Least Favourite 1001 Book of 2008

I didn't want to skew the touchstones on the "Favourite 1001 Book of 2008" thread, but I just had to mention somewhere that I least enjoyed Rabbit, Run and The Last Temptation both of which I failed to finish, and I wasn't at all remorseful about my failure. (Frankly, I think I did very well making it to 50 pages in both of them.)

For me - please don't throw things at me! - it was The Hobbit that was the hardest to finish. It felt like I was reading about Bilbo's journey in real time...

I hated reading The Cement Garden which I found both depraved and plodding. Wide Sargasso Sea was disappointing to me as it was just so leaden to read. And what was a bit of fluff like Hideous Kinky doing on the list?

This is a lot easier than picking a favorite! My least favorite is absolutely The Adventures of Augie March. It just went on and on and on and I was bored out of my head the whole time.

I was born and raised near Chicago, and so I feel like I should like Bellow, but I just don't.

Dead Air by Iain Banks has been the only book I have 'tossed' this year- I'm don't think it makes it into the 2nd edition, hehe

Oh, fun!

Burger's Daughter, by Nadine Gordimer was awful. Someone on another thread said she used her copy to make papier mache.

Indigo: or Mapping the Waters, by Marina Warner was readable I suppose, but completely unremarkable and I can't fathom why it's on the list.

The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley is didactic and a bit pedantic. In other words, it was "ick."

I read a few others that I didn't enjoy much, but the three above were the most egregious offenders.

I really disliked Margaret Atwood's Surfacing; although I am typically a big fan of hers. #5 jfetting - I also found The Adventures of Augie March very sloggy.

Several I just didn't enjoy, but least favorites?

Grimus by Salman Rushie
Sabbath's Theatre by Philip Roth
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello

Don't understand why these are on the list:

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

The first was totally lightweight and the second overly-hyped for me.

>7 Nickelini: That's the best use of a bad book I've ever heard!

Luckily, I liked all the books from the list that I read this year.
--BJ

I didn't really like The Hours, I found it quite boring really. Also, I know many people love The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I didn't and I can't wrap my head around what it's doing on the list.

I didn't like The Gathering or The Body Artist but at least they were fairly short reads.

Don't under why this book was on the list:

The Red Queen

A hard slog to finish: The Red and The Black. Didn't hate it just found it boring.

Just about all the books I read on the list I liked a lot, but if I had to pick the one I least liked it would be

Cannery Row

It wasn't bad, but compared to others I read, it was on the bottom.

Wild Swans just dragged on an on and Hard Times wasn't all that much fun either. Nevertheless, they each got 3 stars, which isn't too bad :)

Carry Me Down by MJ Hyland. Still a worthy book, but I didn't like it. Probably has themes in common with We need to talk about Kevin and The Fifth Child.

@#7 - why Indigo was on the list eluded me as well but the only book I didn't finish in 2008 was One Hundred Years of Solitude which I absolutely hated as you will see if you click HERE.

Personally, I think the title refers to what you need to make it through the book...

Hannahjo and Prop2gether - I agree about Hideous Kinky. Perhaps if the writer wasn't from the Freud family it wouldn't be so highly regarded?

Socialpages - I hated The Gathering too.
Arukiyomi - I've tried One Hundred Years of Solitude twice now and it keeps putting me off reading whenever I go near it. But I know other people love it.

I also hated Saturday by Ian McEwan.

>18 sanddancer:

In previous years I have also failed to finish both One hundred years of Solitude, and Saturday :)

*touchstones not working

For me it was Wide Sargasso Sea, which I read because I love Jane Eyre. It just wasn't happening for me. Atonement got off to an amazing start, but then became rather predictable and I had to skim through the rest. Surfacing, also, was a let down. I have read and loved most Atwood novels, so it kills me that that one in particular is on the list. Yes, it's all metaphorical and theoretical etc etc but that doesn't make it any more important than a more enjoyable book that makes the same points.

I was disappointed with Steppenwolf and Two Birds at Swim. Neuromancer and Austerlitz were probably my least favorite of 2008. Prior to 2008 I really did not enjoy Kim, Journey to the End of the Night and Tale of a Tub.

I'll nominate A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian I thought it was just fluffy junk. I read it and promptly forgot about it.

I absolutely hated, hated, HATED Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller. In its defense, I did give up about halfway through, so perhaps the second half was amazing. Miller just came off as so smug and self-assured without having anything to back it up.

I feel a little bad (and a little "uncultured") since it is suppose to be such a landmark book, but I do have a small suspicion that it is well-regarded at least partially because it was so revolutionary content-wise when it came out. Oh well. I loved the other 37 books I read off of the list last year.

#23> Don't feel "uncultured"!!! I think this thread shows that there are a number of books on the list that just don't cut the mustard as far as us readers are concerned. I think a lot of the books are there because of their impact at the time - but they haven't necessarily aged well. I've found a number of the books boring, difficult without reward, or just plain old unpleasant.

I prefer to think of the list as "here are 1001 book that we thought were pretty important, give them a go". I gave some of them a go and was pleasantly surprised, and I gave others a go and decided not to waste my time any further.

poplin, I had almost the exact same reaction to Tropic of Cancer. I think you are right that they were revolutionary for the time (and banned, and that always helps). But it was so disgusting, and the narrator was such a bastard ('scuse the language!), I could barely finish it. I just wanted to take a shower, and then go wash my sheets 3 times. With bleach.

edited to fix touchstones

Hands down, my least favorite book of 2008 was Old Masters.

I also wasn't all that crazy about The Crying of Lot 49 or Kafka on the Shore. I feel really bad about the latter because I so wanted to like it.

Sad to say for me it was Slow Man by Coetzee. I've loved so many others of his books, but this just didn't have depth and I couldn't stick with it.

I have to say that it is a fight between Remains of the Day and The Wind in the Willows. Hopefully I haven't riled anyone up by saying that! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate them for what they are. They just don't blow my hair back like some.

I had to force myself to finish A Confederacy of Dunces; it was so irritating.

I didn't own the 1001 book until Christmas so I wasn't choosing books specifically from the list.

I must agree with Perlle about The Crying of Lot 49; except for a couple funny parts, I felt totally lost and a bit bored.