Best/Worst Novel (3 Viewers)

[allGenreGamer]

Just wish to conduct some research on how people feel about novels My questions are:

- What's the name of the best novel that you have read? Why do you feel that it is the best?
- What's the name of the worst novel that you have read? Why do you feel that it's the worst?

Thanks!

 

[astro]

Best: Would have to be Pride and Prejudice, black Foxes and Saving Francesca...the first two becasue i like the whole Victorian era sort stories and the third one becasue i have a penchant for some of the coming of age novels.

Worst: Even though i was addicted to them....V.C Andrews would have to be the worst becasue of thier repetitive story lines and unrealistic stories

 

[Josie]

An impossible question. I have immense lists for both.

I have two categories for my stories. Good idea, terrible writing, terrible idea, good writing. Both have their merits. If a book fills both good criteria, brilliant. If it doesn't, it goes in my worst book pile.

 

[TheBirdMustFly]

Best: Definetely The Green Mile by Stephen King, read it six times and can't get enough of it
Worst: Great Expectations by Charles Dickins, the most boring book ever, had to read it for english

 

[Kwayera]

Originally posted by TheBirdMustFly
Worst: Great Expectations by Charles Dickins, the most boring book ever, had to read it for english

Books always seem so much worse when you are forced to read them. Damn the English departments of Australia for ruining books for us. >:|

 

[steph@nie]

Best: The Joy Luck Club- it was the first "adult" book I read and since then, my copy has become dog eared and worn. It was also the first book that made me cry.

Worst: The second book of the Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" series. I think it was called The Subtle Knife. It could of been because I was too young to appreciate it, but its still sitting up on my bookshelf.

 

[Loz#1]

Best: Blood & Gold, Anne Rice. I'm a big AR groupy, love the vampire chronicles and B&G is about Marius, my favourite character.

Worst: Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte. Argh! I couldn't even finish it, it was terrible!!

 

[astro]

another immensely boring book is wuthering heights - and I have to read it next year

 

[MicK_eT]

Originally posted by steph@nie
Best: The Joy Luck Club- it was the first "adult" book I read and since then, my copy has become dog eared and worn. It was also the first book that made me cry.

Worst: The second book of the Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" series. I think it was called The Subtle Knife. It could of been because I was too young to appreciate it, but its still sitting up on my bookshelf.

i agree with you on both.. i realli liked joy luck club and that whole series i thougth was crappy.... VC Andrews is cool lol... hehehe errm.. animorphs was a cool series.. heheh theres lotsa books taht i reckon are good btu i cant remember any hahah.. hmm...

 

[steph@nie]

Originally posted by Loz#1
Worst: Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte. Argh! I couldn't even finish it, it was terrible!!

Currently doing Emma/clueless module and I don't plan on reading Emma simply because Austen is so frikken boring! I only read P&P because Colin Firth was Mr Darcy

 

[Loz#1]

Originally posted by steph@nie
Currently doing Emma/clueless module and I don't plan on reading Emma simply because Austen is so frikken boring! I only read P&P because Colin Firth was Mr Darcy

The good thing about the Board of Studies giving us books like that to study is that there are movies to watch and entertain us more. Though everything, including the film, was shit.

 

[ameh]

Just wish to conduct some research on how people feel about novels My questions are:

- What's the name of the best novel that you have read? Why do you feel that it is the best?

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, it isn't the BEST' but it certainly is very tragic and thought provoking

- What's the name of the worst novel that you have read? Why do you feel that it's the worst?

Great expectations by Charles Dickens
I forced myself to read it, and didn't get past page 1...beats counting sheep!

 

[christ_ine]

Best: Toss up between 'The Merlin Conspiracy' by Diane Wynne Jones and 'Sophie's World' by Jostein Gaarder. Plus, you can't go past Harry Potter and LOTR.

Worst: I concur with steph@nie about 'The Subtle Knife' by Phillip Pullman. It was the most bizarre book I've ever read.

 

[asha_ramirez]

Mmm so many books are so damn good... Here are a couple of my favourites.
Ravelling by Peter Moore Smith
What Is Literature by Jean Paul Satre
Simon & The Oaks by.... A woman... *cough* I don't know
If On A Winters Night A Traveller by Italio Calvino (currently reading it for the Eng Ex1 course)

I'm not a fan of Jane Austen... which is a shame because we have to read so much of her work.

I love A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennesee Williams (it's a play but I still read if from a book so it counts)

There are so many other books that are good, I can't say I've ever willingly read a bad book, school forces them on us though, which is a shame.

 

[Enlightened_One]

The worst novels I have ever read were Persuasion and Emma. I tried reading Stephen King once and found that to be shit, no offence.

Anything I have or will read more than once is a good novel. That is a long list though.

 

[littlemic21]

These aren't really novels but...
Best: Lord of The Rings triology closely followed by the Harry Potter series.
I don't have a worst.. i'll read anything

 

[Persephone87]

I am not liking Catcher in the Rye at the Moment

My favourites are 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell

 

[my sharona]

Best: 'Soul Mountain' by Gao Xingjian -
It's this stunningly beautiful prose-like novel about the a man who walks up a mountain... but he's dying of cancer, and he sees so much beauty and sadness of the provincial life that surrounds him...

Worst: 'Northanger Abbey' by Jane Austen -
Emma was bad, i guess... but the characters were likeable... and the storyline was comprehensible... Northanger Abbey (damn yr 11), Jane Austen's attempt to write a gothic novel, was probably the worst written book i have read to the end. I am convinced that one of the characters changes gender, Austen forgets about characters entirely and mentions them 100000 pages later, and the entire story is apparently some girl going to a ball... the lack of punctuation is as bad as Emma... so yeah... if you didn't like Emma, DONT READ THIS BOOK...!!!

 

[kokeshi]

I can't think of any worst novels but my favourite novel is High Fidelity. I think it's insightful, amusing and interesting.

 

[super katie]

I absolutely hate If On A Winters Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. We have to study it for ext 1 english and I mean I appreciate that its well written and everything but he's so goddamn arrogant that I just want to strangle him.

But I love Leon the Fish by Damian Kringas, its completely awsome and funny and clever I just love it!