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Original poster

post your unpopular literature opinions?

460 replies

MrShannon385 · 26/10/2023 00:28

Curly was the best character in mice an men

OP posts:
Alltheprettyseahorses · 26/10/2023 09:24

Every single Jane Austen book is awful. Same with Dickens and Tolkien's fiction (but not his non-fiction).

Very unpopular opinion: Wuthering Heights is brilliant and is really the story of Nelly and Heathcliff - I bet they got it on a few times.

BeadedBubbles · 26/10/2023 09:22

I hate hate hate Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. I don't normally persevere with a book I'm not enjoying but I read this to the end because my best friend said it was wonderful. I loathe that book.

I also read Remains of the Day when I was very ill in bed and had nothing else to do (this was years ago pre Netflix). Talk about depressing!

No more Kazuo for me!

dressedforcomfort · 26/10/2023 09:19

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow totally agree re: Sebastian Faulks.... Charlotte Grey was unreadable.

See also Martin Amis.... terrible

dressedforcomfort · 26/10/2023 09:17

Catcher in the Rye is shit.
The Da Vinci Code is shit

George Eliot is a better writer than Jane Austen or any of the Brontes...

Petrarkanian · 26/10/2023 09:14

Normal People is terrible.

fernsandlilies · 26/10/2023 09:12

Massively over rated writers:

William Boyd
Maggie O’Farrell
Thomas Mann
Martin Amis post ‘Money’
Rachel Cusk

SpringerLink · 26/10/2023 09:04

The Brontë sisters' books are universally awful and borderline unreadable.

Moonshine5 · 26/10/2023 09:01

Can't stand the Harry Potter series of books

Greygardenz · 26/10/2023 08:58

Charlotte Brontë's Villette is the dullest book ever

Morewineplease10 · 26/10/2023 08:58

Love these. Literature is SO subjective.

Also found that things I found amazing in my 20s, The Unbearable Lightness of Being' are now unreadable in my 40s.

My favourite Bronte novel is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

PictureOfFlorianTray · 26/10/2023 08:56

Saucery · 26/10/2023 08:21

Stephen King stopped writing decent books 30 years ago. His descriptions of women and girls are increasingly creepy.

Agreed.

Mushroo · 26/10/2023 08:49

Most ‘high brow’ booker prize winners are dreary and hard work.

A crime thriller or a Dan Brown is a much more enjoyable experience

CharlotteStreetW1 · 26/10/2023 08:45

Top tip: I never read a book that's won an award. Learned after being stung by White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Beautifully written I grant you but the characters were without exception unlikeable and by the end I felt I was in purgatory.* *

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 26/10/2023 08:33

MikeRafone · 26/10/2023 08:30

I think it depends on the English Lit teacher, I really enjoyed twelfth night, midsummers night dream- but our teacher was amazing and brought it to life with participation.

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Shakespeare is meant to be watched, as Chaucer is meant to be listened to - not read in class.

Thomas Wyatt's poems are incomprehensible. They are coded messages about love affairs, court intrigues and political incidents and so context dependent as to be meaningless 400+ years later.

peppermintcrisp · 26/10/2023 08:31

Most literature is a biological drive and when fertility/virility finishes, it is not fit for purpose. Poetry especially shows this. Most poets would admit to this little known fact.

MikeRafone · 26/10/2023 08:30

MariaVT65 · 26/10/2023 07:08

Shakespeare is boring overdramatic bullshit and shouldn’t have so much emphasis at school. It would be more useful to focus on modern literature.

(I did like a midsummer night’s dream in year 6 though)

I think it depends on the English Lit teacher, I really enjoyed twelfth night, midsummers night dream- but our teacher was amazing and brought it to life with participation.

thistimelastweek · 26/10/2023 08:27

War and Peace is an endurance test.

MikeRafone · 26/10/2023 08:26

dicedicebaby · 26/10/2023 07:23

I don't think that's an unpopular opinion, most people loved them 😂

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They were never on library shelves as considered low brow drivel.....

StoatofDisarray · 26/10/2023 08:25

Neil Gaiman is boring and derivative.

PermanentTemporary · 26/10/2023 08:25

Tolkien is unreadable except by teenagers.

AceOfCups · 26/10/2023 08:24

Haruki Murakami writes drivel, but the western world laps it up because he is Japanese and therefore exotic and a bit mysterious.

barbarahunter · 26/10/2023 08:22

I was really surprised how derivative and badly written Harry Potter is.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 26/10/2023 08:21

Shakespeare is wonderful.

P.G. Wodehouse is very funny.

Saucery · 26/10/2023 08:21

Stephen King stopped writing decent books 30 years ago. His descriptions of women and girls are increasingly creepy.

Tinytigertail · 26/10/2023 08:19

Tadpolle · 26/10/2023 07:03

I cannot get through Wolf Hall- not the book or even the tv series.

The Hobbit is shit and boring.

Absolutely this!