What's a Recent Book You've Read that you Would Not Recommend? Why?

Hmmm… I’m very picky about the books I choose, so I’m usually not disappointed. But I guess if had to choose, it would be Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. I loved Survivor and while I haven’t read Fight Club, I enjoyed the movie immensely, but for some reason Haunted escaped me. I didn’t even finish it.

Still struggling to finish Marisha Pessl’s book on Calamity Physics. Everyone says it’s supposed to be really good, but I still don’t get it. It’s like a video game with a really tough learning curve or something. I am still not sure if I want to bash it yet, but so far it’s just “too much ado about nothing” as far as I’m concerned.

Ugh! This one: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Could not finish it for the life of me.

i would not recommend fountainhead to people who are already devastatingly pessimistic/depressed.

“Neue Werte für die Wirtschaft” by Christian Felber.
In case someone reads German titles too…

Wow, I did not expect the first answer to be what I was going to pick, but I agree with @essieness, Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk was god-awful. I also loved the Fight Club movie and I would not be adverse to reading something else by him, but here’s the thing about that book. I’m not squeamish, I’m not “turned off” by shock value, none of that bothers me. But essentially, I did not get the motivations of the characters (and don’t just say they were driven to it by a force inside the house). Essentially, the whole book was a series of one person or group of people fucks themselves over royally, then another person or group of persons tries to outdo the first group, and it just escalates. There was no reason for any of this to occur, not laid out and not something you could read between the lines. It took an amazing leap of faith to understand the motivations of these people, one so large that I simply couldn’t do it. It just seemed poorly crafted, like saying, it happened because I SAY it happened. I can willingly suspend disbelief, but there’s got to be SOME motivation behind the actions of the characters. This book was pointless, an exercise in shock value for the sake of shock value…at least someone like Marilyn Manson has something to say when he dresses up in a Nazi uniform and wipes his ass on the American flag. This book was like Bob put a fork in his eye, so Melinda put a fork in each eye, then not to be outdone, Francine grabbed all 3 forks with eyeballs still attached, shoved them up her snatch and fed them to Frank. I mean, WTF? No character development, nothing, just a bunch of random masochists, not worth your time.

Anything by Dan Brown.

@syz lol

I second @syz. Blech. I also submit The Last of the Mohicans. It took more than half the book before I gave a crap about anything that was going on, and then I lost interest before the end again.

Rabbit is Rich by John Updike. My book club read this last month in honor of the late Mr. Updike. It’s a story of middle aged angst, complete with angry adulterous anal sex. It was an uncomfortable read, and reflected an America before I was born that I just couldn’t really relate to.

It wasn’t a bad book, it was even a Pulitzer Prize winner. And I know parts of it will stick with me. But I wouldn’t recommend reading it: it just wasn’t that interesting.

Until I find You – John Irving…just toooooo long for what it was…

“a million little pieces”
...it was one of the first books that i couldnt even finish.
i know it was supposed to be great and itw as in oprah’s book club… but its horrid.

@fullOFuselessINFO really? i loved a million little pieces. i used to read it during class, and when i read about the dental procedures, my mouth literally felt sore.

The Year of Fog, by Michelle Richmond.

I just couldn’t even finish it. Not my style at all.