The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant books are a perfect candidate for this list. They were lavished with praise and awards by fans AND critics despite being a perfect storm of awfulness. I labored through the first and second trilogies back in High School after a friend had told me that they were the best fantasy books he had ever read. This guy had cleared out the local library's sci-fi/fantasy section so I thought these books must be something truly special. WRONG! I slogged through page after page of Thomas Covenant's (and later Lynden Avery's) histrionic whining and complaining waiting for a big payoff that never came. Both main characters managed to be completely unsympathetic and developed no redeeming qualities throughout the entire proceedings. About the only benefit I derived from suffering through 6 books of turgid navel-gazing was that I learned the meanings of the words 'gelid' and 'roynish' which has come in handy when solving crossword puzzles in later years. Coming across the first book of a THIRD TRILOGY in a Barnes and Noble recently shook my faith in a benevolent Providence to its very core.
