What book didn’t live up to the hype?

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csmcclain

csmcclain

Member
Everyone always talks about the books that were must read classics or life-changing or whatever, but I rarely hear people talking about books that didn’t do it for them. I’m not talking about some self-published and unedited work by a no-name author, but rather works that get hyped up as “must reads” only to let you down.

I’ll start. I finally read Moby Dick and felt it was long, repetitive, and more of a guide on how to go whaling than a novel. Other honorable mentions are the run-on sentences of Absalom, Absalom! and my least favorite Hemingway work, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Curious to hear anyone else’s.
 
Was slightly disappointed in jack carrs new book, cry havoc. Don't get me wrong it was good , entertaining for sure. Just so predictable though
 
I wont pick a specific book but I dove deep into a bunch of Seal and Military books. Very entertaining and good reads. Then you see all the drama within those communities and it leaves you wonder what was real and what was bullshit. The one particular book that wasn't a seal book has turned out to be completely fiction.
 
gelhaargerald said:
I wont pick a specific book but I dove deep into a bunch of Seal and Military books. Very entertaining and good reads. Then you see all the drama within those communities and it leaves you wonder what was real and what was bullshit. The one particular book that wasn't a seal book has turned out to be completely fiction.
Click to expand...
"military books" is a very wide category...
 
Steven Donovan said:
"military books" is a very wide category...
Click to expand...

Like I mentioned most were seal books and some very popular ones. The other was written by a guy in the Army. It isn't hard to figure out a few of them.

I don't want to shit on guys that were in the military it just seems like there are a bunch of them that have been debunked badly.
 
1. I always start with deeper military history. Deeper historical reads are generally much more "worth your time" than some modern memoirs.

2. You're not wrong... but I think it's also worth mentioning that the military is much wider than people may understand, and certain units are only one small part of the overall military apparatus.
 
Shantaram. Everyone said it was a great book. The premise was awesome. It started out great and then it just became a quagmire. The book should have been half as long. I ended up throwing it away after getting about 2/3 of the way through it.
 
A lot of Peter chapsticks books. Just didn't jive with me. Seemed overly arrogant for whatever reason.

But quickly realized Ruark was my man for Africa stories.
 
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