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"The Lovely Bones" comes to mind. The first 1/3 was riveting but I don't know if I've ever read a book that wasted so much promise.

Thomas Harris' novel "Red Dragon

I thought this was so evil I threw it in the trash. I didn't even want it in my house.

My mom did the exact same thing, in dramatic style, when I was a kid. She went outside in the middle of a snowstorm to put the book in the car because she didn't want it in our house.

I'll contribute two acclaimed works by two acclaimed authors that I started and just was not physically capable of finishing.

The Fall of Hyperion. I made it through Hyperion, but I just could not hang in there for very long into FoH.

The Shadow of the Torturer. I made it a few chapters and had to stop.

Both of these are remarkable and important works by remarkable and important authors, but I have isolated my issues to each combining religiosity (specifically Catholic in each) with extreme pain and suffering. It's like my body physically rejects my mind processing such things. It hurts me and makes me stop. My *skin* hurt.

[This message edited by ladyvorkosigan at 5:33 AM, December 23rd (Thursday)]

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander.

Simple trash with a fancy setting. I felt I was reading snuff porn after awhile. I lost all respect for the friend who recommended it. It's basically third-rate Harry Potter for middle-aged women.

I know a lot of people love them, but I did not dig all the Jodi Piccoult books. Particularly "My Sister's Keeper." It felt like I was reading an After School Special.

And I know it was critically acclaimed and all, but I did not like "The Life of Pi." Granted, I was reading it for book club and I was about 5 days postpartum at the time of reading, but still...

any of the flowers in the attic stories.

my best friend started me on those when i was 13...and i got through 3 or 4 books...it started to feel like i was reading the same book over and over and over and over.

Divorce busting. But your mileage may vary.

The last Betsy the Vampire book made me so mad I wish I could have thrown it in the lake. Fortunately it was a library book and I didn't waste money on it.

Right after d-day I read any book that I could get my hands on about affairs etc. This one book I can't even remember the author or the title pissed me off to no end. It was written by a female betrayed spouse and it was for the WS. Basically, it was giving the WS options on which person to pick either the WS or Op. It had little quizzes in it. It made want to puke I am gald I do not remember the title or author because it was nothing but trash.

Anything by Elizabeth Berg.

"The Lovely Bones" comes to mind. The first 1/3 was riveting but I don't know if I've ever read a book that wasted so much promise.

Completely agree, Teflon. What a bizarre, stupid ending.

The "Left Behind" series. Premise is fantastic -don't we all want to know about the end of the world?-but the writing is sheer dreck. Got through about 3 of them before I gave up.

And I agree that many of the self help books could have been magazine articles. Love and Respect being the worst offender IMO. The thesis is presented about 4 gazillion ways.

Mellowmood,

One that I read is Night, by Elie Wiesel. I know it is important to never forget those times, but it still haunts me to this day. And I read it 15 years ago.

Agreed, even tho I haven't read it. Those horrible historical reads are usually on my "need to read" list but I can't bring myself to muster the desire to crack the book. Why? Not because I don't care but because it haunts me already and I have not even gone into the horrible details. I just don't like reading about true evil in detail because it frightens me, I internalize it and can't brush it off. It lingers in my soul.

Have to second Thren on Lord of the Flies. I *hated* that book. Had it as a reading assignment in HS, got about two chapters into it and told my English teacher it was so boring it would put an insomniac to sleep. Never did finish it I don't think.

Another one on the "I wish I could unread/boring" list is a book by Helen Hooven Santmeyer. And Ladies of the Club. I got about half way through it and kept thinking the entire time "Okay, when is something going to happen???" I found it drier than the Sahara in high summer.... during a drought. It was like the whole book was an introduction to the actual story.

There are a lot of books I wish I could un-read so that I could have the pleasure of reading them again for the first time.

However I just finished a book last night that was supremely awful. I joylessly slogged through Song Yet Sung by James McBride to the end. Probably it was morbid fascination because I couldn't believe how terrible it was.

At one point, there was a sentence "The ring of the blacksmith's hammer rang out across the square."

In another place, it reads something like "Bob stood grinning in the doorway. When Kathy looked up, he broke into a grin" He was already grinning. Who edits these things?

I wish I could unread every single book I have read about infidelity because I shouldn't have been stupid enough in the first place to put myself in this abhorrent situation.

@aesir: I loved every single book I was assigned to read in junior high and high school. Maybe it's my age group (60)-- quite a classical education.

Thomas Harris' novel "Red Dragon

That is one of the two books that have given me nightmares. It's one of my favorite books.

"Tiger Eyes" by Judy Blume was forced on me in the 8th Grade. What sort of evil requires a middle school boy to read such a book.

"The Last Templar" was written by someone who was obviously angling for a movie deal. And then I discovered it became "An NBC Mini-Series Event!" So he got what he wanted and made $8 off of me.

Battlefield Earth - L Ron Hubbard.

Hours of my life I can never get back...ugh!

Have to say that "Running with Scissors" has scarred me. I am not a prude, but some of the visuals...Ugh!!! (Though it did make me feel MUCH better about my parenting job!)

Catcher in the Rye - I know this makes me a weirdo - but I just got tired of all of that whinning. Stop whinning, Holden - you baby!!

After the Affair by Janis Abrahms Spring - Was recommended by our MC - it had some ok ideas - but the fact that she calls the AP 'the lover' througout the whole book just really chapped my hide. Because you know as the BS I was never my H's lover, right?

[This message edited by Thera77 at 12:26 AM, December 30th (Thursday)]

The Lovely Bones - ugh. I agree with formerlyteflon, it could have been a good book, but the author seemed to just get lost in her own plot somehow.

This next book I don't regret reading though I did as soon as I had finished it.

I read The Exorcist about 30years ago, I mainly read it in bed at night. I probably read it in two nights. After finishing the boook, I turned off the light and settled down to sleep. Almost imediately I sat back up and put the light on I was a little scared

The Time Traveler's Wife is another that was amazing allll the way through till it...wasn't.