Top 3 books you've read....? and the most overated?

[bearman68]

Best.

1) Stephan Donaldson trlogy re Thomas Covanant.
2) Animal Farm. George Orwell
3) Trinity Leon Uris. Maybe Stephen King It.

Over rated.
1) War & Peace.
2) Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
3) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (ooooo controversial).

[zb]

Best:
1. Fup - Jim Dodge
2. Stone Junction - Jim Dodge
3. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

Most overrated:
1. Anything by Chekhov
2. Anything by Jane Austen
3. Anything by the Bronte Sisters

[98elise]

bearman68 said:

Best.

1) Stephan Donaldson trlogy re Thomas Covanant.
2) Animal Farm. George Orwell
3) Trinity Leon Uris. Maybe Stephen King It.

Over rated.
1) War & Peace.
2) Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
3) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (ooooo controversial).

I'd put animal farm in the most over rated. I read it for the first time recently, along with 1984. I thought animal farm was crap, but 1984 brilliant.

[8Ace]

I'm not very good at ordering stuff into lists as I can rarely decide on an order. However, Pillars of the Earth stands out to me. Just spectacular.

Likewise, Catch 22 fills places 1,2 and 3 on the top 3 overrated list. Just awful.

[grumbledoak]

The best are very variable. Today's are:
1. Ender's Game
2. Use of Weapons
3. Hyperion

The most overrated never change. The only two books I have ever not just put down but put straight in the bin (and I've read some junk)
1. Catch 22
2. Lord Foul's Bane
3.

[Silver]

Best tend to change but, based on number of re-reads:

The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
London, Edward Rutherfurd

Most overrated:

Catch 22, Joseph Heller
American Psycho, Brett Easton Ellis
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

[marcosgt]

Best is very hard, but these are up there (if you stick to Fiction):

1. 1984 George Orwell
2. On The Beach Nevil Shute
3. The Fencing Master Arturo Peréz-Reverte

Most overrated :
1. Anything by Thomas Hardy
2. American Psycho Brett Ellis Easton (I know I'll be told I just don't get it, but I hated every page).
3. Anything by Charles Dickens

M

[Shambler]

Best

1. Crime and Punishment
2. Cancer Ward
3. 1984

[mpfourfour]

Can't decide on a best as of yet, but Brave New World definitely comes up as over-rated for me.

[JREwing]

Best:
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald. I take a copy anywhere I go (within reason).
1984 - George Orwell
Red Dragon - Thomas Harris

I'd have to think about the worst for some time.....

[Silver]

I enjoyed 1984 and Brave New World but I found Animal Farm tremendously irritating.

[Justin Cyder]

Allegorical books really seem to divide people. Personally I really enjoyed Brave new world.

For me it's

To kill a Mockingbird
Bonfire of the Vanities
Captain Corelli (Big softy me)


Da Vinci code (woeful prose & plot)
Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries (stuck in Geneva airport over night & it was the only English book I could find)
Late Stephen King. What happened to you man?

[Nom de ploom]

tough one this - I'm going to disafree with a couple here and say I really liked every bit of American Psycho. Its all subjective - I don;t get Terry Pratchett but appear to be alone in that sense.

I tend to read alot of non-fiction so my top three would include

Chaos - James Glieck
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Storm of War - Andrew Roberts, although All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings may well overtake it once finished!
A Walk in The Woods - Bill Bryson

Fiction best,

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel - 80 pages to go and this is already one of the best books I've ever read.
The World According to Garp - John Irving
Independence Day - Richrd Ford

Worst

Discworld - Terry Pratchett, really like the man, don't get the books
Austen - why is this stuff so popular????
anything by jackie collins / Jilly Cooper - drivel.

[AndrewEH1]

Top 3:

1. The Bridge - Iain Banks (pretty much any Iain Banks novel apart from the sci-fi stuff)

2. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Read it at school for Int 2 English Personal study - was accused of plagurism and ending up leaving the school due to the bullying and harassment that followed from a tt of an English teacher.)

3. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (Was my replacement book for The Great Gatsby, more accusations about cheating - think I eventually did Animal Farm as a last minute replacement after moving classes in my last couple of months at the school...)

Despite all of that I still like reading!


Over-rated 3:

1. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (was a forced school read by same English teacher as above)

2. Animal Farm - George Orwell (felt like a children book)

3. The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien (other school read - had to do a critical essay in an exam about it, never finished the book, still passed)

Edited by AndrewEH1 on Thursday 23 May 14:22

[onomatopoeia]

The passion, Jeanette Winterson
Emma, Jane Austen
Men of good fortune, Neil Gaiman (or maybe The sound of her wings, or Dream of a thousand cats)

Overrated is more difficult. I'll mention My sister's keeper by Jodi Picoult, because the ending annoyed me so much that I vowed never to read anything she wrote again . Strangely, the film version had the ending she should have written.

Silver said:

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Is very good, never understood why they hero worshipped the professor to the extent they did though.

[C722]

Best:

1: Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
2: American Psycho, Brett E Ellis
3: The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

Overrated:

1: Brave New World, Huxley. Pertinent message, but goes off on unnecessary long tangents.

Edited by C722 on Friday 24th May 17:06

[Tincan]

Nom de ploom said:

tough one this - I'm going to disafree with a couple here and say I really liked every bit of American Psycho. Its all subjective - I don;t get Terry Pratchett but appear to be alone in that sense.

I tend to read alot of non-fiction so my top three would include

Chaos - James Glieck
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Storm of War - Andrew Roberts, although All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings may well overtake it once finished!
A Walk in The Woods - Bill Bryson

Fiction best,

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel - 80 pages to go and this is already one of the best books I've ever read.
The World According to Garp - John Irving
Independence Day - Richrd Ford

Worst

Discworld - Terry Pratchett, really like the man, don't get the books
Austen - why is this stuff so popular????
anything by jackie collins / Jilly Cooper - drivel.

[Tincan]

Nom de ploom said:

tough one this - I'm going to disafree with a couple here and say I really liked every bit of American Psycho. Its all subjective - I don;t get Terry Pratchett but appear to be alone in that sense.

I tend to read alot of non-fiction so my top three would include

Chaos - James Glieck
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Storm of War - Andrew Roberts, although All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings may well overtake it once finished!
A Walk in The Woods - Bill Bryson

Fiction best,

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel - 80 pages to go and this is already one of the best books I've ever read.
The World According to Garp - John Irving
Independence Day - Richrd Ford
Wolf hall is great
Get it finished and then read bring up the bodies they are both superb
Then try some Murakimi, 1q84 is great as are many others

Worst

Discworld - Terry Pratchett, really like the man, don't get the books
Austen - why is this stuff so popular????
anything by jackie collins / Jilly Cooper - drivel.

[Silver]

onomatopoeia said:

Silver said:

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Is very good, never understood why they hero worshipped the professor to the extent they did though.

Me neither. He always came across to me as a bit of an empty vessel. However, IIRC, Richard does attempt to explain why at one point and he puts it down to a combination of mystery and the students projecting onto him their own desires for what they want from him. I think he quotes Bunny who said that Julian picked out his favourite aspects of the students and ignored the bits he didn't like.

[benjj]

Best:

Any Human Heart - William Boyd
On the Beach - NSN
The Leithen Stories - John Buchan