Maybe instead of creating an account just to post your lukewarm question you could have tried doing some searches about why the book is appreciated or start re-reading it. Or maybe wait a few years.
Nonetheless, i read the reviews of new york times, german spiegel and others from archive because of my interest or curiosity why it was a bestseller.
My main motivation was to have an real discussion about my thoughts. You can't do that with news articles from 40 years ago.
What and what not the Smithsonian is getting donated, is showing or not showing is an interesting fact, something i wouldn't just ignore but its still not the authority in philosophy books.
Have you read it? Do you have any opinion on it? Because i just read it (just = i finished it 2-3 weeks ago) which made the discussion for me even more interesting.
A lot of books/movies/cultural artefacts require a certain mood, life experience, nature or worldview. Trying to absorb or understand those artefacts without the prerequisites make it a bad experience.
So, perhaps in a few years you'll view it differently. Or perhaps when you are in a different mood. Or perhaps your nature / worldview is incompatible with the 'angle' in the book and you will forever dislike it.
I don't believe there is anything I could explain about how I viewed it that would make it better for you, especially since you just finished it and reached your own (negative) conclusions.
But I think one should regard with some, let's say, respect certain cultural landmarks. They mirror something from the human spirit / experience and it can't be just coincidence they are appreciated.
Bestseller = Mainstream => i'm not far away from mainstream.
And you can take certain aspects of my opinion and argue with them. I tried to convey what i saw in it and what not after all.
Read 5 pages again and see if it hooks you. If it does not, you probably won't like it.
I don't want to 'argue' with what you said because it won't help. You just read 500 pages and felt nothing. What magic of writing could I create to convince you otherwise in a paragraph?
You could try to explain your view point.
I said: "I think its an interesting book, but its hard to read and i'm still curious why it resonated with so many people?"