Most Overrated Books in History

There are many so called classics out there that really aren’t worth the paper they were printed on. It’s tough to say what the exact circumstances were that propelled some of these books, most of which should have died in obscurity, to fame, universal acclaim and admiration.

My best guess is that it has to do with the educational system, and young impressionable people being forced at an early age to wade through some of these ‘classics’. How can a twelve year old truly judge the merits of a book if he or she has nothing to compare it to? If the book is only your third, and it happens to be reasonably readable, you are bound to remember it as being better than it was.

Is kind of like your first love. It wasn’t perfect, and you definitely didn’t know what you were doing, but you’re going to remember it for the rest of your life.

Once one of these questionable books gains the dubious title of being a ‘classic’, peer pressure kicks in. Elitist try and make us feel stupid for not having read it. But reading the ‘masterpiece’ is not enough. Not by a long shot. We must also love it. Some of us even delude ourselves into believing that we actually do. I mean, really, why be the odd man out be over something as silly as a book?

Things just deteriorate from there. Everyone has an opinion, and when asked, people just can’t stop sharing it even if the subject matter is not really their strong suit. So, when the general non-reading public is asked, ‘what’s your favorite book?’, what do you think the answer is going to be? That’s right, the three or four books, out of however many they were forced to read in school, that they remember sort of liking.

Of course, don’t get me wrong. There’s no accounting for taste. I’m sure there are many people out there that genuinely like some of these books. That’s okay. Hey, I actually liked Baywatch Nights.

All I’m saying is that these books don’t deserve the mountain of praise and adulation hoisted upon them. Not by a long shot.

I believe the true test for these dubious ‘classics’ is whether or not they would be published today. The answer, of course, is a resounding no. They would die in a slush pile. No publishers in their right minds would take a chance on some of this stuff. And with so much good fiction around, who can blame them?

Here is a short list of some of the most overrated books in history.

Extremely Overrated: The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger.

This is the story of a whining, opinionated, over-privileged slacker, that gets kicked out of prep school and hides out for a couple of days in a hotel in order to keep the news from his parents. It’s supposed to be a couple of days, but to me it felt more like years.

This guy is the most hateful, boring and all around loser in the history of literature. And we spend the entire time inside his head. Maybe the book would have been somewhat tolerable if it at least had a plot.

But there’s nothing.

I read the thing twice, thinking that maybe I missed something the first time.

I didn’t miss anything. There wasn’t anything to miss. I spent most of the second time around wishing this loser would get run over by a bus. And I’m sorry to say this but, all those people out there who claim to ‘identify’ with this retard are the same ‘phonies’ he goes on and on and on about for half the book.

Instead read: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Platz

If you like this style of writing and are all into the teenage angst thing, this book is a much better choice by a way better, less ‘phony’, writer.

Extremely Overrated: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is another meandering, plot-less glob of nothing that after I finished it, left me wishing I could somehow turn the clock backwards and get my time back.

This is perhaps the most BORING book in all of American literature. You follow this mindless little girl around wishing and praying that something halfway interesting actually happens, or that at least it would all end soon. But no. Page after page of mind-numbing dribble.

The highlight of the book is Atticus Finch shooting a rabid dog. I mean what’s really classic about this thing?

The saddest part is what it did to poor Harper Lee. I’m convinced she too couldn’t understand what the big hoopla was all about. That’s why in all the ensuing years she couldn’t bring herself to write anything else.

Instead read: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

If you like novels about the south, here’s a true masterpiece. They don’t get much better than this.

Extremely Overrated: Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Okay, I was wrong. THIS is the most boring book in American literature. At least Melville’s contemporaries had the common sense to hate it when it was first published. It was not until academics ‘rediscovered’ it that it suddenly became a ‘classic’.

Three quarters of this snoozer is Melville playing at being a poet. There are some exciting parts, but they’re hopelessly buried endless verbiage.

Instead read: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Now this is a story. Enough said.

Extremely Overrated: War and Peace Leo Tolstoy

I’m firmly convinced the only reason anyone bother’s with this thing is bragging rights. It takes a special kind of person to get through it. There are hundreds and hundreds of pages with hundreds and hundreds of characters, each more boring than the last. I did enjoy the setting, and the vivid descriptions of Napoleon’s ill fated invasion of Russia. Besides that, if you haven’t yet read this thing, don’t feel bad. Skip it.

Instead read: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor M. Dostoevsky

Now this is a true Russian masterpiece. This is Dostoevsky’s last work and one of the best novels of all times. If you read no other literature, read this.

I could go on and on, but enough said. The moral here is simple. If you have yourself a list of ‘classics’ that you never got around to reading but always thought you should have, don’t feel bad. No need to make time for them. You’re not missing much.

Try some of these instead.

Most Overrated Books in History