mllefoo

Gee.

I'd have to say...
Desperation - Stephen King. Man. What a horrid book.
Robinson Crusoe. One word. Boo-o-o-o-o-ooooring. Of course, the language of that time had something to do with the dullness of this book. It obviously did well at the time since the guy wrote a sequel. I kept praying Rob would fall off that stupid island and drown, or get eaten by cannibals or something. Man. Oh man. God, how boring the 1700s must have been to make that book a bestseller.

Geez.

Runnersup:
Anything by Roger Zelasny. Ugh.
Anything by Elron Hubbard. Double ugh.
That leper series by Stephan R. Donaldson. Gah.

Other than that, I'm pretty open to the books I read.

Mister Beefhead

One of my favorite series ever.
Well, if you like Terry Brooks, don't give up on that particular series just because of the first book. The series gets better by leaps and bounds with every volume.

Mister Beefhead

Generally I stop reading if I think a book sucks, but I have been fooled several times by liking the first few volumes of a series that proceeded to go straight to hell. The Xanth series and The Stainless Steel Rat series come to mind. The Discworld series has some real duds, too.

Alvis

First 3-4 Xanth books are pretty good, although I read up to about the 10th one or so. How many is he up to now? Anthony seems to have a real problem with not leaving well enough alone, he has come back and continued many of his older series with crap. Not that the originals are great or anything, as I look back on them as an adult reader and not a teen-ager(although his constant references to sex, I liked at the time).

Nick Danger

Sword of Shannara.

When I was a teenager, it was a matter of pride to finish what books I started. Eventually, someone pointed out that it was like not switching channels from a bad television show.

I recently reread the first two Xanth books. The word 'misogyny' came to mind. I assume Piers was going through a bad divorce.

Ivanhoe really bugged me. But I can't say I'm sorry I read it.

Caoimhin

A Confederacy of Dunces. I read constantly and enjoy a lot of different styles and authors. For years I had read about how brilliant it was. When I started reading it, I liked Toole's style and found Ignatius quirky and interesting. As it went on, though, I hated him. Rather than becoming the anti-establishment, anti-conformity anti-hero everyone else found him, I just thought he was rude and self-absorbed on an epic scale. But I can't start a book without finishing it, so I got to the end and realized how much more I hated it as it went on.

movielib

So there's someone else who hated this "brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning book." I'd forgotten this one. Add it to my list. I honestly wonder if it ever would have gotten all the attention and acclaim without its history.

krankins2

Ulysses - James Joyce

ziggy

I've never regretted reading a book.

Some of the books said above I think are pretty good.

Vampyr

Moby Dick by Herman Melville ~ It has to be one of the most boring reads ever written. That said, it made for a great movie

Ginwen

I couldn't think of any, since I don't usually bother finishing a book I really dislike, then thought of that Magic Kingdom book (but couldn't remember it's name) and the next post was yours. Not to copy, but that's my choice, too.

I pretty much hated the Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle(?) as well.

Nothing I read for school that I really regret reading--I like that school got me to read things I wouldn't have read otherwise.

Addition--What a terrible topic; I just remembered the worst ever. I read around 7.5 books of the L. Ron Hubbard 10 book series before deciding I'd hated every one of them, and didn't care what happened. Thanks for reminding me!

freedexter

I would have to agree with previous posters on Confederacy of the Dunces and The Hobbit, although, technically, I don't think I can count them because I never finished them.

Any "Oprah" reading club book is something I avoid, after reading books Back Roads and Ellen Foster. Big waste of time, IMO.

I admit, I liked Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, but the prequel, Little Altars Everywhere was something I shouldn't have read. It wasn't a bad book, but it ruined my idea of the characters that I got out of Divine Secrets. Now everybody's drunk, abusive, and deeply scarred. So much for the Ya Yas...

Bean-si

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It took me over 3 attempts to get past the first 30 pages and then purely just out of bloody-mindedness I persevered, and for what? Oh, and throw in John Irving's A Widow for One Year (is that the exact title?). Hannibal by Thomas Harris can be added to the pile. I better stop now.....

Andalusia

"Polaroids from the Dead" by Douglas Coupland. Big friggin' letdown from an author I really like.

JesseCuster

Ethan Frome comes to mind. Better than Nyquil IMO.

Also, I tried one of those Harry Turtledove alternate history books, on the Civil War. I got it for a dollar and figured why not? The idea was sound but I didn't think much of him as a fiction writer. I never finished the book.

shimmoril

Any of the Terry Brooks Magic Kindom of Landover books (including Magic Kingdom for Sale Sold!)... ewwww... i have no idea why i continued to read them, except that i liked the shannara books.

The Acorna books by Anne McCaffery - another author i expected better from. Lord of the Flies, Wuthering Heights, the first Earthsea book by Ursula Le Guin.

I usually finish books even if i don't like em just to have something to read, but some are just too terrible.

gondorspit

D.H. Lawrence - Sons and Lovers

I didn't know that anybody could go through as many different emotions in the space of a second as the characters in the this book. They'd smile, frown and slightly laugh/cry whenever they spoke.

silentbob007

Great Expectations ... and (shields self) I absolutely hated A Separate Peace ....

darkessenz

all of the damn Wheel of time books after #1
Someone wake me up when the end of the world is about to come in that series, and then i will read the last book. I think he recaps everything that has happened and is supposed to happen every five minutes. I lost track of all the female characters, and the plot twists(they are the most boring twists ever). His writing is slow, tedious and lacking imagination.

GeoffK

A Trip to the Stars
by Nicholas Christopher

I was reading books at a great pace and then BAM hit this book and had a tough time getting motivated to read it. It's not that it's an awful book it just killed a great streak of books I was reading

Infinite Jest: A Novel
by David Foster Wallace

Pretentious Crap, which I abandoned (so I don't know if that counts)

The Hundred Brothers: A Novel
by Donald Antrim

CRAP CRAP CRAP - Why did I finish it!

milo bloom

From school:

The Old Man and Sea, I wanted to jump into the book with a big stick and beat the damn fish to death and then take the old man to Long John Silver's

But a Farewell to Arms was heartbreaking.

Tess of the Durbervilles (sp) good grief, kill me now

Canterbury Tales: several were actually amusing

On my own: most of the grist mill Star Trek books out there. It's worth it sometimes to slog thru them to get to a Best Destiny or Imzadi. Then you get Imzadi 2

And I'd loved the Odyssey books by Clarke as a kid, even before seeing the movies. But 3001 was a horrid pile of fetid dingo's kidneys. Speaking of which, should I read Douglas Adams' last, Salmon of Doubt?

macsax

The later Amber books by Zelazney seemed to run a bit thin.

I liked Dune, but each successive book in the series became more pretentious and preachy.

I have never read a Stephen King novel that has an ending. It's a good thing if used sparingly, but not on every single book. It got very tired for me.

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Ilse Witch by Terry Brooks (to be honest I bought it because the cover was really cool).

Those are the only ones that come to mind right now. I will almost always finish a book once I start reading though. The only exception to that is the Sword of Shannara. Many years ago I began reading it upon the heavy suggestions of a freind and put it down after 50 pages. At the time it seemed to me to parallel Tolkien so closely that it seemed un-original.

msbailey

Like a lot of people here, I don't really regret reading any book. However, most recently I'd have to say I thoroughly did NOT enjoy reading Philip Roth's "The Human Stain". Frankly, the only reason I read it is because Nicole Kidman is going to be in the film version and I have a weird habit of reading the book of every adapted film she's in. Also, immediately after reading Matthew Stadler's "The Sex Offender", I threw it in the trash. Awful, awful, awful book.

dorktillthend

I absolutely hated Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
I also do not like anything by the Bronte sisters (Wuthering Heights wasn't so bad though.)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, and anything by Sylvia Plath.

I do respect the above authors and books,...I just abhor reading them.

Jarrett

Carl Hiaasen's "Basket Case." Ouch.