Posted on 04/12/2013 8:28:36 PM PDT by MNDude
There are hundreds of books that are considered classics and probably even more over-hyped ones on bestsellers lists. Which do you think are the three most overrated books?
Das Kapital
The Communist Manifesto
I’ve read so many I hated, (trying to remember which ones could be considered classics and also overrated).
Jonathan Livingston Seagull;
perhaps Moby Dick;
I’ll give it some more thought when I’m not so tired.
I read Catch-22 in 1968. Actually finished it. Meh. It was OK, but I didn’t see it as the greatest novel of the 20th century.
There are some good choices of bad books mentioned here.
However, my favorite fiction novels are those written by David Baldacci, and my favorites for a laughing good time is anything written by Janet Evonovich!
Bump on Old Man and the Sea.
Was forced to read this in High School. After suffering through that, the next assignment was Wuthering Heights ... I turned it in to the teacher and said “Give me an “F’ - this is unbearable ... I’ll read any other 6 books chosen at random in the library”.
YES, Great Gatsby!!
Lord of the Flies
I couldn’t force myself to finish reading Dune, and of course I walked out on the movie (first time ever).
Any book I was forced to read in high school!
You too, huh? Once was enough for me.
Read “Babbit” in high school. Hated it. Read it again a few years ago thinking maybe I was just too young then...Nope. Still sucks.
I will add “Enders Game”, and will double down on the “Dune” series after the first one.
One last pick: “Grapes of Wrath”. Did Steinbeck get paid by the word for this??
I tried, but never finished Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.
But seriously, how would I know, when I never read overrated books?
I liked The Grapes of Wrath. I have no problem with Steinbeck’s novels. I also enjoyed most of Atlas Shrugged, though it was a little forced in a couple places.
To Kill a Mockingbird. Early PC drivel
While I didn’t care for Grapes of Wrath, I did like ‘Sweet Tuesday’ and ‘Of Mice and Men’. Funny, I love westerns, but couldn’t read anyone, but Louis L’Amour and James Warner Bellah.
Grapes of Wrath beat it by a couple of decades. Not just PC, but socrealist propaganda like in good old USSR.
“The Purpose Driven Life” (2002) author Rick Warren
It was easy to see a daughter of Tom Joad being a propagandist for the Communist North Vietnamese.
Wheel of Time? I know some have read the whole thing twice or more. There are some good parts, granted. However, there is simply too much detail. It takes two whole paragraphs for a person to just cross a room. And there are so many characters to keep track of, and all having strange unorthodox names doesn’t help. And in every book the good guys always end up winning, with the bad guys suffering huge defeats. Too predictable, in other words. And on every cover, the same New York Times quote appears: “Robert Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkein began to reveal”. Excuse me, but this is nothing like Middle Earth, for anyone who has read Tolkein’s works. Maybe that’s a trivial thing to gripe about, however.
But to be fair, I actually liked the last 2 books. Maybe because I like Brandon Sanderson’s writing style better.
Yeah, that one definitely is a cure for insomnia, as is Madam Bovary. That one was so bad, it caused me to fail and English Lit class in college, because I skipped class too many times, because we were reading Madam Bovary and I couldn't bring myself to go to class...a vicious circle!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.