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For me, it was without a doubt 100 years of Solitude - god how I hated that book! 1 million years of boredom, more like!

This is always rated more highly than 'Love In The Time Of Cholera', which I have always felt is unjust. I loved LITTOC, and found 100YOS easily forgettable.

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A Separate Peace by John Knowles (when it was was over I said. "so what?")

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (tries too hard to be shocking, but just succeeds in being offensive)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (B-O-R-I-N-G)

Love Story by Erich Segal (I gag when I think of it)

I definitely agree with you on Gatsby. It's a hyped-up "classic" that doesn't live up to the hype.

As for modern books, I hate to say it, but I I feel that way about all Nicholas Spark's books I've read too.

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Jodie Picoult - My Sister's Keeper: I read this with a completely open mind and without having read anything of hers before. I found it trashy and cheap and not unlike a cheesy American made-for-TV film. A poignant subject matter doesn't necessarily make for a proufound book. Do you want to send me poo in an envelope now?

 

Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale: I wanted to like this, but really didn't. I don't really understand why it's so popular.

 

Emile Zola - Germinal: When I read the reviews on Amazon I got really excited about read this. I was sure I was going to love it. I finished it but nearly lost the will to live whilst doing so. Sometimes I think the term "Classic" means no more than "Really old".

 

Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian: "There were trees everywhere. Everywhere there were trees. I scanned my eyes over the vast scene before me - trees everywhere!

Finally, I arrived at the crypt, my heart pumping. There was a crisp coldness to the air and an uneasiness in my being. Suddenly - look - trees!" Zzzzzzzzzztreeszzzzzzzzzzz Sorry :blush:

 

If I was looking at my book shelf right now I could think of loads of others that I didn't 'get'. I am beginning to take a five star rating as a sign to avoid a book at all costs. It does make the illusive 'good ones' all the better when I find them though.

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Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian: "There were trees everywhere. Everywhere there were trees. I scanned my eyes over the vast scene before me - trees everywhere!

Finally, I arrived at the crypt, my heart pumping. There was a crisp coldness to the air and an uneasiness in my being. Suddenly - look - trees!" Zzzzzzzzzztreeszzzzzzzzzzz Sorry :blush:

 

Hahahaha. Fantastic. I agree it did get insanely boring for the middle third of the book. How many countryside scenes did they need to be awed by? How many bits of paper did they need to find that would lead them to books that would lead them to other bits of paper that would tell them about a monk who might have written the first bit of paper?

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Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian: "There were trees everywhere. Everywhere there were trees. I scanned my eyes over the vast scene before me - trees everywhere!

Finally, I arrived at the crypt, my heart pumping. There was a crisp coldness to the air and an uneasiness in my being. Suddenly - look - trees!" Zzzzzzzzzztreeszzzzzzzzzzz Sorry :tong:

 

I certainly hope that's not a real quote from the novel?? :blush:

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  • 2 weeks later...
Atonement and Saturday - didnt get past the first couple of pages of either book -

 

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! I love Ian McEwen.:smile2:

 

I think "The Davinci Code" and "Memory Keepers Daughter" were raved about by people who read one book every ten years, and that was it.

 

I 'got' The Great Gatsby on the third reading. Read it three times over to help son with his English last year.

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I think "The Davinci Code" and "Memory Keepers Daughter" were raved about by people who read one book every ten years, and that was it.

 

Hm. I enjoyed both of those, along with the couple of hundred books I read every year. Just a matter of personal taste, I would have thought.:smile2:

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'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D Salinger, it was readable but I am still not sure why its a classic. .

 

My thoughts exactly. What's so great about it? Even if it was wow at the time it got published (and I'm pretty sure it wasn't) by now there have been tons of other ''rebelious'' stories written. I just don't get it.

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Hm. I enjoyed both of those, along with the couple of hundred books I read every year. Just a matter of personal taste, I would have thought.:D

 

Oh, I enjoyed them, and I do read a lot too, it just seemed like they were popular among friends who didn't read much.

I was referring to the original question "over rated books"

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  • 4 months later...

Oh, I will probably get hate mail for this, but I think One Hundred Years of Solitude is the most highly over-rated book ever.

It was all style, and no substance. I found the characters to be non-interesting at best, and loathsome at worst. The ending was depressing and not in a way that made me sorrow for humanity, but only for the author's view of humanity.

It took me two tries to get through the book, it was so boring and pretentious, and I generally love magical realism.

Now, would I burn this book? No. If other people want to read it, that is their business. But I would never recommend it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I must be the one weirdo who liked The Da Vinci Code :giggle2: . Although I did find it hilarious that some people treated it as if it were a factual historical account. When people say it was badly written I'm not sure what they mean. Did it have grammatical errors?

My pet peeve is waffly descriptions of scenery / locations but I thought the pacing in The Da Vinci Code was okay.

I'm kind of assuming that people didn't like the writing because it was a fairly simple read and maybe some people like something more to get their teeth into? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Add my vote to Atonement by Ian McEwan.

And The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It's my husbands favourite book but I just found it a bit silly. Sorry to all the fans. Mind you, being my husband's favourite book is not that flash as he only reads about 2 a year so there aren't many to choose from.

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  • 3 years later...

At the moment there is a thread about underrated books and I thought that it would be interesting to hear about the books/series that you think are overrated. We have all come across them, those books that you hear so much about but when you get around to looking at them they are a great let down or are down right bad.

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I've merged the new and existing threads.

 

I think The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is extremely overrated.

 

Or any other book by Paulo Coelho.... I've read four of his books. :blush2: Why the heck did it take me so much reading time, to learn that all of his books were overrated?

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For me it must be Lord of the Rings. It's such a classic, but I just found it boring to the extreme. I still finished it, always thinking: "Well, everyone loves it, it has to get better". Just that it never did.

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I must be the one weirdo who liked The Da Vinci Code :giggle2: . Although I did find it hilarious that some people treated it as if it were a factual historical account. When people say it was badly written I'm not sure what they mean. Did it have grammatical errors?

 

I can assure you you are not the only one! I very much enjoyed TDVC! :) I don't think it was badly written at all. No grammatical errors or typos, and it was very great, fast paced, great thriller! :) That's just my humble opinion :)

 

Edit: And I agree on Coelho! Although Veronica Decided To Die wasn't as bad as The Alchemist.

Edited by frankie
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