I regret my masochistic tendency to read books which are, well, widely read. I cannot completely abandon this tendency because it is the only reason I have read Harry Potter. 
 I do not even regret reading City of Bones. It has been an excruciating experience, however it made me realize that it CAN be worse than 50 Shades of Grey. 
 Now, I've read bad books. Like Blackmailed by the Beast which contains a sentence "I'm not wanting to swim anymore" but City of Bones takes bad to whole other level. Why. Because more than 22 million copies of the Mortal Instruments books are in print worldwide. It targets young readers, readers in the making. It plagues me, this. Because we will have a generation who believes this is good writing. I wrote about how English Language Died in the City of Bones on my blog. Here I wish to reflect on some plot idiocy. 
 For example, at one point Clary gives the stele back to Jace to heal Alec. A few pages after, she wonders whether she gave it back to him or not, and then concludes she hasn't. When Clary enters the Institute she is informed she is the first mundane to step inside in a hundred years. Some pages later, Simon is informed he is the first mundane ever to enter the Institute. There's more. 
 When we are first introduced to Valentine through Hodge's storytelling we (also Jace and Clary) are informed he died in an awful fire with his wife and his child. Some pages after, Jace and Clary are appalled by the realization that Valentine was MARRIED. 
 Onto more subtle lapses which make this book unreadable. Clary and Jace enter the Portal and when they land Clary notices the blue sky. So I conclude it's daylight. Only to be confused by the fact they conclude there is no one at home because of the absence of light. So, I guess it's dark then. Later on, I am informed that it is in fact - SUNSET. In the same scene Clary tells Jace there is a back door through which they can enter Luke's house. Some pages later, Jace asks her is there a back door, and she informs him there is none. 
 Now you can call this nitpicking, I call it bad writing.