This list of most-reviled books is from 2003, but nevertheless entertains.
JG Ballard: Author
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Joyce's incomprehensible novel, which has provided a living for generations of English Literature professors, represents a lamentable tendency in 20th-century fiction: the quest for total obscurity. Finnegans Wake is the best example of modernism disappearing up its own fundament.
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Jonathan Meades: Author and broadcaster
The Harry Potter books by JK Rowling
"I think they are absolute shit, just terrible, worse than Enid Blyton. I have discouraged my children from reading them. They are not particularly badly written I don't mind bad writing it's the smugness and the complicity with the reader that I dislike. It's like they're written by a focus group. JK Rowling is the sub-literary analogue of Tony Blair."
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Dr Jonathan Miller: Director, author and broadcaster
Anything by Jacques Derrida
"When I plunge into the murky depths of Derrida I feel I am drowning I can deal with difficult topics, but Derrida fails to make them interesting, as his writing is completely impenetrable. He purports to be philosophical, but in fact he's perversely obscure."
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Sir John Mortimer: Author and creator of Rumpole
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
"Anything about Gandalf, and those little things with hair between their toes. I hate that sort of portentous, phoney, medieval-magical way of writing."
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Ken Russell: Film director
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
"It has a huge reputation as a masterpiece, but I found it to be a fascist tirade about how wonderful American tycoons are in business. Still, it is very cleverly written."
What is your most-hated book? Mine's a toss-up between Ender's Game and The Secret History.
