What's your story?

[davywavy]

Like films, some books fall into the 'so bad they're good' category, like, for example, the wonderfully titled Conrad's quest for rubber (also alternatively titled "Conrad's rubber adventures"), which is about as bad as time-travel adventures can be whilst having a title that I simply had to have on my bookshelf.
There's actually a special section on my bookshelf for truly terrible literature which I simply can't bring myself to throw away. Stuff like The Hard Corps and The Vampire Diaries.

Some time ago, I made the rather basic error of reading some Dean Koontz books. Entirely my own fault, I know, but I do have this tendency to just read anything which is presented to me which has led to me reading some really good stuff, and also some truly awful tosh. The thing about Koontz is that he's a natural storyteller. He has the skill (shared with people like Dan Brown) of setting a dramatic scene in such a way that you simply cannot stop reading; you desperately want to know what is going to happen next, and that's where the kicker come in because what happens next is always, always bollocks.
It's a remarkable talent. To create characters and situations which unfailingly grab the reader firmly and then to ensure a letdown is a skill in it's own right, and I read three or four of his books in a state of some wonderment at the fact that he could hook me and then disappoint me every single time - a bit like a girl I went out with back at university.
Think about this got me interested: who is your favourite bad author; someone whose work you go back to despite knowing that you'll just end up feeling let down and even slightly soiled by their work, but, like the burned fools finger, you just keep going back?

Comments

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

I should have done that, but I was hit by disbelief that a series could be so popular as well as being as awful as it is.

Another one was whoever wrote Gor, the internet tells me that's "John Norman". I read the first one back when I was 15 and thought it wasn't too bad, even if it was a bit generic and old-fashioned. The rest just get progressively worse until all I remember from them is a main protagonist I think is a twat and naked women slaves that tend to end up chained to walls, beds, wagons, flying creatures, etc. but they're okay with it because they all acknowledge that secretly all women want to be chained-up submissive (sex) slaves. I have over 15 of those books (none bought by me) and have never finished any past the first, though I have read the first more than once.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I read twenty-odd of the Gor books when I was about 13 (back when the thought of naked female slaves was more of a preoccupation for me than it is now*). Books 3, 5, and 9 were the only ones readable when I went through them again when I was about 17 - I doubt I could read any of them now.

*This statement is a lie.

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

Female! That was the word I was looking for. You'd think I'd remember details like that. I haven't touched any of them in years, but maybe I shall liberate some of them from my dad's house. If nothing else the especially bad bits might make good LJ fodder for people to mock.

I was going to say that I'd doubt that statement from a man who can receive on demand free internet boobs (just happened to read the Sinfest feed comments today). It's amazing really, you produce your own gold and get free boobs on demand, there are probably people waiting for your life to appear on ebay as I type.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I'm crying inside. Really I am.