Most overrated book

appledrop · 26-02-2020 11:43pm

Ah this is easy 'The Milkman' an absolute pile of c@@p. In opening few pages it tells you what happens + that's if for the whole book.

Every single thing about this book I absolutely hated. No one in the book has an actual name. So for example she refers to her family as 2 brother in law, 3rd sister. Absolutely headwrecking. Everyone in the book is 2 dimensional in the sense that you dont relate to any of them+ not told very much about anyone +no real plot. Keep waiting for something to happen but never did.

I real hate this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How the f#@k did it win the Man Booker prize. I have read other books that won this prize that I loved. How did they get is so wrong with this book?

Day Lewin · 26-02-2020 11:52pm

"That they may face the rising sun" was the dreariest heap of tosh. Monotonous and morbid, and the same as all his other books.
I could not believe how many read it religiously, just because it was McGahern. Awful. Don't bother.

blarney_boy · 27-02-2020 12:15am

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I took it inter railing around Europe 30 years ago and I still remember the torture of forcing myself to read it in various train stations out of sheer boredom.

It's one of these 'cult' books . . . i.e. not worth reading

NedLowry · 27-02-2020 10:00am

Sardonicat wrote: »

What!?

Game of opinions I suppose!

It just didn't do much for me. Might give it another go sometime.

Your Face · 27-02-2020 10:07am

The Hobbit.
I always just trailed off when reading it.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
There was always something flaky about Hunter S Thompson.

facehugger99 · 27-02-2020 10:41am

The World According to Garp.

Self-indulgent twaddle populated by a cast of annoying characters.

ShamNNspace · 27-02-2020 12:02pm

Day Lewin wrote: »

"That they may face the rising sun" was the dreariest heap of tosh. Monotonous and morbid, and the same as all his other books.
I could not believe how many read it religiously, just because it was McGahern. Awful. Don't bother.

There are thousands of editions of this book lying unread on the bookshelves of Ireland

Wabbit Ears · 27-02-2020 12:11pm

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.

Joe_ Public · 27-02-2020 12:12pm

Certainly cannot conceive of anything by McGahern being in any way overrated but maybe I'm out of date. I often hear of Donal Ryan referred to as a modern day McGahern which seems vastly overrated to me, but probably not to his large band of readers. I also dont get the widespread acclaim given to Sally Rooney novels, they read very ordinary to me.

bolgbui41 · 27-02-2020 12:16pm

appledrop wrote: »

Ah this is easy 'The Milkman' an absolute pile of c@@p.

Agreed - I really disliked the nameless charachters, but it was the writing style that I found most off-putting (particularly the lack of paragraphing).

I'll also add Elena Ferrante's "My Brilliant Friend". It seems to get good reviews everywhere, and most of my friends loved it, but I just found it really boring.

the purple tin · 27-02-2020 12:16pm

ShamNNspace wrote: »

There are thousands of editions of this book lying unread on the bookshelves of Ireland

That's because a paper, the Independent I think, gave everyone a free copy of it about 10 or 15 years back.

Sugarlumps · 27-02-2020 12:22pm

Papillon.

facehugger99 · 27-02-2020 12:25pm

Helliconia by Brian Aldiss is frequently name-checked as being among the great SF novels.

I found it awful boring, gave up halfway through and I rarely don't finish books.

27-02-2020 12:43pm

HHhH by Laurent Binet. About life of Reinhardt Heydrich.
By the end of it, Binet is in a state of complete nervous mental breakdown.

For aspiring authors like Binet, could I say that there are still ruthless murderous statesmen out there in the modern era, even worse. For example I'm reading the book, Assad or we burn the country.

Back to Laurent Binet. He should stick to writing some books about gardening? Flower arrangement??

blueberrypie · 27-02-2020 12:44pm

The Heart's Invisible Furies, by John Boyne (same thing over and over in his interactions with people)
Milkman Anna Burns (just say what you have to say in one sentence, rather than paraphrasing the one sentence over and over making a paragraph)

They still won awards so the authors must be doing something right.

Butterbeans · 27-02-2020 2:24pm

paulanthony wrote: »

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.

I absolutely agree with you re Beatlebone, I couldn't bring myself to finish it after 2 attempts. And I'd be a fan of Kevin Barry, with City of Bohane being a favourite of mine. I'd highly reccomend.

The Shack by William P. Young is another one for me. Such hype about it when it came out. I got it as a Christmas present from my dad, read it, told him I didn't like it.....then I got it as a Christmas present from him again the following year (he claims innocence on this). I gave him the 2nd copy to read, he thought it was rubbish

crossman47 · 27-02-2020 5:13pm

Anything by John Banville. Seems to write with a dictionary at his elbow to find obscure words. His stories under the name Benjamin Black are at least readable.

Conall Cernach · 27-02-2020 5:32pm

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.

Magician itself is sort of passable in that genre aimed at teenagers but the sequels are even greater muck.

The magic system is based on Dungeons and Dragons btw as the world originally started out as a D&D campaign with his friends.

27-02-2020 5:36pm

adrian92 wrote: »

Latest Robert Harris book disappointing

Hated it and didn't finish it.

27-02-2020 5:40pm

But i did like Little Women.

And Friends.

StupidLikeAFox · 27-02-2020 5:43pm

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. A series of quirky events - each wackier than the last - wow, is that a talking alien, the answer to everything is.......42, it took us millenia to get that answer BUT WE DON'T KNOW THE QUESTION, lol chortle, so wacky.

Don't understand its appeal at all at all.

Day Lewin · 27-02-2020 7:34pm

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. A series of quirky events - each wackier than the last - wow, is that a talking alien, the answer to everything is.......42, it took us millenia to get that answer BUT WE DON'T KNOW THE QUESTION, lol chortle, so wacky.

Don't understand its appeal at all at all.

In fairness, it's funnier if you heard the radio show first.

Joe_ Public · 27-02-2020 8:03pm

Dont know if its a particular sense of humour but i was hooked from the very first paragraph. Reading it just gives me a warm glow inside, there's not much in my life beyond the obvious that cant be improved by reading a few pages of the Hitchhikers guide, with trusty towel always within easy reach.

I have a similar relationship with Red Dwarf which i see as its spiritual offspring.

adrian92 · 29-02-2020 4:43am

Wuthering Heights?

Ficheall · 29-02-2020 5:33am

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. A series of quirky events - each wackier than the last - wow, is that a talking alien, the answer to everything is.......42, it took us millenia to get that answer BUT WE DON'T KNOW THE QUESTION, lol chortle, so wacky.

Don't understand its appeal at all at all.

I think I preferred the other four books in the trilogy - So Long and Thanks for all the Fish is my favourite of them.

mikemac2 · 29-02-2020 6:23am

Anything by John Grisham in recent years

His name power alone can guarantee sales but he’s been mailing it in a while now

The Whistler, Rogue Lawyer and The Rooster Bar all a load of ****e

The Reckoning was a superb book until the last few pages, worst ending ever

Idle Passerby · 29-02-2020 6:54am

Totally agree with the poster who mentioned Pillars of the Earth. I was slightly daunted starting it, I expected it to be really dense and important considering the subject matter but it's a trashy beach read. An episodic soap opera just based in the 12th century. The sequel really hammered home how untalented the author was, same story all over again and some of the characters even had the same names!

Someone else mentioned Sally Rooney, I've only read Ordinary People and don't get the hype. Randy teenagers grow into their 20s and have a few issues, yawn!

pajosjunkbox · 29-02-2020 7:54am

Nigel Fairservice wrote:

Shantaram, I thought it was a slog of a read. I think Gregory David Roberts enjoys the ambiguity around what is fact and what is fiction.

This... I am brilliant....I am brilliant....the end. I got three quarters in and gave up.

Nigel Fairservice · 29-02-2020 9:01am

pajosjunkbox wrote: »

This... I am brilliant....I am brilliant....the end. I got three quarters in and gave up.

I was close to giving up but I thought I've come this far

It's a monster of a book.

Not a hope I'd read anything by him again.

anewme · 29-02-2020 9:08am

HalloweenJack wrote: »

The Curoous Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - I just couldn't warm to it as a book. The narrator's voice was very well done but it made it very difficult to get into.

Probably my favourite book of all time. I laughed out loud, I cried, beautiful book.

Worst book of all time...fifty shades of shi*. Cringe fest. I was cursing and shouting at the book every time she mentioned her inner goddess. Couldn't get more than half way through it. Gave it to the Charity shop. Believe its the most donated book. Should not be mentioned in the same sentence as literature.

Alf Veedersane · 29-02-2020 9:20am

facehugger99 wrote: »

The World According to Garp.

Self-indulgent twaddle populated by a cast of annoying characters.

The first book that even stubbornness couldn't make me finish.

Conall Cernach · 02-03-2020 8:07pm

adrian92 wrote: »

Wuthering Heights?

I quite like Wuthering Heights but Heathcliff and Cathy are about as far from the romantic ideal that many seem to think they are as you can get. She's a delusional, manipulative headcase and he's a complete psychopath.

HildaOgdenx · 02-03-2020 8:09pm

I know I might be alone in this, but I thought The Book Thief (Markus Zusack) was very overrated.

ChrisJ84 · 03-03-2020 1:31pm

Catch 22 - I love the genre, but thought it was awful and couldn't get into it at all.

brownbinman · 03-03-2020 3:09pm

appledrop wrote: »

Ah this is easy 'The Milkman' an absolute pile of c@@p. In opening few pages it tells you what happens + that's if for the whole book.

100% agree. Listen to audiobooks and put me asleep every time on the bus

Useless. Nothing happens!

the purple tin · 10-03-2020 12:16am

Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although I quite liked them when I read them years ago it's Tolkien's habit of going into WAY too much detail when describing locations and scenery that has put me off re-reading them.

pavb2 · 09-05-2020 11:59pm

100 Years of Solitude

McHardcore · 10-05-2020 12:03am

I never understood the attraction to The Catcher in the Rye

Hercule Poirot · 10-05-2020 12:12am

I see Catcher in the Rye getting a lot of mentions here and I'd agree, it is just a whiny teenager b1tching about everyday things that don't really matter - I was in my mid 20's when I read it and didn't get the hype at all, found it boring - I do wonder though if I had read it as a teenager it might have been one of the greatest books I'd ever read, I might have felt that the author really understands me because most of us were whiny little b1tches when we were teenagers

My other vote for this thread would be Amongst Women, considered by many to be McGahern's masterpiece - absolute drivel, extremely dull and very soporific

robinbird · 10-05-2020 12:17am

A lot of mentions for books that people had to read for the Leaving Cert.
Might be better if we excluded these. As a lot of those mentioning them probably haven't gone near a book since school.

XxMCRxBabyxX · 10-05-2020 12:19am

Normal People by Sally Rooney. I just don't see what all the hype was about. It's dull at best. Same goes for the TV Show

Truthvader · 10-05-2020 12:19am

Flavour of the month I know but

"Normal People" - Boring People - pus all that Late Late "Show meaningful" Es EEE ex

Spanish Eyes · 10-05-2020 12:20am

Anything where the author is interviewed for the publicity of it imo. That kills me. But I suppose it has to happen.

I see sheep · 10-05-2020 12:21am

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Anything where the author is interviewed for the publicity of it imo. That kills me. But I suppose it has to happen.

Every book ever? :pac:

Hercule Poirot · 10-05-2020 12:21am

ChrisJ84 wrote: »

Catch 22 - I love the genre, but thought it was awful and couldn't get into it at all.

I really enjoyed Catch-22, it's slightly off the wall so to speak but I think that just added to it's charm

Spanish Eyes · 10-05-2020 12:24am

I see sheep wrote: »

Every book ever? :pac:

Ah no, just these days.

I'm sure you know what I mean, it's the bread and butter for some TV and radio interviewers these days. I will have a look up for sure, but it's mostly rubbish with an author connected to RTE or Newstalk whatever.

I see sheep · 10-05-2020 12:26am

Are the Harry Potter books any good? I'm not a fan of the genre so I never read them, I accidentally watched the last half hour of one of the movies and it was one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life.

Irish_rat · 10-05-2020 12:43am

On the road by Jack Kereoc. Pile of rubbish avoid.

Catcher in the rye is not much to write home about but it's readable. Handmaid's tale is ridiculously overrated.

Zaph · 10-05-2020 12:49am

Three books spring to mind:

Vernon God Little - the premise looked like something I'd enjoy. By the end of it I'd resolved never to buy another Booker Prize winner if this was the sort of thing they gave the prize to.

The Old Man and the Sea - how can such a short book feel so long and tedious?

A Confederacy of Dunces - I've rarely cared less about what happened to the protagonist of a book as I have this one, I just wanted it all to end as quickly as possible.

Spanish Eyes · 10-05-2020 12:59am

Have to agree about the Booker Prize. Possibly rigged or a signal from those who think they are our betters telling us what to read.

Follow the money.

Most overrated book

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