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Most overrated book

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    #152
    8kczg9v0swrydm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 119 ✭✭8kczg9v0swrydm


    Harry Potter. Awful stuff.

    Camus, de Beauvoir - struggled to get through, the message was terrible.

    To School through the Fields - some bits were ok, though did not appreciate the preachy tone and the constant 'my childhood was so much better than today'.


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    #153
    Rodin
    Registered Users Posts: 3,130 ✭✭✭Rodin


    Catch 22.
    Didn't even finish it.

    Yossarian was one hateful so and so.


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    #154
    Ulysses Gaze
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,570 ✭✭✭Ulysses Gaze


    Rodin wrote: »
    Catch 22.
    Didn't even finish it.

    Yossarian was one hateful so and so.

    Same here.
    Lots of people I know raved about it, but I thought it was woeful.


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    #155
    s7ryf3925pivug
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭s7ryf3925pivug


    The White Feather wrote: »
    I have a few that come to mind straight away!

    The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger - A tedious read about a whiny teenager

    Fear and loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson - Complete drivel that I abandoned

    The Old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway - Old guy goes fishing in a boat. The End. zzzzzzzzz
    I liked all of these.

    I find the status of The Catcher in the Rye surprising all the same. Perhaps I would understand if I reread it as an adult.

    I'm going to say that you didn't get The Old Man and the Sea.


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    #156
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    CrankyHaus wrote: »
    The latter.
    if i think the book is **** and not worth my time, i'm saying it's overrated. there's not much more to it than that. saying to someone 'it's not overrated, you just didn't like it' is either snobbish or misses the point.


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    #157
    s7ryf3925pivug
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭s7ryf3925pivug


    Wabbit Ears wrote: »
    Magician by Feist. It was young adult fantasy back when that genre was actually mainly read by young adults. Many people really loved the book and its always on every fantasy reading list. Problem is its muck. The magic system makes no sense and everything is completely contrived. Grand if you're a teenager but its adults recommending it to other adults based solely on nostalgia and the fact we had limted access to this genre In ireland at the time it came out.
    Yeah that one.


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    #158
    CrankyHaus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭CrankyHaus


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    if i think the book is **** and not worth my time, i'm saying it's overrated. there's not much more to it than that. saying to someone 'it's not overrated, you just didn't like it' is either snobbish or misses the point.


    I disagree. There are lots of things I don't like that I can appreciate may have some merit.


    People raised the example of Cormac McCarthy's books earlier. Apart from All the Pretty Horses I did not enjoy his books. However many, including many on this Thread, feel differently.



    I have enough respect for those people's opinions to accept that his books have some qualities.

    You call this snobbery? If anything the snobbery is in thinking that any book you do not like is objectively bad, and if well regarded it must be "overrated".


    The OP gave a good example of a book that may be overrated. The "rating" in that case comes from an industry, and a commentariat beholden to it, that is really just trying to shift books and is often guilty of "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome.
    Most of the Thread since has just been people saying they didn't enjoy Ulysses or whatever, therefore it must be overrated.


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    #159
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    CrankyHaus wrote: »
    Most of the Thread since has just been people saying they didn't enjoy Ulysses or whatever, therefore it must be overrated.
    that's the point. they didn't like it, so they think it's overrated. it's that simple.


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    #160
    s7ryf3925pivug
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭s7ryf3925pivug


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    that's the point. they didn't like it, so they think it's overrated. it's that simple.
    You can separate your enjoyment of something from your ideas about its literary merits.


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    #161
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    anyway, back on topic, there was a book i was recommended a few years back, by several people, as a 'must read' which i read and i hated it so much, i have blotted the title out of my mind. it was about some **** hot american intelligence agent chasing down a criminal mastermind hell bent on releasing some awful biological agent on the world.
    weirdly, i managed to finish it.

    i managed the same with 'angels and demons' by dan brown, but to be fair, i didn't go in expecting anything much.
    what i didn't expect was in the opening pages, that there would be a useless, eye wateringly pointless, detail about CERN owning a mach 25 plane, which does not advance the plot in any way except to make the reader wonder 'was the guy who wrote this a 12 year old?'


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    #162
    r93kaey5p2izun
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,962 ✭✭✭r93kaey5p2izun


    Jana Prickly Seascape wrote: »
    You can separate your enjoyment of something from your ideas about its literary merits.

    Yes, it works both ways. I enjoyed Catcher In the Rye. Still think it's massively overrated. Did not enjoy anything by Tolkien, but don't think he's overrated.


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    #163
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,048 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Dare I say 'A Game of Thrones'? I am a fantasy fan (I like Magician btw) but I have tried GOT several times and haven't managed to get past the bit where the dogs are introduced. I haven't seen the tv series.


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    #164
    Shapey Fiend
    Registered Users Posts: 1,994 ✭✭✭Shapey Fiend


    I absolutely hated Catcher in the Rye but I think I finished it cos I was maybe 13 and I was hoping there'd be riding. Had a read of a chapter of it more recently still found it maddening.

    Loved the Old Man and the Sea I think I read it twice.

    Catch 22 I really wanted to like cos I'd just finished Slaughterhouse 5 and wanted more wartime black humour but I really didn't find it funny. May need to revisit.

    If I'm going to be controversial I suppose I really didn't like Lord of the Rings. I only finished the first book but by god I found it a drag. The Hobbit a bit less so but I didn't like it either. My preference in terms of fantasy books as a kid was the Wizard of Earthsea series which sort of defined what the limitations of magic were so it felt more grounded.

    The first Game of Thrones book is a bit of a drag until you're 200 pages in. It's got a slightly grating American tries to write ye olde english dialogue aspect to it. After that I was completely hooked though. The last book wasn't quite as strong as the preceding ones.


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    #165
    Mick McGraw
    Closed Accounts Posts: 73 ✭✭Mick McGraw


    I hated Catch 22.


    I gave up on it after about 100 pages as I couldn't take any more of it. Reading it felt like having to endure a really annoying obnoxious individual continually shouting the same joke at you and elbowing you in the side and saying "Funny, isn't it. It's funny this is isn't it" .


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    #166
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    Speaking of slaughterhouse 5, I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. Much preferred 'bluebeard'.


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    #167
    Joe_ Public
    Registered Users Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    Is there anybody who thinks Catch 22 was...merely ok. It's one of my all time favourites but seems a kind of ultimate marmite book. Love or hate.


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    #168
    s7ryf3925pivug
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭s7ryf3925pivug


    Mick McGraw wrote: »
    I hated Catch 22.


    I gave up on it after about 100 pages as I couldn't take any more of it. Reading it felt like having to endure a really annoying obnoxious individual continually shouting the same joke at you and elbowing you in the side and saying "Funny, isn't it. It's funny this is isn't it" .
    I liked it.

    I read some other books by Joseph Heller. I disliked Good as Gold and Something Happened. He also did a sequel to Catch-22, which I don't remember very well.

    Something Happened is a guy talking about how much he hates everything in his very mundane life for an entire book. Then at the end something happens. It's an extraordinarily bleak book. I feel a little depressed just thinking of it.
    The only thing in his life that brings him any joy is his son. At the end his son is involved in a car accident. He is distraught and holds him very tightly. It is subtly revealed that the boy was not badly hurt in the crash, but was in fact smothered to death by his father holding him. The narrator doesn't let anyone know that this is what happened and just continues his life in a state of utter despair.

    So it has literary merit but is also a horrible read.


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    #169
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    'something happened' is brilliantly written; it's an awful downbeat slog though, but the last few pages are some of the best pages i've read in a book.
    that said, i'm not in any rush to reread it.


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    #170
    mc25
    Registered Users Posts: 69 ✭✭mc25


    Atonement

    Didn't much like the movie either!


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    #171
    Madeoface
    Registered Users Posts: 344 ✭✭Madeoface


    The Power of Now. Could it even be classed as a book? One idea that could have been 2 pages long.

    The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown(trout). I had started a new job and a colleague gave it to me as people ranted and raved about it in the canteen....being new i couldn't say how ****e I thought it was, that anything Kipper did in my kids 12 page books had more intrigue. It was google maps with a plot stitched on.

    (I liked Slaughterhouse 5 - Catch 22 ok, over-rated perhaps).


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    #172
    growleaves
    Registered Users Posts: 7,685 ✭✭✭growleaves


    I loved Catch 22 but later realised its a rip-off of Céline to some extent, especially 'Journey to the End of the Night', a truly great and strange book (though one which is disliked by many people). Céline's sense of humour is even darker and grislier.


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    #173
    georgina...c
    Closed Accounts Posts: 83 ✭✭georgina...c


    Mick McGraw wrote: »
    I hated Catch 22.


    I gave up on it after about 100 pages as I couldn't take any more of it. Reading it felt like having to endure a really annoying obnoxious individual continually shouting the same joke at you and elbowing you in the side and saying "Funny, isn't it. It's funny this is isn't it" .

    Oh god nothing worse. I endured that in real life.

    Hated Catch22 too.


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    #174
    Jimbob1977
    Registered Users Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    Catcher in the Rye became "cool and edgy" because Mark Chapman (murdered John Lennon) read the book and thought that he was the embodiment of Holden Caulfield. South Park have a very good parody of it.

    It's a good book.


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    #175
    Hercule Poirot
    Registered Users Posts: 4,231 ✭✭✭Hercule Poirot


    PowerToWait wrote: »

    The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was simply massively overrated.

    I completely disagree with this. The fact it became so popular hurt it because it's a much better book if you know nothing about the plot before you read it but I wouldn't say it's overrated.


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    #176
    JustAThought
    Registered Users Posts: 5,323 ✭✭✭JustAThought


    I wonder whether ‘THE CLASSICS’ are ever revisited and reevaluated or are just ignored snd left as ‘ the classics’ because nobody actually rereads them or has visited them in decades.The likes of the old must haves on the shelf -Dickens/David Copperfield/Robinsoe Crusoe/Middleton/Northanger Abbey/Emma etc. Charity shops are littered with them.


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    #177
    Idle Passerby
    Registered Users Posts: 1,120 ✭✭✭Idle Passerby


    JustAThought wrote: »
    I wonder whether ‘THE CLASSICS’ are ever revisited and reevaluated or are just ignored snd left as ‘ the classics’ because nobody actually rereads them or has visited them in decades.The likes of the old must haves on the shelf -Dickens/David Copperfield/Robinsoe Crusoe/Middleton/Northanger Abbey/Emma etc. Charity shops are littered with them.

    Charity shops are full of them because they are on school curriculums.


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    #178
    New Home
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 76,346 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    ..and because you can often get them new in bookshops at 3 for a tenner, so they're easy to buy, you don't have to invest as much in them as you would in a hardback.


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    #179
    CrankyHaus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭CrankyHaus


    Idle Passerby wrote: »
    Charity shops are full of them because they are on school curriculums.


    Are they?
    Here's the current LC prescribed list of novels/memoirs:



    ADICHIE, Ngozi Chimimanda Americanah
    ATKINSON, Kate Behind the Scenes at the Museum
    ATWOOD, Margaret The Handmaid’s Tale
    AUSTEN, Jane Persuasion
    BARRY, Sebastian Days Without End
    BRONTË, Emily Wuthering Heights
    DOERR, Anthony All the Light We Cannot See
    DONOGHUE, Emma Room
    ELIOT, George Silas Marner
    FITZMAURICE, Simon It’s Not Yet Dark
    ISHIGURO, Kazuo Never Let Me Go
    LEVI, Primo If This Is A Man
    O’CONNOR, Joseph Star of the Sea
    ORWELL, George 1984
    PEACE, David The Damned Utd.
    RYAN, Donal The Spinning Heart
    SATRAPI, Marjane Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and
    The Story of a Return (Graphic Memoir)
    TAYLOR, Sara The Lauras
    WALLACE, Jason Out of Shadows
    WILDE, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891 version)


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    #180
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    that's a decent list. 'if this is a man' is some book.


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    #181
    CrankyHaus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭CrankyHaus


    I was surprised to see The Damned United in there. Apparently it had to be published here with a non-factual disclaimer because of it's portrayal of Johnny Giles.


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