20 books considered the worst

[Rev. Rye]

I'd add Confederacy of Dunces and Jude the Obscure into the "Really? Fucking Really?" category.

[Silver]

I think some of them became considered the "worst" because a majority of teenagers were forced to read them in school.

I certainly dislike classic literature I was forced to read in school, and reading it certainly didn't give me an appreciation for it. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Rev. Rye]

I think some of them became considered the "worst" because a majority of teenagers were forced to read them in school.

I certainly dislike classic literature I was forced to read in school, and reading it certainly didn't give me an appreciation for it. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I think the trick involves picking material that will likely appeal to your students and being able to properly coney how awesome the works in question are. Sadly, most people either don't pick works their students will like or can't convey their greatness properly. And many can do neither.

[Minimalist]

I have a hunch that list was put together by someone who thinks "See Spot Run" is great literature.

[Aroura]

Where is Divergent on that list? That is one of the worst books I've ever tried to read. Much worse tripe than the Davinci Code, which while stupid is at least it's entertaining. Divergent not only has a stupid plot, but insipid one dimensional characters, bad dialog, and a main character that I not only didn't care about, but actively hated and wanted to die by the end I don't even know how I finished reading it. It was a gift, and I felt obliged to try, I suppose.

There is another called Red Rising that's nearly as bad. It's just another clone of the current YA dystopian future genre. Again, the main character is just soooo dull, and the setting so repetitive. It's only saving feature is the author has some decent prose, so I was able to picture the settings pretty well. I didn't want to stab my own eyes out quite as badly as when reading Divergent.

I admit I haven't read most of the books on the list, but the two I am familiar with, To Kill a Mockingbird and Davinci Code, do not belong on there. There are way, way worse things that could be there instead.

[mlmooney89]

I'm not sure why there are classics on the list. Making teens read them isn't really a reason cause we were forced to read a lot of classics that could be on there if that was the reason. Maybe it was the ones the author of the list didn't like.

Any damn Jane Austen book should be on there. I hate her stuff. I seriously wanted to throw Emma and I Pride and Prejudice was just as childish that I couldn't get one chapter in.

[Rev. Rye]

I'm not sure why there are classics on the list. Making teens read them isn't really a reason cause we were forced to read a lot of classics that could be on there if that was the reason. Maybe it was the ones the author of the list didn't like.

Any damn Jane Austen book should be on there. I hate her stuff. I seriously wanted to throw Emma and I Pride and Prejudice was just as childish that I couldn't get one chapter in.

YES! My mother was obsessed with Jane Austen, to the point where she watched the Pride and Prejudice miniseries at least once a month from the day it arrived in the US until she died (17 years later). At this point, I'd rather play Russian Roulette than relive one of her books. Why? Because with Russian Roulette, there's a distinct possibility that something might actually happen.

[Anomalocaris]

I'm not sure why there are classics on the list. Making teens read them isn't really a reason cause we were forced to read a lot of classics that could be on there if that was the reason. Maybe it was the ones the author of the list didn't like.

Any damn Jane Austen book should be on there. I hate her stuff. I seriously wanted to throw Emma and I Pride and Prejudice was just as childish that I couldn't get one chapter in.

I appreciate Jane Austen’s elegant and minutely observant writing style even if the stories bore me. But literature is not all about the story.

I greatly enjoy Patrick O’brien’s Aubrey Maturin series of napoleonic nautical adventure novels both for the story and the writing style.  Despite the radically different stories and settings I can see how Patrick o’brien Imitated Jane austen’s Writing style.  The writing style absolutely converted the obrey maturin novels from run-of-the-mill swashbuckling paperbacks unlikely to be read more than 5-10 years after publication to richly textured historical novels that probably will remain classics of the genera for a very long time.

[FatAndFaithless]

I have a hunch that list was put together by someone who thinks "See Spot Run" is great literature.

I was going to say the same thing.  It's a collection of easy targets like Fifty Shades and the Twilight series, with several broadly critically acclaimed classics thrown in for what reason.. high school edginess?  They don't even put an author's name on this list - the worst books as determined by who, some random asshat?  It really sounds like a huffy teen. You can personally not enjoy a book (I'm not a fan of Emily Bronte's stuff, for example), while still acknowledging that it's considered an important, quality literary work. There's a reason they're considered fucking classics and why most school curricula incorporate them.

[Brian37]

Where's the fucking bible.  That belongs there.

Well to be fair, the Koran, OT are all the same god of Abraham written in an age of tribal kingships.

But nobody in even prior polytheism worldwide knew shit about modern science. Even in India and China and Australia and Japan and South America, humans lived under ruling families. Those ruling families stupidly mistook their success as coming from their spirit ancestors and or a god or gods.

I will still take a Malala or Martin Luther King Jr, or a Sammy Davis Jr over any fear mongering conservative of any religion worldwide.