, the smaller the chance it will be any good.

Oooh!  I read that a few weeks ago - most horribly written book I've ever read.  Didn't that guy have an editor?  Or - anything new to say?  What a sad joke that book is.

Everyone says it's a rehash of 'The Holy Blood & the Holy Grail', & I already read that, so I thought what's the point!

I just feel bad for the people who run the Louvre - all those tourists who read it wanting to see where everything happened.

Oooh!  I read that a few weeks ago - most horribly written book I've ever read.  Didn't that guy have an editor?  Or - anything new to say?  What a sad joke that book is.

I agree. It was one of the worst-written books I've read in a looooong time. Every now and then you do come across one that isn't written well, but to have it be that huge a best-seller?!? That baffles me. Don't people know how to read?? I know that his ideas weren't new, but that wasn't such a problem to me. I thought the story was OK -- a tad unbelievable, but it kept going. It was the writing that was so abysmal. I think he was concentrating on future movie rights as he was writing. It reads much more like a movie script than a book. There was no style, no subtlety, no beauty of language, etc.

Writers like that really bug me. If you want to write movies, then write movies. But don't clutter up our libraries and bookshops with your drivel! I put John Grisham and Steven (Stephen?) King in the same category.

Rant over.   

Tony Parsons' books makes me despair of life. 

'The Lovely Bones' made me want to organise a book burning.

Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. My English lecturer recommended it, I've started it 3 times and then get distracted, but am determined to try again.

You're not missing much.

The Rules
Ellen Fein (Author), Sherrie Schneider (Contributor)

all my friends were reading that book way back when

I just feel bad for the people who run the Louvre - all those tourists who read it wanting to see where everything happened.

You should see Roslyn Chapel these days.  Bloody mob scene. 

'The Lovely Bones' made me want to organise a book burning.

Hated the ending of that one. 

Hated the ending of that one. 

The whole book was a mood killer worthy of a bottle of vodka and a handful of sleeping pills.  I had to read it for a book group which I quit after the next book they chose was another saddo from h***. 

The whole book was a mood killer worthy of a bottle of vodka and a handful of sleeping pills.  I had to read it for a book group which I quit after the next book they chose was another saddo from h***. 

I agree, but the least the author could have done was come up with a decent ending to it.  I slogged through that whole book only to be totally disappointed at the end.  It's like she just ran out of steam and couldn't be bothered coming up with a REAL ending!!!

I agree, but the least the author could have done was come up with a decent ending to it.  I slogged through that whole book only to be totally disappointed at the end.  It's like she just ran out of steam and couldn't be bothered coming up with a REAL ending!!!

I couldn't agree more.  I was so angry at that ending, which I'd been dumb enough to stay up till midnight to finish, I ripped the covers off and threw it into a recycling bin.  That's the best place for it - couldn't imagine foisting it on s/one else.