I always hear people talking about good books, which books do you think are bad and why?
Twilight. Most of my friends complain about the mythos. "Vampires don't sparkle." The mythology doesn't bother me. Meyer's writing bothers me. It's dull, predictable, and panders to often-unhealthy predispositions of teenage girls. I saw every "twist" coming three chapters ahead. There was no originality, no depth. Worse, Bella and Edward's relationship – which young readers presumably aspire to – fulfills fifteen signs of an abusive relationship listed by the National Domestic Violence Hotline. No young person should ever read anything by Stephenie Meyer. Neither her characters, nor writing style, nor especially relationships should be aspired to.
If you want those negative associations to become positive, and have a considerable amount of time on your hands.
50 Shades of Grey is awful in a way that no amount of hyperbole can explain http://www.beutlerink.com/blog/50-shades-of-grey-quotes-visualized/ One reviewer said that no reasonable person could read it and come to the conclusion that the author's first language is English.
My theory became that the writer is a desperate housewife. There was one point near the beginning of the book where I just had to put it down from laughter because she said her orgasm was like "the spins cycles of the laundry machine". That is not sexy nor does it make sense. I'm ESL and I definitely write better.
I haven't read many books that are truly bad. Once I stop enjoying it, I stop reading it and forget what I've read. That's worked out to be an effective filter so far. Someone's probably going to be upset about this, but I read Haruki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and I just don't get it. I can't understand how so much stuff happened in it, and yet by the end it felt like absolutely nothing had occurred. The prose was nice enough, and I kept reading to see what would happen next, but I honestly couldn't understand the point of the novel. I don't think I'd call it bad, exactly, but I wouldn't recommend it either.
I didn't like The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. I don't know whether it was because I was a 16 year old student and my teacher made me read and present it, or because I had to work it on my own and I didn't like the teacher. I have to admit, I haven't touched it afterwards either (so far). All I remember was that there was no real story, just the man on the sea which got quite boring after a while, because it was bland and meh. I even looked for interpretations online, etc., but afterwards I just thought that the theme/topic could've also been presented and handled in a more interesting way. Whenever I hear the title, all I just think is "Holy shit, this book..". Maybe I will read it again the next few years and see how my opinion (may) has changed.
Dhalgren. It was a long time ago, but someone I trusted told me it was great; it was the most vacuous pile of crap writing; painful to read. It was so bad I couldn't finish it (although I really tried) .
Of books I've read, I hated A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Sorry your parents died. You open with it so I have no reason to care except that they're Dave Eggers parents. You can't explain sliding through your apartment in your socks without including a floor plan of the apartment? Alright, I give up and wasted $15.