Books you think are overated.

Twilight is probably the most overated novel of all time. Many Dean koontz novels are overated in my opinion and i find Tom Robbins to be kind of overated.

 

This made me laugh out loud because of the last few Twilight-related comments.

 

yeah the fact that the movie got some kids to read has no relevance to the subject of this discussion. Bottom line is, its a teenage version of a trashy romance novel. Of course all of these things are my personal opinion and nothing more. But im always glad to deliver a laugh.

 

well romance sells, it is big business if it is a good romance novel is it over rated ?

 

I hate Twilight because I have some friends that saw the one with werewolves in it. Then they saw an ad for the remake of the Wolfman film. Their exact words were, 'That so rips of Twilight.'

I wanted to take a nerf bat and beat them over the head with it.

 

Twilight. Just... Twilight.

 

That's original.

 

i think the kite runner appealed more to the 30ish plus crowd....

 

Harry Potter, Twilight (every book in the series), Stephen King

 

lol.

 

no, but it is if it's bad.



Especially if it's bad on a whole new level, the way Twilight is.

 

i loved being caught up in the whole twilight buzz when it first came out, but i do know tht in terms of great writing theres not much to say, and in my opinion the fourth twilight book was a disaster, something about the characters seems to have made an impact on so many people though so cant really argue with that. its popularity is similiar to the harry potter franchise i guess but in my opinion there is alot more depth in harry potter and after reading them all i felt that the author had a clear plan in her head about where this story was going and how it was going to end, where as with the last twilight book i felt the author had given up and the final half was just a cop out.
Theres no denying that stephen king is a great writer but i can see why people would be underwhelmed, i often feel that the overall story is hindered by constantly making sure every scene is described down to the finest detail, i think its good for the reader to fill in the gaps themselves at times

 

writing a series when one of the books is published must be one heck of a challenge - I am lucky with mine if the later books weren't going to plan I could just rewrite parts of the one before to make it work

 

Moby Dick, Catcher in the Rye, and I have seen a lot of votes for Steve King...Really? I mean, I am not his biggest fan but in 40 or so books he has a few great ones amongst the overly wordy base and outright silly endings he contrives.

To that I will have to counter with Dean Koonts...I will never understand how that guy gets published.

The Dragon Tatoo series was pretty awful too, mostly because the writing was terrible, but the movies weren't so bad.

 

I'm going to go with Catcher in the Rye. I didn't really like the book, though I kind of understand why others like it so much. I actually think Salinger's stories are his best work.

 

I remember buying the shining and thinking it was terrible in comparison to the film, which surpassed it in almost every way! I've read one or two others of steven king and i can't say i'm his biggest fan. But the fact that he wrote things like the shawshank redemption, the green mile and salem's lot is just legendary

 

This was my first to read of her stories, and i was carried along on a glorious tide of her metaphors, bittersweet characterization and extensive interplay of relationships - until the ending hit, where i was abruptly dumped to the ground like a turd, by her sheer arrogance. Hang on, Jodi, you had an ACE story going there, and you're trying to tell me that this sort of thing "just happens, it could happen to anybody, even them," ? Yes, i'm sure it could - but you didn't have to make it that way. You're the writer.

I picked up another, "Plain Truth" - same thing happened. Again and again, the running theme of a Picoult book - damaged teens, fracturing adults, chuck in some familial drama and a lawsuit, all set in the beautiful autumnal Massachusetts - she writes what she knows, and fair play to her. It bobs along smoothly, until we're shat on by a "twist in the tail" ending. NO! This is not clever writing, it's a cop out. Some people do just live, Jodi.

 

RE: Jodi Piccoult

YES! As with CelenaGaia, My Sister's Keeper was my first experience of one of her books. I picked it up on a whim and got very involved with the plot and characters- I was practically biting my nails over the twisted favouritism of one daughter over the other children, though I could also understand the desperation that led to this- most of all my heart ached for Jesse, who was ignored because he wasn't useful to Kate's plight, and Anna who was basically a spare-parts bonanza. -sigh- And I was happy for her when Anna got what she deserved and then just BAM- SCREW-YOU-READER!!!

After fighting so hard NOT to be used for her organs, that's bloody well exactly what ends up happening! It's like: 'Hey, after such a good novel about the exploration of sibling solidarity and love, and the child's right to autonomy over her own body, I'm just going to go ahead and kill Anna anyway.' I hated that, absolutely hated it! There I was thinking, oh good, now Anna's free, but how is Kate going to survive... CONVENIENTLY she dies. Poor Anna ended life the way she began- as spare parts.

It's not that I'm annoyed because it ended the way I didn't want it to- it's that the ending was terribly contrived!

 

Anne Rice - I don't have as much a problem with her as I do with her fans to be honest. Not that all her fans are like this, but I've noticed a real cult following of her books that is so elitist and judgmental only god can help you if you bring up a differing opinion in their presence.

I swear to god, I once said: 'I read some of Interview with a Vampire and I didn't much care for it, but I'm more into Don Delillo at the moment'.

Which I thought was a fair enough reason; I was more into Modernism at the time. But I got: 'Delillo fu*king sucks. You need to read more Anne Rice'. When I asked this person which Delillo books they had read they replied 'none'.

 

I agree about Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Right at the climax of the novel, when things are about to resolve and as the reader we should be completely engaged in the story, Larsson throws in an info dump about statistics concerning Australian sheep farming. Totally snapped me out of the story.

Also, I find that all his characters have the same voice. I'm not sure if that's a translation thing, I guess it could be, but I know his massive info dumps aren't.

 

I've got a funny feeling i won't be finishing this story.

Thank God for common sense; i've been browbeaten before for daring to condemn her books. "Contrived" is the exact word. I hadn't even considered that, of course Kate would die too - Anna's organs, due to the accident, would've been utterly useless to her older sister anyway. What a joke of a story. Still boggles my mind how stuff like this gets published - the age old rant of the rival writer

 

Handle With Care's ending was outta now where to. It seemed like Picoult was going for some screwy karma thing. And I liked the Keeper movie better than the book for the reason of the ending. The book's message seemed to be "Remember all those concieved to be tissue doners, your parts and you always will be, even in death!"

 

Agreed. I tried reading this, and I was expecting it to be good considering it's an international bestseller, but I just couldn't get into it. I'm going to try and read it again so hopefully I'll find it more enjoyable.

 

I can only say, full steam ahead and skip paragraphs concerning the heroine, at will

 

Haha, noted.