Your most overrated books?

semi-pro waster

semi-pro waster

semi-pro waster

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Here's a chance for everyone to be a bit contentious, give a short list (say up to five) of the books that you think are overrated for any reason (and please give reasons for your choices). The books themselves can be good, bad or indifferent but you've got to feel that they don't merit the praise they get.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller is my number one all time overrated book and the annoying thing is it's actually a decent idea with some clever, witty touches but I don't think it's anywhere worth all the accolades heaped upon it. Mr Heller's inability to make it even vaguely concise also doesn't help, the basic premise is fairly simple and could be explained in very few pages but the meandering story just made me want it to end either time I've read it. Credit where it is due though, it did make the phrase of the title into an everyday idiom.

Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger - it's a decent story in a faintly whimsical way but I feel it is credited with too much importance and as for the mystique that has been built up around it... I suspect being made to read it in English lessons at school didn't help my love for this book.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy - again it's a decent idea but I can't help feel it's poorly told, the lack of punctuation and design device of not naming the characters is just an irritation that distracts from the story itself. I'm sure it's supposed to build an emotional closeness with the characters but it just didn't work for me, I cared no more about the man and his son at the start than I did at the end. Part of the problem here is perhaps the level of approbation it received which it would always struggle to live up to.

I've got a few more ideas about books that I don't feel deserve the praise floating around but I'll save them for the moment to have space in my top five.
 
Yeah, I agree catcher in the rye is only a decent story. HOWEVER it's a quality book.

It's not about the story. the story tells us about 2 days of his life. The book is mainly about his own thoughts, emotions and views on life. This is why a film of the book was never made, it would be too difficult to do
 
I can't think of any :confused: I think it's because unlike with other media I only really read books that I know I'm going to like, I don't tend to get book recommendations or here any hype regarding books.
 
LOL I was going to say The Catcher in the Rye and The Road too - haven't read Catch 22.

I'm currently half way though the Millenium trilogy and struggling to see what the fuss is all about really. It's a decent yarn, but I can't understand why it's been held in such regard and above authors such as Dan Brown.
 
I'd have to agree with Catch 22, didn't help I that I hated the main character I suppose.

The Da Vinci code would be another one, the world seems to love those books but I can't stand them.
 
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The way he writes just annoys me, feels like it's constantly trying a little bit too hard.
I know the vast, vast majority of people will disagree with me here!

Anything by Dan Brown. (except possibly digital fortress, which is alright)
 
Definitely Catcher in the Rye, I was very disappointed with it. Holden Caulfied seems to be a very one dimensional character when compared to more modern equilvalents such as Clay in the novel Less than Zero.

Havent read Catch 22, but the consensus in my book-club would agree with Semi-Pro.

I would disagree however with The Road, maybe because I have a son around the same age as the Father in the book, I found it deeply and profoundly emotional. I identified with the Father in a way I havent with any other book I have read.

I will add BirdSong to the Over-rated list, I found parts of it, especially the first section more akin to a mills and boon novel than Captain Correllis mandolin for example.
 
All a matter of personal opinion of course, but for me-:

The Dune Series. For me no better than average, strong on world/society building but I thought the story was full of holes and really quite dull. I read Dune, Paul of Dune (my favourite which wasn't wriiten by the original author) and Dune Messiah. I called it quits here as I couldn't cope with any more.

Terry Pratchet - Anything by him. Although I enjoyed the dramatisarion of the Hogfather I've tried, unsuccessfully, on several occasions to read some of his novels. I've always failled and binned them as I think they're dire!

Lord Of The Rings - again, thought it was average and the ending was awful.

Ender's Game and Speaker for The Dead by Orson Scott Card. Again, found these books tedious and dull.
 
marl said:
All a matter of personal opinion of course, but for me-:

The Dune Series. For me no better than average, strong on world/society building but I thought the story was full of holes and really quite dull. I read Dune, Paul of Dune (my favourite which wasn't wriiten by the original author) and Dune Messiah. I called it quits here as I couldn't cope with any more.

Terry Pratchet - Anything by him. Although I enjoyed the dramatisarion of the Hogfather I've tried, unsuccessfully, on several occasions to read some of his novels. I've always failled and binned them as I think they're dire!

Lord Of The Rings - again, thought it was average and the ending was awful.

Ender's Game and Speaker for The Dead by Orson Scott Card. Again, found these books tedious and dull.
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Intriguing, we must have very different tastes.
I really enjoyed the Dune series by Herbert, unfortunately when reading the work produced by his son I found it very poor. I agree his world production and 'lore' is very impressive. In fact anything by Anderson in conjunction with Herbert I find awful, their work seems dijointed written by two completely opposing entrants and then cobbled together by poor editing, similar scenes appeared twice in the last book, with passages almost repeated without effect. I thought they damned a good universe to oblivion.

What did you dislike about the ending to LOTR?


Dan Browns work, that which I heave read is very lacking, but I guess thats the mass appeal of it. It is easy to slughter yet sells in such quantities he must do something correctly, like soap-opera writing I guess, largest audiences yet full of gubbins.
 
His Dark Materials, i just couldnt get into the 2nd and 3rd books

Night's Dawn Trilogy, so bad i could ever bring my self to read the 3rd one, they were just to long and boring, the author just couldn't get to the point and move the story on.
 
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American Psycho is my overrated book, the constant description of what everyone is wearing gets really tiresome and the story doesnt seem to flow all that well either, badly written in my opinion.
 
anant_shah94 said:
Yeah, I agree catcher in the rye is only a decent story. HOWEVER it's a quality book.

It's not about the story. the story tells us about 2 days of his life. The book is mainly about his own thoughts, emotions and views on life. This is why a film of the book was never made, it would be too difficult to do
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I thought that it wasn't made into a film because Mr Salinger didn't want it to be rather than explicitly that it was too difficult to do so but maybe his reasoning for denying it flowed from that premise.

uknowist said:
American Psycho is my overrated book, the constant description of what everyone is wearing gets really tiresome and the story doesnt seem to flow all that well either, badly written in my opinion.
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I don't know about American Psycho being overrated but you've reminded me of Rules Of Attraction by the same author, a bunch of whiny American college students who are sleeping around and detailing their encounters. Each protagonist has their own chapter(s) as if it is somehow more interesting like that, it's really not a book I'd ever care to read again.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Intriguing, we must have very different tastes.
I really enjoyed the Dune series by Herbert, unfortunately when reading the work produced by his son I found it very poor. I agree his world production and 'lore' is very impressive. In fact anything by Anderson in conjunction with Herbert I find awful, their work seems dijointed written by two completely opposing entrants and then cobbled together by poor editing, similar scenes appeared twice in the last book, with passages almost repeated without effect. I thought they damned a good universe to oblivion.

What did you dislike about the ending to LOTR?

.
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Yeah. Different people have different tastes. What disappointed me about LOTR's ending was that there was no direct confrontation with Sauron. For me he was underdeveloped as a character and this was the books weakness as for me it did not explain why his minions followed him.
 
The Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake, just couldn't get into them tried several times but never actually managed to finish them.
 
It seems to me that we need to divide the books listed into two different categories:


1) Books that are critically acclaimed, but people think are overrated, and

2) Books which are liked by other OcUkers, but which professional writers think aren't up to the mark.


For instance, I agree with OCDStevo there about Mervyn Peake, but the books are highly regarded by critics and other writers. I read Ghormenghast more through duty than pleasure, and simple couldn't summon enough interest to continue. I admire the writing style, whilst wishing it had been devoted to producing a trilogy worth reading.

In contrast, I will say right now that any number of writers and books mentioned in these forums as "great" are not only overrated, but in many cases actually bad. The fact that they get panned by critics and writers alike (I'll except certain writers like Stephen King, as they are known to NEVER say a bad word about other authors) should be a clue. For the second time in as many days: The Wheel of Time is a poor series. Really poor. As is anything written by Raymond Feist or David Gemmell (except Legend, which has some interesting ideas, but is let down by his style). And yes, Dan Brown is terrible: his books are only overrated by people who can't tell good from bad.


I'll add another in the first category: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (and An Artist of the Floating World, I think it was called). He is just way too subtle for me.


M
 
I disliked American Psycho because the satire was just swamped by the gore. It had a good point to make, but you had to sift through so many dismembered whores to find it.
 
Personally I found catch 22 quite hard to read for the first 1/3rd but by the end of the book I loved it. I was laughing out loud at all the repetitions and how well it actually comes together.
 
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