For me, William Faulkner. After reading The Sound and the Fury, it'll be hard for me to ever read his stuff again. Anyone else have an author to add to ye olde book burning pile?

John Grisham

Bad Authors
 

James Patterson. If ever an author should stop writing then I hands down nominate him.

Its a tie between John Grisham and Tom Clancy. Neither one has written much worth reading for me in the past few years.

Re: Bad Authors
 

Pop Goes the Weasel was one of the worst things I have ever bothered reading all the way through. I kept hoping for a payoff, but it was a wasted effort.

J Patterson again
 

Ah but it isn't just 'Pop goes the weasel' - it's everything after 'Kiss The Girls' and that's only staying in as I'm feeling generous.

Robert Jordon.

Fantasy hack extraordinaire for the lowest common denominator geek.

J. D. Salinger and Philip Roth (tie).

Aside from the usual suspects (Chricton, Grisham, etc.), I'd say <b>Henry Miller</b>. Geez, except for <b>Colossus of Maroussi</b>, blecch.

Stephen King. Never could abide his books, although I am somewhat amused by the story about the Cessna-flying vampire.

As for fantasy authors, I have a lengthy list. I'll agree wholeheartedly with that Robert Jordan comment above, and I'll raise ya Stephen R. Donaldson, Mercedes Lackey, Alan Dean Foster, and Piers Anthony. Oh, and Eddings.

Catherine Cooke wrote "Realm of the Gods" and "The Winged Assasin". I bought both based on the cover art and the descriptions that are always printed on the back or inside. The books don't match the cover art. And no where on the descriptions does it mention that the two male protagonists get it on with each other. Fooey! Yech! That spoiled it right there. And because those two are main characters, their presences are all over the book. blech. I wish this type of relationship was alluded to in the cover art or the jacket descriptions (but it wasn't).

But how was I to know that without reading the book at the bookstore? *sigh* The characterizations are also weak, so if you changed the names of many characters to be of the opposite sex, it might work. In other words, most of the characters in these two books are "generic" characters, including one of the two protagonists. blah

I guess I must be closed-minded or something. I don't mind book series like Silverglass (by J.F. Rivkin) where two females pet each other down. But I do mind books when they have two males play with each other.

I'll agree with those, with some amendments for myself:

Stephen R. Donaldson - Haven't read, so I can't comment; his stuff never seemed to interest me.
Mercedes Lackey - agree
Alan Dean Foster - I actually really liked a few of his older books. I particularly like The Damned trilogy (from the 80's?), but nothing recent.
Piers Anthony - agree
Eddings - I liked his first series, The Belgariad. But everything else since then has gotten worse. After reading reviews of The Redemption of Althalus, out of morbid curiosity I borrowed it from the library and read it. UGH! HORRID!!! One of the worst books I recall ever reading, and I've probably read about a thousand!

I have to agree.

I'd agree on Stephen R. Donaldson, and especially on Eddings. It's amazing how many times he's been able to rehash the same story lines, character times and cliched dialogues... (aargh)

(Likewise I agee with the nomination of Tom Clancy and John Grisham (the masters of made-for-tv books in recent years))

I'd also add Raymond Feist and given another nomination to Stephen King.

Hemulen

(oh, but I'd have to disagree with movielib and admit to liking some of Philip Roth's books)

Another vote for James Patterson.

Kiss the Girls is perhaps the single junkiest piece of fiction I have ever read. I continue to be amazed that this mans fiction sells so well, Young adult books like 'Sweet Valley High' have greater character depth and thicker prose than this shallow crap. Also Patterson may well become the first person to write a full length novel that has more chapters than it does pages.

I must admit my dislike of Roth is based on only two of his books. First was Portnoy's Complaint which was a huge bestseller that I read when it came out. I thought it was horrible. I remember thowing it across the room into the wastebasket after suffering through it.

I decided not to read any more Roth. Then someone gave me a book called Our Gang as a gift. It was supposedly a satire of the Nixon administration and it was so heavyhanded, stupid and unfunny that it only confirmed and strengthened my opinion of Roth. (Also, about the same time, Richard Condon, famous as the author of The Manchurian Candidate, wrote a brilliant and very funny satire of a Nixon-like character called Death of a Politician which got far less attention.)

Many people whose opinions I trust have told me that Goodbye Columbus is good but I cannot bring myself to read it or any more Roth.

I'm going to have to go for Virginia Woolf

I understand stream-of-conscious though and I can even appreciate it as art, however I can't enjoy her writing. It gets bogged down in bloated language that is annoying and just unenjoyable.

"Yes, dear" "Yes, dear" "Yes, dear"

AUUUUGH!!!

Yet another vote for Mercedes Lackey. My wife, on the other hand, loves her, owns everything she has written, etc. I read, at her request, just one of her novels (Arrows for the Queen or something like that). Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful...

I would also like to nominate Orson Scott Card. While the man has come up with some fairly decent plot ideas, he couldn't write his way out of a paper bag (and yes, I have read Ender's Game).

William W. Johnstone, dreadful hack.

Terry 'I churn out a book every month' Pratchett.

I wish...

(it's closer to one a year, possibly two.)

Myself I rather like Terry Pratchett's works, having just finished reading his latest effort "thief of time"

Hemulen

Glad you enjoy them! I read the first three (took me about a day and a half!) and didn't find them funny or clever at all. His stuff just comes across as very substandard Douglas Adams or Robert Rankin.

I'm not a fan of Faulkner, either. Man, is it tiring to read his stuff.

Also, I'm not really into Don Dellilo, either. I had to read "White Noise" in college. Ugh.

VC Andrews :yack:

I'll echo John Grisham. Not because I don't like his writing (though i don't) but because of the wrongful death lawsuit he brought against Oliver Stone over Natural Born Killers.