We’ve all been there: Your dear ol’ aunt tells you about a wonderful book. You pick up it and read it. Read the full post.
Dec 15
2009
01:42 PM ET
What book do you regret reading?
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Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!
I read all four books just to see if the next one could actually get worse. Shockingly it did… boy it did. The fourth book was pure horror. The HORROR!
I was talked into reading the first one and then, because of my horribly compulsive nature with books, I had to read all the rest so I could know how it ended. And, no, someone telling me a basic sketch of the next 3 wouldn’t have worked on the stupid brain tick.
LOL- I read the Wikipedia pages and found that to be enough.
ME TOO!!! Exact same thing.
Thanks for the forewarning. I’ve been coerced into reading Twilight by friend who LOVE the series. I read them only as the movies come out, so I can get the version with the free poster. At least the cast is easy on the eyes.
But the language is cliche or trying too hard, and the plotting/pacing is horrendous. I can only stand to read one a year, as long as I can set it aside for a few weeks at a time to get the bad taste in my brain to subside…
LOL! I did the same thing. The fourth book book was pure comedy gold, although I don’t think that was her goal. Wow. I haven’t seen any of the movies, but I might have to see the fourth one since it was just so crazy.
ok I thought I was alone in my compulsion to read all 4 even though I hated every word of it. Probably about 40% of the text is just Bella describing how beautiful she thinks Edward is…seriously? Talk about pathetic heroines.
I agree that the Twilight Series wasn’t well written and would not have been worth reading if I had a very hectic life. But you have to admit that it was enjoyable to a certain extent. I liken it to shows like American Idol. No, you aren’t going to learn anything from it. You aren’t going to become a better person for having watched it. You don’t have to put a lot of thought into it. It’s just entertainment. So no, I don’t regret reading those.
I disagree because I didn’t find it enjoyable at all. I simply read to see what else would happen.
I didnt find it enjoyable because the bad writing is actually distracting. For enjoyable fluff reading, there’s much better fare out there. I dont expect every book to be a literary masterpiece, just well-written.
Wow. There’s a lot of hate on here about Twilight. I’m a insatiable reader – but I love unique stories and Twilight was unique. There’s a reason it is so very popular – with women of all ages and they are not all lonely old women or young teeny boppers – it’s just, I know for me, that something about it reached me. You’ve don’t have to like something but you don’t have to bash it.
It’s not enjoyable in the least. I wanted to kill Bella, Edward and SMeyer while reading those so-called books.
Unique, Dawn? REALLY? I mean, I’m not bashing you for liking it. That’s your prerogative, and I’m fine with it. But unique? No. There are plenty of “forbidden romance” or impossible obstacle type love stories that are much more unique. For example, another teen series, The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, does it much better, and actually makes you care about the characters and leaves you in doubt about whether the romance can work. In Twilight, you never doubt Bella will choose Edward.
Lol, same here! I wish I could get back the time spent reading those books. Just bad. And, yeah, the fourth book was unintentionally comedic.
Try reading the beginning of the chapter ‘The Meadow’ in the first book out loud. Its hilarious.
I can’t believe that any of the books went through an editorial process.
You are referring to the chapter called “Confessions” which takes place in a meadow. It’s a beautiful chapter about a someone who has lived in fear (just happens to be a Vampire) is able to open up to a girl who accepts him for who he is. Lovely books.
I love the Twilight books. I never read much before then. These books captured my imagination and turned me into a reading fanatic! After these books, I devoured Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, etc.
I know this makes me narcissistic and harsh and a hater and whatnot- but I simply can’t respect anyone who thinks that anything about SMeyer’s tripe is good. The writing is TERRIBLE. The messages are hateful and insulting. The author herself is a whiny, immature brat. The series is literally poison, and yet we’re pushing it on girls who then learn that abusive and controlling is “loving.”
Breaking Dawn is, by far, the most offensive and poorly written crap ever put to print. I couldn’t regret reading it any more than I do.
Wow. How’d Twilight get you to read actual literature? I would say “JK!” at this point,but I’m honestly curious at how you leapt from Twilight to Anna Karenina. It wasn’t even mentioned in the series like WH and P&P.
Laurell K. Hamilton’s Princess Meredith books. All they were is sex, sex, sex–and kinky to boot. Plus a little sadism as well. Ick!
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I loved the first half of the book. By the time I got to the end of the what, 800-some pages, I was so angry that I threw the book across the room. I will never trust Oprah on books again. Never.
Amen, sister. It could have been one of my favorite books ever, but that ending was terrible. I would not loan it to anyone. On Oprahs discussion group, there are hundreds of people who feel the same way. I screamed when she held that book up. Could have been a classic. Also, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas takes the cake for worst book ever. Really. She describes sex with his father. Does Nicholas really need to know this about his parents? Creepy!!
Since I host a blog about baseball books and other media, I come across a lot of drek. Two novels that stand out are “The Big R: An Internal Auditing Action Adventure,” the literary equivalent of “Plan Nine from Outer Space,” followed closely by “64 Intruder.”
“Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenberger. Big fan of her “Time Traveler’s Wife”—was hopeful about this new book. The first half is actually pretty good. But after that point, it just gets more and more bizarre. I can take the leap in fantasy—I did for her TTW, and thought that was totally romantic, but this was just weird. Not good weird, either.
Eh, make that Niffenegger, not Berger
I was so excited that she had written another book, until I read it. It was appallingly horrible.
fearful symmetry was terrible. and obvious, as soon as the thing with the little kitten of death happened, I knew exactly what it leading up to. And unfortunately I still read it. ugh.
Twilight. Eurrgh. Every time I think of that dementedly vile sixth-grade fan fiction even being published I want to weep. I’d agree with most of the other contemporary fiction above, your Audrey Niffenegger and Davinci Code and Devil Wears Prada and Jodi Picoult, but I really try to avoid reading that sort of thing altogether. Most current fiction leaves me very, very cold and that makes me very, very sad.
I got halfway through CLEAVING, the sequel to JULIE AND JULIA . . . and stopped. I realized I didn’t like Julie at all and could care less about her new career as a butcher and her extramarital dalliances
Oh crap, I just put this one on my Christmas list. She’s kind of a pill, huh? Tell me, is she more or less self-involved than Julie & Julia? Because if it’s more…it can’t be more, right?
The Pearl by Steinbeck. Read it in 8th grade. Worst few weeks of my life.
It took you a few weeks to read The Pearl? That book is like 100 pages.
Being that he was in 8th grade, the teacher probably dragged the reading out over the course of two weeks. i know my teachers did that with all the books we were required to read.
The only book worse than the Pearl would be Animal Farm. How insulting is it to talk about communism via farm animals. Say what you want to say without trying to pander to the younger set, what was this a kids book gone bad? I love reading, and almost EVERYTHING we had to read in public schools across the country was total crap, with the exception of Lord of the Flies, I liked that one.
Seriously I love the Pearl and The Animal Farm… sad to see the fact you had to study it in school ruined those books for you
Dude, I loved Animal Farm! the Pearl did suck though. I don’t care for folklore like that. I get it, GREED IS BAD. Now stop hitting me over the head with it.
i loved the pearl, in a gross 8th grade way. i will never forget poor coyotito’s headwound.
Another hate-have to agree
Le Divorce. Complete waste of time about a bunch of self-absorbed, amoral losers.
Agreed. Terrible, terrible book.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog. How much pretension can you fit into 300-odd pages? More than you’d think. And the stupid ending was a betrayal of the entire book. Thank goodness I merely borrowed it, and didn’t waste my money on it.
I just started reading this and it’s irritating me. I might have to stop
Stop! It’s not worth it!
Amen to that
“Exodus” by Leon Uris and that Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” I’m not saying the books are bad. They are just sooo not the kind of books I like. But I respect the person who recommended them so I had to slog through them.
Oh, and James Joyce’ Ulysses. I had to read it for class, so it’s not a question of regret, but… you’ll never get me to admit this is a work of genius. Unbearable.
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man is my Joyceian nightmare. Had it on three different reading lists in university and managed to avoid reading it every time!
Joyce’s “Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man” made me want to claw my eyes out. Horrendously boring. I can see it’s a classic because of it’s writing style, but wow, SERIOUSLY overrated.
Agreed. I really hated this one, too – couldn’t finish it, actually. Another I hated to much to finish reading was Billy Budd.
Agreed. Amazingly boring and self-important.
A Map of the World (I was so depressed after reading it)
The DaVinci Code (bleh writing)
The Juror by John Grisham. i enjoyed the other Grisham legal books, but this one had nothing.
Kevin Grisham’s “The Rural Juror” is much better.
Nice one.
ROFLMAO!
I couldn’t get through The Associate. I have tried 4 times and get stuck about 75 pages in.
The Associate by John Grisham.
That will be my last purchase of a Grisham book. Took it to a 2nd hand book shop…got all of 3 dollars for it…
The Associate was lame. Good build up and then basically NOTHING HAPPENS at the end…
I realized halfway through “Bonfire of the Vanities” that I hated every single character and yet I felt compelled to finish because “I’ve gotten so far.” Bad decision but, ultimately, it was a valuable lesson: Life’s too short. Just put it down.
A sidebar: “The Hours” was one of my all-time favorite reads, so I rushed out and bought Cunningham’s “Flesh and Blood.” Fifty pages in, I was hating it. Worse, I realized that I had purchased, started and abandoned that very same book several years earlier.