Any universally loved book that you often wonder how the F it got so popular?
Any universally loved book that you often wonder how the F it got so popular?
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50 shades, A Man Named Ove, any Nicholas Spark, A Fault in Our Stars, Stay With Me, and I could go on haha
I thought I was the only person in the world who didn’t love A Man Called Ove. THANK YOU!
I had to force myself to finish Ove…y’all aren’t alone.
Oh, I’m so glad I’m not the only one to not like Ove!
I didn’t like Ove either
Moving A Man Called Ove further down on my TBR list. Thanks for the feedback all.
Ove was a cantankerous old man and I never warmed up to him.
@Winifred I felt the same!! He was more than just dry and quirky, he was rude and unlikeable!
Twilight
Yes!! ??
life of Pi
Oh yes!! Pi and Gone Girl were my most memorable regret-readings in the past few years!
Hell yea
American gods
I agree. Couldn’t get into it.
If you like audiobooks, that version is really well done and might help you get into a little more if you are up for giving it another shot. I love all the mediums of it, but I know some people get into the audio easier for certain books.
Totally agree
Twilight. lol
Gone Girl.
Haha. I thought about this one. I hated it.
Me, too!
Yep, wasn’t a fan.
Agreed! Gone Girl was abysmal. Only book I’ve ever read whose characters were unlikeable and had no redeeming qualities.
Did not like it
Hated it also.
The Outsiders
Honestly… Harry Potter
I actually think I might agree with you. My husband and I have been trying to read the series this year. We are halfway through the fourth book now. We loved the third book but every other book has felt like a chore to read.
I couldn’t even get through the first one!! The movies are cute and I enjoyed what I have seen of them, but the way she writes made it impossible to read for me ://
I thought we were the only people who felt this way!
50 shades
Goldfinch
I haven’t been able to get into this one either.
Have you read The Little Friend?
The Alchemist
Thank you! (SMH)
I couldn’t finish. It was tedious.
Dune
So boring
Loved Dune
The Secret Life of Bees
The Girl on the Train
I found it boring.
@Ellen and I just couldn’t find any sympathy for the pathetic main character
Boring
@Nikki same!!!
Movie was ok, book was terrible
Da Vinci code
Any Dan Brown really.
Curse y’all! ?Dan Brown is a ‘guilty pleasure’ for me. Loved DaVinci Code. Yes, his writing stinks, but he can tell a good story…
Eh, literary fast food. Good for the beach.
The Alchemist
Amen!
Insert Nicholas Sparks’ title
Unbroken
H A R R Y P O T T E R
I feel like the fad needs to die off. It’s kind of embarrassing at this point.
Agree it’s so cringe
I couldn’t even get the the first book
I tried to give it a fair chance and read up to the 5th book. But I couldn’t tolerate anymore boredom beyond that :/
Infinite Jest. I have tried soooo many times.
Yesssss
Totally agree! I actually love the author, I just…don’t like the book. lol
That one IS hard to get through. Took me 6 months, but it was worth it.
The Girl On The Train
da vinci code ???
A man called Ove, Bear Town, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…
Hitchhiker guide to the galaxy ?
The movie is great!
Agreed, i tried so hard to get into it.
I loved Hitchhiker, but I couldn’t stomach the rest of the series.
Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s written like a high school girl wrote it. Seriously, who edited that crap?
The writing and grammar were painful.
Well it did start as a twilight fanfic
I think it’s porn for people too uptight to just go ahead and read porn
We’re all freaks just read porn already ???
Yuk to 50 shades
Love Stephen King, but Under The Dome.
Agree!!!
Took me years to finish it. Although, the ending was at least satisfying.
Lol I still haven’t finished it, then I discovered the show to find out what the reason for it was and I ended up skipping to the end to see if everyone dies lol I still don’t remember what the resolution was ??
I heard the ending is a bit different than the show. I didn’t bother with the show, although the lady who played Julia was really pretty.
Anything by Cassandra Clare
Too true. I wanted to like her books…but they just don’t meet my standards.
Her Harry Potter fanfic back in the day wasn’t too bad.
@Marian I feel like it’s just really formulaic. Like her characters and story lines are based on market research.
@Katy yeah that’s her background- fanfic writer not original ideas, just expanding someone else’s.
Holy donkeys! I live for her new releases. Lol
Eat, Pray, Love.
Yes!!
I only saw the film but totally didn’t relate.
In praise of selfishness and self indulgence, as if modern humans need more of that
https://youtu.be/S3awnCB18Fw
The Lord of the Rings. Tried reading it multiple times…no luck.
They are pretty long-winded.
I loved it but hated the hobbit
Jane Austen.
Catcher in the Rye.
Yes just didn’t see the allure!
Catcher in the Rye for me as well.
Catch-22
The Alchemist
The work of James Patterson’s many actual writers.
Dont you think Stephen King is kind of moving that direction too? Too many books, too fast.
Probably, I haven’t been able to keep up with King in 5 years. But I think he’s still writing his own stuff instead of farming it out.
The collabs or single works? Or both?
????
@Jade The “collaborations”.
The Lovely Bones.
Fahrenheit 451
Any Stephen King…..I have tried but I just can’t ?
Not even The Green Mile? The Stand?
I grew up devouring him and so did my Sisters. My childhood would not have been the same without him.
He helped twist me into the strange little person I am today ???
@Lora exactly! ???
@Joanie Cujo was my first, Green Mile was my second and I gave up after Pet Cemetery. His style of writing is draining and boring to me but I have very dear friends who love him. Different tastes ?
@Lora That was V C Andrews for me! ?
Oh Cujo… as an insane fan I have to admit, I never finished Cujo.
I HATE sad things especially involving animals. I was so young when I tried to read it but it seems like he was talking about him wanting to be a “good dog”, ugh.
I love to be scared out of my damn mind but sad animal stories are a hard no.
Lora Gibbs When I needed good scares, I went to Robin Cook and Dean Koontz *shiver*
Lora Gibbs I like to be scared too. Actually if a scene in a movie startles me it usually makes me crack up. Although, for the first time ever I couldn’t watch American Horror Story because well – too real and I started having crazy anxiety dreams – very very much not me.
Love Dean Koontz, not so into medical horror, but will try Robin Cook
Max Leon It’s not a popular opinion?
Joanie, my “too scary” was the film Helter Skelter. It’s the only film or novel that kept me up at night.
I’m not a fan of “true crime” to start but that film head F-ed my child mind. It ends with saying when different killers were up for parole and those dates had past. I seriously thought they might be out there slicing through the bellies of more pregnant ladies and stabbing more men while they tried to run.
I didn’t think they would kill me but the idea that these WOMEN were that cruel and (in my child brain) probably out and at it again was too much.
I know it’s terribly sexist but the idea that women could do those things really shook me. I knew many men had done such things but the idea of WOMEN, beings capable of being mommies could do those things saw unfathomable and a big part of why it upset me and scared me so deeply
@Lora I totally get it, it was super scary to my child mind too. What were our parents thinking? Then again they let me watch Jaws when I was 7 or 8 and I think that’s what started my love of scary!
I watched the Exorcist at 6 and fell in love with horror. ??❤️
@Lora Helter Skelter is the scariest book I’ve ever read, and I’ve read every Stephen King!
The entire Twilight series. 😀
Ahhh man… twilight was my guilty pleasure ?
Wuthering Heights. I disliked every single character. LOL
That one got me hooked on books.
Still remember it after all these years.
I wanted to read it for so long and just recently did a few months back. I was not expecting it to turn out the way it did. Heathcliff was a horrible man, lol.
Me too! I thought I was the only one.
Great book but every character was repulsive.
They were!! Haha
Bridges of Madison County
The Scarlett Letter
Pride and Prejudice and Catcher in the Rye. I guess I can see the appeal, but not for me.
Agreed with Catcher in the Rye – honestly don’t even see the appeal at all!
The Handmaid’s Tale
No kidding !!!! ?
The goldfinch ,!!!!!!!!!!!
Could not get through it
I thought I was the only one who felt this way.
She needed an editor.
Eat Pray Love. Sorry. Meh.
It seems a good chunk of my friends didn’t like it. Out of my 17 friends that have read it (according to Goodreads), 11 gave it one or two stars.
Goldfinch, gads what an interminable, insufferable drudge that was!
I felt that way about her first two books so compromised and listened to this one on Audible. It took me forever, but I actually enjoyed having it read to me. Definitely much more than a print version.
Poison wood bible
That one was rough for me as well. I read it for a book club and I seemed to be the only one who didn’t love it.
Just couldn’t get past the first couple chapters
A Man Called Ove.
A wrinkle in time
The Alchemist
Perks of being a wallflower
Slaughterhouse-Five
unpopular opinion but Ernest Hemingway. Also A Christmas Carol, I wont say I hate it but I really dont enjoy it.
The shack!
Everything by Jane Austen.
Ugh
Tons, I don’t get how anyone could be a best seller when ever one is a best seller. I know there are certain parameters but I’m not talking about the literal aspect, Just the overall.
The Bible.
All of the “holy books” should be in museums.
I agree!
Now that is good fiction
Too much war and death for a fictional book to have caused.
Catcher in the rye, couldn’t stand it and didn’t finish ?
I found it was negative…
I dislike A Christmas Carol and now have to teach it every year ?
And yes to The Catcher in the Rye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is supposed to be the modern version of it
Fifty shades of grey, It is a boring book for me.
Have you read “Bared to you”? It’s a better series to me.
So many books! So much that if it is a huge bestseller, I brace myself that I am probably going to dislike it
The Bible , anything by Stephen King and 50 shades of crap….
The Alchemist, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the Fault in Our Stars, City of Bones, milk & honey, Thirteen Reasons Why, The Hobbit
Most recently: Before We Were Yours and 1Q84
Basically if it’s universally loved, I set my expectations very low…
I loved 1Q84. Sorry to hear you didn’t like it
The Alchemist ..,the monk who sold his ferrari
Perfect
Monk who sold his Ferrari very boring
Sorry dear its my favourite book and Robin Sharma is one of my favourite author.Madly love with his books
But very slow
May be but I really love it
The story though ??? that Japanese with pink cables lot of things in it ?
Juline mantle ?
Julian mantle! Sages of sivana! Btw do you practice the techniques?
Not at all….
50 shades of garbage
For all the light we cannot see
Twilight and 50 Shades of anything
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor lmao
Percy Jackson… read half of the first one and then dropped it, but I heard everyone saying how “accurate” the history is. ? …sorry, it’s not…
Deviated from actual Greek mythology ?
The God of Small Things
I hated it too, could not even finish
The Great Gatsby, I tried. I also hated the film x
Gone girl.
Outlander.
To each his or her own but that’s crazy talk! ?
The storyline is totally predictable. The Time Traveller’s wife is much better for me.
Awful book. Since it is so popular I guess a lot of people think it is okay to beat and rape your wife. Was appalled at it!
Atlas Shrugged
Little Fires Everywhere
Just starting this now
50 shades
Jane Eyre
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
I love Jane Austen, but I never did really liked this one.
I started this one but could never really get to the end.
A Confederacy of Dunces.
Yes- it is over-rated.
Devil and the white city. Any Mary Roach book
Anna and the French Kiss
Da Vinci code
Tom Sawyet
American Gods
Yes! Neil Gaiman…then the Anasanzi Boys…most excellent
Any trite, lowest common denominator shite like Paulo Coelho, romantic books like Me Before You and self-help books.
Dune.
Anything by Paulo Coelho
With you on that!
I tried twice to read The Nightingale, couldn’t get past the steady stream of clichés.
And mountains of inaccuracies.
The Harry Potter books. Just don’t get it…
Me either
I don’t hate them. I think they are enjoyable enough that I plan to keep reading them (just started them for the first time ever). BUT my theory, as to their extreme popularity, is that they came on the scene at a time when youth fantasy fiction was sparse. I look at the choices my children have in the library now, compared to what I had in the early 90s, and find myself wanting to read THEIR books. Harry Potter really changed that transitional period from children’s books to adult reading.
Gone Girl; Girl on a train, I am Pilgrim …
Lincoln in the Bardo
The Time Traveler’s Wife.
The Lovely Bones. (Sorry)
Wish It, Want It, Do It, by Brian Griffin
Yeah don’t sleep on those girls…lol
While I didn’t hate it, Bird Box. After all the hype, it couldn’t live up to my expectations
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Ha! You guys have listed my very favorite books!
We all like different books, I’ve seen some of my favorite books here also lol
Yeah me too like bird box
Eleanor Oliphant
Yes! this was SO boring to me!
I loved this especially as an audiobook
@Kara Just didn’t see what all the hype was about. Reminded me of Bridget Jones
50 shades
Whew! I always thought it was just me!
@Tami no!! I thought they were awful;(
@Karen and yet, I suckered myself into reading all three because someone said they got better. And once I got halfway through the third one I had to at least see how they ended.
@Tami I quit midway through number 2….but I bought number 2 because all these bizarrely twittery little housewives near me SWORE I would love it…total crap;(
Sometimes books of this genre strike a chord in the general book market that resounds like a pebble when it’s thrown into a pond. The initial popularity of ’50 Shades’ amazed me as it made big waves, not only in the UK (where its author hails from), but also here in the U.S. and in several other countries. I remember going into a local B&N (Barnes & Noble) at the time and perusing a few pages of ’50 Shades’. Can’t say it interested me and soon put that book back on shelf.
I weep at some of these choices. (LOL)
Fight Club. Was alarmed by its popularity. I think it’s a very relevant book though, in hindsight, especially in terms of gender politics – an aspect of the book that I think is often disregarded.
I think one of those exceptionally rare cases where the film outdid the book.
Haven’t seen the film. :O But what I disliked was the idea that strong, primal maleness is wasted and caged in modern white collar life. I didn’t mind the idea of purposelessness and anger at finding out that society told us lies – but must that anger be male-exclusive, and must it be so vindictively told?
I preferred the story told in Taxi Driver. There, the disorientation – war vet to nameless cabbie – was male, but more clearly outlined. And the whole movie made sure to communicate the idea that the de Niro character needed help. The climax was an outburst of moral rage that had no viable outlet. The tragedy of Taxi Driver was that the protagonist was a good guy, and that is also his redemption in the end. Unlike Fight Club, where the author rouses males to violently reclaim their masculinity, and where the bitter end is glamorous, vengeful and pointlessly angry, rather than a call to focus on finding a way to redirect spiritual or moral energy in a materialistic world.
Fifty shades of Grey trilogy! ???
Love in the Time of Cholera. I hate it so much.
You took my answer.
Yay! Lol. I’m just glad to find another person who hated it too.
Same for me. I had a few goes at it but couldn’t get into it.
Charlotte’s Web. Spiders terrify me.
Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, Goldfinch… and Jane Austen! Ew!
Twilight. It might be the series but I could not even finish the first book.
50 Shades of Terrible writing
GIRL ON THE TRAIN ??
Awful book
I couldn’t finish it
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Characters as paper thin as the letters they wrote. ?
“James Patterson” books.
Ah yes I never really understood the hype
I know what you mean. There was a time though that I read a lot of JP. When I was a busy mom, I liked that the chapters were 3 or so pages and I could put it down or pick it up at any time.
@Diane i read a number of them too, when he was actually writing them.
Monica Owens exactly. He had three or four on the “new releases” shelf at my beach bookstore last week, which is ridiculous!
Twilight
The Nightingale.
I also thoroughly disliked Little Fires Everywhere. Trite, dry, boring.
The Poisonwood Bible. HATED it.
Omg i loved this book. I was woefully ignorant of the Belgian Congo, till i read it. Afterward, i did a lot of reading about it, and its just been recently the despot who was set up as ruler, has been replaced…by another terrible one.
Macbeth
50 shades
The Bible. Instigates more war and violence than any religious book ever.
May God have mercy on your soul.
What?
Agree 1000%
Agree completely. For a book of fiction it has caused way too much trouble.
The Idiot.
Which one? Dostoevsky or Batuman?
@Susan loved Dostoevsky’s Idiot.
@Sam I read it many years ago, liked it too.
Confederacy of Dunces
Ugh. I hated this book so much, too.
I think it’s “cool” to love it .. but so bad…
Totally agree.
Divergent!!!! I really tried hard to read it or watch the movie but im getting bored immediately
I couldn’t finish the book either. Too implausible.
I dont think the special powers are that interesting.
Fire and fury was terrible too. It was such a joke.
Reminded me of a tabloid article.
Catcher in the Rye
A Man Called Ove, hated the book!
Forrest Gump. Hated it. Seems that the whole world loves it and the movie, which I’ve never seen because I hated the book.
I hated the book!!! But I love the movie – one of my favorites! Give it a try.
Loved the movie .. Great performance by Tom hanks
The DaVinci Code. I was expecting something extraordinary. It was just average.
I thought the writing was awful.
@Claudia Me too.
The mortal instruments all of them including the follow ons and prequels
50 Shades of Grey
Almost halfway into “Gentleman in Moscow” due to recommendations from this group. Meh, so far, but will keep trudging through.
If you don’t like it oh well! I feel that way a lot. I admit I don’t fully understand all the hype but the second half was better than the first.
We certainly all have different likes. I found this a book I couldn’t put down. One of the best ever.
@Janet I felt that way about 1Q84, Paradise Lost, Life of Pi, Anna Karenina and authors like Vonnegut, Kafka and Gogol to name a few. But I’ll keep going, hoping for an upturn.
It is interesting the opposing opinions. I probably read Gentleman in a day and a half, just riveted. Other books, I struggle with. Too many books to be stuck on one if you decide one isn’t for you.
I really liked Gentleman in Moscow – I loved the writing!. I can see how others might not like it, though.
Girl on a train
Anything by Stephen King ?
I agree
NO! He’s my favorite writer. Lol, I’m finding this thread too funny. One man’s trash…
Yes I’ve only read two of his books though
Your statment literally brings tears to my eyes. Hes a legendary writer. You’re totally missing out.
The Dark Tower series is pretty damn good. I can’t speak on his other works.
Ive only read one to completion and the second one i had to stop. I forced myself to finish the one that i did.
I agree with you there, can get into them at all, despite reading many authors in similar genres
@Sandra He’s my favorite also.
Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were fabulous. I don’t care for the horror genre, so haven’t read King’s other work.
Goldfinch
Say it ain’t so! lol…..Love The Goldfinch
Girl on a train.
All of the Twilight books!
I hated — eat, pray, love —ugh.
Billy Budd
The Martian…..Lincoln and the Bardo
Wuthering Heights
The Goldfinch. Nice writing, half again as long as it needs to be, and after a certain point I didn’t give a flying f— about Theo, though I did like some of supporting players. Only finished it to be able to comment at our book club meeting.
I am halfway through right now and I am starting to hate theo more every chapter!!!
Yes! and It doesn’t get better!
Agree
I love Donna Tartt and this book. I know some people need to like the protagonist to like a book, though I’ve never been that way. This is probably the most loved and hated book of all time. Opinions seem to be so strong one way or another.
I don’t need to like the protagonist, but I’d at least like to be interested in him and how he affects others (some of whom in this book I did like). And I do feel like if 1/3 of it (especially where Theo’s concerned) had been left on the cutting room floor, it would have been better.
I’ve noticed a lot of people feel that way.
This is one of my all time favorite books!! Loved it!!!
@Pat – Me too! I couldn’t find a thing wrong with it.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.
Oh man, now two of my favorites have appeared on this list.
Agree, I HATED it!
War and peace, I ended up siding with the peasants
@Jason a few of my favorites have too. Different strokes for different folks. Good thing there are so many kinds of books to choose from! 🙂
A wrinkle in time
I just read this in order to see the movie and I couldn’t stand Meg!! (But to be fair, she probably comes across better to young readers who may not see her as a whiny brat like I did.)
50 shades
Harry Potter. I love it, i do. But it doesn’t deserve as much attention as it has gotten ! *braces for wild comments*
Breakin my heart!! ? lol
Sorrryyyy… ?. P.S. I did mention I love it ?
True! Haha at least you’re not a total hater! ?
I think it deserves accolades for the number of people, young and old, it got reading.
Fountainhead
Chetan Bhagat.
Anything by Dan Brown
Amen! I totally agree!
He’s a TERRIBLE writer!
Turtles all the way down
Fifty shades of grey
Yeah, I don’t see the appeal of bad writing.
@Victoria absolutely agree
Moby Dick
Have to disagree here, but I know others will agree with you. I tried to read it when I was in high school but had to put it down for about 25 years. Then I loved it, but read it in a grad school seminar with an amazing professor so that helped.
@Victoria I am sure you are right but we were forced to read and analyze it to death in high school. Consequently it really is the only book I have no desire to revisit. I love classical literature and have been doing a lot of rereading books that were required in school and enjoying them. I just can’t get any enthusiasm generated to pick up that particular novel.
The Hobbit
I didn’t love it either – only read it once. And yet I’ve read LOTR 15 times.
@Susan you’re a better woman than I am 🙂
@Mary i doubt that!
Slaughterhouse-Five
Game of Thrones ?♀️
The Alchemist
50 Shades of Grey plus the rest of the series
Anything by Nicholas Sparks
I can’t even count Nicholas Sparks as a contender, he’s such a hack.
But excellent call.
Truth. I have no idea why he is so popular.
I swear the make me physically gag haha
The Catcher in the Rye
Fight club
Agreed. The movie is better.
50 shades of gray, harry potter
I would certainly agree with that
Eragon
My 10 year old daughter loved Eragon… but lost interest at Brisinger.
I’m always happy to discover people reading, even if it’s a book I want to chuck out the window. 🙂
Narnia
Harry Potter.
Gone Girl, The Alchemist, The Shack
I also did not particularly like The Shack
I can relate.
al things harry potter
The Goldfinch. Ugh
People either love it or hate it.
I liked it until Vegas. ☹️
I hear a lot of people say that, but Vegas is essential to the story for a few reasons. I won’t get into it because of spoilers. But, without The Vegas section, there’s no Boris and no setup for the most important storyline in the book……
Gone Girl
No. I never wonder because I understand there are more than 7 billion people on this planet and we all like different things.
The Lord of the Rings series. I’ve read it 3 times and hated it every time. The Hobbit was good but I just don’t get the Lord of the Rings.
I’m the opposite. Read Lord of the Rings and then tried the Hobbit and could never get into it. Seemed boring.
That’s exactly how I felt! Lord of the Rings just didn’t visualize in my head like the Hobbit did. Opposite sides of the same coin. ?
You read a whole series that you hated three times? Why?
I am asking out of curiosity; if you hated it why did you read it 3 times?
For each of the movies when they came out. I wanted to see how close it was to the movies
50 shades of grey
As i lay dying by faulkner
Harry Potter. I read the first book and couldn’t see what the fuss was about, although I could see the appeal for children.
Turtles all the way down, Exit West and any of Paula Coelho’s books that I have tried to read, including The Alchemist.