Highly regarded books that you hate?

[bobsmoot]

I'm going to have to agree with the posters who have mentioned Hemingway so far. So overrated in general, although I will say I enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea.

Also have to mention Harry Potter. I tried reading the first one and just did *not* get what all the fuss was about.

In terms of a book where writing style has completely put me off, The God of Small Things is praised as brilliant, but I honestly could not get through the first few pages - it just seemed to be dripping with pretentiousness.

I also seem to have the opposite opinion here to DanHab about George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. I found the first books to be way more engaging and addictive reads than the later ones in the series. I was really glued to A Game of Thrones and got through the whole thing in a few days. I'm now on A Dance With Dragons and have been dragging through it over a period of a few months. I've found that he's stretched things out so much and added so many new characters (and allowed certain key characters to simply stagnate, whereas in the earlier books they were constantly developing) that I don't really care much about what's happening any more. Not sure If I'll finish it.

[mbeasley]

Frankenstein. I had high hopes for it when I picked it up, but it was everything that I could do to even get through it.

[Winter]

I remember really disliking A Farewell to Arms, but I read it a really long time ago, so I don't remember much about it.

Concerning Frankenstein, again, this is another book I read ages ago, so my memories of it are pretty fuzzy, but I read it in college for a class on the history of the industrial revolution. I remember the book as being a pretty awful read, but I did think it was interesting taken in the context of it being a reaction to the changes that were taking place at that time. Made me hate it less, so I thought I'd share.

[bobsmoot]

I also think that I may be the only person in the universe who couldn't get through Catch 22. All of my friends rave about how great it is, but I just couldn't get into it. I can't pinpoint any particular thing about it that I disliked, it was just something that didn't grab me.

[Ian]

Sorry I may get a contract out on me, any book by Mr Dickens, just can not get into his work.

[Fran]

I also think that I may be the only person in the universe who couldn't get through Catch 22. All of my friends rave about how great it is, but I just couldn't get into it. I can't pinpoint any particular thing about it that I disliked, it was just something that didn't grab me.

I'm with you ... I did actually finish Catch 22 but it took close to 22 years to do it. Don't know what it was about the book but I just kept putting it back on the shelf. Even having finished it I still fail to see what people like about it.


@Ian
I just put you on my hit list

[sophiachic]

lord of the rings, didn't like it at all.

[newood38]

Catch 22. I loved the first third, but the humour got too repetitive after that.

[Bailers77]

Most classics. I force my self to read them but they drag on and I have trouble deciphering the language.

[krichardson]

The Scarlet Letter I could hardly finished but I had to for high school English class. I remember being amazed because I always loved (and still do) to read. I just could not image the characters or the environment to save my life. Hated that book.

[dlachance9]

The Lord of the Rings. You can imagine how many die hard fans I've pissed off by telling them that. But it's just not my cup of tea. What can you do?

[sabbysteg]

Popular fiction: Harry Potter. There was just something about it that was not interesting to me, and the hype was waaaaay to big for the actual product IMO.

Classic literature: Wuthering Heights. I'd rather be pinched by a thousand crabs than read that book ever again. Horrid.

[moderntimes]

New stuff? DaVinci Code. Hated this book.

"Classic" books? "Look Homeward, Angel" and "Great Gatsby" both made me seethe and I was still required to write about them in lit class. I'm still angry about that. Grrr

[fari30]

I hate the last book of a lot of popular series, such as Mocking Jay or Allegiant. The other books of The hunger Games and the Divergent series were pretty good and interesting, but when they went to the last book, it just went all BLAH!

[inksomniareads]

I don't know if I would say it's highly regarded, but since John Green is a popular author, I'll count it. I read Looking For Alaska when I received it for World Book Night last year, and while I wouldn't say I hated it, I didn't really get the hype surrounding either it, or the author. I thought it was okay, and the author was okay, but I don't see what the huge deal is about either of them.

It just seemed like any other contemporary YA novel, nothing particularly spectacular about it. I didn't dislike the characters, but I didn't fall in love with them. By the end of it, I didn't care about what happened to any of them. I /wanted/ to like it, I just didn't care. Maybe The Fault in Our Stars is worth the hype, but eh.