Most overrated books

[Snowfalling]

I'll probably get flamed for some of these choices but here's my list:

1. Brick lane by Monica Ali. So badly written and researched, i was embarrassed for the author, as I'm from a similar background to her.

1. The God of small things. There was one sentence that was repeated over and over again to the point of toe curling cringe. Something about the twin's hair bobbing. Also generally didn't enjoy the writing or plot. Just absolute crap. I don't get the adulation for this at all.

1. Anything by Maggie o'Farrell or Kate Atkinson. I know people love them both, i just don't get it.

1. Sophie Hannah's more recent books are just dire. The earlier ones were great.

1. Catch 22. Just gibberish. You probably have to be drugged up to enjoy it.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

So which books do you think are overrated?

Oh and I loved Kevin too. And all of Mitford and Waugh.

Wolf Hall/Bring up the bodies. Unbearably wanky.

This thread is like reading a list of my favourite books (other than 50 Shades of Grey and the Da Vinci code. You can keep them). I'm in the wrong place.

Since the thread is about overrated books, not just bad books, I have to put Booker Prize winner, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Pretentious and boring. I'm sure it won for political reasons.

Anything by the Nobel Prize winning Orhan Pamuk. I keep reading his books thinking that they will get better, but they don't. Maybe the original turkish versions are better.

The Da Vinci Code and anything else by Dan Brown.

Bridget Jones’s Diary

I also agree with Master and Margarita! Very hard to read

Lolita on the other hand, was one of the best books I’ve ever read

This thread is not so much 'most overrated books' as 'books I do not like'.

When I read Midnight's Children it enthralled me.

Both the effect of being young and perhaps it being of its time.

I don't think I'll reread.

I' m in the same position with 100 Years of Solitude.

The Girl On The Train: mythical status but I thought it was meh.

Kazuo ishiguro, Hilary mantel, Kate Atkinson

Eleanor Oliphant
Fifty shades of grey
Girl on the train
Da vinci code

I really like Ian McEwan and Les miserables though!

Really surprised by some of my favourites being so disliked but we're all different.
I love Jane Eyre and Captain Corelli. The beginning of Captain Corelli is some kind of endurance test. If you can get through it, then it really takes off after that. I thought Elinor Oliphant was ok, not amazing but entertaining.
Tolkien definitely needed a better editor and the lack of female characters with any kind of agency makes me sad. But I still like them.
Most overrated for me has to be Outlander. A great idea which really caught my imagination, some of the characters I loved and there are moments of real wit BUT she waffles on for far too long, goes into far too much detail. Introduces characters that are utterly pointless. Also the relentless graphic rape and torture are too much.
I have read that the author has an ego the size of Jupiter and refuses to be edited. I actually read the second and third installments hoping for improvement but I should not have bothered.
My favourite book of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo. It is over long for our 21st century eyes but it was written for serialisation in a newspaper so I forgive it.

@roundligament
Agreed on Kite Runner
We done this at book club and everyone fawned over it and I said I wanted to punch him 🙄

I couldn't finish Wolf Hall. The religious detail was just too much. I tried skipping through those parts but couldn't as there was so much! It was in demand at the library of course, so just had to go back.

To Kill A Mockingbird. Like a Dummies Guide to White Man Guilt. (I KNEW Atticus wasn't the fucking saint people think he is, and wasn't surprised at all by Go Set a Watchman)

Stardust. The film was a miracle based on the source material. In the end the witch just tells her all men are bastards and wanders off muttering?

Wolf Hall. Horrible style over substance. Can't believe she had the audacity to dangle the big question of whether Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn would get it on for so long.

I loved the Count of Monte Christo!

A proper blockbuster.

I loved Wolf Hall after my first confusion over who was being talked about.

I already know a fair bit about the era and religious background so the detail was ok. I have found another Hilary Mantel historical novel unreadable, perhaps I just lacked the wider knowledge to keep up my spirits!

50 shades. Load of crap. Brick lane also.

Cold mountain. Unrealistic is not the word. After years apart due to the bloke being sent to fight, he is reunited with his sweetheart. Almost instantly they 'consummate their love'. Yeah, ok. Hated the whole twatty book.

Girl on a Train put me off drinking for weeks.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhalgren

Dahlgren, Samuel Delany. Highly rated by some. Undoubtedly the worst SF I ever read. About 600/700 pages. I got to 50 pages to go, and gave up.

See item 4 in the wiki.

^ Apparently Harlan Ellison only got to page 361

I love the count of Monte Christo too, fabulous book. Some writers tell a good story whilst not writing particularly well, others write beautifully while not having a particularly good plot. I think that's partly why people are so divided in their taste in books. Someone who sounds quite knowledgeable mentioned earlier that Jane Austen's writing lacked technique, I have no idea what that really means, but I love her books. Dickens was a terrible waffler but his books (most of them anyway) are amusing and entertaining imo. Rowling may not be a good writer, but for many people the Harry Potter books are a cracking read. I am loving this thread btw.

The Count of Monte Christo is quite like Les Miserables in theme but much more fantastical. I guess the titles would give you that idea!

A lot of the books on here I couldn't even finish I was so bored! LoTR, my dad's fave book, reading the first few chapters was like pulling teeth.
Fifty shades of shite, dp read two chapters and said "utter crap". I tried to enjoy it, I really did, but gave up around the same point.

Another vote for Catch 22. Also The Great Gatsby and anything by Joseph Conrad.