You know what they say: don’t judge a book by its cover; leave the judging for the people on the internet instead. And judge, they will! For every Books You Have To Read To Be A Respectable Member Of Society list, there’s a list bashing those very same books into obliteration for being dull, uninspiring, and plain boring. Oh yes, not every classic novel leaves the same imprint on every reader, and we bet you might agree on some of these top choices on the most boring books as submitted in this exciting Reddit thread.
Now, of course, these famous books did not become literary classics for being utterly dull - they do have extraordinary value and carry significant importance in the literary and cultural worlds. However, each reader feels a bit different about the books they read, even if we’re talking about something as famous as The Great Gatsby or Headless Horseman. I, your humble writer, deemed the latter to be an excruciatingly boring book with its pages-long descriptions of barren vistas that give absolutely no significance to the plot itself. Confusing!
And what do you think makes these iconic books so dull? Although we’re no literary critics, we think that they come off as so boring because they did not withstand the test of time. They might’ve been novel and daring way back when, but nowadays… A hundred years ago, the story might’ve been like nothing you’d read before, but now much better attempts have been made to tell the very same story. That said, even if some of these books on the list did not keep up with the passing of time, they still are significant pieces of our cultural history. You might want to cross them out of your reading list, though.
So, ready to take a look at a list of the most boring books ever, as deemed by people who have attempted to read them? If so, you know what to do here! One more thing, though - as of now, these books are in no particular order, so be cool and be kind, and rate them by their dullness!
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#21 Silas Marner By George Eliot
J3lackJ3ird0501 said: "Book was so boring I couldn't finish reading. Still to this day it is the only book I have never finished."
evilpenguin9000 replied: "Was forced to read this in 10th grade. So painful. We also watched the movie and I hated that as well. So boring, nothing happens, except some dude loves his gold and adopts a daughter.
Ugh, literary melatonin."
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4points
#22 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle By Haruki Murakami
"I know this will anger a lot of people, but man was that ever a long, meandering read that lead absolutely nowhere. 100 pages of the main character lying around ambitionless on his couch, his wife leaves for work and never returns (ok, finally something is happening), another 100 pages of him lying around on his couch, getting strange phone calls that don't end up amounting to anything, hanging out with the underage girl down the alley, meeting the lady with the large hat and her sister for lunch... Then it gets slightly interesting and supernatural at something like 400 pages in, but the story never really ties up any of the loose threads and so many things are left hanging by the end. I was so angry by the end of that book."
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4points
#23 The Red Pony By John Steinbeck
Exodiafinder687 said: "I normally love Steinbeck, but this one felt like such a let down."
dblshot99 replied: "This one. Yes. I think the problem is that steinbeck is more hit or miss than people know. For every of mice and men, there's the red pony. Or tortilla flat. His style is so evocative of the particular era and locations and in most of his stories it really works, but for some it just drags really bad. The red pony is always my answer for boring book. I'm glad it's not just me."
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3points
#24 The House On Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros
"Had to read this book in the summer of ninth grade. Such a bad book. There’s no real plot, the style of writing is not fun to read, it was creepy in some parts. I just stopped reading 3/4 of the way through cuz I was so done with that book. Worst book I’ve ever read."
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3points
#25 Cold Sassy Tree By Olive Ann Burns
Was forced to read it in high school English. It was so boring the TEACHER had us SKIP TWO CHAPTERS where nothing happened. It was awful.
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3points
#26 Ready Player One By Ernest Cline
"It's basically "80's References: The Novel." And the writing itself crackles like pudding. Absolutely no style, wittiness, or literary technique involved, the entire novel basically just reads like, "This happened. And then this happened. And this person said this. And I said this in response. And then we saw this thing, and remembered it was from a movie.""
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2points
#27 Dracula By Bram Stoker
"It has some amazing and suspenseful chapters in the beginning and end, but the middle 14 chapters are soul-suckingly boring."
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2points
#28 The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle By David Wroblewski
"It is a more modern retelling of Hamlet. Had to read for AP English, and it's like 1000 pages long of utter nonsense and long descriptions.
I would much rather have read Hamlet repeatedly, damn at least my boy Hammy had some jokes."
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2points
#29 Sarah, Plain And Tall By Patricia Maclachlan
"I forgot about that book. I think a teacher read it to us in like fourth grade and I remember hating it even then, when I read everything I could get my hands on and loved everything I read."
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2points
#30 The Mezzanine By Nicholson Baker
"160 pages of one dude's random thoughts during his lunch break. Topics range from the merits of using hand dryers vs paper towels in public bathrooms, shoes laces (in particular how unusual it would be that both his shoelaces broke within 3 days of one another), the buoyancy of straws over time, and the general cleanliness of escalator handrails.
It was on the list of "Staff Favorites" at my favorite book store. I don't look at that list anymore."
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2points
#31 Middlemarch By George Eliot
"Definitely not worth the time. And it gave me a wrist strain just from holding it."
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2points
#32 The Undercover Economist By Tim Harford
"While the subject is incredibly interesting and his knowledge of the field is really good, it keeps feeling like he writes in a "4 steps forward, 3 steps back" fashion, so he keeps reiterating things you've already read ad nauseam. It took a while to get to your point since the book is actually interesting in its way, but halfway through I just got so bored that I kept re-reading sentences and just going "I know these words, but they're just not stringing together to a sentence for me anymore...""
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1point
#33 Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
SquirrelLuvsChipmunk said: "I don’t understand how that book is so popular."
Commenter replied: "Dickens released the book in sections one after another over the course of a couple years. When you read it like an anime plot with a lot of filler, the weird time gaps and flow make sense. It should be abridged so the plot flows like an actual book, rather than a cliffhangy TV series."
SquirrelLuvsChipmunk replied: "That’s really interesting. I’ve read that he was paid by the word which is why his stuff is so long and wordy. If that’s true, well played Mr. Dickens."
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1point
#34 Walden By Henry David Thoreau
"It's sooo boring and there is literally no plot. Except the land is a plot. So there's one plot."
1point
#35 As I Lay Dying By William Faulkner
IWannaCorn said: "Try enjoying a book when you cant read it without getting a headache."
listenana replied: "Faulkner does so many interesting things with it and I understand why it's important, but I hate it so much."
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1point
#36 The Red Badge Of Courage By Stephen Crane
shelbyhunt15 said: "Was forced to read it over the summer for an AP class and I still have no idea what happened in the novel nor do I really care."
ChemikalBrother replied: "We had to read it in 7th grade. I was actually looking forward to it since I knew it was set during the Civil War, however this book was far too difficult for that age range."
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1point
#37 Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen
Gustavius040210 replied: "I attempted to read it as a teen/tween and couldn't get through it due to the excessive wordiness. I wasn't able to empathize with the characters because it was so "other" compared to what I usually read. Watching through The Lizzie Bennett Diaries on YouTube helped put the characters into perspective.
I think I attributed a lot of the things that annoyed me to the writing style and became prejudiced against giving the book a fair shot. After watching the YouTube adaptation I went in with the assumption that the writing was a skillful delivery of very annoying characters."
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-3points
#38 Grapes Of Wrath By Boyd Cable
"I love classics, love them, but Grapes of Wrath was super hard to get through. Moby Dick has some amazing chapters in it (particularly the first few), but some of its chapters are insanely boring.
But in general, it's hard to beat a self-help book for degree of boredom."
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-3points
#39 Dune By Frank Herbert
Casus125 replied: "I read the bulk of Herbert's books when I was in High School. For fun. Years later, I thought I might grab a copy for my bookshelf, thumbed through a random chapter in the book store... had to put it back and leave Dune fondly in my memory. It's a slog."
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-3points
#40 Short Stories By Edgar Allan Poe
SadChineseTakeOut said: "A short story about furniture."
Osirus1156 replied: "Fun fact that short story is hidden in every single Slumberland Furniture."
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-4points
