ozoneocean

ccs1989
Are you talking about the comic, Ozone? Cause I heard Death Dealer was a pretty cool comic. Although comics in general these days are pretty bad.

No, a couple of novels.

Haven't read any of the novels, but there are two comics. First one was written by Glenn Danzig and consisted out of four issues total (among several other series inspired by Frazetta's paintings)... and apparently these were bad enough to make Frazetta NOT very easy to convince to give comics like these another shot.

Now, there's been a new Death Dealer comic, 6 issue mini from Image, and this one's supposed to be pretty good.


Back to the topic: I'm straining my memory trying to remember any awful book that I have read that might make any sense to mention here (that is: has an english version), but it seems my selective memory purges itself from traumatic reading experiences, thus I can't come up with any title... so I'll say instead...

some of the Conan novels written by other writers. I think the ones by John Maddox Roberts, but also by others. That's the worst piece of reading I can remember. Original stories by Howard are good, some of the early stories/novels written by others are half-decent too. But the later, the worse it gets. People writing them had NO idea how to write Conan. These (and the maaany adaptations that show him always running in furry underpants) have gave Conan a bad name, that he's seemingly a barbaric brute who smashes skulls of whoever comes along :P

"Glennkill" by Leonie Swann was a HUGE disappointment. It was one of the biggest hypes in Europe in 2006, the critics werw all ooh and aah about it. I had to force myself to read it. That's the way I am - once I start, I'll read a book till the end, no matter how crappy it is. But save for a few funny moments, it's just boooriiiing. And the ending is just so forced, contrived and stupid that it just overshadows the few pleasant memories of the book.

"The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova... Now this one I truly hate. I am REALLY not a very demanding reader. I'm easy to please I can forgive certain flaws if there's something that manages to keep my attention - humor, likeable characters, the mood, ANYTHING! And I have a rather high tollerance for pretentious narratives. However, this book had NOTHING likeable about it. Dracula alone is not enough of a magnet - and there was really nothing else. I can't say I liked any of the characters. They all seemed like over-jolly prozac addicts with the tendency to give lenghty speeches instead of just talk. The narrative was just terrible. It might've been acceptable in some 18th century Gothic novel - but it's the 21st century, for crying out loud, nobody talks like that any more! So I couldn't even focus on the bleak story, because the language was bugging the hell out of me. I got to page 80 before I simply put the book away never to read it again.

Oh yeah. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. How the gothic novel ever sprung from this; like Einstein having a retarded father.

I find a lot of people hating on "Catcher of the Rye," and I suppose I was one of them back when I had to read and analyze it for school. A few years later, though, I re-read it and gave it another chance, what with all the fame surrounding that book, and loved it. It's a smart novel...

In any case, I didn't like The Kite Runner. It's not that it's a terrible book...it's just not great, or even really that good. And it certainly is not worth the hype that's followed it.

Aside from that, The Maestro. Terribly long and boring book.

Oh, and this...

Custard Trout

Freegurt
Harry Potter.

YES

I agree wholeheartedly. I don't understand what people are so amazed by. There are tons of better fantasy novels out there.

Baconators

Custard Trout

Freegurt
Harry Potter.

YES

I agree wholeheartedly. I don't understand what people are so amazed by. There are tons of better fantasy novels out there.

Someone came up with a plausible answer to that on another forum: Harry Potter is more easily accessible to international readership than other fantasy novels. For example, the Discworld books, while great, are filled British terms that readers from other countries may have difficulty understanding. Harry Potter is not.

Here are some other reasons that I've come up with: the fact that it is a series of children's books makes it more favorable to popular culture than other fantasy novels, which many people see as material for D&D nerds and the like. The children's series thing also helps in that many people do not understand the concept of "Dark Fantasy" and see fantasy as a genre in which everything is always happy.

Finally, when the Christian Fundamentalists decided to burn all the Harry Potter novels they could get their hands on, it drew people's attention to the series, as everyone wanted to see what all the fuss was about (this is how my mother got addicted to His Dark Materials).

LIZARD_B1TE
Finally, when the Christian Fundamentalists decided to burn all the Harry Potter novels they could get their hands on, it drew people's attention to the series, as everyone wanted to see what all the fuss was about (this is how my mother got addicted to His Dark Materials).

It certainly drew my attention. I love anything that gets fundeys' panties in knots. When i heard that Dumbledore was gay, milk nearly shot out of my nose. It was like at that point Rowling was just taunting them. So far i've only read the Philosopher's Stone (i refuse to call it the Sorceror's Stone. Figure it out America! Wikipedia's right there!).

Anything by R.L. Stine.

I'm surprised no one has said the davinci code. Maybe you all are lucky enough not to get tricked into reading it. I hate that damn book. Not only is the writing style annoying and the characters, plot and dialog weak, but it takes a semi-interesting concept and takes a big steaming dump on it. Thanks Dan Brown, burn in hell.

Also, I'm not surprised so many people hate on Catcher... I don't think it should be forced on high school kids, that sucks the fun out of most anything to begin with. Reading it on your own terms, with the knowledge that you don't have to like Holden Caufield, or please your teacher with your analysis, makes it a lot better.

leatherwoman
Also, I'm not surprised so many people hate on Catcher... I don't think it should be forced on high school kids, that sucks the fun out of most anything to begin with. Reading it on your own terms, with the knowledge that you don't have to like Holden Caufield, or please your teacher with your analysis, makes it a lot better.

I definately read more now than i ever did in in college or highschool, in spite of the fact that i graduated with a BA in english... somehow.

My friend and I were just talking about how nice it is to actually read something because you want to again (we both just graduated). In all my education, I had ONE reading-intensive class where I enjoyed all the assignments, because the teacher was knowledgeable and engaged and the class was the same in the discussions. That's rare, unfortunately.