An overhyped classic you really didn't like

[Falling4Ever]

Lord of the Rings is so heavily talked about but I can’t seem to read past the first few chapters.

[LHGardener]

As both an avid reader and English teacher; I've always intensely disliked Lord of the Flies. I understand its purpose was to show how humanity, without law, reverts to savagery; but I hated reading it in high school, and I REALLY hated having to teach it.

[Lady-of-Literature]

The Red Badge of courage put me to sleep after five pages.

[mialanca17]

I have a profound aversion to The Catcher in The Rye - I understand its significance *but* I cannot stand it. Holden is a pretentious, angsty, edgy teenager that's unlikeable and annoying which would be fine if it had a point, but there is nothing of substance there. There is no point, no message, nothing I could take away from the book. Sure it talks about the trouble of adolescence and growing up but it *just* talks, without saying anything.

[Patricereads]

Oh! Where to start? Anything by Joseph Conrad, Thomas Mann, most books by Jack London, etc. Even F. S. Fitzgerald has half of his books rated too high in my honest and humble opinion that I don't expect anyone else to share.

[stormydesert]

Ohhh, I have found my people! I agree with what's been said about Catcher in the Rye and its protagonist, Holden Caufield. He's annoying. I find him not relatable in the slightest. His indecisiveness drives me crazy. The worst of it is that Salinger puts the reader in the story with Holden as the narrator, so Holden is right up in your face the whole time and doesn't even realize how crazy he is. He's an unreliable narrator. He tells you he's not shouting, but you know he's shouting because he's telling you that another character is telling him to stop shouting, and you know that the other character is perceiving his actions more clearly than he is... Ugh. Terrible.

A character who reminds me a bit of Holden is Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Crime and Punishment. He's also depressed and indecisive and we have to follow him around pretty closely too.

Regarding Lord of the Flies, I just read a story The Guardian about a real-life incident involving boys who were shipwrecked. Plot twist, they DIDN'T turn into cruel, murderous savages!
"The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months"

[HanElizabeth397]

For me it would be Great Expectations. I even tried to read it twice and didn't like it either time

[Leen282]

I could never finish Lord of the Rings, I didn't consider it a classic until I saw it mentioned here in the comments.
I struggled through War and Peace.
I struggled through Madame Bovary.

I did love Wuthering Heights and have read it multiple times. Perhaps because I really love Kate Bush's song .

[Bulbul1122]

I didn't quite like Twilight series......Being a fiction I understand it being unreal but what readers want is to relate with the plot however bizzare or unreal it may seem....For me Twilight didn't serve that connection

[Amy Murdoch Coleman]

I hated reading Moby Dick. It wasn't required until my second year of college, and it was one of the most boring and monotonous novels I ever suffered through. War of the Worlds came in at a close second, though it was significantly shorter and therefore less painful.

[Lady-of-Literature]

I'm pretty sure I answered this before, but here's a another: Pride and Prejudice. I'm more of a Sense and Sensibilities, gal.

[Barbie_sidhu]

This might be little controversial but " A diary of a little girl" by Anne Frank was for me little over hyped. It was totally impossible for me to finish it. Neither did it appeal to me nor did i found a reason to read it til the end.

[Grace Bela]

I never have really enjoyed Nabokov's Bend Sinister. It was well written, but I couldn't relate to the characters very well.

[jknight885]

I just couldn't get through Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The words just didn't seem to go in.

[UzmaKhan]

Wuthering Heights. Everyone was talking about it so I decided to give it try and boy was I disappointed. There so other books with the same theme and they are so much better! l

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
-Walt Disney