Comments on: Interlude: An Open Thread

By: GCC

GCC — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:27:01 +0000

* the worst book you ever read (and why you read it)
The Driver’s License Examination Study manual. What a load of #$% that was. Not a single paragraph instructing one on the fine art of running someone off the highway and shoving their cell phone up their sphincter!

* the thing that annoys you most about other writers
When they expel a moist, runny novel out their bunghole to satisfy a contractual obligation and expose it to an unsuspecting public.

* what you hate most about this site
I’m conflicted. On the one hand, all the crap spewed forth is spelled correctly and easy to read; I mean if the stated purpose is to STOP writing, the name should have been misspelled. It should have been 101 Raisons too Stop Riting, maybe that would have shamed a few gourdheads into trashing their word processor and going back to HALO, or at least running MSturd spell check before the POD press release. On the other hand, I wasted five minutes typing this drivel in response and that $isses me off. I’ll call it a draw and the site can go ahead and feel properly hated.

By: m

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:22:31 +0000

I’m from Suburbia, Maryland, and found your site about… oh, one and half, two years ago? Yeah. I’ve been lurking here all this time! *cue evil laughter*

Worst Book I Ever Read- well, that’s gonna be a toss-up between Eldest and the Twilight books. Yeah, all my classmates love ‘em… but… no. Totally predictable, cliched, and don’t even deserve a proper burning. Maybe give a copy or two to a small, vicious puppy.

What do I hate about this site… I don’t ‘hate’ anything, persay. Just maybe write- er, update more often!

By: Natkat

Natkat — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:36:20 +0000

Greetings. I am from Houston, Texas by way of Columbus, Ohio. Talk about culture shock.

I found this site by following a series of links. I’ve never been to the NYT site….on purpose anyway.

The worst book I read was “Mind Fields” by Harlan Ellison. Yeah I know he’s a genius and all but I find it extremely difficult to get through anything he writes. I begin reading, then wake up 2 hours later thinking “what was that all about?”.

Oh, and whoever said James Frey’s novel sucked was dead on. I bought that piece of crap before Oprah called him out for being a liar, and found it to be filled with excellent typing but hardly any story.

What I hate about this site is that there are no dancing gerbils.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:13:51 +0000

I’ve never read this blog until tonight, but had no clue the New York times deemed it smooth either. Bravo for you.

Ahhh. The worst book I ever read…..biography and fiction wise would had to of been “A paper life” by Tatum Oneal. During the first portion of the book I felt real compassion for her until about halfway through it became painfully obvious that she was a pathological liar and possible psycho hose beast. The poor dear is mental.

Fiction? There is nothing that strikes me specifically, but I can say I’ve tried to start reading Huck Finn for about ten years now and can never cross the first chapter. I’m doomed to never understand what the hell Twain was getting at and why this novel has been deemed a classic story.

That’s that. Nice to be aquainted with you. I don’t procrastinate on writing too much. I force myself to write a little everyday.

By: Holland

Holland — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:58:16 +0000

Hello there, been reading this blog for a few month now. You got me hooked with the keyboard for writers entry.

Worst book is a hard one, cause ive read my share of horrible fanfiction. But as for published books, id have to say “The diary of Anne Frank”. Yes, its supposed to be a classic depicting the sufferings of jews during the 2nd world war, but its a DIARY OF A 13 YEAR OLD GIRL. Its full of whining and other things that never ever should be printed. The ending was actually the only shocking thing about it, abrupt and cold.

By: bookfraud

bookfraud — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:35:49 +0000

it’s a good thing i only discovered this site today. i would have wasted so much more time otherwise.

there’s so many candidates for worst book i’ve ever read. let’s assume, then, it’s a “classic” that’s supposed to be good. the hands-down winner is ethan frome, an overwritten, indulgent, silly book. ok, i happen to like edith wharton, and i had to read this in high school, so i probably wouldn’t think it’s so bad if i read it again.

what annoys me about other writers? that’s also easy: success.

see: time wasting comment above regarding what i hate most about this site.

By: Cutty Darke

Cutty Darke — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:53:47 +0000

I’m not sure how long it is since I started reading this or how I got here though I have a feeling it was something to do with Miss Snark. I live in Aberdeen, Scotland.

* the worst book you ever read (and why you read it)
The DaVinci Code. I bought it second hand out of curiosity. I wondered if there was anything right with it. There wasn’t much.

* the thing that annoys you most about other writers
The whining of those that aren’t published yet, the laziness of some of those who have been published the the utter bullshit peddled by the likes of Dan Browne

* what you hate most about this site
I’m still writing (because I feel guilty when I don’t) but now I feel guilty when I do as well.

By: mulberry

mulberry — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:55:41 +0000

I found my way here this evening through a link on a writing blog. Thanks for the laughs- I especially love the Demotivators.
I can give you another reason for not writing- Writer’s Ass. So far this year I have wriiten nearly 105,000 words, almost all pure crap (okay, I’ll admit there are maybe three paragraphs in there I think might just be okay) and I’ve gained 10lb in the process. At this rate, by the time I’ve “honed my craft” enough on practice novels to write anything halfway decent, I’ll be a candidate for Half-ton Hospital.
Worst book I’ve ever read- too many! The ones that most immediately come to mind are anything by Cecelia Ahern- I only read two but see no reason to believe they would get better, so I won’t make the mistake a third time. The most embarrassing thing to admit is that I actually stayed up all night with each of these two seriously bad books hoping they would somehow improve, and like the sad romance junkie I am, craving my “happy ever after” fix. The unintentionally funniest one was the epistolatary novel where this woman in her 40’s reads back through all the messages and letters she and her male “best friend” sent each other from age 6 or something. Now there are loads of text messages and IMs in there too- from the 1970’s and 80’s. Somehow I don’t think so, we sure didn’t have those in the version of the 1980’s that I lived through, and how did she keep copies of them to put in the box anyway. I don’t blame the writer so much as the editor. We’re meant to be deluded and blind to the myriad faults in our work, editors are not.
This site is definitely aimed at writers like me.

By: Bernita

Bernita — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:52:08 +0000

I read this blog now and then because I’m humble.

By: Jefferson Whitney

Jefferson Whitney — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:53:46 +0000

Reader of one year and some months, from Visalia Calif. USA.

the worst book you ever read (and why you read it): Any number of Star Wars novels. It would be impossible to pick just one of them. I read them because at 13 I was into some serious nerd stuff.

the thing that annoys you most about other writers: The guys who don’t write anything at all, then talk about ‘their vision.’ You know that guy. He’ll be bigger than sliced Jesus, just as soon as he gets off his lazy ass, whenever that will be. This is worse if said poser refers to self in the third person when talking about great ideas.

what you hate most about this site: It hasn’t discouraged enough people. The sooner people realize they cannot be as good as Kurt Vonnegut…the better.