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

No, the movie is very mild.

Franca,

Please explain the merit to American Psycho? Genuinely do not get it. Just gruesome violence porn to me.

The Loved One is a masterpiece. Mr Joyboy a delight.

Well, yes, an enormous amount of modern literature is completely redundant, but that's because the amount of "readers" has increased dramatically in the xx century, no?

I still think that, if you look well, many gems can be found.

Evelyn Waugh is fantastic, Decline and Fall and Scoop are the funniest books ever (my choice of read when life is not going well and I need to cheer up) and Brideshead is just wonderful.

Larry, I need to run to get the children from school... I'll be back later for American psycho .

Gems are in my view:

Anything by Ishiguro, especially Never Let Me Go.
Most of William Boyd
A lot of Peter Carey
Some of Sebastian Faulks (I loved Birdsong and the one about the neurologist and the psychiatrist).
Some of Dorris Lessing.

And plenty more that I have forgotten to mention. Modern literature is still great. The critics are just too kind to the "names", so they can turn out any old rubbish and get great reviews.

Can I add another vote for Brick Lane? It's ending was the literary equivalent of "and then they all fell down and died". It's like she ran out of ideas and just decided to end it quickly with the first idea that came into her mind.

Anything by Howard Jacobson. Yes, I know he won the Booker this year, but most of his books are int the "Jewish academic/journalist/unimaginative profession in the grip of a mid life crisis, usually including totally unrealistic portrayals of younger women lusting after his the protaganist's flabby body. Literary wish fulfilment of the worst variety (see also Martin Amis et al)

Completely agree with all who do not get the point of Wuthering Heights. As for Wolf Hall - I have never given up on a book so fast. Story may have been wonderful, but I wouldn't know as I couldn't get through the prose.

Jodi Piccoult. I will never understand why people love her books. They are turgid, unrealistic, self indulgent pieces of rubbish and just seeing a copy on a book stand actually makes me angry (although I suppose you have to admire the huge emotional response she generates in me).

My all time most over rated book - The Great Gatsby. Complete twaddle. They wafted around being irritating and doing nothing. Complete waste of time. And I had to do it as a set work twice - once in school and once at uni. I think it might be the reason I decided not to major in English.

Hands of Evelyn Waugh - I agree Scoop is one of the funniest books ever written and I loved A Handful of Dust.

I really liked William Boyd's Brazzaville Beach.

American psycho

shock-torture-violent-psycho porn for the disinterested.

the authors success is his downfall - he depicts a sociopathic main character, driven by the utter meaningless of everything - possessions, people, work - to kill several people in horrific ways in an abortive and abhorrent attempt to make himself feel something. I read it, i sensed the boredom writ large in every paragraph about Armani this, or Gucci that, and the utterly disgusting murder scenes were just that - boring. But still not images i want in my mind - into the mash it goes!

if only i could un-read it.

It has to be The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I read it once, hated it so much I must have erased the trauma from my memory.

Having forgotten that I had read it, I was duped into reading it again - and got into it thinking "wow this is familiar". Still hated it!

And it is sooooooo loved!

See that I agree with Doigthebountyeater

A Dance To The Music of Time - the first book obviously. Actually, while reading it's not too bad but it has zero page turning quality, I just couldn't be bothered to pick it back up again.

Ulysses.

Oscar and Lucinda.

Completely with you Psammead - I managed to finish it but large sections are barely readable.

As for overrated I nominate anything by Dan Brown, dull, dull, dull.

how could I have forgotten to mention

Moby Dick

very remis of me

Starting to feel curious about what books you-all think are great, and no demurrals.

Am trying to recall stuff nobody has mentioned...

Has anyone mentioned A Passage to India, or anything by Jeanette Winterson, or The God of Small Things, or Possession? A Suitable Boy? Harry Potter?

Actually, I loathe Forster and Winterson, and Harry Potter (ducks).

Remiss even.

Sorry, typing on iPhone at traffic lights.

But still no excuse for Moby Dick

Love in the time of fecking Cholera

A fecking Prayer for Fecking Owen Meany

Don't even talk to me about Kevin

I shall however continue to clutch Wolf Hall, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Dickens, Howards End, Austen and Jane Eyre to my chest protectively while glaring at the rest of you

That is all

Oo yes, Jeanette Winterson - how has she escaped so long?

I love Forster though.

Mrs Danvers! Another Owen Meany hater, thank god. Why is it such "life-changing" book apparently?

"Starting to feel curious about what books you-all think are great, and no demurrals."

sieglinde - they're here:

So what books do you all LOVE?

God of Small Things - entertaining enough, but certainly overrated IMO

A Suitable Boy - I loved it, but I read it when I was 15 or 16 so that may not be true now.

Love Forster. And I haven't finished it yet, but am really enjoying Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question.

Agree, Martin Amis is a pretentious plagiaristic tosser struggling to be as justifiably known a writer as his father.

No idea elephants. Did force myself to the end (encouraged by threads on here) which was kind of moving but not worth all the desultory drivel that preceded it imvo

Aren't a lot of these wankers friends? Rushdie, Amis etc? And that twatty twat who used to be a leftie and then supported the Iraq war?