The Bible. So so boring.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Of books I've finished, The Da Vinci Code. It's been a long time since I read it, so I can't recall specifics but I do remember the moment to moments of the plot being contrived and stupid, and the writing to be bland and simplistic.

The only reason I read it was I was stuck somewhere without a book and I found a copy of The Da Vinci code that had fallen behind a shelf. I figured it was super popular so there must be something to it as I slogged through.

Tap for spoiler

I had to make a separate exclusive category on goodreads just to keep this piece of trash out of my read pile.

It's called power vs force, it's some dumpster fire pseudo-science that's really just vague ramblings of nothing. Don't read it. Seriously.

"De Grote Zaal" by Jacoba van Velde. For school we had to read many books. In the earlier years this could be anything as long as it was Dutch, so translated versions of English books were fine. I could read stuff like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. However, at some point the requirements shifted, and we were only allowed to read Dutch (non-translated) works of literature. This shit single-handedly killed all my fun in reading. Dry books about old people or about the war.

"De Grote Zaal" is the one that I remember the most. It's a short book, but it goes pretty much nowhere and doesn't at all speak to the imagination of a teen guy. To me it represents the death of reading as a hobby. I've tried to pick up reading again, but it has since been replaced by other things and I just don't make the time for it anymore.

Ulysses by James Joyce

Catcher in the rye

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Only book I’ve ever thrown across the room and used as a craft cutting board.

I know this is controversial, but I really hated 'A Confederacy of Dunces', the main character is just so annoying. I had a hard time finishing that one.

Runes of the Earth by Stephen R. Donaldson. Couldn't even finish it. Loved some of his earlier books, which I read when I was much younger. Not sure if he changed or if I did. But what I read of Runes was truly awful.

"Effi Briest" all the way.

Controversial one: I thought Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a bad book. And I liked Thompson's Hell's Angel's book that he wrote prior. The metaphors like "the great wave" of hippiedom coming from the west which crashed and receded make up about 0.1% of the contents and are not that interesting. The rest could be extremely niche satire I'm missing since I wasn't alive in the 70s but I doubt it. For the most part it reads like a blog post on one of the 90s drugs forums where someone has just boofed meth or something.

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

At first you give it your good will and chapter by chapter the creeping horror sets in that the emperor has no clothes.

Trash in lit's clothing

Controversial opinion but Don Quixote, so fucking long and boring, had a horrible time trying to get through it for class

The Song of Achilles - Madeleine Miller

Might be controversial, I apologise, but in it's soul and bones it is the straightest "gay" book I've ever read. Straight people keep heralding it as a Queer Classic™®© in a way that queer people don't.

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest. It's just a zillion loose threads of a novel that leads nowhere in particular.

Of the ones I read straight through

Life of Pi

Lord of the Flies