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?

Im not so sure-in The Rainbow thats exactly the main theme. He writes about Ursula Brangwen trying to find intellectual fulfilment, going against everybody to get educated, eventually becoming a teacher and persuing a romantic relationship with a woman when she finds Anton not up to it

Fair enough - I can't honestly remember if I ever read The Rainbow. I think I did but I was so irritated after WIL and S&L that I may not have done. There was a drip, drip of misogyny in my recollection - constant suggestions that women are superficial, vain and materialistic. For instance, the bit where he talks about working class families saving up for a piano (can't remember which novel it's in) and says that the women only want one to show off to the neighbours, but the men enjoy learning to pick out a tune.

I do think that his whole genre has aged badly too, which probably doesn't help. All that stuff about women opening their breasts to the moon - sounds too much like Cold Comfort Farm for me to take seriously.

Remembrance of Things Past. Read 7 bloody books waiting for my mind to be blown and closed the last one with mind unblown

As somebody said, it's a good thing the madeleines were in Book 1, or no one would ever have heard of them

One Day. Give me strength, what tripe.

Room.

But I LOVE Goldfinch and Secret History.

Each to their own!

Funny you posted this as I started Catch 22 recently after meaning to read it for years. What on Earth am I reading!! Probably hasn’t aged well..:

I loved Eleanor Oliphant! The one I couldn't get was the Book Thief ?!?!

I love Kate Atkinson, and Donna Tartt.

But sodding ‘Milkman’! I’ve been trying to read it for months and just can’t get into it

I had to give up on The Power by Naomi Alderman; I had read various articles banging on about how great it was but it just bored me.

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King, I actually felt conned out of hours of my life by the ending.

Girl on the Train, imho it's like a GCSE student has had a good idea for her English coursework and wants to get it written down before she forgets it.

50 Shades of Shite, the trilogy. Same as Girl on the Train but giggling whilst writing the dirty bits.

The Goldfinch. And Catch 22.

Fifty shades...

The secret scripture...

Normal People, by Sally Rooney. Hated it. The Milkman by Anna Burns, had some very funny bits and quirky dialogue, but in the end I was just bored... didn't go anywhere for me and I aborted halfway through. But top of the list was PS I Love You which I tried to read a few years ago and probably reached Chapter 2. Interesting that Donna Tartt mentioned a few times here, as I couldn't get into Secret History, but then I really enjoyed Goldfinch. Sometimes I think it depends on what mood you're in and what's going on in your life. Sometimes, books are worth revisiting. But not PS I Love You... !!

Glad I'm not the only one who didn't get on with Wolf Hall

I love historical fiction but if I'm reading about the Tudor period I prefer C J Sansom's Shardlake series

Fifty Shades of Grey.

Oh and Girl on the Train

I've just started Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney and I'm not exactly enjoying it but there's something about how intense the writing is - the way she keeps going on and on about how the character feels at every given moment - that makes me feel dizzy and overwhelmed. I'm not sure how interested I am in young university students discovering something fundamental about class and sex that is only mind-blowing if you're 22.

Not a fan of a lot of crime fiction which is massively overhyped - Woman in the Window comes to mind. Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes was a big hit but the ending is insane and I felt furious that I'd wasted my time on it. Loads of people love Tana French and people always recommend her but the woman cannot plot at all.

I don’t enjoy anything really old (simplistic I know) Such as Shakespeare, James Joyce and Dickens. I really don’t think it is ‘relatable to modern life’.What really annoys me is when (under duress or for a level English) I've watched Shakespeare ‘comedy’ plays, and some of the audience scream with laughter!!!!!

Everything written by Henry James.

Wolf Hall - i found the tv show with mark Rylance a billion timed more enjoyable

Phillipa Gregory books- i read to get a sort of history lesson, but they are not well written novels

... and Wuthering Heights ...

Wineandtoastfortea

Find David Tennant in Much Ado about Nothing?

It's laugh outloud funny. The paint scene especially.

I try to enjoy Shakespeare but this isn't a try to like show. I watch it when I need a good laugh.

He's my favorite actor bc of this one show.

(Although james McAvoy has a twinkle in his eye that makes me melt.)

Anything by Dan Brown. Dear Lord what utter utter tripe

All the Harry Potter books. Thank goodness dd hated them. So badly written.

Fifty Shits of Shittiness was rubbish.

Love Donna Tartt, Brontes, Maggie O Farell etc. So not agreeing with a few on here.

Of Mice and Men- remember having to read this at school and not seeing what all the fuss was about and how this could have become so well thought of. Ditto Of Mice and Men.

Life of Pi- the beginning seemed quite interesting and I really thought I'd enjoy it ended up expecting it to have an Alice in Wonderland 'and then he woke up and it was all a dream' ending. But not as interesting as Alice in Wonderland.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles has has quite a few mentions on here. I loved it when I read it as a teen. It was during my 'life is harsh and unfair' phase and I really felt I for Tess I was also a bit pretentious and loved carrying it around, referring to it as 'Tess' and likening boys at school to the male characters I didn't like

Oh god yes Henry James.

Ulysses. What a crock of shite.