For me, the most recent book regret is Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Predictable from the get-go, bland, boilerplate sci-fi ideas, too many of these way-too-convenient plot devices just to push the story forward. I frankly don’t get the hype, and I am a pretty big science fiction guy.
Another one is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I read this in college and this whole book should have been a one-page essay. It was too repetitive, and the whole premise of “trust in your snap judgments and gut reactions” is way too simplistic and honestly stupid. Like all Gladwell books, it was anecdotal, superficial, and a waste of time.
While I love this romantic notion, I have to respectfully disagree. There are a lot of just plain awful books out there that really don’t have any redeeming value. At most I’ve learned to avoide that author and/or lamented modern education that anyone thought that book was readable
Same.
Bad books taught me to read the esamples on amazon before buying. That was the only actionable lesson, for me.