Books you think are overated.

That's most of mine as well, but I feel that much of the 'golden era of sci-Fe' [30's to 50's] stuff I've seen is junk, [that's mostly Asimov and Ray Bradbury's work as little else is still around from what I've seen] It seems to me like the epitome of 'SCI-Fi to make you think' as opposed to trying to entertain the reader.

 

Have you read the Space Trilogy and Dark Tower by CS Lewis ?

 

Twilight obviously, because it was so hyped up and it's really nothing special. I think I saw someone ask why vampire books are mostly written in first person POV? It's not just vampire books, most Young Adult fiction is written in first person with very short 'punchy' sentences to maintain teen interest and ensure they're as immersed in the story as they can possibly be. In some books it works well (Hush,Hush for example) but in Twilight it's gimmicky. I don't have anything against other vampire books though, possibly because I'm writing one (old style evil aristocratic vampires just fyi, not glittery ones).

Tess of The D'Urbervilles & Remains of the Day ~ I had to read these two for english in college. Tess was the latter of two evils, Remains of the Day made me suicidal with boredom.

Shiver ~ A werewolf book a lot of my friends hyped up and I just couldn't get past the first chapter.

The Outsiders ~ I bought it because I'd heard good things and was impressed it was written by someone so young but I just couldn't get into it at all. I'm sure the plot was great but the way it was written was just so against me that I couldn't see past it and had to give up.

 

Am I the only person in the world who liked this book? My brother and I both had to read it for school, and when I told him I liked it, he thought I was insane. As did everyone else in my class.

 

No, I haven't. I'd heard he wrote some Sci-Fi, but have never liked him enough as an author to look it up.

 

Thomas Hardy isn't my thing but Tess of the D'ubervilles was the one I read all the way through. I didn't like it but I admired it - I certainly don't think he is overrated his ability to characterise, layer his stories, tell a detailed story is amazing. I just don't like miserable stories lol

 

I've found a similar judgmental attitude in some other English children's/young adult books.

At the end of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, there's a character who's betrayed the good side and is begging for mercy, claiming that he was taken over by an outside force, but the main character realises that it's just a trick. The lesson seems to be "Don't show compassion to evil people, because they chose to be that way. If they try to make excuses, they're lying."

Throughout the Narnia series, there's an extreme lack of moral ambiguity. There's one right side, and one wrong side, and the only moral issue for the characters is which side to choose.
At the end of the series, there are dwarves who don't believe in the salvation Aslan offers and ignore any proof of it, to the point of being ridiculous. The lesson seems to be "People who don't believe the right things do so because they choose not to see the truth, and are beyond salvation."

 

But then you have the Calorman - the message seemed to be anyone who does the right thing is accepted by Aslan no matter who they worship, whoever does the wrong thing is accepted by Tash and those indifferent are stuck in the middle. I saw it personally as more about the actions of the people involved - the dwarves were for the dwarves, so when the world ended that was what they were stuck with. Those that were good at the time of their death got good, those who were bad got bad. Remember Susan was also stuck in a terrestial situation like the dwarves.

Then was it Prince Caspian where the dryads, Bacchus etc were in the same parade as Aslan (ie he portrayed the pagan gods as equal to the Christian one or at least goin in the same direction).

My absolute favourite piece though is when Lucy buries her head in the lions mane and gains strength from it.

Most of my Pagan beliefs come from Narnia lol

 

Twilight, of course. Looking back, Harry Potter as well, I find them mediocre at best these days. I enjoy Wheel of Time but find their reputation leads you to believe they are better than they are. I've also had people tell me The Shining is the greatest suspense novel ever. I can't get passed the opening chapters.

And House Of Night. Every Single One of my friends that enjoy it find them amazing. I think they are terribly written at BEST. And the author shoves things down your throat.

I do happen to enjoy Stephen King, but yes, some of his novels have far too much hype. Like The Dark Tower series!

EDIT: And The Chronicles of Narnia. I can't read anything but The Lion....

 

My vote would go for the Silmarillion by Christopher Tolkein-- I mean J.R.R. Tolkein. When I read the first eight chapters and find only four words in dialogue... This was more boring than my seventh grade history textbook.

 

I wish I could contribute, but I can think only of books that are underrated. Oh, well.

 

Frank Herbert's Dune is overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's a good read, and a good story. But it was really over rated.

I don't need the same crappy prose about 'fear' told to me every other page! "I will not fear. Fear is the mind killer. It stole my lunch money and called my mom fat." Yeah, I got it the first time I read it. The next 2,500 times it was repeated it stopped being cute and clever though.

I get a lot of crap for saying this too: I liked Brian Herbert's prequel trilogy a lot better than Frank's books. Frank was dry and boring through out, Brian was never boring. I was simply more entertained by Brian than Frank.

 

Eight chapters and four words of dialogue? Really? How does one do that?

 

I've read plenty of good books/stories with little to no dialog. You don't have to have quotations marks around writing to make it interesting.

 

While I agree that Twilight is overrated (because no book could measure up to the hype that series has), it is also not as bad as a lot of what is out there. Managed to get some kids reading who then moved on to better material.

But on writing sites, you can't be cool if you don't bash Twilight, particularly if you're a teen or even a particularly emo young adult. It's kind of funny and lame all at the same time.

 

The Silmarillion is basically an overview of the history of Middle Earth. It never goes into the details of any scene; it just tells us what happened from a fly-by perspective.

 

I agree - a text book and history book can make good reading. I have read at least one story that was a story being told by a tree about the way life around him had changed over nine hundred years it was fascinating. Not a word of dialogue. And that one about China that doesn't have any.

 

Amen to this. All of this.

Also, it regarding DeNile's post, I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who thinks Chronicles of Narnia is overrated.

 

While I generally don't subscribe to the "at least they're reading" attitude, I don't really think Twilight deserves all the hate it gets. I have read some schlocky romances you can find in grocery stores, pharmacies and whatnot. It doesn't stand out. Misogyny? Check. Bad writing? Check. Bland characters? Check and check. Yeah, it got famous, but who cares? There are far worse books on the NYT Bestseller's List alone. Hell, in the same genre, House of Night is written with half the competence and with fewer tolerable characters. The only reason anyone singles it out is because it's popular - but I don't think that's a good enough reason to hate on it in particular.

Also, I think in order for something to be overrated, there has to be more people praising it highly than people making fun of it. Half of the responses to this thread fall under that category, honestly. At least in my writing circles, books like Eragon also certainly fall under the "more hated than loved" category.

 

This puts an arrow through my heart. I grew up reading those books and loved them as a kid.

 

See, maybe this is my problem. I don't recall ever reading them as a kid. I read them a year or two ago, though, and I didn't dig them.

Of course, it might also have something to do with my intense dislike for C.S. Lewis...who knows...

 

I'm a little concerned I may catch some flak for this but...I just could not stand Icewind Dale by R.A. Salvatore. For some reason the characters only mildly interested me and the situations were only so-so. And all after my fiance tells me it's the best book she's ever read . The Kite runner is also on my list. We read it in high school and they hyped it up so much. Then I was let down.

 

Dude, you read Kite Runner in high school?? My parents would have had a sh*t fit if any of my high school teachers had tried to assign that as reading...I didn't read it until college.

I've never read Icewind Dale, though, so you won't catch any flak from me for not liking it.

 

My theory is that those girls/young women who don't like it, see their friends praise it and fawn over the male characters, and become frustrated, which makes the hate so much stronger.

 

I can't really come up with a book I think is overrated... as Ophiucha said, most people need to rate it high for it to be overrated.

I liked the Narnia books, despite being a little put off by the black-and-white morals.

I don't like Stephen King, who seems to be highly regarded by many writers as well as being immensely popular. But that's more a matter of taste - I don't think he's unskilled as a writer.

To me, an overrated book is one about which people don't just say "I love it!" - they also say "This is a masterfully written book and the author must be a genius!". Loving a book is just a statement of personal taste.

(sorry for making two posts again -- typed my additions into the wrong edit window)