Books you think are overated.

Try to one-up this: I enjoyed Paradise Regained because of the purple prose.

 

Oooh, sounds like a book I need to read.

 

Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Sword of Shannara, Sword of Truth, Twilight, Dresden Files. All good reads, except SoS, but certainly overrated as contributions to literature. They are great introduction books for young readers.

 

Except for the Shannara books. Those aren't worth reading at all. About 80% of the time all they're doing in that series is emo-ing over the consequences of decisions they have to make.

 

Those three I've read. I don't get the hype about Harry Potter; it's a nice book, yes, I fit perfectly into the reader demographic when I first read it, and I wasn't all that fond of the series. The Dresden Files are okay, but they're a bit preachy and there seems to be a bit of power creep with regards to the eponymous Harry Dresden over the course of the series.

Twilight...? Don't even get me started.

 

1) ANYTHING from Paulo Coehlo (I don't know how he gets away with it!)
2) Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
3) Khalid Hosseini (Nice stories. Crappy writing)
4) Twilight series, particularly Eclipse
5) Nora Robert's In Death series (Don't bother with it if you haven't)
6) Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (Surprisingly crappy, considering how good are his other essays are)
7) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
8) Road Less Travelled by M.Scott Peck (Because it contains a load of bull. The writing is so matter-of-fact that the reader thinks it's all his parents fault Maybe that's why it sold so many copies)

If you want to know a book that's underrated: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnely.

 

Uh...there is a reason people make a big deal about this book.

 

People make a big deal about The Prince or Art of War, but they aren't literary gems. Diary of Anne Frank highlights history with a perspective rarely given, the eyes of a child in the middle of war while being hunted.

I agree though, it's overrated as a book, but it's really fantastic as a historic perspective.

 

Have you read the book? The only reason people make a big deal out of it is because it gives a voyeuristic look into a girl's life who went through Holocaust.

The writing? I am sorry but I almost threw the book in the bin because of the writing! Anyone who has read even 1 other book, be it Twilight for God's sake, I say he'd choose Twilight over it. The "Truth", its non-fiction-ness, is the only reason people praise it; maybe that's what trumps writing for most common readers, won't you say? 'A personal diary of a young girl in Holocaust' who wouldn't want to KNOW about it (Be it by audio, video.. any medium!). You know why I hate this book so much? Because if you look at, say Wuthering Heights, a story about something that did not happen, yet it's written so well that anyone reading it would think it is concrete, it's beautiful -- the ones who are worthy of praise, gets tossed aside and here you have a crappy diary which gets all the golden stars!

Am I the only one who hates this book? It's a mediocre book. The book is filled with sentimentality! Conflicting views, not just between her ideas but between her reality and her view of it as she writes it. And the sex talk? "Went all the way"?

If you want to praise it for presenting Holocaust, fine, but at least accept that as a book it is not up to the hype.

 

You're telling me the diary of a 13 year old girl doesn't contain extraordinary prose? Who would have guessed?

 

I thought Steven kings dark tower books relied Very heavily on his past work. Found it very dull indeed. When he wrote it he said he wanted to write something epic comparable with the lord of the rings. But in my opinion he only achieved epic in length and certainly not in story and quality of writing.
Just my opinion though.

 

Not sure if someone's already mentioned this (really couldn't be bothered reading 30 pages) but did anyone else find The Hunger Games overrated? I absolutely loved the first book but as the story progressed especially the third book I thought it was absolute crap, especially the epilogue it hardly told you anything

 

Well it depends on perspective, people make a big deal about The Prince for an example because during his time aka the Renaissance he was the only one to perceive the World and Mankind as imperfect, whereas everyone else saw it as perfect. He also established the basics for Modern Day Politics. I say all this because I have read the book and it is indeed a big deal for many, especially because he backs up his theories with historic evidence. But, I am not here to argue or prove a point just to summarize that it is not an overrated book. But back to that subject, I know a lot of people will look at me funny for this but I have found The Catcher in the Rye to be overrated. I know many people tell me the novel is full of Metaphors and Symbolism, but I do not think it deserves all the attention it has. True the Underlined themes are important and I do not want to seem, so to say, stupid but all I see is a whiny kid explaining how much his life sucks. I read the book and do admit some scenes such as constant reminder of the doves is somewhat beautiful but it should not deserve so much attention because John Lenon's Murderer said he did it because of this book. I just don't think a book should be remembered because of that.

 

Well it depends on perspective, people make a big deal about The Prince for an example because during his time aka the Renaissance he was the only one to perceive the World and Mankind as imperfect, whereas everyone else saw it as perfect. He also established the basics for Modern Day Politics. I say all this because I have read the book and it is indeed a big deal for many, especially because he backs up his theories with historic evidence. But, I am not here to argue or prove a point just to summarize that it is not an overrated book. But back to that subject, I know a lot of people will look at me funny for this but I have found The Catcher in the Rye to be overrated. I know many people tell me the novel is full of Metaphors and Symbolism, but I do not think it deserves all the attention it has. True the Underlined themes are important and I do not want to seem, so to say, stupid but all I see is a whiny kid explaining how much his life sucks. I read the book and do admit some scenes such as constant reminder of the doves is somewhat beautiful but it should not deserve so much attention because John Lenon's Murderer said he did it because of this book. I just don't think a book should be remembered because of that.

 

Why are we expecting a 13 year old's writing to be spectacular? We give books value on their entertainment yes, but also on what they offer the world. I would choose Anne Frank any day over most books. Not for the pros, but for the fact that the story of the holocaust must be told again and again and again, lest we forget. The perspective of a child entering puberty even more so. We forget the children all too easily when remembering the Holocaust. There are books we read for enjoyment, and books we read for knowledge. Although it is just the knowledge of the world from a child's view, it is knowledge we must not let die.

 

OK--I am not snobby about writing. I have absolutely no idea what "good prose" are. I have a love/hate relationship with English anyway--grammar and spelling aren't my friends (more like annoying, bullying, acquaintances).

But I checked out Fifty Shades of Grey, and the first sentence on the first page of the first book is, "I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror."

Then it goes on to explain "damn my hair" etc.

Why do I need to know in the FIRST sentence that she's scowling with "frustration" at herself in the mirror? How many reasons can a person scowl? I mean--I can pretty much rule out that she's scowling with rage or unbearable pain by reading the following lines. I can assume she's looking at herself, unless otherwise noted, because she's looking in the mirror.

This isn't really an "overrated" book post, because I haven't read the whole book--the first sentence upsets me. This book's been on the best-seller list forever too--I'm just scowling at my computer with frustration right now, and wrinkling my brow with confusion, and tensing my face with tension (not all at the same time).

I have sour grapes. I know this author has achieved something pretty great--and that they must be a fairly good author to do it, but I still have sour grapes about this first line.

 

Everything by James Patterson
I honestly don't know why so many people love his work. His stories are just overly fast-paced and almost plotless. Not to mention he's an egostical prick.


When he writes book reviews, he compares other people's books to his own. On the front of some book, I saw a blurb of praise by Patterson that basically said, "this is almost as good as what I write". He finds a way to put himself into any bit of writing that he can. The guy is an overrated and self-absorbed piece of shit.

 

I COMPLETELY agree! I HATE Eragon with a fiery passion
Every one has their opinion and I mean no disrespect towards anyone's opinion; I am merely voicing my own.

In my personal opinion, Eragon is on of the most overrated books ever. It is a disgrace to writing; has anyone noticed how similar it is to Lord of the Rings, The Dragon Riders of Pern, the map of "Alegasia" is almost identical to Robert Jordan's, anybody noticed the striking similarity between the names Aragorn and Eragon? The very name "Alegasia" is rather similar to Dragon Lance's "Abanasinia" don't you think? Personally I think The Inheritance Trilogy is a rip off from some of the greatest fantasy works, a con just to get rich and famous.

Anyone who has read or watched "The Lord of The Rings Trilogy" knows the famous line by Gandalf "Both eyes as often as I can spare them" well Christopher Paolini stole that line and used it in one of his books.

Okay... sorry for the rant everyone
Like I said I am merely voicing my own opinion, you don't have to agree with me. I don't intend ANY disrespect what so ever.

 

A lot of YA I found overrated, Twilight, Eragon, etc, EXCEPT His Dark Materials (unlike seemingly everyone in this thread ).

Anne Rice I found incredibly so. When the first three weren't long winded, they were opinionated. Both of these were tiresome. The thing reached its peak at the end of The Queen of the Damned where the face-off with the ancient queen of evil was transformed into a chapter long transcript of a high-school debating club. Needless to say, I stopped there.

Also: I'm tired of all this Holocaust discussion, Anne Frankly it needs to stop!

I'm sososososo sorry don't send me to hell please.

 

It's time to end this thread. I was opposed to it from the start, because it's nothing but a literary gripe thread. Focus instead on what is positive.

There have been very few posts in this thread that offer lessons to be learned from disappointing novels, which is the only possible value I could see from this thread.

Griping is easy. Finding lessons for better writing is what the site, and Book Discussions, is for.

And no, it is not any single post that has led to this decision.