Ampersand Book Club discussion

So this weekend, I picked up Torment by Lauren Kate, the second book in the "Fallen" series. I just finished reading the first book (Fallen), which was like Twilight, except even more shallow. The main character spends hundreds of pages pining over a jerk boy in her reform school class, Daniel Grigori (who -- surprise!! -- turns out to be a fallen angel!)

I really had no intention of reading the continuing saga of Luce and her angel not-boyfriend, but I couldn't help myself.

So my question to you is...do you "hate read"? If so, why? Is it like a bad car crash you can't turn away from? Do you educate yourself on how not to write? Or is it genuinely enjoyable?

Curious minds want to know! Bonus if you give us titles!

I would say the Twilight series except, on some level, I did enjoy reading them. I can acknowledge them as being terrible books, but I feel a fondness towards most of the characters.

Probably the closest I've come to hate reading would be Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series. I also enjoyed reading them, but the writing is terrible. It's like an art, the way Bishop can write as terribly as she does (without seeming to improve over time!) and yet accumulate as dedicated a readership as she has. I don't know if I could attempt, however, her latest series, The Others. I suspect you won't read the sequel, Lindsey?

I have to say, some of the characters in Twilight were interesting. Just not the main two, at least for me.

Written in Red was terrible, mostly because it was so boring. Seriously, the majority of the story was about the main character delivering the mail. WTF?

Usually when I read a sequel of a book that was awful (or read another book by an author who has disappointed me in the past), it's because I'm hoping that the next book will be better somehow. Maybe there was one book that author wrote that I loved, or the first book had some potential that could really save the series if it was pulled off right. So I'll keep reading on the off chance that maybe- just maybe- the next one will be better.

That's the closest thing I get to hate reading, though I will admit that the temptation to read a bad book for the sake of reveling in just how bad it is can be really tempting! Maybe when I have more time in general to read.

Examples: most anything by Melissa Marr (I used to love Wicked Lovely, but her newer books haven't kept my interest), Need by Carrie Jones (I started book two after book one was just... bad). And I'll probably do it again with Ink by Amanda Sun, which was my biggest disappointment of 2013.

Yes. Sometimes books are so bad they are good. I enjoyed listening to the "Twilight" series, despite how terrible the stories are.

It's a tricky line...knowing when you've crossed the point where it's so bad it's good.

And yeah...sequels have that lure of "maybe" it'll be better. Hope springs eternal? I think that's what I'm aiming for in the Fallen series. Am also counting on crossing the so bad it's good threshold.

Hi guys!I have never heard of the term 'hate read' but it sums up perfectly my experience of reading Jane Eyre. Controversial for a first post but nevertheless, I hated reading that book and the only I finished it was because looking at wikipedia felt like cheating. I wonder if anybody else has 'hate read' a classic as well as those books like the twilight saga?

I probably did hate read a few classics, though I can't think of a specific title off the top of my head...

I've also had experience hate reading books that are critically acclaimed (e.g. Pulitzer Prize winners, or by Nobel Laureates). And funny enough, I think I hated them even *more* based on the fact that they had gotten such accolades! Maybe we expect more from them? Anyway, I still have a visceral reaction to the award winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, which I stubbornly stuck through to the end, even though I hated every page after the first chapter.

Yeh I know exactly what you mean! We studied the Kite Runner in school, critically acclaimed but I hated every minute of it too! Still can't understand why we had to read that in an English Literature class but oh well I try and focus on books I like :)

Yes, if it's a series, I have to finish the whole series whether I like it or not (personal quirk), so I'm sure there have been hate reads there. Also I try not to abandon books, so I have slogged through some even though I hated them; March by Geraldine Brooks immediate comes to mind