For me, it’s Jude the Obscure. That book is easily the worst book I have ever read, without a single redeeming quality, other than that it finally ends. I only finished it because Far from the Madding Crowd was so damn good.
But really, Jude is the gold standard of awful books, in my opinion.
What’s your so-awful-it-deserves-shelf-space book, if you have one?
Or am I just weird?
by michelleinbal
8 Comments
I have a mental image of you encasing the book in a box labeled “worst book ever written” with a red spotlight on it. Hilarious!
I loved Jude the Obscure! 🙁
**Gwendy’s Final Task** by Stephen King & Richard Chizmar is the worst book I’ve read so far and the only reason I still have it is to have the whole trilogy complete and as a reminder of how much it cost me (in my country books are becoming MORE expensive all the time)
I love King with all my heart but that book was *horrendous*
I keep every book I read, this year, I have 2 books that fit your description:
– *Legendborn* by Tracy Deonn
– *Someone Like Me* by M.R.Carey
Both are just absolute messes of fiction. Poorly thought out and paced plots, terrible characters, and all of the nuance of a brick through a window. Both were book club picks, and whilst I hated every second of reading them, tearing them apart in the meeting was very cathartic.
The poems of William McGonagall.
*Her by* Harriet Lane. Although I don’t own it, so it doesn’t have a space on my shelf. It also has an abysmally low rating on Goodreads: 2.7.
I have a few: a wonderful old tome on eugenics. A 80’s book on “a man’s guide to sex” (which is hysterical), and a few self published books from family members. My now grown niece still cringes hard at her Elven Priestess story her dad had published.
The Sword of Shanara. How Terry Brooks turned that book into a writing career I’ll never understand.