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

The Time Travellers Wife - everyone raved about it, so I packed it for Tuscany but couldnt get into it at all - ended up reading a book about the Pope that I found in the Villa.

"What did people think of "The Beach"? Halfway through I was prepared to fling it away, saying, "Yes, Alex, mate, we get the fucking message, you are a Really Cool Person who thinks going to Thailand is Really Cool and taking lots of drugs is Really Cool." Then it started to get interesting. About 100 pages later than it should, but I cut him the slack."

i never got that feeling from The Beach - throughout there was a sense of unease, he was a man on the run, distancing himself from the new kinds of danger he was putting himself to whilst not wishing to return to the disappointments of home. I liked the book - i saw it as an out-and-out criticism of the 'really cool' brigade. I met several people like that whislt travelling, and man they were annoying 'oh, i went to xx mass grave' (did you you cry? or did you just traipse about with your camera?) or 'i went off the beaten track in Cambodia' (well lucky for you there wasn't a landmine there, you twat. Or a border patrol. Or one of those random groups that goes around decapitating people...)

Hated The Time Traveller's Wife, The Lovely Bones, The Alchemist but love Wuthering Heights and Jane Austen. Couldn't read D.H. Lawrence either.

I didn't mind The Slap, as mentioned by many others, but I wouldn't re-read it. It sounded interesting but the whole premise was a bit shaky IMO.

The Road made me cry, which is very rare for a book to do to me. The only other book that can do that is The Grapes of Wrath (very great book but cannot read again because it makes me too sad!)

Unquiet, I think you are right about age changing perception of books. There are books I loved in my teens that I wouldn't dare read now as suspect I would find them infuriatingly self-indulgent.

glasto, I think the Saki story you are thinking of is Tobermory (?sp) - the cat that learns to talk.

Damn, I go away for twenty-four hours and miss the Martin Amis hate-in.

Stupid, pretentious, totally up himself, boring, pretentious, patronising, did I say pretentious ...

I used to work in publishing and occasionally went to launch parties which Amis, McEwan, Rushdie, Hitchens etc attended. I'd just done an English degree and was totally in awe of them, slightly expecting to be somehow enlightened just be being in their presence. They were the rudest, most unpleasant bunch of arseholes I have ever encountered, so full of pomposity and self-congratulation. They ignored everyone who wasn't in their group and stood around metaphorically wanking over a biscuit.

Graham Swift, on the other hand, was absolutely delightful.

Ooh, and I loathe anything Hobbit-related. Elves, meh.

Have just looked at my "yet to read" pile on the bookshelf - lots of them are presents from other people.

Pile includes 1000 Splendid Sons, London Fields (which I did buy myself because a friend raved about it), Disgrace (2 copies), The Golden Notebook, My Name is Red, Catcher in the Rye, a Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius & 2 of the later Prousts (I have actually read the 1st two, don't ask me how).

Thanks to this thread, I can save myself at least 3 months of reading - probably more like 6 months factoring in Proust. Time can profitably be recycled for re-reading Saki .

The pile also includes a major ommission from our list so far - Alexander McCall Smith. Is it just me, or are his books patronising twaddle?

Oh I loved Remains of the day.

I think tastes in literature change as you grow old. As a teenager I loved reading Madame Bovary. I don't think I cope with it now, for instance.

And yes, I'm becoming less tolerant of some writing styles, subject etc.

So, you didn't answer, what did you think of The gathering?

ATTENTION EAT PRAY LOVE HATERS
If you get a divorce and love to travel, you'd probably like it better

:)

jybay - Oh yes, Alexander McCall Smith. Only read one of those and it was distinctly lacking in plot despite supposedly being a crime thriller. I shan't be reading any again. Didn't like the tv adaptation either, it has to be said. Patronising is a good word.

jybay and unquiet definitely agree. Including more positively - I didn't get Dickens at all until late 20s.

USoRight re poetry - can I suggest you try the Pied Piper of Hamelin? Parts of it are pure pleasure.

The best poetry, for me, is succinct story-telling.

At school I loved the one about the smugglers (A Smuggler's Song? ) - "Them that asks no questions, can't be told a lie, Watch the wall my darling, when the Gentlemen go by".

That's a Kipling poem, tearing. I remember loving it at school too - very evocative.

There are a lot of individual poems I love but Poetry as a concept is a bore, IYSWIM. Poetry Please on Radio 4 has me reaching for the off button even faster than Thought for the Day - hideous combination of the twee and ponderous.

Hear Hear who ever mentioned Under Milk Fucking Wood. My parents had a recording of this on Vinyl and as I child it was randomly played endlessly in the background. Tedious doesn't even begin to describe it. Why couldn't they have just played Abba like everyone else's embarrassing parents?

Milk Wood on vinyl Third one down. See! Just reading the description makes me confused and sleepy. You can only begin to Imagine what that did to an 8 year old girl.

oh that didn't work - hold on lpcoverlover.com/category/poetry/page/2/

ok, better

Oh dear - Under Milkwood and Hooked on Classics [other thread] - had your parents no pity?

Thank you jybay, for understanding the kind of childhood I endured. Not only was I subjected to Hooked on Classics and Under Milk Wood recordings, I was regularly taken to The Royal Festival Hall to listen to things like the Romanaian Philharmonic Orchestra does 'Peter and the Wolf'. Endless Pseudo culture...

And we had really full on William Morris wallpaper all over the house when everyone else had 80's red/grey/white aysemetric patterns and black laquer furniture.

I see your Peter and the Wolf (I found the grandfather more scary than the wolf) and raise you experimental operas at the ENO. Probably explains why I am a musical philistine - Post-Traumatic Strauss Disorder.

Actually I really liked 'If nobody speaks...' and thought it was beautifully written, especially the opening few pages.

Have to agree with a lot of the other nominations of crap though:
Time Traveller's Wife- dreadful, pretentious, portentous dross
Kite Runner- sentimental and full of cliche
Da Vinci Code- one of the laughably worst books I've ever read. I only finished it as it was a gift.
Tolkein-suitable only for the under twelves
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius- hmmm, only the first half is readable.

Mixed feelings about The Slap; it has a great start with really vivid and energetic writing then goes downhill.

Books set in places I live. I moved from Gloucestershire to Portland, and if one more person asks me if 'Cider With Rosie' or 'On Chesil Beach' are accurate... NOOOOO!

Has nobody mentioned Behind The Scenes At The Museum? Awful, childish nonsense.

And what about Infinite Jest? It's a cult book but totally rubbish.

Plus anything by John O'Farrell? He gets an idea that would sustain a short fiction story in a magazine then milks it and milks it over the course of a ridiculously overlong novel.

"Prep" by Curtis Sittenfield? The Catcher in the Rye for the 21st century. Not.

I liked Behind the Scenes at the Museum, although I didn't like the subsequent ones.
Time Traveller' Wife left me cold-I really can't see why people cried over it, I just found it tedious.
I feel that I failed with 'The Lacuna' by Barbara Kingsolver-I enjoyed her other books but couldn't get on with it-maybe I will try again.
I was very disappointed by 'Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters-I found it irritating and not remotely frightening.I have enjoyed Fingersmith and Affinity.

Has nobody mentioned Behind The Scenes At The Museum? Awful, childish nonsense.

And what about Infinite Jest? It's a cult book but totally rubbish.

Plus anything by John O'Farrell? He gets an idea that would sustain a short fiction story in a magazine then milks it and milks it over the course of a ridiculously overlong novel.

"Prep" by Curtis Sittenfield? The Catcher in the Rye for the 21st century. Not.