The 5 most overrated books I read in 2024

that I'll definitely read again

Criticism for a book, is a truthful, unfaked badge of attention, signaling that it is not boring; and boring is the only very bad thing for a book. So if you really want people to read a book, tell them it is “overrated”, with a sense of outrage.

- Nassim Taleb

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There’s no shortage of “underrated books lists” scattered across the interwebs.

So I’m flipping that on its head by giving you my hand curated list of most overrated books. I hope you never pick up any of them. Ever.

Let’s dive in.

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1. A Whack on the Side of the Head

This book has been delivering false hope for 40 years.

Roger claims that he can make you more creative by reading a lot of words on a lot of pages. Those poor trees.

That’s like trying to read your way to becoming a standup comedian. Or trying to read your way to a few hundred billion dollars by picking up an Elon Musk biography.

Oh, and get this. Its been praised by those dull empty suits (business people). Can you think of a less creative person than a pear-shaped, pointy-haired middle manager?

I’ll save you $11.99 and 256 pages in one sentence: If you want to be more creative, create stuff you wish already existed.

2. The Quest of the Simple Life

This book was published over 100 years ago and, I’m sorry to tell you, is still in print.

It’s little more than a glorified diary from a British chap who clearly couldn’t cut it in the real world. After failing to make a name for himself as an accountant in London, he threw in the towel and forced his family to move to the countryside to live in utter squalor.

Sounds more like an old grump who wanted to rebel against the man by throwing a temper tantrum. Who thought the solution was to build a little cottage in the middle of nowheresville England and spend the rest of his days watching grass grow. Never to be heard from again.

I’m sure his wife and children were thrilled.

Tell me you lack a lick of ambition without telling me you lack a lick of ambition.

3. The Magic of Believing

This 1940’s version of The Secret was so bad I had to read it twice.

It falls into that dreaded category known as “self-help”. Yuck.

Basically, Claude claims that if you just shout affirmations loud enough and long enough, you can have it all — riches, fame, power, success — without lifting a finger.

But does he offer any hard evidence to back this up?

Of course not.

However, he does offer plenty of random anecdotes because he knows we’re suckers for a good story. He even provides examples of gamblers winning huge sums of money because they believed they could.

Seriously?

If you want to be fooled into believing there’s some magical pixy dust that will be sprinkled on your head by simply believing you can have whatever you want, then be my guest.

4. Die With Zero

The iron law of personal finance is save more, spend less.

It’s worked as long as money has existed.

So Bill thought it’d be cute to recommend the exact opposite.

I’m typically all for contrarian takes on conventional wisdom but this sad attempt misses the mark.

He’s a nerd who treats money as an engineering problem with a one-size-fits-all solution. I guess he forgot personal finance is a lot more personal than financial.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he’s already made his millions as a hedge fund manager. Is that really someone who has a pulse on how everyday folks like you and me should be handling our hard-earned money?

Don’t read this book unless you’re intrigued by the idea of dying broke.

5. The Lessons of History

It’s hard to hate on an old married couple who spent the better part of seven decades distilling the entirety of our known history.

But allow me the honors.

Historians suffer from the worst kind of hindsight bias.

They think they can make sweeping judgments about what life was like long ago, how people lived, why wars were waged, and why things unfolded the way they did. By reading other historians accounts.

Talk about a vicious cycle of bullsh**.

I guess nobody informed them that history is written by the winners.

If you want a real history lesson, you’d be better off going straight to the source. By reading journal entries from some normie who was actually alive during those times and captured the pulse of the world around them in real time.

You’ll be better informed than reading this tightly packaged pile of garbage.

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I wasted countless hours reading these so you don’t have to. You’re welcome for that.

I hope you felt my sincere outrage and are thoroughly convinced that none of these are worth a single second of your sacred reading time.

What was the most overrated book you read this year?

I’m always looking to add to my ever-growing DO NOT READ list.

Your thoughts? Comments? Complaints? Please leave a reply below.