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?

The Bible

Satantango. No fucking paragraphs. It's apparently deliberate but just seems like a typesetting error and reflective of the drudgery of the plot. I did make it to the end but deleted it from all devices immediately after so I'm never tempted again.
The film they made out of it was 7 hours long.

I like some of Stephen Kings books but needful things was awful. And God yes I had forgotten the dice man, a steaming pile of shite.

Discovery of Witches. It makes me angry that it was deemed publishable. Written by a 9 year old. Went against absolutely everything you are ever taught about writing.

Everything by Virginia Woolf. The pretentiousness of that whole Bloomsbury Set shtick gives me the rage.

Catcher in the Rye x100000000000000000

My sil pushed Dan Brown's holy grail book on me and told me it was mostly true.

OMG, yy at 'Discovery of Witches', wtaf was that? The yoga class had me howling.

Discovery of Witches is another one to delete from my list then!

Tolkien - just tedious
Harry Potter - poorly written and derivative in the extreme
Austen - 19th century chick lit

On the other hand, Heart of Darkness and the Poisonwood Bible, mentioned by PP's, I've read again and again. Also Catch 22. And I struggled with Dickens till my 30s. Also loved Brick Lane.

Good job we all have different tastes, though, so there's always plenty to read!

Haven't RTFT but I saw lots of mentions of Catcher in the Rye. Has anyone read Franny and Zooey? Even more painful.

One Day by David Nichols stands out as a disappointment. Good reviews and a bit if a buzz around it. I saved it for a holiday and it just didn’t live up to expectations. The Minaturist was also a big let down.

Took Kate Atkinson Transcription and Sally Rooney Conversations with Friends on my most recent trip and was not disappointed in the least. Thoroughly enjoyed both.

Oh, god, yes, to 'One Day'! Weak female meets total dickhead with bitch mother, wastes her life, dies.

The Trial was a big disappointment, I persevered but hated it. Catch 22 was anticlimactic. war & peace, don't know because I got probably a 33rd into it, twice, and gave up. Anything by Dickens, again, I've tried, I attempt them most holidays but just can't get along with it.

Anything by Dan Brown.

Me before you was just awful.

Gone Girl was predictable shite

I'd forgotten Flowers in the Attic which I also loved when I was a teenager but even then I could see that "Come greet me with kisses if you love me" was cringey.

50 shade novels. Worst. Books. Ever.

The thing about Catch 22 is that I admired it in parts but found it very misogynistic. The only people I know who love it are men.

One day
Gone girl (tedious)
Anything by Jodie Picoult

Heart of Darkness hated this book with a passion. Never finished it despite writing an essay on it at A level.
Hard Times - Charles Dickens made to read it for A levels so incredibly dull
The Virgin Suicides - even thinking about this book makes me angry.
Far From The Madding Crowd - normally I love Hardy but found this one so tedious
PS I Love You
However it's been a very long time since I hated a book as much as Conversations With Friends
On The Road - I think I hate you most of all

Love Kate Atkinson, Ian McEwen, We need to Talk About Kevin and Eleanor Olyphant

Love Austen though, and some of the stuff by the Bronte's. And Wolf Hall and The English Patient.

Detest Dickens and DH Lawrence.

Agree about the Goldfinch (didn't finish it, just too bloody dull as well as unlikely), The Time Traveller's Wife, The Essex Serpent (wanted to like that one, but could not get into it) and The Great Gatsby (just didn't get it). Tess of the D'Urbevilles did my head in.

I almost ruined a holiday by wading through AS Byatt's The Children's Book. God, that was pretentious and insufferable and condescending.

I was also driven up the bloody wall by Deborah Levy's Swimming Home. Implausible characters, crap plot and a limited grasp of some very basic facts. No, no, you do NOT 'unbuckle the stirrups' to get a child off a horse. Do you know nothing?

I remember absolutely howling with laughter when I read Dan Brown's 'Origin' and there's a scene where the hero steals some shoes so that he can escape from the hospital (where he's trapped). The narrative includes him being chased down a corridor, and whilst fleeing for his life he spares the thought that the stolen shoes are very comfortable - and that he must look up a pair when he returns to the USA.

Utter, utter bilge.

The 'Nunferno' twitter parody of 'Inferno' was bloody fantastic though. Sadly deleted but some kind soul archived it for posterity.

Oh god someone mentioned Shantaram - I had wiped that from my memory... and We are all completely beside ourselves.