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

Oh Elephants I agree with you now that WH is utter shit. . But when I was fourteen I thought all that drama and passion was brilliant, and obviously the only way to sustain a loving and mutually respectful relationship. Thankfully I grew up and realised that Cathy and Heathcliff are actually vile hideous brats who need their heads knocking together.

Has anyone mentioned Steig Larsson yet? What the fuck is that all about? And don't get me started on all those vampire books!

Rhinestone, I did, I quite enjoyed all Orwell's moaning.

Haven't heard of 'If Nobody Speaks' but will now avoid at all costs.

'Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' anyone? It was heartbreaking trying to trawl through it and ended up giving up (which I never do!!) before I was halfway in...

1. Captain Correlli's Mandolin.
2. English Patient

Have to agree about Down & Out. The rape scene of the girl with learning difficulties is particularly horrid. I do like Orwell's other novels & his essays though.

I love most Austen - her work is parochial - she doesn't pretend otherwise, but it is beautifully observed and her dialogue is better than any other C19 British writer.

War & Peace is a great read but intimidating because so long. Enjoyed it much more than Anna Karenina - another irritating literary heroine.

Glasto - ok, if you hate Stieg Larrson then I can forgive you Down & Out!

Note to authors everywhere - if a Nazi-sympathising, women-hating, serial killer is your most developed and interesting character, MAYBE YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG!!

I see your Anna Karenina and raise you with Madame Bovary.

"Can I be really heinous and add the Harry Potter books to the bonfire ..."

Please do! TBH, I only read the first one and thought it was a fairly good kids' book. I didn't feel compelled to read any of the others and am always surprised by how many adults read them.

First part of Brideshead Revisited - sheer evocative brilliance. Second and third parts - wtf happened there Mr Waugh?

There's never any call to give Jane Austen a kicking YABVVVVVU.

There's a really weird bit in Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow where she...ahem...how shall I put this? Fucks his penis with her clitoris. Perfectly normal book until that point. Perfectly normal afterwards. Two sentences of pure filth. Go figure.

Steig Larson crap
Time Travelers wife crap
But the new book Her Fearful Symmetry is brilliant

Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky life changing in a good way

Miss Smilla was the dullest book ever, but that bit was bizarre!

Glastocat - Madame Bovary is a dreadful book. She's miserable, he's pathetic, it's all a bit rubbish really. But maybe one for gossiping about down the pub rather than writing into a novel?

Notes From an Exhibition - I only read a bit of it and didn't hate it but hardly riveting is it. His secret is that he is terribly charming to middle-aged women (and some of the men), they practically drool when they see him in the street honestly. It is sad.

Meh, I prefer Emma Bovary to Anna K - they are both selfish and annoyingly slaves to passion but at least EB doesn't pretend to be anything else whereas AK puts us through loads of guilt & angst but then still has the affair and rejects the baby.

Disgrace by JM Coetze actually won the Booker prize - it is utter shite.

I thought I was the only one..
...the only one

Middlemarch - George Eliot. What a crock.
Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon. Just the most self consciously literary work I have ever read. I loathed it.

Sebastian Faulks and bloody Birdsong as well. How dull, how DULL was that book.

Hmm, I feel like Elaine in Seinfeld when she's talking about the English Patient - it's quite liberating.

YABU.

Midnights Children is phenomenally over-rated.

Talking of notes, I found Notes on a Scandal disappointing, though that was partly because it had been over-hyped so my expectations were too high.

I liked both Miss Smilla and the Larsen books but then I'm a sucker for that pared-down Scandy style.

oh THANK YOU!!!! Edgar

I knew there was one book so overrated and dire that I threw it in the bin Oxfam, but couldn't remember for a moment which one.

M i d n i g h t ' s Fucking C h i l d r e n

Absolutely dreadful. Unreadable. I have never got more than halfway through it as my brain rejects it at that point.

Quibbler - Middlemarch is brilliant though. Loved that.

I thought I was the only one too, I actually thought there was something wrong with me.

"We need to talk about Kevin". Heap of made to shock shite. Totally inoculated me against Lionel Shriver for life. Her latest thing serialised on R4 has confirmed that.

Right.

Anyone who has slagged off Hardy, Middlemarch, Flaubert, Midnights Children and Wolf Hall line up for a slap (that includes you, Edgar).

I'll let you off with Kevin altho I liked it greatly myself.

Middlemarch is brilliant but it's slow burner. I'd never have got into it if I hadn't been on a long train journey with nothing else to read when I started it.

Daniel Deronda is also fantastic though it's vitally important to skip all the history of Judaism mystical stuff which is unreadable.

Gads, I'm so not with the zeitgeist here. I love Time Traveler's Wife, thought Kevin was deeply affecting, enjoyed Captain Corelli, Da Vinci Code is awful but oddly enjoyable, I think both Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary are great but they do need a bit of time committed to them. I've only just read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but stayed up until 3am to finish it. I enjoyed White Teeth immensely, Brick Lane maybe a bit less, and JM Coetzee's Disgrace I found an uncomfortable read but it was very well done. Iain Banks is one of my favourite writers.

I generally really like Ian McEwan, but I would nominate Saturday as the most overrated book ever. It actually made me really cross that it was so crass. I still finished it though.

Who wrote this 'Remarkable Things'? I'd probably like it!

I've just remembered a right crock, that "my drugs hell" one that was marketed as autobiography and then the bloke had to admit to Oprah that he made it up.

I read it before the "scandal" and thought he was hateful and it was awfully written - I remember ranting to my flatmate who lent me it that it was dreck and how dare she etc.

jon mcgregor.