The Wilbur Smith Discussion Forums

I thought it would be fun to start a new discussion about books that we actually hated. Books we could not finish; books we actually wanted so much to like but was physically painful to sit down and read. Books that will put you to sleep… well; you get the idea. So, next time we are ready to pick up something new we can come here and see if we should stay away from it. Or pick it up anyway and have somebody tell us; "I told you so…"

I will start with one. After reading River God I was looking for something set in Egypt. I run into “A Crocodrile in the Sandbank” by Elizabeth Peters. It is the first one of a series (apparently never ending) featuring Amelia Peabody and her Egyptologist husband the ineffable Emerson. To summarize it was stuffy, predictable and extremely annoying. Not to mention you know who the bad guy is after 20 pages.

Unbearable.

I remember it was a book by Jack Higgins, but I can't recall the name right now...

Another was by Barbara Erskine - I got to the end out of sheer curiosity & hoping that the book would get better - it got worse!!

Elizabeth George is another - again, the title I forget, but I didn't get past page 20.

Good topic, BTW! I have more, will have to try and remember! I usually like the books I pick up, the times I've hated a book are rare.

Jack Higgins latest efforts are terrible, but the early works are very good. You can give "The Eagle has Landed" a try; it’s good.

OK, here is another one and this one usually gets me in trouble with people that love JRR Tolkien. I may be one of the few people on the planet that was bored to tears with the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy. Having said that I can recognize its originality, it is the blueprint of fantasy. Everybody borrows or copies elements from these books; Harry Potter, anyone? (I did finish “The Fellowship of the Ring” tough).

ooh i've got one...ah just noticed wrong forum for me to answer

Monsoon wrote:ooh i've got one...ah just noticed wrong forum for me to answer

Lol...I wonder what that could be then? [/sarcasm]

LOTR needs dedication. I was bored at points as well - I kept thinking, well why is this important? Some plot points were never resolved - thats mythology I guess but it was very annyoing. I only read the books because of the movies.

Another book - Wuthering Heights. It was terrible! I've never read anything so stupid and gloomy - why people like it I have no idea!!

I have been a nightly reader since childhood and I have more than a few STINKERS that I have put down but the ones that really sucked were the ones that I finished here are a few of these proud members of my Hall Of Shame:
1. The Five Fingers by I've Forgotten
2.Mexico by James Michener
3. Last Of The Breed by Louis L'Mour
4. The Cradel Will Fall by James Patterson
more to follow......

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike was by far the worst book I've read and the movie was definitely better than the book. In fact, I can't believe I finished the book - it was soooo bad. How they made the movie from the book I'll never know as once again any resemblance between book and movie is purely accidental/coincidence. (Actually, in this case, just as well!)

Has anyone else seen the movie. Jack Nicholson must have been in his element - he is not good looking - never has been but oh! the charisma he must have. Have you seen the amount of younger women he has been with through the years?

I have given up on the holy blood and the holy grail I was dying of boredom no wonder the judge found in favour of Dan Brown.


Also whats with Catcher in the Rye maybe its me but i just didnt get it a hundred and odd pages of a whinging teen doesnt do it for me

Interesting topic this,

@ above somewhere, I'm actually quite fond of the Lord of the Rings myself, but you really have to get into a certain frame of mind to enjoy it. I have the special extended editions of the dvds (which comes in a box of 4 dvds per movie), bloody hell that's a lot of watching, but still, very interesting if you're interested in how movies get made (like me). One of the specials was a sort of documentary about Tolkien and that stated that Tolkien actually invented this whole mythology, for himself... He created the whole history of Middle Earth etc., without actually writing a novel. I'm talking about huge filing cabinets here. Then, after The Hobbit he was asked to write a sequel, which became LOTR. So it's not hard to see why he puts so much history into this work, and yes, that can get quite boring from time to time if you're not the right frame of mind.

As for the worst books:

1) The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury. This was a bit of a Davinci Code rip-off and not in the least exiting.
2) The Broker by John Grisham. Normally I adore everything Grisham does, but this novel got on my nerves because of all the Italian lessons the main character gets. I actually listened to this book (audiobook) during my work and if the author then starts summing up ALL the items in a room with it's Italian meaning for about three minutes.... for Pete's sake that was boring. I guess if you read it you can just skip these sections, but still, the story wasn't that good either.
3) Atlantis by David Gibbens. This was a story that hung together by a lot of coincidences and too much description on the actual Atlantis they found. It's a miracle I finished this.

There are probably more of course, but I can't think of any

Wuthering Heights. I know it's supposed to be a classic and all, but I had to read this for school, and it was the most miserable reading experience I've ever had. I just couldn't get into it. I found it so tedious and bland, and all the characters were just horrible and uninteresting people.

I agree with Higgins being one of the worst - he usually has a very good story line, but the way he presents and weaves the actual story it's as if he is talking to five year olds, very little descriptive background, most uninteresting. And I also struggled (figuratively) with Elizabeth George - boring!
Once I start a book I make up my mind to read it through but I often regret it - I'll let you know more as the failures come to mind.

Another one occurred to me - Bryce Courteney. I enjoyed his first offering 'The Power of One" very much and when I got him to sign it I thought he was great - bright and cheerful, a bit brash and pushy but good to meet and talk to. But since then most of his books are about Australia and they are usually full of misery and despair - I don't enjoy them at all and have given him up

I've done a lot of reading in my lifetime and I would be hard pressed to answer this question. I have started so many books and just simply abandoned them and never gave them another thought!

The Ruins by Scott Smith

I only picked this up because Stephen King gave it a good recommendation.

It was a pointless waste of time of a book that made little sense and had a terrible ending. Please don't waste your time with this book.

The two most recent books that I have not liked are the first two of the Lord John Grey storied from Diana Gabaldon. They were both a complete bore, were very slow and did not hold my interest in the least. I will stop there on her side track of the Outlander series which I have really liked even though those books are long winded themselves and filled with fluff but i like the characters so much I enjoy them a lot.

I have a writer friend who has become reasonably famous in the literary world. I have tried to read these books out of sheer loyalty but they are such rubbish I simply cannot get more than a few pages in. I have often been told that I 'don't get it'. Well so be it. I cannot mention the writers name in case this person hears about my post and is offended. They say that once you put something out on the net you can never take it back. I value the friendship. Sorry.