Name a book you didn't like--

gemini · 08-27-2009, 09:30 AM

--even though the rest of the world seemed/seems to love it--

and/or--

Name a book you loved but thought was underrated or not publicized as much as it should have been.

nynaeve77 · 08-27-2009, 09:54 AM

Wicked. I thought it was terrible, but almost everyone I know who's read it loved it. I thought it was seriously overrated.

gemini · 08-27-2009, 12:04 PM

I am going to say "The Time Traveler's Wife." I really loved the idea behind the story, but overall it was a disappointment.

I can't think of an underrated one right now.

Saria · 08-30-2009, 11:17 AM

Catcher in the Rye is the first one I can come up with. And I like Salinger.
Along the same lines, I like William Faulkner, but The Sound and the Fury makes me just a bit angry.
The Scarlet Letter. Meh.
The Brothers Karamazov
Wuthering Heights. Blah, love story my ass.

LoloDSM · 08-30-2009, 11:51 AM

"Eat, Pray, Love." I got through the first chapter and decided the author was self-absorbed, shallow, and wouldn't know hardship if it bit her on the a$$.

wavycurly40+ · 08-30-2009, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoloDSM

"Eat, Pray, Love." I got through the first chapter and decided the author was self-absorbed, shallow, and wouldn't know hardship if it bit her on the a$$.

Heee! A friend of mine has been trying to get me to read that, and I've been resisting it because I fear it will be just as you've said! Now I'm free to let it go. Thanks!

I thought "Summer" by Edith Wharton was a great book that nobody ever seems to talk about.

"Atonement" was a book that lots of people seemed to love -- I got irritated and put it down about a third of the way through.

Saria · 08-30-2009, 12:25 PM

Towelhead is another I didn't care for that much. It was a good enough read, but I found the writing to be rather average and the story not particularly special or eye-opening.

Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence. Boring.
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Same.
The Great Gatsby. Pointless reading.

I think Villette is pretty underrated since Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte's classic.
I know there are other books I've read that are underrated, but I can't come up with them.

shorticurlz · 09-04-2009, 07:34 PM

I started reading Lolita and it was so well written but the subject matter was just too much for me.

Also I found that Terry Pratchet and Patricia Cornwell got old pretty quickly, I liked the first two from each author that I read but after a while it just seemed repetitive. Does it count as a new book if you just change around some names and insignificant details?

curlypearl · 09-29-2009, 01:34 PM

The Emperor's Children. Won lots of awards but I couldn't get into it at all.

Poodlehead · 10-01-2009, 07:26 PM

I second "Wuthering Heights." And "Atonement." And "Wicked."

"The Bridges of Madison County"

stacyann1 · 10-01-2009, 07:53 PM

Atonement.. thought it would never end.

CurlyEyes · 10-03-2009, 08:06 PM

wuthering heights was so depressing! just when I thought it would get better...it got worse! there was no ending!

Fluffy4eva · 10-04-2009, 02:48 PM

The Lord of the Rings books.... Just couldnt get into them, they might as well have been written in a different language!

On the flip side, there is a terry pratchett book (yes yes I know, Im juvenile. hehe) called good omens which I thought was a work of comedy genius, but it was lost amidst his discworld novels.

hauptaj · 10-12-2009, 01:02 PM

The first thing I thought of was Wicked. Ugh. Hated that book and hated the musical too, even though everyone loves it.

I didn't care for Time Travelers Wife either, I liked it at first but it go so boring, I couldn't wait for it to end.

WavyVet · 10-27-2009, 12:48 AM

Didn't like:
- The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides...I couldn't wait for it to end (but I thought Middlesex by the same author was intriguing).

- Franny and Zooey by Salinger...maybe I need the Cliffs Notes or to just reread this at some other point in my life. I didn't get it.

- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez...this was a long and painful read, but I did it.

Underrated:
The River Why by Duncan...love it!

Gemini13 · 11-23-2009, 03:17 PM

An author that I find completely overrated: Haruki Murakami. I read A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I didn't dislike them so much as think they were kind of meh. Maybe something got lost in the translation.

2666 by Roberto Bolano. Another one that might have had translation issues. I found the first few parts of the book only alright- and a bit too pretentious- but I gave up during the part that described all of the murders in the small Mexican border town. Very grisly. After looking through some reviews at Amazon I realized that a number of people had the same impression of the book as I did, and I gave myself permission to put the damn thing away.

xcurlyxbellax · 12-29-2009, 07:54 AM

I absolutely could not STAND "P.S I Love You." I didn't even try to see the movie, haha.

mad scientist · 12-31-2009, 03:09 PM

"The DaVinci Code".

I'll catch flack for saying this here but I couldn't stand "Outlander". I got about half way through the first book and just gave up.

Gemini13 · 01-05-2010, 09:23 AM

The Sookie Stackhouse series. I read the first three- after the first book I figured I'd give it another try. I would have given up after book #2, except I'd purchased 2 and 3 together! I wasn't exactly expecting anything deep, but I didn't realize they would be quite so insipid.

ninja dog · 01-05-2010, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoloDSM

"Eat, Pray, Love." I got through the first chapter and decided the author was self-absorbed, shallow, and wouldn't know hardship if it bit her on the a$$.

I honestly did a double-take when I read this post, wondering if I'd written it myself. I loathed this book, and now it's going to be a movie.

Elizabeth Gilbert's success defies quality, imo.