2y ago

Overrated Literary Classics (and What to Read Instead) | Book Riot

These overrated literary classics have had more than enough time in the sun. It's time to spend our time with some others!

5 comments

Clickbait. The writer is comparing historically-important books that are taught in literature classes to more modern books that can be read for fun.
Sure, we all read stuff for fun, that doesn't mean the books studied in literature classes are overrated.
- And we can read classics for fun too, it doesn't have to be one of the other. I've read 5 of these "overrated" books, all on my own time, and enjoyed all of them. 2 of which became two of my favorite books of all time.
Man this is terrible. These works aren't "overrated", they stood the rest of time for a reason, and will continue to be influential for decades or centuries to come. The fact they are still relevant is proof enough.
Also anyone that discounts Lolita or Huck Finn for promoting pedophilia and racism respectively, has the reading comprehension of a wet sock, and nobody should take them seriously.
I've not read all these classic books but they definitely didn't read Lolita based on their summary of it. The 'beautiful writing' is Humbert's overblown attempts to elevate his immorality and criminality into something poetic, making him the ultimate unreliable narrator.
The Solitaire book she recommended as an alternative to Catcher In The Rye (also still a good book) sounds interesting though
Bah. This is just a piece of clickbait nonsense, or somebody trying to be edgy. I'm actually mildly offended by their "review" of "On the Road". Just makes me think that they probably haven't ever read anything other than somebody elses review of it.