FaN Boos: The Worst Books of 2008

Forget exes, let’s have a moment of silence now for the wasted hours with books we didn’t love.

Deadly Harvest by Heather Graham. I picked it up at a Rite Aid because I was meeting a friend for lunch who’s always late. I thought it was going to be a sexy murder mystery, but instead was 300+ pages of the literary equivalent to playing Clue with your niece. Come ON!  — Tabitha from “Fierce Science”

It wasn’t a bad book – the writing was excellent – but I couldn’t get through it.  Jose Saramago’s The Double.  I tried twice, and finally gave up. — Redheaded Stepchild

I tried to listen to [the audiobook of] Moby Dick by Herman Melville .. but I just couldn’t listen to the minutia of whaling any more. — Jessica from “Musings on the Amusing”

It’s a tie. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Echo. It goes off on one tangent after another because Echo is a know it all that can’t seem to stick to the main story. And The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice. Like all Anne Rice novels it’s mediocre at best while being completely self-indulgent. I still haven’t finished either of these books and have been “reading” them since late summer. — Kaboom from “Venice Flytrap”

Um…the audiobook of Wigfield by Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Dinello was really disappointing… — Delia from “Chic Geek”

I picked up In In the Woods at the airport.  It was fairly OK, but it made me want to write, cause if this Tana French pseudonym lady can do it, hell anyone can.  The worst part was that it had no ending.  I only read it to the end to see the outcome, which it didn’t have.  I threw it across the room and it pisses me off whenever I see it on the bookshelf. — Amy from “Tall Drink of Nerd”

Twlight, New Moon, Stephenie Meyer. I didn’t hate it though, I love the story (and the movie rocked) but this was definitely the worst book I read this year. Inspiring though, if New Moon got published, maybe the rest of us have a chance too. — Gudrun from “Secret Life of a Nerd Girl”

The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. I’m too old to waste time on books I don’t like, but I read 3 out of 4 of this terribly written series for the story alone in 2008. As a writer it makes me think about the value of a good story, but it also helps to know that I and nearly every other writer I know is a better scribe than at least one bestseller out there. Sometimes I get stuck on a writing problem and I think, how would Stephanie Meyer handle this? Then I do the opposite. Harsh, yes, but it seriously works. — etc

And just to keep it random but thoughtful…

Does US Weekly count as a book? I do love to find out which stars are just like me, but otherwise, I can feel my intelligence sli away when I read it. And yet I continue to do so. Lucky for me, the subscription I got as a birthday gift last year (yeah, really!) runs out soon. — Robin from “Wonderfully Awful”

I’ve never understood how anyone could voluntarily spend weeks reading a book that they hated, life’s too short. I am thus happy to report that there were no books I read this year that I didn’t enjoy at least somewhat. — Ryan from “Fierce Anticipation”

I generally know going in if I’ll like a book or not and life’s too short with far too many great books in it to waste my time on a bad one. And I’m not snobby about “great”: could be any genre, from any time. I’ll never live long enough to read all the great books I’m dying to read. — Jeff from “Hippie Squared”