Most overrated?

[Nollaig]

 

 

LMAO!!!

 

Hahahahaha awwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

[Janet]

I don't mean to nag, but Sarah's just asked if we can please stay on-topic. We don't like being killjoys and having to delete posts and we don't mind the odd joke, but if we could please stay on-topc, that would be great.

[Nollaig]

Whoops, sorry

 

The Da Vinci Code seems to be the most popular vote, and other people said 1984, Atonement and I said Twilight.

 

Anything else?

[crotalus_p]

Catcher In The Rye for me too. Couldn't see why it was meant to be such a classic.

I liked it , but it just did not live up to the hype

[Kell]

Is Angels and Demons a sequel to Da Vinci Code? Or is it a stand alone book? I hate reading books in the wrong order

I think Angels and Demons comes before The Da Vinci Code (they certainly reference the former in the latter, anyway).

Correct - chronologhically, A&D comes before DVC.

 

Personally, of Dan Brown's books, I thought Digital Fortress was the best. Didn't think much of Deception Point.

[poppy]

For me, the most overrated books I've encountered have been Atonement by Ian McEwan and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I couldn't get through Atonement because it was way too predictable

 

Found it dragged at the beginning and I struggled to keep reading. And I can't say I found the characters particularly likeable but I'd be surprised if you read to the end that you'd find it predictable.

 

The most over-rated book I've attempted this year was Lady Chatterly's Lover. This annoyed the out of me. Admittedly I didn't finish it, it may have improved, but the first part with the interminable snobby ramblings put me off for ever.

Edited January 10, 2009 by poppy

[anisia]

Twilight for me. It's not that I didn't enjoy it (I just read it recently) but I had expected much, much more after everything I've heard about it.

[Raven]

If I can ask, why do those who have said they don't like Nineteen Eighty-Four not like it?

I know it isn't a light read, but I'm fascinated by the concepts in it and the bleak future Orwell envisaged, I'm wondering if it is the latter that put people off?

[Charm]

If I can ask, why do those who have said they don't like Nineteen Eighty-Four not like it?

 

I know it isn't a light read, but I'm fascinated by the concepts in it and the bleak future Orwell envisaged, I'm wondering if it is the latter that put people off?

 

To be honest I thought it was one of the most depressing reads ever. You're right it isn't a light read, and his depictions of the most bleakest 'greyest' future to come unsettled me. Maybe its because we had to do it at school for our exams (and bear in mind this was just before the actual year 1984) that might have tinted my view a bit, but from what I can remember I dragged myself the whole way through it. Sorry!

[purple95]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

 

I know I'll get flamed for this but with the exception of some cute one-liners here and there, I never got what all the fuss was about.

 

Although a die hard SF fan, I just never bonded with this one. It was not a bad book, but in my opinion, all the hype was a bit misplaced.

 

Cheers,

dan

[Nollaig]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

 

I know I'll get flamed for this but with the exception of some cute one-liners here and there, I never got what all the fuss was about.

 

Although a die hard SF fan, I just never bonded with this one. It was not a bad book, but in my opinion, all the hype was a bit misplaced.

 

Cheers,

dan

 

In short, I agree.

[BookBee8]

From what I've been reading lately: P.S I love you. I'm assuming because it was turned into a film it must've been a bestseller or something? As I've mentioned before, I wasn't keen.

[Kylie]

I love 1984

 

For me, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell was over-rated, as was Life of Pi by Yann Martel and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

 

I think I should just stick with classics. I get on with them so much better than the more 'modern' stuff.

[Freewheeling Andy]

Cloud Atlas is the best book of the last decade. Unless someone's told you it was the best book of the last century, that's not over-rating.

 

Meanwhile

 

Atonement - sludgy, dreary, slow, boring, self-important, predictable, tedious, painful waste of time.

 

Lord of the Rings - generic quest filled out to 3 insanely long volumes with a tonne of insufferable poetry and utter pointlessness

 

Life of Pi - The bit on the boat was fine, but the 100 page prologue; and the end drove me mad. So it was just a fun adventure romp bookended by annoying pointlessness. Nothing like as good as claimed.

 

(And then there's Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and the rest, but that's probably another matter).

 

--

 

As for On The Road, I think it's a book to be read at a certain age. It was great as a teenager, but I went back to it at about 28 or so, and it was very self-indulgent. I wouldn't necessarily say over-rated, too. It is great for a late-teens wanting to feel rebellion kind of mood.

 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is utter dross, but I didn't think many people rated it these days.

[Nellie]

 

Lord of the Rings - generic quest filled out to 3 insanely long volumes with a tonne of insufferable poetry and utter pointlessness

 

I'm no expert, but I thought that Lord of the Rings was held up as the first of the genere, so couldn't be generic. I have to admit I haven't read it, it's on my list for this year, so am not in a position to comment on whether it is overrated.

[Echo]

I'm no expert, but I thought that Lord of the Rings was held up as the first of the genere, so couldn't be generic. I have to admit I haven't read it, it's on my list for this year, so am not in a position to comment on whether it is overrated.

 

I'm definitely biased, because this is my favorite book, but you're right, most literary historians give Tolkien credit for re-creating the heroic adventure saga, which he took from ancient Norse and Anglo-Saxon styles. I have done some research on Tolkien, though. Also, he has been an inspiration for almost every fantasy author from the latter half of the 20th century, and beyond. There's really nothing generic about him.

 

But then...he's my favorite and this is my opinion.

[bethany725]

 

For me, The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

 

 

Kylie,

 

I had trouble with The Memory Keeper's Daughter, also.. I was so looking forward to reading it and then I just couldn't get into it. I must have been doing something wrong as so many people absolutely love it.. I hope to give it a try again some day. Maybe I should have just kept pushing through the beginning.

[Ben Mines]

For me, everything by Dan Brown, Herman Hesse, Nathaniel Hawthrone, Flann O'Brien, Jack Kerouac and (if poetry's allowed) Allen Ginsberg and Rimbaud.

 

Just writing those names makes me want to give up reading altogether.

[Freewheeling Andy]

I'm no expert, but I thought that Lord of the Rings was held up as the first of the genere, so couldn't be generic. I have to admit I haven't read it, it's on my list for this year, so am not in a position to comment on whether it is overrated.

 

I'm no expert either, of course. I have a feeling, though, that the quest thing is something that has existed in folk-lore and tales since the beginning of time, whether the quest is for the Holy Grail or a magical ring or in Greek mythology. That's what I mean by generic, even if it's the first of the new fantasy type books.

[Kylie]

Cloud Atlas is the best book of the last decade. Unless someone's told you it was the best book of the last century, that's not over-rating.

 

Possibly we're taking 'over-rated' to mean different things. To me, if I see a large number of glowing reviews for a book and then I read it and don't think it's anywhere near as good as it was made out to be, then I consider it to have been over-rated.

 

I can't remember specific reviews about Cloud Atlas so I can't recall if I've seen it listed as the best book of the last century (although I wouldn't be surprised...). I would argue that it isn't the best book of the last decade, but I haven't read enough to make an informed opinion.

[Bronwen]

Definitely Dan Brown! Can't get into that stuff whatsoever, can't see why it's so popular... no wait, I can, because the DaVinci Code was so controversial. Watched the movie, couldn't get into that either.

[Freewheeling Andy]

Possibly we're taking 'over-rated' to mean different things. To me, if I see a large number of glowing reviews for a book and then I read it and don't think it's anywhere near as good as it was made out to be, then I consider it to have been over-rated.

 

They were probably mostly written by me...

[robson65]

For me it was 'On Chesil Beach'

I kept waiting for something to happen !

[KW]

New Moon, Eclipse and whatever the last SM book is.

 

Living Dead Girl

 

All of Nora Robert's work the last 5 years.

 

The Historian

 

More of whose titles elude me for obvious reasons...

[The Good Citizen]

Cloud Atlas blew hot and cold for me, certain sections I lost intrest on and I found myself wanting to get past them back to sections that had me hooked.

 

Totally agree about on the road, I think timing's definitely the key.

 

I think with the Da Vinci code, Dan Brown just tapped into a subject that struck a chord with the public. The holy grail, fine art, secret socieities. Once he came up with that concept (or stole it off the Holy Blood and The Holy Grail ) he could knock out any old fare and it would sell. That said its excellently paced and I did read it in a couple of sittings. Angles and Deamons, I know people think its better but pope's jumping out of helicopters with bombs strapped to them is was a bit 'out there' for me, thats really stretching it!

 

My girlfriend and I read Chesile Beach to each other in a park in Rome recently, which you might say is corny but she's kill me if I'd said it was dull!