Most overrated and underrated book, in your opinion?
What are the most overrated and underrated books you've read?
| I'll comment | 21 | |
| I'm not sure | 8 | |
| Other | 1 | |
| What's a book? | 11 |
Help us keep this site organized and clean. Thanks!
[
Report Post
]
Comments ( 37
)
-
Avant-Garde
-
anti-hero
Overrated = Catcher in the Rye by: J.D. Salinger
Underrated = This side of Paradise by: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Comment Hidden ( show )-
-
-
Anonymous Post Author
Aww, I love the Catcher in the Rye. It's so amusing! I do love F.Scott Fitzgerald, though. I think he's fantastic.
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
dappled
Yeah, I do love Catcher but a work of great literature it is not. And I've not read early Fitzgerald but I do like him a lot so I think I'll add it to the list!
Comment Hidden ( show )
-
-
dappled
I love questions like this, but you're going to have to give me a bit of thinking time. I'll come back when I've had a ponder. :P
Comment Hidden ( show )-
-
-
Anonymous Post Author
Thanks! Maybe you should make some coffee and look out a window for a bit, ha.:P
Comment Hidden ( show )-
-
-
dappled
Most underrated is Herland by Charlotte (:P) Perkins Gilman. If she'd have been a man, this would sit alongside Brave New World and 1984. But because she was a woman writing about feminism before women were even deemed sensible enough to vote in the US and UK, it would never be as acclaimed as it should be. The second book is Im Westen nichts Neues by Erich Maria Remarque. Any generation that hasn't known World War should read this and be mindful, because this is how it is. It's the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of World War I next year (and the hundredth anniversary of Gilman's book the year after). I hope one is commemorated with silence and the other with joy.
Most overrated (and this is going to cause huge controversy) are certain 19th century English writers (Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, all the Brontës, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Jane Austen). I'm not saying they are rubbish (between them they have produced some really wonderful things that I myself love) but people imagine they are better than they are. Dickens has been on a banknote but he was a soap opera writer. A damned good one, but still...
Comment Hidden ( show )-
-
-
Anonymous Post Author
:O Huge controversy! Yeah, I'm not to keen on some of their books. Although I did enjoy them, I was sort of disappointed with Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. They were good, I just didn't fall in love with them. I really thought I'd love WH as well:(. Can't speak for the rest yet, though. I've only read Hardy's poems, but I got told his books are a snooze-fest.
Edit: sorry if you got an extra notification for this. My comments don't seem to be sending:(.
Comment Hidden ( show )-
-
-
dappled
Ahh, yeah, I've read three of Hardy's books and the one that's said to be his best (The Mayor of Casterbridge), I couldn't even finish. There's no feeling in it and you get to know as much about a tree or a hairbrush as you do about people. It's like Hardy is on a mission to describe the hell out of every little thing. If Hardy had have written Star Wars, there'd have been a whole chapter about Luke's farming enterprise and the colour and texture of the crops he grew and how they look in the evening. Just get to the light sabres, man!
Comment Hidden ( show )-
-
-
Anime7
That's exactly why I dislike Hardy, he spends too much time describing the scenery and barely on the characters. And if he does, the characters are never interesting, they're merely a jerk or a "victim of God." Plus, there's no dialogue, he just describes the conversation. I don't get to know what the characters are thinking. I personally don't see how his books are great, I think people just over analyze his literature too much, actually I think they do that with a lot of writers.
Comment Hidden ( show )
-
-
-
-
-
-
theytookthisone
-
Who_Fan4Life
I admit, I should do a hell of a lot more reading than I should, especially given all the books that I own. So don't bark at me if my opinion on this matter isn't well informed.
In my opinion, the book Great Expectations by Dickens was highly overrated. Verbose and boring, I absolutely hated it!
On the flipside, a book I really enjoy reading is The Mutiny on the Bounty. It's the (real life) tale of a ship's Captain (of the Bounty) who, along with about fifteen other men, get sent adrift on a small boat in the South Pacific, and have to find their way back to a settlement where they could get to safety. It's thrilling to read especially since it was a real-life event.
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
Justsomejerk
I can't say if a book is under or overrated because I am not very exposed to media or reviews but most books I read have been recommended by friends.
I couldn't get into J. K. Rowling's Casual Vacancy. I'm midway through chapter 6 and have been for two months.
I absolutely could not put down Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger.
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
shade_ilmaendu
Most Overrated: Twilight if you're thinking modern. I'd have to say Great Expectations or possibly The Old Man and the Sea if you're looking for a classical answer.
Most Underrated: Decidedly tougher. Doubt I'll be able to choose just one. Impulse is a fantastic book that I don't feel gets as much credit as Crank but which I like much better. Plus being a teen novel probably scares people away from it, but the author is so insightful and the poetry is quite moving. The Tao of Pooh is an amazing book. Changed my life it did. Ohhhh, and The Name of the Wind (series is the Kingkiller Chronicles). I'm waiting impatiently for the third installment, I don't even know where to start. Just go read it! Hell just read the leaf of the book and tell me you're not hooked.
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
disfunkshinal
Overrated: Fifty Shades of Gray (we call rubbish like that literature these days?)
Underrated: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. (I laughed, cried, and smiled all the way through. Not once did I put it down.)
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
SangoNyappy
Overrated: Twilight
Underrated: "Je to inak mami" < it's a Slovak book that has never been translated to other languages so nobody knows about it but I love it anyways.Comment Hidden ( show ) -
Darkoil
That is a toughy. I usually like most books that I read so picking an overrated one is difficult. The first one that came to mind was The Catcher in the Rye, I enjoyed it but I don't think I will ever read it again. Most underrated would be Hyperion by Dan Simmons, possibly the greatest book I have ever read and I still have not met anyone else that has read it.
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
kelili
-
Anime7
Overrated: The Pearl by John Steinbeck, actually I'll add Of Mice and Men on their to. Anything by Thomas Hardy as well and The Scarlet Letter.
Underrated: I'd have to go with Dappled on Herland. I know there are more though.
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
GreyWulfen
Most overrated: Twilight-Saga
Most underrated: So much comes to my mind... spontaneously, I'd say Roadside Picnic by Arcady and Boris Strugatzky.Comment Hidden ( show ) -
himynameis
Overrated: the scarlet letter -_-
Underrated: hmm so many.. maybe Go Ask AliceComment Hidden ( show ) -
The most overrated I've read was 'An American Tragedy' by Theodore Dreiser. What a piece of shit. Roughly 900 page piece of shit, at that.
I don't know about underrated, I'll have to think about that one.
Comment Hidden ( show ) -
Epofly
Overrated: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Underrated: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Comment Hidden ( show )