# What's the most overrated book you've ever read?



## Five String

Mine was the DaVinci Code. I only got about halfway through and skipped to the end. Somebody send me an email and tell me how they got to the ending. Better yet, don't.

Uninteresting plot, flat characters, and I'd read about the history of Christianity a little and I sure didn't get where he was coming from on the history side.

My guess is half the reponses to this post are going to be Brown defenders, but heck, maybe you'll convince me to give it another try.

In all fairness to Brown and all super-popular books, some of it is the hype. Everyone says it's fantastic, unbelievable, sold hundreds of thousands, it'd have to be pretty fantastically good to live up to that. Same with 'classics' or 'literature', which is why I think a lot of people get turned off to those sorts of books, because they're_ supposed to _ be great, and if you don't end up agreeing, what's with you?

How about you? What's the most overrated book you've ever read?


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## Guest

I had a lot of fun with the Da Vinci code, but the movie version had all of the faults you found in spades.

I was really disappointed with the Sally Lockhart series. Phil Pullman definitely grew by leaps and bounds when he came out with the Golden Compass (which also had a terrible movie version).


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## WilliamM

DaVince Code hands down..
also Girl With The Dragon Tattoo..dont get me wrong I enjoyed the book and thought it was a decent read but the frenzy over it amazes me..


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## Pushka

Eat Pray Love. Hands down. But I can understand nominating The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was 'meh' about that too


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## Malweth

I liked all of Dan Brown's books. The DaVinci Code was good, though I did read it long before it went big-time.
The Lost Symbol, however, was a bomb. It's probably the book I've read with the most hype (aside from Harry Potter) and it was absolutely terrible.

For the most part, I tend to go for hype-free reading  My next big-name book will be _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_, though.


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## Linjeakel

The Da Vinci code and all Dan Brown's books are OK as long as you don't take them too seriously.

On the other hand, the Lord of The Rings? I'll refrain from saying what I really thought of it for fear of offending it's many fans, but it just didn't do anything for me. I gave up long before the end. (I never made it past the middle of the second movie either). I found I just didn't _care_ what happened.

I've never read the Harry Potter books, but if they ever come out on Kindle I might give them a try - I have a feeling that's another love it or hate it series. Still, with half a million or more Kindle books to get through, I'm sure we'll all find something to suit us.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

The Great Gatsby. Worthless piece of...


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## Paegan

I have two as my own personal worthless, time wasting, what the hell is everyone raving about list:  Angela's Ashes and The Road.  Blech!


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## AnnetteL

The Twilight series. Friends whose opinions I trusted assured me she "totally earned" her millions. 

Meyer did something right--she hit a serious nerve with millions of girls and women. 

But me? I just couldn't connect. Edward creeped me out. My internal editor kept trying to rewrite sentences, and plot holes just drove me up a wall.


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## Betsy the Quilter

I never really understood why DaVinci Code became the phenomenom it did....I could kinda see Twilight, though I didn't think it was very good.  I enjoyed DaVinci Code, on the other hand, but thought it was just another ordinary thriller.

Betsy


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## Harry Shannon

I loved The Road, brilliant writing. To each his own.

Broke my behind but despite solid writing absolutely could not get into Cold Mountain, don't know if it was my fault or the novel.


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## padowd

I would have to say The Passage. Don't get me wrong I liked the book o.k. but from all the reviews I had thought it would be be much better. Maybe it was just me but I have read alot better books.


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## AlexJouJou

The Historian

I hated it. And there is a lot of it to hate given its size. 

Honestly a lot of classics leave me cold as well - in particular Steinbeck is not a favorite of mine. Also Vonnegut but I may go back and re read him since it was 20 years ago - we'll see. 

I love that the world has so many books though so I'm not stuck with ones I hate!


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## LauraB

Half-Orc said:


> The Great Gatsby. Worthless piece of...


I have a degree in literature, and I have had many instructors fawn over that book and I still do not understand why.


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## CNDudley

Harry Shannon said:


> I loved The Road, brilliant writing. To each his own.
> 
> Broke my behind but despite solid writing absolutely could not get into Cold Mountain, don't know if it was my fault or the novel.


I loved The Road too. Actually, this thread makes me antsy because I enjoyed (if not "loved") a lot of the books on it--except Dragon Tattoo. And Great Gatsby I really, really loved that one. Twilight? Kept me turning pages.

I didn't make it through Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel and Everything but the Kitchen Sink in this Title Society, though.


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## LauraB

padowd said:


> I would have to say The Passage. Don't get me wrong I liked the book o.k. but from all the reviews I had thought it would be be much better. Maybe it was just me but I have read alot better books.


I liked it okay, but it isn't a great book, it is (to me) just a ok page turner. But not even one of the better ones of those I've read recently.


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## luvmy4brats

One Second After
The Lost Symbol
The Twilight Series

Sorry, couldn't pick just one.


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## Ann in Arlington

I enjoyed DaVinci Code. . .it was a reasonably fast paced thriller. . . .I guess the controversy is what made it a big deal.

I gather there was a lot of controversy about the Golden Compass, too. . . . I read it. . . .meh. . . .I didn't see the 'anti-church' that a lot of people did, but thought the story was only o.k. . . . no desire to read more of the series.

Can't add Twilight to my list as I never read it. . .the Kindle Sample was enough to assure me it wasn't my thing. . . .

I think I don't tend to often read 'overrated' books, 'cause I am usually one who reads to a different drummer as it were.  For example, there are a bunch Oprah recommended that people just raved over.  I have read one or two and they did nothing for me.  So I've learned to steer clear of her recommendations 'cause she and I clearly have different tastes in books.  I like to read books that are a bit under the radar. . . . indies are great 'cause a lot of them are really good.  But even when I used to browse the book store it wasn't the 'bestsellers' table that I lingered at. . . .it was the stacks to the sides where the unsung heros are shelved!


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## MariaESchneider

Ann in Arlington said:


> I enjoyed DaVinci Code. . .it was a reasonably fast paced thriller. . . .I guess the controversy is what made it a big deal.
> 
> I gather there was a lot of controversy about the Golden Compass, too. . . . I read it. . . .meh. . . .I didn't see the 'anti-church' that a lot of people did, but thought the story was only o.k. . . . no desire to read more of the series.
> 
> Can't add Twilight to my list as I never read it. . .the Kindle Sample was enough to assure me it wasn't my thing. . . .
> 
> I think I don't tend to often read 'overrated' books, 'cause I am usually one who reads to a different drummer as it were. For example, there are a bunch Oprah recommended that people just raved over. I have read one or two and they did nothing for me. So I've learned to steer clear of her recommendations 'cause she and I clearly have different tastes in books. I like to read books that are a bit under the radar. . . . indies are great 'cause a lot of them are really good. But even when I used to browse the book store it wasn't the 'bestsellers' table that I lingered at. . . .it was the stacks to the sides where the unsung heros are shelved!


I don't know if I'm a different drummer (Well I probably am, but not necessarily because of my reading material!) bu I didn't like the premise of the Twilight books. I think I read the back summary of one and that was as far as I got.

Da Vinci? It was an okay thriller. I think it did well, in part, because the Catholic church spoke out against it.  Good grief, if people think there's something naughty...

I've read much better "holy grail" books and personally think Indiana Jones was a great "holy grail" adventure. There really was nothing startling or new in da vinci.

My experience with most blockbusters is to just stay away. If they get raved about too much, my mind auto-slots them as "Don't bother."

Terrible reaction and I probably miss good books that way!


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## Five String

I liked the Great Gatsby when I was younger. I couldn't get my teeth into Twilight (pun intended)

I'm with Ann in Arlington. Sometimes I avoid blockbusters because they're ... blockbusters.

If there are any oldsters out these you might remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull. New York Times bestseller for over a year. I avoided it for months and when I finally read it, I just couldn't get into it. No offense meant if that's any other oldster's favorite book.


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## David McAfee

Twilight. Couldn't even finish it. Ugh.


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## Geoffrey

I think for me it was _Harry Potter and the Whatever the First Book Was About_. Everyone was going completely


Spoiler



apesh*t


 about it so I read it. It was cute and I can see why a tween would like it, but it was just another awkward-kid-makes-good book with some generic fantasy tossed in for good measure.


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## Marisa14

I enjoyed DaVinci Code!


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## Betsy the Quilter

I love threads like this; there are invariably books that I loved that others hated.  Thanks goodness there are enough different books out there for all of us!  In reading the comments here, let's remember on the one hand that the books we are dissing might be someone else's well loved read and on the other hand, that someone not liking our beloved treasure does not mean we were wrong to like it.

Just sayin'


Betsy


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## WilliamM

LauraB said:


> I have a degree in literature, and I have had many instructors fawn over that book and I still do not understand why.


one of the worst books I was ever forced to read in High School


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## Danielleqlee

I grew increasingly disappointed with the Harry Potter books. It felt like Jk Rowling was completely tapped out and exhausted by the last one and she just wanted to be finished with the whole thing.


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## Atunah

The most recent book that comes to my mind is Pillars of the Earth. I kept reading how great it is, oprah endorsed bla bla. It was only 3 something on Kindle at the time so I got it. That was a long time ago and I still haven't been able to finish it. Everything feels like cardboard to me, people, situations, everything. I don't know why I can't get into it, the subject matter and the time it is written in is right down my alley. I started rolling my eyes after the first few chapters. 

I just kept reading again and again. I still haven't deleted it off yet as I am determined to finish the darn thing  

I will watch the series though as the trailers look interesting and again, I love the time period. 

Must be the authors writing I guess. 

I won't touch anything with Oprah endorsed on it ever again  . Not that I care what that woman says anyway, don't watch her. Don't know what I thought.


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## LilBigBug

Danielleqlee said:


> I grew increasingly disappointed with the Harry Potter books. It felt like Jk Rowling was completely tapped out and exhausted by the last one and she just wanted to be finished with the whole thing.


Well, after writing one after another so they come out yearly, wouldn't you be exhausted?

I however do agree with The Lost Symbol. I liked Da Vinci Code, and out of that trilogy thought it was the best. Lost Symbol was actually quite boring at times.

Twilight, I kind of like and kind of hate. They're nice easy reads for when you don't want to think (I absolute HATE the movies though-the actor that plays Edward creeps me out). Keep in mind, they are also written for Young Adults, as were the Harry Potter series-oddly enough, more adults I know like them.

I had an answer for an overrated book, and now I don't remember what it was. LOL.


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## Guest

Half-Orc said:


> The Great Gatsby. Worthless piece of...


I thought it was pretty good, but not too terribly exciting. I can see how it would be painfully boring to high school students (like The Scarlet Letter), but it kept me interested enough to see it through to the end.



Geoffrey said:


> I think for me it was _Harry Potter and the Whatever the First Book Was About_. Everyone was going completely
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> apesh*t
> 
> 
> about it so I read it. It was cute and I can see why a tween would like it, but it was just another awkward-kid-makes-good book with some generic fantasy tossed in for good measure.


I'll half agree with you here. I was forced to read the first one for a class and I liked it enough to pick up the second one, but the second one was brutally boring and monotonous so I stopped. The first couple are nothing compared to books 4 and on, which deserve all of the hype they got. One day soon I'll have to start over again with the series and see if I feel the same way about them.


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## drenee

Eat, Pray, Love.  It has a few good parts that kept me going for a while, but I just could not bring myself to finish it.  It felt more like a chore than a pleasure to read.  I understand her journey to find herself, but her journey, at least as far as I read, really wasn't that book worthy, IMHO.

I tend to stay away from Oprah recommended books also.  Of course, since I don't follow her, I don't know what she's been recommending.  I liked Pillars.  Glad I didn't know it was an Oprah book, or I might have steered clear.  
deb


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## Leslie

Books from HS:

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. DETESTABLE!
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - turned me off Dickens forever
Great Gatsby (as others have said)

Recent:

I just finished listening to *The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo*. I thought it was good but not great...not sure what all the fuss was about. I started listening to the second one and it's like listening to a freaking math class? Huh? I'm only on the second chapter but I may not bother going any further.

I listened to all 32 hours of *Outlander* and while I enjoyed it, I haven't been inspired to find out what's next for Jamie and Claire and do they go to Rome or not. (Don't kill me Gertie...)

L


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## drenee

I like the idea of this thread.  I know there are some folks who like the same type books I do.  So for me it's nice to know what they didn't care for, so I can avoid waisting my time as well.

Leslie, I had a feeling you were not going to care for Outlander enough to advance in the series.
deb


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## GeorgeGlass

Leslie said:


> Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. DETESTABLE!


Wow! In my top 5 books of all time.


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## lib2b

AnnetteL said:


> The Twilight series. Friends whose opinions I trusted assured me she "totally earned" her millions.
> 
> Meyer did something right--she hit a serious nerve with millions of girls and women.
> 
> But me? I just couldn't connect. Edward creeped me out. My internal editor kept trying to rewrite sentences, and plot holes just drove me up a wall.


This is mine for sure. I had friends tell me it was "hot," that it was "the best book ever," and various similar things. Parts of it alternately had me cracking up (not the intended reaction of the author, I'm sure) and wanting to throw it away (except I couldn't because it was a library book, and I didn't want to pay for a replacement).

Honestly, I can see why others love it so much, but it was so NOT for me.


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## GeorgeGlass

A girlfriend begged me to read Harry Potter. I thought it was absolutely terrible. And I'm not opposed to children's lit. I thought The Graveyard Book was a lot of fun.

I read a sample of Twilight at a coworker's urging. Also thought it was terrible.

I tend not to love the blockbusters. I'm sure it is, in part, because they are blockbusters. But I've read a few before they were blockbusters and didn't care for them then either.


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## Hoosiermama

I'll probably get screams, but Atlas Shrugged. Just thinking about it can put me to sleep   I got partway through Twilight and decided not to waste any more time on it. I just couldn't get into it.


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## libros_lego

Twilight and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


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## Thalia the Muse

I adore Dickens in general, but I hate Great Expectations. Pip is such a loathsome little worm and does not deserve any sympathy whatsoever. I don't like On the Road much either -- oh, we're such free spirits, we sponge off our girlfriends and anyone else stupid enough to lend us money! 

It has always amazed me that anyone can get all the way through The Da Vinci Code. I read the sample, and I have rarely seen worse writing in a professionally published book. I'm not sure it's overrated, exactly -- it's one of the most mocked and derided books I can think of offhand.

I hated The Secret History, and everyone I knew loved that one. Also (this will be a shocker) A Prayer for Owen Meaney -- so cutesy and contrived and Owen seemed utterly unbelievable as a character to me.


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## Guest

I think this thread really speaks to the different qualities people appreciate in their books. So many people always jump to claims that "Harry Potter/Twilight/Hemingway is the best book ever," but really it just depends on who you are and what you respond to as a reader. Depending on your experience, you might find one story insightful because it seems fresh and new, but someone else could've heard of 100 stories that seemed just the same. 

The point is we're all subjective in our tastes, and we're all searching for that next story that pushes our understanding and curiosity just a bit further.


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## Malweth

I agree that people have different tastes, but I don't see how you can dislike a piece of literature and say it's the such an overrated book. I detest _The Scarlet Letter_, but I can't say it's overrated.

I'm not saying to keep quiet, but if an argument for a book's quality goes beyond a measure of popularity how can it be overrated to some extreme?


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

I really do think The Great Gatsby _is_ overrated, though. The story is not that imaginative. All I got out of it was a outsider looking into a high-class society, coupled with a massive amount of symbolism. Even my teachers, when trying to discuss what was so amazing about it, would only be able to say things like "But what about all the symbolism with the colors? Or the eyes on the billboard?"

A story should be enjoyable for the writing, the characters, and the story. I shouldn't have to suffer through a 'classic' just because the author inserted a reference to a symbolic color 500 times. Someone could write a book titled "My Week as a Friend of Paris Hilton" and I'd put it at the same level as The Great Gatsby, assuming the author was somewhat literate.

David Dalglish


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## chipotle

Another vote for Eat Pray Love.


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## Nicolas

Fatelessness by Imre Kertész. I'm really ashamed that we, Hungarians, who had so many great, world-class authors in the past, could only come up with this c*** to win the Nobel prize. I'm really interested in the theme, have read many good books about the oppressing regimes of the XX. century and the Holocaust in particular. But that book is badly written, badly narrated, bad literature, bad documentary. Solzhenitsyn deserved the prize 1000 times more.


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## Guest

The one book I found to be ridiculously overrated was My Week as a Friend of Paris Hilton. Not what I expected at all.


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## tbrookside

I think that _The Catcher in the Rye_ is without a doubt the most overrated book of all time.

It's just annoying. Its vision of "defiant adolescence" is positively quaint at this point. I pretty much have to agree with the _South Park_ take on Salinger.

I think the problem with _The Great Gatsby_ is that it's mis-taught. It only makes sense in the context of the waning days of the Romanticist movement. In many ways Fitzgerald was the American Goethe but that makes him a complete odd duck in the history of 20th century American literature. Most high schools teach him side-by-side with Hemingway because they were contemporaries but artistically it's hard for me to think of two more different writers.

We no longer have the cultural context for people to instinctively "get" the most important point to understanding the novel: that Gatsby is a fool. A rube. Looking back, we think of him as an emblem of Roaring 20's "glamour", but that's just because of our deficit of cultural memory. He's supposed to be _tacky_ and _un_glamorous - the equivalent of a drug lord millionaire or rap star in our day. He also is so completely trapped in a romantic vision of his own life that he's unable to see the true characteristics of the people around him, especially Daisy. He doesn't realize what is and is not possible and what "real" people actually think and feel. He lives in a floating romantic soap bubble like Goethe's Werther did. And that's why it's such a dramatic inversion to have the narrator ultimately conclude that Gatsy is _in the right_, and is the better person, when contrasted with the Buchanans, who actually possess the upper-class sensibilities and tastes Gatsby [badly] apes. Fitzgerald is comparing the fantasists and the realists in American life, and siding with the fantasists. I tend to think this is why all the attempts to film the story have failed - everyone who's tried to film it thinks they're filming a romantic drama, when actually they should do it more like a Terry Gilliam movie like _The Fisher King_.


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## Gertie Kindle

Leslie said:


> I listened to all 32 hours of *Outlander* and while I enjoyed it, I haven't been inspired to find out what's next for Jamie and Claire and do they go to Rome or not. (Don't kill me Gertie...)
> 
> L


Grrrr ...

Honestly, if I had to listen to 32 hours, I probably wouldn't have liked it either.


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## 4Katie

For me, it's The DaVinci Code, but not for the reasons most of you have given. I loved the story, the suspense, the 'history' and the controversy. I was loving all of it - right up to the end when it just... ended. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in a book ending. I've never picked up any of his other books.

I've never read The Great Gatsby, but I recently downloaded the sample. Maybe it'll be good just to read, without having to dissect and study it. Maybe?


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## Thalia the Muse

tbrookside, that was a great critical summation of Gatsby. More, I'd say he is the quintessential American BECAUSE he's a dreamer and a pretender and maybe a bit of a fraud. Tom and Daisy are Jamesian Europeans (and don't they make an ugly picture of the species?). 

I read Gatsby in high school and hated it. I read it again in college and hated it. I read it two months ago -- on my Kindle! -- and thought it was brilliant and heartbreaking.


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## Sunshine22

Outlander.


Spoiler



I couldn't even finish it.



(....quickly running away)


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## Gertie Kindle

Sunshine22 said:


> Outlander.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> I couldn't even finish it.
> 
> 
> 
> (....quickly running away)


Sigh ... I only found out a couple of years ago while grazing through the Amazon forums that there were people who didn't like my favorite book. Now I just accept that and read it again.


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## Addie

Leslie said:


> Books from HS:
> 
> Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. DETESTABLE!
> Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - turned me off Dickens forever


Absolutely.

I don't remember hating The Great Gatsby. It actually wasn't memorable at all. It was just another book to read. Although, I totally hated the movie. Ugh.

I also thought The DaVinci Code was extremely overrated and The Catcher in the Rye. I was expecting this great book that had deep insight and societal significance with quite a bit of rebellion and radical thinking, and


Spoiler



instead I got a book about this deviant kid who liked to talk to hookers


.  I loved the South Park episode on it.


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## AnelaBelladonna

Lord of the Rings... although I loved the movies.  It shouldn't take a whole chapter to get from one side of the road to the other.


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## Gertie Kindle

I didn't care at all for Pillars of the Earth although I like Ken Follet and the book should have been right up my alley. I tried watching the TV series and fell asleep after five minutes.


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## 13500

tbrookside--fantastic modern analysis of "The Great Gatsby." 

I think "The Historian" was one of the most overrated books I have ever read. I skimmed through several chapters hoping the ending might surprise me, but it did not. 

I'd also like to chime in on "The Lost Symbol." Boring. It was like Dan Brown had to write it to fulfill his contract and had nothing in him after "The DaVinci Code."


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## Gertie Kindle

KarenW.B. said:


> tbrookside--fantastic modern analysis of "The Great Gatsby."
> 
> I think "The Historian" was one of the most overrated books I have ever read. I skimmed through several chapters hoping the ending might surprise me, but it did not.
> 
> I'd also like to chime in on "The Lost Symbol." Boring. It was like Dan Brown had to write it to fulfill his contract and had nothing in him after "The DaVinci Code."


I read _The DaVinci Code_ first. Not bad, but historically inaccurate. _Angels and Demons_ was much better although I had to suspend *a lot* of disbelief. Neither of them knocked my socks off, so _The Lost Symbol_ wasn't even on my list.


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## Gone 9/21/18

Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent. On the bright side, it cured me of ever again forcing myself to finish a book.


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## Five String

tbrookside - Whew! You nailed Gatsby! You're not trying to sell any books, are you, because if you are, I want to buy one!

The Great Gatsby was one of my favorite books in high school. Everyone saying how overrated it is makes me want to go back and read it again. I think I'm going to do that and start a thread on it.


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## VioletVal

_The Prince_ by Machiavelli. I read it in high school, and it's still the most boring book I have ever read in my life.


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## mlewis78

By far *Eat Pray Love* and *Da Vinci Code*. Didn't finish either of them. I will never read another Dan Brown book. It read as if it were for children looking for an excellent adventure. I only read it because one of my brothers recommended it. A lot of bestsellers are like that (while some are very good and intelligently written -- Stieg Larsson's books, for example) and appeal to the masses. Beware the best seller until you know something about it.

I don't plan to see the movie Eat Pray Love, but I would expect it to be better than the boring book.


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## Gertie Kindle

mlewis78 said:


> I don't plan to see the movie Eat Pray Love, but I would expect it to be better than the boring book.


Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith of Glee said the movie was great, for whatever that's worth.


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## Pushka

I imagine Julia Roberts would bring it to life, and being a frequent traveller to Bali, I will enjoy that part of the movie.  But the book was boring, self-centered, and very tedious.

Outlander, oh my, 30 hours of listening would do me in but the books are my Favourite!  Harry Potter, I read the first book and I was done with it all.  Twilight, now there is a mystery there, but if you grab young teens/adults attention, they will spend your way to success.


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## Dawn McCullough White

Dracula.  


Dawn


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## Thalia the Muse

OMg, Dracula is so entertaining! It's all pulpy and silly and overheated. I love that book.


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## Leslie

tbrookside said:


> I think that _The Catcher in the Rye_ is without a doubt the most overrated book of all time.
> 
> It's just annoying. Its vision of "defiant adolescence" is positively quaint at this point. I pretty much have to agree with the _South Park_ take on Salinger.
> 
> I think the problem with _The Great Gatsby_ is that it's mis-taught. It only makes sense in the context of the waning days of the Romanticist movement. In many ways Fitzgerald was the American Goethe but that makes him a complete odd duck in the history of 20th century American literature. Most high schools teach him side-by-side with Hemingway because they were contemporaries but artistically it's hard for me to think of two more different writers.
> 
> We no longer have the cultural context for people to instinctively "get" the most important point to understanding the novel: that Gatsby is a fool. A rube. Looking back, we think of him as an emblem of Roaring 20's "glamour", but that's just because of our deficit of cultural memory. He's supposed to be _tacky_ and _un_glamorous - the equivalent of a drug lord millionaire or rap star in our day. He also is so completely trapped in a romantic vision of his own life that he's unable to see the true characteristics of the people around him, especially Daisy. He doesn't realize what is and is not possible and what "real" people actually think and feel. He lives in a floating romantic soap bubble like Goethe's Werther did. And that's why it's such a dramatic inversion to have the narrator ultimately conclude that Gatsy is _in the right_, and is the better person, when contrasted with the Buchanans, who actually possess the upper-class sensibilities and tastes Gatsby [badly] apes. Fitzgerald is comparing the fantasists and the realists in American life, and siding with the fantasists. I tend to think this is why all the attempts to film the story have failed - everyone who's tried to film it thinks they're filming a romantic drama, when actually they should do it more like a Terry Gilliam movie like _The Fisher King_.


This is an interesting assessment and it would almost--ALMOST--make me consider reading it again EXCEPT that about two weeks ago on Prairie Home Companion they did a reading from *The Great Gatbsy*. Listening to this was a cross between bored to tears and sticking pins in my eyes. I can't imagine what Garrison Keillor was thinking to select this book for a reading and then to let such a dismal bunch of actors take the parts (the woman who read Daisy almost had me leaping out of the car window). Anyway, that horrible experience killed any interest I had in reading Gatsby again. I'll stick to the Cliff's Notes version.

I was actually interested in reading GG because I just read a biography of J.C. Leyendecker, the artist famous for painting the Arrow shirt men in the ads in the early part of this century. Supposedly Leyendecker and his lover (who was also his very frequent model in the Arrow ads) Charles Beach, were, at least partially, the inspiration for Jay Gatsby (didn't he have an obsession with shirts?). So, this sorta made me think about reading the book...until I listened to PHC.

Oh well.

L


----------



## Thalia the Muse

Yes, there's a whole scene when Gatsby shows Nick his beautiful bespoke shirts in different colors and fabrics. 

That bio sounds really interesting!


----------



## Victorine

In school I had to read My Antonia, by Willa Cather.  Everyone raved about what a great author Willa Cather was.

I just about stuck forks in my eyes.

Vicki


----------



## MariaESchneider

Okay, since we're talking classics, I'll make myself unpopular and admit that I hated everything by Poe except one poem and I also hated 1984.   I could get through Poe with some distaste, but reading 1984 was a bore and tedious.  I would have finished none of it except it was force reading for high school.


----------



## Gertie Kindle

MariaESchneider said:


> Okay, since we're talking classics, I'll make myself unpopular and admit that I hated everything by Poe except one poem and I also hated 1984. I could get through Poe with some distaste, but reading 1984 was a bore and tedious. I would have finished none of it except it was force reading for high school.


High School was my "dark" period. Very Bohemian/Beatnik kind of thing. So Poe and 1984 were right up my alley. Probably wouldn't read any of it now.


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

Thalia the Muse said:


> OMg, Dracula is so entertaining! It's all pulpy and silly and overheated. I love that book.


I love most vampire novels and the 1937 version of Dracula so I figured I'd completely fall in love with the classic... but I couldn't even get through it. I found it dull.

But each to his or her own I suppose. I am a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe, and enjoyed The Great Gatsby quite a bit (mainly because Gatsby was kind of cool, not really the other characters).

Dawn


----------



## Leslie

Thalia the Muse said:


> Yes, there's a whole scene when Gatsby shows Nick his beautiful bespoke shirts in different colors and fabrics.
> 
> That bio sounds really interesting!


The bio is not without its faults but since there is very little extant information on Leyendecker, it's the best that's available. And, it is worth buying (if you are a fan of the artist) because of the hundreds of illustrations: ads, magazine covers (Saturday Night Post, etc.) and original paintings. Here's a link:











That's Charles Beach on the cover. Here's a link to a bio-blog I wrote on the anniversary of Leyendecker's death. Might be quicker and easier than reading the whole book...LOL. Although I didn't include the Gatsby connection.

http://historicromance.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/in-honor-of-j-c-leyendecker/

L


----------



## Cliff Ball

This might not go over too well, but for me, _The Hobbit_ and _No Country For Old Men_ were two of the most over-rated books I've ever read. The Hobbit because I've heard over the years about how great it was, so I decided to read it last year, but I found it incredibly hard to read, and I actually find hard books to read usually. No Country For Old Men because, for one thing, I read it in my college Modern Fiction class, and found it to be boring and tedious. Then, we got stuck watching the movie, and it was just as boring and tedious as heck. Was there something to it that I'm supposed to get because it was Oscar nominated or won an Oscar or whatever?


----------



## mlewis78

cliffball said:


> This might not go over too well, but for me, _The Hobbit_ and _No Country For Old Men_ were two of the most over-rated books I've ever read. The Hobbit because I've heard over the years about how great it was, so I decided to read it last year, but I found it incredibly hard to read, and I actually find hard books to read usually. No Country For Old Men because, for one thing, I read it in my college Modern Fiction class, and found it to be boring and tedious. Then, we got stuck watching the movie, and it was just as boring and tedious as heck. Was there something to it that I'm supposed to get because it was Oscar nominated or won an Oscar or whatever?


I agree, although I haven't read the book. The movie was awful, especially at the end. I asked people what the ending was about and no one knew. Yet it won the Oscar that year.


----------



## tbrookside

> This is an interesting assessment and it would almost--ALMOST--make me consider reading it again EXCEPT that about two weeks ago on Prairie Home Companion they did a reading from The Great Gatbsy. Listening to this was a cross between bored to tears and sticking pins in my eyes.


Since this is the "overrated" thread, can I add as an aside that I find _Prairie Home Companion_ overrated?

Keillor could do a reading of a press release announcing that I had won the megabucks and I would change the channel, so I don't blame you for not liking his _Gatsby_.


----------



## 13500

T.L. Haddix said:


> Shakespeare. I hate reading the Bard. Always have. Always will. I don't 'get' the language, and it is another language. King James Version of the Bible? Yeah, I had to get a translation. Anyhow, back to old William. Maybe if they were written in English I can understand, I'd like him. Guess that makes me pedestrian, but it is what it is.


I'm sorry you feel this way, T.L. You must not have had a good English teacher in your past.


----------



## Leslie

tbrookside said:


> Since this is the "overrated" thread, can I add as an aside that I find _Prairie Home Companion_ overrated?
> 
> Keillor could do a reading of a press release announcing that I had won the megabucks and I would change the channel, so I don't blame you for not liking his _Gatsby_.


I fell asleep in _The Prairie Home Companion_ movie. What a snooze fest!

I don't listen to PHC by choice but if we're driving around in the car and it is the time it is on, then I'll give it a go. Except when they are reading excruciatingly boring excerpts from *The Great Gatsby*. LOL. Keillor even introduced it as, "The book most frequently read and hated by high school students." I mean, come on, what a set up!

L


----------



## Nell Gavin

Everyone else took my first choice (Da Vinci Code), so I thought I would throw out anything by Charles Dickens, except A Tale of Two Cities. He alone made me eschew all things overly-descriptive. I tried. I really tried, and could never finish any of his books, even though I sucked down wordy classics like a drug, during one point in my life. Except for A Tale of Two Cities, which I really liked.


----------



## Nell Gavin

Leslie said:


> I fell asleep in _The Prairie Home Companion_ movie. What a snooze fest!
> 
> I don't listen to PHC by choice but if we're driving around in the car and it is the time it is on, then I'll give it a go. Except when they are reading excruciatingly boring excerpts from *The Great Gatsby*. LOL. Keillor even introduced it as, "The book most frequently read and hated by high school students." I mean, come on, what a set up!
> L


It sounds like an Andy Kaufman performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL3Dp6Oh3Fw.


----------



## Cliff Ball

T.L. Haddix said:


> Shakespeare. I hate reading the Bard. Always have. Always will. I don't 'get' the language, and it is another language. King James Version of the Bible? Yeah, I had to get a translation. Anyhow, back to old William. Maybe if they were written in English I can understand, I'd like him. Guess that makes me pedestrian, but it is what it is.


I actually understand the King James Version, maybe I'm weird. I even took a class on History of the English Language, mostly because I have a BA in English, but, I don't get Shakespeare either.


----------



## Leslie

Nell Gavin said:


> It sounds like an Andy Kaufman performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL3Dp6Oh3Fw.


Andy Kaufman was a genius, IMHO. Thanks for the clip...

L


----------



## KimberlyinMN

Five String said:


> How about you? What's the most overrated book you've ever read?


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I tried reading it on my Kindle. I couldn't get into it. (And I can read all sorts of books.) Then we tried to listen to it from Audible on our vacation and only lasted a couple of hours before we had to start something else. I tried, really I did.


----------



## drenfrow

This is going back awhile but does anybody remember the hype that surrounded *The Bridges of Madison County*? I hated the book. I thought the main character was so weak and pathetic. A woman who doesn't have the guts to leave her loveless marriage and make a real life for herself? Who cares? I never could understand why it was on the bestseller list forever. That was certainly a book that was made into a much, much better movie.


----------



## MariaESchneider

drenfrow said:


> This is going back awhile but does anybody remember the hype that surrounded *The Bridges of Madison County*? I hated the book. I thought the main character was so weak and pathetic. A woman who doesn't have the guts to leave her loveless marriage and make a real life for herself? Who cares? I never could understand why it was on the bestseller list forever. That was certainly a book that was made into a much, much better movie.


I remember it. Someone gave me the book. Three pages? Maybe less. I didn't get that one at all.

Romeo and Juliet? What a waste of time that was. Yeah, so it was a tragedy. Like there aren't enough of those in real life. The whole time we were forced to discuss it (days and days) I spent rewriting the ending.


----------



## Victorine

drenfrow said:


> This is going back awhile but does anybody remember the hype that surrounded *The Bridges of Madison County*? I hated the book. I thought the main character was so weak and pathetic. A woman who doesn't have the guts to leave her loveless marriage and make a real life for herself? Who cares? I never could understand why it was on the bestseller list forever. That was certainly a book that was made into a much, much better movie.


Oh yes! I totally agree. Except for the movie... I didn't like that either. LOL!!!

Vicki


----------



## Cliff Ball

drenfrow said:


> This is going back awhile but does anybody remember the hype that surrounded *The Bridges of Madison County*? I hated the book. I thought the main character was so weak and pathetic. A woman who doesn't have the guts to leave her loveless marriage and make a real life for herself? Who cares? I never could understand why it was on the bestseller list forever. That was certainly a book that was made into a much, much better movie.


I remember that movie.... my mom does movie nights occasionally, and when that movie came out, that was the one she picked for herself. You can imagine the reaction, me, my brother, and my dad had with watching that movie. But, then, she discovered she hated it, so that was that. lol


----------



## Steven L. Hawk

_*Flowers in the Attic* _by V.C. Andrews. Only because it gave birth to the rest of the series that came after. Ugh!


----------



## DYB

I thought "Prairie Home Companion" the movie was one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a long time!

Back to books: I don't know how I made it to the end of "DaVinci Code."  It was sort of like not being able to turn away from a train wreck.  One of the worst pieces of garbage to ever be published in the history of the world.  My main objection is Brown's writing.  I'd expect better from a dyslexic junior high school drop-out.  He's a truly awful writer.  If the plot itself was mildly engaging for a little while - Brown jumps the shark when he takes deeply philosophical and intriguing questions about religion, history, and feminism - and turns them into a ludicrous and banal fantasy that trivializes many fascinating and complex ideas.  (The location of the item they are searching for is fall-out-of-your-chair stupid.  Truly stupid.)

Anyway - I enjoyed "The Great Gatsby," but I'm not entirely sure why it's such an important novel.  

I'd rather watch paint dry than read "The Lord of the Rings" again.  Though I enjoyed "The Hobbit."

"No Country for Old Men" the book and the movie are magnificent.  I love McCarthy in general.  I'm mostly indifferent to the Coen Brothers, but "No Country" is their second masterpiece.  (After "Fargo.")


----------



## Debra Purdy Kong

I haven't read The Da Vinci Code, but I've heard enough bad things that I'll probably never pick it up. For me, the most overrated book (and this goes back a number of years) was The Celestine Prophecy. I mean, it was okay, but I really didn't understand why there was so much positive hype.

Debra


----------



## Meemo

drenfrow said:


> This is going back awhile but does anybody remember the hype that surrounded *The Bridges of Madison County*? I hated the book. I thought the main character was so weak and pathetic. A woman who doesn't have the guts to leave her loveless marriage and make a real life for herself? Who cares? I never could understand why it was on the bestseller list forever. That was certainly a book that was made into a much, much better movie.


No fair - you took mine! 
I only kept reading because I thought it had to get better considering all the hype. It didn't.
I didn't love the movie, but it was one of those very rare instances where the movie was better than the book.


----------



## Sunshine22

T.L. Haddix said:


> Shakespeare. I hate reading the Bard. Always have. Always will. I don't 'get' the language, and it is another language. King James Version of the Bible? Yeah, I had to get a translation. Anyhow, back to old William. Maybe if they were written in English I can understand, I'd like him. Guess that makes me pedestrian, but it is what it is.


DH, is that you? LoL, seriously, you sound just like my husband. It's one of the few things we don't have in common... I love the language of Shakespeare, it's beautiful, imo.

And whoever doesn't like anything by Charles Dickens, *except* A Tale of Two Cities, I completely agree. For some reason, that book is one of my favorites, but I'm not a fan of the rest of his books.


----------



## mlewis78

To each his own.  Loved the PHC movie.  I have loved listening to Garrison Keillor's voice, especially the News from Lake Wobegon.  I'd rather listen to his voice than read his books (but loved the one about why he is a Democrat).  Have always liked PHC, although I don't listen to the whole thing religiously any more.  Have been to PHC productions at Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and Ocean Grove Great Auditorium in NJ.


----------



## Sandra Edwards

Since I am basically the Queen of Procrastination...I have three 

Twilight *don't even get me started*
the Da Vinci Code 
and
Misery -- *while I loved the movie...I hated, hated, hated the book* 

Sandy


----------



## yogini2

the Story of Edgar Sawtelle.  Couldn't finish it.  I like long narratives and character buildup and the back story, but come on. Ugh.  
Kathy.


----------



## Lizz

I never read Dan Brown, how popular he is in this post! I refused to read it flat out. _*Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange.*_ I desperately wanted to give up about halfway through but decided to soldier on. I wished I had died by the end. Not only was it overrated, it was just awful to me. I must have missed something, because thousands of reviewers on Amazon vehemently disagree, but I just could not like it!


----------



## mlewis78

Lizz said:


> I never read Dan Brown, how popular he is in this post! I refused to read it flat out. _*Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange.*_ I desperately wanted to give up about halfway through but decided to soldier on. I wished I had died by the end. Not only was it overrated, it was just awful to me. I must have missed something, because thousands of reviewers on Amazon vehemently disagree, but I just could not like it!


I just finished Jonathan Strange. Loved the last third of it, but before I got there I was bored with it and wanted to stop at the 50% point. Norrell is just a dull, dull man and Strange isn't much better. She could have put some character into them!


----------



## Gertie Kindle

Debra Purdy Kong said:


> I haven't read The Da Vinci Code, but I've heard enough bad things that I'll probably never pick it up. For me, the most overrated book (and this goes back a number of years) was The Celestine Prophecy. I mean, it was okay, but I really didn't understand why there was so much positive hype.
> 
> Debra


The Celestine Prophecy is probably the only book I've ever listened to all the way through. I know I liked it, but now I can't even remember it.


----------



## Gertie Kindle

mlewis78 said:


> To each his own. Loved the PHC movie. I have loved listening to Garrison Keillor's voice, especially the News from Lake Wobegon. I'd rather listen to his voice than read his books (but loved the one about why he is a Democrat). Have always liked PHC, although I don't listen to the whole thing religiously any more. Have been to PHC productions at Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and Ocean Grove Great Auditorium in NJ.


Hey, ML, just got back from Ocean Grove. One of my favorite places. My parents had a dry cleaning store on Pilgrim Pathway.


----------



## farrellclaire

Wuthering Heights.  I don't see anything enjoyable or special about that book, I truly hated it.  Really disappointing, so many people said I'd love it.


----------



## D.A. Boulter

Gravity's Rainbow.  It won an award.  How could it win an award?  My mind boggles.

As to 'Bridges of Madison Country':  A friend of mine suggested we go see the movie.  "Who's in it?" I asked her, never having heard of it.  "Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep."  Okay, I can't stand Merly Streep, but any shoot-'em-up with Clint Eastwood has got to have something going for it, if only the action.  I could just picture it:  The American Civil War.  Eastwood leading the cavalry to capture the Bridges of Madison County in order to defeat the Rebels/Blue Coats.  Heart-pounding excitement.  Cool, clever bon mots:  'Make my day, Johnny Reb.' 'Now, you may be wondering, did I fire my musket, or is it still loaded?  Tell me, do you feel lucky?'  Stuff like that.  Ah, the excitement as I plopped myself into my seat, big bag of popcorn at hand, watching intently, eagerly as the curtain went up. . . . . Let's just say that it wasn't quite what I had expected, and leave it at that.


----------



## tbrookside

T.L. Haddix said:


> Lol, Sunshine. I remember watching a movie in History class in high school. It was maybe about Sir Thomas More? "A Man For All Seasons" I think. Anyhow, our teacher was so, so good but also very strict. This guy would write you up over a tiny infraction. I loved that class, but anyhow... I had to sit next to one of my friends and write down questions in my notebook so that she could see them and she would do the same with her answers. I literally cannot understand that form of English, whether it is written or spoken. I would need subtitles, or a translator like my friend was to understand what was going on. Seeing the action in a movie makes it easier than having to read it and make sense of it, though. Did people really, really talk like that in the 16th/17th century?
> 
> As sharp as that teacher was, he had to have known we were communicating back and forth, now that I think about it.


_A Man For All Seasons_ is one of those rare instances where you don't lose anything going from the play to the movie. That's probably because Robert Bolt wrote both the play and the screenplay [I think]. That means he got paid for the screenplay even though he didn't do much more than retype the stage play.

It's also probably a little more accessible because it was written in the 20th century. It's got a "historic time period" voice to it, but it's not littered with archaicisms that you need footnotes to explain like Shakespeare is. Shakespeare is also midway between ancient and modern plays, and ancient plays were essentially dramatic or comedic _poems_ - and that kind of dramatically stylized poetry is a little less accessible for modern people who are more used to straight drama.


----------



## Leslie

What was the book where they transplanted Hitler's brain into some guy--kind of like Frankenstein--but you don't find out it's Hitler's brain until the very last page? It had some convoluted title like *The Morning After the Day Before* (I think). Or something like that. That was another train wreck of a book...I kept reading and when I was finished I said, "Why on earth did I read that" It was also one of those books that EVERYONE was reading that summer, similar to The DaVinci Code phenomenon.

L


----------



## KimberlyinMN

yogini2 said:


> the Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Couldn't finish it. I like long narratives and character buildup and the back story, but come on. Ugh.
> Kathy.


I listened to this book during my commute to work. (Audible audiobook) I loved everything but the ending. To me, it was one of those books where the author must have taken a vacation or something before writing the last chapter. Then when they returned, they'd lost their mojo and just slapped an ending that didn't make much sense.

Kind of like Stephen King's "Under the Dome". (Audible audiobook) I thought the beginning and middle of the story was pretty good. The ending? What?! I asked my brother about this when I saw him last week. He's a King fanatic and owns them all in hard cover. He just told me that "It's Stephen King, what can you expect?"


----------



## Ann in Arlington

Debra Purdy Kong said:


> . . . . The Celestine Prophecy. . . . .


I got that book. . . .tried to read it. . . . .couldn't. . . . .gave it away when the charity shop truck came around. . . .


----------



## DYB

I knew "Wuthering Heights" would make it on to the list sooner or later.  I thought it'd be sooner.  I, however, consider it the greatest English-language novel of all time.  Bronte was about a century ahead of time as far as psychology is concerned.  It is a strange, bizarre, fascinating, frustrating and gorgeous novel.

"Mr. Norel and Jonathan Strange" I tried to read in hardcover when it first came out.  I still have the DTB on my shelf - but I think I stopped about a quarter through.  (It's a big book, so a quarter though is quite a lot).  I wanted to like it, but thought the characters were boring and nothing happened!


----------



## WilliamM

Leslie said:


> What was the book where they transplanted Hitler's brain into some guy--kind of like Frankenstein--but you don't find out it's Hitler's brain until the very last page? It had some convoluted title like *The Morning After the Day Before* (I think). Or something like that. That was another train wreck of a book...I kept reading and when I was finished I said, "Why on earth did I read that" It was also one of those books that EVERYONE was reading that summer, similar to The DaVinci Code phenomenon.
> 
> L


hah! I remember that book..one of my guilty pleasures..The Day After Tommorow


----------



## Ann in Arlington

It occurs to me that I could say anything by Stephen King. . .but it wouldn't really qualify because I've never been able to get through one of his books. . . . .tried a couple of times. . . . .don't get the appeal.

OTOH, I quite enjoy reading Shakespeare. . .especially aloud. . . . .and have also read Chaucer in the original.  It's fun!


----------



## Leslie

Fuzzy Dunlop said:


> hah! I remember that book..one of my guilty pleasures..The Day After Tommorow


I wasn't too far off...LOL.

Guilty pleasure or summer phenom...it was one of those books that I read and then said...why


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

Debra Purdy Kong said:


> IFor me, the most overrated book (and this goes back a number of years) was The Celestine Prophecy. I mean, it was okay, but I really didn't understand why there was so much positive hype.
> 
> Debra


OMG yes!! I was expecting some sort of actual insight but it was really nothing but little story.

Dawn


----------



## WilliamM

Leslie said:


> I wasn't too far off...LOL.
> 
> Guilty pleasure or summer phenom...it was one of those books that I read and then said...why


heh..i always thought it would have made a great drive-in movie..if drive-ins still existed


----------



## farrellclaire

DYB said:


> I knew "Wuthering Heights" would make it on to the list sooner or later. I thought it'd be sooner. I, however, consider it the greatest English-language novel of all time. Bronte was about a century ahead of time as far as psychology is concerned. It is a strange, bizarre, fascinating, frustrating and gorgeous novel.


Definitely ahead of its time but I found it impossible to enjoy. It might have been because of my own expectations. Jane Eyre is my favourite novel hands down and I've always found the Brontes themselves fascinating.


----------



## L.J. Sellers novelist

I know it's been mentioned, but I tried to read The Da Vinci Code twice and couldn't get past five or six pages. Still wanting to know what the story was about, I rented the movie. And fell asleep.

I also couldn't get into Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This blog today sums up my reaction. 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilana-teitelbaum/the-girl-who-read-enough_b_664684.html
L.J.


----------



## WilliamM

L.J. Sellers said:


> I know it's been mentioned, but I tried to read The Da Vinci Code twice and couldn't get past five or six pages. Still wanting to know what the story was about, I rented the movie. And fell asleep.
> 
> I also couldn't get into Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This blog today sums up my reaction.
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilana-teitelbaum/the-girl-who-read-enough_b_664684.html
> L.J.


granted I thought Da Vinci Code was very over rated as my previous post states but realistically I dont think I could write off any book after only the first 5-6 pages..I give it it at least a couple chapters


----------



## Leslie

Fuzzy Dunlop said:


> heh..i always thought it would have made a great drive-in movie..if drive-ins still existed


We still have drive ins here in Maine. They are only open in the summer (obviously).

L


----------



## 4Katie

Leslie said:


> We still have drive ins here in Maine. They are only open in the summer (obviously).
> 
> L


OT - One of the guys on The Blue Comedy Tour does a joke about a couple freezing to death at a drive in when they went to see Closed for the Winter.


----------



## tbrookside

I think that I was spoiled for _Wuthering Heights_ because of Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier.

I saw the movie first, like many people, and then sat down to read the book.

And you get a few chapters in, and you say to yourself, "Ummmm...the story is over. What are all these extra pages at the back? Wait, who are all these other people? _This is not the story!_"

It's as if you sat down to read _Gone with the Wind_ and discovered that the second half of the book is about Scarlett's nieces in the 1900's. Do. Not. Want.


----------



## drenee

Leslie said:


> We still have drive ins here in Maine. They are only open in the summer (obviously).
> 
> L


We have a few drive-ins left around here also. Here being WV.
deb


----------



## 13500

Ann in Arlington said:


> It occurs to me that I could say anything by Stephen King. . .but it wouldn't really qualify because I've never been able to get through one of his books. . . . .tried a couple of times. . . . .don't get the appeal.
> 
> OTOH, I quite enjoy reading Shakespeare. . .especially aloud. . . . .and have also read Chaucer in the original. It's fun!


YAY, Ann in Arlington. I just returned from England. Got to see Chaucer's grave in Westminster Abbey and see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform "As You Like It." Brilliant!


----------



## Samantha

Eat Pray Love. Ugh. I hated that book.  

And I recently read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - it was ok but not a-maz-ing. Maybe the second one is better?


----------



## Gertie Kindle

KarenW.B. said:


> YAY, Ann in Arlington. I just returned from England. Got to see Chaucer's grave in Westminster Abbey and see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform "As You Like It." Brilliant!


That's the same one I saw in Stratford. Brilliant is the only word for it.


----------



## Gertie Kindle

tbrookside said:


> I think that I was spoiled for _Wuthering Heights_ because of Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier.
> 
> I saw the movie first, like many people, and then sat down to read the book.
> 
> And you get a few chapters in, and you say to yourself, "Ummmm...the story is over. What are all these extra pages at the back? Wait, who are all these other people? _This is not the story!_"
> 
> It's as if you sat down to read _Gone with the Wind_ and discovered that the second half of the book is about Scarlett's nieces in the 1900's. Do. Not. Want.


Oberon and Olivier are so not Cathy and Heathcliff. I much prefer the Ralph Fiennes version. It was a three hankie movie for me.


----------



## Thalia the Muse

Olivier is pretty good, but Merle Oberon was horribly miscast. Wimpiest most simpering Cathy ever!


----------



## Gertie Kindle

Thalia the Muse said:


> Olivier is pretty good, but Merle Oberon was horribly miscast. Wimpiest most simpering Cathy ever!


Olivier was much too clean and sophisticated. It didn't help that he and Oberon hated each other.


----------



## Thalia the Muse

Actually, I'd think that mutual loathing would be a plus for Wuthering Heights!


----------



## NitroStitch

drenfrow said:


> This is going back awhile but does anybody remember the hype that surrounded *The Bridges of Madison County*? I hated the book. I thought the main character was so weak and pathetic. A woman who doesn't have the guts to leave her loveless marriage and make a real life for herself? Who cares? I never could understand why it was on the bestseller list forever. That was certainly a book that was made into a much, much better movie.


I couldn't have said it better myself! Everyone said I HAD to read that book, and I couldn't even force myself to finish it despite several attempts. I didn't like the movie either, probably for the same reasons I didn't like the book - sad, since I usually love the actors who were in it.


----------



## Gertie Kindle

Thalia the Muse said:


> Actually, I'd think that mutual loathing would be a plus for Wuthering Heights!


More like obsession.

Cathy loved Heathcliff, but as she said, it would degrade her to marry him. His obsession with her turned into an all-consuming thirst for revenge.


----------



## LibraryGirl

Old Man and the Sea...required HS reading in the 80s...Haven't had the heart or stamina to try another Hemingway book since.


----------



## 13500

I always thought the Catherine-Heathcliff thing was dysfunctional and disturbing.


----------



## WilliamM

Leslie said:


> We still have drive ins here in Maine. They are only open in the summer (obviously).
> 
> L


unfortunately they stop making drive-in movies back in the 80's ..


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

I've got a drive-in movie theater about 30 seconds from where I live.

David Dalglish


----------



## Gertie Kindle

Half-Orc said:


> I've got a drive-in movie theater about 30 seconds from where I live.
> 
> David Dalglish


So you can sit in your back yard munching popcorn and watch silent movies?


----------



## MariaESchneider

KarenW.B. said:


> I always thought the Catherine-Heathcliff thing was dysfunctional and disturbing.


It was. And it was obnoxiously irritating as well. Worse, the back and forth sage was confusing and boring to read about. That said, dysfunctional is real life--people put themselves through strange situations without removing themselves. That doesn't mean I want to read about them, however.


----------



## mlewis78

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Hey, ML, just got back from Ocean Grove. One of my favorite places. My parents had a dry cleaning store on Pilgrim Pathway.


My mother lives in Ocean Grove now, but we are from Long Branch. My brother sings in the choir at the summer services in the Auditorium.


----------



## Gertie Kindle

mlewis78 said:


> My mother lives in Ocean Grove now, but we are from Long Branch. My brother sings in the choir at the summer services in the Auditorium.


It's a lot busier there now than when I lived in the area (Neptune City, Bradley Beach). I don't know if you remember the North End Hotel. I used to work there, but it's gone now. I used a postcard of the hotel for a book cover.

Just noticed I have it in my avatar.


----------



## 4Katie

LibraryGirl said:


> Old Man and the Sea...required HS reading in the 80s...Haven't had the heart or stamina to try another Hemingway book since.


The movie, and Spencer Tracy, is awesome, though!


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

Dan Brown's latest book was very disappointing. The end was so predictable, and it just did not live up to the hype.

Ann


----------



## Mike D. aka jmiked

I'll have to go with _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_. I didn't dislike the book (I read all the series), but I just don't see what all the fuss is about.

Runners up would have to be _The Lost Symbol_ and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. And Heinlein's _Stranger in a Strange Land_.

Mike


----------



## Gertie Kindle

jmiked said:


> I'll have to go with _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_. I didn't dislike the book (I read all the series), but I just don't see what all the fuss is about.
> 
> Runners up would have to be _The Lost Symbol_ and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. And Heinlein's _Stranger in a Strange Land_.
> 
> Mike


Couldn't get in to the Heinlein book either.


----------



## Leslie

LibraryGirl said:


> Old Man and the Sea...required HS reading in the 80s...Haven't had the heart or stamina to try another Hemingway book since.


Is that the one with the fisherman guy? I blanked it out of my memory.

I was an avid reader from the minute I learned to read (age 5) but really, I can see why high school soured a ton of kids on reading. Fortunately, I was busy reading other stuff on the side so I never lost the habit, but at the same time, I sat in a classroom of people who never gained the habit. Sort of sad, thinking of it that way.

L


----------



## Gertie Kindle

Leslie said:


> Is that the one with the fisherman guy? I blanked it out of my memory.
> 
> I was an avid reader from the minute I learned to read (age 5) but really, I can see why high school soured a ton of kids on reading. Fortunately, I was busy reading other stuff on the side so I never lost the habit, but at the same time, I sat in a classroom of people who never gained the habit. Sort of sad, thinking of it that way.
> 
> L


Yes, it is sad. My GD is going into first grade and she reads everything she can lay her hands on. She's a fabulous reader for her age and I think she's reading at least on a third grade level.

I'm the book-buying grandma and I keep both of them well-supplied with books. While we were on vacation, my grandson read all four of Chris DeLacey's dragon books.


----------



## AnnetteL

It's fascinating how every reader is so different--what one person loves, another hates.

For that matter, I've found my reading preferences change as I age. First time I read _The Good Earth _I hated it. A decade later, I loved it. In high school, I couldn't stand anything by Steinbeck. Nearly 20 years later, he's one of my favorites.

Maybe I should give _Old Man and the Sea _another shot. Despised that thing back in the day. Never did read _Great Gatsby_--somehow I managed to avoid that even as an English major.

Another book I loathe: _Sound and the Fury_. To me, Faulkner was just doing literary acrobatics, showing off, instead of telling a story in the most powerful way--and he was deliberately trying to confuse the reader. That's not good writing. But at least it's another classic I can say I read.


----------



## karencantwell

Well, I'll admit, my heart palpitates when people dis my beloved Great Gatsby, but I'll recover! (deep cleansing breaths, deep cleansing breaths . . .)

But here's my twenty-cents worth: _Atonement_. Ack! What a let down. He actually had me in the beginning, but lost me probably less than a quarter of the way through. And yet . . . it wasn't a bad movie.


----------



## loonlover

AnnetteL said:


> It's fascinating how every reader is so different--what one person loves, another hates.
> 
> Another book I loathe: _Sound and the Fury_. To me, Faulkner was just doing literary acrobatics, showing off, instead of telling a story in the most powerful way--and he was deliberately trying to confuse the reader. That's not good writing. But at least it's another classic I can say I read.


I have to agree on Sound and the Fury. I read it to attempt to help my brother the pre-med student understand it. I'm sure I failed greatly as I hated the writing style. I still don't understand why some southerners consider Faulkner such a great writer - something I see mentioned frequently since moving to the south many years ago.


----------



## Kathy

I loved Gone With the Wind and couldn't wait to read the sequel "Scarlett". I was so disappointed. Even though I knew it wasn't written by Margaret Mitchell I was hoping it would be half as good. It wasn't.


----------



## Gertie Kindle

Kathy said:


> I loved Gone With the Wind and couldn't wait to read the sequel "Scarlett". I was so disappointed. Even though I knew it wasn't written by Margaret Mitchell I was hoping it would be half as good. It wasn't.


I refused to read it. I did sort of try to watch the movie. Besides the terrible casting, Scarlett kept fainting. Every 15 minutes.


----------



## Addie

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> I refused to read it. I did sort of try to watch the movie. Besides the terrible casting, Scarlett kept fainting. Every 15 minutes.


I tried to watch it as well. And then blocked it out of my mind.

That's so funny; I've read so many comments about people hating The Sound and the Fury. It's one of my favourites. Perhaps because I'm from the South? I don't know why, but when I read it in high school, I just instantly loved it. I can understand why people wouldn't like it, though. Now I feel like reading my copy of it again. Oh, Faulkner. <3
I also didn't mind The Old Man and the Sea. I remember all my friends hated it, so I just went along with it.


----------



## Jill1989

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach published way back in the 70's.  The most stupid waste of paper ever published. Had to read it for a class and the prof was just so excited about the book.  It was, without a doubt, the worst book I have ever read.  I always thought the author laughed all the way to the bank.


----------



## Genaro Zamora

I can't think of any right now. 
Maybe Twilight, I couldn't finish it.
Nor Angels and Demons.
But I did enjoy Davinci Code.


----------



## Kathy

Jill1989 said:


> Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach published way back in the 70's. The most stupid waste of paper ever published. Had to read it for a class and the prof was just so excited about the book. It was, without a doubt, the worst book I have ever read. I always thought the author laughed all the way to the bank.


How funny. I actually loved the book and still have it.


----------



## Ann in Arlington

I read _As I Lay Dying_ in HS. . . .had to write a paper. . . .thank goodness for "Cliff Notes" 'cause it made zero sense to me. Have never read another Faulkner and don't expect to.  I did rather enjoy both _The Scarlet Letter_ and _Moby Dick_. Don't remember much of _Bartelby the Scrivener_, another Melville title, except "I would prefer not to." It became the catchphrase of our class Junior year!

My husband, not generally a big reader, quite liked _The Old Man and the Sea_ when he had to read it. Despised _The Great Gatsby_. Somehow I managed to avoid that one, though I think my son read it in HS. . . . I know we have a copy around here somewhere. I've not yet felt the urge to read it and see what the big deal is.


----------



## tbrookside

The funny thing to me about all the people who hate _The Old Man and the Sea_ and _The Great Gatsby_ is that these books are short.

I was much happier to be handed one of those in high school than, say, _David Copperfield_.

To the high school version of me, it was OK if a book was bad as long as I could scan through it on the school bus on the morning of the test.


----------



## 4Katie

tbrookside said:


> To the high school version of me, it was OK if a book was bad as long as I could scan through it on the school bus on the morning of the test.


lol - You worked harder than I did. I got what I needed (including good grades) just from listening in class.


----------



## Martel47

I agree that Wuthering Heights belongs on this list.

I don't agree that Gatsby belongs on here.  Fitzgerald captured the absurdity of an entire age and the people wrapped up in it.

I could think of several to add, but just to raise some hackles, I nominate To Kill a Mockingbird.  It's one of the few films I'd recommend over the book, but even it is a stretch for me.


----------



## Gertie Kindle

Martel47 said:


> I agree that Wuthering Heights belongs on this list.
> 
> I don't agree that Gatsby belongs on here. Fitzgerald captured the absurdity of an entire age and the people wrapped up in it.
> 
> I could think of several to add, but just to raise some hackles, I nominate To Kill a Mockingbird. It's one of the few films I'd recommend over the book, but even it is a stretch for me.


I appreciated TKAM more after seeing the movie. Gregory Peck IS Atticus.


----------



## Guest

Ann in Arlington said:


> I read _As I Lay Dying_ in HS. . . .had to write a paper. . . .thank goodness for "Cliff Notes" 'cause it made zero sense to me. Have never read another Faulkner and don't expect to.  I did rather enjoy both _The Scarlet Letter_ and _Moby Dick_. Don't remember much of _Bartelby the Scrivener_, another Melville title, except "I would prefer not to." It became the catchphrase of our class Junior year!
> 
> My husband, not generally a big reader, quite liked _The Old Man and the Sea_ when he had to read it. Despised _The Great Gatsby_. Somehow I managed to avoid that one, though I think my son read it in HS. . . . I know we have a copy around here somewhere. I've not yet felt the urge to read it and see what the big deal is.


I read As I Lay Dying in junior year of college. I think any earlier than that and the thing is just impenetrable. It's straight stream of consciousness. I bet you'd be surprised what you'd get out of it if you picked it up again now. It's a fascinating game of catch up, but when you finally get your feet under you everything just has so much meaning. That said, I wasn't particularly thrilled with The Sound and the Fury, which I read after.

That's so funny "I would prefer not to" became the hot phrase in high school! I wish I'd been there.


----------



## Martel47

Yeah, I don't like to wade through Faulkner, either.  For "Southern" writing, I prefer Flannery O'Connor.


----------



## Melonhead

I confess to reading the entire book of _The Red Badge of Courage_ in high school, and even writing a 5 page paper on it, and not knowing when he got the wound or where it came from. I was so bored I read it and missed the entire point. All I remember was him walking a long bloody ways. I didn't much care for _Old Man and the Sea_ for similar reasons, although I did follow it better.

And, :



> I loved Gone With the Wind and couldn't wait to read the sequel "Scarlett". I was so disappointed. Even though I knew it wasn't written by Margaret Mitchell I was hoping it would be half as good. It wasn't.


I know why they let Alexandra Ripley do this sequel, because of her previous bestselling southern history novels about Charleston, but it really wasn't a good fit. She spent the first bit of the book trying to change Scarlett into a likable, caring woman. Part of the appeal of the original GWTW was that Scarlett was a selfish, ambitious and not particularly likable girl/woman. Ripley had to change the format to meet the acceptable romantic adventure formula of the times, which includes likable main characters. It was an OK novel if you hadn't read and enjoyed the original.


----------



## KprINDLE

Great thread topic!  I haven't read all of the responses yet, which is probably good so I am not swayed at all, but I am looking forward to it.  I did notice a mention of Dan Brown down the page and must confess I liked Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons a lot, and loved the movies too!  The Lost Symbol is not my favorite of his books, but I look forward to the movie because I love Washington, D.C.  

Most overrated for me:
Pillars of the Earth - could not finish it, something must be wrong with me since everyone else raves and I love historical fiction
Celestine Prophecy - was told it would change my life, but I found nothing new

The Stiegg Larson books are a mystery to me.  I haven't read them.  I read the descriptions and reviews and it does not appeal to me and yet everyone raves so I wonder what I am missing.  One of these days, when I run out of what I want to read, I will break down and give them a try and then perhaps kick myself for waiting so long.


----------



## brenwinter

I, too, have a degree in English Literature.  Of course, my main interest is in Victorian classics -- Austen, Bronte, Collins, Dickens, etc.  But I do have a few recommendations for "overrated":

Ulysses by James Joyce -- I know, I know, it was picked as the best of all time, but seriously!  I did a one month study of this book while working on my Master's Degree -- loved the teacher, hated the book!

Another one -- Clockwork Orange -- had to "read" this one twice during my college years and I use the term "read" loosely as you had to keep looking up all those weird words.

Lastly -- Moby Dick -- had to read it more than once -- hated it.  The funny thing is that my husband, who is dyslexic and hates to read, loved it!  Go figure!

Brenda


----------



## Victorine

I'm glad no one has thought my book was overrated!



Vicki


----------



## amiblackwelder

I must say that I loved it and it was over-rated: Twilight. Was not written in any amazing style. Not literary. I actually read, one of the greatest novelists of our time: Stephanie Meyer. sad commentary on the state of fiction if that is true.

That being said, the novel was entertaining and I loved the characters.

But let us just call it what it is. Good fun. Not anything special in the literature department.


----------



## mparish6

"2001: A Space Odyssey."

And don't even get me started about that terrible, ridiculous, acid-trip-inspired movie.


----------



## caseyf6

Just about anything by Hemingway, except the Old Man and the Sea, which I liked.  We had to read "The Sun Also Rises" in HS and I learned afterward that he committed suicide-- my first thought was, "wow, I'm not surprised at all".  

Moby Dick, Heart of Darkness, The Stranger...I understood what my teacher was trying to teach us, and appreciated that-- but I'd have rather gone over the Cliffs Notes.  Thank God I could take good notes and skim well enough to avoid reading the entire things...


----------



## 13893

I'm shocked no one has mentioned _Silence of the Lambs_!

I loathe that book. I bought it in hard cover because everybody was raving about it. When I finished it, I threw it in the garbage! I couldn't stand the idea of its continued existence, ha.


----------



## Alice Y. Yeh

AnnetteL said:


> My internal editor kept trying to rewrite sentences, and plot holes just drove me up a wall.


Thank you! I was doing the same thing and feel validated now  I'll have to go with the _Twilight_ series and _The DaVinci Code_. I couldn't get through more than the first chapter of the latter, though my issue was mostly stylistic.


----------



## Lyndl

Lord of the Rings * _ducks to avoid objects being thrown_* It seemed to take forever. I forced myself to finish it because I thought the story was great. I just couldn't stand his writing style.


----------



## PG4003 (Patricia)

T.L. Haddix said:


> I'm giving in, just wanted you all to know - I just reserved "Outlander" from my local library. I can't say that I've read any book that has been mentioned here. I just don't generally do mainstream. However, an author I've tried who is often extolled but I can't stand is Fern Michaels. Sorry, but no thanks.


I hope you love Outlander, I did. And I agree with you about Fern Michaels. I tried to read one of her books and gave up. I think I would have liked it when I was 14, maybe.


----------



## Music &amp; Mayhem

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, hands down. I know this may incite a riot with some people. I guess you either love the book or hate it. I hated it. In fact, I actually threw it away, and I never do that. Usually if I don't like a book I give it away. Not this one.


----------



## 1131

The Other Boleyn Girl.  
I doubt I would have liked this book without the hype, but I think the hype increased my dislike of the book.

Harry Potter - the 1st book, whatever it is called
I finally broke down and read the book.  I didn't dislike it but I don't get how great it is either.


----------



## Aravis60

brenwinter said:


> Another one -- Clockwork Orange -- had to "read" this one twice during my college years and I use the term "read" loosely as you had to keep looking up all those weird words.


That one is probably my least favorite book of all time. UGH!

Another overrated one for me was something by Nicholas Sparks. I can't remember which one, but I didn't like it at all. My mom insisted that I would love it, so I waded through, but I have absolutely no desire to read anything else by him.


----------



## Guest

imallbs said:


> The Other Boleyn Girl.
> I doubt I would have liked this book without the hype, but I think the hype increased my dislike of the book.
> 
> Harry Potter - the 1st book, whatever it is called
> I finally broke down and read the book. I didn't dislike it but I don't get how great it is either.


I think I wrote this somewhere else, possibly earlier in this thread, but since it came up again: the first couple books really are marginal. It's not until book 4 for me that the story really became this massive behemoth of utter enjoyment. It just goes to show you can do a lot with 700 pages, even if there are only five or six words a page. I'd honestly tell you to skip right to book 4 and start up again. The story is running on all cylinders at that point, and you really don't lose all that much by missing 2 and 3.


----------



## 4Katie

foreverjuly said:


> I think I wrote this somewhere else, possibly earlier in this thread, but since it came up again: the first couple books really are marginal. It's not until book 4 for me that the story really became this massive behemoth of utter enjoyment. It just goes to show you can do a lot with 700 pages, even if there are only five or six words a page. I'd honestly tell you to skip right to book 4 and start up again. The story is running on all cylinders at that point, and you really don't lose all that much by missing 2 and 3.


You might not miss that much, plot-wise, but they sure are fun to read!


----------



## Mike D. aka jmiked

Music & Mayhem said:


> Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, hands down. I know this may incite a riot with some people. I guess you either love the book or hate it.


Can I be just mildly indifferent towards it? It didn't leave me with strong feelings at all.

Mike


----------



## history_lover

Lyndl said:


> Lord of the Rings * _ducks to avoid objects being thrown_* It seemed to take forever. I forced myself to finish it because I thought the story was great. I just couldn't stand his writing style.


I never even read LOTR because I struggled through The Hobbit so much, for the same reason. Good stories, poor storytelling.

Others on my overrated list would be "Catcher In The Rye" and "The Other Boleyn Girl".


----------



## Ross Cavins

"Cold Mountain," by Charles Frazier.  SLOWEST book ever.  The characters were drawn well .. but can we please have something interesting happen more than every 100 pages?

I know he's a local author (I'm in NC) and I support local authors (because I'm one) and it's partly based on true events (his great great grandfather or something) .. but geez .. my time is limited and when I read a book, I want to be transported to another world and ENTERTAINED.

There wasn't even any humor to tide me over.

I still don't understand all the praise this book received.  It wanders aimlessly and the prose is a little thick.  Really, this is one of those books where it feels like the author wrote it to prove that he could write.

But that's not the purpose of writing, is it?  Isn't it to connect with the reader?

I subscribe to Elmore Leonard's belief that "I tend to take the parts that people skip and leave them out."

If Charles Frazier adhered to that thinking, he'd have written a 70 page novella.

(stepping down off soapbox)

-Ross


----------



## Music &amp; Mayhem

jmiked said:


> Can I be just mildly indifferent towards it? It didn't leave me with strong feelings at all.
> 
> Mike


[Speaking of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance] You can indeed, Mike. Could I ask if you actually read the whole thing? Um, I never got past the part where he was expecting everyone to know how their refrigerator worked so they could repair it themselves. Or maybe I was hallucinating about that part. I read it a loooooong time ago.


----------



## scottnicholson

Aren't we lucky we have 130 million books to choose from! (according to Google's count).

Actually, it's no surprise when books become big hits that leave you scratching your head. It all starts up front--long before the book is published and often before it is even written. It's rarely an accident. The Da Vinci Code had 10,000 advance review copies printed--more than the actual print run of most paper books--and they went o every book store and major newspaper and gatekeeper in the country. Stephen King didn't just "accidentally" discover The Passage before it became the "surprise hit" of the summer. These things are determined in the boards rooms by sales staff. I'm not trying to sound cynical, but it's often that simple. No wonder there's such divided opinion among readers, especially when you realize many of the major decision makers DID NOT READ THE BOOK!

That said, I could never finish Moby Dick. That's the only book I ever Cliff Noted.

Scott


----------



## Mike D. aka jmiked

Music & Mayhem said:


> [Speaking of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance] You can indeed, Mike. Could I ask if you actually read the whole thing? Um, I never got past the part where he was expecting everyone to know how their refrigerator worked so they could repair it themselves. Or maybe I was hallucinating about that part. I read it a loooooong time ago.


Yep. I read the entire thing when it first hit paperback. As I get older, I have less tolerance for plodding though something that doesn't hold my attention.

Mike


----------



## Michael Brian

Anything by Janet Evanovich.  My friends recommended Sizzling Sixteen as witty and clever, but I just find the writing to be banal.


----------



## masquedbunny

Anything from Stephanie Meyer. The _Twilight_ books have their moments; but, for all that _doesn't_ happen in them, they really ought to be shorter and they aren't worth the hype.

And after being told how mind-blowing The Da Vinci Code would be (especially since I'd heard it compared to Eco's Name of the Rose), I was pretty disappointed with its mediocre prose and predictable plot.


----------



## Bane766

I don't really read popular books as I generally just stick to fantasy.  I'm shocked someone hated Catcher in the Rye, though.  I'm not old (I'm in my early 30's), but I understood most of the references.  I thought the Harry Potter books were pretty good.  I wouldn't touch Twilight, though.

Last 'popular' book I read and didn't like was prob Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.  It was boring and basically told me stuff I already knew.


----------



## purplepen79

_The 13th Tale_ . . . some very poetic passages kept me reading till almost the end, but the main character (1st person POV narrator no less) has no personality--I can't even remember her name--and the premise, although gothic and intriguing at first, I found ultimately to be rather over the top.


----------



## D.A. Boulter

I read Lord of The Rings after my sister made a big fuss about it.  My immediate thought upon finishing it was: it could have been 200 pages shorter.  The man needed an editor.  A friend of mine summed it up as: they ate; they sang; they walked; they ate; they sang; they walked.


----------



## sal

I, also, can't pick just one:

Anything by Ayn Rand. (Characters shouldn't just be paper-thin vehicles of the author's agenda.)

Shakespeare (I thought it was funny that someone said: then you must have had a bad teacher. huh?)

(this one will get vegetables thrown at me) Anything by Jane Austen


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Twilight. But that doesn't mean someone out there might like it.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Guest

sal said:


> Shakespeare (I thought it was funny that someone said: then you must have had a bad teacher. huh?)


I'll toss you a vegetable for this one. Shakespeare is the greatest genius to ever write in the English language. As long as the human race persists, Shakespeare will endure.


----------



## sal

foreverjuly said:


> I'll toss you a vegetable for this one. Shakespeare is the greatest genius to ever write in the English language. As long as the human race persists, Shakespeare will endure.


Mmm, tomato! Thanks... 

Sal


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Just don't give me my Shakespeare Bowdlerized.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Shastastan

"The Lost Symbol" without a doubt.  It stopped me from doing pre-orders as well.


----------



## Alice Y. Yeh

foreverjuly said:


> I'll toss you a vegetable for this one. Shakespeare is the greatest genius to ever write in the English language. As long as the human race persists, Shakespeare will endure.


I was going to say, "Everyone's entitled to his own opinion." Then I remembered that that's just something people say to keep the peace when they're really thinking, "I'm right, and you're wrong, but I'll be the bigger person here and say something really ambiguous."

Instead, I'll just go with a non sequitur: bluebirds.

(Frankenstein was high overrated. -ducks for cover- )


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

AYY said:


> (Frankenstein was high overrated. -ducks for cover- )


*flings a snowball*

I loved the monster!


----------



## Alice Y. Yeh

Half-Orc said:


> *flings a snowball*
> 
> I loved the monster!


When your university sends you a copy pre-orientation with the understanding that there would be group discussions before your freshman year even begins....

....I'm not sure _any_ book could make it through unscathed.  Making seventeen-year-olds agonize over every last detail out of fear of the unknown might not be the best idea.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Oh. Then yes. That'd freaking suck. I read it because I decided I wanted to know what Frankenstein was -originally- like. Some stuff dragged on, but pretty much any scene with the monster was just wonderfully dark and entertaining. The scene where the doctor tears apart the mate he'd been creating, then looks up to see the monster leering down, furious....yeah, that was awesome.

Oh, and I'd take the snowball back, but, well, once thrown it's kinda thrown. You can throw it back, though.  I won't mind.

*cowers like a little girl*

David Dalglish


----------



## Alice Y. Yeh

"You can't take it back!...Because it's already out there!"

I considered tossing all nine pounds of my pharmacotherapy textbook but settled for a rubber chicken. Authors are nutty enough without head trauma and brain damage


----------



## Guest

"IT" by Stephen King    -  SPOILER ALERT -  

An alien spider thing in the sewers under Derry?  After 1,000 great pages it ended as if he was under deadline!


----------



## WilliamM

M.R. Mathias said:


> "IT" by Stephen King - SPOILER ALERT -
> 
> An alien spider thing in the sewers under Derry? After 1,000 great pages it ended as if he was under deadline!


agreed..it was such a good book up to that point..only thing worse was the end of Under The Dome which BTW is another very highly over rated book


----------



## Guest

AYY said:


> I was going to say, "Everyone's entitled to his own opinion." Then I remembered that that's just something people say to keep the peace when they're really thinking, "I'm right, and you're wrong, but I'll be the bigger person here and say something really ambiguous."


For practically every other author, we're basing whether or not they are overrated on entirely subjective personal sentiments. For Shakespeare though, there's much more to consider than whether or not we like him. It's hard to call an author overrated when he has created more words for the English language than anyone else who ever lived. He's had the biggest impact on it since Chaucer, and his phrases are embedded in our popular culture to such a degree that they will never fall out.

To me, that suggests something beyond "I had trouble reading Romeo and Juliet in high school, and so Shakespeare is overrated."


----------



## purplepen79

M.R. Mathias said:


> "IT" by Stephen King - SPOILER ALERT -
> 
> An alien spider thing in the sewers under Derry? After 1,000 great pages it ended as if he was under deadline!


Couldn't agree more. The ending for IT is a definite let-down. Also, usually I think Stephen King's character development is top notch, but the portrayal of Beverly in IT has never made sense to me. As the only female character in a group of boys/men, she seems like she has to be too many things to too many people, and I never have understood her character for that reason.


----------



## SuzanneTyrpak

Absolutely, _The Davinci Code_. I couldn't wait for someone to die--preferably the main character so the book would end. And when I got to the end I felt tricked. Nearly threw the book across the room. I thought _Angels and Demons_ was a better book. But I guess the timing was right for _The Davinci Code_.


----------



## sal

foreverjuly said:


> For practically every other author, we're basing whether or not they are overrated on entirely subjective personal sentiments. For Shakespeare though, there's much more to consider than whether or not we like him. It's hard to call an author overrated when he has created more words for the English language than anyone else who ever lived. He's had the biggest impact on it since Chaucer, and his phrases are embedded in our popular culture to such a degree that they will never fall out.
> 
> To me, that suggests something beyond "I had trouble reading Romeo and Juliet in high school, and so Shakespeare is overrated."


Valid point. I should have said "English Majors everywhere think he's God's Gift... but I don't." 

My attitude comes from being force-fed Shakespeare--by great teachers--until I hated him.

You are quite correct that he is a great writer and has had a huge impact. I'm just not interested in reading any more. 
I did my time.

Sal


----------



## D. Nathan Hilliard

SuzanneTyrpak said:


> Absolutely, _The Davinci Code_. I couldn't wait for someone to die--preferably the main character so the book would end. And when I got to the end I felt tricked. Nearly threw the book across the room. I thought _Angels and Demons_ was a better book. But I guess the timing was right for _The Davinci Code_.


Yep. I thought the book just kind of petered out to a rather underwhelming end.


----------



## julieannfelicity

Wow, I'm kind of surprised at so many votes on The DaVinci Code. I actually liked that one, but his other books were lost on me ... The movie was dreadful!


Spoiler



They couldn't even stick to the book at the end. It was like the screenwriter decided to do their own 'fanfic' writing without even staying true to the story.



The one series I will honestly say I couldn't stand,


Spoiler



(even though I finished all four books in a long weekend)


 was the Twilight series. I was amazed at how viral it went when I had such a hard time reading it. I literally would doze and catch myself drooling (not a pretty picture).

And then lastly another book I couldn't really stomach was from another vampire series (I've only read the first book though), The House of Night's Marked by P. C. Cast and Kristen Cast. I felt stupider after reading it ... and I really feel guilty saying that.  I'm going to still try to read them all, because sometimes a series gets better as you go on ... I'm just hoping I won't fall asleep again.


----------



## Daniel Arenson

Most overrated books I've read....

Da Vinci Code

Life of Pi

The Five People You Meet In Heaven (couldn't finish it)


----------



## 4Katie

> Wow, I'm kind of surprised at so many votes on The DaVinci Code. I actually liked that one, but his other books were lost on me ...
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> The movie was dreadful! They couldn't even stick to the book at the end. It was like the screenwriter decided to do their own 'fanfic' writing without even staying true to the story.


lol - Maybe that's because


Spoiler



the book had such a bad - and practically non-existent - ending, they decided to give it one!


----------



## Guest

julieannfelicity said:


> Wow, I'm kind of surprised at so many votes on The DaVinci Code. I actually liked that one, but his other books were lost on me ... The movie was dreadful!
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> They couldn't even stick to the book at the end. It was like the screenwriter decided to do their own 'fanfic' writing without even staying true to the story.


Bingo: it's hard to describe the movie without using the word "spineless." After the screening, this woman actually attacked me on the way out! (The whole story can be found here: http://powerlessbooks.com/blog/?p=2 I guess just because it's religion, people get way too worked up about it, which is why they watered it down to begin with.


----------



## Alice Y. Yeh

The Southern Vampire mysteries. One of my coworkers was going on and on about how great it was, so I tried the first book and completely hated it. I was trying to think of a politically correct but appropriate word, and I suppose it would be "campy".


----------



## BooksGalore

Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea.  I love the classics - found this dreadful.  

Twilight series.

Eragon - Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings.  I'd rather the originals.  

Just my opinion.


----------



## river daughter

KimberlyinMN said:


> The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I tried reading it on my Kindle. I couldn't get into it. (And I can read all sorts of books.) Then we tried to listen to it from Audible on our vacation and only lasted a couple of hours before we had to start something else. I tried, really I did.


I'm with you. I can't get past the first chapter. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who had this problem!


----------



## Whidbeyislandgirl

Twilight! Wow, hated that book. Everyone knows I love vampire smut and assumes I'm a huge Twilight fan. I'm not sure why. Worst book I've read, lamest vampires ever. Stephanie Myers should be ashamed....

If one more person tells me I have to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I'm going to scream. Not my kind of book, I'm sure it's fine if thats what you are in to, but I'm not. I don't do crime/mystery books, I read smut. That's pretty much it. It's shallow, and pointless, but that's what I read.


----------



## Geemont

Recently, _The Hunger Games_ by Suzanne Collins. Pure drivel, screenplay manqué, unoriginal, childish and jejune. Not even that great as an action thriller. If it had been written for adults, maybe it could have squeaked by as a dumb and forgettable e summer novel, but I'm befuddled on why it gaining such accolades.


----------



## Meemo

river daughter said:


> I'm with you. I can't get past the first chapter. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who had this problem!


"Dragon Tattoo" is definitely a book that gets WAY better after the first couple of chapters. I figured it had to so I slogged through those initial chapters. There were a chore but there was a payoff.


----------



## Jim Bernheimer

For me, the Harry Potter series started mailing it in at the beginning of book 5.  Book 7 was so atrocious that I've yet to finish it despite several attempts.  At the end of 4, you had a hero willing to stand up alone to the evil and fight.  By the beginning of 5, he morphed into this angry little hormonal snit and the plot hole avalance started catching up with the author.  From what I've managed to stomach of 7 thus far it should have been titled - The Author Goes Out of Her Way to Explain Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape ... and Oh Yeah, Harry Potter's in This as Well.

Based on the rest of the comments, I'm glad I've avoided both the DaVinci Code and the entire Twilight Series.

The extended version of Stephen King's The Stand didn't do it for me.  Sticking several hundred pages back into a novel made me realize how useful editors are in the first place.  I could flip six pages read a page and flip ahead again while still managing to keep up with the plot.


----------



## Bane766

Jim Bernheimer said:


> For me, the Harry Potter series started mailing it in at the beginning of book 5. Book 7 was so atrocious that I've yet to finish it despite several attempts. At the end of 4, you had a hero willing to stand up alone to the evil and fight. By the beginning of 5, he morphed into this angry little hormonal snit and the plot hole avalance started catching up with the author. From what I've managed to stomach of 7 thus far it should have been titled - The Author Goes Out of Her Way to Explain Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape ... and Oh Yeah, Harry Potter's in This as Well.
> 
> Based on the rest of the comments, I'm glad I've avoided both the DaVinci Code and the entire Twilight Series.
> 
> The extended version of Stephen King's The Stand didn't do it for me. Sticking several hundred pages back into a novel made me realize how useful editors are in the first place. I could flip six pages read a page and flip ahead again while still managing to keep up with the plot.


From what he said alot of the extra is the story of the Trashcanman. Which can be boring or interesting depending if you liked the character or not.


----------



## tbrookside

> The extended version of Stephen King's The Stand didn't do it for me. Sticking several hundred pages back into a novel made me realize how useful editors are in the first place. I could flip six pages read a page and flip ahead again while still managing to keep up with the plot.


I had the reverse experience. I read the unabridged version _first_. Lost that copy, and years later picked up another copy at a book sale and thought to myself, "Wow, I'd like to read that again."

I didn't realize it was the abridged version. I drove myself absolutely crazy. I kept wondering where all my favorite parts of the first half of the book were. I probably would have torn my hair out thinking I had invented some of the cut bits in my own mind or that I had confused two novels if my wife hadn't said, "Um, aren't there two versions?"

The Trashcanman gets almost completely cut from the first half of the book, as Bane indicated - and to me that detracts from the story quite a bit. But more importantly, the protracted destruction of the US by the plague as witnessed by many of the characters [Fran and Nick in particular] is cut to the bone. And that's really the best part of the book! The second half, which is relatively weak, escaped from the editor almost unscathed.


----------



## stormhawk

I'm going to have to agree with a lot of people here on Twilight and DaVinci Code. 

I love Wally Lamb, but I thought She's Come Undone was terribly overrated. 

I just don't get Lord of the Rings. I've read it at least a half-dozen times, just to make sure I don't like it and I still don't like it. 

Oh, and anything by Nora Roberts. Blecch.


----------



## Monique

I agree with so many that have been mentioned. Especially want to echo Atlas Shrugged, the Twilight series and Eragon. And, I'd like to add Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Inkheart.


----------



## Learnmegood

The Sound and the Fury.  What a craptastic piece of work that was, especially the tale of the idiot.

Also, thanks to high school English, I will ALWAYS hate Billy Budd.  Man, was it horrible!


----------



## jackwestjr_author

Anything written by an author who is dead - since they have died.  Ludlum, for example, has published several books with his name on them since his death in 2001.  Ghost writers (that takes on a whole new meaning in this case) are never the same.


----------



## Jan Strnad

Stuff I had to read in school that I hated:

Silas Marner
Great Expectations
The Great Gatsby
Moby Dick (three times)

Others:

The Bridges of Madison County
The Celestine Prophecy
Hannibal
The DaVinci Code

Most overrated ever:



Spoiler



The Bible



I know that last opinion will offend about a zillion people, but remember, it's just IMHO.


----------



## Flechette

I may get stoned for this.... 

Game of Thrones  by George R.R. Martin

Friends still rave about this book and the series.... I got done with book one and everyone I thought would have been interesting was dead. I literally did not want to know what happened to any of the other characters. I still think part of the "charm" was the sheer bloodiness and willingness to kill off characters.

Completely agree with Twilight....

I happen to love the House of Night series by the Cast ladies tho

Silence of the Lambs I liked.... Hannibal?  some friends and I spent the entire 5 hr drive to Atlanta trashing that piece of dung


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Don't worry about being attacked, Fletchette. We're rather nice, supportive people, even if you insult one of the friggin most awesome amazing fantasy books ever...

*sets down a bucket of stones*


----------



## LeslieAnn

1.  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  (The reason I didn't finish college - ha ha)

2.  Anything my sister reads!  She & I have totally opposite taste in books.

Loved Pillars of the Earth.

Interesting thread, have picked up some titles I want to look into.

LeslieAnn


----------



## WilliamM

Flechette said:


> I may get stoned for this....
> 
> Game of Thrones  by George R.R. Martin
> 
> Friends still rave about this book and the series.... I got done with book one and everyone I thought would have been interesting was dead. I literally did not want to know what happened to any of the other characters. I still think part of the "charm" was the sheer bloodiness and willingness to kill off characters.
> 
> Completely agree with Twilight....
> 
> I happen to love the House of Night series by the Cast ladies tho
> 
> Silence of the Lambs I liked.... Hannibal?  some friends and I spent the entire 5 hr drive to Atlanta trashing that piece of dung


dont think it was over rated but will say it was overbloated..


----------



## Carolyn J. Rose Mystery Writer

The Corrections. I just didn't get it.


----------



## mikek1710

another vote for the girl with the dragon tattoo.  Forced myself to read it to see what all the fuss was about (the whole trilogy was on every dealers best selling list, and there's buzz about the movie and casting for the American version).  About halfway through I realized it wasn't going to pickup at which point I should have moved on, but I had to finish.  You know when you don't like the book you're reading but you want to get it done to get to read a new book.

Anyway I think its so popular because the author is dead and everybody loves a dead artist.  They can rave about how good he would have been if he hadn't died, he can never disappoint you, and you only have to read three books to have read all of his work.


----------



## Prazzie

T.L. Haddix said:


> I'll admit that I would be tempted to try Shakespeare again - if it were translated so that I could read it!


Here you go! No Fear Shakespeare - the original text right next to a modern translation!

And for those of you who didn't like or even attempt Twilight, you can listen to a British guy reading it while mocking it here: 



.

I can't say _Moby Dick_ is overrated, since I'm still trying to get through it. It's on my Kindle, I'm 22% in and frankly, I just don't have a passion for whaling.

I loved Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol". It was fantastically bad. It was so bad, it was super entertaining. I couldn't stop reading it, because I had to find out how much worse it could get. I would run into the next room every now and then and exclaim "just listen to this _rubbish_!" I had a lot of fun reading that book, my mouth was hanging open almost the entire time. If you read between the lines, you could clearly see Brown's though pattern: "Need more money, must finish book, deadline, throw in some Freemasons,


Spoiler



kill Robert Langon, but he's not really dead, he's breathing underwater like in that movie, _The Abyss_, but how to explain it...I'll just write it here, "like in that movie, _The Abyss_",


good, sorted, they can Google it, okay, now some art here and bury a Bible there, oh man, I'm going to get a HEAP of cash for this!"

My vote for most overrated goes to The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood). Before you start hissing and spitting, it's not bad. It's just not as good as I thought it would be. Hence, overrated.


----------



## sal

Did anyone say The Bible yet?  

I got stuck in the 'begats'  

Sal


----------



## purplepen79

sal said:


> Did anyone say The Bible yet?
> 
> I got stuck in the 'begats'
> 
> Sal


  I love some passages, like the Gospel of John (the mysticism gets me everytime) or 1st Corinthians 13 (not so much "love is patient, love is kind . . ." though that's beautiful but the part where it goes into "seeing in a glass darkly" and talks about how our perceptions on this physical plane are so limited is what fascinates me.) However, there are some parts of the Bible, like the begats, that just don't do it for me.


----------



## purplepen79

Carolyn J. Rose said:


> The Corrections. I just didn't get it.


I didn't either. I think _A Reader's Manifesto_ has spoiled a number of newer "literary greats" that supposedly are in our midst, and Jonathan Franzen is one of these. I just don't get the hype. He dislikes his own characters, and I can't get into his writing for that reason.


----------



## Belle2Be

It's been said, but The girl with the dragon tattoo, I fell asleep EVERY time I tried to read it, trudged my way about halfway through and have given up. What a disappointment.


----------



## lonestar

The Lovely Bones


----------



## purplepen79

lonestar said:


> The Lovely Bones


There were some lovely passages--I'm thinking particularly of Susie's father and all the ships in the bottles. But I just couldn't connect with the characters--their actions and reactions for the most part didn't make sense to me.


----------



## CaraMarsi27

I'm going back a ways here, but the most overrated book I've ever read was "The French Lieutenant's Daughter," in the Seventies. Thought it was muddled, artsy to the point of clogging up the story.


----------



## Maker

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


----------



## lobo

"The Last Lecture."  It was so self-serving and poorly written, I couldn't finish it.


----------



## originalgrissel

Had to be "The House of Sand and Fog"! UGG! It was one I had to read for book club (when I was still in book club & hadn't yet become so disgusted by the choices of books we were reading). By the 2nd chapter I basically wanted to kill every character in that book. None of them had any redeeming qualities and the story was so stupid and pointless that it was a chore to get through. Everyone said how great it was and there was all that buzz about how it was being made into a film (which was also craptastic!) but I loathed it with the passion of 1000 suns!


----------



## Neekeebee

Have to agree with a bunch of the above, including Twilight, The Hobbit, Hemingway, and The House of Sand and Fog. I did read and enjoy Pillars of the Earth, though if I had known it was an Oprah recommendation, I probably also would not have read it.

Have to add _*The Handmaid's Tale*_. (Not sure if anyone's mentioned it.) I was so sure I would like it that I made the mistake of bringing it as one of my 3 books on an international trip. Before that trip was over, I was running around the city looking for and paying a premium for English novels.

And also _*Wicked*_, which I took on a flight once. I seem to remember especially well the bad books that I got stuck on vacation with....my Kindle has saved me from those bad old days.

N


----------



## Maker

Neekeebee said:


> Have to agree with a bunch of the above, including Twilight, The Hobbit, Hemingway, and The House of Sand and Fog. I did read and enjoy Pillars of the Earth, though if I had known it was an Oprah recommendation, I probably also would not have read it.
> 
> Have to add _*The Handmaid's Tale*_. (Not sure if anyone's mentioned it.) I was so sure I would like it that I made the mistake of bringing it as one of my 3 books on an international trip. Before that trip was over, I was running around the city looking for and paying a premium for English novels.
> 
> And also _*Wicked*_, which I took on a flight once. I seem to remember especially well the bad books that I got stuck on vacation with....my Kindle has saved me from those bad old days.
> 
> N


Man, oh man. Wicked is killing me right now. I really enjoyed Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister but Wicked is... whew! I'm determined to finish it though. But it's slow going.


----------



## Ann in Arlington

Neekeebee said:


> I seem to remember especially well the bad books that I got stuck on vacation with....my Kindle has saved me from those bad old days.
> 
> N


Interestingly, in the Sept/Oct issue of _Bookmarks_ magazine (http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/), the "Letter from the Editor" touches on just this point. Among other things, he says



> Someday, when electronic readers have become ubiquitous, we'll tell our children and grandchildren of a time long ago when we had to decide ahead of time what we were going to read on vacation. Books had to be purchased and packed, and once we made our selections, we were committed. A bad selection could cast a pall over the entire trip.


He then goes on to talk about a couple of vacations 'ruined' by available reading material. . . . .

Still, he's not a huge fan of e-readers -- seems to like physical books as much as the stories in them -- though he does acknowledge their growing place in the world. . . .

Ann


----------



## MoyJoy

Infinite Jest.  There could have possibly been a good book there had David Foster Wallace not taken each sentence and added 10 unnecessary words to it.  (on a side note it was fun to be on the subway watching people lug it around while I sat with my slim Kindle with it.)

All of Twilight.  Glowering Glowering Glowering.  smh.


----------



## catherinedurkinrobinson

I thought The Lovely Bones was lovely and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was terrific after Lisbeth appeared. I find that Oprah's favorites are the worst - from The Corrections to White Oleander. Good God. They blew. Color me surprised that I enjoyed Eat Pray Love - !


----------



## CraigInOregon

Most overrated? Of late, anything by Steig Larsson qualifies.

Really boring and hard to get through.


----------



## slwiser

For myself it is anything Stephen King writes.  I think it is his style that I can't get over, the second grade reading  level he targets.


----------



## Learnmegood

Neekeebee said:


> And also _*Wicked*_, which I took on a flight once. I seem to remember especially well the bad books that I got stuck on vacation with....my Kindle has saved me from those bad old days.
> 
> N


I was actually reading Wicked at the seminar where I met my wife a few years ago. It was a VERY odd book, and yeah, I can't say I liked it that much beyond the initial premise.

A few months ago, we got tickets to go see Wicked, the musical. It was AWESOME! It's amazing how they took the good parts of the book, changed some things (which I usually hate), streamlined it, and made it so so so much better.


----------



## Vic15

Urgh, The Kite Runner - awful awful. Can't understand how it is so highly recommended.


----------



## Debra Purdy Kong

sal said:


> Did anyone say The Bible yet?
> 
> I got stuck in the 'begats'
> 
> Sal


Oh yeah, I'm with you there. I think I got as far as page 2. I think God will still creating the world, but I lost interest...


----------



## Neekeebee

Ann in Arlington said:


> Interestingly, in the Sept/Oct issue of _Bookmarks_ magazine (http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/), the "Letter from the Editor" touches on just this point. Among other things, he says
> 
> He then goes on to talk about a couple of vacations 'ruined' by available reading material. . . . .
> 
> Still, he's not a huge fan of e-readers -- seems to like physical books as much as the stories in them -- though he does acknowledge their growing place in the world. . . .
> 
> Ann


A few more bad reading trips and he'll be pre-ordering Kindle4's with the rest of us! 



Learnmegood said:


> I was actually reading Wicked at the seminar where I met my wife a few years ago. It was a VERY odd book, and yeah, I can't say I liked it that much beyond the initial premise.
> 
> A few months ago, we got tickets to go see Wicked, the musical. It was AWESOME! It's amazing how they took the good parts of the book, changed some things (which I usually hate), streamlined it, and made it so so so much better.


It's funny--I was reading _Wicked_ on a flight to Chicago, where we were going to see the musical. I'd purchased the book years before but hadn't read it, and thought it would be fitting to bring it on the trip. So here I was, reading the book on the way there and back and wondering how they made such a good show out of _this_ book. 

N


----------



## kglavin

Hi All,

My two cents, for what it's worth:

As I've already stated in another thread, I didn't care much
for _The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo._ There was such an incredible
amount of hype for a book in need of serious re-editing.

A close second--_The DaVinci Code._

As for an overhyped classic, I'd have to say
_Waiting for Godot._ Intellectually, I think what Beckett
is doing is fantastic; it's just really slow (nothing happens--I know that's 
part of the absurdist drama, but...), hard to read, and
even harder to sit through.

Kevin


----------



## CandyTX

Haven't read all the responses... Atonement. I never even finished that thing and I still don't know what all the hype was about.

More recently, Handmaid's Tale (I'm still smarting from that one). I see someone mentioned above me The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I'm glad I'm not alone. It wasn't a BAD book, just wasn't every good either, if that makes sense. LOL


----------



## Kent

I'm surprised at how much I struggled with this question. Blockbusters do what blockbusters do -- appeal to the current zeitgeist through the mass media. You read Dragon Tattoo, Da Vinci, Twilight, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park (showing my age), etc. to participate with the masses. Reading is usually pretty solitary, so blockbusters aren't about great books, but everyone sharing in the experience.

I struggle because I've rarely met a book that didn't give me something, but if forced to say an overrated book, I'd go with_ Finnegan's Wake._, the unintelligible classic.


----------



## Nick Steckel

My pick would be the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I tried to read it several years ago and never made it past Life, the Universe, and Everything. I don't really know how to explain it, but it just did not live up to the expectations I had for it.


----------



## tamborine

Old: Atlas Shrugged. 

New: The Passage.


----------



## Michael J. Scott

Got a couple:

The Catcher in the Rye Don't know what all the fuss is about. I put it down after two chapters. Holden Caufield is just a whiny brat.

Battlefield Earth Too many climactic endings. The book should've come to a close about five hundred pages before it did.

The DaVinci Code Plot hole you can drive a truck through (pardon the cliche). He asserts that Jesus was just a man, not God. Okay (suspends "belief"). Then why on earth should we worship Mary Magdalene? If she's married to God, that's one thing. But if she's married to a guy who isn't God, then what's the big deal? She's just another woman.


----------



## CandyTX

Michael J. Scott said:


> The Catcher in the Rye Don't know what all the fuss is about. I put it down after two chapters. Holden Caufield is just a whiny brat.


THAT!!! I hated that book. I read it earlier this year because it's a classic. Why? I wanted to take that kid out behind the woodshed and beat him senseless.


----------



## kim

1) The Last Lecture - Hated it.  It was a bunch of poorly written, disjointed stories about his life that he called "life lessons".  How he faced cancer may have been inspiring but his book sucked.

2) The Twilight series - I read them all because I kept seeing the potential for a great story, I really wanted to like it.  But her writting was terrible.


----------



## HeidiHall

Ugh! The Constant Gardener...I forced myself to read about 1/2 of it and couldn't get any further! And they made a movie out of it? I still don't know what, exactly, it was about (other than being boring people to death). The Twilight series was another that I forced myself through...but I've enjoyed the movies. I have heard horrible things about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so I am holding off until someone can convince me otherwise. On the flip, I enjoyed The DaVinci Code and Dan Brown's latest, but I have an alternative view of religion so maybe I was more open to the concepts (even if they are fictional). 

Good Post!


----------



## stormhawk

Wow, I'd blocked out The Constant Gardener. That was the most insanely boring book ever, you are so right! Books by John LeCarre SHOULD BE COOL.

It was one of the first ebooks that I ever read ... I had an RCA eBook back in the day. I actually went to see the movie, only because my boyfriend wanted to see it and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I thought the book sucked. Even Ralph Fiennes couldn't save that dog. And I LOVE Ralph Fiennes.


----------



## June Shaw

I read the Da Vinci Code, figuring that soon I would get to the good part--whatever parts people were so excited about. By the end, I thought it was okay but not enough for me to look for anymore of Dan Brown's books--although all of us authors could learn some things from him (I guess.)


----------



## Maker

CandyTX said:


> Haven't read all the responses... Atonement. I never even finished that thing and I still don't know what all the hype was about.
> 
> More recently, Handmaid's Tale (I'm still smarting from that one). I see someone mentioned above me The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I'm glad I'm not alone. It wasn't a BAD book, just wasn't every good either, if that makes sense. LOL


I couldn't finish Atonement either. But I watched the movie -- it wasn't much better than the book. *shrugs*


----------



## Neekeebee

It's funny to see _Catcher in the Rye_ on this list. When I read it in high school I thought it was the best book ever. About a decade later I decided to read it again and could not understand why I had loved it so much! 

N


----------



## Disappointed

Economics 101

I mean really, they had to write a book THAT THICK to say that the first ice cream cone has more 'utility' than the 100th cone?


----------



## Shawna

Wow, I realized from this thread how easy to please I am!!!

I loved The Road, The Twilight Series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series (I will give you that the 1st one took some time to get into, but once in - loved it), Harry Potter series, Dracula, My Antonia, It, The Stand (almost anything by Stephen King)  ....

The only books I haven't been able to get through are anything by Jane Austen - it makes me so mad.  Sense and Sensibility is one of my favorite movies of all time and I want to read it so badly - but, I can't do it!

I did struggle with The Historian - but, got through it and was glad is was over.


----------



## 13893

Shawna said:


> I did struggle with The Historian - but, got through it and was glad is was over.


oh, I bought that in hardback and wasn't able to finish...


----------



## Philip Chen

Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.  Boring, pornographic, gross.  And I am not a prude.  Also, I read it while I was a managing director at one of the world's largest investment banks (at that time) and I felt his banker characters were overly caricatured and boring.  There were certainly many excesses on Wall Street at the time, but comparing the color and feel of your business card (0r your American Express card for that matter) was not one of them.  Although I do admit that I liked the feel of embossed cards.


----------



## nmg222

Catch-22.  I thought it was a bunch of comic strips slapped together.

And another vote for Moby-Dick.  Just torture.


----------



## meinken

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Its a self-help, new agey kind of book. It came highly reccommended. I've been reading it for about 30 years now. Whenever I can't sleep, I read a few lines and that is all I need.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-ebook/dp/B0026772N8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1284496198&sr=8-1


----------



## akpak

kglavin said:


> _The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo._ There was such an incredible
> amount of hype for a book in need of serious re-editing.


No kidding. Someone should have told Larsson he shouldn't refer to a character by his last name when *20 other "characters" have the same last name*.

These books aren't "good," at all. I'm finding the underlying story interesting, but the writing and characterization is just... Ugh.


----------



## Thalia the Muse

LOL, you're absolutely right! Just be glad Larsson wasn't Korean, I guess.


----------



## Music &amp; Mayhem

meinken said:


> Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Its a self-help, new agey kind of book. It came highly reccommended. I've been reading it for about 30 years now. Whenever I can't sleep, I read a few lines and that is all I need.


I'm happy to know that someone else also couldn't get through the book. I didn't keep mine, though. I threw it away, and that's saying a lot. If I don't like a book I ususally give it away or trade with someone. But Motorcycle Maintenance? No Way. Straight in the trash!


----------



## toj

Well, to comment on multiple books...I loved 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', but it took about 4 or 5 chapters for it all to start working for me.

Everyone I know who has read 'The DaVinci Code' loved it, for me it was hard to understand where he was going with the narrative. The manner of writing was boring as well. I even purchased the illustrated edition in the hopes that visuals would get me interested. It did not work. 

The themes in Henry James works were always intriguing to me, but I couldn't get into the actual stories. I had no problem with most other writers of the era. 

"The Hobbit' - wonderful. The 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, not so much. It just didn't make me want to keep reading until 3 AM. 

Twilight was poorly written, but I could almost understand why it took off. My mistake was in attempting to read any of the series beyond that. Perhaps the bad writing was foreshadowing the poor acting in the movie versions.


----------



## stormhawk

When I first read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I was young and idealistic. A friend excitedly recommended it, spoke of the depth, the philosophy, the idea of Quality, etc. 

Close to 30 years later, I am working in a nuthouse and realize how amazingly crazy Phaedrus was, and how much he'd be helped by a good antipsychotic medicine.

It is interesting how the book changes depending on where you are, personally, when you read it.


----------



## Devin O&#039;Branagan Author

Recently, _The Lost Symbol _ by Dan Brown and_ One Second After _ by William R. Forstchen. I could not finish either one. I was especially disappointed by _One Second After_, because it was such a provocative concept. But, in my humble opinion, it was dreadfully written.


----------



## metal134

I also nominate The DaVinchi Code.  What a piece of crap.  

Also, anything by Charles Dickens.  His novels are highly lauded and every one of them sickens me.  His charcters are so freaking annoying that I want to punch every single one of them.  Nobody freaking talks like that.  Yes, I know I didn't live in Victoria era England, but I have read the works of his contemporaries and the dialouge was not all, "Pip pip, cheerio.  Pork pies and a bucket of trout jolly good love!"


----------



## Ann in Arlington

metal134 said:


> Also, anything by Charles Dickens. His novels are highly lauded and every one of them sickens me. His charcters are so freaking annoying that I want to punch every single one of them. Nobody freaking talks like that. Yes, I know I didn't live in Victoria era England, but I have read the works of his contemporaries and the dialouge was not all, "Pip pip, cheerio. Pork pies and a bucket of trout jolly good love!"


Interesting. It is true that his descriptions are. . . ..thorough. .  . .and my husband finds it a bit 'neat' that, in the end, it seems everyone is always related to everyone else. . . .but such is a novel. 

I have to say, though, that I disagree with you about how people talk. I lived in England for 3 years during the 90's (o.k. the 1990's not 1890's but still.  ) and I remember noting that, as regards language, the sentence construction, usage, and common idioms used in daily life really are a lot like what I'd read in Dickens and other British authors.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter

Ann in Arlington said:


> I have to say, though, that I disagree with you about how people talk. I lived in England for 3 years during the 90's (o.k. the 1990's not 1890's but still.  ) and I remember noting that, as regards language, the sentence construction, usage, and common idioms used in daily life really are a lot like what I'd read in Dickens and other British authors.


Aw, c'mon, Ann, you know it was the 1890s.....

Betsy


----------



## Ann in Arlington

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Aw, c'mon, Ann, you know it was the 1890s.....
> 
> Betsy


 

It was actually good I'd read so much British fiction: I had to keep translating for my husband. . . . . . .we'd take tours and the guy would stop talking and he'd ask "What'd he say?" LOL!


----------



## ginaf20697

AlexJouJou said:


> The Historian
> 
> I hated it. And there is a lot of it to hate given its size.


Yes yes YES!!! I LOATHE that book. I was soooooo pissed off when I finally finished it. I'm pissed off even now just THINKING about it.

As for "classics" there's Ethan Frome. Those were some seriously stupid people. On what planet does driving your sled into a tree seem like an effective way to kill yourself?


----------



## Lori Brighton

Not that I didn't enjoy the book, but definitely Twilight.


----------



## Violet

Just my opinion but one of these:

The Last Ship - William Brinkley
I am a huge a pretty well-read fan of post-nuclear fiction and this one just annoyed me so much I had to stop reading it.  It would build up to confrontations or revelations and then just never tell the reader what it was or what happened. Grrrr

Blindness - Jose Saramago
As a huge fan of post-change post-apoc and plague books too, I really looked forward to this one based on the hype but it was like reading a psychologist's paper, as an observer, on his explanations for peoples' reactions and what he thought their their thought processes and feelings were.  I did not get into it.


----------



## AnelaBelladonna

ginaf20697 said:
 

> Yes yes YES!!! I LOATHE that book. I was soooooo p*ssed off when I finally finished it. I'm p*ssed off even now just THINKING about it.
> 
> As for "classics" there's Ethan Frome. Those were some seriously stupid people. On what planet does driving your sled into a tree seem like an effective way to kill yourself?


I am so sad to hear these bad reviews for The Historian. I was really looking forward to it but now.....not so much.


----------



## Ann in Arlington

AnelaBelladonna said:


> I am so sad to hear these bad reviews for The Historian. I was really looking forward to it but now.....not so much.


I enjoyed _The Historian_. Not my favorite book I've ever read, but it was certainly worth finishing . . .you do need to pay attention 'cause there are a lot of characters and jumping around. . . . .


----------



## Figment

Another vote for _The Historian_...voting in terms of it being a good book and well worth the time spent reading it.

It most certainly is not something to read if you want a book "about vampires". Rather it's built on a quest, a multi-tiered quest by people over the generations, and the vampire just happens to be the quarry. I very much enjoyed the book...one of those I tried to hurry to find out how it ended, and then wanted to immediately start it over to savor its artistry.


----------



## Figment

Devin O'Branagan said:


> Recently, _The Lost Symbol _ by Dan Brown and_ One Second After _ by William R. Forstchen. I could not finish either one. I was especially disappointed by _One Second After_, because it was such a provocative concept. But, in my humble opinion, it was dreadfully written.


What she said about _One Second After_. In addition to it being very poorly written, it was preachy as all get out. I think it was written only to advance the author's agenda...and talk about some cheap tricks. (They killed and ate the dog, for God's sake!!!) ICK! I really didn't like this book!


----------



## julieannfelicity

I read One Second After also; I wasn't a huge fan of it; it was ok.  I especially didn't like the ending.  I gave it 3 stars on my goodreads list.  It was creepy; you really had to have an imagination to read it, because the majority of it just seemed ... I don't know ... highly unlikely.  Do you really think it would ever go that far if it ever happened?  I understand his aversion to technology (or at least that's how I interpreted it), but all hell breaking loose?!  Umm ... I don't think so.

Kind of reminded me of Cell, without the zombies/loonies/computer brain-washed people.

*sorry if this gives anything away*


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

metal134 said:


> I also nominate The DaVinchi Code. What a piece of crap.
> 
> Also, anything by Charles Dickens. His novels are highly lauded and every one of them sickens me. His charcters are so freaking annoying that I want to punch every single one of them. Nobody freaking talks like that. Yes, I know I didn't live in Victoria era England, but I have read the works of his contemporaries and the dialouge was not all, "Pip pip, cheerio. Pork pies and a bucket of trout jolly good love!"


The only Dickens book that disappoints me is one he didn't write. I'd hate to see where the world of the novel would be without his 7 million or so words. You might hate him, but in the words of Thackerays daughter. "Daddy, m\why can;t you write like Mr. Dickens?" 

Edward C. Patterson
"a Dickens lauder"
come visit the Dickens thread http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,27165.0.html


----------



## LauraB

Edward C. Patterson said:


> The only Dickens book that disappoints me is one he didn't write.


Which one?


----------



## Carolyn A

The Bridges of Madison County and The Shack. I'm still mystified as to why people think these are so fantastic.

Carolyn


----------



## stormhawk

Agreement on The Historian. A cow orker (who later gushed over and made me read Twilight, I should have remembered this!!) thrust The Historian into my hands and excitedly told me how good it was, and how detailed, and how much interesting history there was and, and, and ... 

I didn't get it. 

I really dislike books where I have to wait for a couple hundred pages for something to happen, and then nothing happens, and then there's another couple of hundred pages, and on and on and on. 

How do these things find publishers?


----------



## Prazzie

stormhawk said:


> Agreement on The Historian. A co-worker (who later gushed over and made me read Twilight, I should have remembered this!!) thrust The Historian into my hands and excitedly told me how good it was, and how detailed, and how much interesting history there was and, and, and ...
> 
> I didn't get it.


Without any prior knowledge of _The Historian_, I purchased the audio book on Audible. It was an abridged version, which bothered me a bit, but it was still long enough to make it worth a credit.

I have to say, I quite enjoyed it! After reading some comments here, I'm glad I got the abridged version after all.


----------



## emmad

100 Year of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is absolutely the worst book I have ever read. It came very highly recommended and out of ~550 reviews on amazon 400+ were 5 stars and only ~25 were 1 star reviews, so obviously a lot of other people think it's a brilliant book, I thought it was disgusting and pointless. The only reason I finished it was because I was backpacking in the Balkans a couple years ago (before I got my kindle) and didn't have any access to any other English books. On the plus side I didn't pay anything for it since someone gave it to me.


----------



## Music &amp; Mayhem

stormhawk said:


> When I first read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I was young and idealistic. A friend excitedly recommended it, spoke of the depth, the philosophy, the idea of Quality, etc. Close to 30 years later, I am working in a nuthouse and realize how amazingly crazy Phaedrus was, and how much he'd be helped by a good antipsychotic medicine. It is interesting how the book changes depending on where you are, personally, when you read it.


I have no doubt this is true. When I began to read it (and quickly threw it away) I was responsible for 2 children, 24/7. I was already in a nuthouse! I had no time for motorcycles. I was in serious need of maintenance myself.


----------



## Basil Sands

Without a doubt "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. Ten pages into this book I felt dizzy and wanted bang my into a brick wall. I know why they really wanted to do the guy in....


----------



## NogDog

Well, after this reply to my reply in the "Pillars of the Earth" thread, I now feel compelled to add it here: Ken Follet's _Pillars of the Earth_.


----------



## Kathelm

NogDog said:


> I now feel compelled to add it here: Ken Follet's _Pillars of the Earth_.


Seconded.

Another contender for me was the Harry Potter series, but that's mostly because I cannot sympathize with the title character. Every time Snape went on one of his tirades about how Harry Potter being a slacker with a sense of self-entitlement who gets by on the intervention of his betters and, failing that, pure luck...I always found myself thinking, "You tell him, Snape!"


----------



## Maud Muller

Didn't go through all the pages on this thread to see if someone already mentioned it, but I think _The Firm _ is the most overrated book. It started out strong, but the plot went south and by the end it bordered on the ridiculous. That seems to be the case with many of Grisham's books.


----------



## R. Doug

Eileen just beat me to it. I scrolled to the end of this thread just itching to cast my vote for _The Firm_ as the worst over-hyped book ever, and there was her post. _The Firm_: Poor writing. Unsympathetic characters. Just plain bad.

I never picked up another Grisham. That was my first and last.


----------



## R. Doug

Oh . . . and let's not forget anything Peter Benchley post Jaws culminating in one of the worst books ever written: _White Shark_.


----------



## Cochise

Violet said:


> Blindness - Jose Saramago
> As a huge fan of post-change post-apoc and plague books too, I really looked forward to this one based on the hype but it was like reading a psychologist's paper, as an observer, on his explanations for peoples' reactions and what he thought their their thought processes and feelings were. I did not get into it.


I second that. I only managed to get a few chapters in.



Ann in Arlington said:


> I have to say, though, that I disagree with you about how people talk. I lived in England for 3 years during the 90's (o.k. the 1990's not 1890's but still.  ) and I remember noting that, as regards language, the sentence construction, usage, and common idioms used in daily life really are a lot like what I'd read in Dickens and other British authors.


I have lived in England for pushing forty years and find Dickens very easy reading, you are right, much of the language remains. Although much to the horror of American friends I Just cannot read Shakespeare. Never could.


----------



## Maud Muller

I'm an American who adores Shakespeare. If I had lived during his time I would have thrown myself at his feet and begged to become his mistress.


----------



## Thalia the Muse

Ha! I hadn't thought about it, but Shakespeare IS sexy, isn't he? When palm touch palm in holy palmer's kiss (that's from my sieve-like memory, so it's probably badly mangled).


----------



## mom133d (aka Liz)

Daniel Arenson said:


> Most overrated books I've read....
> 
> Da Vinci Code
> 
> Life of Pi
> 
> The Five People You Meet In Heaven (couldn't finish it)


Have to agree with Life of Pi and Five People You Meet in Heaven. I didn't mind Da vinci Code. But I have one phrase that can sum up the most over-rated books - "Oprah's Book Selection"


----------



## Brenda Carroll

The Shack (couldn't finish it)
The Da Vinci Code (the end was awful)
Angels and Demons (liked the movie better)
101 Secrets of the Masons (propaganda)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Definitely _*The DaVinci Code*_ (and I put_* Twilight * _ down - but since I couldn't read it, I guess it doesn;t count).

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## crash86

Anything by Dan Brown to me is overrated.  I also think that the Book Thief is another overrated book.  I have The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that I picked up in a second hand store but haven't gotten around to reading it yet so can't really comment on it but it seems to be another super hyped series.


----------



## NickSpalding

Dracula.

It's a frigging diary. And not an interesting one. A load of po-faced wandering around the Carpathian mountains followed by a load of po-faced wandering around London with a few mild moments of horror and way to much stiff moralising.

You know what's a good vampire story?

BLADE.

Or at a push some of the Lumley books.

and Stephenie Meyer can kiss my glittery silver arse.


----------



## Labrynth

I guess I won't call anything overrated, because to each his own.... but a few of the ones I hated:

Twilight.  My Twilight hate is well known.
Hannibal Rising was horribly written, but at least the story itself wasn't terrible.
Pretty much every classic ever written that I've bothered to read. I usually find them extremely dry and irritating.
I've never thought Dan Brown was all that great.  Read Angels & Demons and DaVinci Code and didn't understand what all the fuss was about.
I detest Shakespere.  A lot.

For the most part most of the books i've chosen to read I've found something in them to enjoy.


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

NickSpalding said:


> Dracula.
> 
> It's a frigging diary. And not an interesting one. A load of po-faced wandering around the Carpathian mountains followed by a load of po-faced wandering around London with a few mild moments of horror and way to much stiff moralising.


Thank you very much!
Dawn


----------



## crash86

Bleekness said:


> The last three books of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.
> 
> Now, I've been a fan of King since I was like 14, when I first bought the Nightshift collection. I bought all the classics and, in my opinion, King's been on a steady decline ever since TommyKnockers. There was a brief return to form in "DreamCatcher" but then "Lisey's Story" and 'Duma Key" continued the slide.
> I have a theory on this, but I won't elaborate.
> 
> King left his fans hanging for 15 years+ with his Dark Tower, leaving us faithful readers with the MCs all on a mad mono train, right at a cliffhanger--a GREAT cliff hanger---but 15 years or more for a resolution? No. That's just a lesson to any other writer. Don't do that to your readers.
> 
> Wizard and Glass was decent, but the insertion of himself as a character was a little bit too glib for me. An over indulgent God complexion that left me go "What the (*&*^?". I felt like i would when watching a character in a motion picture breaking to address the audience much too often--why are you doing this? And then final ending... cheap.
> 
> Still haven't picked up "Under the Dome." Probably won't. Nor have I opened my wallet for his recent short story collection. I imagine someone will get it for me for Christmas.


I gave up on the Dark Tower series. I had to re read each previous book when a new one came out due to the long periods of waiting in between. I started Lisey's Story but gave up due to boredom.

Don't bother with Under the Dome, you're not missing much its a disappointment. I have been reading King since I was 10 and to me he started loosing his edge after the car accident. Something happened to his creativity and it hasn't been the same since.

I am currently re reading Salem's Lot, I read this when I was 10 and it is still a creepy book. But his newer stuff from lets say about 8 years ago to now.... bitter disappointment for such a great writer.


----------



## LauraB

Maybe I'm not recalling correctly, because I know he had a lot of injuries, but didn't he suffer head injuries as well?


----------



## crash86

LauraB said:


> Maybe I'm not recalling correctly, because I know he had a lot of injuries, but didn't he suffer head injuries as well?


He did have a lot of injuries but not sure how bad the head trauma was. I did see him at a interview thing in London a few years back when he was promoting Lisey's Story and saw how skinnier he was and he looked a bit weak still even after a few years. It was a great interview and he was mentally good but physically he looked bad. I think that it did have an impact on his writing though, which is such a shame cause I have been a fan for over 30 years. I still buy his books but just don't seem to really enjoy the newer ones. I'm hoping that the new collection of short stories is a good one and I hope it is a throwback to his earlier stuff. Will just have to wait and see.


----------



## xandy3

_The Lovely Bones._ I sincerely regret the time I wasted in reading it, and the dollars that I spent on the paperback edition. I mean not the worse book I ever read...but not the best either, and clearly not worth all the hype.

_Jurrassic Park 2 the Lost World._ I loved the movie, but the book bored me.

_The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo._ So many dry chapters. I actually had stopped reading for a bit, so I could read books I actually enjoyed. Bloomquist is a total Gary Stu, and I got tired of reading about what he ate...all the women throwing themselves at him...what clothes he put on that day...more women...and then finally getting to the point of the book. *yawn* 
I know I'm probably alone in this....but to each his/her own.

But, those are not the worse books I've ever read. 
I honestly forget the title of the worse book I've ever read...it was something we had to read for high school. It was completely lame, about a teenage girl who ran away to marry the guy from "the wrong side of the tracks" and they lived in the YMCA. And, he left her and she had to go back home...
I only remember it because I remember my English teacher making a joke about it. The main characters were "Donnie and Mitch" and he kept calling them "Donnie and Marie" just to be funny.


----------



## NickSpalding

crash86 said:


> I gave up on the Dark Tower series. I had to re read each previous book when a new one came out due to the long periods of waiting in between. I started Lisey's Story but gave up due to boredom.
> 
> Don't bother with Under the Dome, you're not missing much its a disappointment. I have been reading King since I was 10 and to me he started loosing his edge after the car accident. Something happened to his creativity and it hasn't been the same since.
> 
> I am currently re reading Salem's Lot, I read this when I was 10 and it is still a creepy book. But his newer stuff from lets say about 8 years ago to now.... bitter disappointment for such a great writer.


I think the natural passage of age is as responsible for a change in his writing as the accident...but it did have a profound and negative effect on the quality of the Dark Tower cycle without a doubt. The first four are sublime. The last three are frankly bloody silly. Doctoruty Doom and Harry Potter have no place in a book series that also features Blaine and the city of Lud. And don't get me started on what he did with the Crimson King at the end.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Terrible.


----------



## Laurensaga

I may regret this later in the day but Ann Rice's Memnoch the Devil.  I loved Interview With a Vampire. The next three in the series were okay, but nothing to sing about.  It took me two and a half years of trudge work (I hate to leave things unfinished) to get through Memnoch the Devil.  I know there are others in the series but that one was so aweful I don't know if I can read anything by her again.  Only time will tell though.


----------



## robertduperre

NickSpalding said:


> I think the natural passage of age is as responsible for a change in his writing as the accident...but it did have a profound and negative effect on the quality of the Dark Tower cycle without a doubt. The first four are sublime. The last three are frankly bloody silly. Doctoruty Doom and Harry Potter have no place in a book series that also features Blaine and the city of Lud. And don't get me started on what he did with the Crimson King at the end.
> 
> eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
> 
> Terrible.


Different strokes.

I actually enjoyed two of the last three books - with Song of Suzannah being the lone exception (It should've been melded with the last book instead of being published as a stand-alone). I also thought the ending was appropriate...sublime, even, to use your words. I greatly appreciated the inclusion of Father Callahan, Patrick Danville, and Ted Braughtigan. To me, they read as a reward for a long-time reader. Loved them when I read 'em, still love them today.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

My admiration for _*The Dark Tower * _ series goes beyond saying. I've read the books several times and also listened to them on audible. They are source of inspiration. However, I was disappointed in _*Lisey's Story*_, hoping that it would be as magnificent as _*Bag of Bones*_, but alwas, no.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## robertduperre

Edward C. Patterson said:


> My admiration for _*The Dark Tower * _ series goes beyond saying. I've read the books several times and also listened to them on audible. They are source of inspiration. However, I was disappointed in _*Lisey's Story*_, hoping that it would be as magnificent as _*Bag of Bones*_, but alwas, no.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


Ed, Bag of Bones might be King's best novel.

The illicit and tragic romance between Mike and Mattie rocked me. I don't think I'd ever read a book where an older man who thinks of being intimate with a much younger woman actually contemplates the morality of the situation. And yet still, he was a slave to his feelings and fell for her just the same.

And the end...gack, cryfest. But this is also a guy who balled like a little babu at the end of "Lost", so consider the source.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

robertduperre said:


> Ed, Bag of Bones might be King's best novel.
> 
> The illicit and tragic romance between Mike and Mattie rocked me. I don't think I'd ever read a book where an older man who thinks of being intimate with a much younger woman actually contemplates the morality of the situation. And yet still, he was a slave to his feelings and fell for her just the same.
> 
> And the end...gack, cryfest. But this is also a guy who balled like a little babu at the end of "Lost", so consider the source.


Loved, Bag of Bones. "This is the way we mourn." Everytime I have adversity I run for that paragraph which I have dog-eared in my paperback copy.

Edward C. Patterson


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## CandyTX

Bleekness said:


> Still haven't picked up "Under the Dome." Probably won't. Nor have I opened my wallet for his recent short story collection. I imagine someone will get it for me for Christmas.


I'll be the lone wolf here and say that I actually quite enjoyed Under The Dome. I've not read much of his stuff in many years because, well, it sucked. I recall reading something about a cell phone by him a couple of years ago and it sucked too. I read Under The Dome (okay, honestly, I can make something up, but I read it because the cover art was freaking awesome). It wasn't quite up to The Stand (which is the only book I ever re-read), but it had the same character depth I thought. I thought it was quite good, not perfect, but good.


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## Labrynth

xandy3 said:


> _The Lovely Bones._ I sincerely regret the time I wasted in reading it, and the dollars that I spent on the paperback edition. I mean not the worse book I ever read...but not the best either, and clearly not worth all the hype.


YES! It was so not the story I thought it was going to be. I did manage to finish it but was bored for the majority of it.


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## Blanche

The Bridges of Madison County.  Kept putting it down and picking it back up again thinking it would get better.  Never clicked for me.


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## Cochise

NickSpalding said:


> I think the natural passage of age is as responsible for a change in his writing as the accident...but it did have a profound and negative effect on the quality of the Dark Tower cycle without a doubt. The first four are sublime. The last three are frankly bloody silly. Doctoruty Doom and Harry Potter have no place in a book series that also features Blaine and the city of Lud. And don't get me started on what he did with the Crimson King at the end.
> 
> eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
> 
> Terrible.


I started reading the Dark Tower series after it was finished. I read them one after another and enjoyed them all until that last book. Afterwards I sat with that "slapped in the face with a wet fish" feeling and felt a little cheated. But the more I thought about it in the following days it occurred to me that not being an author myself (and perhaps in a minority around here for that) I had no idea how I would have ended the story and accepted it for what it was.

Is there an "Suggested alternative endings" thread? if not maybe there should be.


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## Robert Tell Author

For me, the most overrated book was Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. I enjoyed it as a teenager but recently re-read it as an adult and couldn't figure out what the fuss was all about. I am a sci-fi fan and liked the imagination it took to write this book but, frankly, I don't think it was well written, suspenseful, provocative, or in any sense a page turner. To me, it was just not worth the raves one usually hears about it.


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## nmg222

Cochise said:


> I started reading the Dark Tower series after it was finished. I read them one after another and enjoyed them all until that last book. Afterwards I sat with that "slapped in the face with a wet fish" feeling and felt a little cheated. But the more I thought about it in the following days it occurred to me that not being an author myself (and perhaps in a minority around here for that) I had no idea how I would have ended the story and accepted it for what it was.
> 
> Is there an "Suggested alternative endings" thread? if not maybe there should be.


I loved the ending, and I usually have issues with endings. Roland's life was the 'quest' for the Dark Tower, not actually finding it. Afterall, life is Ka and Ka is a wheel that just keeps going around.


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## Robin

Hemingway. Just does nothing for me.


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## Christopher Bunn

The Twilight Series. I couldn't finish them. After a while, reading them felt like wading through emo-flavored sludge.


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## sbaum4853

Twilight as "emo-flavored sludge".  Love it!

Yes, Twilight counts as the most overrated book I never finished, even though I tried multiple times.


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## xandy3

sbaum4853 said:


> Twilight as "emo-flavored sludge". Love it!
> 
> Yes, Twilight counts as the most overrated book I never finished, even though I tried multiple times.


I for one could not get past the first page of that crap.


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## laa0325

The Shack.  I couldn't even finish it, which almost never happens. 

I also hated The Road, although I did manage to finish it.


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## Meemo

chbunn said:


> The Twilight Series. I couldn't finish them. After a while, reading them felt like wading through emo-flavored sludge.


That's so funny - my daughter hates hates HATES emo - but she loved the Twilight books and got me to read them. (I enjoyed them but certainly wouldn't call them great literature, and wouldn't read them again.)


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## Pinworms

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  This is one of my most hated books, I had great difficulty finishing it because I was so bored.


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## .jime

The Catcher in the Rye. 

Seriously...I can't stand that book. Please don't post something saying I didn't 
"get it" or that it had some deep underlying meaning that went over my head, because that's not the case.
I thought it was a book about a bratty lazy college kid, and the plot went nowhere and the characters were very daft. 

Most overrated book in literature history.

Runner up, House of Leaves. It's too difficult to press through with it's bizarre style for not enough satisfaction.


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## jwasserman

Ted Hughes' Birthday Letters. 

Any chance to get a glimpse into Plath's private lie is exciting but this collection felt flat, rushed, and emotionless. I still don't understand the continued praise it gets.


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## Robert Tell Author

.jime: I agree with you about The Catcher in the Rye. I'm an "old" guy. I read it as a teen, and again in my 30's, hoping that I'd understand it's appeal. The book just never spoke to me. Salinger, himself, reportedly wasn't pleased with the book's success. According to Time: "Salinger's only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published in 1951 and gradually achieved a status that made him cringe." Still, multitudes of readers enjoyed this book so it clearly had something that spoke to them. Wish I knew what it was.


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## M. G. Scarsbrook

Being a write myself, I hate to bad-mouth another's work. But I thought THE ALCHEMIST was terrible - simplistic, trite, and in some places just plain embarrassing.

Note sure why its a "modern classic"...


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## LarryEnright

Goodreads has a list of these and it looks like it has a lot of the books everyone is naming here. Twilight is number 1 and Da Vinci Code is number 2 on that list, btw.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2.The_Worst_Books_of_All_Time


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## Guest

LarryEnright said:


> Goodreads has a list of these and it looks like it has a lot of the books everyone is naming here. Twilight is number 1 and Da Vinci Code is number 2 on that list, btw.
> 
> http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2.The_Worst_Books_of_All_Time


Wow, Ann Coulter is dominating that list! Also, seeing The Giving Tree on there made me sad.


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## Tracy Falbe

xandy3 said:


> _The Lovely Bones._ I sincerely regret the time I wasted in reading it, and the dollars that I spent on the paperback edition. I mean not the worse book I ever read...but not the best either, and clearly not worth all the hype.


It's nice to know I'm not the only person who feels this way. The book started out great and I was excited about reading it, and then it went to stupid town and stayed there. The way the killer died was completely stupid. It was like the book got a publishing deal based on the first 3 chapters and then the author had 6 days to finish it and had no idea what to write.


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## crash86

Any Dan Brown book and also The Book Thief..... just couldn't get into it.  I have a three strike rule, if by the third time of putting it aside and picking it up again I still can't get into it, it goes to the donation pile.


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## theaatkinson

well, i *didn't* read DaVinci code. Alas. I just couldn't get through the writing style and the constant hammering of info into the reader's head. Made it to page 10, I think.

although, I hate to diss a book as reading is subjective. he certainly did know his audience.


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## ajhunter

I think it's kind of dumb that #1, 3, 5, and 6 are the individual Twilight books and #11 is the "Twilight Saga: 1-4."  I've never read a Twilight book, and don't really plan to, but really, we get it.  It's trendy to hate the Twilight books right now.  I'd be willing to wager that 90+% of the people that post a review or state their negative opinion of these books aren't even in the targeted audience.  Add to that that most of those people go into them knowing they shouldn't like them...

My question is, if #1 is hated so much, how does it get to the point where people figure out they don't like #4 just as much??

Anyway, like I said, I'm not in any position to defend these books, but "trendy negativity" just irks me sometimes.


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## stormhawk

I read all four of the Twilight books because a coworker kept gushing about how good they were, and how each one was better than the next. 

She was usually a sensible person, so I, foolishly as it turned out, believed her. The last one was the worst of the lot.


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## LauraB

ajhunter said:


> I think it's kind of dumb that #1, 3, 5, and 6 are the individual Twilight books and #11 is the "Twilight Saga: 1-4." I've never read a Twilight book, and don't really plan to, but really, we get it. It's trendy to hate the Twilight books right now. I'd be willing to wager that 90+% of the people that post a review or state their negative opinion of these books aren't even in the targeted audience. Add to that that most of those people go into them knowing they shouldn't like them...
> 
> My question is, if #1 is hated so much, how does it get to the point where people figure out they don't like #4 just as much??
> 
> Anyway, like I said, I'm not in any position to defend these books, but "trendy negativity" just irks me sometimes.


When my daughter was in her mid teens she started reading them as they came out. She liked #1, thought #2 was ok, and by #3 thought they were awful. Then she went back and looked at #1 and decided it was "not as good as I remembered." This was before it was the trend to not like them in her group. So maybe they just got more disappointing as time went on, and then the earlier ones failed to stand up alone after the later ones.


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## MLPMom

It is funny how these threads always seem to turn into a Twilight bashing scene. What I really don't get it why waste so much time and energy on something that you supposedly hate?


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## joanhallhovey

I also couldn't get through Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.  Also, while the Bridges of Madison County was not a bad read, it wasn't great, (though an Oprah book club selection, )and I felt sorry for the husband.    Go figure.  Anyway, as they say, to each his own.


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## LauraB

MLPMom said:


> It is funny how these threads always seem to turn into a Twilight bashing scene. What I really don't get it why waste so much time and energy on something that you supposedly hate?


Huh? This topic has been in discussion for 15 pages, and I'd say an extremely small % is Twilight. I don't think anyone is Twilight bashing. Just discussing an odd phenomena of how peoples opinions change over time. I don't actually have an opinion on Twilight, as I've never read them, I was just discussing what my daughter said after she had read a few to answer a previous posters opinion on why someone would read 1-4, and then say they didn't like #1. Meaning maybe they liked it when they read it, but sort of outgrew it. 
As far as wasting time, are you talking about the time people spent reading the books? Or what?


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## SpearsII

I got excited when I started looking into _Wizzard's First Rule_ by Goodkind. I thought I was going to find another series great for killing time. I had just finished the Fire and Ice books and needed my next big adventure. Arghhhhh, I found it horrible, I could not read it at all. I skipped to the end just to see if the book took off but the end was worse then the beginning. I have know idea how that book became so huge. Maybe its just me?


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## Kathelm

^ And that one was written _before_ Goodkind went crazy. Not liking it saves everyone the effort of begging you to stop there.


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## MLPMom

LauraB said:


> Huh? This topic has been in discussion for 15 pages, and I'd say an extremely small % is Twilight. I don't think anyone is Twilight bashing. Just discussing an odd phenomena of how peoples opinions change over time. I don't actually have an opinion on Twilight, as I've never read them, I was just discussing what my daughter said after she had read a few to answer a previous posters opinion on why someone would read 1-4, and then say they didn't like #1. Meaning maybe they liked it when they read it, but sort of outgrew it.
> As far as wasting time, are you talking about the time people spent reading the books? Or what?


My comment wasn't in reply to yours. I was simply referring to the fact that no matter what some members feel the need to comment on the series in a negative way whenever they can. Nothing wrong with it, it just seems like a lot of wasted energy on something they don't like.

But I so agree with you, if someone thought the first was so awful, why go through the trouble of reading all of them? Maybe they had to complete them because that is the way they are, some people are like that. Me? I would much rather spend my time reading something I enjoy.


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## jbh13md

SpearsII said:


> I got excited when I started looking into _Wizzard's First Rule_ by Goodkind. I thought I was going to find another series great for killing time. I had just finished the Fire and Ice books and needed my next big adventure. Arghhhhh, I found it horrible, I could not read it at all. I skipped to the end just to see if the book took off but the end was worse then the beginning. I have know idea how that book became so huge. Maybe its just me?


THANK YOU! I am in absolute agreement with you here. I'm a rabid reader of fantasy, but Goodkind? Yuck.


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## Labrynth

I always find the idea of a "target audience" to be rather amusing.  Considering I read a bit of everything I doubt I'm the so called target audience for a lot of stuff I read.  Doesn't mean I don't enjoy the majority of it tho.


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## Kristan Hoffman

"Overrated" is the key word -- and exactly the reason I usually can't/don't read, watch, eat, or wear the latest trends. I just know they can't live up, and I hate them on principle. But once the hype has died down, THEN I can usually check them out. That's how I came to love Harry Potter, for example, and why I even enjoyed Twilight. Sure, that means I'm years late to the "party," but by then all the drunk people have left. 

Kristan


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## Cavaguy

I'm going to get slaughtered for this because he's probably 50 times the writer I am

but BIRDSONG zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

S


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## JumpingShip

Paegan said:


> I have two as my own personal worthless, time wasting, what the hell is everyone raving about list: Angela's Ashes and The Road. Blech!


I hated Angela's Ashes too. The Road was okay. I appreciated the beautiful writing, but it was so depressing. Definitely not one I'd re-read.

My nominations are Gone With the Wind, The Hobbit, and The Time Traveler's Wife.


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## Pinworms

1.  Looking for Alaska

2.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time 

3.  The Hunger Games


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## DYB

Kristan Hoffman said:


> "Overrated" is the key word -- and exactly the reason I usually can't/don't read, watch, eat, or wear the latest trends. I just know they can't live up, and I hate them on principle. But once the hype has died down, THEN I can usually check them out. That's how I came to love Harry Potter, for example, and why I even enjoyed Twilight. Sure, that means I'm years late to the "party," but by then all the drunk people have left.
> 
> Kristan


There's also the important note about _opinions._ We all know what they say about opinions!


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## Andrew Ashling

For me it has to be Philip Pullman's _His Dark Materials_ trilogy.
Everybody assures me they're fantastic books, but I just couldn't connect with them. I kept thinking it would get better, but it didn't. Finally I gave up halfway through _The Amber Spyglass_ and I almost never do that. But I came to the realization that I couldn't give less about the characters or what happened to them.
I'm sure it's me though.


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## Lalalaconnectthedots

Well, I'm sure I'll be accused of joining the hate fest here, but I also didn't enjoy Twilight. I read it before the movies came out and just...it didn't do it for me. 

Here's the deal with Twilight, though. If it had just been one book and the other three hadn't followed it, while I wouldn't have been a fan, I wouldn't have found myself so confused by the love of it. It was the follow up books (which I never made it through) that left me puzzled.

And I do love a lot of King, but I've never been able to make it through The Gunslinger, despite desperately wanting to.

Here's one that hasn't been mentioned and will probably earn me a few raised eyebrows: Fahrenheit 451. I thought the concept was entertaining, but it fell flat with me. I think Bradbury has excellent ideas and I admire him greatly and had it not been that the book was so heralded as a classic, I might not have walked away so unimpressed. Maybe.

Another one in the "classic" bin: Brave New World. Detest that book. 

And yet another one: Animal Farm. To be fair, though, this was a high school read. However, I enjoyed most of the other required reading in high school, but this one I hated. 

I wasn't a big fan of the Outlander series. The first book was OKAY, but it annoyed me that she attempted to pick it up YEARS after the first one. 

And while I didn't hate the LOTR books (LOVED LOVED LOVED the movies, though), I do think they could have stood a good edit.


----------



## DYB

Andrew Ashling said:


> For me it has to be Philip Pullman's _His Dark Materials_ trilogy.
> Everybody assures me they're fantastic books, but I just couldn't connect with them. I kept thinking it would get better, but it didn't. Finally I gave up halfway through _The Amber Spyglass_ and I almost never do that. But I came to the realization that I couldn't give less about the characters or what happened to them.
> I'm sure it's me though.


I agree with you about "His Dark Materials." I read the first one and found is so cold. I just didn't care about any of the characters. Pullman was obviously creating something unique in his universe, but there was no emotional core in his story. I didn't read beyond the first book.


----------



## Lalalaconnectthedots

DYB said:


> I agree with you about "His Dark Materials." I read the first one and found is so cold. I just didn't care about any of the characters. Pullman was obviously creating something unique in his universe, but there was no emotional core in his story. I didn't read beyond the first book.


Lyra was a difficult character to care for. As much as I loved the first one, I'm not sure I ever cared for her as a character. She was more of a vehicle for me to experience the world that Pullman had created. Will, however, was a bit easier to care for, but we spent more time throughout the series with Lyra.

For me, the supporting characters were more impressive. Mainly Iorek and Lee.

That being said, with each subsequent book, I found myself being pushed further away from the core of the story than drawn into it. I still liked it, but more for the ideas and worldbuilding than the actual story itself.


----------



## Blodwyn

I never understood why people love _Dune_ as much as they do.


----------



## fancynancy

"Let The Great World Spin".  Why did it win the National Book Award?  Some of the people in my book group thought the writing was "beautiful".  Maybe it was, but the book was not enjoyable to read.  The characters were more symbolic than real.  Just don't get it.


----------



## Ann in Arlington

Blodwyn said:


> I never understood why people love _Dune_ as much as they do.


I liked the first one o.k. Subsequent volumes became ever more obtuse. . . . . .


----------



## 13893

Blodwyn said:


> I never understood why people love _Dune_ as much as they do.


ah! why don't you just shove a crysknife into my heart?


----------



## D.A. Boulter

Blodwyn said:


> I never understood why people love _Dune_ as much as they do.


Dune was one of the first novels that truly showed the potential of SF. It gave us a far-flung galactic empire with real politics; a well-handled large cast of characters; views of differing societies and how customs of one could cause misunderstandings in another. It incorporated ecology and economics and threw in competing secret purposes for good measure. All this, Herbert developed within a logical world with relevant technologies. In short, it was a masterwork of Science Fiction. On top of that, I thought Herbert told a good story, with sympathetic characters.

That's why people love Dune as much as they do. [Dune also inspired me to take up the writing of SF&F, so I appreciate it on that level, too.]

Now, I fully support your right to consider it 'overrated'. This is, after all, a matter of opinion. If the story doesn't resonate with you, it doesn't and in such a case I can easily see why you'd think Dune to be highly overrated. I have the same problem with Gravity's Rainbow. The story didn't resonate with me and I can't understand how it won an award.

Dune also can be seen as prophetic. The spice, Melange, is an analogue for oil; the planet Arrakis, the Middle East. All that foreigners care about is getting the oil/spice out. The wants and desires of the indigenous peoples are basically ignored. In Dune, we have Paul threatening to destroy the Spice; in Kuwait, Saddam Hussein threatened (and attempted) to destroy the oil-fields. In Dune we see the tying together of politics and religion. We see that in the Middle-East today.

Like Ann, I didn't care much for the sequels, but found Dune memorable. The above is not to say that you are wrong in considering Dune overrated, but to explain why others, like myself, love it.


----------



## stormhawk

D.A. said what I was thinking, only he went further than "it was really good" which is all my tired brain can come up with at 2am.


----------



## mlewis78

Cavaguy said:


> I'm going to get slaughtered for this because he's probably 50 times the writer I am
> 
> but BIRDSONG zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
> 
> S


I liked Birdsong, but Charlotte Grey was a snooze. Birdsong had a lot of dry detail about WWI fighting, but I felt that I was learning something and it made me curious to find out more.


----------



## Aravis60

Andrew Ashling said:


> For me it has to be Philip Pullman's _His Dark Materials_ trilogy.
> Everybody assures me they're fantastic books, but I just couldn't connect with them. I kept thinking it would get better, but it didn't. Finally I gave up halfway through _The Amber Spyglass_ and I almost never do that. But I came to the realization that I couldn't give less about the characters or what happened to them.
> I'm sure it's me though.


I would also agree with you. I read them all, but I can't say that I'm a fan. I thought that the first one was kind of interesting, but after that it got worse. I stuck with it, thinking that there would be a pay off, but for me there never was. I have to have a character that I like at least a little bit, and I didn't find that in these books.


----------

