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Most Overrated Novel?

posted 9 years ago by fiatlux-1
15 replies | jump to latest

What's Your Vote For Most Annoyingly Overrated Novel?

Most people I know read this in high school (required reading), but it was not, in my high school:
"Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger.
Some loved it, some hated it in the reviews...and since so much fuss was made over it, I found a used copy....expecting it to be decent.

UGH.....I should have listened to some of the negative reviews! What a labored tale! The novel was more wordy than Henry James!
Unreadable. I tried several times....then gave up.

What novel gets your vote for Most Overrated?

I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus.
Didn't he discover America?
Penfold, shush.

[–] JerryCornelius 9 years ago

A lot of American short novels that people read at school, stop reading forever as a result and then inexplicably list those same books as their favourites - To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, etc.

I also find Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell to be eternally overpraised.

[–] w-kingseed 9 years ago

Anybody who dislikes To Kill a Mockingbird has a screw loose.

[–] JerryCornelius 9 years ago

Why? It's a book for children with a very simplistic message.

[–] PKLarkins 9 years ago

It's not a book for children.

Earth without art is just "eh."

[–] JerryCornelius 9 years ago

Adolescents, then. It's on the school curriculum. It's not exactly Joyce, is it?

[–] coldnaps 9 years ago

Actually, with the possible exception of the Dubliners, it's better than Joyce, IMO. Talk about overrated...

[–] Insomniatic102 8 years ago

Anything not Joyce is for children is a childish thing to say.

It's simple, but not for kids. There's a difference. I would agree though, that's it's probably one of the most overrated books. It's great, but not remotely deserving to be ranked among the best.

[–] painbow (259) 8 years ago

The Catcher in the Rye is superb.

You're just a slow witted globule of idiot pudding.