The Telegraph's got a piece on (basically) 50 most overrated books, called "Not the 50 books you must read before you die". It's tongue in cheek, naturally - but the commentary about each title elicited a chuckle. I know I'm never attempting most of the books on the list, but I'm guilty of reading some of items here.
The titles in bold I've read cover to cover.
- Ulysses by James Joyce - Err... no.
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell - I may or may not have it somewhere in my room, but I doubt that I'll ever read it.
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - not a fan of Austen
- Emma by Jane Austen - ditto
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
- Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- The Outsider by Albert Camus
- Candide by Voltaire
- The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
- The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos - I actually read through this; stick to Dangerous Liaisons
or Cruel Intentions
; the latter only if you're under 35.
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - didn't get very far; he's the reason I hate Russian authors.
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - I always see this, but don't care enough to pick up, let alone read.
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - it's okay, I can do without this.
- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - ditto
- Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson
- Snobs by Julian Fellowes
- A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - okay, who's actually read through this cover-to-cover and enjoyed it?
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
- A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka - The cover always caught my eye, but not enough to actually buy to read it.
- Polo by Jilly Cooper
- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- Does Anything Eat Wasps? by the New Scientist - I wanted to read this.
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray - I think I have this somewhere, but I never finished.
- The Game by Neil Strauss
- The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer - oft-mentioned in the early Adrian Mole books, but not about to pick it up.
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - heard this on audio (narrated by Gladwell himself); the gist is to be good at anything you need at least 10,000 hours of practice. There - I've saved you time and money. You're welcome.
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - didn't have to buy this, Dad already had a copy lying around.
- The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry - read it. Glad I didn't buy it. Still preferred Moab is My Washpot.
- Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton
- Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt - read this; didn't want to read Teacher Man, the follow up :P
- A Journey by Tony Blair - eh?
- Courage by Gordon Brown - really?
- Jordan: Pushed to the Limit by Katie Price - former Mrs Peter Andre? I don't think so.
- Saturday by Ian McEwan
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières - there's a reason why you always see this book at Payless Books warehouse sales, I'm just saying. And the movie with Nic Cage doesn't really help its cause, either.
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - Come on, who hasn't read this or seen the movie?
- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer - Does it count if I've read this on PDF?
- Harry Potter… by JK Rowling - Yes, I've read this (of course)
- One Day by David Nicholls
- Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - there may or may not be a copy lying around somewhere, but I'm not about to read it.
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