Top 10 Most Overrated Books of All Time

Some books get a lot more fame and praise than they really deserve. That'a fact. If there are lists with best books ever, there should be this one as well. Feel free to add any book you consider overrated. I know there are lots and lots of them and I chose picking only the ones I've read, which basically means: the ones popular enough in my country for me to try them out. I'm missing the whole world's perspective, so please help me out there and don't get me wrong when you see books you've never heard of.
The Top Ten
1 Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

This story gives me second hand embarrassment. I hope whoever wrote this story, Stephenie Meyer or something, gets mental help, professionally, they need it.

Why so low? Well, because I know many people who realise it's a total crap but still enjoy the reading just for fun. Although the number of people claiming it's the best thing they've ever read or it's the most romantic story ever is just hilarious and the commercial success is unbelievable. I wish some good authors would earn as much as Meyer does.

As someone who is writing a novel and has some experience in writing, I can safely say that this is one of the most overrated, melodramatic pieces of crap I've ever seen, and probably ever will see. What shocked me the most was when I learned people actually liked this garbage.

2 Fifty Shades of Grey - E. L. James

If you're into BDSM, drawn out sex scenes, and poorly written characters then this book is for you.
If you're not into any of the things I listed above, avoid this book. It's just a repulsive porno, but instead of a video it's a novel.

I find it annoying how woman get mad at men for watching porn, while they are sitting there reading this..

The writing is terrible, which makes the book unreadable (at least in my case).

3 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

This book was well-written but I don't know why this book was overrated. Great Gatsby was published in 1925 and it's like 90 years old. The characters in the book weren't really likeable that much but the characters personality traits/development was based on the theme such as sexual relationship, upper-class entitlement, etc.

It is well written, but it was one of the most boring books I ever read. I felt no emotion for any of the characters, even after they died, and the ending felt rushed, like the author was tired of writing it and wanted to tie up loose ends.

Bond salesman has mysterious rich neighbour, who has acquired his wealth through dubious means, and lame love triangle, there are no plot twists, come to think of it there no plot or story what so ever, that's about it really.

4 The Bible

It is just so full of holes, Matthew,Mark, Luke and John never met Jesus. Lived after him by at least forty years. Jesus never wrote down his teachings, most of his disciples were fishermen and couldn't write. There were numerous religions with virgin births, saviors who died on a cross. etc. Constantine who kicked off Christianity (so it is said ) 3 or 4 hundred years later, on his deathbed converting, some say he was hedging his bet. He was a pretty high member in Sol Invictus, Sun worshippers, In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun reaches its lowest place on the horizon on the 21st or 22nd of December. Three days later on the 25th of December "The Sun Rises"

Aside from the content of the book, the community that surrounds it is a force to be reckoned with. Fans often build there knowledge format off this book and are known to strike back venomously against any contradictions using heavy reference to the book despite its fidelity of having been translated and revised multiple times. Kinda sounds familiar to other books but there are exceptions to a portion of the fan base. Given that this book is the core of several branches of a religion, the numerous and hard core portion of the of the followers drive it up the wall.

5 The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

I grew up in the late 60s, and never could understand why some of my generation idolized this book so much. The ones who thought this was "the greatest" were usually the kids of upper-middle class wealthy parents. I guess being the child of working stiffs that I was, I found it hard to identify with a character that was a snooty rich boy, whining about how hard the world was. "Poor little rich boy", was what kept passing through my mind reading this book.

And from things I've read elsewhere, it seems the author himself was a rather strange character with a huge ego.

Maybe I don't get it because I'm not a sociopathic serial killer, but amounts of praise I hear about this book is just too much compared to the quality of the book. Holden is simply annoying, he doesn't know what he wants, is neither a role model nor an anti-hero. What's so great about it? Many people could write similar thing way better.

6 Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

This book ruined the Hunger Games for me! Katniss starts a new hunger games and forces the capital children to fight, she doesn't name her kids, take disappears after Katniss loses it on him for accidentally killing Prim, she chooses Peeta whose chemically induced by Snow to kill Katniss! Think about it! She fought to end the Hunger Games and she rebuilt it (albeit for one last time, but still...), and she doesn't name her own kids! That's not just depressing, it's utterly sinister, unrelatable, and sick! Nothing is resolved happily, and the plot holes (such as Gale's disappearance) left me more than dissatisfied!

I loved the first book and tolerated the second. This one though...I could barely get through it. It was honestly really boring. And oh, God, I'm not going to spoil it but if you read this book, your heart will break. In. Two. Read it once to finish the series, then never again because this poor trilogy deserved better.

7 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I'm so sick of hearing that Harry Potter's one of the greatest books ever written. Sure, it's one of the most extravagant and creative, but there isn't anything deep, and the part about wizards and magic and dragons is the only realistic part! Almost everyone finds their true love, and I don't think I've heard of anyone there who's divorced. Harry Potter is pretty good but I personally think it got to much fame and praises. And I really hate the fact that to be a wizard, you have to be born into it even when your a muggle, because when you're a muggle, it's because an ancestor was a wizard but the family had forgotten. And probably one of the worst things about it: Harry Potter's parents were very gifted. The only thing that these books taught me is that instead of making this a book where you can realize you can be whoever you want to be regardless of your parents, the only way you'll be good is if you're parents are as well. It makes me sick whenever I think about it. Almost everyone gets wonderful love from their parents, which I don't, and everyone's lives were pretty good before that, except for Harry Potter. But even Harry Potter's life before he found out he was a wizard is better than mine. At least he knew that they were weren't his real parents, my real mom is always insulting me, calling me fat and ugly and she's always trying to change me. My point is that this is clearly not a classic and never will be, and is way too overrated, the books aren't that good overall.

8 Divergent - Veronica Roth

I voted for this, because it's just a book like all the other books that are in hype right now, like the hunger games and the selection trilogy. They all have a tomboy girl as protagonist and live in the future, and have the folk divided into definitive groups. There is also in all three book series a fight to overthrow the government. So I can go on for way more, but it's just to prove the point. You can say what you want about Isabella Swan, but at least she has a different personality from Katniss, America and Beatrice.

This is a horrible, overrated book that should be ranked third behind Twilight and 50 shades. Author Veronica Roth wrote it when she was in college, and it shows in the insane amount of dei ex machina and tropes used. That it is a Hunger Games rip-off isn't even the main problem. None of the characters actually have any personality besides caricatures. Tris is anything but likeable, and I can't see why anyone cares that she died. Four fails to serve the one purpose he's around for, as a compelling love interest.

9 Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health - L. Ron Hubbard
10 The Quran

The Koran and the Bible are both life destroyers if taken literally.

The Contenders
11 Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer

It's cringe and she shouldn't have chosen either of them, they are both toxic choices. I was team end this book before I get second hand embarrassment.

12 The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

Good grief, was this boring. I'm a fan of world-building but the world of this book was so boring! And why does it have to be so long? I love long books, I generally dislike books if they're below 250 pages, but this book-you could read 50 pages and barely anything would happen! Halfway through book 2, I don't even know the characters. Are Pippin and Merry brave or comic reliefs? Does Aragorn have a personality, or is he just 'I'm a brave king' the whole time? Are Frodo and Sam even friends, because they hardly even tell us anything about them! The plot is so boring. Reading this awful book was honestly one of the most boring things I ever did. 3.5/10. Worst book I've read to date.

This book is so godammed overrated. There is enough plot to fill a book of mabye 1/4 that size, with the rest being pointless filler. It is a mediocre at best book that has a following approaching that of the bible, and is the "gold" standard for all modern fantasy books, leading to an endless parade of the same tired elves, dwarves, and orcs routine. The lore makes zero sense and all of the supposedly "powerful" characters spend the whole book doing jack while the author tells you how awesome they could be if they actually used their powers.

13 The Fault In Our Stars - John Green

The book was okay.
The characters were okay.
The plot was okay. It wasn't super exciting. I don't think there was even a climax.
"The fault in our stars" is totally overrated in my opinion. I've read much better books than this. And also, you might think heartless, but like, I didn't even cry at the ending. It was so predictable and cliche. I couldn't connect with the characters at all. It wasn't even that romantic. This book is boring. The only reason I got to the end of this book was to see what everyone was praising on and on about. The plot was flat. And seriously,Augustus? You're gonna carry around a box of cigarettes just to be all like "it's a metaphor! "? Wow.

If my friend ever finds out that I wrote this I am dead because she LOVES this book. I personally am not a fan of either the writing style or the storyline. While it wasn't exactly bad, it was far from being the best thing I've read. If I'm being completely honest (Lauren, please don't kill me) I much preferred reading The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Twilight.

14 New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

Sweetheart, you might suffer from a thing called pick me girl, but even more disgusting and delusional. Get mental help.

15 Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

Once again, this a remind that Stephenie Meyer needs help. This is a mixture of pick me girl and the typical main character plot, but with more obsessive and possessive parts. Like, it's a toxic story which is pretty nice, but still ew.

Wait! People actually like twilight! No way!

Once again, get mental help. You need it.

16 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Tedious and thin, filmmakers pretty much have to do a lot of the work to get something out of this when adapting it for cinema. A lot of purple prose...and not much else.

17 Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee

I'm still not convinced this book is legit. Things only truly have resonance if you've read Mockingbird first. If it's legit, then it's best forgotten, it's just the first draft of a book that became something else. Either way, it's seriously overrated and incredibly disappointing. Potentially dubious.

What a truly cynical marketing con this book turned out to be. Harper Lee wrote one great novel, and that should have been the end of the story, but some literary lowlifes conspired to sully "Mockingbird" with this pathetic epilogue.

18 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

The entire book series was absolutely horrendous. It is so boring, and not even a good topic. Anyone could have written it better, anyone.

Each Harry Potter book + the characters deserve all the glory they get, roll in it until they smell like glory, eat it, become famous for it, break a record for most glory ever, marry glory, have kids with glory, become old with glory, and DIE with GLORY! Harry Potter is friggen' awesome and has taught me that love and friendship is the most powerful thing on earth and can conquer death. Thank you.

I like the series, but I find this final book a bit of a mess.

19 The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Oh my jimmies why isn't this at the top? All you ever hear from teenagers today is Hunger Games this, Catching Fire that, Katniss is mah savior swag YOLO! UGH, what happened to the good old days with HP? The writing in this book was lazy, the characters severely underdeveloped, and the premise is not a tenth as original as everybody says! Hasn't anybody ever read The Running Man by Stephen King? Or the Long Walk for that matter? It's all been DONE BEFORE, and MUCH better at that! Why is Twilight number 1? It's definitely horrible, and I will grudgingly admit that even the crappy Hunger Games is better, but it's no secret that those books suck. Some people clearly don't know the meaning of "overrated" - it DOES NOT mean worst.

I read the first 3 parts and then I couldn't read another word for the following reasons :

1. Its terribly written.

2. you always see everything coming

3. its boring

After that I was like "forget it. I'll just go read the summery" and it was exactly what I predicted. The same thing for catching fire and mockingjay. And the worst part is that so many people actually like it. It's #3 on the greatest books of all time list on this website. And a book like "A Game Of Thrones" which is so well written, creatively plotted and exciting is no where to be seen? What?

20 The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
21 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

This book reads like a lecture on morality - a very long lecture, delivered in a flat monotone on a sunny afternoon when you'd rather be outside. Gave up after seven chapters.

It's quite a shame, because this book does teach important lessons on racism, but there's just one problem with this book that makes it pretty bad. That problem is the plot. For some reason, this book doesn't stay relevant with the plot. Supposedly, the main plot of this book revolves around the trial of a black man named Tom Robinson. However, this book tends to go off topic with the lives of Jem and Scout. Also, the part where Tom Robinsons's trial appears at a very unusual time in the book. I also feel that Atticus is the only character with in depth personality. The pacing of this book also feels slower than it should've been.

The book is slow, boring, confusing, and flawed. It's anti-racist message could not possibly be any more of a no-brainer (of COURSE you shouldn't treat people poorly solely for their skin color), and yet Scout's limited perspective somehow manages to make the narrative incomprehensible. The dialogue, with the thick Southern accents written directly onto the page, is unbearable. The supposed symbolism surrounding the Mockingbird and the rabid dog are actually meaningless. It's an overrated pile of garbage, and I proudly chucked it in the fireplace once my 8th grade school year was over. Congratulations Ms. Lee, you are singlehandedly responsible for the destruction of my love of reading.

22 Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

These YA dystopias make me lose my faith in humanity.

23 Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Bradbury spends so much time building the world that he forgets to write his characters. They're all boring, one-dimensional, and stupid. That would be fine if they became interesting, multifaceted, and intelligent over the course of the narrative, but they don't.

This book gets irony all the time. Because the book is about burning books. This book was a legend for trolling people.

It was so boring... I was almost on board with the whole "burning books thing"

24 Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney

This kid is admitting to committing so many crimes, the main character sucks. Its not that interesting, it's more of a really boring summer day book for when you are locked in your room without outside contact. Don't read this unless you are in that scenario, or if you are like Really really bored.

Never, ever have I seen a book more overrated. Kids are starting to call it 'The Greatest Book of All Time.' Obviously, they have never read another book, because Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the WORST book of all time! Now, I know what you're thinking: Why is it so bad? I'll list all the reasons:

1. It's so boring. There are no plot twists, no riddles, no action. Nothing.

2. The plot is weak. Almost nothing happens that's worth my time. All the books are exactly the same. I can't even differentiate them.

3. The characters are 3-dimensional. I don't know why, but the characters never stuck with me. Never. They have no goals, traits, or deep backstories.

4. It's just pictures. There are barely any words. I can't believe certain kids find this hard to read!

5. When it tries to be funny, it fails miserably. Sure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid has its funny moments, but there's not too many. Once every two books, actually. It's mostly just mean-spirited humor and toilet talk.

6. It has no point. As I stated above, it has no plot, two-dimensional characters, no meaningful words. Now, it doesn't even have a theme! Like, what is the theme? You can do way better than this book? True. That not all books are amazing works of art? Yep, and this is a perfect example. To stop reading meaningful books and read crap? Couldn't be any more true! So, what's its purpose? It doesn't have one.

7. Jeff Kinney is still making them. WHY?!

Jeff Kinney, is you ever see this (which I doubt you will), I'm not saying I hate YOU. I'm saying I hate Gregory "Greg" Heffley!

As for you kids, why do you read this? Don't you understand that, if you're 3rd grade and up, you can read so much other, better things? The world is full of amazing, infamous, classical, beautifully written books out there. Why waste your time with THIS? Don't you understand you're incredibly intelligent? This book isn't going to make you any smarter.

25 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The plot is simple - a journey in search of one's true self. But in fact almost nothing that happens to the main character affects him in any way. All the people he meets just pop up and disappear and even if they said something worth listening, they get no mention later in the book. As a pack of quotes suitable for any occasion it works - as a book it fails.

Simple things written in complex way and for normal English speaking people, with average to slightly above average vocabulary also need to take a dictionary to understand some meanings. Number of times need to reread the paragraph to understand its summary. Weak story line.Was able to complete it once with lot of effort.

8Load More
PSearch List