too many books, too little time

I was skimming the spotlit community Bookfails earlier and it inspired me to think about what the worst books I ever read were.

Years ago I hated HATED HATED Jane Eyre. I hated that she got together with Rochester (SPOILERS!) in the end. It took reading The Eyre Affair for me to really like the book.

I also really hated The Old Man and the Sea. In fact, all of Hemingway is anathema to me. I've tried to read him, I really have, but I can't stand him. Also in the vein of great books that I should like but don't is The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is good (I liked Of Mice and Men), but reading Wrath was like watching paint dry.

I try to finish every book I start whether it is worth my time or not. But I put down The Road by Cormac McCarthy sometime last year and I haven't picked it up since. With the movie coming out I might be inclined to finish it, but it's just so damned DEPRESSING that I can't take it. I also never finished The Coffee Trader by David Liss. I really wish I hadn't wasted my money on that book. Although it might have been the free book in a buy two get one free deal, I don't remember. Totally not worth reading.

I've only been dismaed with one book recently though and that was Laura Esquivel's Malinche. If you read the review I posted, I mentioned that I'm not sure if it was the translation or if the story was just that bad, because I did enjoy the movie version of Like Water for Chocolate.

So tell me, friends: what are some books you absolutely hated? Books you threw against the wall, wanted to set on fire (as wrong as it is), books you never wanted to see again.



ETA: I totally blanked on how much I HATE Virginia Woolfe. HATE. To the LIghthouse was INSUFFERABLE. Flames...at the side of my face...


OH MY God how did I forget Joyce? Fuck Ulysses and Portrait of the Artist as a YOung Man. Those books are the worst ever ever.