Oh paperback of little worth
Why I bought you I do not know
Within your plot there is a dearth
Of a hint of narrative flow
Clichés so bad they hurt my head
Humour that leaves me without mirth
I’ve gone as far as I can go
And I will leave the rest unread
James Proclaims! 
29 responses to “Lost In A Bad Book”
Oh so true. Theres a price to pay when you pick up the three -for- a -fiver at the paper Plus.
It was a long hard and boring road
Working my way through the Da Vinci Code,
Even with half a spare hour to sit me down
I found it difficult digesting Dan Brown.
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The genius of Dan Brown is that he has written the same bad novel about five or six times and just changed a few of the names and he has made a fortune from it. I would write a bad novel if I could make that kind of money…
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There must be a copy -two or more- of DVC in every opshop/Oxfam/Charity Shop/skip behind The Bookshop in the English speaking world.
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I read a book like that. It was a spy novel with “Robert Ludlum” in big letters on the cover. It was terrible. About halfway through, I looked at the cover again. It read, “Based on a character created by ROBERT LUDLUM”. The real author’s name was in tiny letters.
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I’ve come across those. Not the most honest way of selling books. I’m thinking of basing a business model on that concept…
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I know that feeling a bit too well. I have picked up a number of free e-books over the past year or so. Even though they didn’t cost anything, I still think I paid too much.
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My ebook is free. There are no refunds…
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Seems this ditty has definitely struck a cord.
Having endured a bad book seems to be almost a completely universal experience.
For a future post James, how about some well-thought-out lines dedicated to the ‘ol bad film experience?
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I’ve seen my fair share so it’s definitely a possibility
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I wanted to leave the rest of this post unread, but it was too short.
😉
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And that is why I write so many short posts…
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It took me years to realise I was not at school or college any more; I didn’t have to finish reading a book if I didn’t like it.
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I still find it quite difficult to give up but sometimes it’s the lesser evil
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If at first you don’t succeed………………give up!
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Just sensible advice really
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Ah. The beauty of books. You can put it down if it’s bad. The opposite can be true, too, though and you can’t put it down no matter how hard you try.
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That is a better problem though
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True…
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What a great topic for a poem! (I’m now reading Mary L. Trump’s book on her uncle, President Trump. It’s interesting and she is really credible. I do recommend it.)
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It certainly sounds better than the book I’m currently (not) reading.
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How very gregarious of you to even write poems for terrible books.
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I like to do my bit
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[…] realisation was triggered when James recently proclaimed on the pain of being lost in a bad book and was compounded when I noticed that Goodreads are celebrating my preferred genres with Science […]
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You didn’t like my book then?
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Awkward silence…
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Ah yes… bad books. What I find REALLY frustrating is when I keep going, convinced that it will improve. When I reach the end and find it hasn’t, I feel cheated. Especially at the current time when a bit of escapism is as vital to pir survival as food and water.
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*our, not pir! Sorry – commenting via mobile isn’t very user-friendly!
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I have found some really good books second hand, like an almost new copy of Three Men In A Boat at a charify shop in Indiana for 10 cents, or Conquest 1066 which was a brilliant historical novel that I found in a pile outside of our hotel room in Majorca several years ago.
But then you come across books that you just can’t get into, ones where the author’s style of writing just agravates you, or the story line takes too long to come together and you keep losing the plot.
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I nearly always prefer books that someone has passed on to me rather the ones I’ve bought. I’m not great at choosing books – I tend to judge them by their covers…
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