The Worst Books I Have Ever Read

As you know, I’m an avid reader. I routinely read or listen to 20 to 40 books a year. I share my reading with you by hanging mini-posters outside the classroom and when I finish, I write a mini-mini-review on the poster: 

“This was great!”  

“Excellent!” 

“This was okay.”  

“Boring!”

I’ve read so many great books and a few real clunkers, as well. There are a couple that stand out as the worst books I have ever read:

• Years ago, I used to write book reviews for Air & Space Smithsonian magazine. They would send me a box of books and ask me to pick out a couple to read and review. They actually paid me to do this! One book they sent me was about a World War II fighter pilot I happened to know a LOT about. I had read every single book ever published about him. I had spoken and corresponded with people who knew him. I had done extensive research about him. 

I opened the new book and read the first chapter and it seemed… familiar… like I’d read it before. I turned to my library of books on this pilot and, sure enough, the writer had stolen entire paragraphs from a prior book on the man. I alerted my editor at Air & Space. He thanked me and notified the publisher about the writer’s plagiarism. 

• Someone I know wrote a book several years ago and, of course, I was excited to read it. You know that feeling when you read the first half page of a book and you think, “Ohhhhh, this is gonna be good?” I love that feeling. I love when the writer hooks you and draws you in right from the first few words. When I read the first partial page of this book, I turned to the last page to find out how long this was going to be. The first page was awful and things never got any better for the next 200 pages. Ugh.

So, there you have it. The worst books I have ever read. But, contrast that with the, literally, hundreds of excellent books and that’s a pretty good ratio.