The book I am currently reading, Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop! I love fantasy novels and this is one that will definitely go into my paperback swap pile!

Twilight.
It even beat out my ever frustration of Grapes of Wrath.
And that's saying a lot.

I think this thread makes for a nice introductory post - nowhere to go but up. The most disappointing book I've ever managed to read from beginning to end is Rama 2 by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee. I have always assumed it to be heavy on Lee and light on Clarke. I enjoyed Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama a great deal and was flabbergasted - I think that's the word - at how far down its sequel had fallen.

I believe there to be a third book.

::shudder::

Dianetics: The Modern Science Of Mental Health

This is a poorly written book. Jargon is introduced for no reason other than to confuse the reader into thinking the book is deeper than it is. The book makes a miriad of claims but does not support them in what anyone would consider a remotely accurate manner.

The thing that bothers me about this book is how it lacks in any sort of scientific validity. The book proposes theories about how the mind works without any research evidence. The concepts are dreamed up by this science fiction writer and don't really have any sort of relevance to how you can become happier, etc. If you want to improve yourself, read a self-help book written by a mental health professional, counselor/psychologist,etc. If you want to go to Hubbard's dream world of magic, read Dianetics.

Similar to that - every last bloomin' "self-help", "how to make your life better in three easy steps" (get a job, partner and a life) that for some reason America seems to lap up. The authors who write such trollope are generally the sort of person I really don't want to be, so why I'd take advice off them I should never know!

The Secret

A friend asked me to read this book and tell her what I thought. I knew Oprah had endorsed it on her show, so of course it shot right up to number 1 best seller overnight. I was already familiar with the Law of Attraction, which in a nutshell is that Like attracts Like, so if you think negatively about your life, more than likely you will attract negative things (people, situations, energy, etc. ) to yourself; and the reverse it also true. Okay. I can buy that. I have even experienced situations where that could be the case, as I'm sure everyone has. What this book proposes is the dangerous idea that you and I attract 100% of the things that happen to us. Period.

Larry King interviewed one of the authors on his show and asked the burning question that Oprah wouldn't and that is "how does a child attract sexual abuse to him or herself?" Good question Larry. The author responded with something like "Let me just say this Larry. The truth is, everything that happens to us is of our own doing" Period. What, no follow-up question Larry? Why is it the Truth; because you say it is self-help author making millions off this book?

Books like these and how well they sell are indicative of the need people have for quick fix answers to the problems that have resulted from another law (that no one wants to write books about) called Cause and Effect. I spend more money than I have, I get into debt. Cause and effect. How do I get out of debt? Think myself out of it according to The Secret.

This book is unbelievable hogwash and its authors are laughing all the way to the bank.

Got to say the worst I ever read was The Bible King James Version.

Usually I don't finish a really horrible book if I can help it. There are too many other things to do. I think The Celestine Prophecy did have some laughably poor writing in it. One passage became a favorite in-joke of mine. The protagonists are being hunted by the "bad guys" who can't seem to see them and the main character declares, "We're vibrating too highly for them to see us!" Now that's what I say when someone I know passes me by, or passes by a group I am in without saying hello or acknowledging us. We're just vibrating too highly for them to see us.

That said, I do think the very worst book I have ever read all the way through must have been a Harlequin Romance, but I don't remember which one. (I don't read them any more!)

I have to say, the worst book I've read thus far has to The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen. It was a "personal history" complied into five short stories and Franzen, in my opinion, was trying to sound deeper and darker than I think he should have. I understand that he was writing about his own life, but it was a quite overbearing and boring read.

"White Oleander"! Ug! Kept waiting for some happiness for the main character, never happened. I think this is why I am also not a fan of "The Kite Runner". I guess that's why they are called tear jerkers. Written by jerks who cry all the way to the bank.

Suzanne