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Thread: who is the most overrated writer ever?

  1. #511
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    well it's a right judgment for that dude, he just copied wikipedia and tried to put some action in between to make ridiculous boring books read by too many people. [oh no i'm ranting again]
    and thanks

  2. #512
    Kafkaesque johann cruyff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Etienne View Post
    Actually many people do claim he is the greatest or something.

    Extract from a conversation with an otherwise very nice guy:
    Him: "I like Coelho very much."
    Me: "I've read The Alchemist, and I really didn't like much."
    Him: "Well it's because it's philosophy, many people don't understand."
    Me: "Ehmm... no, it's not really philosophy... but hey look at that bird (I didn't really say this, can't remember what it was, but an abrupt change of subject.)"
    That very nearly made me barf.
    Noću, u intimnom, poluglasnom razgovoru sa samim sobom, nikako ne mogu zapravo logički opravdati zašto se u posljednje vrijeme toliko uzrujavam zbog ljudske gluposti.

    Miroslav Krleža

  3. #513
    foolish female form asilef73's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mister_noel_y2k View Post
    this is a thread for all the writers that we've been told are great and are in the classics range and constantly appear on 100greatestnovels lists and such like but we hate.

    i say jack kerouac is the most overrated

    die! on the road

    i heartily agree. i managed to read "On The Road" through once and now i will never get those hours back.
    "Life is a long lesson in humility." - James M. Barrie

  4. #514
    Registered User aeroport's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by moose gurl View Post
    True, but the topic wasn't "What important writer is overrated?" It was "Who is the most overrated writer?"
    Once again, the OP:
    Quote Originally Posted by mister_noel_y2k View Post
    this is a thread for all the writers that we've been told are great and are in the classics range and constantly appear on 100greatestnovels lists and such like but we hate.

  5. #515
    Registered User cipherdecoy's Avatar
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    Most overrated book/author?

    I can't say for sure which is the most overrated book, but as far as what I've read is concerned, I would say The Catcher In The Rye, although it's a book I've enjoyed. I would consider myself too much of a rookie in the field of literature to pick one such author though. However, if we're talking about 21st century literature (if you can call it that), I would also be interested to know if you think Harry Potter and Twilight by Stephanie Meyer are vastly overrated (haven't read that one yet).
    Despite the snow,
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  6. #516
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    I think aside from the academics who want to teach its literary elements in college courses over other particular classic works Harry Potter fans that I know don't hold it up as any sort of Joyce or anything rather than just a fun and well done book, and personally I've not read any Potter so I couldn't say myself. Same for Twilight.

    somehow i don't ever seem to get around to the really hyped books like THE KITE RUNNER or TWILIGHT or whatever else is on the front stand at B&N.

  7. #517
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    Well, I think that would be Paulo Coelho... Unlike Dan Brown and other best-seller-churners, he insists on being called a literary man...

    But there are many more. Two seriously overrated authors in Latin America, in my opinion, are Isabel Allende and Įngeles Mastretta. In Spain, Rosa Regąs and Rosa Montero - they're highly popular but simply unintelligible. I think Rosa Regąs's prize-winning novel "Dorotea's Song" is probably the most awful book I've read in the last few years, unless you count Swedish Marianne Fredriksson's "Mother and daughter". However, these people sit on contest juries, write for magazines, in at least one case (Regąs) have held public office, and are generally considered "intellectuals"...

  8. #518
    holy fool _Shannon_'s Avatar
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    For me it'd be Walker Percy and more modern Anne Tyler I had to read a book of hers when I was in college--and I was infuriated that the professor--having the ability to choose any book to which to expose her student chose that piece of crapola!

    I am also not a Jane Austen fan --technically brilliant-- but I always want to go into the book with an uzi and just shot it off for a little excitement and to get the characters to actually do something.

  9. #519
    holy fool _Shannon_'s Avatar
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    Oh- and taking into account it's intended audience--Harry Potter is totally fun!

  10. #520
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    To Kill A Mockingbird

  11. #521
    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by waryan View Post
    I think aside from the academics who want to teach its literary elements in college courses over other particular classic works Harry Potter fans that I know don't hold it up as any sort of Joyce or anything rather than just a fun and well done book, and personally I've not read any Potter so I couldn't say myself. Same for Twilight.

    somehow i don't ever seem to get around to the really hyped books like THE KITE RUNNER or TWILIGHT or whatever else is on the front stand at B&N.
    Strange, the Poterites where I live on release days were in full costume, lining up down the block. It was pathetic, sad, and even depressing to see grown men and women amongst the costumed. They clearly are a very active group (or were before the last book was released). She is clearly overrated, that is for sure, since we can clearly see she is slowly deteriorating as the realization that the series is over strikes home.

    As for most overrated though, I would have to say Grisham, since he still enjoys mass sales, even though everyone realizes he has one skeleton of a book, and just keeps semi-fleshing it over and over. King is up there, but I hesitate to put Brown up there because I think his career is at an ebb. Nora Roberts for sure is up there too, as are the modern fantasy authors Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan (though the latter is dead now, so I guess he doesn't count).

    Tolkien is highly overrated too, if you really think about it, but the Emperors New Clothes situation will hold for a while longer, until the CGI on the movies is no longer seen as brilliant, and is seen as old-fashioned (it will happen eventually, with the rate technology is advancing).

    Every popular author eventually declines, it is inevitable. However some (the perfect example being Dickens) out-last the decline, and still enjoy some popularity.


    I would also like to throw this out there: most versions of the bible are overrated, especially these new "accurate" translations that keep floating around. The KJV is the best-written version I have yet come across (I have read the text thoroughly in the original Hebrew for the Old Testament, though cannot read the original Greek), but the accurate translations used in most churches seem to a) still be completely inaccurate (it seems Christian translators neglect to realize that even Rabbinic scholars still dispute the definition of some terms completely) and b) just ugly. There are some great poetic passages in the books, but none seem to have made it into those translations, which aren't accurate anyway.

  12. #522
    dum spiro, spero Nossa's Avatar
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    Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. And after some thinking, I think that The Da Vinci Code was highly overrated, given to the fact that its prequel, Angels and Demons, was way better.
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  13. #523
    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    I heard the opposite, either way, judging from The Da Vinci Code, neither are very good.

  14. #524
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    I recently grabbed The Count of Monte Cristo from the library, and damn it was awful. I dunno, maybe I got a bad translation, but it seems like every version of the book begins with choppy sentences. And the dialogue, ugh...

    This especially confuses me because I think Musketeers is fairly decent, maybe even good.

    I'd also say Moby Dick = garbage, but I'm empathetic as to why some people might enjoy it. It just takes a certain type of person to like that story, and that person's not me.

    Also, why does anyone like To Kill A Mockingbird? Do I need a special chip in my brain to decipher the good novel behind the cheesy Twainesque exposition?

  15. #525
    Registered User Cayenne's Avatar
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    It's maybe true that Dan Brown's books are not that good literature but I don't think that means they can't be good books (I hope you get what I mean, I don't really know how to say it in English...). And that's just a matter of opinion what's a good book and what's not. I think they were all good but as I said not the best literature.

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