Description: Essential or Overdone?

I've been shying away from books recently that include lots of descriptive passages. Why? I guess I have been spoiling myself with books that have a little more action. I'm still in the middle of Up Island, and when I picked it up last night I delved right into six or more pages of pure description -- nothing else. I'm telling you, those were some of the hardest pages to get through. It would have been better had the description served a huge purpose, but really, it didn't and I don't think it will have a large impact on the next chapter in the book.