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The Most overrated fiction book ever?

Shade said:
Novella is right, the hyped stuff will be forgotten in ten years (Dan who?) - what we need to look for is a book that's acknowledged as a classic but is still shit.

May I nominate: Wuthering Heights?
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No Sir (or Madam) you may not! You may dislike Wuthering heights but it IS a classic and it IS a unique piece of work, loved by many - me included.
 
byelush said:
Silas Marner.
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Overrated? Never. Underrated more like. A beautiful story about redemption. How can your heart fail to melt when, at the end you just know which choice Hepzibah will make? (I won't spoil it for those who haven't read it yet).
 
*whispers* harry potter and charles dickens. i get completely baffled why they are so adored. the only dickens i like is A Christmas Carol. the other stuff i was like "golly how in the world did this get published?"...as for why harry potter is so famous i still dont understand...wonders never cease eh? some others would be Hemmingway DEPRESSION ALERT! umm...also the Scarlett Letter.
 
Harry Potter (The imagination carries this book--the writing is pretty basic)
Lord of the Rings (I hear he's the father of fantasy, but I don't care enough about the genre to know--either way, the book is a boring read)
To Kill A Mockingbird (This one was ok, but Jesus Christ it wasn't a God-damned apothesis to the literary world)
 
SevenWritez said:
Harry Potter (The imagination carries this To Kill A Mockingbird (This one was ok, but Jesus Christ it wasn't a God-damned apothesis to the literary world)
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Interesting choice. I loved the scene where Atticus "tricks" old man Ewell into signing his name...with his left hand. Perry Mason eat your heart out.:D Other than the theme of respecting one's fellow man and the depiction of a trial that occured all too often in the American south, the fixation to analyze the characters was just something that I felt wasn't there. I definitely understand how you have the opinion of it that you do.
 
conigs25 said:
The Lovely Bones
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I completely agree...friends and family members I have that barely ever read were gushing about how wonderful it was and how they couldn't put it down. So..of course I read it....and I was very disappointed. What's the deal with her coming back from heaven and hooking up with her boyfriend?
 
In the realm of 'early' (old) fiction, I would have to say 'Robinson Crusoe'. The first time I read the unabridged version, I found so many damn errors and examples of bad writing. Defoe would often relate events out of order, or play 'catch up', which was distracting. He didn't attribute dialogue except rarely, and he would go on LONG religious tirades that had nothing to do with the story. And...to top it off he repeated himself a lot.

So I took the whole thing and edited/rewrote it, just because I was so pissed off. No kidding. I did it from the unabridged in less than six weeks. (I was seriously driven)

Well, we released the new version at AB, and of course we sold very few copies...(lol) I didn't care. I felt a lot better for doing it. ('So there...Defoe! And I hope you don't like it!'):)
 
Wow. Thank you everyone. This thread will save me countless hours of reading books that EVERYONE shoves in my face and INSISTS that I read: DaVinci Code, Harry Potter, etc. Something deep down inside me (my literary guts, perhaps?) gurgles and spews everytime I consider reading one of these. No explanation, just harsh instinct, I guess.
 
I remember reading Wormwood and was really surprised to hear so many good critics before the book was released.
 
ewomack said:
Wow. Thank you everyone. This thread will save me countless hours of reading books that EVERYONE shoves in my face and INSISTS that I read: DaVinci Code, Harry Potter, etc. Something deep down inside me (my literary guts, perhaps?) gurgles and spews everytime I consider reading one of these. No explanation, just harsh instinct, I guess.
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Understand first, that every book that somebody hates, somebody else loves.
Example: books mentioned in this thread that people hated, I found VERY worthwhile:
Catch 22
Catcher in the Rye
The Old Man and the Sea
Robin Crusoe
The Time Travelers Wife
The Lord of the Rings

So don't give up on the idea of reading a book just because somebody tells you they hated it.
 
Since tastes in books are so varied, I also agree with Libre.

And by the way...

Who doesn't like Holden Caulfield and Catcher in the Rye? Or 'Catch-22', a good example of where the book was a LOT better than the film. (By miles)

On a separate note, I sometimes think Ayn Rand's work is a bit overrated.
 
I agree with Libre too. Well, sort of, as I haven't read most of the books on that list...just with the idea that just because someone hates this book, that doesn't mean its a bad book. For instance I love The Lord of the Rings but I'm just weird.:p But usually if I hear a LOT of bad reviews I'll either just get it out from the library or not at all.
 
White_Rabbit said:
I wasn't dissapointed by either Catcherin the Rye or The Da Vinci Code, however, i was very dissapointed by The Old Man and the Sea.
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The Old Man and the Sea?? Are you on crack? Hemingway just turned in his grave.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson won the 2006 Hugo Award. It is totally overrated! It really stunk. And of course Stephen King's Cell was terrible. Both novels are overrated and should never be read, period.
 
Hugin said:
OK, I just read through the Thread, and I would like to add my 5 cents about Lord of the Rings. (A personal favourite of mine)

Is the Lord of the Rings a literary masterwork? No, it is overly long, the writing style is clumsy and his grand visions aren't translated to the reader properly.

Is the Lord of the Rings overrated? Definitely not! The Lord of the Rings will always stand as the beginning of modern fantasy. JRR Tolkien managed to create a world and a type of story, that other writers have polished and perfected.

I loved the movies, they were a brilliant interpretation of the book, and in a sense they outdid the book.

The movies fixed the problems in the book. The movies are much more action packed, and doesn't descend into pointless songs and 20 page ramblings about nothing of import. Anybody that has seen the movies first will probably be disappointed with the books.

Despite this the Lord of the Rings are a masterwork. How someone could have written a story with such scope and imagination, without having previous writer's works to build on is beyond me.

JRR Tolkien did not master the art of writing fantasy, but he is the one who pioneered it.

And while it may be slow-paced it is a novel of undeniable epic scope, and a good read.
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I just want to say Thank You! I just found this board today, and I was starting to regret joining when I saw the violent hatred thrown at one of my all-time favorite books! I'm not an avid reader of fantasy, I prefer 19th century English, or modern horror or suspense. But The Lord of the Rings made such an impact on me...I've had to go back and re-read it several times. I've ended up reading almost everything Tolkien wrote, and a few books about his life and writing, and I'm more and more impressed by the vastness of his creativity. I even wrote my final term paper on him two quarters ago in my advanced essay writing class. It's in no way overrated, because about 8 out of 10 people I talk to say that they either haven't read it, or didn't really like it. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

For my own opinion of the most overrated book, I choose The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Not that it wasn't an exciting book, it was, but it was not as powerful as I was expecting. Also, Dan Brown's writing really gets on my nerves. But then, that's just my opinion!:)
 
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