
Sometimes life can be painful. Other times it can be absurd. And still other times it can be patently ridiculous. Some situations are all three.
Sometimes things happen over which we have little or no control. And then there are the stories of the choices we've made––or the people we know and the choices they make––†hat cause a bad situation to shift into something else entirely.
After Redditor cromchable asked the online community, "What's your best 'but wait, it gets worse' story?" people chimed in with their experiences. Grab your popcorn.
"An acquaintance got married..."
An acquaintance got married in an extravagant $80,000 ceremony (that's $57,000 in freedom dollars) and broke up on their honeymoon.
But wait, it gets worse.
They split because the groom was cheating on the bride with a string of one night stands, meanwhile the bride was having an ongoing affair with... the best man.
But wait, it gets worse.
They pretended to stay married for 6 months after out of shame but it all came tumbling down when he made a huge facebook rant calling her a whore and tagging all their friends and family in it with the most dramatic s***storm of a comments section known to humanity.
But wait, it gets worse.
The bride and the best man decided they wanted to have a baby and she immediately ran off with him and got knocked up.
"Pulled over to check my trunk..."
Got rear ended by a truck. Pulled over to check my trunk on a hilly street. A car parked behind me rolled down hill and crushed me between it and my newly messed up trunk. Suffered some cracked ribs.
"My grandmother had gotten diagnosed with brain cancer..."
My grandmother died on Thanksgiving day in front of the whole family.
My grandmother had gotten diagnosed with brain cancer about six months prior and knowing that she was in hospice care, much of the family decided to come visit for one last Thanksgiving, even though she was unconscious in the next room. The entire day, the cooking was going on despite grandma's condition and teenage me spent many hours salivating over a whole roasted pig being barbecued outside in place of a turkey. I was pretty stoked. Just as the sizzling pig is being taken off the barbecue, the hospice nurse sticks her head outside and announces that it's time. My grandmother at this exact moment is passing away.
We all go inside, gather around the bed, and for 45 minutes or so, I watch as my grandmother gasps for air, twitches and dies. It was a little traumatic. For some reason after that, we decide we are going to still sit down and eat dinner. I'm watching the barbecue pig be chopped up and as I'm thinking I can probably still get myself to eat some of it, they douse it all in vinegar and chili flakes. Ruining it. So as I try to choke down this enormous disappointment, after watching my grandmother die, the morticians come and wheel her body out through the living roomAnd at that point, I was pretty much done.
"The only good thing that happened..."
I think probably the worst week of my life was getting my wisdom teeth out. I mean I'll take my parents divorce over doing that crap again.
I got my teeth out, and I woke up to being yanked outta my chair by the dentist to go to the recovery room. I immediately started crying cuz I didn't know what was going on. Once there, I had to ask them to go get my mom 3 times because I was calling in and out of sleep and I didn't understand what the nurse was saying.
I get home and my mouth doesn't hurt that bad but I'm still high af and can't swallow because my spit was all bloody and gross. So I literally just cried and drooled on my mom till I passed out again (I'm 21, not a great look).
I woke up and everything was fine for the first two days. But it became abundantly clear that I was allergic to whatever antibiotics they had me on. I threw up for six days, and the dentist wouldn't take me seriously until I started throwing up blood. I couldn't eat solid food, and I have a permanent aversion to chocolate ice cream now (fine going down, not great coming up).
When he finally asked me to come in so he could check me out there was a huge snowstorm and we were stranded for 2 days.
Then, I missed an exam because I couldn't do anything without vomiting, and had to get a doctor's note from the dentist which was a whole other ordeal.
The only good thing that happened was I lost like 10 pounds, which I immediately gained back because 4 weeks later COVID hit. Now I've got this crazy scars in the back of my mouth that I don't think healed properly, and I haven't been able to go back to the dentist because of COVID.
Note to anyone getting their teeth out - the actual process and recovery isn't that bad, just make sure you're not allergic to the medicine they give you.
"Well maybe that contributed to what happened next."
I work at an office. The building is owned by my boss who is too cheap to shell out for actual maintenance service and has employees do handy work around the clock.
One day, it started to snow. The snow was sticking to the sidewalk and showed no signs of letting up so of course me and my coworkers had to go out and clean it. So while my boss sat in his nice, cushy office, we start shoveling. One of my coworkers, let's call him X, is relatively new and having grown up in an apartment complex, has never shoveled before.
Well maybe that contributed to what happened next. He starts pushing the shovel in front of him at a crotch level. And eventually, the shovel head gets stuck on a raised brick and it pushes the handle end of the shovel into X's crotch.
There was no shovel handle because he had been given a broken shovel with a rusted end. Castration being imminent, X proceeds to tuck and roll, off the sidewalk and into oncoming traffic. Fortunately for X, somebody grabbed him and pulled him back to safety. Boss drove him to the emergency room and paid for the resulting tetanus shot and 14 stitches on the inner thigh.
Needless to say, he was not allowed to shovel again.
"A valet parker took a guest's Corvette..."
I was a manager at a hotel in Oakland. A valet parker took a guest's corvette out for a joy ride. He lost control of the car in a residential area and crashed into a parked car in a driveway. The corvette and the parked car smashed through the home's garage door and caught on fire. The home partially burned down. The valet was caught by the police a block away fleeing on foot with a broken leg.
"I went on holiday with my parents to Ireland..."
I went on holiday with my parents to Ireland a few years back and one of the days of the trip was one of the worst days of my life. The trip as a whole was fantastic but this one day just sucked.
My parents had booked all the hotels through a travel agency and the night that we were in Cork, we were booked to stay in this spa resort because we got a good deal or something.
At first when we pull up it looked super fancy, you know like a typical resort. But then we find out then we're not actually staying in the main building and they bring us out to these little cottages. Okay fine. But then we get in and the entire place smells like sewer and there's a million stains everywhere. We're like whatever at first, we're not that picky and it's only a night.
The next morning I wake up to find out that my period has started so that's already a bad start to a day.
Then I find out that the shower doesn't work and we all have to take baths. My parents go first and then it's my turn and we run out of hot water. So I have to take a bath in puddle from what's left in cold water.
But wait...it gets worse
We then decide that we're gonna buy tickets for one of those hop on hop off tour buses. We buy the tickets and we get on the bus and it's good at first. We're seeing the sights, it's pretty, whatever. But then, the bus suddenly gets on the freaking highway and we're sitting on the open top as branches are wizzing by over our heads fast enough that it could decapitate you if we weren't ducking.
We find out from the other passengers that this tour bus wasn't a tour bus but instead a bus taking people back to their cruise ship 40 minutes away.
So we have to sit on the open top of a double decker bus on the highway with branches almost hitting us for 40 min all well I'm terrified that I'm gonna leak through my pants because I'm on my period.
We eventually get to the cruise ship and we find out there's a train station near by. So we go the train station to get a train back to cork but the last one just left. So we had to wait an hour or so until the next one came.
Don't really remember what happened after that. It's funny now to look back on but I was pissed when it was happening.
Moral of the story is to not let travel agents book your hotels and to double check the bus you're getting on.
I highly recommend Ireland though, beautiful place!
"I was staying the night..."
My partner's mother told me they didn't like me, and said I was abusive the first time we had ever met. This was after chewing my partner out for not telling her I was staying over.
This was about two weeks after I fled my house and was essentially homeless due to a violent encounter with my family. I was staying the night at my partner's house because it was my birthday, and they wanted to spend the whole day with me, but didnt have a drivers license (we lived around 3 hours apart by car). My partner's mother even decided to bring up my situation within the conversation, saying me not having a home was the only reason she didnt kick me out that moment.
"I'm no longer allowed to sit with that friend group."
I can confirm it gets worse multiple times.
Two crushes last year. Lets start off with number one, Johan, he was someone in my friend group. Major crush on him, and asked him out. He said he'd think about it. One week I had enough. I asked him. He said he wasn't ready. That was fine with me. It was upsetting, of course. He had a girlfriend, someone he had known for two weeks, two days after the rejection.
But wait, it gets worse.
I'm no longer allowed to sit with that friend group. He spoke about me behind my back, friend group made fun of me, if I sat with them they'd ignore me. I was never my own person to begin, but the entire school knew me as the kid who had a crush on the nerd.
But wait, it gets worse.
I mentioned two crushes, right? Second was a girl, Holly. She was the only person I felt actually cared, and she was a sweetheart. I liked her way more than Johan. She knew I had a crush, but she didn't know it was her. She persisted until I gave up and told her it was her. She said the same, wasn't ready, and it hurt much more. But like any sane person, I didn't argue.
But wait, it gets worse.
A week later. "FAITH I HAVE A GIRLFRIE- oh" It was bad that time. Cried for almost five hours straight, no fun when it happens twice.
Guys, gals, non binaries, anything. If you're going to reject somebody, be honest on why. It hurts.
"I had a coworker..."
I had a coworker that would go off on rages. If I saw him pick his phone up during break, I knew to lock myself in the pantry because of his anger issues. He'd get into huge fights with his pretend catfish girlfriend, and throw and slam things and yell at the top of his lungs.
One year, he got so much worse. He acted like a child and would throw tantrums.. Locking himself in the dishroom and calling our boss to make up lies about me, how I was being 'cruel' and 'mean' to him when I politely asked him to go get the milk because the milk he was supposed to throw out yesterday was soured and could not be served.
We had to tell him to go pick up the shipment constantly, and when it came to lunch rush, he threw the biggest tantrum I have ever seen and threatened to put me, my coworkers and the children we were feeding in the hospital. He also shared a story about being accused of being a pedophile, and how he proved it wasn't him with sketchy explanations and vague details.
My boss at the time said she hied him to stay in the kitchen so he wouldn't be around the children.
Well, I report the threat to my boss, and between her and my coworker's friend who happened to be one of the bosses, decided that I was the one to be fired.
People are stupid.
"My dental experiences."
My dental experiences. Not as bad as most stories here but not a fun time.
Start of high school. My teeth have always been crooked. Between both my parents' insurance they have 100% dental coverage, so, braces, let's go!
But wait, my mouth is too small to fit the normal human amount of teeth. Before any work can be done, 4 molars must be removed from my mouth. Surgery is done all in one go so I get knocked out and am unable to eat solid food for weeks, but also can't use a straw because the suction could reopen the holes. Fine, shortly after, recovery complete, braces let's go!
But wait, even after removing 4 teeth the rest are still too close together for braces to work properly. I have to get rubber bands inserted between my teeth to forcibly spread them apart over a period of weeks so there's enough room for the braces to do their job. This is extremely painful, imagine someone constantly pulling on your teeth with pliers for weeks to move them. Fine, that's done, braces let's go!
But wait, for similar lack of space reasons, braces take longer to work than usual and need constant adjustment. I have to wear them for FOUR YEARS aka ALL OF HIGH SCHOOL. Fine, I get them off before grad, and I'll be free of dental stuff for university, except for having to wear a mouth guard overnight for the rest of my life to make sure my teeth don't shift back again.
BUT WAIT, I start experiencing dental pain. Side effects from braces? Nope. Impacted wisdom teeth have completely dissolved the roots of my molars and are pressing directly on the nerves. Molars are already dead well beyond saving, so if they're not pulled immediately, they could shatter at any moment and leave the nerves exposed. Four more teeth pulled, wisdom teeth get to stay, in the hope they'll eventually straighten out with more space available.
They never did so on my lower jaw I have only one molar on each side I can use for chewing, and overall 8 fewer teeth than the average human.
"The NICU sent us a letter..."
Our baby died 6 weeks ago.....but wait, it gets worse! The NICU sent us a letter congratulating us on the birth of our new baby when they literally had her in their morgue.
"She calls a meeting with him..."
Friend of mine was to be the groom. The night before the wedding, his fiancé found out that he had been cheating on her for a long time. She calls a meeting with him, their parents, his sister and her brother. She confronts him about it at this meeting, and he admits it. She decides she will not marry him the next day, or ever.
But wait it gets worse. During that meeting they all have to decide what to do about the next day and what the story should be about why the wedding is off. Many friends and family have traveled a long way to be there, the vendors are all paid, and they don't want to just send everyone home. And while the bride and her family are obviously furious, they're not vengeful people and they feel that they would be as embarrassed by the truth as the groom and his family would be. So they all mutually agree that they don't want to tell everyone the truth.
Incredibly, they decide to go through with the whole wedding... except it's a sham. Only the eight of them know it. The next day they have the ceremony, they say the vows in front of everyone, they kiss... but it's all a lie to the rest of their friends and family. They don't actually sign whatever marriage certificates and other things you have to do offstage in order to legally get married. They then go through with the reception too, pretending to have a great time. The parents even do their toasts. Nobody else has any idea.
I'm not sure how they expected to keep this a secret afterwards. Probably they didn't, they just felt it was their best option in the short term of that day. I found out about a month later and it just blew my mind how they were able to pretend like that all night.
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Sometimes everyone needs to hush up.
Wouldn't that be nice?
If people could catch onto social queues and actually engage in conversation with another human, maybe then we'd be able to triumph at the basic art of communication.
But humans seem to be failing in this department.
So who among us hasn't been trapped in a nonsensical splattering of words we'd give limbs to escape from?
Redditor Isingsongstomycats wanted to hear about what can completely make us regret speaking to another person, so they asked:
"What instantly ruins a conversation for you?"
I'm ornery. Anything and everything can turn me off.
Blocked
"Getting their phone out for no reason mid conversation."
Expensive_Pie_6943
"Sometimes I want to look up something pertinent to the conversation but I don't want to interrupt them to say that. Now when someone checks their notification mid conversation, that really burns me."
cutelyaware
Up & Up
"When someone feels the need to one up you on everything you say."
Apprehensive_Gap_368
"Had a coworker like this once, his one upping was so bad we would test it. Best one was a guy talking about catching a shark on a pole at the beach. He interrupted with the time he swam out a mile and got attacked by a shark and beat it and swam back with it."
Mess_Bubbly
Rude
"When they start saying nasty things about people they barely know."
WeirdShyKitten
"I have family like this. I once heard them go on on this rant about how the new waitress at their local coffee shop is fat and ugly. They made a thousands assumptions about this woman that included criticism to her service."
18062022
"Or start sh*t talking someone the second they leave the room. My dad's sisters do that, I was stuck in my parents house alone with them and I would get so paranoid every time I left the room. If they do that to each other, I can’t image the crap they talk about me."
vicki_chicki
War of Words
"When they ask for your opinion or talking about something fully subjective and then tell you how you are objectively wrong or get offended by you nor agreeing."
Prize_Interaction931
"Similar, but not quite the same: my old roommate would correct me on things that were objective, and not like facts."
"Like I mentioned it was hard for my folks to get a mortgage because they were self employed and he correct me that it wasn't. He wouldn't believe the story i was telling and told me what he thought might have happened with no knowledge on the subject."
"Needless to say I moved out."
SFXBTPD
Blah Blah
"When it feels like you're engaging a combination lock just to get responses to simple innocent pieces of a conversation. People who small talk you to death."
I swear small talk people should be arrested for attempted murder.
Useless
"When someone drags a story out with useless details. Like something that happened on the drive to work but they start the story at the point when they first woke up and what they had for breakfast. Just get to the point!"
ticklemebits
Paused
"When they interrupt me mid sentence."
HelpMeSweetJesus
"If it sometimes happens on accident whenever they think of something and get over-excited it’s whatevs. Now when they constantly step over you it’s like your opinion merely feels like filler at best and they ain’t even listening. Not even worth the energy to continue at that point."
BAKED_TATER_
"One of my coworkers only listens long enough to figure out what she's going to say next, and then she interrupts. I guess we're only there to feed her lines."
Witty_Commentator
Do Better
"When someone gives you completely useless advice you didn't ask for. A couple weeks ago I mentioned to a coworker that I was glad to be going home because I didn't get more than a couple hours of sleep."
"Dude first of all had the audacity to say 'Well, you need to do better.' When I said I have medication resistant insomnia he looks at me like I'm an idiot and asks if I've tried melatonin."
errant_night
Duh
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are stupider than that. And it doesn’t take you very long to spot one of them, does it. Take you about eight seconds. You’ll be listening to some guy, and say, this guy is f**king stupid. Then, then there are some people, they’re not stupid. They’re full of crap."
"Huh, that doesn’t take very long to spot, either, does it. Take you about the same amount of time. You’ll be listening to some guy, saying, well, he’s fairly intelligent. Ah, he’s full of s**t. Then there are some people, they’re not stupid, they’re not full of s**t, they’re freaking nuts."
teaching-man
Gross...
"Sexualization. We're talking about a new video game and suddenly I get asked if I play naked, or if I'm turned on by a game mechanic or some such nonsense. Yuck."
GreenAppleLady
Good conversation is hard to keep these days.
Do you have any conversational red flags to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Moments of distress where you think your life is on the line are unshakable.
Many people have at one point experienced situations where they thought they wouldn't come out the other side alive but are somehow spared through some miracle.
They are lucky enough to tell their stories.
From mild to wild, strangers online shared their most humbling experiences when Redditor Intelligent_Role_675 asked:
"What was the most intense moment of your life?"
Traffic accidents were a common example in which Redditors feared for their lives.
The Universe Had Other Plans
"My ancient, used car randomly decided to stop working while I was doing about 70mph on the freeway. I skidded out, couldn't gain control of the skid, and slammed straight into a metal guardrail. I crashed through the guardrail, flew off the side of the freeway, and impaled my car halfway through a tree. I was perfectly fine afterwards, but my car was a smoking wreck. It was virtually unrecognizable as an automobile, it was so messed up. But I was ok. Not a scratch on my body."
"The moment my car spun out of control, and I knew I was going over the edge at that speed, I assumed I was going to die. I gripped the wheel, closed my eyes, and made my peace with the universe."
"For some reason, the universe decided it wasn't done with me. I was shocked to open my eyes and find myself alive and unharmed. Truly shocked. I thought for sure I was going to die."
"To this day, I'm always a little bit shook whenever I drive past that section of the freeway. For years, you could see the skid marks on the road. They cleared them off eventually, but it took a long-a** time."
– EllyHodl
Reclaiming Loose Articles
"I had a wreck years ago. A semi clipped the front passenger side with its trailer and sent me spinning, then started to flip when my car got caught by those metal cable barriers. I was going backwards down the interstate as the cables just shredded the passenger side of my car. The trunk busted open and I saw a tote bag that was holding my hair stuff and makeup fly in front of me as my car was trying to stop. When it started to flip, my head bounced off the driver's side window."
"Finally, when it was over, I was sitting there just stunned. Then, my stupid brain decided I needed to walk out on the interstate to go find my flatiron. Because apparently I thought, hey, I have head trauma, but I can still look good🤦♀️."
– mgulley08
There are heroes around us.
Trapped In A Burning Car
"Driving to work one morning. Icky, rainy day, lots of highway traffic. I assume a car hydroplaned in front of me but it was far enough ahead that I couldn’t tell exactly what happened. Took out several other cars with him. Highway was basically completely blocked."
"I was essentially the first car to pull up on the wreck and one of the more badly damaged cars was already on fire. Myself and a couple strangers run up to the car and realize his door is jammed. One of the guys starts kicking the window. I’m not sure how much time has passed (probably not much) but you can feel the heat and making eye contact with this dude you can see the fear in his eyes."
"I ran to the passenger side and as I’m pulling on the handle the driver is kicking on the door from the inside. It popped open enough that I was able to grab a portion of the door itself and we were able to pull it open and pull him out."
"I went to work but I shook for hours from the adrenaline."
– Mikeastuto
The River Wild
"Saving a woman from drowning. We were River tubing in a river that was way way more aggressive than normal. Long story short a woman got dumped off her tube and pinned under a log next to me. I had to bail on my tube and fight to get to her and pull her up, she was under for a few minutes. I was shaking for hours after. Two teenagers died there the next day."
"Moral of the story, if you’re going river tubing and the tubing company that normally runs there isn’t operating it’s probably because it’s unsafe."
– Puzzleheaded-Mood689
These Redditors didn't know what hit them.
The Human Body Is Unpredictable
"Two and a half yrs ago I woke up halfway on my way to work with blurry sight and an immobile body. I assume it was on a sidewalk. I remember I wondered if I had died, but quickly shifted to a theory of suddenly gotten drunk on a tuesday morning. But that didn’t make any sense. Couldn’t grasp what was going on, really. Suddenly an older man rushed to me and asked if I was ok. I said yeah. He told me to lie still. Looked concerned. An ambulance came and took me to the nearest ER - about 1 km down the road. It was a stroke. Still puts me off a bit when I think about it. Occasional aphasia, but pretty much fine now."
– KoalaCola-notPepsi
The Wrong Shot
"Had a severe allergic reaction and collapsed in the stairs of the cultural history museum. I had been prescribed penicillin a few days earlier. It turns out that this particular type of penicillin can cause me to die."
– Ashtar-the-Squid
Murder Survivor
"Took four 9mm rounds to the chest while delivering pizza."
"Was delivering to a party, and some kids jumped out and pointed a gun at me. When I first saw the gun I thought it was some kids trying to prank me with a bb gun or something. I heard 4 loud bangs. Next thing I know I was on the ground and I felt them tugging on my keys that I had clipped to a belt loop."
"I remember one of them actually crying, and I remember him saying sorry over and over."
"Don't know how long I was there but that party I was supposed to deliver too emptied out and I remember hearing a lot of crying and screaming. I just remember some guy saying, 'don't close your eyes dude, stay with me.'"
"Ambulance got there and picked me up, and from there it was going in and out, felt like I was just a passenger in my own body."
"The kids who mugged me and stole my car got picked up like 20 mins later at a gas station trying to use my card to fill the car. They all ended up going away for several years, and I got 4 scars that raise eyebrows everytime I go to the beach."
– Unyielding_Cactus
Part Of The Atmosphere
"Probably jumping out of a plane. Unfortunately I don't remember the first few seconds, which was exactly what they warned us would happen. You go from a somewhat known environment into an entirely new one and I guess it's literally just too much to process. Next thing I knew, I was under canopy, and I knew what to do with that."
– cutelyaware
The Big Tremor
"I was stationed in South Korea in 2015-2016. This was when the north had been initiating a wave of nuclear tests. It was a Monday evening, me and some of the guys from my shop were taking a Korean language class on base after hours (basic sh*t like how to tell a cab driver where you were going, etc)"
"The heightened tensions because of the nuclear test had everyone pretty on edge. The classroom we were in had no windows, and we couldn't see outside. The building started shaking, violently. We all thought it had happened, and the world was about to end."
"In reality, A 5.8 earthquake hit not far from base."
"Once we walked outside, didnt see a mushroom cloud, and realized we hadn't become the ww3 rapid response force, we all had a good laugh about it. But for about 2 minutes, it was the opposite of funny."
– cat_daddylambo
Almost losing a loved one can be the scariest thing in life.
A Father's Worst Nightmare
"When my son was 2.5yo he had a febrile (fever-induced) seizure in my arms. I thought he was dying - scariest, most intense moment of my life."
"He’s fine now. Never re-occurred, but we went after any fever hard with alternating Tylenol and Advil for both him and his brother after that."
– wembley
Unpredictable Seizures
"My special needs son had his first seizure when he was 1. My wife was in Mexico for a wedding and I heard him breathing funny, like snoring. I looked at him and he was grey and unresponsive. I was terrified, I didn't know whether to do CPR or what. I called my mother in law who is a nurse but I couldn't reach her. He came out of it after about 2 minutes and I just held him and held him. He's had like 50 seizures since then, some of them lasting upwards of 20 mins. He had one this morning, actually. Every time it happens we think it might be his last. The scariest part to me is that I know it will start as any normal day then my life will change forever."
– Alamander81
These moments shared by Redditors are a reminder that tomorrow is never guaranteed.
And whenever we encounter a life-threatening situation and end up living long enough to tell the story, each day following is a blessed day to be alive.
We can't ever prepare for the worst, but we can embrace the present with every fiber of our being.
Everyone has their own opinion about what qualifies as a good read, whether based on literary merit or the joy of reading it.
But there are some titles that people can pretty easily agree took a turn that really didn't do the book any favors.
Redditor 2D_brain asked:
"What's the worst book you've ever read?"
50 Shades of Grey
"'50 Shades of Grey.' It's just the worst. Not remotely interesting. There is way better erotica out there. Way better. This is just the worst."
- joanne122597
The Darksword Trilogy
"'The Darksword Trilogy' by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It started out as a decent enough swords and sorcery series. Nothing special, but an amusing time-waster."
"Then, towards the end of the last book, a wormhole opens up, and the US Army invaded their fantasy realm."
- Catlenfell
Mein Kampf
"I’ve read 'Mein Kampf' for a history project and it definitely is the worst piece of literature I've ever read."
"Not only by the message, which already would make it the worst, but it’s just horrible writing. Feels more like an angry social media comment than a book."
- IceClimbers_Main
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
"I want to tack on 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,' as well. It's not literal Nazi propaganda, but it basically perpetuates Nazi myths like the Clean Wehrmacht and has you sympathize with the Nazis. In fact, not any Nazi, but an SS and leader of the Auschwitz camp."
"But even ignoring the plot itself, the book is so awful. It's full of historical inaccuracies. It claims to aim to bring awareness of the Holocaust to a young audience, but there are so many better literary works including those written by actual children as they went through the experience. But nope, let's go with the historically inaccurate book written by someone with basically no connection to the Holocaust (like, not Jewish, minority, researcher, that kind of thing) stupid drivel."
"So, of course, it made millions and got a movie out of it. There are now millions of children who think this story is true and might have become more sympathetic to Nazis as a result as well. None of that money (last time I checked, has admittedly been a while) went towards anything relating to education (or awareness...) regarding the Holocaust or anything else related or tangentially related to the Holocaust."
"I hate this book. It's nonsense and it is insidious."
- HabitatGreen
Go Ask Alice
"'Go Ask Alice' when you’re old enough to realize it’s just propaganda to scare kids and not an actually found diary of a drug user."
- sketchysketchist
Go Set a Watchman
"'Go Set a Watchman.'"
"'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a masterpiece. Her first book, it won the Pulitzer and then Harper Lee lived the rest of her life a recluse, never publishing another work. UNTIL… her caretaker/grifter sister came forward right before Harper passed away and announced to the world that there actually was another book, a sequel to TKAM."
"It was awful. Poorly written, boring story, rehashed characters…except for Atticus Finch. In Mockingbird, he was one of the greatest characters in american literature. In Watchman, he was a dime-a-dozen redneck racist. There was clearly a reason she never published it."
- Igotthesilver
Wicked
"'Wicked.' My wife and I listened to the audiobook on a road trip because friends had invited us to see the play. It was way too long and I remember it seeming like it was written by several different writers who didn't really communicate with each other."
"One was a totally nuts conspiracy theorist, another was on a really bad acid trip, and another was a child from a strict household who'd been told they could use no-no words and say naughty things all they wanted."
"We came super close to making up an excuse to not see the play but luckily we didn't. The play was actually terrific! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend going. Just skip the book."
- Tangent_
Maximum Ride
"Everything after Book Three of the 'Maximum Ride' series. I use them as my go-to examples of bad writing and they are what made me entirely lose faith in James Patterson. The last book especially cost me so many brain cells."
"I wish I'd had the foresight to stop with Book Three, but I finished the whole thing. The last book was... interesting. The whole thing had the most self-contradicting plot and conflict stuffed with a hasty attempt to wrap up loose ends by just killing everyone and just as the cherry on top, the sky explodes in the end? I don't know, it was kind of unclear."
- ParkityParkPark
The Divergent Trilogy
"I loved that series so much until that ending..."
- PurpleMermaid16
The Dune Prequels
"'The Dune' prequel books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Talk about missing the point of the original series! They read like a YA fan fiction based in the Dune universe."
- ImInJeopardy
Slammed
"I was hoping someone would mention Colleen Hoover, if only to talk about how absolutely terrible and hilarious her book 'Slammed' is. Reading it was honestly just such a ridiculous experience that I may never find again in another book."
- Leedamu
The Necronomicon
"'The Necronomicon.' I found it pretty boring and repetitive after the first five pages. Got halfway and said f**k this and read 'Good Omens' again."
- raidakens
Darling Girl
"'Darling Girl' by Liz Michalski. It’s a Peter Pan spinoff where Peter Pan impregnates Holly Darling, Wendy’s daughter, and then abandons them, and when the girl is a teenager, Peter tries to take the daughter back."
"I couldn’t stomach the idea of Peter Pan, a childlike figure, impregnating someone and all that ick. Peter Pan is 'the boy who never grew up.' But he’s a father now? No thanks. I got about 30 pages in, and literally gave up."
- MPD1987
The Fountainhead
"'The Fountainhead.' I was going to put 'Atlas Shrugged' down until I remembered how much worse 'The Fountainhead' was. And yes, I read both; any suffering inflicted by 'Atlas Shrugged' was something I deserved."
- ditchdiggergirl
Everyone has a right to their own opinion, and they should not be ashamed to read what they love to read. But they also should not feel bad about wasting time on a book they are not enjoying, when there are hundreds and thousands of books out there that they'll love that they could read instead.
Some people don't take in information as quickly as others.
Which is absolutely nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about, nor does it necessarily reflect on one's intelligence.
Even so, we all can't help but feel the tiniest embarrassed when we've found ourselves a little slow on the uptake regarding certain pieces of information.
Be it a random fact of trivia that everyone knows, or even realizing there's a reason your parents were trying to instill a life lesson in you.
Being hit by a ton of bricks might actually be a welcome relief to the embarrassment that will run through your body.
"What did you learn embarrassingly late in life?"
It's Hard To Love Others If You Don't Love Yourself
"Trying to treat myself as I would others."
"The ol' reverse golden-rule."- kageroshajima
Hey, It Worked!
"My grandmother had a clock that would break if anyone touched or tried to move it."
"I always found that curious."
"Then some time in my 30s my wife and I were talking and it came up."
"I was wondering how they moved it out of their house after they passed."
"As I was explaining, 'I think it must have had some delicately balanced mechanism or something that would be disrupted if moved...'
" My wife’s face made me quickly realize it was just a lie told to young me to keep my dirty clumsy hands off of it."
"Also, I’m an engineer."- P-eh-triot
Do We Ever Really Grow Up?
"There's no such thing as 'feeling like an adult'."
"I'm 34 and still forget I'm an adult sometimes lol."- scelestai
Hey, It's Not For Everyone...
"Riding a bike at 15."- Graehaus
Naturally Imposing
"That my height shapes how people perceive what I say."
"I'm a 6'4 male with a deep voice."
"I learned it at 40 when I had a boss who was 6'6."
"I was suddenly aware of my own height and the power position, looking up to him."
"I realized pretty much everyone is looking up at me, and I began smiling more and asking people questions about themselves to reduce the power implications of my height."- ClydePincusp
Easy To Get Tripped Up On Exotic Spellings
"How to say the last name Nguyen."- TD-Eagles
Though It Wouldn't Surprise Many If She Did...
"Martha Stewart does not own Martha's Vineyard...."- valhalla-at-your-grl
Shouldn't Be The Case... But Sadly Often Is...
"Hr is there to protect the company, not you."
"Hr is not your friend."- Puzzleheaded-Mood689
Just Focused On The Wrong Possibilities
"It never made sense to me that we would go under tables during an earthquake, because wouldn't the ground crack open?"
"The table wouldn't do anything then?"
"Wasn't until last year I realized that it was to stop debris from falling on us."
"Smh."- whats_yesterday
Easy To Get Tripped Up On Math...
"4% of 25 is the same as 25% of 4."- cdn_gooner
A Penny Saved...
"The importance of saving money or buying property early."- wetpickle_antichrist
Too Many People Need Reminding Of This Every Day...
"Who I am is more important than how I look."- Lazy-Thanks8244
Oral Hygiene Is Tougher Than You Think
"How to brush my teeth."
"I was super neglected as a child so that is something I've always struggled with and even after going to a dentist for 2 years and having exams every 4 months I only learned last month that you need to brush your gums."- HersheySquirtz2014·
"I learned that we're supposed to brush both sides of our teeth."
"The inner side needs to be brushed as well."
"I saw all of the commercials just showing them brushing the outer portion so I assumed that this is the way."- FaTes-EnD
Your Life Is Yours To Live!
"That I don't have to become a mother if I don't want to."- detective_kiara
Needless to say, should you find yourself making this realization in certain company, you might be met with jeers and laughter.
But as the saying goes, "slow and steady wins the race".