Two For Tuesday

Welcome to this week’s ‘Two For Tuesday’, a weekly post hosted by myself, The Reading Nook, where each week I pick a bookish topic and discuss two of my favourite (or least favourite) things about that topic! If you feel like joining in, feel free to use the above picture, and don’t forget to link back to the post so everyone can see!

This week’s topic is – two books that you thought were completely over-rated.

Sometimes you hear so much hype about a book that you just have to source it and read it immediately. Sometimes the hype is justified…sometimes it isn’t. This post is about two books that I found were not worth the hype at all.

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks.

A collection of short stories, about various different topics. The only thing they have in common is the inevitable mention of a typewriter…and how sub-par they all are. This book seemed to get huge praise in the blogging world, and that, teamed with my absolute adoration of Tom Hanks, made me so eager to read it. Even the librarian praised it when I picked it up.

I found it so disappointing!! It was honestly a struggle to even finish it. To me, it felt lazy and thrown together, and just a way for Hanks to wax lyrical about typewriters (because apparently he really, really likes typwriters..). I’ve said it before, but it just seems like he got up one morning and decided to write a book because he had nothing else to do. Take my advice, if you haven’t read it already, dont waste your time. You can read my full review of Uncommon Type here.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This is another book that I was so keen to read, and ended up being really let down by. It is a bit of a contentious choice, because I know that this book was, and still is, very popular with bloggers and non-bloggers alike – so popular that Reese Witherspoon is now adapting it for television.

However, I found it to be very underwhelming, and lackluster. I didn’t like the characters, or the plot particularly. I kept waiting for it to take off, and grab me, but it just never did. I found it entirely forgettable. I know some people love it, but it just wasn’t really for me. You can read my full review of Little Fires Everywhere here.