Classics

The 25 Most-Hated Books (By Book Riot Readers)

It’s a reality of the reading life that sometimes you’re going to read a book and hate it. Here at the Riot, we like to focus on the awesome books, the books we can’t stop talking about and sharing with other people who love to read, but we’re also really nosy curious. So last week we asked you to spill the three books you just hated. 937 Riot readers responded and listed 747 unique titles. Most of the books were only mentioned once or twice. But, well, a handful of them got a whole lot of un-love. Here they are, readers. Your top 25 most-hated books. A bunch of these also appear on the lists of Riot readers’ 50 favorite novels and the books Riot readers keep meaning to read but never seem to get around to. Wanna see the full list of hated books? Click here.
  1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (102 votes)
  2. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (90)
  3. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (90)
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (53)
  • Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (41)
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (41)
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding (35)
  • The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (33)
  • Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (31)
  • Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (30)
  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (28)
  • Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (26)
  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (26)
  • The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (25)
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (24)
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (23)
  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel (21)
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (18)
  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (17)
  • On the Road by Jack Kerouac (14)
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (14)
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (14)
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (14)
  • The Pearl by John Steinbeck (14)
  • Ulysses by James Joyce (14) What do you make of this list? How many of these have you read? Loved? Hated? It’s interesting that this is a mix of classics–likely books you were forced to read in school–and uber-popular/commercially successful fiction. But it sorta makes sense, right? The books that are read by the most people have more chances to be hated than the less well-known titles. The big surprise to me? That Twilight was more hated than Fifty Shades of Grey. Maybe Jeff should re-think the placement on his list of 100 books to take you from zero to well-read? Check out other Riot polls: Book Riot Readers’ 50 Favorite Novels 19 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read FOREVER 20 Books You Pretend to Have Read Top 10 Books You’re Embarrassed to Admit You’ve Read 20 Most-Loved Literary Characters Are These the 13 Most Underrated Books? 20 Books You Love to Give as Gifts Your 25 Favorite Authors of Color The Book Riot 2013 Reading Habits Survey The Great TBR Poll: Results The Top 17 Books That Make You Feel Dumb