Overrated (sometimes vastly overrated) fiction books. Name one/some.

[raccoon]

GONE WITH THE WIND. I read it first when I was a teenager (1960's, so attitudes about race and sex roles have changed). I loved it then. My older female relatives thought it was second to the Bible.
I read it until my paperback copy fell apart.

But now. First off, it just dra-a-a-a-g-g-s. It presents slavery as a "good" things, most slaves as happy, most slaveowners as nice. It presents rape as romantic.

I can see how it had an appeal then, but I do think it was vastly overrated.

[YOY]

1. I thought Camus' "The Stranger" was overrated. Perhaps not VASTLY but definitely overrated.

Just seemed so when I read it. But read it I did.

[PanoramaIsland]

105. Camus' fiction is like a piece of pomo art - doesn't hold together or make much sense unless you

know the complex theories behind it.

That said, I personally love his theories, and having known them beforehand, loved The Stranger.

[OrwellwasRight]

119. Agreed.

Sorry, Camus.

[SteppingRazor]

2. The Dune series.

I'm currently on the fifth book of the six written by Frank Herbert. At this point, he's just phoning it in. In two back-to-back chapters, he describes two different women's voices as being "a soft contralto." I mean, that is just bad writing. And it's only one small example among many.

[PanoramaIsland]

109. I've always heard that only the first book is worth it.

[Curmudgeoness]

110. I loved the first book. But I never went any further. nt

[OrwellwasRight]

120. Disagree.

The world he creates is fascinating. I think the cultures and religions and rivalries he creates and explains are worth glossing over some of the details. But I take your point. I have similar complaints about the Harry Potter seires. Worth reading because the story is fun, but the writing is pretty lame. Every third page somebody "clambers" up or onto something.

[CoffeeCat]

3. The Bible

OH, I'm so in trouble...

[DBoon]

6. Dianetics is a close second

nt

[Jo March]

73. Anything by L. Ron Hubbard is overrated

:thumbsdown:

[Jim Sagle]

104. There are exceptions to every rule.

[stray cat]

77. only if you are stating a book you haven't read - if you have read it your welcome to your opinion

of course. I like book reviews but hate those posts who review a book they haven't read.

[marauding liberal]

4. The Great Gatsby

[tigereye]

44. hmmm, try reading Reading Lolita in Tehran, the author's analysis of it

(and really cool analysis of Lolita, plus various American LIt classics) might offer you a different view. It did for me.


Apologies if you are an literature head of some sort. :)

[kickysnana]

5. Catcher in the Rye; most Hemmingway

[raccoon]

7. Me and a co-worker agree about Catcher in the Rye.

My college roommate loved it. I read it and I'm like, what was the big deal? I thought Holden a spoiled brat.

[ananda]

9. About Hemingway n Fitzgerald n Salinger

Some Hemingway books really are great
in every way, both readable and works
of art. He deserved that Nobel for
novels like The Sun Also Rises, A
Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell
Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, and
for many of his short stories.

However, some Hem books are really lousy.
It appears that he suffered a decline as
years went by... head injuries, all that
drinking, etc.

Fitzgerald produced some great books, too.
The Great Gatsby is a work of art, a
wasteland novel along with TSAR by Hem.
However, some of his work is lousy, too.
You have to discriminate there.

As for Salinger, he was simply a nine days
wonder. Totally passe.

[HamdenRice]

14. About Salinger -- I think "Frannie" is one of the greatest short stories ever written

I read Catcher way back in high school (maybe junior high) and loved it. Haven't read it since and barely remember it.

A few years ago a friend raved about and gave me "Frannie and Zooey" which is really a short story and a novella or maybe one regular size short story and one very long short story.

Anyway, I thought Zooey (the second story) was badly written and all I remember of it was one sibling crying and sitting in the tub while the other sibling tries to comfort her and they have a long spiritual conversation that seemed both undramatic and unconvincing and uninteresting.

But I have to say that Frannie, which I've re-read several times, is one of the greatest short stories ever written, imo. Not a lot happens -- a college boy and college girl meet and have drinks, the boy is obnoxious and the girl faints -- but there is so much brilliant technique in it.

I think the really technically audacious thing about the story is the way it seems to be about one thing and from one perspective (the college boy and his Holden Caufield like opinions) and then veers of to be from the girl's perspective, and about very profound if mystical spiritual questions.

I also thought "A Perfect Day for Banananfish" is a very, very good, strange story.

So I wouldn't call him a "nine day wonder." He was inconsistent, but I can see why, when he was young, writing short stories in the New Yorker, he was hailed as a genius.

[tigereye]

45. a lot of those old New Yorker "lions of lit" are gone. It's kind of sad.

Those folks had a lot of skill and passion.


Nice comments, btw.

[fishwax]

55. I agree with almost all of that

Had the same experience with Catcher in the Rye (liked it a lot, just haven't returned to it--not sure why), but I think that Franny is a great short story with a lot of depth and shadow. Zooey not so much.

[closeupready]

89. Catcher in the Rye - definitely.

Big yawner. So a kid cusses. Big deal.

[OneGrassRoot]

102. I'm sooo with you on that one. :) n/t

[OrwellwasRight]

121. Agreed.

The Old Man and the Sea was about the most boring book ever written.

[Wickerman]

8. I think you are on to something

with the whole "I can see how it had an appeal then.."

Once a book or any other work of art is out and out to the public it has an immediate impact that will never be replicated. If it is ground breaking, that is a time in place that will never be recaptured.

Works that are significant (or so judged) then shape the literary universe and anything written afterward will forever be influenced or judged in some manner by that work.

You can't put lightening back in a bottle so while something may be considered overrated its hard to separate the impact of the work from its actual pure literary value.

[ananda]

10. Flaubert v. Tolstoy

Too much adultery angst without any
kind of relief.. how interesting is
that after ten pages???? I never
could get through Madame Bovary.

I much prefer Tolstoy's treatment of
adultery because it is interlaced with
other lives and plots. I've read it
two or three times, and seen various
film versions.. all great.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

48. Madame Bovary isn't just adultery. It's the tragedy of women defined solely by marriage,

empty consumerism born from boredom, the burden of debt, medical quacksterism and the sad consequences, among other things. It's primarily a class and gender study in my opinion. It also used a slice of life technique that consciously tried to stay away from a grander sweep or larger scope. It's one of my all-time favorites. The only other book I ever read that was as good at portraying the life of the ordinary in such a compelling fashion was "The Old Wives Tale" by Arnold Bennet.

I understand you didn't like it and I respect that.

[The_Commonist]

11. Atlas Shrugged

Nobody talks or acts like those characters in real life.

[phasma ex machina]

83. +1 Mercy! That tome desperately needs to get cut down to size. nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. The DaVinci Code. Lukewarm, recycled Robert Ludlum.

[fadedrose]

59. A little of HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL too.. nt

[Jo March]

71. A lot of Holy Blood, Holy Grail

Brown has never read a book on the Templars that he hasn't ripped off.

[rhett o rick]

85. I thought Angels and Demons was worse. nt

[Chemisse]

88. I agree. I liked it but could not understand why it was so raved about

It must have been the shock value of the topic.

[pnwmom]

13. Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy. n/t

[Onceuponalife]

15. Philip Roth

"American Pastoral"

I read it all the while going, "WTF?" Then about six months later it wins the Pulitzer. Can anyone explain this one to me?

[grillo7]

20. I haven't read American Pastoral, but...

I thought the same thing about his "The Plot Against America". Great idea, bad execution.

[Flying Dream Blues]

78. I agree totally...The Plot Against America was a great idea and

really, really terrible execution. But I loved Portnoy's Complaint!

[SheilaT]

112. The problem with Plot Against America

is that it plays with an idea that's been written about thousands of times. Only all of those books were published in the science-fiction genre (read ghetto). Clearly Roth -- and far too many of his readers and most especially the critics who thought it was so great -- smugly thought that he'd single-handedly invented the alternate history genre. But he didn't, and in s-f the alternate history sub-genre is a respected area which has lots and lots of good books within it. I suspect it his total unfamiliarity with alternate history that makes his ending so amazingly weak.

Similary, A Handmaid's Tale (which I liked a lot) is treated as a totally unique stand-alone kind of book. Again, thousands of similar novels of a distopian future have been published.

[tigereye]

43. have you read much of his earlier stuff? there's a certain post-war

ennui and smart-assedness that one has to like a bit.


There was a wonderful interview with Terry Gross not too long ago that put his snarkiness and sexual preoccupations into a more human context.


I haven't read that one yet, so I can't comment.

[Onceuponalife]

49. No, I haven't read his early stuff

but I'm going to try again with The Plot Against America. Maybe I'll read his earlier stuff, too. Thanx for the comments.

[WCGreen]

62. It's a great book that continues on where "It Can't Happen Here" left off...

[SheilaT]

124. When She Was Good

which is like his first or second novel is, for my money, incredibly good. I reread it a couple of years ago and felt it held up incredibly well.

[abluelady]

66. I'm a Philip Roth

fan. Some writers, I believe, "talk to you," while others don't, even if they are prize winners or duds. I think Philip Roth is like Woody Allen--you either like him or you don't! (I like Woody Allen, too.)

[classof56]

87. Just found this thread. Wondering if you read Roth's "Letting Go"

I read it back in '65 or so at the recommendation of a college lit teacher friend. Found it disturbing and frustrating and had to have my friend explain it to me. His take: All these things happened to one of the main protagonists that could have been life-changing, but alas, he did not change at all. Maybe it was the part about the girl killing her little brother that really got to me. Still produces sad and unsettling reactions when I think about that. Never did read much Roth after that. As you said, you either like him or you don't!

The teacher friend also introduced me to Ken Kesey, which I appreciated. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was predictibly disturbing, me being me, but I did like "Sometimes a Great Notion".

Just some ramblin' thoughts...

[DUgosh]

16. Charlotte's Web by E B White

My second grade teacher read it to us everyday after lunch. I was bummed out for days because of the ending. I still am 50 years later. Such a tragedy for a sheltered second grader. I wasn't prepared.

[HamdenRice]

18. That story scared the shit out of me!

I don't remember whether it was kindergarten or first or second grade, but it was the same experience -- the teacher read it to us, and the death of this wonderful spider was really traumatizing.

In retrospect, it had to have been also because my grandmother died just before I started school -- my grandmother, who was almost like my primary caretaker because she lived with us and my mother worked.

That said, I don't think it's over-rated, just that it might not be appropriate for the small children it's aimed at.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

98. Charlotte, Fern, Wilbur -- the book stays with you through a lifetime

Some Pig!

Overrated? Are you thinking of another term since you write that it has stuck with you for fifty years?

[BlueIris]

17. "The Lovely Bones," by Alice Sebold.

Bizarrely overrated (and a poor-quality novel to boot).

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

<: Woman with huge thumbs sticks them out to hitchhike. [br />
Assorted desert-like landscape descriptions (filler and ballast). :]]

Those are "repeat" brackets like you see in sheet music.

:wtf:

[LisaM]

26. That is a terrible book

but it's not as bad as "Another Roadside Attraction".

[Onceuponalife]

50. LOL I loved ARA

Different strokes and mileage may vary, I guess. I also loved Skinny Legs and All and I've got ECGTB on deck. I enjoyed the movie.

[saltpoint]

21. The Da Vinci Code.

Not much flesh on the bones of that one.

Going back a bit farther, I've thought much of SILAS MARNER.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE is underrated, IMO.

[Richardo]

22. Don't. Get. Me. Started.

x(

[saltpoint]

23. Hi, Richardo. I like that the ideas that thread through the book

are in circulation but I just didn't think the book was that good.

[Richardo]

24. Yeah, the plot could have been intriguing with a skillful writer behind it.

But I found the 'codes' ridiculously elementary and the inability of the 'code expert' to instantly understand them infuriating. (Four pages to identify an anagram? Really?) If what's his name was any kind of real expert the book would have been 25 pages long.

[saltpoint]

25. Agree. It was a pretty good opportunity but the author took a

broad-stroke approach.

It was an idea that should have fallen to a Margaret Atwood, for example.

[Hestia]

115. I know there are a lot of people who don't understand why The DaVinci Code is so popular

but I honestly feel he wrote it for a sub set of people in the US, Goddess Worshippers, Pagans, Esoterics, Occultists and even Light Workers. It is a story for us and made pallatable to large segment of society. It wasn't the running around Paris part, it was the symbology and how Occult symbols mean different things to different people. There was some information regarding British Traditional worship, but not everyone practices like that. It was the fact that one of Our symbols - The Pentagram/Pentacle, a multi-layered symbol, with so many meanings that they can't be listed - brought forth and demythetized that the rest of the story is irrelevant. Angels & Demons too, with the ambigrams and Elements. It helps when you have a best-seller showing everyone that we're okay. It was the Opus Dei guy who is the villan and killer, not us Pagans. Refreshing...

[pitohui]

116. (de vinci code)no it WAS the running around paris part, it was an airplane book

i'm reminded of books i read in the second grade, which went into great detail about how to break codes and such, in a way it was a child's book, with the same stories we used to read at that age...but here we are in the airport lounge or at the gate or in our seat belted and loaded and ready to take off...
so we're reading about all these "adventures" in places we've been or places we will soon be

when reading the book a flight attendant asked me about all the people reading the book, because you know she finally broke down and read it only to find that it just isn't that good or that deep...and i agreed, as another poster said, it's too much explication of how to solve an anagram that would have gone over better for a second grader

but when you're loaded and stuck on an airplane, maybe it's OK

i don't know why someone would read it quietly by the fire at home, it has v. little literary value

i don't think the book would be a hit in another time when lots of just ordinary workers weren't flying between continents on business and maybe squeezing some travel in, it really relies on travel nostalgia (oh yeah! i was there! i was there! and i was there...!)

there's no meat there, but when you're jet lagged and bored of watching the stupid ass movies, then you're maybe not looking for meat, and a careful long drawn out explication is OK because you're jet lagged and/or drunk -- so using the baseball bat to communicate w. the reader is OK

but "a great book" it will never be

[tigereye]

46. I don't really get why people think Brown is so great

There are infinitely more skilled and interesting writers on similar topics. I think he's a hack.

[LisaM]

27. I've got a list a mile long, but I'll put "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay" at the top

because it's fairly recent. I'll add the following newish books:

"Atonement"
"Middlesex"
"Prep"


They all have the same problem, characters who are so two dimensional that they seem as if they are in a cart on two tracks heading to the bottom of a mine with no way to stop it or get out, just moving numbingly to their foregone destinies. Ycccchh. We just read a Dreiser book for my book club, and the difference in animus between his characters and those in the books referenced above is enormous.

For non-fiction, I nominate:

"The Tipping Point" (boring, and wasn't about the subject)
"Musicophelia"
"Three Cups of Tea"

For historical purposes, I'll add the most overrated book of all time:

"Moby Dick"

[azmouse]

28. Atonement was one of the worst books I've ever read.

Kavalier and Klay is close behind.

[tigereye]

47. I've never thought Chabon was that amazing - but some of his short stories

are very good. When Mysteries of Pittsburgh first came out, I thought, well, ok, that's pretty good, but didn't warrant the huge advance. Of course, he did to to Iowa, right? I think that has something to do with it. :)


My mom OTOH, thought Kavalier and Klay was great.

[Captain Hilts]

30. Kavilier and Klay was a strange book. I agree. Atonement had great scenes, but

not a good plot. The description of Dieppe was great, but, overall, the book just didn't work for me.

[LisaM]

31. I need you guys in my book club!

We have nice people, but they don't pick very good books (plus they don't generally try hard to find books - just get the 'what everyone else is reading' stuff).

[Captain Hilts]

33. When it comes to fiction, I'm just crawling out of my non-fiction rut...

so I'm not well-versed on reading fiction.

I loved Pride and Prejudice.
And Persuasion.
GWTW was okay.
Wuthering Heights, a dreary book, I read in dreary Moscow - a mistake.
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All I thought was a stunning book. Very good.
Norman Rush's 'Mating' was long, but very interesting. I haven't read the follow up.
Little Altars and Ya Ya sisterhood I thought were an effective blend of humor and saddness. They worked for me.
Moo was terrific.
I've enjoyed reading Eric Ambler's espionage books. And Furst's intrigue books.
I grew tired of Russo's Upstate NY series by the time I got to 'Mohawk'.
Everything by Sue Townsend is good. The Queen and I is really, really good.
Couldn't get through Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
I've loved the 'Mammy' series and the movie with Angelica Huston in it.
The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing was so so.
Miss Garnet's Angel was lousy, especially if you're female or Jewish or both.
LOVED Bridget Jones' Diary and it's sequel. And the previous book by the author about the woman who becomes an aid worker.


My goal is to try "Underworld" next. I like the premise of Bobby Thompson's home run and the Soviet exploding The Bomb.

[LisaM]

34. I read most of Jane Austen at least twice a year each

I liked the Ya-Ya Sisterhood too. In fact, what the books you mention have that the so-called serious books like "Atonement" lack is the ability to write interestingly and to move the story along. I suggested Ya-Ya for the book club and got laughed at for my pains (it's an "airplane book") but the fact is that Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, and so on wouldn't have lasted if the authors hadn't mastered characterization and story telling.

I liked the Richard Russo books I've read, but have not read them all.

When it comes to non-fiction, I like history. I LOVE "Wuthering Heights", dislike "Jane Eyre".

This "Underworld" sounds quite intriguing!

[Captain Hilts]

35. I know many people that read P&P annually. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. I think you've hit upon why I don't like a lot of contemporary fiction

I could not finish Atonement. It rambled on self-indulgently about very little.

Most of my fiction reading consists of mysteries, not because I am fascinated by murder but because the writer has to keep the story moving. While the central plot of solving the murder provides a framework, the author can use it as a place to hang all sorts of other concerns, including social or political commentary.

Many years ago, I read an article that compared today's mystery writers to Charles Dickens in that they write popular stories that deal with social issues. Writers like Sara Paretsky, Faye Kellerman, and Ruth Rendell do a fine job of exploring the underside and cruel contradicitons of Western society, and in Japan, mystery writers like Miyuki Miyabe and Natuso Kirino do the same for their society.

[raccoon]

41. Ruth Rendell is good at portraying characters with mental issues, such as Guy Curran

in GOING WRONG, the protagonist in LIVE FLESH, and Minty in ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME (which I wanted to stay home to finish today).

[LeftishBrit]

75. I've only read some of these...

I agree on liking the Jane Austen books! And of the recent books, Sue Townsend is one of my favourites. I disagree with you about 'Wuthering Heights' though I think that it needs to be read as a dark tale, almost like the harsher old legends, not as a romance.

[SheilaT]

113. Speaking of book clubs

I'm annoyed beyond words at the stupid "Questions for Book Club groups to discuss" at the end of too many novels.

[Goblinmonger]

36. Wow, you and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

I love Kavalier and Klay and Middlesex. I think Dickens just rambles on WAY too much.

We agree on Moby Dick. Though I don't like it for the same reasons I don't like Dickens.

[Flying Dream Blues]

79. Wow, I thought I was the only person in the world who hated

K&K! Oh, and in that category (the "is it just me") add Harry Potter and all vampire and zombie books! :)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

82. I do NOT "get" either vampires or zombies

I find the current fascination with them incomprehensible and mildly irritating.

[Captain Hilts]

29. I don't think GWTW presents slavery as a good thing at all. That's certainly

not the impression I came away with from the book.

[Sequoia]

32. I was reading that book in 8th grade and the teacher snatched it

from my hands and was very angry and said something like how we kids get exposed to sex too much. Funny thing though, it was a very fundie school and no one talked about sex and naked was a dirty word. Finally in high school I read it (same school) and the principal told me I ought not to. I liked it becasue Scarlett was a headstrong woman. Mean, too I guess. Ashley bugged the heck out of me, ole sop...mr. honor before anything else.

[LWolf]

38. I have a couple of 8th graders reading it right now.

I look forward to hearing their thoughts.

[raccoon]

37. I definitely got the impression from the book that it was, that most

of the O'Hara and Wilkes slaves were happy, especially the house servants. That "Uncle Peter" (Miss Pittypat's slave) was "one of the family."

Ashley Wilkes said of the Wilkes slaves, "They weren't miserable." (To give him credit, he added that he would have freed them all after his father died.)

[Captain Hilts]

42. That's the point. Slaves that worked in the house, some, stayed. The others were outta there...

at first opportunity.

Scarlett was certainly a shit with everyone around her, but especially the slaves.

[Retrograde]

63. there are some hints that not everyone was happy

All the field slaves left at the first opportunity - there's a mention of some of them riding off with soldiers. The ones who stayed are either getting on in years, or very young: in the book, Prissy's just a child in the beginning.

There's also a discussion among a group of married women about "yellow babies", the results of their husbands' sex with some of their slaves.

I think a lot of why the book is dismissed is because it depicts a society in which women have to get by without depending on men. That was forgivable during the war, but Scarlett likes her independence and keeps it, running her own business rather than depending on her menfolk.

[LWolf]

39. Confederacy of Dunces.

The Twilight Series.
The Shack.

[Onceuponalife]

51. What????

Forsooth! Ignatius J. Reilly is one of the greatest literary creations ever.:bounce:

[LWolf]

52. I know that many people think so.

That's why I had to put it first on my list.

I found him to be irritating and tiresome, myself. I plodded through the book, and when I finally reached the end, I immediately donated it somewhere, hoping he would find a more appreciative audience after he left me.

My first thought, after reading the last page, was, "What, exactly, is it about this book that resonates with so many people?"

Don't explain it. The explanations of scores haven't meant anything yet.

I'm glad you like the book; someone has to. ;)

[hippywife]

60. At least you finished it.

I just couldn't. I couldn't make it through maybe but a third of it. I found it boring and couldn't relate to him in the least.

:hi:

[likesmountains 52]

64. Same here, it's one of the few books I couldn't even finish...

[LWolf]

67. You, and the other person who responded to you,

are the first people I've ever heard from that didn't LOVE that book. Besides me, of course. ;)

It's great to know I'm not alone, lol.

:hi:

[Flying Dream Blues]

80. Since I couldn't get past the first 100 pages, I can't say I read it

but certainly thought it was unfunny, gross and just plain pointless.

[la_chupa]

84. I loved Confederacy of Dunces

loved it

I majored in math
at public school though
just sayin'

[vorlund]

53. Harry Potter

I read those over a couple days when sick with some flu virus and I thought they were decent children's fiction, but nowhere near good enough to generate all the hype that they did.

Dune is overrated, too. I read close to a dozen other books between the time I started reading the first book and the time I finally finished it.

Anything by Dean Koontz.

Anything by Tom Clancy.

Any Ayn Rand book.

Most of Piers Anthony's work.

I could just keep going on and on...

[Dulcinea]

81. Tom Clancy bores me to tears.

He goes on & on forever about how the submarine works or some crap like that. Who cares? Yawn.

[dmallind]

54. Moby Dick

480 pages of technical travel journal and whaling manual with a ten page boy's own adventure story hidden in there somewhere.

[mochajava666]

101. We have the winner!

Moby Dick is excruciatingly long and boring, although I think I could work on a whaler with little training.

Honorable mention:

The Dan Brown books, and The Catcher in the Rye, which have already been mentioned.



Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer. That's my contribution to this list of overrated novels.

[fishwax]

56. Look Homeward, Angel

A potentially brilliant pair of short stories or novella buried in a 550-page novel

[bluescribbler]

57. David Copperfield

I just couldn't get into it.

[libguy9560]

58. Ditto on GWTW

Add these stinkers:

Nearly all of Stephen King's books
Animal Farm

[Rob Gregory Browne]

65. Stephen King?

The man isn't perfect, but he's written some pretty amazing books and has a voice that's hard to say no to.

To each his own, I guess.

[joeglow3]

93. I read a number of his books, but Tommyknockers was my last.

Seriously, spending something like 30-50 pages (I no longer remember) on a flashback to a poetry reading to explain something that could have been summed up in one sentence: James Gardner is a drunk? Waste of my time.

[PanoramaIsland]

108. Animal Farm is awesome! I'm a big fan of Orwell's writings, both fiction and non. n/t

[AngryOldDem]

117. King's early stuff is fine.

He can craft good short stories, too, a rarity anymore. And his latest, "Under The Dome," is a return toward what he used to be.

But generally, his stuff really isn't good anymore. I was disappointed in "Cell" and "Lisey's Story," to name two of his more recent books. I often get the impression that he's phoning it in as if he knows people will read it because it's by him. I came to that conclusion after wondering why in God's name he would want to issue an uncut version of "The Stand," which comes in at a whopping 1,100 pages or so -- a bloviated twin of the original 600+-page book that was actually very well-paced and memorable.

Maybe he's still finding his game after the long recovery after his accident. But I'm still a fan, and will continue to give him the benefit of the doubt.

As for "Gone With The Wind," I got it as a Christmas present when I was 12 or so, and it's still on my shelf -- unread.

[hippywife]

61. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

And a Confederacy of Dunces. I really can't relate to books who's characters have pathetic lives and even more pathetic emotional personas, regardless of how they got that way. I'm not an uncompassionate person, I just don't want to be immersed in the misery of someone else for page upon page upon page. There's just so much of that in the world, I want to read to escape that usually.

I can't relate to characters who do and think the strangest things than no normal or sane person would. There have been some books that I've started or read that try to make these feelings or actions seem normal with little explanation as to why the character thinks or acts this way. Can't think of titles at the moment because some of them were so long ago. There are times I can't remember everything I've ever read since I've been a bookwork from a very young age.

And Dickens stories are way too dark and malevolent for me.

Even though they bog down with too much detail at times, Michener's books have always been favorites of mine because he draws one in to empathize with both or all sides of a conflict. He made me realize that, aside from out and out vile treachery, there really isn't a black and white comparison of good and bad; long ago cured me of the notion of white hats and black hats.

I guess sometimes, for me at least, it boils down to my mood and how intently I wish to read. I can muddle through a really poorly written book of fluff if I really, really want to read something. But I really always want a book that sucks me in from the start, holds my attention throughout, and makes me sad that it has to end.

:hi:

[Mist]

68. "The Fountainhead" by Rand, and "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. So many

people praised "The Corrections" I finally read it. Whole lotta nuthin'.

And Rand seems to be writing about characters from a parallel universe, characters that don't resemble anyone I've ever met.

[gratefultobelib]

69. Water for Elephants

[rhett o rick]

86. She sees capitalists as altruistic. nt

[Ezlivin]

70. Infinite Jest

I tried on three separate occasions to get through that book but it was just impossible.

A lot of people thought that David Foster Wallace was a literary god. I read (or rather tried to read) the book and could see how it could be terribly clever and perhaps prescient, but the sheer amount of information—including copious footnotes—was too much.

If I ever met someone who read the whole thing and enjoyed it I would love to hear about it.

[pitohui]

91. i loved infinite jest

so you've heard about it from me, i think it's wonderful

the length was part of the point of the book, as it was abt addiction/compulsion

a short neat little book that you could finish in an hour wouldn't work

it was abt the video you can't stop watching, presented in the book you couldn't stop reading (well, assuming you got caught in its addictive web, which you obviously escaped)

even the most addicted reader could not read a book of that size and complexity and "infinite" turnings-in on itself by staying up all night and turning pages, the book becomes a part of you, for an extended period of weeks..."clever," i suppose, but "clever" to me often implies being smart and stylish without a heart and one thing you can say, the book surely has heart

:-)

[Jo March]

72. The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker

He wrote just to see himself write and write and write. The book was bloated and plodding.

[LeftishBrit]

74. Anything by D.H. Lawrence with the possible exception of 'Sons and Lovers'

Tom Sharpe's 'Porterhouse Blue'

'The Bonfire of the Vanities' and Tom Wolfe's books in general.

Probably plenty of others, but those are the ones that occur to me.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

76. O.K., I gotta say it. My Pet Goat

[mochajava666]

90. Moby Dick

Length is not always a good thing.

I think I aged 5 years while reading about how Melville classifies the whales by size as the only criteria. I would recommend a heavily abridged version if it was shrunk to 1/3 of its size.

I also vote for Catcher in the Rye. I really wanted to like it, too.

I also agree with the Dan Brown books. I guess a Symbologist is Superman without a kryptonite problem. He can solve anything and survive anything as well.

[joeglow3]

92. Mrs. Dalloway

I HATED that book.

[noel711]

94. Oh I am with you there~

When I was in 8th grade, it was the sensation to read it,
but my mother, very overprotective, wouldn't allow me.

Like any smart pre-teen, I coverd the book with a book jacket
of some innocuous girl scouty type book, but I was quickly
disillusioned: what was the big deal? Even as a kid I could
see thru the phoniness. BUT... when I read "To Kill a Mockingbird"
(Harper Lee)...I was blown away.. a masterpiece. (MY mom also
forbade me to read that.. and I used the same book jacket trick)...

Then I read Carson McCuller's "Member of the WEdding" and I was also
blown away. Southern writers.. wow! But just not the tripe of
Margaret Mitchell.

We also weren't allowed to see the movie "gone with the wind'
and when I was in college, we went to see it.. but got thrown out
of the theater because we kept laughing rowdily.. and making rude
comments (a la "Rockie Horror Picture Show)....
and no, we were stoned or anything.

[bermudat]

95. Ulysses

[PanoramaIsland]

106. Hey now, don't knock Joyce until you've tried him

50 or more times (because it's the 50th that's the magic, don'tcha know)!

[rantormusing]

96. There's a lot i agree with from earlier replies

Current Stephen King i'd have to say is overrated, anything after Dolores Claiborne doesn't do it for me. Though his Bachman books, IMHO, are some of the best dystopian futures of the past century. I won't read another Dan Brown book, they start off great, but by the last hundred pages it's like he forced himself to finish. The payoff never satisfies.

Now i tried to read Gormenghast, but couldn't make it through. One of the few occasions where i liked the movie more than the book. I miss Harry Potter, it was just pure story, you can dig some politics out of it, but they can be missed.

The beautiful and the Damned moved me, the Great Gatsby, i barely remember how far i made it before giving up.

[beyurslf]

97. The entire Left Behind series.

Maybe the first couple books were okay. After that, you can see where they realized these were going to be huge moneymakers and the story just stretches out forever. A couple of the books covered what amounted to a weekend trip and nothing else.

[terryg11]

99. Anything that's sole plot is "my life sucks, boohoo for me"..

and then goes on for 200 plus pages detailing how crappy their life is.
It's different if there are other circumstances beyond their control like caught in a war or natural disaster or something INTERESTING but honestly, how many books do we need where some over privileged trust fund baby isnt happy and just feels like suicide or drugs is their only option?
Puhleeze. This was played out as soon as catcher in the rye showed up in lit classes everywhere.

[PanoramaIsland]

107. As a lifelong depression sufferer, I enjoy angst lit to no end

because I can empathize.

Remember, a tide of negative emotions doesn't have to be triggered by anything; a person can simply have terrible brain chemistry. Do you think Edvard Munch was just a spoiled booji for suffering internally all his life the way he did?

Depression, suicidality and psychic tumult are not trivial, and they can make for great literature.

[Name removed]

100. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[freesqueeze]

103. To The Lighthouse

like sticking pins in your eye.

They never make it to that freegin lighthouse.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Mz Pip]

111. Bridge of Sighs

I loved Empire Falls but Bridge of Sighs was a boring book about boring characters. Really a disappointment.

[SheilaT]

114. What immediately comes to my mind

is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.

Actually, the writing is quite good, but the ending so didn't work for me that I wanted my money back when I got to the last chapter. There is no way I could buy the ending.

What I have learned over the years is to be wary of books that are overly hyped, almost no matter who is doing the hyping. Several books that have been named here (both as good and as awful) are books that I have absolutely no intention of reading. So I want name them to say I assume they are crappy because I shouldn't be judging if I haven't read it. Except to say that I often read reviews, and a good review can often get me to figure out if I would want to read a book or not.

Actually, I'll break my rule and name one book. It's the DaVinci Code, and I have zero interest in reading it, because the science-fiction genre has long done this kind of plot. My biggest gripe with DaVinci Code is that so many people seem to take it as non-fiction, rather than fiction. More to the point, I've already read a whole lot of books that have as the underlying theme that There's Some Big Conspiracy Out There Which is Being Kept Secret From the Likes of You and Me.

I also acknowledge that I may have somewhat limited tastes in books, and what I'm rejecting are those outside of my own fairly narrow range of interest. Except when I start talking to other people about what we've read lately, I invariably have read a much wider range than anyone else.

[dimbear]

118. My vote goes to:

Sylvia Plath, for "The Bell Jar."

[OrwellwasRight]

122. Disagree. LOVED that book.

It spoke to me.

[OrwellwasRight]

123. The Grapes of Wrath. The "Rabbit" books by Updike.

I found Updike unreadable and Grapes bored me to tears! Could not get through the page after page of description and scene-setting. Get on with the story already!! That's why Of Mice and Men worked so much better for me. Stuff actually happened quickly.