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?

Shit. That was James Joyce wasn't it.
I meant him. Rubbish.

Moby Dick. Hated it.

oh quite a few on here that I really loved!; Lovely bones, Eat Pray Love, Room, Behind Closed Doors, Girl on the Train, Kite Runner, The Time Travellers Wife.

Plus I've just bought Cather in the Rye

OP you have rather tarnished my memory of Time Travellers Wife now!

Ones I just couldn't get on with were;

Book Thief
Donna Tartt and Kate Atkinson books
Three Men in a Boat

Fifty Shades of Grey...urgh..God so predictable. The author could've really expanded on some of the story lines but didn't so they just felt very rushed. I think they were good in that they got non readers reading but if you are an avid reader then they are not great.

As for the person who said the Kite Runner.. I love that book and a Thousand Splendid Suns. Both brilliant books.

Nodding along to lots here:

Catch 22
The Goldfinch
Shantaram (there were good bits in it, but not enough)
Labyrinth
Anna Karenina (fucking hundreds of pages on Russian agricultural economics!!)
Heart of darkness

I would add:
Lolita (made me feel very queasy, such a horrible story)
The Sea, The Sea (so long and self-indulgent - and I get that the narrator is a self-indulgent cock but it is at least twice as long as it should be)
The Slap (man, I hated every single person in that book and cursed it as I struggled to the finish to see if there was any redemption - there wasn’t)
2666 by Roberto Bolaño - just don’t go there
Divine secrets of the yaya sisterhood. Wow, how the hell did that get published and then recommended to me?! Still angry!

Lovely Bones. Pages of nothing. I assumed the ending would be good, it wasn't.

Harry Potter books...oh, what a pile of shite.
I dont understand ths frenzy over them, especially from adults.
They are just regurgitated bits of much superior books that have been written over the years.

One Day is a crock of shit. Also Vilette was a huge snoozefest.

Agreed, I found Lolita very disturbing and in very poor taste - a horrible book by a horrible person.

the lovely bones and the girl on the train. Couldn’t see the fuss of either of them.

Wild
Eat Pray Love

Both absolutely awful

See 50 shades of grey was fanfic of twilight saga so i found it interesting how the exact same story and characters could present differently. But i had to skip loads of it as it was painful to read.
I cant read Wind in the Willows and Heart of Darkness

I love it too. And a Prayer for Owen Meaney. Again when it all comes together. I know so many people who disagree though.

Agree re the Slap, not one likeable character.

Tess of the sodding D'Urbevilles. Utter shite - only managed the first 6 chapters when I did it for A level.

Also the third Bridget Jones book. I got halfway through and then had an epiphany and realised I didn't have to read it as it was total bilge.

Henry James Turn of the Screw.

Yes to A Clockwork Orange in fact anything by him except his autobiography which is fantastic.

Catcher in the Rye. I read it recently, couldn't believe such rubbish could be so well regarded.

All that stuff about women opening their breasts to the moon - sounds too much like Cold Comfort Farm for me to take seriously.

Good thing DH Lawrence was born too soon for the Bad Sex awards. Can they open a Classics category, I wonder?

Now Stella Gibbons on the other hand deserved a medal for her skewering of that overblown self-indulgent style of writing.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith has to be one of the worst books I have ever read.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Saturday by Ian McEwan (and Atonement isn't much better).

My Sister's Keeper by Jodie Picoult

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Most Dan Brown books - I've read 3 and they were all disappointing.

Bloody Twilight.

Definately Ulysses - man thinks about his penis for 700 pages and we're supposed to like him because he feels some vague affection for his wife despite having no other redeeming qualities whatsoever.

How to Be Single

The Great Gatsby - it wasn't bad, exactly, it was just nowhere near as amazing as it was billed to be.

The Stand by Stephen King. Took Deux ex machina to a whole new level.

Like several others have mentioned The Essex Serpent was disappointing.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

A Little Life - there was some beautiful writing in there but the story became tedious torture porn at points.

The Goldfinch had an intriguing premise but could have done with some heavy editing.

Sepulchre by Kate Moss. After the mess that was there's no way I'm reading another of her books.

Anything by Charles Dickens but most of all Bleak House. Or possibly David Copperfield. Can't decide which is worse.

I wasn't keen on The Lovely Bones. It most certainly did not live up to the hype.

The Alchemist - I was expecting to be blown away but it was all hype and no insight.

Having said that quite a few of my favourites have been mentioned in this thread! Each to their own!

@Cryalot2 it wasn’t the long & whinging road was it?

I couldn’t stand the light between oceans and the film was just as dull and depressing! Also you which I believe has been made into a tv series. I can’t get passed the first 20%!!!

Oh, and everything by Jeanette Winterson except both autobiographical books. She's best off leaving the airy fairy magic unrealism stuff alone.

Classic bad sex for Fanny Hill ( the title itself) but I remember pleasure- girths being mentioned a lot.

Whining That should have said!

I also hated lord of the flies with a passion!!!

Yes to the "metafiction" part of 'Oranges’ Winterson goes bonkers when off the narrative. Brilliant autobiography, also deserving of bad sex awards for The Passion.