to think this is the most over-rated book ever

[SlightlyJaded]

'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things'

I love books. From big dramatic plotlines and epic storylines to subtle and beautfifully written prose with well drawn characters. I like quirky books, classic books, modern literature, poetry - anything well written or engaging.

I almost never have to 'force' myself to finish a book but always do finish a book if I've started (why do we do that? ) but thought 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' was the dullest most over-rated dross I've ever read.

Or did I miss something?

And yes, this should be in books, but I prefer AIBU

Thanks jybay - I remember reading Lady Chatterly (also horrendous) and suddenly realising exactly what Stella G had been on about.

Jybay thanks. I had assumed she was going for sci fi but it's the one really jarring element. I sometimes read that bit and think I'm going a bit mad though :)

Im half way through the supposed "cult" book "The Womens Room",, I started it 3 weeks ago, so to say I am only half way through speaks for its self!! any one else read this book?

Oh god, Lady Chatterley's Lover - all Lawrence's novels are misogynistic drivel, but that's the worse (I like some of his poems though). The descriptions of sex are so unconvincing. Pity they un-banned it.

Ah so glad the Alchemist is getting a pasting on here. What a steaming pile of crap. I heard all that stuff about "mindblowing" / "changed my life" etc. blah blah so I read it, I was thinking "eh? wtf? is this the right book?" I only kept going with it because I thought something mindblowing must be about to happen.

I´ve got that sueno.
I´ve started it but it´s gathering dust somewhere now.

Also The Golden Notebook(?)

Started it, but have no idea where it is atm & don´t care if I never find it!

"Pity they un-banned it" :o :o :o That was so my thought when I read it!

Women in Love is possibly worse, mainly because it is so much loooonger (this was for English course btw, I'm not a glutton for punishment) and there is that hilarious disgust with the normal lower classes. There is a scene where one of the tedious sisters has to walk through town and can't stand to feel everyone's dirty working class eyes on her. Issues, DH?

OOOh Look! We are discussion of the day . My first....

Missed the middle pages, but:

Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the only book I have never finished.

Twilight just made want to slap the self absorbed 'heroine' and vomit over the angsty happenings.

ManintheMooncup - that monstrosoty of whcih you speak is "A Million Tiny Pieces" by James Frey. Contrived bilge

Cold Comfort Completely agree about The Little Friend. One of the most plotless plots ever (although I loved The Secret History)

And on the subject of Lionel Shreaver "Double Fault" Anyone? Anyone? So utterly boring that to this day I don't know why I bothered to finish it.

But I've said it once and I'll say it again, with the exception of 'If Nobody Speaks...', five words 'The Call of the Wild'. I swear to god, doing that at school nearly made me give up reading for life.

I really like WH, Cathy is an unconventional woman who doesn't give a monkey's...then is basically forced by conventional notions of womanhood to marry a respectable man with prospects and it all goes horribly wrong. And Heathcliff digs up her coffin to give her a last hug.
All written by the spinster daughter of a repressive parson in Victorian times.

Emily Bronte was an amazing person to write that living in a time when women were supposed to be like Jane Eyre and marry twerps like Rochester, and locking your wife up in the attic was considered a reasonable response to an unhappy marriage.

ooh, should have mentioned Ulysses by Mr Up-himself Joyce.

I hated the Da Vinci Code. It was what everyone suspected all along about religion but rehashed to sound ''groundbreaking.''

I love Captain Corelli's mandolin; so much better than the film.

One word: Atonement.

I want those precious hours back, Ian McEwan.

sueno I read the Womens Room thirty odd years ago and loved it but am sure I would struggle with it now. It did, iirc, have a lot of strident feminist statements that were a little extreme. I read her follow up, an academic tract called Woman, Men and Morals. Its still a great read.

I hated White Teeth too.

Did anyone like the American Wife?

oh...The Little friend..

i'd forgotten about that one. But certainly overrated.

I never read ulysses - never got past page 1.

Grimma, I agree with your Possession assessment, but I have to confess I skipped a lot of the poetry towards the end . I liked the three Virgin books (think of it that way, too), but also gave up with Babel Tower. Can't remember why, but I think it dragged and dragged. Pity, I like Byatt in general.

I'm really struggling to get into a History of Love, Nicole Krauss, anyone read it and loved it?

The historical inaccuracies in Da Vinci Code made me want to 'hurl it aside with great force'

however i still wanted to finish it. Then diss some of the crapola plotline. The worst thing it was intended as fiction, but there are people who give it credulity - not Dan Browns fault really.

Another vote for White Teeth, Brick Lane, anything by DH Lawrence.

The sexiest man in the world would be dust to me if he thought The Alchemist was life-changing. Or even bearable.

But Cold Comfort Farm is the funniest ever. Jane Austen and To Kill A Mockingbird definitely not overrated. Anna Karenina best book ever written.

Never managed to get through Wuthering Heights; assumed there was something wrong with me, not it. Glad to discover otherwise. Wonder if same applies to Henry James?

It is one of my all-time favourites!

The Slap, though I finished it, was pretty bad. None of the characters was in the slightest bit likeable. The men were all foul mouth mysognists and the women vaguely pathetic.

We need to talk about Kevin - finished that too although I so very nearly didn't.

The one book I where have never managed to get further than chap 2 is The Blind Assassin by Margaret Attwood. Dire.

Reading The Time Traveller's Wife at the moment. It is hard to get nto but I am don't hate it so I shall continue.