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

I hated Kite Runner too. Boring shite.

Whoever said Jonathan Strange is overrated needs to step up so I can TAKE YOU DOWN

I also Heart this book. i read it on a perfect island in the Perhentians, after swiming with sharks, beneath a blazing Malay sun. It was as awesome as the setting. Though very long, but as i was on a four month holiday, that was to the good.

Not understanding the hate for To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye at all!
Both American classics imo.
perfumedlife I have just started American Wife and am loving it so far, I just think she writes so effortlessly and breezily. Love Prep too.
Am afraid I picked up Wolf Hall in a bookshop and put it down again when I realised it was a historical novel !

Loved the kite runner.
Hate da vinci ( left the flicks after half an hour and read my paper in the car)

for To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye at all..

they are both GCSE English texts, which means some of us would have been made to pore over the pages at a snails pace, subjecting the language to an over-analysis it doesn't warrant. They would have been fine just to read.

also, a really good argument against mixed-ability teaching of English.....(but that s for another thread!)

I completely hated White Teeth by Zadie Smith, totally overrated IMO. I had to force myself to read the end it was so mind numbingly dull.

I am reading Crime and Punishment at the moment and really enjoying it.

Yes I liked it too thecatateygynsuit, very easy to read. Apparantly the wife is based on Barbara Bush, odd

I read Perfume years ago and loved it. Today just finished my first ever reading of To Kill a Mockingbird and it was excellent.

The Dice Man - irritating
The Gor books - woman hating
White Teeth - Where is thy plot!?
Catcher in the Rye - self indulgent
A confederacy of dunces - boring
A child called it - voyeristic
The Da Vinchy Code - only managed a couple of chapters
Lord of the Rings - hundreds of pages of of some men going for a run in th country!?
Twilight saga - should be called the Mary Jane saga

Did like Johnathen Strange, but would have like it more if it was about 400 pages shorter.
Anna Karenina is very engaging but I just can't relate to it.
To Kill a Mockingbird is good, but somewhat unsatisfying.

Crime and Punishment is brilliant but was not mad for any other Dostoevsky.

Edgarairbomb - Did you stay at Paradise Cove? Perhentians = Paradise No doubt about it.

Not Barbara Bush, Laura Bush.

I loved If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. And lots on this thread.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Smugness Genius - yes, definitely overrated. Got 2/3 through and gave up.

My nomination is Booker of Bookers Midnight's Children. Dear God, I lost the will to live with that one. I haven't manage to finish a single book by Salman Rushdie, and I've really tried.

The Lovely Bones. Utter drivel. Really one of the worst books I have ever read. Has anyone mentioned this yet? Can I really be the only person to loathe it?

I am struggling with Atonement at the moment - I even scoured the shops to find a copy without Keira dullard Knightly on the cover, but it isn't helping. I even skipped to the library sex scene to see if that could make me care, but it didn't.

Foucault's Pendulum was brilliant. I read it in translation, where the book is complemented by 300+ Footnotes and a Dictionary section in the back. Without those, I would have no hope of understanding what Umberto Eco was talking about. I suspect that if you did not appreciate this book, it is because the English edition does not have these explanatory Footnotes and Dictionary.

How about At Swim-Two-Birds? It appeared on the 1001 list of Novels to Read Before You Die - but I'm going to have to skip the modernists entirely if that's representative. What a load of rubbish.

"Apart from Catcher In The Rye, Salinger is a zzzzfest of posh Americans."

NO NO NO Maninthemooncup - I read Franny and Zooey and For Esme with Love and Squalor 20 years ago and the memory of those books has stayed with me all those years, he really had something special, did Salinger, even if he was an unpleasant odd man.

Re Ulysses, sorry, I know as an Irish person we are supposed to Revere Mr Joyce but Dull Dull Dull, cannot abide him, studied his work all through final year of Eng lit degree and it turned me off him for life.

Of recent works, the booker prize winner The Gathering by Anne Enright was the most turgid dull and indulgent piece of twaddle that I have read in quite a while.

Ah, I see Aitch hates it too. Good call.

Re Wuthering Heights - it brings out the inner 14 year old who thinks that kind of psychosis = love, but having recently read it for the first time in nearly 20 years, I must say Emily Bronte, what the fuck were you on? I can only imagine we are meant to disapprove of Cathy and Heathcliff, and it doesn't quite come off properly.

Lovely Bones is a pile of crap. Voyeuristic and unpleasant pile of crap as well.

I really like Ian McEwan but I thought the film of Atonement was better than the book. Loved On Chesil Beach, and his earlier ones (Black Dogs, This Child In Time). Really loved Saturday.

In fact I blame the badness of the Lovely Bones for the fact I ignorantly rarely read modern literature. If that's modern literature they can keep it.

I hated Catcher in the Rye as a teenager, but reread it recently and now I think it's amazing and brilliant. I honestly thing giving it to teenagers is doing Salinger a disservice - I think even a relatively mature teenager lacks the life experience to "get it" as I only did second time around.

Agree re Anne Enright.

I don't think many people would file Lovely Bones under Literature, would they? Really?

Ah - interesting re Laura Bush.
I hate all DH Lawrence and would rather die than pick up Lord of the Rings, seeing as we're confessing all!

have just been looking at some of the 'overrated books' on amazons listmania and there are so many I agree with, that it's easier to just post the link including The Dice Man and Amsterdam

I've never got on with Beryl Bainbridge either. I think I must be missing something.

I hated Lovely Bones too! It was even worse than I thought it would be!