lexiepiper Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Yeah I read it last year and struggled with the first half also, but I thought it got better when it actually picked up later in the book and it all started to be explained Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melisa Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Ah, thanks for that. I may have to give it another try then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I found that because the Latin sections were all in context, I understood the gist of what was being said and so it didn't detract from the story, for me, that there were no footnotes. I tip my hat to you: five painful years of compulsory Latin at school didn't make me any the wiser as to what dear old Umberto was on about (it must be said, I only scraped by because the 10s I got in Literature balanced out all the 1s and 2s I got in Translation, resulting in an unlikely 6 ---> pass average)! I do understand that given the setting the dead language is resuscitated in context; however I do like understanding nigh on 100% of the words in the books I read (to the extent that I jot down and look up the words I don't know even in books with no Latin content whatsoever) so being prevented from doing so by a lack of explanatory footnotes is extremely offputting. Offput I was; never made it past page 46 - the dreaded portal description. And I'm not one to shy away from lengthiness in general; Hugo's 100-odd-page reminiscence of Waterloo was as uphill a struggle as Sisyphus's (especially considering I understand nothing of military tactics), yet not even that, his digression on the Argot (Parisian slum dialect), or the three-page description of a single brick put me off that masterpiece that is "Les Mis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceinwenn Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 For me, personally (& I say this because I do not know anyone else who felt this way), I felt that 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez was 100% over-rated! It was confusing, nonsensical & a total waste of the 6 or 7 days it took me to read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smay Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Ulysses. I really had to force myself to read it. Only liked the ending monologue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Ulysses. I really had to force myself to read it. Only liked the ending monologue. ... I'd agree; anything that requires a companion volume longer than itself to explain the unreadable bits is of necessity overrated. IMHO, Joyce is a weird creature who un-learnt his craft: "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is very good; "Dubliners" is alright; "Ulysses" - what was he thinking?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smay Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 ... I'd agree; anything that requires a companion volume longer than itself to explain the unreadable bits is of necessity overrated. IMHO, Joyce is a weird creature who un-learnt his craft: "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is very good; "Dubliners" is alright; "Ulysses" - what was he thinking?! Can't agree more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andaira Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Eco's "The Name of the Rose". Ditto. I hardly even remember most of the details in the book because I recall forcing myself through it after I'd read through mid-book. It was not a 'bad' book, but it's not a huge deal either. Haven't seen the movie yet however. Another two I would put right up there with Eco's is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. They are two of the most boring books that I have ever come across. I was never able to finish Marquez's because every time I picked it up I ran the risk of falling asleep (and did, twice!). And the only reason I read through The Great Gatsby was because otherwise I would have failed my exam in English class in high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Also (if poetry counts...?), Wordsworth's The Prelude. It's got some really good bits in there somewhere but they're left shipwrecked and alone in a sea of skin-crawlingly boring bits. I recall trying to read it for my Romantic Lit class back in Liverpool Uni and I ended up asleep with my head sandwiched between the pages of the anthology - the caf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosegarden Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I couldn't finish it, found it boring. Just can't understand why everyone seems to love it. Am I the only person in the world who didn't like it? Carole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I couldn't finish it, found it boring. Just can't understand why everyone seems to love it. Am I the only person in the world who didn't like it? No, my Mum didn't like it either. I haven't bothered with them on the strength of this (we have similar tastes), nor have I watched the TV show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I couldn't finish it, found it boring. Just can't understand why everyone seems to love it. Am I the only person in the world who didn't like it? Carole I found the first half of the first one a struggle, but once I got past that, it was okay. I went on to read the first five books in the series, but was getting bored with them so haven't bothered with the rest. I have read Alexander McCall Smith's other series of books, the 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie books, and I'm absolutely addicted to them - I even buy them in hardback, I'm so desperate to read each book as it comes out! I'm not even tempted by any more of the The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 The Catcher in the Rye for me - I hated it! I'm with you there, Janet! Couldn't get to grips with it, at all! Hope you're well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polly Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 Lord of the flies!!!!!!!!! Its a horrid book but loads of teachers love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwemad Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Lord of the flies!!!!!!!!! Its a horrid book but loads of teachers love it. oooooooo Lord of the Flies is a book that I really do think deserves to be loved. I had to read it when I was in Primary schoo, I was about 10 I think, but thought it was much better when I read it as an adult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Paulo Coelho's Alchemist. I mean it was an okay story but to say that it has changed so many people's lives is a bit much I think. Yes, it was about not giving up and fulfilling your dreams and all that but in the end, his dream was to find a treasure. Capital capital. Like they sing in the themesong for The Apprentice: "Money money money moooneyy. Moooooneyyyy!!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leah86 Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 P.S I Love You, I hated it! Completley overhyped..and overrated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 I liked P.S I Love you but that was pre hype it's good but not fantastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitegold Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 The Road. I couldn't understand why it was on so many top sellers lists. It was horrible (well I never finished it..but the amount I did read of it was horrible). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Dana Posted May 1, 2009 Share Posted May 1, 2009 Most over-rated? The Memory Keeper's Daughter and The Da Vinci Code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted May 1, 2009 Share Posted May 1, 2009 oh I agree with The Da Vinci Code, it's entertaining enough but by no means a great book, and not well written Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadya Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I agree, DaVinci Code wasn't that wonderful, I read it after it became so popular, just before they started to make the movie. I liked the book, the information was interesting (and yes a lot of stuff of 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail', one of it's authors said on discovery channel that it was a hoax and they had made it up and he didn't want to back the 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail' anymore). The story was ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffin Nail Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 (edited) What book that is either considered a literary classic, or a popular best seller do you consider is the most overrated. Not that you hate it, but you can't work out what the hoo-ha is all about. Edited February 25, 2010 by Michelle merged with existing thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 Emma by Jane Austin. Nothing really happens in the entire book and it's not a little book either. I like a lot of Jane Austin's work just not this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicola Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 The Memory Keeper's Daughter I totally agree. It started off with promise but as the story went on, nothing much happened. I really wanted the Doctor to have to explain himself to his wife but he died before she found out his great secret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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