My Least Favorite Books Ever

[@sephestra.]

Have I ever mentioned that I have approximately 15 different types of salt in my kitchen...that I actively use? Yeah, I might like me some salt.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Pour. It. On. :D

[@BookmarksandBookshelves]

"Johnny Tremain" was the first book I remember wholeheartedly hating. So much so, that I almost failed a term of seventh grade English (my favorite class) because I refused to read it and intentionally failed all my tests quizzes. Being a lifelong mood reader, it ruined assigned reading for me for the rest of high school and college and to this day I am pretty meh about buddy reads. Other notable mentions for me are "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon, "Running With Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs*, "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern (snooze) and most recently "Daisy Jones and the Six" by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The last was like pulling teeth and took me months to finish. *My best friend bought me a copy of "Running With Scissors" for my birthday a dozen or more years ago and I immediately said "I hated this book!" upon unwrapping it. No "Thank you" "You're so thoughtful." Nothing. Just pure unfiltered hatred came spewing from my mouth and I immediately felt like an ungrateful shit. I apologized profusely and needless to say it's a running joke all these years later and she still loves me and my honesty. 😂

[@bookslikewhoa]

Haha, our whole class loved Johnny Tremain! We were all obsessed with his silver-ruined hand :D

[@sephestra.]

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is the very first book that comes to my mind. The author's "oh look at me, look at me, I know ALL the things ABOUT all the things" content and writing tone, as well as the ridiculousness of the main plot having a disillusioned teen able to puzzle out (in a ridiculously short amount of time) things that people with more knowledge, intelligence, and common sense together could not figure out, is fucking ludicrous to the point that my eye-roll game amped up to "I can see the back of my skull". I might have to come edit this later....I'm steamed just thinking about this book and need to walk.

[@alkonostX]

Don't even get me started on Armada!

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yeah, it was only OK to me-- it just felt like a Mary Sue top to bottom :/

[@baleek4367]

Haven’t watched yet but love this sweater on you !! great color !

[@shelleyd7009]

I can't stand Wuthering Heights. It is one of the few books that immediately comes to mind when thinking of dislikes. Her sister's book, Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorites.

[@glitterpenguines123]

Shelley D Jane Eyre is amazing, I read it my senior year of high school and it’s my favorite classic that I’ve read from that time period

[@nistha9953]

I can't agree more i hattttte wuthering heights i can't for my life finish that book i just like i can't describe why i didn't like it when i love the other brontes , jane eyre is my first and all time favourite classic

[@bookslikewhoa]

I like Wuthering Heights, but wonder if I would have had I read it as an adult...

[@abbiel7566]

Shelley D funny, Wuthering Heights is one of my favorites 😂 I enjoy unlikeable characters though, and I think that’s a big part of why a lot of people don’t like the book - everyone is horrible and just keeps getting worse. There are many reasons why I love it, but I get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea 😊

[@cat.733]

I didn’t like Wuthering Heights, it left me feeling quite underwhelmed. However, I went into it knowing that people loved it and my friends enjoyed studying it so it may be that I just had the wrong expectations for it.

[@derekdavis5310]

I absolutely LOVED Siddhartha! I read it at such a perfect time when I was going through my own faith journey. I'd suggest re-reading it because you might get more out of it as an adult.

[@teddytodorova]

I just jumped in surprise when you said Passenger in Frankfurt :D I am gigantic Agatha Christie fan more than 20 years and I can tell you that I haven't seen a fan to like this book; some of the fans said they couldn't finished it. Definitely my least favourite Agatha book, too.

[@bookslikewhoa]

It's pretty tragique :/

[@teriaugustine6464]

Same on Wicked. I dnf it 75% through. It was torture to read and it should've been something that I loved.

[@catsreadbooks9359]

Had to laugh out loud at your review of The Magicians. I tried to read it years ago but didn't finish. No regrets. I also didn't like Wicked... I mostly thought it was boring. I've had a few dislikes in the past 6 months or so but nothing at the full on hate level.

[@Lobxx1]

Solid agree! I adore Wicked the musical but could never finish the book even after three times of attempting it

[@tanja9673]

It is very interesting that you didn't like a book of Hesse as a teen because in Germany he is kind of known as an author whose books resonate more with teens than with adults. I read 'Der Steppenwolf' in school and it really got me emotionally. :D I didn't read 'Siddartha', though.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Oh interesting... it's always fascinating to me to learn more about how books from countries not my own are perceived in the culture they came from

[@Ann86dk]

I don't think I've ever heard that take on Lev Grossman's books. I knew it was a polarizing book that people either hated it or really enjoyed it, but I didn't know it was such a rip off of Narnia.

[@yobebooo]

😂 I’m with you on The Magicians. I tried watching the tv series to give it another chance. Nope, still hate everyone.

[@hannahfaires3989]

I agree about Wicked. Love the album and just saw it on stage last year. The first few chapters of were hard to get through. And once you finished you were like what did i just read. Enjoyed the journey but wouldn't repeat.

[@isabelageekarts8947]

I liked it but only some characters, the writting is hard to get through to the point of exaustion and some parts that, to me, wasn't that important! Took almost a year to finish it because by the half to the end of the book was sooo hard to get through! It's not bad i though it would be but wasn't great like most people say about it.

[@stevemarvin]

You are a good channel but I couldn't disagree more about The Magicians. I think we came upon it from a totally different place so I won't fault you completely. Of course The Chronicles of Narnia is OG, It was my introduction into the genre followed by Tolkien. When I first read The Magicians, I was already so black pilled with relationships and life in general that it really resonated for me. The 1st book was just the right amount of cynicism and subversion for my tattered soul. But then something amazing happened. I read the next two books in the trilogy and Lo! My faith in humanity was, if not restored, at least temporarily propped up. This was 2016 so I immediately began the TV series and OMG what a beautiful reimagining of Grossman's work. And yes, it does pay homage to (if not "rip off") Lewis' work. But for me, that's what made it special. Someone who had never read Narnia could read The Magicians Trilogy and be perfectly happy; but someone who knew The Chronicles of Narnia inside and out there was a little something extra for them. Sad that in this day and age I have to qualify this, but no disrespect is meant to you, your views or your channel. As far as I am concerned, we are just two nerds who love Fantasy having a friendly chat about our opinions. Please consider finishing the trilogy. And the TV show, although it so heavily alters and expands upon the source material, is a great laugh. Serious as a heart attack one minute.. and subtitle and witty humor the next. Cheers to you and the best of luck with your channel!

[@vesch5083]

I have been making my way back through your videos, and this one is hands down my favorite so far. Wow, you had me laughing. I'm glad I watched this after sending my kid to bed. 😄

[@crowatheart]

The Magicians is one of those instances where I tried to love the books and just could not. I hated the books. I started the show expecting to hate it, but actually loved it - until the last season. I actually love the show. I am so disappointed by the season finale, but I up until then, loved it. This is one of those cases where I found the book to just be God awful, but the show to be delightful.

[@ColorfulBooknester]

I understand about the forced reads in high school for the classics, I am thinking perhaps I need to do something like this on my channel. What we don't like tells a lot about who we are as readers, as much as what we do like. I hope you are talking about The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland.... by Valente - it was very whimsical and I enjoyed it a great deal. I love that you also mentioned Wicked - was one of the first books that I read because of the hype around it, thought there was something wrong about me. Friggen Tedmon!!! Laughing very hard right now!

[@MichaelaDrechselova]

My most hated book is one I had to read for school when I was around 18. It's translated as The Cowards, written by Josef Škovercký. I just couldn't finish it. People praise it and love it, it's one of the big classics of my country... But I can't see any merit in the writing style. It was such a painful reading experience. Just remembering the little I read makes me so angry! 😄 Another one I didn't like is I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal. We Czechs love our long complex sentences. But having one sentence per paragraph (I remember one longer than a page) is a stylistic choice I simply don't understand. I'm almost inclined to check the English translation. Translating such a book shouldn't be (technically) possible... I don't want to sound overly critical, there are Czech books I love immensely. But the authors mentioned above seem to get international recognition and I can't see why.

[@DramaLlama2310]

I also hate The Magicians - it was awful in all the ways... Then two of my other least favourite books are The Catcher in the Rye and Sex and the City (the latter I chucked in the recycling because I didn't want to inflict it on anyone else).

[@inksplat]

I don’t even know if this counts because I didn’t finish it at all, and immediately packed it up with a bunch of other books I wanted to unusual, and took it to the used bookstore to get rid of it, but “Girl, Wash Your Face” was the worst book for me. It pissed me off at page 13, I almost threw the book across the room. I made myself finish the chapter, so I rage-read to page 20 and was like nope... and made it leave my house. 😂

[@baleek4367]

Manda B Rachel Hollis is the worst and a MLM monster

[@inksplat]

Bal Eek yeah, i didn’t know anything about her before I got the book. I bought it because it was everywhere and so many people that i knew were telling me how amazing it was, but yikes. It wasn’t and neither is she, and now I rethink my friends’ reading recommendations, lol.

[@baleek4367]

Manda B Yeah, she’s marketed as a woman empowering other women when actually she seems to be a pretty big scammer ! No surprise you didn’t like the book, a lot of people don’t and felt patronized by it

[@bookslikewhoa]

Oh interesting-- yeah, haven't read that one, but it's definitely been pushed hard

[@ChaoticBibliophile]

I love a salty list! What a great video. I have read none of these except Siddhartha, which I actually thought was alright but I don’t think I would like if I reread it now.

[@maciedixon3983]

Omigod I am so with you on call of the wild. Around the same age too

[@hannahjuliot7313]

Omg I haven't thought about Wicked in forever! I also read the book after loving the musical, and hated the book. I was so confused how they made it so much about religion, and so depressing somehow?? Now I want to think back and find other books I've hated, I know there's a lot lol

[@bookslikewhoa]

YES, it was such a weird book :/

[@isabelageekarts8947]

I liked it but only some characters, the writting is hard to get through to the point of exaustion and some parts that, to me, wasn't that important! Took almost a year to finish it because by the half to the end of the book was sooo hard to get through! It's not bad i though it would be but wasn't great like most people say about it.

[@designyourcards]

You've convinced me to try The Magicians! I just put it on hold at the library.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Haha hope you enjoy it more than I did!

[@missanne629]

I despised Call of the Wild! I had to read it in 7th grade. I’m not a fan of wildernesses survival stories either, but what really got me was that there was a Newfoundland dog in the second chapter who...didn’t make it. We had a Newfie at the time and it felt like a personal insult. I’m sure it’s well written, but I still hate it!

[@tara5742]

I listened to the Magians audiobook before the show came out and absolutely loved it. I'm not well-read. I'm a relatively new reader for pleasure having cut my teeth on Harry Potter in college 20 years ago. Ha! Maybe that's more for the argument that it's not very well written. I read the Magician's trilogy twice even! In fact, I was just thinking I wanted to listen to another book by the Magician's narrator. He had this great style of really making fun of the protagonist.

[@tara5742]

BTW, not me that thumbs down. I'd never do that

[@bookslikewhoa]

Hey, different strokes for different folks! There's a reader for every book :)

[@Kekinda]

I read the first Magicians book after I watched at least 3 seasons of the TV Series, that I might say, I love, the book though, I couldn’t care less . I was able to finish the first one but I DNF’ed the second deciding that I would stick with the show that is loosely based on the books.

[@bookslikewhoa]

I've heard the show is better than the books, so that's something at least

[@sklakamp1]

Totally agree about Wicked. Such a great idea so, so poorly executed.

[@vamps_rock]

I actively try to forget books that I've disliked so don't have a definitive list, but a couple, in particular, I do recall are Violin and Vittorio the Vampire both by Anne Rice. I tried to read both about 3 or 4 times in the past and couldn't even get past the first few chapters. And, funnily enough, Anne Rice also wrote one of my top 3 books of all time - The Witching Hour and a few others I would say are in my top 20ish. Odd. Actually, others come to mind now that I'm thinking of it. Another couple are whole series' (cos I find it so hard to let go!); The Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neill and Anna Strong, Vampire by Jeanne C. Stein both for _many_ reasons and also the insufferable MC's in the first. Lastly, the first 3 in the Men Of The North series by Elin Peer were a total abomination of what could have been a fantastic futuristic dystopian romance where matriarchal world meets patriarchal world but was pure misogynistic SHIT that I found highly offensive. Major disappointment over that one. Other than that, I read _a lot_ of indie romance, so in terms of numbers, the majority of what I have actively disliked or hated is by self-published authors with some already low R&R counts. Because of the fact that they are already so low on the totem pole, and most indie books (like the romance genre overall) get a bad rep, or just 'othered' by certain sectors of the reading community in general, I choose not to name and shame them individually other than via my Goodreads R&R's. TFS :)

[@AmandaInEly]

Ah, The Witching Hour. Why my daughter is named Rowan. I think it's a bad book, mind but I did guilty enjoy it.

[@kimberlybigler5864]

The Magicians is also my least favorite book ever! I loathed it with a passion. I usually DNF books I dont like but I hate finished it and complained about it to anyone who would listen for months. As you were talking about it I kept thinking, Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

[@leadinglady]

The way you feel about The Call of the Wild is the way I feel about Narnia. Everyone in my elementary school class loved it, and I just... really hated it, even as a third grader!

[@bookslikewhoa]

I love Narnia, but can see how it's not for everyone

[@heatherj406]

I also don’t like the book Wicked but love the musical. I also don’t like The Book Thief 😔

[@monica_has116lentilsand2cats]

dang, i really enjoyed that! i love salty takes on... anything, really. 💯 and now i absolutely have to think about which books i hated the most, made me mad. fun! 🤓🤓🤓 🐾🐾📚

[@rebelbelle1388]

I'm totally with you on Wicked. Loved the musical, HATED the book with a passion. Made me not want to continue with any of his books. Along the lines of your Magicians hate, the book I hate the most is The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury because it is a BLATANT rip off of Dan Brown's works. Just. Ew.

[@CharlesHeathcote]

Agatha Christie is a favourite of mine and yet I've never heard of Passenger to Frankfurt. I never managed to finish The Magicians as I couldn't bear it. Pleased to discover your least favourites. Now I must think about what my least favourite book is ... I tend to just stop reading the one's I'm not enjoying, so I'd definitely have to dig deep to recognise that one.

[@sandy-bp5el]

Not sure I'd enjoy reading Siddhartha either but enjoyed the heck out of listening to Adrian Praetzellis narrate it on Librivox. :-)

[@TheGoofy1932]

Hands down Moby Dick is my least favorite book with Old Man and The Sea a very close second. (it's only saving grace being that it's shorter than Moby Dick) Not sure why our public education system likes to torture children by making them read Herman Melville. It's painful.

[@meljstephan]

My all time least favorite that I remember being physically unable to finish is The Stranger by Albert Camus. It was a reading assignment for a philosophy class I took in college and everything else we read was at least interesting but this book made me genuinely miserable. Nihilist literature just is not my vibe. Edit: To be fair, I was reading the English translation, so maybe it would be better in original French. I don't speak French but I probably still would have preferred to read the French version.

[@glitterpenguines123]

Melissa Stephan I read The Plague by Albert Camus. It was so bad I had to finish it by audiobook because I couldn’t bear to read it. Terrible. Just terrible. So I get what you mean about his writing

[@paulinelafford4773]

Yes, The Plaque was a difficult read. So slow but perhaps that is what it is like in quarantine. I thought The Stranger, a more well known book by Camus, might be a better read but after Melissa’s comment maybe not. I hesitate to try it now.

[@bookslikewhoa]

I liked The Stranger, but to be fair, I read it in my French Lit class, so I got to have a full book discussion about it to help me appreciate it

[@AmandaInEly]

I think The Plague is a much more popular book in 2020!

[@glitterpenguines123]

I read Call of the Wild in 8th grade advanced English and it was so hard for me? It was probably because there’s no dialogue. You basically read a really long monologue. Plus the tests we had to take for it were lowkey hard but they were nothing compared to 9TH grade honors English. I barely survived that. Literally.

[@outi3852]

Haha, you actually mentioned two of my favourites, The Call of the Wild & Siddhartha 😁 While I really enjoyed them, I can easily why they're not for everyone. Wicked sounded like a book I would love, but I found it to be mostly boring and was massively disappointed. I have a couple of books I remember really, really hating. Read them when I was 12-16 & hadn't yet realized you could DNF books. First is the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, disliked the first book but wanted to see where the story went and my dislike grew until I absolutely hated it by the end of the series. The second is Gone with the Wind. I know, it's a classic, and I don't think it's bad, but I hated Scarlett with such passion that I couldn't enjoy the book. The last is some religious youth novel from the 50s I found at my grandma's. Teenaged girl is a regular angsty teenager, goes to a school dance, meets a Bad Boy, almost starts dating him but feels more angsty, goes to youth club at church, finds Jesus, gets over all angst, meets a nice religious boy. Thought it was absolutely boring and not even well written. But I learned to DNF after that, so perhaps it had a silver lining 😀

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yeah, I DNFed Gone with the Wind-- I just didn't get the hype & combined with a lot of elements that haven't aged well... not something I need to get through :D

[@SHANAYATALES]

I haven't read any of those books, and now I am glad I didn't. And tbh I was surprised to see a Christie here, but I get it. This was a fun video. Worth the wait.

[@taccora]

I'm a Kristen Ashley fan and I have to honestly say that her unfinished heroes series aren't amongst my favorite at all so I'm not surprised that Raid was on your worst books list. I've read everything she's written with the exception of her Mathilda book and her new audible original fantasy series and I'm on the fence about that Audible Original series because the way Book 1 started...well, I already know it's not to my taste but I feel like I'm leaving something unfinished if I don't give the 4 audiobooks a try.

[@Wats06071]

From your list I have read only "Call of the Wild". I read it when I was about 15/16 during summer holidays. If my memory serves I liked it, but didn't love it (around 65% mark). I don't have long list of worst books, because I simply don't finish books that I don't enjoy. That said, my least favourite book of the last 15 years that I finished (It was book club reading) is "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern.

[@bookslikewhoa]

I DNFed The Night Circus :/

[@Wats06071]

@@bookslikewhoa Good for you lol

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Omg yes Magicians!!! Hated it so much.

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

And I had the same experience with Call of the Wild as well. Everyone else seemed to like it?

[@bookslikewhoa]

Ugh, it makes me so mad... I know some people love it, but it's big fat not for me

[@klh3688]

100% agree with Raid!!!

[@Seolhe]

The only one of these I've read is Call of the Wild, which I remember liking at the time I read it, but that was when I was like 12-14, so I have no idea what I'd think about it today. I think some of the books I hated reading the most, not including books I dnf'd, would be The Lovely Bones, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Death in Venice, Orlando and The Dark Wife. I also really disliked The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis but it doesn't infuriate me as much as the rest of the list, so I'll leave it as an honourable mention.

[@eriklonnrot3578]

I was on the fence about trying the Magicians, but I think you’ve successfully dissuaded me. I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions, but bad, edgelord Narnia ripoff? Nah. Edmund -> Tedmund, lol

[@cozyafternoons]

100% agree about The Magicians 😂 I hated it so much

[@terryhickman7929]

At last! Someone else who hated The Magicians as much as I did! I read it because my son bought it for me because I love Harry Potter. Eek-urrp, nope!

[@AikiraBeats]

A book that I hated from last year was leveller I forgot the author, but it was about a girl who had to save a boy that got lost in a video game

[@SimplySaraReads]

I agree with space opera it was horrific. It felt as if it intentionally wanted me to feel less educated with how it was written. I will not try another one of hers ever!

[@krakentoagoodbook]

I tried to watch the show version of The Magicians and couldn't even make it through the first episode. I have zero desire to read the book.

[@puirYorick]

Some of the classics made me hate Literature classes through HS for the reasons you mentioned. I just didn't like the material and many of them were on the HS reading list simply because the school board had bought them and were too cheap to buy anything else. The idea of doing an essay on books I could hardly stand to read made me despise LIT at the time.

[@firewhiskeyreader8257]

I also really hated The Magicians and I just... do not get it??? Like. Why do people like it? I feel like usually I can wrap my head around why people like a book, but that one? Not at all.

[@cherylclough4309]

I on exactly the same page you are with the Hesse book, but I enjoyed Wicked and I think I read one other which was Okay.

[@SonyaandSidney]

I didn't like Wicked either. I saw the musical and loved it, but the book.. eh. I also did not like Go Ask Alice and The Pirate and the Assassin Lord, which is a short story from the Throne of Glass series. It made me sure I didn't want to read that series, so worth the 99 cents.

[@Vickynger]

my most hated book of all time has to be the bone witch by rin chupeco... i dont know why, but that one got me alternating between angry and annoyed so much that i only finished it to be able to write a full and accurate rant review about it. i do love me some YA fantasy, but that one really thought it did something with its structure and plot twists when it actually... wasnt all that, sis. additionally to the world building and character work being completely undercooked, naturally. but the beautiful by renee ahdieh comes in at a close second, tho. damn those YA fantasies be disappointing sometimes.

[@halliehurst4847]

I meh on the Magicians books but liked the premise enough to start watching the TV show, which was great for three and a half seasons (and very different from the books). However, the ending of the fourth season was so bad its made me take the magicians books off my shelves. Gonna charity shop them. First time a TV show has been so bad it made me retroactively hate the book!

[@rosiealma4276]

This is the second comment dissing the season finale.i haven't watched the show because it's on pay tv here in Australia and I'm not paying for that. Can you give me a spoilery run down of what happened that everyone hates?

[@halliehurst4847]

Samantha S Oh boy, you ready for this? FYI you said spoiler-y so I’m gonna give them to you. Cw: suicide, mental illness. The short version: they killed off the main character. The long version: There were a few reasons that other people hate it I’ve heard floating around but for me it was killing off the main character. The main character Quentin starts the show insecure and depressed (in a mental hospital) and watching him grow in confidence over the seasons only to be killed off was enough to make me stop watching. Quentin was a character I hugely emphasised with and I don’t like characters being killed for shock value (which the creators made very clear, that’s what this was, but more on that later). The second big thing for me was the third season really didn’t make sense, plot wise yes, but in terms of character motivations no. For example Quentin spends the season trying to rescue his former love interest Eliot, Eliot realises he still has feelings for Quentin then... Quentin stops trying to rescue Eliot and randomly gets back with his ex-girlfriend. Which would maybe make sense but there was a whole episode earlier on in season 3 dedicated to tying the lose ends of their relationship up and I just... a big plus for the show for me had been that it wasn’t relationship focused and that was way too much confusing relationship drama for me. The writing had gotten really nonsensical (this wasn’t the only example of this but probably the most notable, just character arcs and plot lines being completely dropped) and the fun spark I’d loved in the first place completely disappears in the final few episodes of that season. Finally, something that made me incredibly uncomfortable was the creators treatment of Quentin death. This wasn’t actually a contributing factor in me stopping watching because I’d already decided I wasn’t going to continue by that point, but something that kinda made me view the whole series negatively. Basically a friend who was REALLY into the show showed me quotes from the creators about how ‘killing off a white male hero’ was revolutionary. Which 1) it’s not and that’s a weird thing to say 2) Quentin was a white male but he was also a mentally ill bisexual. I have a background in mental health and Bisexual males are at a higher risk of mental illness and suicide than other LGBT+ groups besides transgender people. In the same article they spoke about asking charities for advice or something but that rang very untrue as if they’d consulted any lgbt charity I imagine having your bisexual, mentally ill, previously suicidal main character sacrifice himself would have been brought up as something that needed to be handled carefully, which it wasn’t. Not even that, it was just badly written and confusing. (To be fair they had a suicide warning before the episode and helplines after so perhaps that’s what they were referring to.) It really rubbed me the wrong way, the show portrayed itself as very ‘woke’ but the attitude of the creators soured my whole opinion of the previous series. Two seconds research would have show that there was nothing revolutionary in what they were doing. The books are VERY different to the show, but now every time I see the covers I just get frustrated and the show just reminds me off all the things the books did badly, and the books themselves remind me of what the show did badly and it’s just a vicious cycle. So yeah they’re in a bag somewhere headed for a charity shop. There was more drama, if you can believe it, Lev Grossman spoke out against the ending then backtracked, the actors didn’t know he would be killed off until they shot the scene, burry your gays trope used for the second time on the show, especially after a lot of focus on Quentin and Eliot’s relationship in interviews and promos, Syfy took down bad reviews of the episode, erasure of Quentins bisexuality by the creators (making a big deal about how the next season would only have minority characters and female characters as the leads, but the fact they’d had a bisexual lead the whole time so that’s a minority? And a mentally ill lead? I just didn’t get their logic) the creators blocking fans no matter if they were being respectful or not, the actors making snide comments about the show. I had a couple of friends who were really into the fandom side of it (I don’t have Twitter or anything) and there was a fun period where one of them would text me another plot hole they’d spotted in season 4 and the other would go ‘guess what they be said now!’ Apparently season 5 is kinda all over the place but not as bad as season 4 but I’d have to pay for so there’s another reason not to watching. The whole situation just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Edit: I keep saying season 3. It’s season 4.

[@rosiealma4276]

@@halliehurst4847 Damn. As someone who is both bi and loved the books because I could empathise with Quentin, that blows. That the writers are writing for shock value and audience reaction rather than for the story is just irritating if they wanted to be revolutionary, they already had the perfect character by having a mentally ill male as the main character. It's not something you see, but it is something common in the real world. Thank you for that. I saw the first episode when they aired it for free somewhere and this has really put me off watching it so I'm glad I didn't waste money on it. I'll just reread the books.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Oh man, that sounds like... a lot. Geez. Yeah, in general, I've heard the show is way better than the books, but that's sounds messy

[@glitterpenguines123]

My least favs: 1. The Odyssey by Homer😭😖 2. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. A children’s book that I have no idea what was going on in. 3. Call of the Wild by Jack London though I MAY give it another try. 4. The Plague by Albert Camus 5. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen 6. The Wicked Will Rise in the modern Oz series by Danielle Paige. The first book was great. The second, not so much. 7. Antigone by Sophocles. I have no idea what happened. 8. Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. Again. No idea what happened. 9. Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. Just terrible except for “Et tu, Brute?” 10. Cam Jansen and the Tennis Trophy Mystery by David Adler. This was the first book I ever HATED. I was like 8. Just terrible.

[@beautynscience2010]

Great video. The way you feel about the Hesse book is how I feel about "A Tale of Two Cities". It ruined high school English for me. This book is probably why I dislike "classics"!!!!

[@MaryAmongStories]

I tried reading The Call of the Wild and couldn't really get into it!

[@Ann86dk]

I don't have a lot of books that comes to mind that I absolutely hate. If I dislike a book I most often park it and don't think about it again. One I remember not liking at all when I read it was When Dimple Met Rishi - which is one of those I've hated more once I've mulled things over. Then there's the one required reading from school called Min Ven Thomas (My Friend Thomas) which I kind of liked until big plot twist Thomas died of AIDS so he's gay happened. Even then I knew that was not right (I was 14 I think).

[@bookslikewhoa]

I also really did not like When Dimple Met Rishi - just not for me :/

[@rosiealma4276]

Yeah, I loved The Magicians. They weren't perfect but I kind of felt a kinship with Quentin. I understood his depression and the stupid mistakes he would make. I hadn't read Harry Potter when I read it and have only read the first book since, so I actually went into it with doubts because people compared it to HP. Ever thought about rereading Call of the Wild now that you're older? I just reread one of my favourites from my teenage years and couldn't believe how much I disliked it. Time changes the way we feel about some books.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Possibly, though not this year! Too many book plans as is :D

[@arp711]

I FORGIVE YOU FOR HATING WICKED I am one of those who adored it but okaaaaayyyyyyyyy it's not for everyone I guess :P The first book that always pops into my head as far as least favorite is Lord of the Flies. Had to read that in English class in my freshman year of high school and I've been bitter about it for all 26 years since then.

[@Dollarsigns6654]

I haven’t read any of these, but my least favorite book ever is “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. I had to read it for school in 4th grade and despised it. I haven’t read it in a very long time, so I don’t know if my opinion would be different now. That’s the only book I can think of that I truly “hated”.

[@emilyb4812]

aw i liked that one :( but honestly i can see why you as a fourth grader didn’t like it, it’s very slow lol

[@beththereadingwife5127]

Totally agree about The Magicians. I hated that book. I wanted to un read the book.

[@lovemyne22]

I HATED Wicked!! I was so strangely happy to see this on your list. LOL. I'm pretty sure as soon as I closed the last page I drove it straight to the donation bin!!!

[@gerberjoanne266]

I just finished "Passenger to Frankfurt," and I was also disappointed. Christie's depiction of political movements in the 1960s was silly and muddled, almost cartoonish. And the ending was a too-quick wrap-up that made little sense. There were amusing sections to the book, but it was ultimately unsatisfying. I now understand why, of all her books, I had never heard of this one until I stumbled across it recently.

[@Bookswithcassandra]

I read the sequel to the magicians without knowing that it was a sequel and not the first book. It was still so so bad and I pushed my way through. I am not a DNFer, but if I was I would have put it down.

[@alkonostX]

I love Tedmund

[@beachblingbooks6521]

Lol. Thank you for the chuckle☺ You crack me up and I love it💜🤣🤣 My worst book as an adult has to be 50 Shades of Grey. Not only were the characters ridiculous, (college student without a laptop, etc, etc) but the writing was just bad. All round badly written prose, plot and characterization. Just yuck.🤮

[@mastersal4644]

Gird my loins - I know I am already going to love this video. I generally find you respectful even when roasting with salt. Also - I agree about Raid. I remember I gave it two stars because I kept thinking it was me who just didn’t get the book. I hated it. Never gave the author another chance. Wonder if I should.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Meh- she's got some books I love, but it's very hit or miss

[@mastersal4644]

@@bookslikewhoa Which ones did you love ? May try one of those when I run through all of the 3000 I have on my TBR

[@TheBookishMom]

I have always loved classics, even when I was really young ( Jack London is my FAVORITE). It actually may break my heart that you hate Call of the Wild... Honestly though, it isn't one of my favorite of London's books though. Sea Wolf is probably his best book ( in my opinion)I actually liked Siddhartha though, but I think I was the only one in my high school class who did enjoy it though. I've never read Wicked, but I also LOVE the musical so it is probably one I will pass on for sure!

[@bookslikewhoa]

I'm definitely in the minority on Call of the Wild-- it's a classic for a reason! :)

[@TheBookishMom]

@@bookslikewhoa I do want to go see the movie, but that may bc I love Harrison Ford 🤣

[@Lila_S.]

Ok, there are many books I dnf-d, felt indifferent about, but few of them stuck in my mind as awful: One of the books that invoke this visceral feeling of hate and annoyance is Nightfall by Anne Stuart. I read it because a very well knows review site gave it an A, but I still have no idea why because it's a clusterfuck. The other one is The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney- I really viscerally disliked this novel and still get annoyed every time I see it mentioned.

[@annelooney1090]

I used to DNF books a lot more so a lot of the time when I didn't like a book I would be bored by it, not finish it, and just give up on it. The only book I remember really resenting from having to read in school was House of God by Samuel Shem. I just thought it was sexist in this really self-satisfied "I'm smarter than all these dumb nurses I'm fucking" sort of way. My other least favorite books are Ender's Game, Looking for Alaska, Lunatic Fringe by Allison Moon, and then there was this YA book whose name I've forgotten. It was about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire and discovers a group of vampires. Then it turns out they weren't actually vampires, they were just goths, and there's no such thing as vampires. Describing it, it sounds funny, but it's not played as a joke at all, it was like some sort of straight-faced cautionary tale to kids about how vampires don't exist. And I was like, thanks, I already knew that, I only bought this book because I know fiction is the only way to experience vampires. I was so mad about my time being wasted like that.

[@AmandaInEly]

That book just sounds patronising and rude.

[@thelibrarianofalexandria6200]

I almost don`t want to like this video, because then it would have 43 likes and not 42(towels are important). For real though, loved this video. I agree salt is good every now and then. I just posted a salty video myself. I am the same there arent many books I HATE that I can talk about, if I dislike it I oftem simply forget it. If I had to choose, I think it would be Alexandra and ugh.. cant for the life of me remember the name but it was awful went around booktube a few years ago, it was set in russia around the first world war.Edit: I remembered it was The bronze horweman by paulina simons.

[@foxedfolios]

TheLibrarianofAlexandria Don’t Panic! She’s up to 213 likes now and yet the Universe is still here. It’s probably all thanks to those super smart dolphins.... ps Are we so unhip that our bums might fall off?? 😄😉

[@winterreader7690]

My all time hated books are 2 series. The 50 shades books are the only ones I've ever wanted to burn, never read a worse pile of garbage. I I truly dislike the Lord of the Rings books(I know this is an unpopular opinion) they're just so incredibly boring, I finished them out of spite.

[@mikegseclecticreads]

My all time least favorite book was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

[@remyhocage9854]

Ha Ha Ha ! Love your ranting honesty. I'm adding this in 2021 but I'm still angry about "Women Who Run With Wolves." Read half of it 14 yrs ago & am still fuming. It was touted a an insightful book on emerging feminism. But it was poorly written & stated obvious themes (as if only the author divined the allegories). Author claimed she spoke 3 languages & wrote each sentence 3 times. Same sentence worded differently 3 times ! I could accept this if each sentence was in a different language but no - all in english ! Maybe the book became insightful in the second half but I was too angry to finish the book. (I still don't know why so many women found it profoundly important!)

[@debralavoie9095]

Excellent video! I didn't like the author who wrote Wicked. Couldn't pinpoint why, didn't sit well I guess. The Magicians TV series was interesting the first season, lost interest after the story lost IT. Whatever that is. So many books, so little time, read what ya love! Have a fantastic day.

[@RoseRamblesYT]

I like the distinction you made of truly disliking books that stuck with you, and books that you didn't enjoy but are essentially forgettable. With that in mind, at this moment I honestly can't think of a book that I truly hated or was sorely disappointed in. I guess I've done a good job of avoiding truly bad books, at least for me, haha. The Call of the Wild, I've seen the trailer for the movie adaptation, and a big reason I was like "pass" is because the dog in the movie looks 100% CGI. I already felt detached from this clearly important dog because of this. Nope, I would need a real dog, thanks.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Oh weird-- I wonder why they didn't cast a real dog? Maybe it was too dangerous or something

[@RoseRamblesYT]

@@bookslikewhoa It's quite possible there were scenes too dangerous for a real dog, but to have a CGI dog what looks like the whole movie? Ehhh, not for me.

[@dannigreen7126]

I've been watching your channel from the very beginning and this list is so interesting to hear. Although we don't have the 1:1 tastes, we do approach books similarly. One of the worst books I've ever read is The Rook. Whenever you mention your love for it, I genuinely cringe. I don't read fantasy at all, so I decided that I'd try to give urban fantasy a try because perhaps I'd only been reading subgenres that I hate. OH MAN. The book started off amazing! I thought it would be a 5-star read FOR SURE. But then it dropped to great, and then good, and then acceptable, and then deplorable. I felt like the author was daring me to hate the book. The book got worse and worse as it went on that I truly felt Daniel O'Malley lost a bet. Why didn't his editor say ANYTHING? If they did, WHY DIDN'T HE LISTEN? The characters were stupid; the novel deflates at the part that was supposed to be the most suspenseful; and O'Mally breaks the rules/parameters of believability for his world! I cannot speak lowly enough of this novel. It is easily the most disappointing novelI've read in recent memory.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Haha, well, proof that different books work for different people as I 100% disagree :). But if we all had the same opinions, none of these discussions would be fun

[@dannigreen7126]

@@bookslikewhoa Absolutely! Which is what makes it all so interesting

[@godslittlestidiot2984]

I also dont really have hated books, none stick on me. I will say some things that get close to hated, worst books I've read STRANGE THE DREAMER by taylor* VICIOUS by schuab ABSOLAM ABSOLAM BY Faulkner INFERNAL DEVICE (or something to that effect) by Jeter I'm sure there's more but these are the ones I actively dislike and think about how much I hate them *read as an adult and therefore don't feel comfortable saying its objectively the worst as a teen might very well enjoy it

[@amritasengupta5251]

Why did you hate vicious ?

[@godslittlestidiot2984]

@@amritasengupta5251 I was outrageously bored and I spent like 20 bucks on that book.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yeah, most books I don't like I delete from my mental hard drive :)

[@ruthg7524]

I DESPISE Wicked.

[@jamieturner7902]

I love your videos!

[@nupadia1864]

The book I hate the most is The Kingdom of Little Wounds. I didn't even finish it, but it has stuck with me for years. Its shelved as YA, but imo its content is in no way appropriate for children or teens and it genuinely makes me mad (I personally accidentally stumbled upon it as a young teen and it kinda traumatised me)

[@victoriacalvert7499]

The one book that comes to mind for me is one that I tried to read last October and that's "Practical Magic". I hated this book. So much so that it put me into a reading slump that I am just now getting over. I was so disappointed because I absolutely love the movie. This is one case where I think the movie far outshines the book material that it comes from. I'm not sure what it is but I think I'm done with Alice Hoffman books. I've tried another one of hers and put it down because I again just really did not like it.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Woof, you know a book is bad if it puts you in a slump :/

[@southerncanuck1605]

Omg I hated The Magicians too!! It was also sold to me as the next Harry Potter and I felt so duped and disappointed. (Side note - I had a similar, foreboding feeling mid way through reading Nevermoor but it redeemed itself and I ended up enjoying it. I think publishers and reviewers should maybe just stop hyping books in comparison to HP). I also really didn’t like Wicked! Another up there for me was The Goldfinch. Fun video, thanks! You always make me laugh ☺️

[@bookslikewhoa]

For real, I don't know why people compare books to HP-- setting the author up for failure :/

[@LienesLibrary]

rant rant rant rant - one of us, one of us, one of us... you couldn't come up with 10? I would have 50 XD the way you hate Space Opera I'm just dying to know what you'd think of Deathless, which I thought was genius I have wanted to want to read The Magicians for forever, but your rancor makes me feel vindicated in my disinterest...

[@bookslikewhoa]

Ugh, don't read The Magicians. The world building is not good, you would hate it :/

[@floydshady2]

Shining by Stephen king and and doctor sleep by Stephen king dr Jekyll and mr Hyde

[@cherylclough4309]

Oh, enjoyed the video!

[@tessnorman9362]

Call of the Wild haters rise.. I also read that book in middle school and I just remember being bored and depressed. The first book I actively hated was probably Old Yeller though, because I just hate dog books I guess.

[@wasinhell1983]

Worst book I've ever read and finished, and this might be controversial is Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky or however you spell that. The worst book I've ever not been able to finish is The Tiger Catcher by Paulina Simons

[@iconoclastic-fantastic]

SAME with Call of the Wild! I hated that book, I was bored too. I love animals but I don't think I like books from an animal's point of view.

[@ameebe21]

I couldn’t even finish the first episode of the tv series for The Magicians. Never tried the book and I doubt I will! My least favorite is probably A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. I hated him. He was the worst.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yeah, I loved the first part of Portrait, but it was ruined for me in the ending

[@parkercrystal1]

OMG yes Siddhartha is so boring!!!

[@skeletonkeybooks]

I like salty reviews of books, even if I liked the book myself. I'm enjoying Space Opera, but yeah, it's a distinct flavor. I know I read Passenger to Frankfurt, but it was in middle or high school, when I was just gobbling down Christies, so a lot of them kind of ran together. That's part of why I'm doing a chronological re-read, now that I have a clue about historical context and adult relationships. If I had to choose at this point, I'd say her worst is Postern of Fate. And I feel bad about that because she was so clearly in cognitive decline and her editors did what they could and it's still just an absolute mess.

[@bookslikewhoa]

I've heard Postern of Fate is terrible-- it's one of the 7 books from her I haven't gotten to yet, so... we shall see!! :/

[@kathyarrr]

So deliciously salty, I doubled my high blood pressure meds. 😜👍