Overrated Books

[Stevie B]

When books win awards or receive lots of hype, it can be really disappointing when you read them and don't understand the fuss.
When I think of overrated books, two jump to mind:

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. I just didn't care for the concept - a math professor who has suffered a traumatic head injury that impacts memory. As a result, the book lacked impact for me.

All the the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. There are many people who adore this novel that won the Pulitzer Prize. Due to its reputation, I, perhaps, expected too much. Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I found the book to be nothing particularly special.

What are some books that struck you as overrated - not necessarily bad, but also not deserving of their glowing reviews?

By the way, there is an underrated books thread that was started several years ago if you want to share some titles that caught you by surprise in a positive way.

 

[errequatro]

The Hours, Michael Cunningham

The book was... meh. The whole thing about Meryl Streep (yes, she's in the book) was just childish, fanboy gushing.
Did not like it.
The film is much much better.

 

[Benny Profane]

Torto Arado [Crooked Plough], Itamar Vieira Júnior

Dozens of hype on a pamphleteer and bad written book replete of phrases which only works for quotes in social medias.

Normal People, Sally Rooney

Meh! I read 5 pages and I just quit it.

a máquina de fazer espanhóis [the machine which makes spanish], valter hugo mãe

I quit it too. I read 20 pages and his prose doesn't touch me. This book is a Holy Grail here. It's a kinda cult book for booktubers, instabookers etc.

Great thread, Stevie!

 

[Ben Jackson]

Though I don't normally read overrated books (I usually read a short review of any book I'm interested in before I read the book: there's no time to read nonsense/unimpressive books), this is my list:

Normal People Sally Rooney
Buried Giant Kazuo Ishiguro
In Praise of Stepmother Vargas Llosa
A Man of the People Chinua Achebe

Read the ten pages of the first two books and quiet. Finished the last two but wasn't impressed.

I would also add The Hours by Michael Cunningham as well. A decent book but not as powerful as other Pulitzer Prize winning novels I've read: Old Man and the Sea, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Road.

 

[Benny Profane]

Well, what about Joël Dicker and Donna Tartt, guys? ?

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi did not impress me in the least. I also understand that it was a conceptual rip-off of Moacyr Scliar’s Max and the Cats, so possibly deserves some disapproval on that basis as well.

 

[Stevie B]

Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi did not impress me in the least. I also understand that it was a conceptual rip-off of Moacyr Scliar’s Max and the Cats, so possibly deserves some disapproval on that basis as well.

I don't give up on books too often, but I did with The Life of Pi - not because it was a bad book but because I thought there's another book out there that I'd probably enjoy reading more.

 

[Stevie B]

Well, what about Joël Dicker and Donna Tartt, guys? ?

I read The Secret History by Donna Tartt years ago, a book whose popularity and hype led me to expect more. Not an unpleasant read, but not a great one, either.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

I don't give up on books too often, but I did with The Life of Pi - not because it was a bad book but because I thought there's another book out there that I'd probably enjoy reading more.

I thought it was borderline bad, and you will seldom hear me say that. I cannot disagree with the Goodreads reviewer who wrote that “Life of Pi felt precious, pretentious, contrived, belabored, forced, overly long, badly written, uninteresting, unoriginal, and pointless.” ?

I did finish it because I rarely give up on books, especially fiction. I have a document in my files called “Abandoned Reads” in which I note the exact point I stopped reading a book, and the reasons for doing so, on the theory that I need to justify these uncommon decisions to myself.

There are a few books that I can honestly say in retrospect I SHOULD have abandoned, because they were pretty darn bad and finishing them was a form of self-punishment. But not too many.

 

[Stevie B]

I thought it was borderline bad, and you will seldom hear me say that. I cannot disagree with the Goodreads reviewer who wrote that “Life of Pi felt precious, pretentious, contrived, belabored, forced, overly long, badly written, uninteresting, unoriginal, and pointless.” ?

I did finish it because I rarely give up on books, especially fiction. I have a document in my files called “Abandoned Reads” in which I note the exact point I stopped a book, and the reasons for doing so, on the theory that I need to justify these uncommon decisions to myself.

There are a few books that I can honestly say in retrospect I SHOULD have abandoned, because they were pretty darn bad and finishing them was a form of self-punishment. But not too many.

I absolutely agree with the "contrived" descriptor. There wasn't an organic feeling to the plot, and so I gave up on the book relatively quickly.

 

[errequatro]

Torto Arado [Crooked Plough], Itamar Vieira Júnior

Dozens of hype on a pamphleteer and bad written book replete of phrases which only works for quotes in social medias.

Normal People, Sally Rooney

Meh! I read 5 pages and I just quit it.

a máquina de fazer espanhóis [the machine which makes spanish], valter hugo mãe

I quit it too. I read 20 pages and his prose doesn't touch me. This book is a Holy Grail here. It's a kinda cult book for booktubers, instabookers etc.

Great thread, Stevie!

man, don't get me started with Valter Hugo Mae... I tried to read "o apocalipse dos trabalhadores" and didn't get along with it.
It's like he has good ideas that he quickly transforms into bad books...
His characters are often one dimensional, the books full of sentimentality.... I don't know... I really do not rate ANY Portuguese writer of his generation as being genuinely good. Goncalo M. Tavares is the only true artist, but even he leaves me cold. (a gentle way to say he is boring.)

 

[Leemo]

I found Lolita to be a bore and not brilliantly impressive like I had expected.

 

[Stevie B]

I found Lolita to be a bore and not brilliantly impressive like I had expected.

I wonder if those descriptors couldn't also apply to Nabokov himself.

 

[kpjayan]

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. I just didn't care for the concept - a math professor who has suffered a traumatic head injury that impacts memory. As a result, the book lacked impact for me.

Agree, 100%.

 

[kpjayan]

Most Overrated Novelists.. !

Paulo Coelho Reacts To His Name In "The Most Overrated Novelists In The History Of Literature” List

Coelho shares the "overrated authors" space with 19 other notable literary figures. But are they overrated?, Features News, Times Now

www.timesnownews.com

With GGM, James Joyce, Flaubert and Proust, I would say, he is in in 'august' company.

 

[tiganeasca]

Most Overrated Novelists.. !

Paulo Coelho Reacts To His Name In "The Most Overrated Novelists In The History Of Literature” List

Coelho shares the "overrated authors" space with 19 other notable literary figures. But are they overrated?, Features News, Times Now

www.timesnownews.com

With GGM, James Joyce, Flaubert and Proust, I would say, he is in in 'august' company.

Not to mention Stendhal and Hemingway. It's probably just as well that I can't (and wouldn't likely) read the original list; while I would agree that some of the authors on that list are likely overrated, the inclusion of some of these names only leaves me wondering what the criteria were.

 

[Benny Profane]

Most Overrated Novelists.. !

Paulo Coelho Reacts To His Name In "The Most Overrated Novelists In The History Of Literature” List

Coelho shares the "overrated authors" space with 19 other notable literary figures. But are they overrated?, Features News, Times Now

www.timesnownews.com

Blergh!

Paulo Coelho is to blame about the rising of the coaching culture (that means cancer) with Robert Kiyosaki and Rhonda Byrne.

If he stayed writing lyrics and drama (yes, he was former professor of Drama), we'd be safe of all these rubbish books.

About the list! Holy S@#t! Are Gabo, Proust, Vonnegut, Salinger, Joyce, Flaubert overrated novelists? LOL! Are you kidding me?

 

[Stevie B]

Reputations, in all fields, sometimes take on mythical proportions. Just because certain names appear on these overrated author lists, doesn't necessarily mean list makers believe they're bad writers. Perhaps, they just want to take them down a peg or two.

 

[Liam]

A student recently tried to convince me that Shakespeare was overrated. My quiet response was, "There is a difference between being overrated and being great." So basically, I was calling her a fool but I think she was too self-preoccupied to notice it, ?

 

[tiganeasca]

A student recently tried to convince me that Shakespeare was overrated. My quiet response was, "There is a difference between being overrated and being great." So basically, I was calling her a fool but I think she was too self-preoccupied to notice it, ?

Seems to me you were simply stating a self-evident truth without taking a position on the question whether, in fact, he is overrated or not.

Jus' sayin'

?