I haven't got a best or worst.
I've read many books that I was sorry to reach the end of and many that I would happily use as firelighters.
I have to say that the ability to easily self publish is responsible for some real howlers |
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Worst - Anna Karenina. It’s an absolute masterpiece & part of me loves it. But it made me so angry. I have a very tortured relationship with that book.
I have too many bests. I’m going to go with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe… just because I think that was where my absolute love of books from a young age came from. It’s certainly the first I remember reading and being really affected by. |
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"Best - monstrous regiment
Worst - 50 shades (then again it started as twilight fanfic so I don’t know what anyone else expected)"
I specify darker because of one specific scene: where Christian is like "Put the chicken in the fridge" and Ana is like "Only he could make that sound sexy."
NO. NO, ANA. Nobody can make that sentence sound sexy. Not even Morgan Frickin' Freeman could make that sentence sexy. There are absolutely zero titillating things about putting poultry into cold storage. |
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Best - the Godfather by Mario Puzo, better even than the great movie.
Worst - the apprentice by Alan sugar, total garbage where you learn nothing and at the end wonder why you wasted your time reading that crap. |
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By (user no longer on site) 16 weeks ago
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Best : The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
Incredible writing. Distressing + haunting.
If you read it, you need to do 2 weeks of self care.
The best thing I've ever read. |
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By *inaTitzTV/TS 16 weeks ago
Titz Towers, North Notts |
Best, too many to choose from.
Worst, this year so far, an absolutely terrible book about King Arthur, where the author tried to deal with a lot of problems with the sources by claiming that they said something other than what they actually do. It was abysmal history. |
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"Best - monstrous regiment
Worst - 50 shades (then again it started as twilight fanfic so I don’t know what anyone else expected)
I specify darker because of one specific scene: where Christian is like "Put the chicken in the fridge" and Ana is like "Only he could make that sound sexy."
NO. NO, ANA. Nobody can make that sentence sound sexy. Not even Morgan Frickin' Freeman could make that sentence sexy. There are absolutely zero titillating things about putting poultry into cold storage."
David Attenborough could make that sexy  |
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By *a LunaWoman 16 weeks ago
South Wales |
Kes (Kestrel for a Knave)
Read it in Comprehensive School for English Lit.
It was really bleak. I could feel the bleakness emanating from the book. But I guess that in a way makes it a great book.
I just wanted to buy the kid a bag of coal and a chippy tea, constantly.
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My favourites are Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Suzannah Clarke, and The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern. I won't say best, as I've read some magnificent books that are wonderfully written and culturally significant in a way that fantasy can't be.
I don't usually persevere with a book if I think it's rubbish. I found The Da Vinci code and Pillars of the Earth both badly written and wished I hadn't bothered. |
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"Best - monstrous regiment
Worst - 50 shades (then again it started as twilight fanfic so I don’t know what anyone else expected)
I specify darker because of one specific scene: where Christian is like "Put the chicken in the fridge" and Ana is like "Only he could make that sound sexy."
NO. NO, ANA. Nobody can make that sentence sound sexy. Not even Morgan Frickin' Freeman could make that sentence sexy. There are absolutely zero titillating things about putting poultry into cold storage.
David Attenborough could make that sexy "
I'm not sure... |
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Best: either Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman or Civilization and it's Discontents by Sigmund Freud.
Worst: Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory or Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Not because they're bad books, just because of the glacially slow pacing of both.
I mean, how many times can you describe a knight getting de-horsed and re-horsed!!! |
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Best: The Vegetarian, such a strange tale, but so well written parts of it still linger in my mind years after reading it.
Worst: Anything by the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. They all take 1000 words to describe something that only needed 10, and which was too fucking boring to be written about anyway. The underlying storyline might be good but it just gets lost in a mountain of crap. |
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"Best - monstrous regiment
Worst - 50 shades (then again it started as twilight fanfic so I don’t know what anyone else expected)"
As bests go, that’s a strong contender…but have you not read The Shepherd’s Crown yet?! |
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By (user no longer on site) 16 weeks ago
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"I have two worst, Catch 22 and Catcher in the Rye. Both supposed classics but I just don't get them.
Not sure I can remember a best 🤔
B"
Bloody hell, Catch 22 is one my all time favourites... Read it at LEAST 6 times 💕 |
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Best in terms of favourites would be a toss up between The Buddha of Suburbia and The Line of Beauty. I love them both.
I don't finish books if I'm not enjoying them, but two that I really wanted to read, but just couldn't force myself through were The Heart of Darkness and Beowulf.
I've also read bits of Mein Kampf, OP. I agree it's dire. |
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Couldn't pick a best, but some notable ones from recent times are: the book of trespass, everyman for himself, and God against all, the road to unfreedom, factory girls.
The worst, the Jordan Peterson book was dire, psychobabble mixed with religious allegory. |
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