The Worst Books

In the Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde (Lost in a Good Book, The Eyre Affair), there is a character, Gran, who can't die until she has read the ten worst books of all time. Well, I may have found one to add to the list. On a recent foray into a bookstore (where I went for the sole purpose of scouting out the latest mysteries and novels to put on my summer reading list), I spotted a promising volume, The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil. I put in a request for it through my local library since I do. not. buy. books. anymore. The book arrived in no time at all and I settled in to read it. Twenty pages in, I wasn't impressed by the two women who are best friends, or by the two boys who belonged to one of the women., or the plot. I rarely abandon a book, but my patience ran out around page 80. Although not before the new owner of the yard shop had knitted fish for the window display--I kid you not. At least there wasn't a pattern in the back of this book for the fish.

While I'm reviewing books, I'll admit that I didn't like The Friday Night Knitting Club either because of its trite plot and at times, inept writing. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on this one since every other person I've met who has read it loved the book.

We'll do best books later, but for now, what are your nominees for the Worst Book Ever?

Comments

  1. BranlaadeeJune 10, 2009 at 3:49 PM

    In my whole life I have only abandoned 2 books. Ever. And as a teen I used to read 2-3 books a week during school and who knows how many in the summer. Now that I am grown up I am lucky to do one a month.

    Anyway, 1st book ever abandoned: Hawaii by James Michener. I tried to read this after it was suggested by a teacher of mine in my jr year of high school. I got a few hundred pages in and nearly died of boredom. He's just not my style, but a lot of people like him. To each his own.

    2nd book abandoned: Lady of the Sea (book 3 in the Isolde and Tristan trilogy) by Rosalind Miles. Take books 1 and 2, copy, repeat...over and over and over again. It seems they just copy and pasted a bunch of sections from the first 2 books into the 3rd. Might of been fine if I hadnt already read the first two.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MysteryKnitterApril 30, 2015 at 6:22 PM

    One Michael Cunningham's book. It's called "By Nightfall" in English. So boring! It's not my style, not at all.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For the Good Times

Image
Today is my 35th wedding anniversary. We were married in the church in my hometown in southeast Nebraska. No air conditioning and people thought my husband was nervous when they saw him shaking his leg. He was just trying to get the sweat to run down it a bit faster! Mine was the first of three weddings my parents planned, and since I had spent the summer in Pennsylvania working and setting up our new apartment, most things fell to my mother. My parents decided to have the reception in my hometown and that meant there was only one venue--the "supper club." Actually, this was the basement of the local pool hall/bar and had formerly been a bowling alley when my mother was a teenager. Although there wasn't a private room, my parents figured very few people other than wedding guests would be there since it was also the weekend of the county fair. Sometimes I miss life in small town Nebraska. Mostly not. Turned out they were right, but choosing that venue also meant that they
Read more

WIP Wednesday

Image
We are not so patiently waiting for spring to arrive in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Four nor'easters in March is just cruel and I've had enough of this cold weather.  The upside is that it makes it easy to stay inside and stitch.  I'm making progress on a few things, but for reasons not clear to me, I've had a hard time settling down with one project.  I had the pleasure of taking two classes with Catherine Theron at the end of March.  You can see the projects she taught on the Salty Yarns website by clicking on the Events tab.  When I got home I was inspire to find the piece from the first class I took from Catherine at the Delaware Valley Historic Sampler Guild  many (maybe 10??) years ago.  This will become a Quaker sewing case. During class, I struggled putting in the black for the Florentine pattern which is why I put it away all these years.  After looking at it closely, I found and corrected several mistakes.  I filled in several of the diamonds whi
Read more

At Long Last

Image
I finally have a finish!  Here is Susan Rambo in all her wrinkled glory.  I stitched it on a vintage 36 count fabric that is close in color to the amber/toasted almond Wichelt fabric called for in the SANQ chart.  The fibers are Needlepoint Inc silks.  I love the colors and this is my all-time favorite sampler. 
Read more