For me, it’s Jude the Obscure. That book is easily the worst book I have ever read, without a single redeeming quality, other than that it finally ends. I only finished it because Far from the Madding Crowd was so damn good.
But really, Jude is the gold standard of awful books, in my opinion.
What’s your so-awful-it-deserves-shelf-space book, if you have one?
Or am I just weird?
I found Snookie’s Gorilla Beach for 50 cents at GoodWill in college. In a show of poor judgment, i valued a good train wreck more than my laundry change. It came home with me. It is so hilariously terrible, and my friends and I had such a good time doing dramatic readings that it’s earned an eternal place of dishonor on my shelf.