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Books that you have read which did live up to the hype

13

Comments

  • #62
    Eeden
    Registered Users Posts: 17,912 ✭✭✭✭Eeden


    I thought The Fault in Our Stars was very good. I'm not sure I want to see the film, though - I'm afraid it might be a bit "disease-of-the-week".


  • #63
    vitani
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,824 ✭✭✭vitani


    Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »
    I second this. Read "A Christmas Carol" last Christmas and although you'd hear plenty of slating for reading "boring" classics, it was a book with something to it.

    Awful lot of hype about " The Fault in our Stars". Waste of time or worthwhile?

    Just finished it and found it overhyped. It's not a bad book but I don't think it's worth the attention it's getting.


  • #64
    The White Feather
    Registered Users Posts: 5,385 ✭✭✭The White Feather


    I remember seeing great reviews of "We Were Soldiers Once… And Young" by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway and thought it was just a jingoistic book about the Vietnam War that might be interesting. I bought it anyway and it turned out to be a realistic and harrowing read. It gave the other sides view as well and I remember reading it all night to finish it off until 5.30! (Just one more chapter.....)

    I saw the movie "Fight Club" and decided to read the book by Chuck Palahniuk. Surely the book would not be that good? In fact that was fantastic too.

    "American Psycho" is a book people talk about and I read that only recently and that did live up to the hype.

    I saw reviews for "The Secret History" and "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt and thought they didn't sound as good as people said. I got them as i was given a book voucher because i would never have bought them myself and they were great reads. I have "The Little Friend" now also but not read it yet.

    Its great when a book lives up to the hype as we can all be cynical about what we think could be the Emperor's New Clothes!


  • #65
    Harry Angstrom
    Registered Users Posts: 19,351 ✭✭✭✭Harry Angstrom


    PartnerSeeds wrote: »
    Really enjoyed 1984

    Orwell had very good socio-political ideas, but he was a piss poor writer of fiction.


  • #66
    BaZmO*
    Registered Users Posts: 18,625 ✭✭✭✭BaZmO*


    Harry Angstrom wrote: »
    Orwell had very good socio-political ideas, but he was a piss poor writer of fiction.

    Yeah that was impression after reading it. Loved the ideas, story not so much.


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  • #67
    Harry Angstrom
    Registered Users Posts: 19,351 ✭✭✭✭Harry Angstrom


    BaZmO* wrote: »
    Yeah that was impression after reading it. Loved the ideas, story not so much.

    Same here. 1984 had fantastic ideas but the execution of the narrative was mediocre at best.


  • #68
    kop-end
    Registered Users Posts: 227 ✭✭kop-end


    The Road by Cormac McCarthy was an amazing read. It was so gut-wrenching and grey throughout but it just kept me on edge all the way.

    It seems that readers who are also parents took somthing slightly different away from this book than non-parents....


  • #69
    kop-end
    Registered Users Posts: 227 ✭✭kop-end


    Lady Spangles wrote: »
    The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield just came across as an over privileged, whiny brat. Wanted to smack him, tbh. Urgh!

    John Lennon's death has done alot of favours for Catcher in the Rye .....2/5 :(


  • #70
    pango
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭pango


    ''Cutting for Stone'' BY Abraham Verghese is a wonderful book well worth reading also THE GLASS ROOM by Simon Mawer


  • #71
    pango
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭pango


    pango wrote: »
    ''Cutting for Stone'' BY Abraham Verghese is a wonderful book well worth reading also THE GLASS ROOM by Simon Mawer

    ''I NEED TO PUT UP WITH ONE OR TWO CATERPILLARS IF I WANTTO GET TO KNOW THE BUTTERFLIES''


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  • #72
    Wyldwood
    Registered Users Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭Wyldwood


    Finished reading The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul and was quite disappointed. It's glorified chick-lit. The Maeve Binchy reference on the cover should have been a warning to me.


  • #73
    LeonardNelson
    Registered Users Posts: 54 ✭✭LeonardNelson


    GerB40 wrote: »
    The book thief. The writing style is a bit unusual but the story is brilliant..


    The book thief is good, it has a warm story. I watched the movie version too


  • #74
    The Princess Bride
    Registered Users Posts: 18,579 ✭✭✭✭The Princess Bride


    A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
    Saw a review by Oprah, wondered could anything be that good?

    Read it & loved it-the style of writing appealed to the writer in me- & the story gripped me from start to finish.


  • #75
    GerB40
    Registered Users Posts: 2,047 ✭✭✭GerB40


    LeonardNelson wrote: »
    The book thief is good, it has a warm story. I watched the movie version too

    Is the movie any good? I can't fathom how it would translate to film, especially with the "unique" narrator..


  • #76
    Wyldwood
    Registered Users Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭Wyldwood


    The film is quite true to the book and well worth watching.


  • #77
    Eeden
    Registered Users Posts: 17,912 ✭✭✭✭Eeden


    I didn't see the film, but whatever about audiences, critics were pretty harsh.


  • #78
    Aragneer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 747 ✭✭✭Aragneer


    Just finished reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy for my FYP. I really enjoyed it up until the last few chapters. I found it very anti-climatic and was pretty disappointing.

    Also for anybody who wants to know if The Fault in Our Stars is worth a read, I just wrote a blog post/review about it, if you are interested. It talks about how it is over-hyped, etc. I'll just leave the link here in case. I'll be putting up the NCfOM review this week too.
    Sorry for 'advertising', I just thought it may be of interest.

    http://cutieandcrumpets.wordpress.com/

    I'm reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher right now, that is a really good book!

    Has anybody read 'If I stay' by Gayle Forman or Gone Girl? I am just speeding through books lately! (Hence the review blog - trying to get all thoughts out at once).


  • #79
    FloatingVoter
    Registered Users Posts: 6,133 ✭✭✭FloatingVoter


    Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Man.

    A roomful of bored 16 years old boys getting Emma as the prescribed LC text. Cue our alcoholic teacher (sadly now RIP) tossing that as irrelevant and going for something that might connect with us (this is c. 1990 by the way).

    Even those of us with spotty attendance records were going chapters ahead.


  • #80
    Harry Angstrom
    Registered Users Posts: 19,351 ✭✭✭✭Harry Angstrom


    FloatingVoter wrote: »
    Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Man.

    A roomful of bored 16 years old boys getting Emma as the prescribed LC text. Cue our alcoholic teacher (sadly now RIP) tossing that as irrelevant and going for something that might connect with us (this is c. 1990 by the way).

    Even those of us with spotty attendance records were going chapters ahead.

    Was Portrait of the Artist on the Leaving Cert prescribed text??

    All I read was Silas fcuking Marner.

    Teachers like yours were few and far between, unfortunately.


  • #81
    Tombo2001
    Registered Users Posts: 6,452 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    Harry Angstrom wrote: »
    Was Portrait of the Artist on the Leaving Cert prescribed text??

    All I read was Silas fcuking Marner.

    Teachers like yours were few and far between, unfortunately.

    Hard Times was my 'prescribed reading' for the Leaving Cert....

    I wouldnt say its a dreadful book, but if they set out with the specific aim of picking the Dickens novel that a 15 year old was least likely to enjoy.......they did well......


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  • #82
    Harry Angstrom
    Registered Users Posts: 19,351 ✭✭✭✭Harry Angstrom


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    Hard Times was my 'prescribed reading' for the Leaving Cert....

    I wouldnt say its a dreadful book, but if they set out with the specific aim of picking the Dickens novel that a 15 year old was least likely to enjoy.......they did well......

    The problem with Dickens is that he riddles his novels with too many coincidences to progress the plot. The coincidences in Hard Times are laughable, just like Tale of Two Cities, Copperfield, Great Expectations etc. It really detracts from the fact that he was a very talented writer but he relied far too heavily on certain lazy plot devices which might have appeased Victorian readers, but they now seem very contrived.


  • #83
    SarahBM
    Registered Users Posts: 4,906 ✭✭✭SarahBM


    Hand on heart silas marner is the worst book I ever read.


  • #84
    Swiper the fox
    Registered Users Posts: 6,745 ✭✭✭Swiper the fox


    Loved hard times, loved playboy of the western world. Looking back now I didn't even think peig was that bad.


  • #85
    Ormus
    Registered Users Posts: 3,913 ✭✭✭Ormus


    Harry Angstrom wrote: »
    The problem with Dickens is that he riddles his novels with too many coincidences to progress the plot. The coincidences in Hard Times are laughable, just like Tale of Two Cities, Copperfield, Great Expectations etc. It really detracts from the fact that he was a very talented writer but he relied far too heavily on certain lazy plot devices which might have appeased Victorian readers, but they now seem very contrived.

    It's a style of storytelling, not a lazy plot device. Dickens was a storyteller. He wasn't trying to make it as realistic as possible, he was writing for entertainment. If that's not the style of writing you like then fair enough, but don't be fooled into thinking it was done out of laziness.


  • #86
    Amboise
    Registered Users Posts: 5 ✭Amboise


    Bring up the Bodies. I thought Wolfe Hall was good but enjoyed Bring up the Bodies a lot more. Maybe because by then I could remember the connections between all the characters and didn't have to keeping flicking to the list at the start of the book! but thought the story moved faster. Really looking forward to the next one.
    I'm still working my way through The Count of Monte Cristo after seeing it recommended so often on threads here but have loved it so far.


  • #87
    The Mulk
    Registered Users Posts: 1,299 ✭✭✭The Mulk


    IrishAlice wrote: »
    The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luis Zafron. I was given the book by a friend and really wasn't expecting to like it but I enjoyed it so much.

    I've since recommended it to other friends.

    .

    Probably my favourite book, loved everything about it. I didn't think "The Angels Game" was very good, but enjoyed "The Prisoner of Heaven" especially the details about the characters of Fermin and Fumero.

    The last time we were in Barcelona we visited El Quatre Gats for a meal


  • #88
    First_October
    Registered Users Posts: 70 ✭✭First_October


    Read Wolf Hall a few months ago. Simply phenomenal! Caught me by the scruff of the neck on page 1 and did not let up until the end! It lived up to the hype in a way that most Booker winners don't, IMHO.

    Although if you haven't read it, it is the literary equivalent of marmite; some love it, some hate it.


  • #89
    El Horseboxo
    Registered Users Posts: 5,339 ✭✭✭El Horseboxo


    Always wanted to read the Harry Potter books so gave them a start. Have been disappointed so far. I love the movies but they probably ruined the books for me.


  • #90
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    Tombo2001 wrote: »
    Hard Times was my 'prescribed reading' for the Leaving Cert....

    I wouldnt say its a dreadful book, but if they set out with the specific aim of picking the Dickens novel that a 15 year old was least likely to enjoy.......they did well......

    We all cheered and clapped when Stephen, the miserable feicer died!
    Our excellent English teacher let us have our 30 seconds and cleared his throat and said "gentlemen, it's usually thought bad to do that" with a twinkle in his eye

    I read Harry Potter as a 30 something.
    First 2 books were pass the time stuff, but in the 3rd book when Snape and Sirius Black faced off...

    No country for old men blew me away in how much the same as the film it was, the landscape seemed the same as the movie showed, and one of the few times I'd say a film maker implemented an authors vision so well.

    But the book for me to fulfil the thread title is Cryptomicon by Neal Stephenson. For years on Slashdot, it was mentioned and lauded, and when I got around to reading it, I was blown away


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  • #91
    marienbad
    Registered Users Posts: 9,463 ✭✭✭marienbad


    American Pastoral by Philip Roth . Quite simply stunning. Will live long with me.


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