All of which is excessively harsh, deliciously messy, and also—dare I say it—a little bit impressive? Admit it, there’s something kind of remarkable about being the worst at whatever you’ve chosen to do. At least, that’s what my mom once told me when I was eleven years old and everyone voted me the worst player on our fifth-grade basketball team.* And much like how my fellow Wildcats came together to correctly and unequivocally roast me that day in the school gymnasium, the general population has, over the years, joined forces to say that these books are the worst things the world of literature has to offer. Let’s dive in! As well as being a No.1 best-selling Children’s author, David Walliams is one of Britain's most popular writers and comic actors. A good book should provide the same feeling you experience when you are dreaming about stepping off a steep staircase. You wake up when you are just about to step off the stairs. And sometimes you will think you have woken up when you actually are still dreaming about waking up. So, if a book doesn’t help you get lost, probably it’s not a good one. When I find a spare hour I try to squeeze in some quality PS4 time, playing my favourites like the Fallout series, the Red Dead Redemption series, or The Batman Arkham series. Laugh along to these ten terrifying tales of marvellous monsters, brought to you by David Walliams, and illustrated in glorious technicolour by Adam Stower.

It is not the case to compare this book with anything you have read or seen before, however. The plot is a basic one, revolving around revenge and sacrifice. Hold on though…before you add it to your basket, let me just give you the opening line:There are so many problems with this ‘novel.’ The poorly constructed story, hollow characters, but worst of all, terrible grammar. Here are a few examples: I’ve always been drawn to stories, and my two great loves are Star Wars and World of Warcraft. I fall in love with fandoms easily, devouring everything I can get my hands on including games, spin-offs, and extra material. As a huge animal lover, I’m constantly asking my fiance if I can adopt every cute fantasy creature I come across. Although we already have two cats, Milo and George, I would quite happily have many more – even a zoo if I was allowed! Each of the book’s ten short stories is a (gently) spooky and fast-paced standalone tale, which breaks the book into manageable chunks that kids can dip in and out of. My personal favourite was The Curious Case of Miss Gorgon; what kid wouldn’t be instantly enthralled by an opening line like ‘The headmaster had been turned into stone!’? David Walliams is fast becoming a global phenomenon in the world of children’s literature – his ability to wow fans is unprecedented with global sales over 14.1 million. I may be in my mid-twenties but I’ve been an enthusiastic Potterhead for over a decade. I can’t go a day without firing off at least half a dozen Harry Potter references and have a small museum of Potter and Wizarding World merch… one with FAR too many Funkos. 😜

If a book can make you forget where you are, then it’s a good book. Also, a good book should take you wherever the action is taking place. For instance, if it is about space or some hidden place far away from civilization, you should feel like you are right there. Characters are among the most significant elements of a book. In any case, you can’t tell a story without characters. Therefore, interesting characters will make a book more fascinating. If the characters are boring and dry, they put off the reader regardless of how great the plot is. Sona Movsesian didn’t wake up one day and decide to become the World’s Worst Assistant. Achieving such greatness is a gradual process--one that starts with long hours and hard work before it eventually descends into sneaking low-dosage edibles into your lunch and napping on your boss’s couch. The plot is a simple Gothic horror story. A tale of ancient evil; an insane hypnotist, hellbent on mentally crushing the girl he loves; a gigantic kite raised to rid the land of an unnatural infestation of birds, and which receives strange commands along its string. And, all the while, the great white worm slithers below, seeking its next victim.Originally I was voted second-worst, but then Jessica (the actual worst player) quit, so I became the worst by default. At least I handled it with grace!** I bet you didn’t expect to see the name Bram Stoker on this list, did you? The man wrote the 19th-century gothic horror masterpiece Dracula, almost single-handedly creating the vampire genre. If you are in the mood for some bloody, scheming, sometimes gruesome Dracula-related action, put Castlevania on your list of shows to binge watch this year. Watch it just so you can comment how the producers interfered with established concepts, like vampires, the Gothic literary genre, Transylvania, or Lady Carmilla. In May, Ma met with publisher HarperCollins, along with Anna Chan from the Asian Leadership Collective, to discuss how “problematic” the story was. “[We] shared our personal experiences of some of the hardships we had growing up and being teased for being a BBC (British-born Chinese). Stories like Brian Wong have a role to play in normalising jokes on minorities from a young age and we want this to be removed,” she said at the time. “We were open and honest with HarperCollins. We want fairer representation to the wider ESEA community and we feel books that educate kids on diversity should be done fairly, rather than joking about harmful stereotypes.”

The audience has a front row seat for this once talented man grasping at straws. Now is the time for O’Brien to reinvent himself with fresh eyes to focus on entertaining an audience. This behind the scenes look offers the reader very little comedy while exposing a dysfunctional relationship oozing with disrespect and poor boundaries. O’Brien has been forcing his assistant on the public for years whether or not audiences share enthusiasm for his nepotism. That’s enough about me. I’ve set a course for you: quality, concise, and side-splittingly hilarious content, there’s only one thing left for me to say: Asian Leadership Collective also wrote to HarperCollins, asking for details of the process the book went through before it was signed off, and for information about how diverse the team who created it was. When I’m not writing you can find me outdoors walking or hiking, playing board games (Harry Potter Clue!), reading middle-grade books, or cooing over my rescue tabby Paco. From Conan O’Brien’s longtime assistant and cohost of his podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, a completely hilarious and irreverent how-to guide for becoming a terrible, yet unfireable employee, and getting away with doing the bare minimum at workHere is a list of the worst books ever written. The list is based on the public and critical opinions of some respected book reviewers and authors. 1. The Twilight Saga (Stephanie Meyer) Asking a decent editor to save this book would have been like asking a doctor to help a corpse that had fallen from the top of the Empire State Building.” — The New Statesmen

What are the worst books of all time? Before we can answer that, I must first ask: are there really such things as “bad” books? I try to abide by two of the laws of library science, as introduced by S.R. Ranganathan in 1931: every reader their book, every book its reader. There are no terrible books, just terrible mismatches of reader and book, right? Well… let’s just say there are authors bent on testing anyone trying to live within these laws. Apart from the situations described above, your consent will be asked before we share any of your personal information with third parties. Opt-Out Join David Braymer on his journey from high school teacher to 1st science officer aboard Lunar Base Module 1, through wildly fantastical space battles, to his encounters with alien lifeforms.Don’t forget that some readers are more character-driven and want to have a direct connection with characters. So, if a book doesn’t allow the reader to connect with the characters on some level, it may be considered a bad book. A good book allows you to follow your favorite characters and see them grow, make mistakes, conquer, and remind you of your own business. Laugh along to these ten terrifying tales of marvellous monsters, brought to you by David Walliams and illustrated in glorious technicolour by Adam Stower. Fans of Conan (of which I am), will know of Sona by extension. Over the last decade, she's become a semi-familiar face, and now voice, joining the gangly walkaround muppet on his adventures.