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Most overrated book

paulanthony

What is the most overrated book you have read and why?

For me it has to be Beatlebone by Kevin Barry.

I don't know if it is the worst book I have ever read (it may be) but I say overrated as it has won awards and garnered a lot of praise.

It strikes me as the literary version of the recent taping a banana to a wall in an art gallery or a blank canvas with one dot in the middle where everyone stands around and says it's amazing as they are all afraid of being branded a philistine by saying is this not just a load of ****?

I thought it was a self-indulgent load of nonsense - the kind of "modern literary" book someone might write as a joke to see how many awards it might win. The chapter towards the end about the writing process really took the biscuit too.

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Ardent

The Da Vinci Code. My 6 year old could write something with more substance.

magicbastarder

hardly overrated, though? you don't pick up the da vinci code expecting much.

[Deleted User]

The catcher in the rye was brutal..
The tattooist of Auschwitz.. just so badly written..
A man called Ove.. same..

pajosjunkbox

I just finished A man called Ove this morning. Sweet Jesus ... It was rubbish. Started Say Nothing straight after. The first chapter was more interesting than the whole Ove book !

KrustyBurger

The first book I put down halfway through....Lord of the rings. Absolutely hated it. Still do. A masterpiece by all accounts but not my cup of tea at all. I thought that it was far too padded with needlessly long-winded descriptions.

magicbastarder

the fellowship of the ring is not for non-fans, he started it without knowing where the book was going. unsurprisingly, probably the book with the most left out when peter jackson made the movie.

tritriagain

KrustyBurger wrote: »

The first book I put down halfway through....Lord of the rings. Absolutely hated it. Still do. A masterpiece by all accounts but not my cup of tea at all. I thought that it was far too padded with needlessly long-winded descriptions.

Tried it three times. Gave up in more or less the same place each time. Just found it so boring.

Still waters

The alchemist and the book thief

[Deleted User]

Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor. Rambling, disjointed and not very interesting.

TheAnalyst_

The Alchemist.

Complete bollocks that is lapped up by certain types.

[Deleted User]

The Alchemist is a good shout. Unadulterated drivel.

minnow

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez.

Ridiculously long drivel about multiple generations of a family.....oh and most of them have the same name.

magicbastarder

minnow wrote: »

Ridiculously long drivel about multiple generations of a family.....oh and most of them have the same name.

sounds like the perfect irish novel.

thefasteriwalk

Despite liking all his other works, I did not enjoy Steinbeck’s The Pearl. But then parables are my least favourite types of stories.

I like most of the books mentioned here already. Haven’t read Normal People. I know myself too well.

Ardent

magicbastarder wrote: »

hardly overrated, though? you don't pick up the da vinci code expecting much.

Correct, but it sold in absolute droves.

Muscles Schultz

minnow wrote: »

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez.

Ridiculously long drivel about multiple generations of a family.....oh and most of them have the same name.

Ah stop.

New Home

Anything I've ever read (not by choice, they were gifts) by Cecelia Ahern was waaaaaaay overrated. On the other hand, I did like A man called Ove a lot, it's a lovely little story, but I wouldn't consider it literature in any way, shape or form.

pajosjunkbox

I felt the premise of the book A man called Ove was good but it was written like it's audience was 14 year olds. The characters were very black and white and cliched when in reality characters are much more complex . I would have liked if the characters were developed more and it had a bit more substance.

Mick McGraw

Moby Dick is absolutely dreadful.If I wanted to read a textbook about whaling in New England in the 19th century I'd have bought one.I really hated it.

[Deleted User]

Peig.

JustAThought

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Peig.

i din’t think many outside the Department of Education were raving about Peig.

The Book Thief was cery underwhelming.

Ditto the Wonder by Emma O Donaghue and The Essex Serpent.

Also nowadays anything by Darina Allen - the convicted pawdophile lover. It’s hard to enjoy a book knowing the profits are funding a family whose hobbies involve supporting the mutilation and rape of babies and children.

r93kaey5p2izun

JustAThought wrote: »

i din’t think many outside the Department of Education were raving about Peig.

The Book Thief was cery underwhelming.

Ditto the Wonder by Emma O Donaghue and The Essex Serpent.

Also nowadays anything by Darina Allen - the convicted pawdophile lover. It’s hard to enjoy a book knowing the profits are funding a family whose hobbies involve supporting the mutilation and rape of babies and children.

Do you mean wonder by RJ Palacio, or Room by Emma O'Donoghue?

I think Room is good. Wonder is definitely overrated.

Joe_ Public

The Wonder by Emma O'Donohue. Haven't read anything else of hers, but i thought that one was very ordinary.

r93kaey5p2izun

Joe_ Public wrote: »

The Wonder by Emma O'Donohue. Haven't read anything else of hers, but i thought that one was very ordinary.

Not familiar with it. Will put it on my list.

All that fandango

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Wow, what a disappointing book, same mumbo jumbo repeated on every page. Very boring and not very engaging.

CrankyHaus

I think people are confusing overrated books with books that they just didn't like.

The example given by the OP was one from an acclaimed author, with major PR backing from the publisher and the glowing reviews, blurbs and awards that that "purchases". As a result if it's actually a poor book (I have no idea if Beatlebone is but from the premise I wouldn't be surprised) nobody admits it, for fear of looking out of step with the Zeitgeist. But the readers know, and after initially strong sales based on marketing the book doesn't have the high sustained sales based on word of mouth that a genuinely good book does.

You can't really put Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale in that category as it's been consistently popular for decades.

bodyguard1

The Bible........he dies in the end ! Oh sorry if I ruined it for anyone who hasn't read it yet, but then there is another surprise in the Sequel !

magicbastarder

CrankyHaus wrote: »

I think people are confusing overrated books with books that they just didn't like.

are you saying that the handmaid's tale is an example of a genuinely overrated book, or just one that some people don't like?

PowerToWait

There's a general policy of over rating Irish authors in Ireland. Kevin Barry, Joseph O'Connor, Colum McCann, John Boyne, that lad from Wexford, have all written some terribly self indulgent muck, but not one critic will ever, ever criticise these sacred cows. Which is unfortunate.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was simply massively overrated.
Everything by Joseph O'Connor is terrible. Kevin Barry similarly way overrated.

CrankyHaus

magicbastarder wrote: »

are you saying that the handmaid's tale is an example of a genuinely overrated book, or just one that some people don't like?

The latter.