Book Report: Worst Damn Book in the Whole World

[zakthor]

Need some xmas reading recommendations?

I read Maniac by Benjamin Labatut and yeah its really depressing. There's a chapter written in the voice of richard feynman that discusses the ignition of Ivy Mike and it convinced indifferent 50 something year old me that its a terrible thing that h-bombs even exist.

But Labatut wrote an earlier book called "When we cease to understand the world". These are i don't know what - semi-fictional essays - but wow they have my number. I've read a lot but I've never read anything that hit me so emotionally and made me despair about humanity. Crazy this thin little book can have such an impact. My take on his thesis is that mathematics has become larger than man and the results are destroying us. Damn. He takes a bunch of true stuff and weaves it into an awful narrative.

Apparently he's a poet from chile.

[flatbutt]

"We Band of Angels" the true story of the nurses caught up in the Bataan occupation by Japan.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

"We Band of Angels" the true story of the nurses caught up in the Bataan occupation by Japan.

I may have to check that out. I went through a period where I read a bunch of personal accounts by folks that were POWs held by Japan in various places in Asia during WWII.

[afterburn 549]

Only Cow Girls Get the blues
When it came out everyone was raving about it!
i tried to read it several times, never got past chapter one.

[zakthor]

Originally Posted by afterburn 549

Only Cow Girls Get the blues
When it came out everyone was raving about it!
i tried to read it several times, never got past chapter one.

I can’t read Tom Robbins either. I think it’s for high schoolers. I knew one of his ex girlfriends, redhead, and wow did she have nothing good to say.

[Eric 951]

Anything by Atwood or the Bronte sisters.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by zakthor

I can’t read Tom Robbins either. I think it’s for high schoolers. I knew one of his ex girlfriends, redhead, and wow did she have nothing good to say.

More importantly, was she hot?

[zakthor]

Originally Posted by masraum

More importantly, was she hot?

She may have been twice my age and yeah she was Smouldering without even trying.

[red-beard]

The One Tree by Stephen R. Donaldson

I had read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant in Highschool. Getting past the rapey part...

The One tree came out (book 5 of a 3 part trilogy???) and I was so utter bored by it I loaned it to someone to read before I finished it. I did end up finishing it and reading #6.

It looks like the author was in search of "more money" and put out four more books in the "Trilogy", about 20 years after book 6. So a 10 book trilogy.

[LWJ]

Kurt Vonnegut is a fantastic author and sends me into a serious depression. I swore him off in my 20’s.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Kurt Vonnegut is a fantastic author and sends me into a serious depression. I swore him off in my 20’s.

Yeah, when one of the characters was unwinding a pubic hair...it lost me!

[GH85Carrera]

As far as the worst book in the world, I would nominate Ivanhoe as the worst. I would read a few paragraphs and fall asleep. I always said if I ever get insomnia I will get a copy of Ivanhoe to put me to sleep.

I had to by a copy of Cliff Notes on the book to write the book report when it was assigned reading in school.

[Noah930]

I remember having to read The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations in high school. Hated both of them. By the end of the books, I wanted all of the characters to die so we could be done with their stories.

[herr_oberst]

"The worst book in the world" is like "The funniest joke in the world" or "The most beautiful woman in the world" - too many targets moving too quickly, but I'll give two examples, for different reasnons.

1, 'Pinball' by Jerzy Kosinsky. Written after "Being There", the book that became a Peter Sellers movie masterpiece. 'Pinball' is so bad, it caused me to think that 'Being There' was written by one of his students and he stole the idea.

2 "Bonfire of the Vanities". The crux of the story is that our protagonist is so stupid that a terrible crime committed - a crime that a first year lawyer could clear up with 10 billable hours - causes this supposed Master of the universe to lose everything because the MOTU can't figure out when to shut up. I was yelling at Tom Wolfe the whole time I was reading it. And the movie was worse.

[Steve F]

Death of a Salesman in Junior College, major sucky!

[zakthor]

Oh jeese. Now I get it. I wrote 'worst book in the world' because this book was very effective at making me despair deeply for humanity, even though its partially fiction.

New yorker did a good review:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/a-cautionary-tale-about-science-raises-uncomfortable-questions-about-fiction

I thought I was being clear that 'when we cease to understand the world' was an amazing book that communicated extremely well. Its just a tough nut to handle.

I highly recommend it.

And now you jerks are listing a bunch of actually terrible books. BOOO!!!

Edit: Oh yeah, and my vote for actually awful was Bronte's jane ayre in middle school. Holy hell that was awful and I was required to read it. Imagine trying to make an 8th grade boy read that?

[KFC911]

Anything by Cliff Notes ...

I liked his brevity and no bs style... way back when

[zakthor]

Oh no. Paged in more memories.

Ethan frome by edith wharton in 7th grade. I remember i was reading dune at the same time. Couldnt stand ethan frome and tried to skim the last 1 billion pages in 10 minutes before class and couldnt answer any of the questions on the quiz.

I found the book in a box a few years ago and it was even worse than i remember. I also remember all the horrible translations of russian literature- i still dont see how people can read them. Modern translations in past 30 years are so much better.

[flatbutt]

"The Road". Crap story written in a crap style.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Kurt Vonnegut is a fantastic author and sends me into a serious depression. I swore him off in my 20’s.

Harrison Bergeron was uplifting. Come on.

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kozinski. In real life, Kozinski rode a stationary bike with a plastic bag covering his head until dead. His thoughts were pretty dark.