888 Challenge - The Worst Book of 2008

Which was the book you liked least of the books you counted in your 888 Challenge? It has to be a book that you finished reading, not one you only read partially and then tossed aside.

Only pick *ONE* book because I'd like to count the results later. :)

I liked most everything I read, but As I Lay Dying just about did me in! I dread the rest of the Faulkner titles I'll have to read to ever finish the 1,001 list.

I actually had a really good year, so my "worst" book got 3 stars. Still, I'll add it to the list of shame since I did find it very disappointing: The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh.

The Red Pony!!!!

Well, I ended up with two rated 2-stars, how to decide which? Considering that my all-out worst was one I didn't finish because of the writing, I guess I'll pick Schooled (review here), in (dis)honor of its writing.

Has to have been The Bible - The Biography.

Not up to Karen Armstrong's usual standard. Too much opinion given as fact. I got the feeling that she ignored the breadth of modern Biblical scholarship.

Hate to say it because I liked his Hyperion series, but I'd have to go with Dan Simmons' The Hollow Man. I almost gave up a couple of times. Ridiculous story with concepts not as integrated as they should have been.

Probably The Dead Room by Heather Graham although there were a couple of other novels that were just so-so.

Although this former Yugoslav author and essayist had been highly praised, I found that the book os hers that I read this past year was the one I had to slog through the most - so it gets my vote. The book and author were Thank You for Not Reading by Dubravka Ugresic.

I had several clunkers in there, but most I got smart and didn't finish. I lost interest in The Historian and The Bourne Identity.

But the one I actually finished was Down Under by Patricia Wentworth. She wrote a mystery series that I really enjoyed, but this one was one of her stand alone titles and so dumb with it. It was all about this entire community that lived underground, in these series of caves, where no one above ground realized they were there. Then when our intrepid hero and sweetly clinging heroine manage to escape, there's a underground - wait for it - DINOSAUR down there. All right, it was a prehistoric shark. Still, so lame I couldn't even believe it.

The Book Thief was the one I actually finished but most disliked and, yes, I know, everyone else *LOVES* it. Sigh, ;-(

> 10.
I thought The Bourne Identity was pretty bad too x

--> 10 and 12

My husband picked up The Bourne Identity last month, then put it down after reading a bit of it. He didn't like it, either.

I hated Saturday by Ian McEwan - I wanted bad things to happen to the smug characters.

I also disliked Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka that I read for a Book Group. Nearly everyone else seemed to think it was funny and thought-provoking whereas I thought it was patronising, full of racist stereotypes and jumping on various bandwagons to appear up to date.