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I’ve just finished Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, my first by him. I thought I had a high tolerance for gore and brutality, but it was horrific. McCarthy’s poetic style (extremely skilfully done to be fair) made it even harder going, as I kept having to go backwards and forwards to get his point. Edges out The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and HP Lovecraft for the most disturbing thing I’ve read.
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 13:05 - Apr 2 with 1701 views
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 12:41 - Apr 2 by hamptonhillhoop
I've read all four of those David Peace books, 1974-1983. They're addictive, but Jesus, they're bleak. I actually reread them all because I don't think I really got it first time round. They were still bleak and I'm still not sure i got the whole story. The miners strike one wasn't much better either
I initially lapped them up, and a couple of the Tokyo books too, but though I think he’s very good at time and place, he doesn’t have that much to say. He’s essentially written the same book six or seven times (and James Ellroy has written it first, also many times).
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 15:08 - Apr 2 with 1573 views
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. I wouldn't describe it as unpleasant, but rather as upsetting. I wept at the end. Actually, it's a superb read as are all of Steinbeck's books.
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 17:23 - Apr 2 with 1451 views
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 07:36 - Apr 2 by loftboy
Read all of James Herbert’s as a teen, the most graphic was probably the Fog.
Likewise
As a teenager reading the fog, was very dark and all sorts of horrific scenarios occurring.
Even as a young person reading it, I thought how can this man write in this way. Remember questioning where he could dredge these images of deeply dark and depressing happenings from. I assumed, probably incorrectly, that his life had been an almighty challenge previously.....
I don’t know if this is what was meant by the original poster, but lads at my school used to trim their pubes and stick them inside textbooks for the next person who used them.
That would have been a pretty unpleasant book to read i’d imagine.
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 17:26 - Apr 2 by GaryHaddock
I don’t know if this is what was meant by the original poster, but lads at my school used to trim their pubes and stick them inside textbooks for the next person who used them.
That would have been a pretty unpleasant book to read i’d imagine.
[Post edited 2 Apr 17:28]
"Lads at my school..." Come Mr Haddock, it was you wasn't it?
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 20:42 - Apr 2 with 1264 views
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 08:45 - Apr 2 by Orthodox_Hoop
Shaun Hutson's repertoire is pretty grim reading.
(Editor's note: Make sure you stick with this seemingly dull post, the best bit is right at the end )
You beat me to it! In one of them, someone makes a pact with the devil in order to secure immortality, only to be shot multiple times, be pronounced dead and subsequently embalmed, then buried.
At that point, he comes to, only to find himself in a coffin, his mouth sewn up, six feet under, for all eternity.
Never mind all that, though, look at this quote about Hutson, from his website:
"His consuming passion is football. A Liverpool supporter for over 30 years, his allegiance borders on frenzy. He never misses a game, home or away. Hence his desire for anonymity as he was once recognised at Stamford Bridge by the one Chelsea fan who could read..."
"Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1."
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 05:31 - Apr 3 with 1131 views
Surprised no-one’s mentioned Thomas Harris yet. I bought “Hannibal” when it came out having seen “The Silence of the Lambs” and thinking it might be another detective thriller. I found it so repulsive and disturbing that it was actually affecting my sleep and waking hours. Another one was a Scandinavian horror/crime story called “The Crow Girl.” I’m partial to a bit of Scandinoir but this was so noir it was practically a black hole.
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 07:47 - Apr 3 with 1089 views
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 00:23 - Apr 2 by simmo
Funny as I just bought Blood Meridian as part of 3 holiday books to read and that is the only one left. I'm not sure I'll rush to read it with that description in mind, American Psycho was similar for me and it kind of ruined all other books for a while.
I don't usually give up on books but I did with American Psycho. I found it both boring in long parts then horrifically brutal. Shame, as I loved Bret Easton Ellis's earlier books.
Another one I gave up on was JG Ballard's Crash. More horrendous gore combined with bizarre sexual fantasies. WTAF?
Think the most horrific book is yet to come out... Saturday's programme and especially the team sheet section, Lord above that will send shivers down your spine
It was Salems Lot by Stepken King... when the vampire knocks on the bedroom window and asks to be let in....... as a young man would never admit that put the eejibee bejees up me
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 10:56 - Apr 3 with 954 views
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 07:47 - Apr 3 by londonscottish
I don't usually give up on books but I did with American Psycho. I found it both boring in long parts then horrifically brutal. Shame, as I loved Bret Easton Ellis's earlier books.
Another one I gave up on was JG Ballard's Crash. More horrendous gore combined with bizarre sexual fantasies. WTAF?
I was going to mention Crash. I'm a massive fan of Ballard and without wanting to sound too pretentious, there is a concept behind the story, so it's not just pornographic violence for the sake of it. If you view Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition within the context of his body of work it makes more sense thematically. Funny enough, I actually don't rate Ballard as a writer. He has great ideas which I think carry his work more than his actual writing ability. All the documentaries and interviews I've read and listened to, he comes across very well. Self aware, empathetic, an original and perceptive thinker and a genuinely eccentric person. He lived out his days on the Goldhawk Road and I always think of him as an honorary R..
Having said all that, it was a difficult read.
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 10:58 - Apr 3 with 954 views
On a slightly different note I'm currently reading a book about Christie's murders at 10 Rillington Place. As a sadistic serial killer he obviously had to be a Rangers fan. When on the run they looked for him at a home game against Torquay United, and when he was arrested after about a week on the run, he still had a QPR pin badge among his possessions
[Post edited 3 Apr 12:06]
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 11:07 - Apr 3 with 936 views
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 10:56 - Apr 3 by joe90
I was going to mention Crash. I'm a massive fan of Ballard and without wanting to sound too pretentious, there is a concept behind the story, so it's not just pornographic violence for the sake of it. If you view Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition within the context of his body of work it makes more sense thematically. Funny enough, I actually don't rate Ballard as a writer. He has great ideas which I think carry his work more than his actual writing ability. All the documentaries and interviews I've read and listened to, he comes across very well. Self aware, empathetic, an original and perceptive thinker and a genuinely eccentric person. He lived out his days on the Goldhawk Road and I always think of him as an honorary R..
Having said all that, it was a difficult read.
I thought the film Crash covered the weird horniness quite well, and Deborah Unger was well fit.
Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 13:48 - Apr 2 by MrSheen
I initially lapped them up, and a couple of the Tokyo books too, but though I think he’s very good at time and place, he doesn’t have that much to say. He’s essentially written the same book six or seven times (and James Ellroy has written it first, also many times).
my best man bought me the first tokyo book, which has sat, unopened, on my bookshelf for 14 years. should i try it finally?
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 20:11 - Apr 3 with 728 views
Like Logman I've read Perfume and it was a good read and the film somehow managed to capture the feel of the book really well I thought. I also read The Butterfly Collector quite a few years ago and don't think I finished it as it was a disturbing read and I'm not one to give up too easily on a difficult theme. The most disturbing read that I never got very far with (just a few pages from memory) was a Marquis De Sade book that I decided to purchase after watching Quills - I think I imagined a Geoffrey Rushlike figure who was possibly misunderstood - but no it was very unsavoury .
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 21:54 - Apr 3 with 642 views
I recently donated my copy of The Wasp Factory to a book bank, read it once, not that fussed to do so again.
I have also read the Rape of Nanking book someone has mentioned on this thread, horrific.
More recent, but I've not long finished The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It follows two French sisters and their lives under Nazi occupation and works for the resistance. Its fiction, but based on many true anecdotes the author read. Really bleak story by the finish.
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 02:16 - Apr 4 with 536 views
Unpleasant is it? Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, the writer of Fight Club. It's a series of the grossest and most disturbing 23 short stories you could ever want to read. Some are funny in a very black way, some are properly disgusting.
Geek love. A story of a failing circus whose husband and wife owners hatch a plan to breed freaks and odditys using drugs to create deformity. Thus the circus becomes a huge success and so they take more and more pharmaceuticals to procreate more extreme freaks to satisfy the bloodlust of the public. Healthy born babies were abandoned as they would be of no use to the circus.
I'm sure i read somewhere that hollywood have tried to bring the book to the big screen several times but have given it up as a lost cause because it would be impossible to do so.
A Victorian freak show on amphetamines. Bad ones.
... amazing book and a song was wrote about it, which became one of john peels all time favourite records..
[Post edited 4 Apr 8:30]
Don't need no politicians to tell me things I shouldn't be,
Neither no opticians to tell me what I oughta see.
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 04:00 - Apr 4 with 523 views
Noting the mentions for david peace. Imo 'red riding' was the most incredible strata of television I have witnessed in 57 years. Only true detective season 1 comes close.
'To the north, where we do want we want..'
[Post edited 4 Apr 8:26]
Don't need no politicians to tell me things I shouldn't be,
Neither no opticians to tell me what I oughta see.
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Most unpleasant book you’ve ever read? on 08:20 - Apr 4 with 399 views
I genuinely read Managing My Life by Harry Redknapp.
It starts out bitter as f**k! Although I liked that bit because it was him slagging off West Ham for how they treated Bobby Moore before he died.
Stefan Moore, Stefan Moore running down the wing. Stefan Moore, Stefan Moore running down the wing. He runs like a cheetah, his crosses couldn't be sweeter. Stefan Moore. Stefan Moore. Stefan Moore.
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