what is the most annoying book you ever read?

[tegeus-Cromis]

I guess I'm going to be a contrarian on this thread. I love Vathek.

(And, @Ursa major , I have that book too.)

 

[Toby Frost]

Speaking of SF by authors not normally associated with the genre, I thought Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos: Archives Re: Colonized Planet 5 Shikasta Personal, Psychological, Historical Documents Relating to Visit by Johor (George Sherban) Emissary (Grade 9) 87th of the Period of the Last Days (to give it the full title as shown on the cover of the first edition) read like SF by somebody who hasn't read much SF.

The title certainly reads that way!

If we're talking specifically about annoying rather than bad books or books we didn't like, I tend to find it irritating where the author expects the reader to buy into a world-view without providing any real reason for it. I'd mention The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, where the author's pointlessly miserable outlook just looks like a pose for the sake of it, or Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite, where the reader is expected to feel that the goth characters are deep, soulful, intellectual etc without any real evidence being provided for it.

Of course then there are books that don't end properly, or end very badly after a long time, or are overpriced, etc.

 

[tobl]

Do you mean the Nobel Laureate, Jose Saramago, by any chance? I thought his book Blindness was excellent.

Yeah i heard that one is fine. But i tried to read others and good grief and i'm from Portugal so i really tried

 

[Luiglin]

I started and gave up on one that despite having a brilliant premise was poorly executed, in my opinion. However, the annoyance came more from the glorious reviews it had got. As a result I started doubting my own writing. If this was judged to be so good, why did I find it so awkward to read? Was my own writing wrong?

 

[CupofJoe]

Not a fiction book, but still bound printed pages.
I've got a equipment manual [for something that cost tens of thousands of £s] that constantly refers to tables, diagrams and illustrations that aren't in the right place. It will refer to Fig 12 on page 24. On page 24 you will find Table 12 [haven't found fig 12]. To add to this I think it was auto-translated from another language as the written word are a little odd. I can email their extremely helpful and polite support line to get a talk through and they'll send me a pdf of the appropriate page but that takes time. For some reason they won't send me the full manual [even if it is in a different language]. So all of this, working in semi-english, the rearrangement of non-text items, playing email tag etc is making a 2 hour job last all day. At least it is Friday.... so at some point I will just give up and go home.

 

[vanye]

Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson. Page after endless page of preaching by a self-righteous so-and-so (meaning the author). Pure agony to read.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson. Page after endless page of preaching by a self-righteous so-and-so (meaning the author). Pure agony to read.

Clarissa I found myself skimming. It did have some good parts. (Or maybe that was just that I had seen the movie and I was able to visualize the nuances the actors, including Sean Bean, brought to the characters they played.) Richardson's Pamela or Virtue Rewarded (which is another book I inexplicably finished) is, in my opinion, many times worse. His idea of virtue rewarded nearly gave me an apoplexy.

Books like Otranto and The Monk are nasty and stupid, but Richardson, under the guise of a moral lesson, probably infected generations of young women with some of the most pernicious and dangerous ideas about romantic relationships and marriage ever. It should probably be mentioned in the "Books You Shouldn't Read" thread.


Edit -- I see that Baylor already did a while ago.

 

[BAYLOR]

Vathek by William Beckford.

This book I actually liked.

 

[BAYLOR]

Clarissa I found myself skimming. It did have some good parts. (Or maybe that was just that I had seen the movie and I was able to visualize the nuances the actors, including Sean Bean, brought to the characters they played.) Richardson's Pamela or Virtue Rewarded (which is another book I inexplicably finished) is, in my opinion, many times worse. His idea of virtue rewarded nearly gave me an apoplexy.

Books like Otranto and The Monk are nasty and stupid, but Richardson, under the guise of a moral lesson, probably infected generations of young women with some of the most pernicious and dangerous ideas about romantic relationships and marriage ever. It should probably be mentioned in the "Books You Shouldn't Read" thread.


Edit -- I see that Baylor already did a while ago.

In college I took a course on the 18th century novel and one the books the Professor assigned was was Pamela and after reading that bring and insipid novel , I had no desire to read anything else Richardson wrote.and more so since hearing a few detail about Clarissa . How he rates as high as he does is beyond me.

The Monk. I had absolutely no sympathy or use for the main character or anyone else in that novel and, that digression style of writing is another big turned off which, is guaranteed to turn of to modern readers.

As for Otranto , there is a potentially good novel in hodgepodge mess that Horace Walpole concocted . In the hards of different writer and with some reconfiguration fo story and characters , this one could have been quite good. This is one book that would like to see rewritten and retold.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

If it's truly annoying I will know early enough not to waste my time finishing it. The only true book-annoyance experience I can think of was when I read to my son a book I had loved as a kid. I found it simply awfully written this time around, and was deeply grateful when he decided he didn't want to read any more books by the same author. However, if I mention what the book was, many Chrons are likely to come after me with pitchforks and torches. Well, at least I know that Brian Aldiss and Michael Moorcock would agree with me.

 

[The Big Peat]

I started and gave up on one that despite having a brilliant premise was poorly executed, in my opinion. However, the annoyance came more from the glorious reviews it had got. As a result I started doubting my own writing. If this was judged to be so good, why did I find it so awkward to read? Was my own writing wrong?

If you ever meet an author that claims to like every popular book they've read, you're probably talking a liar.

Anyway, since I struggle at choosing...

Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb is a magnificent writer. I like her ability to do little twists to the classic fantasy milieu. I liked so much about this book. But there's a giant annoying flaw and that is Fitz just makes the worst, most self-defeating decisions. It makes the book (and series) by turns depressing and infuriating.

The Elder Gods - I think to get full annoyment out of this book, you've got to read all of the other Eddings book first. Because that's how you become really aware of just how much he's emulating himself. Throw in a particularly inept enemy and it's basically pointless.

The Last Continent - Oh Sir Pterry. There's simply not enough good 'Strayan jokes in the world to make a book out of it. I'd have probably been disappointed by any Rincewind book in that stage of Pratchett's career, but The Last Continent was really bad.

 

[nixie]

If you ever meet an author that claims to like every popular book they've read, you're probably talking a liar.

Anyway, since I struggle at choosing...

Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb is a magnificent writer. I like her ability to do little twists to the classic fantasy milieu. I liked so much about this book. But there's a giant annoying flaw and that is Fitz just makes the worst, most self-defeating decisions. It makes the book (and series) by turns depressing and infuriating.

The Elder Gods - I think to get full annoyment out of this book, you've got to read all of the other Eddings book first. Because that's how you become really aware of just how much he's emulating himself. Throw in a particularly inept enemy and it's basically pointless.

I thought Fitz was the most depressing character ever, then I read her Soldier Son trilogy,

Elder Gods, I finished the series, not sure why I subjected myself to such torture.

 

[vanye]

Eddings has been retelling the same story with the same characters and the same punchlines ever since the Belgariad. However, to me that is more of an in-joke than annoying. Maybe, because although his writing is repetitive, he is still a good writer.

 

[Randy M.]

I'm not sure what my definitive answer would be, but I often come back to Native Son by Richard Wright as frustrating. There are passages as beautifully written as any noir crime novel I've read, but Wright couldn't let go of hammering home his point over and again. I kept wanting to say, "I get it, I get it, Richard, just tell the story." Granted, maybe he felt it necessary for an audience in the 1940s, and maybe it was.

Randy M.

 

[Galactic Bus Driver]

Stephen King's "The Wastelands." Not because of the cliffhanger ending, but because, in the afterward, Mr. King himself claimed the next book would be along shortly. I guess in the grand scheme of things, 6+ years isn't all that long, but when waiting for the next volume in a series, after a cliffhanger ending...

Grrrrr

 

[Ursa major]

but when waiting for the next volume in a series, after a cliffhanger ending...

...and then discovering, when the next volume arrives, that it's Wizard and Glass (and, in particular, the story within a story)....

 

[Extollager]

I'd mention The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, where the author's pointlessly miserable outlook just looks like a pose for the sake of it

Thank you for writing that. I read the novel once & liked it (and liked very much the TV series with Alan Bates). But I started it for a second reading once, and there was some line about a bird singing its tedious song or something like that -- and I could have just about tossed the book at the wall, because, right, it's like Hardy wants to wallow in pointless misery.

I still think it's probably a novel deserving of another reading, a real tragedy of character, but I'll have to get past that bird.

Someone mentioned Frankenstein -- and actually that had come to mind. I finished it -- as I almost never do a book that I don't hink much of; and I remember thinking it was a remarkable weepy book.

I probably will not bother with the other two novels in that Penguin, The Castle of Otranto and Vathek, seeing the remarks they have come in for here, etc.

Arthur Machen is one of my favorite authors for some of what he wrote, but his novels The Hill of Dreams and The Secret Glory are annoying in having so much self-pity!

 

[BAYLOR]

Thank you for writing that. I read the novel once & liked it (and liked very much the TV series with Alan Bates). But I started it for a second reading once, and there was some line about a bird singing its tedious song or something like that -- and I could have just about tossed the book at the wall, because, right, it's like Hardy wants to wallow in pointless misery.

I still think it's probably a novel deserving of another reading, a real tragedy of character, but I'll have to get past that bird.

Someone mentioned Frankenstein -- and actually that had come to mind. I finished it -- as I almost never do a book that I don't hink much of; and I remember thinking it was a remarkable weepy book.

I probably will not bother with the other two novels in that Penguin, The Castle of Otranto and Vathek, seeing the remarks they have come in for here, etc.

Arthur Machen is one of my favorite authors for some of what he wrote, but his novels The Hill of Dreams and The Secret Glory are annoying in having so much self-pity!

The Castle of Ontronto is pretty dire stuff .

I think you'll find Vathek to be worth the read . This is a book that influenced writer of Clark Aston Smith . in fact Smith worked on a chapter that not included in Vathek when it wad first Published in 1786 . Third Episode of Vathek " the story of Princess Zulkais and Prince Kalilah If your interested , you can find it in the volume 4 Nightshade Book title Maze of the Enchanter You can also find it at the Eldritch Dark website and I think it may have been ended in the volumes of Adult Fantasy series issued in the lates 1960's and early 70's .

 

[Extollager]

Baylor, probably I would read more of CAS first -- and I'm not too much of CAS fan!

 

[BAYLOR]

Baylor, probably I would read more of CAS first -- and I'm not too much of CAS fan!

Im a bit surprised by this.

My favorite story by CAS is The City of the Singing Flame of which he wrote a sequel to Beyond the Singing Flame and apparently he planed a third story in this cycle which he never got around to writing. I greatly admire his prose and his story telling.