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

Lord of the Rings is SO boring.

As CS Lewis said to Tolkein when the latter was reading an excerpt to him in the Eagle and Child in Oxford, "Not another fucking elf..."

I think looking at the top 20 bestsellers at Amazon and Waterstones is quite depressing!

Can I also nominate 'Boy in the striped pyjamas - was just such tosh!!

Apologies DinahRod. As you can see, I'm an attentive reader But you and Rhinestone can't budge me on Remains of the Day.

I was amazed that I got that far with Possession, Grimma, to be honest. Rossetti, even at her most twee was never that bad - like Violet Elizabeth Bott in a crinoline.

Cotedazur, surely awards aren't always a reliable guide to quality? How many Nobel Lit prizewinners would you still read today? How many writers (eg Blake) were undervalued by their contemporaries?

Loved Perfume. Only wish he'd follow after Kiera in that ruddy Chanel ad.

And another vote for Lovely Bones as a grimly unpleasant pile of tosh. Speaking of which, American Psycho anyone? (but that was covered on another thread, wasn't it?)

(although DH maintains it was probably another of Tolkein's friends who said that, CS Lewis presumably being too Godly to say the f-word)

Ah I came on here to mention The Alchemist and Zadie Smith but I see other wise MNers have beaten me to it.

Am sure I have more...

Oh no, I loved American Psycho. One of the funniest books ever. But I know I'm in a minority.

i think i stayed at Flora bay resort..was very quiet.

just round from Shark point on Pulau Besar.

reminisces

Harry Bastard Potter.

The Slap

Robinson-I'm-a-boring--twat-Crusoe

Couldn't finish Possession, which is shame, cos I'd ploughed through most of it.

'Less than Zero' was even worse tosh than 'American Psycho' IMO. Brett EA - totally overrated

Love that 'fucking elf' line .

Finnegan's Wake - lost the will to live..

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes - it's Mills and Boon CRAP and I have no idea why so many people like it - and now they are making it into a play!

Shame is my favourite Salman Rushdie - found it really readable and easy to get into.

Nothing Austen or Bronte, with the obvious exception of Wuthering Heights. THe love story is young Cathy and Hindley, who is blatantly sexier that Heathcliff, "I'll see thee dammned before I'll be thy servant" and all the "saucy wench" ness.

The Kevin one was ok, but I didn't really like the author from interviews and her other one was pretty boring, although deserves huge credit for making one of the main chracters a snooker player.

The Time Travellers Wife for me as well - I was v disappointed.

Books I haven't finished and foolishly only bought because of hype on the cover:

1. Sepulchre by Kate Mosse WTF, dreadful, just so badly written.
2. Current Monica Ali book
3. Vernon God Little
4. On the Road, ok I had heard of this one and I know it's a classic but yawwwwn.

Also have a problem with books that are meant to be 'laugh out loud funny' they often seem more depressing than anything, (eg books by Stephen Fry)

Agree with Captain Corelli and has anyone said 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

Been wondering if I should try it again, being about 10 years older now but remembering ploughing through Love In The Time of Cholera (present from DH, at the time DP, before going away for a year) and I think I'll leave it on the shelf...

I disliked both Birdsong and Charlotte Gray to the point that I swore I never again would read another word by Sebastian Faulks. But I had to eat my words when I read and loved Engleby which a good friend who knows my taste well predicted I'd love.

I thought We Need To Talk About Kevin was ok, possibly a bit overrated. Her new novel, however, is fantastic - I totally loved it (and I didn't expect to as I find the author pretty unpleasant, not that that should make a difference, but...). It's called So Much For That and it's just lovely.

Whoever was confused about the videophones/flying in Cold Comfort Farm - if you look right at the start of the book I seem to remember it says it's set in the future (i.e. in the 1950s although it was written in the 1930s or thereabouts. And amateur aviation was very popular at the time it was written so people having their own leisure craft probably didn't seem so far-fetched. Who knows, if there hadn't been a war maybe we would all have had videophones and our own planes in the 1950s!)

I can't abide Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's just his style of writing, a bit too magical realist for my taste, although I' sure it's wonderful if you like that sort of thing.

Another vote for Midnight's Children, crap.

1000 Splendid Suns, Cloud Atlas might be good but I just didn't 'get' them. I tried.

The book that really helped me get over the embarrassment of feeling like the only dunce who couldn't appreciate a good book was Little Stranger. I kept thinking it had to get better, it never did. Read several reviews praising the clever suspenseful nature of the book and the amazing ending - no way.

Thanks to everyone for saving me from The Slap, I owe you one.

Who said they didn't like perfume? Go back and read the first page. It's up there with 'Hard Times' as my favourite first page of a novel. I'll admit 'Perfume' gets a little convoluted a shit by the end, but the start is breath taking.

I thought 'The Slap' was hilarious. It made me laugh with the repulsive characters and I particularly found the teenagers wonderfully self obsessed. Why do you have to like the characters to like a book?
I enjoyed 'Disgrace' too- thoroughly inadequate man described in beautiful prose.

Now 'The Alchemist' was drivel and I've tried to forget who raved about them as I have a suspicion it was my best mate.

However, much worse was a book I can't remember the name of. It had lots of descriptions of heaven and was set in a fairground in the US. I was offended it was so bad-does anyone know it?

I was offended by 'The Island' too. I thought it was such an interesting idea when I heard about it and then it was such unispiring drivel.

I made the mistake of getting 'Double Fault' out at the library, then forgot to take it back. I ended up with £9 worth of fines for that rubbish - damn you Shriver!!

I instantly thought of the first LOTR book when reading this thread, I started it 4 times before finally completing it on my 5th try and it was B-O-R-I-N-G, in fact the 2nd book was boring too just not as boring as the first, which then made me feel that I had to read the 3rd because I'd invested so much time in it .

Another book that I wish I hadn't started was Dice Man, it's not big and it's not clever, I finished it because I thought there must have been some point to it - unfortunately there wasn't .

I noticed someone mention 'Kevin' - uhhg, don't think I got past p10.

Prozac Nation was something that I thought might be an alright read, no idea why I thought that as it's about a woman who's depressed - I hope to God she didn't read it back to herself because it was such self-indulgant rubbish that it could've pushed her over the edge!

Agree with many of the above, but become very depressed when I see students in my school forced to read the massively-overrated The lovely bones by Alice Sebold.

OK, so someone misguided in the QCA decided that an American-English shocker featuring the rape and murder of a teenage girl would grab the attention of the kids ... not thinking about the ones who are a tad on the sensitive side because they live in scary areas / family members have been assaulted, mugged, robbed, raped etc. / they watch Crimewatch and believe it will happen to them.

An insult to all the excellent British writers whose work would have provided a much better discussion point for GCSE work.

How the hell it stayed at the top of the charts for so long is beyond me !