This list was a little bit more difficult to compile. After all, someone worked hard and spent a long time writing their book. Chances are they're pretty proud of themselves, and they probably think it's a fantastic piece of literature. Besides, who am I to judge? Writing is art, and as we all know, art is highly personal and very subjective. Maybe a bad book is like that painting at a museum everyone walks by and thinks "my 3 year old could have drawn that!", except that one guy who thinks it's the most amazing thing he's ever seen.
So, keeping in mind that this is just my opinion, here are my least favorite (sounds nicer than worst, right?) books of 2010 in no particular order.
1) One Night at the Call Center - Chetan Bhagat
I now understand that the blurb on the back of a book is a lot like the theatrical trailer for a Lindsay Lohan movie. This book sounded so promising. A group of young adults in one of India's tech support centers receives a call from God. So far so good. Reality? A group of obnoxious overgrown teenagers who are completely unlikeable blow off work one night when they find out some of them will be laid off in the morning to go on an "adventure". It's the most boring adventure I've ever been on and so predictable I wish I had just let my imagination fill in the rest instead of wasting an hour of my life reading the second half of the book.
2) Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
I have to confess that I didn't finish this one. I tried, I really did. About two-thirds of the way through I got to a particularly disturbing scene involving the beheading of live cats and just couldn't read any more. I put it on my nightstand in the pile and then night after night and morning after morning I picked something else to read. Weeks later I went looking for it to try again and it wasn't there anymore. Maybe I threw it away in my sleep?
The book begins with a group of school children on a class field trip who for some unexplainable reason all faint at the same time and are briefly unconscious. They wake up with nothing wrong and continue on with their normal lives, except for one little boy. Chapters alternate between the story of an old man who apparently can talk to animals and keeps referring to himself as very stupid, and a teenager who runs away from home. There are also a few brief interludes from the perspective of the teacher who was on the class fieldtrip with the kids who fainted. I can only speculate where the book was going with this one, but I'm guessing they all intersect at some point. It would have been fine had it not been for the completely unnecessary graphic scenes of animal (and human) cruelty and slow pace of the action.
3) Do Try to Speak as We Do: The Diary of an American Au Pair - Marjorie Leet Ford
I don't have nearly as much to say about this one. I thought the plot was boring, the writing uninspired, and I was relieved when it was finally over. Synopsis: After losing her job, American born Melissa decides to take a job as a nanny in Scotland and the book is her letters to her friends in the US. The mother character is unrealistically mean, and father predictably nice.
I've never seen a book where they manage to work the title into the actual dialogue so frequently. And no, that is not a compliment (writers of "Because I said So", take note). The best thing I can say about this book is that the descriptions of the food are very detailed and succeeded in making me hungry.
4) Carolina Isle - Jude Deveraux
I might say this frequently, but was without a doubt, hands down, no contest, the WORST book I have ever read in my entire life. Normally I love trashy romance novels and although I've never read anything else by Deveraux, it's a big name in the genre. While this book attempts to be both a romance and a mystery, it's neither. In fact, the only genre I can use to describe it is terrible.
The plot is ridiculous and childish (2 identical cousins decide to switch places for a summer...) and the writing is absurdly basic. It feels like the book was written for a much younger audience, which would be acceptable if it were true, but some scenes are much too "adult" to pass for teen fiction. The book feels as though there are sentences, paragraphs, even entire chapters missing. There were multiple times I actually checked that the page numbers had only increased by 1, and once I verified I was left scratching my head. The characters are shallow, I didn't like them at all much less feel sorry for them when I was supposed to, and there was absolutely no chemistry between the couples. I want those 2 hours of my life back.
5) I'll Steal You Away - Niccolo Ammaniti
This is probably my most controversial pick. The New York times said it was not great but fine, and readers on Amazon seem to agree. In addition, the book was originally written in Italian and then translated into English, so it's hard to know if perhaps something got lost in translation. I personally hated it and since this is my list, I reserve the right to insult any book I choose.
The book follows two different characters in a small town in Italy: a young boy who fails his grade school assessment and an older washed up musician whose life is going nowhere. However, the book also goes off on some unrelated tangents about completely new people and has mini-stories that seem to go nowhere. The book is witty, but the characters lack something I can't describe, and there are so many of them (all with nicknames) it's a little hard to keep track. Ammaniti also uses dreams and fantasies, but sometimes it's hard to tell whether the action is really occurring or if it's just being thought. His use of italics is questionable at best.
On an unrelated note, I just finished another terrible book which I cannot wait to insult tomorrow.
So, keeping in mind that this is just my opinion, here are my least favorite (sounds nicer than worst, right?) books of 2010 in no particular order.
1) One Night at the Call Center - Chetan Bhagat
I now understand that the blurb on the back of a book is a lot like the theatrical trailer for a Lindsay Lohan movie. This book sounded so promising. A group of young adults in one of India's tech support centers receives a call from God. So far so good. Reality? A group of obnoxious overgrown teenagers who are completely unlikeable blow off work one night when they find out some of them will be laid off in the morning to go on an "adventure". It's the most boring adventure I've ever been on and so predictable I wish I had just let my imagination fill in the rest instead of wasting an hour of my life reading the second half of the book.
2) Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
I have to confess that I didn't finish this one. I tried, I really did. About two-thirds of the way through I got to a particularly disturbing scene involving the beheading of live cats and just couldn't read any more. I put it on my nightstand in the pile and then night after night and morning after morning I picked something else to read. Weeks later I went looking for it to try again and it wasn't there anymore. Maybe I threw it away in my sleep?
The book begins with a group of school children on a class field trip who for some unexplainable reason all faint at the same time and are briefly unconscious. They wake up with nothing wrong and continue on with their normal lives, except for one little boy. Chapters alternate between the story of an old man who apparently can talk to animals and keeps referring to himself as very stupid, and a teenager who runs away from home. There are also a few brief interludes from the perspective of the teacher who was on the class fieldtrip with the kids who fainted. I can only speculate where the book was going with this one, but I'm guessing they all intersect at some point. It would have been fine had it not been for the completely unnecessary graphic scenes of animal (and human) cruelty and slow pace of the action.
3) Do Try to Speak as We Do: The Diary of an American Au Pair - Marjorie Leet Ford
I don't have nearly as much to say about this one. I thought the plot was boring, the writing uninspired, and I was relieved when it was finally over. Synopsis: After losing her job, American born Melissa decides to take a job as a nanny in Scotland and the book is her letters to her friends in the US. The mother character is unrealistically mean, and father predictably nice.
I've never seen a book where they manage to work the title into the actual dialogue so frequently. And no, that is not a compliment (writers of "Because I said So", take note). The best thing I can say about this book is that the descriptions of the food are very detailed and succeeded in making me hungry.
4) Carolina Isle - Jude Deveraux
I might say this frequently, but was without a doubt, hands down, no contest, the WORST book I have ever read in my entire life. Normally I love trashy romance novels and although I've never read anything else by Deveraux, it's a big name in the genre. While this book attempts to be both a romance and a mystery, it's neither. In fact, the only genre I can use to describe it is terrible.
The plot is ridiculous and childish (2 identical cousins decide to switch places for a summer...) and the writing is absurdly basic. It feels like the book was written for a much younger audience, which would be acceptable if it were true, but some scenes are much too "adult" to pass for teen fiction. The book feels as though there are sentences, paragraphs, even entire chapters missing. There were multiple times I actually checked that the page numbers had only increased by 1, and once I verified I was left scratching my head. The characters are shallow, I didn't like them at all much less feel sorry for them when I was supposed to, and there was absolutely no chemistry between the couples. I want those 2 hours of my life back.
5) I'll Steal You Away - Niccolo Ammaniti
This is probably my most controversial pick. The New York times said it was not great but fine, and readers on Amazon seem to agree. In addition, the book was originally written in Italian and then translated into English, so it's hard to know if perhaps something got lost in translation. I personally hated it and since this is my list, I reserve the right to insult any book I choose.
The book follows two different characters in a small town in Italy: a young boy who fails his grade school assessment and an older washed up musician whose life is going nowhere. However, the book also goes off on some unrelated tangents about completely new people and has mini-stories that seem to go nowhere. The book is witty, but the characters lack something I can't describe, and there are so many of them (all with nicknames) it's a little hard to keep track. Ammaniti also uses dreams and fantasies, but sometimes it's hard to tell whether the action is really occurring or if it's just being thought. His use of italics is questionable at best.
On an unrelated note, I just finished another terrible book which I cannot wait to insult tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment