Ian Daniel Stewart

The Most Boring Books Ever Written

As I’ve done with The Stupidest Books Ever Written, here’s a selection of careful and considered mini-reviews highlighting the most boring-est books. Presented without comment, for obvious reasons.

Of Mice and Men

I would have to say another book which I found to be rather boring is Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, I do not care for him overall as an author, he will take like 5 pages to describe the same field
Romeo

David Copperfield

David Copperfield made me want to kill small, furry animals
Vanilla

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is the most horribly boring book I’ve ever read. Every other book I’ve ever read has had at least some redeeming value about it, but Wuthering Heights was just… ugh… I love reading, but I’d rather get kicked in the balls every two minutes than read that again…
HasBeenCorrected

The Rape of The Lock

i don’t really care for alexander pope’s poetry(e.g. the rape of the lock). the rhymings are kinda awkward and the contents are boring. i’d say they are the worst i’ve read so far.
finnegan’s wake

The Catcher in The Rye, Emperor’s New Clothes, All of Shakespeare

Catcher in the Rye – like the Emporer’s New Clothes, I think none of the pro’s are willing to admit it is a terrible read. As for Shakespeare, he is probably an acquired taste. His work becomes intelligent and funny after studying with a Shakespeare-phile. Without that, you really miss the point.
amandamorgan

Lord of The Rings

I have to say LOTR even though I pretended to myself I liked it I didn’t, I lied to myself man. There are so little action…parts. Where in the movie theres a lot, like that whole final battle in the end of the first one never happened in the book.
DMWMDK

The Art of War

It would be a stretch to call it the worst… but I had an extremely hard time completing “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu… I delved into the book expecting tactical information on warfare that could be translated universally to everyday conflicts… unfortunately, i didn’t get much out of the book…
Andrew

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  1. Imani

    Poor Steinbeck. That novel of his always gets beat up in these sort of rings. The “Wuthering Heights” choice is particularly bewildering: the book is many things, and I can hardly stand it, but I wouldn’t accuse Emily Bronte of having written a *boring* book/

    Reply
  2. Clemens

    Alas, most such negative comments reveal more about the mental equipment of the commenter than anything worthwhile about the book. Just take a look at the comments on Amazon.com.

    Reply
  3. Chris

    Have to agree with Clemens.

    Reply
  4. Ian Stewart

    I wish I had of included some Watership Down bashing on this list. It’s bizarrely unpopular amongst the sort of people who answer these questions.

    Adventuring talking rabbits—what’s not to love?

    Reply
  5. Layne

    Yeah, the most BORING book I’ve ever read was A View From Saturday, a boring and confusing class novel I had to read in the 6th grade. (This is why I still remember it!)

    Reply
  6. Colin

    All of the above mentioned books have their good points, even all of the eating that goes on in LOTR. However the two most boring books ever written that I have read (and I was an academic bookseller for six years!) are Leon Trostky’s “My Life – an attempt at an autobiography” and of course Daniel Defoe’s intensely dreary Robinson Crusoe. Of course most people imagine Crusoe is a marvellous adventure because the read other versions or comics or movies. The original is one long diatribe against… well everything. Trotsky’s biography reads like the Greater London Yellow Pages – and you know, it shouldn’t – he was at the centre of the revolution in Russia.

    Reply
  7. Jessi

    Drums

    People say they’ve fallen asleep reading some books, but I can truthfully say I did reading this book. Half the time, I had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t understand any of it and I understand history/any kind of book easily. I was insulted by the authors writing.

    Reply
  8. zak

    I love Shakespeare. . . I still have the huge full portfolio from college.

    It’s Billy Budd and Moby Dick that I hated. . . Down with Herman Melville!

    Reply
  9. My Blog in 2010 | This is Ian Stewart

    […] The Most Boring Books Ever Written September 2007 8 comments 3 […]

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  10. Brittany

    Personally, I loved Of Mice and Men (just read it) and I also love Shakespeare (R&J and Macbeth) and Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorites.
    In my opinion, the most boring books I have read are: The Road, The Martian Chronicles, and Call of the Wild. All of these were required reading for school.

    Reply
  11. Cara

    THE most boring book in the world has got to be the Aeneid – I read the Odyssey and that was okay but man just try to get through a chapter of the Aeneid without dropping off to sleep!

    Reply
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