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The Most overrated fiction book ever?

The Lord of the Rings. I just cannot, cannot, cannot get into it. :mad: It's one of those books that I do plan to try to read again, but every time I pick it up, I end up putting it down shortly thereafter.
 
I can't get into LOTR either. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake looks more interesting, must get around to reading that. Not hugely keen on most fantasy - to each his own, I guess.
 
pooh_bah said:
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake looks more interesting, must get around to reading that. Not hugely keen on most fantasy - to each his own, I guess.
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I'm not particularly into fantasy either, though I have been considering giving The Gormenghast Trilogy a go. It's supposed to be a pretty dense book, so I think I'll have to wait until I'm in the mood for it.
 
I always thought that Anne Rice novels were overrated. I couldn't finish a lot of her books. I did like Vitorrio but I think everyone hated that one.
 
The Kite Runner. Although undeniably impressive in parts, there are far too many clumsy plot contrivances and highly unlikey coincidences. Furthermore, the way so many of the characters are in some way related is almost Dickensian-and I don't mean that as a copmliment.
It was successful as an undemanding beach read blockbuster, I felt, but hardly a classic of its genre.
 
Ooh, The da Vinci Code ... it makes me shudder to think of it. I avoided it like the plague for as long as possible, then my Crime Fiction tutor had the nerve to put it on the course and forced me to read it! He didn't even have a decent excuse ... I, personally, think it was to entice people into taking the course. In fact, if I'd known it was on the course I wouldn't have taken it!
 
Having been home-schooled, and therefore never poisoned against literature, I have to consider 'hype' as coming from people and readers, not teachers. The most over-hyped books that I can think of based on that, would have to be " Catcher in the Rye" and " Forrest Gump ".
 
Atonement by Ian McEwan had to be one of the most overated books I ever read, could not get into it at all.
 
Another Country

I nominate Another Country by James Baldwin. I had to read it for a college course at a time when everyone was very impressed by Baldwin. Some of his other stuff is ok but this is poor fiction. Wooden, interchangeable characters, especially unbelievable women. Important Theme: If you think your woman is sleeping around, she is, because they all do. Oh, and everyone loves Rufus because Rufus is so beautiful. I think they meant his soul or something, but he sure never did anything beautiful in that book.
 
morosetoast said:
I always thought that Anne Rice novels were overrated.
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Thank you! Anytime you say this to a group of people suddenly you find yourself in the middle of a lynch mob.
I have tried reading two of her novels. Interview with the Vampire and Lestat and both of them were the worst books ever. I read the first page of another of her books in the store a few years later to see if maybe it was just me, but it was still just as bad as ever.
I really can't understand why she is so popular. Most tedious writer ever.
Someone I knew said that she wrote erotica under a pseudonym that were not as bad as her regular books, but I never looked into them. If they are anything like Interview and Lestat it would be the worst erotic experience of my life.

Other than that I think that the Harry Potter series and The Da Vinci Coe were a little overrated. I tried reading Harry Potter once and it was way too juvenile for me and The Da Vinci Code was an okay book; nothing to flip your lid over the way everyone carried on for years.
 
Jazz: I found Atonement just wonderful, probably McEwan's best. He is such an unpredictable author, I have loved some and hated others! On the whole I think his earlier novels were the best ones and certainly I wouldn't hesitate to say that imo Amsterdam was certainly the worst! A nasty little story about nastly litte people.
 
Let me just put on my bullet proof vest here......ok, all set.

I thought 'Catcher in the Rye' was horribly overrated. Didn't like it, wouldn't recommend it.
 
A Day Well Spent

My own book, A Day Well Spent, is by far the most overrated book ever written. It's the most sophmoric misinterpretation of Roman society that ever could be contrived. It's riddled with riddles and historical innaccuracies, and nearly functions entirely upon them both, describing Rome as some manner of walled city with an eastern gate in the shape of a she'wolf, the gates lowered beneath her eight breasts.
But most horrid and offensive is the wicked man of state who haunts the city with bouts of deadly intent, which he regards as high sport and sheer talent.
 
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