For me, it’s Jude the Obscure. That book is easily the worst book I have ever read, without a single redeeming quality, other than that it finally ends. I only finished it because Far from the Madding Crowd was so damn good.
But really, Jude is the gold standard of awful books, in my opinion.
What’s your so-awful-it-deserves-shelf-space book, if you have one?
Or am I just weird?
Oh, to be able to wax lyrical about Wild Animus, the self published behemoth by Rich Shapiro, a man with too much disposable income. It’s strange, it’s overwrought, the prose is so purple that it’s florescent. And my copy was free, which was still too expensive. Your main character, our “hero,” Sam, dies in the first chapter, and throughout the rest of the story, you are treated to Berkeley drug culture in the 70’s written from the point of view of someone who didn’t experience it, rampant misogyny, and Sam slowly discovering that he should be one with the mountain goats, nay! He IS a mountain goat trapped in human form! Complete fever dream written as a hallucination. And you’re asking just how bad is the writing? Well…
“He drew the towels away. Through the resolving blur, he saw hair divided in the middle of her crown, a pyramid of high forehead, and cheeks bounded by sickle-shaped locks that pricked her chin. Her eyes were blue, fixed on him with the gravest stare he’d ever seen. He waited for her to bow her head, to turn, to laugh - but she didn’t flinch. What made those great gulfs of eyes? And how could she invite a stranger to fathom them? Sam gazed deeper, imagining he saw the bottoms of rugged canyons in her eyes, the dark foundation of a different world. A hidden joy flickered in the depths, burning amid a consuming sorrow, and as he focused on that brightness, it blazed up, hopeful. Without thinking, his heart went out to her. There was no foundation here, only the desperate longing for one, more solid and lasting than the world she knew.”
This terrible book will never leave my bookshelf. I can’t subject anyone else to it.
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Ulysses by James Joyce. Unreadable garbage.
When I was in the 10th grade, i read a book called “Bufflehead Sisters,” and it remains, to this day, the worst book I’ve ever read. From time to time I’ll go online to see if other people agree, but this book has not a single 1-star review on Amazon, and it baffles me. Horribly written…
Fifty shades of Grey. Just awful writing. And is it true that it started as a fan fiction?
It’s honestly so pathetic that you can’t separate a book’s quality from how much you liked/enjoyed it
Wow, I love Jude the Obscure. Fantastic early modernist novel that speaks to the failures of the Victorian bildungsroman. Sorry you didn’t like it.
the 2007 Leonard Maltin Movie Guide. Don’t know how it got there, but it is an Ark of Knowledge,.
American psycho probably
It’s unbearable in a good way
Sons and Lovers. I thought I was the only one who did this.
A Little Life for me. I don’t think I’ve ever loathed a book so desperately, but I wasted dozens of hours of my young life on it and I’ll be damned if I don’t get to keep my trophy.
John Waters wrote a novel called “Liarmouth”. I love him, but the book is every bit as trashy, tacky and gross as you might imagine. I couldn’t finish it but I’ll never get rid of it either.
The Neverending Story. Terrible book but a great movie.
Confederacy of Dunces. Awful, awful, awful.
So reading Jude made you feel like Sue Bridehead fulfilling her marital duties?