What’s a classic book that you think is overrated?
I struggle with calling classic books overrated, because reading is so personal.
A book can be painfully boring to one person and life-changing to someone else. Sometimes the problem is not the book itself, but the timing. You read it too young, too tired, too distracted, or too far removed from the world it came from.
Some classics are hard work. Many books feel slow. Some have been praised so loudly for so long that when you finally read them, you expect fireworks and instead get a damp match and a headache.
But that does not always mean they are overrated.
It might mean they are important historically, but not enjoyable personally. They might mean they changed literature, even if they do not change your afternoon. It might mean the book deserves respect, but not necessarily love.
So my answer is: I do not really think books are overrated. I think they are over-assigned, over-analysed, over-worshipped, and sometimes forced on people at exactly the wrong age.
A classic book does not have to be everyone’s favourite to still matter.
And honestly, sometimes the most overrated part is not the book.
It is the smugness surrounding it.
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