ONTD Book Club discussion

I'm trying to generate some more discussion, and I thought about doing a generic Your Favorite Book discussion... but I thought better and instead created this, Books You HATE.

Which books do you hate with a passion? I'm sure the majority of us hate Twilight, so let's go with other stuff.

I HATE Convergence with a passion. You can actually read my review somewhere, maybe it's on Goodreads, I don't know, but it's the same boring events from five different perspectives. And tea apparently solves all problems. Needless to say, I would never read any more books in that series or even by that author.

I despise Wuthering Heights. I hate everything about it. Catherine and Heathcliff are the worst part, though. They have no redeeming qualities; they're just horrible people who destroy the lives of everyone around them. It's probably the worst book I've ever read.

I also hate Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet because I think they're awful and I don't like the characters.

Oh man...I hated so much of what I had to read in like, Junior year of high school. Worst lit year ever for me.

Jane Eyre (but strangely LOVED Wide Sargasso Sea)
The Scarlet Letter
Sense and Sensibility

It wasn't the style because I love other books from that era. I think it was that I couldn't stand the protagonist in any of them enough to care what happened to them. Oh, and I think entirely too little happened in The Scarlet Letter to keep my interest.

I just finished Garden Spells after ALL of my coworkers (at Barnes & Noble) and a librarian recommended it. I feel like it was written much like Twilight with vampires and werewolves replaced by magic flowers and haircuts. I hated it more than any other book I've ever read. It read like cheesy teen fiction, but the characters were in their 20s, 30s, and over. It was also told from 8 points of view and I never grew to like any of the characters. Yuck.

I know it's popular to hate it, but I just ... cannot with Catcher in the Rye. I found it hard to relate to Holden Caulfield even when I was a whiny teenager (the first time I read it). I picked it up again a year ago to see if perhaps I could view it in a different light.

Nope. When I can't find sympathy or even bring myself to tolerate a character is when I put the book down and don't look back.

Katie wrote: "I know it's popular to hate it, but I just ... cannot with Catcher in the Rye. I found it hard to relate to Holden Caulfield even when I was a whiny teenager (the first time I read it). I picked it..."

I had to read the Spark Notes for this (even though I read it in the 9th grade) because my roommate has gotten a Catcher in the Rye question TWICE on the US Foreign Service Officer Test. Instead, I got three questions about mean, median, and mode and still missed the cut off by four points. Oh, well, maybe this year I'll do better. Even by the summary I thought it sounded horrible (and I was called out by an author on Goodreads once after I gave him a 3/5 and he said I had no taste in books because of my review of this book.

Megan wrote: "Katie wrote: "I know it's popular to hate it, but I just ... cannot with Catcher in the Rye. I found it hard to relate to Holden Caulfield even when I was a whiny teenager (the first time I read it..."

Wow, that was highly unprofessional of the author. Certainly wouldn't want to make me read anything else of theirs and give them a second chance.

Katie wrote: "Megan wrote: "Katie wrote: "I know it's popular to hate it, but I just ... cannot with Catcher in the Rye. I found it hard to relate to Holden Caulfield even when I was a whiny teenager (the first ..."

Yeah, and he's gotten great reviews from everyone else. I won it through First Read and he was a total ass, pardon my french. He ended up deleting his comment after people replied telling him to cool his jets because it was basically six paragraphs of ranting anger calling me out on my bad taste. I had been NICE in my review, too, which is strange - many of my bad reviews are angry, rambling things. I told him it wasn't for me but I had passed it along to a friend who I thought would love it and he basically just said I had no taste in literature and that I shouldn't have read it.

Stargirl. I'm still holding a grudge years later that we had to read it in my AP English class junior year of high school. I mean, seriously?

Megan wrote: "Katie wrote: "Megan wrote: "Katie wrote: "I know it's popular to hate it, but I just ... cannot with Catcher in the Rye. I found it hard to relate to Holden Caulfield even when I was a whiny teenag..."

Haha, I try to stay away from reviews right after I've read a terrible book because I know I'll just write some incoherent babbling.

Anna wrote: "Stargirl. I'm still holding a grudge years later that we had to read it in my AP English class junior year of high school. I mean, seriously?"

Did your teacher at least have a good reason for that? I read Stargirl when I was thirteen. :x

Katie wrote: "I know it's popular to hate it, but I just ... cannot with Catcher in the Rye. I found it hard to relate to Holden Caulfield even when I was a whiny teenager (the first time I read it). I picked it..."

I felt the same way when I first read it years ago. I've put it back on my "to read" list because everyone called me crazy so I figured I had to have missed something.

Anna wrote: "Stargirl. I'm still holding a grudge years later that we had to read it in my AP English class junior year of high school. I mean, seriously?"

I loved that book... when I was 10. Why on Earth would you have to read it in that class?

The Lovely Bones, The Book of Lost Things and Room. All books I at least managed to finish and maybe liked some elements of, but I've come to hate them in the time since reading them as I've realised how incredibly overrated they all are by other readers.

I think the worst book I've ever managed to finish was Thin Skin. And The White Queen: I thought I might die of boredom. The award for most nonsensical plot paired with terrible writing goes to Little Face.

I just remembered another book I hate: Ethan Frome. I thought it was a stupid story and the characters made some really, REALLY illogical decisions.

Humoresques here. :D

I have to join in on the Cather in the Rye hate. I couldn't even finish the damn thing.

I agree with the Stargirl and Lovely Bones hate.
I also absolutely hate One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Love the Cather in the Rye though.

I actually loved The Lovely Bones! I didn't like the movie (even Stanley Tucci, for whom my love knows now bounds). But I've never read Stargirl.

I also really disliked Blue Bloods. You can read my review of that on Goodreads AND Amazon, and I also disliked Teeth: The Epic Novel With Bite (search for it) because the author was rude to me when I reviewed his book.

Katie wrote: "Anna wrote: "Stargirl. I'm still holding a grudge years later that we had to read it in my AP English class junior year of high school. I mean, seriously?"

Did your teacher at least have a good reason for that? I read Stargirl when I was thirteen. :x "


No reason would have been good enough.

Anna wrote: "Katie wrote: "Anna wrote: "Stargirl. I'm still holding a grudge years later that we had to read it in my AP English class junior year of high school. I mean, seriously?"

Did your teac..."

Of course, but it doesn't mean I'm not curious about it anyway.

Anything by Jodi Picoult. For a book club, I read My Sister's Keeper. It was bad, and I guessed the ending early in the book.

ahhh here we go. There were many books we were forced to read in high school - and college - that I absolutely HATED. Two particular ones that I hated were As I Lay Dying (sorry, I am not a Faulkner fan), and The Odyssey. Oy veh I had to read that during the summer going into 9th grade and I had absolutely no idea what I was reading. That ruined it for me.

Blair wrote: "The Lovely Bones, The Book of Lost Things and Room. All books I at least managed to finish and maybe liked some elements of, but I've come to hate them in the..."

Ugh, at first The Lovely Bones was alright, but oh lord. I almost ripped my hair out, I could not.

Books we were forced to read in AP Eng that's coming back to bite my ass: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (I'd rather slit my throat, never again) and unpopular opinion time: not that impressed with The Great Gatsby. I didn't jizz myself over it like some, I just could not be that impressed.

Another book I can't stand: East of Eden. It was far longer than it needed to be, and the Cain/Abel metaphor lacked any trace of subtlety. Also, that one woman - Cathy, or whatever her name was - was too evil to be realistic.

The Poisonwood Bible was awful. I am still so very surprised that I managed to finish it. It was tedious.

I just cannot fucking stand The Human Stain. I just... I barely got through Roth's terribly written female characters. There's also the fact Coleman Silk is not racist, but he was still an elitist asshole that I couldn't stand. I was seriously so upset by the book by the time I got to the end (I only finished because I had to read it for a class) that I threw it at the wall.

Never again.

Laura wrote: "I absolutely detest "Wuthering Heights" and "Ethan Frome," which unsurprisingly were both required reading back in high school from one of the worst teachers I ever had. The characters were so blan..."

I hated Ethan Frome. All of those people were a bunch of selfish loathsome creatures. I was actually glad that they all got what they deserved too.

Awww, I loved The Poisonwood Bible. I want to read The Lovely Bones; I enjoyed the movie, though it creeped me out that the main girl looks eerily like my best friend.

I hated The Historian and is one of my more memorable DNFs. I could not stand The Name of the Wind and ended that about 150 pages in too. I'm not fond of Charles Dickens - Great Expectations was the only book assigned in high school that I didn't finish. Hated Jane Eyre; almost through it across the room mid-book. Didn't care for Wurthering Heights.

I'm kind of blah on Catcher in the Rye. I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either, which is strange because it seems to be a fairly polarizing book.

I didn't like Catcher in the Rye. Personally, I can't stand to read a book of constant whining. I couldn't get over it to see the important themes in the book.

Also, Tess of the D'Ubervilles had to be the most insufferable book I've ever read. That was a downer, big time. Angel Clare was one of the most useless characters and Tess was a spineless victim to her circumstances. It was way too long and some of the verbage was pretty stiff. I had to sparknote much of it because what it could have taken a paragraph to explain something or set a scene, Hardy uses 5 pages.

Oh wow... Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of my all times favourites, tbh. I can certainly understand why some would see Tess as a spineless victim but Hardy meant for her to be more of an allegory than an actual character. I love the book because it's the ultimate condemnation of Victorian patriarchy. Angel Claire is a horrible person but he's supposed to be. He's the Nice Guy TM of the story.

I remember the same year I got assigned Tess for school I also had to read 21 Short Stories by Graham Greene. Ugh, now THERE is an author I cannot stand. He had to bring his Catholic guilt into everything. So boring.

I like the idea behind Catcher in the Rye, but Scorsese did it better with Taxi Driver.

The Notebook. That book is a farfetched, ridiculous piece of work and the movie is awful.

I have to agree that I found Catcher in the Rye a little underwhelming. I much more enjoyed Salinger's Franny & Zooey. I also didn't care much for The Lovely Bones. They were both highly recommended to me so that may have been part of their downfall. As an author, I really try to not hate books, but I have to say that the last book that I read that caused me to rage was July's People by Nadine Gordimer. I know she's a Nobel winner and I know this book is on the list of 1001 Books to read before you die, but I thought it tried too hard to prove it's point. It just wasn't for me.

I really hated I, Lucifer. What's really bad is that I couldn't even get past the first page!

I thought the Devil was supposed to be cool...

Also Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift. Ugh!

Everything Margaret Atwood has ever written (besides Handmaid's Tale) and Jodi Picoult. Cannot with either of them.

I also hated The Kite Runner and Book of Negroes.

Can I add The Knife Of Never Letting Go? Lol

Danielle wrote: "Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking #3) by Patrick Ness.
This is basically 600 pages (ish) of pure rubbish."

Yikes! I didn't care much for the first one, but usually a voice inside my head urges me to finish a series even if I don't enjoy it. Good to know this is one I can cast off!

Delirium. So goddamn melodramatic and such a disappointment after Before I Fall.

Halen wrote: "Delirium. So goddamn melodramatic and such a disappointment after Before I Fall."

I liked Delirium (and I just finished Pandemonium), but the main character made me want to punch babies. I can't decide what that says about me (nevermind that I'll read just about anything and generally like it...)

Reviving!!!

My most recent absolute hate was "Her Fearful Symmetry." It just pisses me off the entire second half.

Fifty Shades of Grey - most atrocious piece of utter shyte ever written.

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty - I'm about 60% through, and OMGWTFDNW! How anyone thinks this is erotica and/or BDSM, I will never understand.

I'm debating reading 50 shades for the snark factor, but I just can't.

Jessica wrote: "I'm debating reading 50 shades for the snark factor, but I just can't."

If you do, please don't buy the books. I can get you a copy of the fanfic in PDF format, which is pretty much exactly the same. 89% the same, per Turnitin.

Oh, no. I wouldn't even waste my library holds on them. I have copies on my Kindle. Thanks!

shantaram. i had so many people recommend it, bu i found it too long and preachy and just unbearable to get through. i ended up skimming over the last two hundred pages to finish it.

Jessica wrote: "Reviving!!!

My most recent absolute hate was "Her Fearful Symmetry." It just pisses me off the entire second half."

Oh my god. I hate that book so freaking much. The author has a massive talent for prose, but even not comparing it to The Time Traveler's Wife, it's just horrendous. Pretty much all the main characters (except one maybe?) become so unlikeable towards the end.

Fifty Shades of Grey - this book caused me to go on a three day rantvent. When I see people reading it on the train, I glare before I can stop myself.
My Antonia- a week of my life I will NEVER get back.
Wuthering Heights- all the no.

You have summed it up perfectly! The only thing that kept me going was my sheer boner for the setting and pure stubbornness.

Like most people, I hate some of the books I had to read for school, like "The Old Man and the Sea", "Quo Vadis" by Henryk Sienkiewicz or "Nad Niemnem" by Eliza Orzeszkowa.
And I agree about Fifty Shades of Grey. Also it's embarassing when someone whose first language isn't english can pick out mistakes.

My least favorite was The Scarlet Letter, the book I did for my independent study in grade 9. Part of that is because the book is legitimately boring as fuck, but part of it was my own mistake. We were given a list of titles we could choose for the study, and I completely got this mixed up with The Purloined Letter. I had watched the wishbone episode of it when I was a kid (lol) and went for it cause I thought it'd be short and interesting. I was pissed as hell when I started reading it and like half the first chapter of scarlet letter is describing a gate lmao