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?
Jacob’s Room by Woolf. It’s not so much that it’s so awful, but years ago, I tore my hair out reading it for two months. I hated that book, but I needed to get through it. Annotated with the margins all fucked up.
It’s such a thin book, but it has survived many moves. I hated it so much that I need to keep it.
Disclosure: I love Virginia Woolf. I just hated that one book. Maybe if I read it again, I’d feel ok about it.