The Most Overrated Books Showing 5,651-5,680 of 5,680

[Dave]

Kallie wrote: "Harry wrote: "No good book is for everyone. If you write for everyone, you are writing for no one.

Again, there is no such thing as an overrated book. All you can say is that you do not share the..."

So there is no such thing as charlatanism ... of people getting more remuneration and recognition than they deserve?

[Harry]

You need to rethink your apparent conviction that prefacing your opinions with "of course" gives those opinions some probative weight.

Best sellers are only that, without knowing more. As Elmore Leonard once said, "I never thought I could write a book good enough, or bad enough, to be a best seller.

There are actually very few charlatans, Instead, they are just writers who think, like 90% of men, that they are better, smarter, and more interesting than they actually are.

Best sellers are not ratings. They are sales reports.

And what's overrated? Is Goldfinch overrated? Depends on who is rating it? Is there a consensus? Not at all.

And of course what i have just said is absolutely true,.

[Kallie]

Harry wrote: "You need to rethink your apparent conviction that prefacing your opinions with "of course" gives those opinions some probative weight.

Best sellers are only that, without knowing more. As Elmore ..."

How does the comment "Of course there is such a thing as charlatanism" equate with any such "apparent conviction"? It's a simple fact that there is such a thing as charlatanism. I'm not sure what you are arguing here. But never mind.

[Petergiaquinta]

Very few charlatans?

What planet does Harry live on? Sure, there are fewer charlatans than the number of morons who fall prey to their charlatanry, but the publishing industry is unfortunately full of them, and the biggest one of all lives in the White House at the moment.

Perhaps you missed his speech day before yesterday, blathering on about beautiful big hands and windmills and widgets, trucks, and computers...

I’d say you should reassess your claim about the number of charlatans out there...as a matter of course, of course!

[Harry]

Few charlatans in publishing. Many who seem to be charlatans re simply too clueless to realize that what they are saying has been said. And the publishing houses don't care; it it sells, it doesn;'t matter. Eat Pray Love is not willfully bad; she was trying her best. Simon Sinek really thought Start With Why was a new idea, and readers who rarely read and publshing houses that didn't know any better published it. I've talked with some of these people. They're not trying to con us; they've just conned themselves.

Of course Trump is a charlatan.

If you are offering your opinions about good writing, never use a cliche as tired as "what planet are you from."

[Harry]

Too many insightful and experienced readers who are respected in their fields think Moby Dick is masterful for me ever to disagree. At Melville's worse, he is a better writer than 95% of the novelists who get published. It a massive book about a subject of little interest to most readers.

And some of what we refer to as overrated are books that won major awards that seem unremarkable. But how many novels in the last ten years have been truly remarkable?

[Harry]

I am baffled by Jane Austen love too, I'm curious. Are there men who think Pride and Prejudice is an exceptional novel, by whatever criteria they use?

[Petergiaquinta]

With all this preening and puffery, I’m starting to get the impression that you just might be a charlatan.

[Anne]

Harry wrote: "I am baffled by Jane Austen love too, I'm curious. Are there men who think Pride and Prejudice is an exceptional novel, by whatever criteria they use?"

La, Mr Harry, I fear you have a satirical eye!

[Esdaile]

Melanie wrote: "Wenonah wrote: "I agree that Atlas Shrugged is over-rated. The Catcher in the Rye? You need to read it mid-teens, then you'll love it. Tolstoy's Anna: I was bored. I felt sorry for her. Again, ther..."

I read Cather in the Rye when I was in my late teens and thought it was overrated. I now think it one of the most overrated novels ever published.

[Esdaile]

Harry wrote: "Too many insightful and experienced readers who are respected in their fields think Moby Dick is masterful for me ever to disagree. At Melville's worse, he is a better writer than 95% of the noveli..."

The number of people who describe Moby Dick as masterful makes for a very long list. The number of people who make a serious attempt to explain in what way this story is a masterpeice is considerably smaller, very very small indeed.

[Kallie]

Esdaile wrote: The number of people who describe Moby Dick as masterful makes for a very long list. The number of people who make a serious attempt to explain in what way this story is a masterpeice is considerably smaller, very very small indeed. ."

Would that list be long for any novel? Explaining why we consider any novel great is much more difficult than simply enjoying it as such.

[Frederick]

Esdaile wrote: "Melanie wrote: "Wenonah wrote: "I agree that Atlas Shrugged is over-rated. The Catcher in the Rye? You need to read it mid-teens, then you'll love it. Tolstoy's Anna: I was bored. I felt sorry for ..."

Today's world, Catcher would be a Ho Hum book, but in the 50's and very early 60's, Catcher was a novel that said what teens were thinking, and no one had had 'the guts'? to say in a book.

[Kallie]

Frederick wrote: "Today's world, Catcher would be a Ho Hum book, but in the 50's and very early 60's, Catcher was a novel that said what teens were thinking, and no one had had 'the guts'? to say in a book. .."
I think there are as many phonies in the world as ever, and temptations to be phony that most of us want to beware of, and tendencies to be bullying or oppressive instead of kind and genuine.

[Esdaile]

Kallie wrote: "Esdaile wrote: The number of people who describe Moby Dick as masterful makes for a very long list. The number of people who make a serious attempt to explain in what way this story is a masterpeic..."

Kallie wrote: "Esdaile wrote: The number of people who describe Moby Dick as masterful makes for a very long list. The number of people who make a serious attempt to explain in what way this story is a masterpeic..."

On the contrary, there are many critiques/essays/discussions about to mention one or two-Howard's End, Brothers Karamazov, Hundred Years of Solitude, Rembrance of things Past. There is comparatively little, so far as I am aware, written about Catcher in the Rye or Moby Dick, because I suggest, there is not very much to say! I am happy to be corrected however: could you point to some of the outstanding aspects of Moby Dick which place it firmly in the ranks of great achievements and mean that sofar as you are concerned its reputation is not hugely overrated? Let's say five major aspects of the novel which induce admriation and respect and the desire to read the novel again?

[Esdaile]

Frederick wrote: "Esdaile wrote: "Melanie wrote: "Wenonah wrote: "I agree that Atlas Shrugged is over-rated. The Catcher in the Rye? You need to read it mid-teens, then you'll love it. Tolstoy's Anna: I was bored. I..."

Atlas Shrugged is a propagada piece like Darkness at Noon in that respect. In what way is it overrated in your opinion? In being a best seller? But being a best seller is an achievement in itself of couse says little about literary worth. Who remembers Bonjour Tristesse for example? However, what is fundamentally overrated about Atlas Shrugged? A masterly peice of propaganda in favour on interantional unrestrained capitalism? (What one thinks of the ideas prpagated is another matter). Overrated it would be a sliterature if it were rated highly as literature I'd agree, but I am not aware that many people have ever rated it highly as literature, have they?

[Petergiaquinta]

Esdaile doesn’t demonstrate much familiarity with literary criticism. A precursory look at a Gale database or JSTOR will shows you the hundreds (thousands!) of essays, critiques, commentaries on both Catcher and Moby Dick...fairly laughable the way you dismiss the lack of scholarship on those two titles without looking into the subject first.

I’ll be happy to provide you with concrete specifics later when I’m free...

[Kallie]

Esdaile wrote: "There is comparatively little, so far as I am aware, written about Catcher in the Rye or Moby Dick, because I suggest, there is not very much to say! I am happy to be corrected however: could you point to some of the outstanding aspects of Moby Dick which place it firmly in the ranks of great achievements and mean that sofar as you are concerned its reputation is not hugely overrated? Let's say five major aspects of the novel which induce admriation and respect and the desire to read the novel again? ..." Petergiaquinta responded to one puzzling assertion. As to the rest, tell you what: you provide some evidence that you have actually read and have thoughtful critical comments about Catcher and Moby Dick. If you cannot or will not provide more than your arbitrary dismissal of those works to this discussion, you have zero business asking me to defend them with "Let's say five major aspects of the novel which induce admriation and respect and the desire to read the novel again?"

[Petergiaquinta]

Maybe we're just being trolled here, but it's not much work to give some specific support for my earlier assertion:

For starters,
Catcher in the Rye has 2,405 journal articles on JSTOR;
Moby Dick has 12,147 journal articles on JSTOR.

Now, sure, you might point out that not all of these are full-blown articles of bonified lit criticism, but whatever. In contrast,

Howard's End has 1,560;
Remembrance of Things Past has 2, 653;
Brothers K has 3, 842.

So...looks like Moby Dick is the clear winner here, and Catcher is holding its own nicely against the competition.

If we check the Gale Literary Index for Catcher, this is what we will find:

The Catcher in the Rye

American Writers: The Classics (Charles Scribner's Sons, an imprint of Gale), volume(s) 1: 35-52
Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: Analyses, volume(s) 2:703-07
Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults, volume(s) 1:199-208
Children's Literature Review, volume(s) 18:171-94; 181:34-137
Contemporary Literary Criticism, volume(s) 1:295-99; 3:444-45; 8:464-65; 12:496-97, 502, 505, 514, 516-18; 56:319-65; 138:172-76, 180, 182-86, 192-98, 200, 202-04, 206, 213-17, 224-37; 243:183-314; 318: 292, 299-300, 304, 308, 316-19, 327, 329, 331-35; 378:241, 243-45, 248, 252-53, 255-56, 258, 260-64, 266-67, 274, 276, 279, 282-88, 297-98, 302-04, 306, 310, 312, 315, 318
Literature and Its Times, volume(s) 4:73-8
Novels for Students, volume(s) 1:116-27
Reference Guide to American Literature (St. James Press, an imprint of Gale), edition(s) 4:978-79
World Literature Criticism, volume(s) 5: 3015, 3019, 3022, 3024, 3028-29, 3032

If we search for Howard's End:

Howards End

Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: Analyses, volume(s) 10:5685-95
Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults, volume(s) 12:219-226
Contemporary Literary Criticism, volume(s) 1:103, 106-07; 2:134-36; 3:160; 4:165, 167-69; 9:204- 08; 10:180-81; 13:215-20; 15:223-25, 231; 22:131-32, 136-37; 45:132-33, 135-38, 140, 142-43; 77; 196, 216-17, 221, 223, 229-30, 234, 241
Novels for Students, volume(s) 10:179-90
Reference Guide to English Literature (St. James Press, an imprint of Gale), edition(s) 2:1639
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, volume(s) 125:73-192; 264:169, 187, 199, 208, 214, 226, 234, 236, 239-42, 245, 247, 249-50, 262-63, 280, 297, 301; 315:78-216
World Literature Criticism, volume(s) 2:1258-59, 1261, 1265, 1269-70
World Literature and Its Times, volume(s) 4:183-92

It's fairly comparable, but I think if you do an exact page count, Catcher comes out on top again...

And this doesn't even really take into account books of criticism, but I'm not going to the card catalog for you. This will have to suffice.

So maybe you're just trolling us, but it was an interesting experiment and frankly I didn't know how Catcher would pan out against your choices. But it did okay and better than okay. Moby Dick clearly wins, even against your high falutin Proust and Dostoevsky. Do you have to like it? No, but you can't discount its worth and claim it doesn't belong on the shelf of works of "great achievement."

[Rich]

this is supposed to be about over rated novels not stupid conversation if a novel can be over rated or name calling

[Rich]

Harry wrote: "No good book is for everyone. If you write for everyone, you are writing for no one.

Again, there is no such thing as an overrated book. All you can say is that you do not share the consensus vie..."

B.S.you have the right to say a novel is over-rated who died and put you in charge

[Elfridaauston87]

Totally agre with chava.

[Harry]

And I have the right to say a book cannot be overrated. No had had to die for me to be able to say that.

A book cannot be overrated for a simple reason: There are no rating systems for books. It's not like USTA tennis; there are no 3.5 books, no 4.5 books--nothing. It's not like WAGR golf. All we have to go by is reviews and sales. And all we can say we disagree with the consensus of reviewers, or say that we don't understand why that book should have sold so many copies.

I didn't love Pride and Prejudice as much as so many people do. I have no idea how I could, from that, insist that it is overrated. The book has given half a dozen women I know so much pleasure they read it at least twice; one of them reads it every year. It's not a remarkable book? It must be. Of all the millions of books on earth, that one delights them, and the first task of a novel, it seems to me, is to delight--and delight is is in the heart. mind, and soul of the beholder.

[Brianna]

Michael wrote: "Making a list like this is like making a list of the most over rated ice cream flavors.

Chocolate
Strawberry
Vanilla

What do you think constitutes something being 'over rated' to begin with? Is i..."

What you said is very true. There is mostly likely no book anywhere that is going to get all 4 and 5 star ratings for the exact points you made, and this is due (I think) to seeing online bookclubs such as goodreads have such a vast audience Worldwide be able to voice their thoughts.

[Gonzalo]

There are ratings, but there are no overrated books. Opinions are opinions. When you say that a book, or for that matter anything else, is overrated, you are saying that your opinion is worth more than somebody else's. A sports team can be overrated when it losses game after game it was expected to win, but how do you make the same judgment on a book, or movie or song? You could say that the critics overrated it by comparison to the general public or something like that. But otherwise, the whole discussion is meaningless. On my first reading of Catcher in the Rue, I thought it was great. But thirty years later, I had a very different opinion of it. Did I overrate it at first? Or am I underrating it now? And if we take everybody as a group, well, add all the numbers and divide it. That's the rating.

[Kallie]

Gonzalo wrote: "There are ratings, but there are no overrated books. Opinions are opinions. When you say that a book, or for that matter anything else, is overrated, you are saying that your opinion is worth more ..."

If people's culturally biased opinions mattered so much, we would have lost out on a lot of great books that have been broadly reviled because they didn't fit with the current morality or style or whatever. Thomas Hardy's novels offended Victorian sensibilities. I'm sure glad those folks did not get to decide what was 'overrated' and therefore allowed to go out of print.

[Gonzalo]

Kallie, well said.

[Kallie]

Gonzalo wrote: "Kallie, well said." Thanks, Gonzalo. I guess this feels to me like a sneaky sort of censorship. And along the lines of: I don't know about art but I know what I like.

[Kallie]

Gonzalo wrote: "Kallie, well said." Thanks, Gonzalo. The eagerness to denounce what doesn't suit one's taste and sensibility bothers me. Bestsellers that are more like consumer products belong on this list, not works of art.

[Rich]

Gone girl that book was pure trash