 |
Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post on Rainy Day Ramblings, where the blog's owner Heidi discusses a wide range of topics from books to blogging. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.
Here is what is on deck this week:
WHAT ARE SOME POPULAR SERIES YOU HAVEN'T TRIED OR HAVE AND STOPPED BECAUSE THEY JUST DON'T APPEAL TO YOU?
OK, so...now I'll sound like a total snob, but I promise, I have reasons. Because I should probably answer...ALL OF THEM?!?!
Before you start throwing virtual rubbish my way (which you totally aren't doing, because you are all sweet cupcakes, and well-behaved ones at that 😀), as I said - I HAVE REASONS.
And I have actually read a handful of popular series since I started blogging: the Jenna Fox Chronicles trilogy by Mary E. Pearson, the Anna duology by Kendare Blake, and the ongoing Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. Wow, that's like...THREE? Add the old, but still popular Remember Me trilogy and the equally old, but ongoing Thirst series (previously called The Last Vampire) by Christopher Pike, and you have a grand total of five. FIVE. I'm dying here.
...What? Oh, right. You were waiting for my reasons...
The fact is...I only commit to books that I do believe are a good fit for me. I may be wrong occasionally, but hey, at least I've tried. I need a bunch of things to be there, but even more, a bunch of other things NOT to be there. And I'll admit I have genre bias. So...I don't particularly care for straight-up fantasy - which rules out Harry Potter and a whole lot of other series (especially these latest years). I do read the occasional dystopian, but I have to buy the premise, and I need the romance to be minimal at best - which rules out The Hunger Games and Divergent. So, it's a preference thing, really. It's just that I can't see myself enjoying them enough to spend money on them. There are only two series that you could never PAY me enough for reading, or force me to, not even under torture: Twilight (and I'm not bashing it now because it's trendy to do so) and 50 Shades of Grey (now, the latter is adult AND erotica, but that's beside the point. It's a question of principle - I wouldn't read it in any case. Women are better than that. Men too...I hope).
As for the other popular series I haven't read, and have no desire of reading...
Before you start throwing virtual rubbish my way (which you totally aren't doing, because you are all sweet cupcakes, and well-behaved ones at that 😀), as I said - I HAVE REASONS.
And I have actually read a handful of popular series since I started blogging: the Jenna Fox Chronicles trilogy by Mary E. Pearson, the Anna duology by Kendare Blake, and the ongoing Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. Wow, that's like...THREE? Add the old, but still popular Remember Me trilogy and the equally old, but ongoing Thirst series (previously called The Last Vampire) by Christopher Pike, and you have a grand total of five. FIVE. I'm dying here.
...What? Oh, right. You were waiting for my reasons...
The fact is...I only commit to books that I do believe are a good fit for me. I may be wrong occasionally, but hey, at least I've tried. I need a bunch of things to be there, but even more, a bunch of other things NOT to be there. And I'll admit I have genre bias. So...I don't particularly care for straight-up fantasy - which rules out Harry Potter and a whole lot of other series (especially these latest years). I do read the occasional dystopian, but I have to buy the premise, and I need the romance to be minimal at best - which rules out The Hunger Games and Divergent. So, it's a preference thing, really. It's just that I can't see myself enjoying them enough to spend money on them. There are only two series that you could never PAY me enough for reading, or force me to, not even under torture: Twilight (and I'm not bashing it now because it's trendy to do so) and 50 Shades of Grey (now, the latter is adult AND erotica, but that's beside the point. It's a question of principle - I wouldn't read it in any case. Women are better than that. Men too...I hope).
As for the other popular series I haven't read, and have no desire of reading...
Well, that's it for now. And if you're interested in participating, here is the TMST prompt list for August:
- August 7th: For those who don’t have time to reread series, what would you reread when you found the time?
- August 14th: At what point do you think a series has gone on too long?
- August 21st: What things are you drawn to when choosing your next read?
- August 28th: Does it bother you when a book cover doesn't fit the characters in the book?
As usual, lots of fun/thought-provoking prompts coming! My next TMST will be on August 21st. Because I reread all the time, and don't really have an opinion on series' length (though usually, the shorter the better...except for the Thirst series by Christopher Pike 😉).
Now tell me something...are there any popular series you refused to read, and why? have you tried any that you ultimately didn't like? do you give in to hype/peer pressure when it comes to books?
I'm totally a willing victim of hype, and so many of my favorite books are the extremely popular ones. The YA fandom usually seems to get things right though, and most of the ones I've read because of Tumblr or their very prominent displays at Target turn out to be good. The biggest exception for me is the Divergent series. I did read it, but it's... not great, and it made me hesitant to read any more Veronica Roth. I wasn't wild about The Maze Runner either, but I might go back eventually and try to finish the series. The movies were kind of fun.
ReplyDeleteI have no plans to read Fifty Shades of Grey, Game of Thrones, or Lord of the Rings, but not because of hype or criticism. I just know they're not my genres, and I probably wouldn't like them.
Quote: "I'm totally a willing victim of hype, and so many of my favorite books are the extremely popular ones."
DeleteSo you're lucky to have me introducing some obscure books to you LOL. (BTW, if you want to discover more indie/small pub books, especially in the fantasy genre, I recommend Kristen's blog: https://blog.kristenburns.com/).
Haha, definitely! Thank you! I'll have to look into that.
ReplyDeleteWhat's sad is that I read all the series you mentioned NOT having read lololol. Yes, even 50 Shades. THE WHOLE TRILOGY. *hides* AND I DIDN'T EVEN ONE STAR IT, which is the truly tragic thing here. I so badly want to go back and change my rating for that and others, but then it'd appear on GR, and ahaha, I don't want anyone to think I'm reading them now.
ReplyDeleteAlso, OF COURSE, I read Twilight as well. It was actually THE book that made me turn towards fantasy. So while I disagree with a looot of its content now, I do appreciate it for that, and for making a lot of teens get into reading.
I'd say The Hunger Games actually deserves the hype, though. It was one of the first dystopian series that really blew up - maybe the first? - and the movies are actually GREAT, which is not something I was expecting.
Loved this post, especially the "Women are better than that. Men too... I hope." That was SAVAGE, my friend.
Veronika @ The Regal Critiques
Quote: "I so badly want to go back and change my rating for that and others, but then it'd appear on GR, and ahaha, I don't want anyone to think I'm reading them now."
DeleteOh, but you can! Just uncheck "Add to my update feed" on the bottom right of your edit page, and no one will see anything 😉.
Quote: "Loved this post, especially the "Women are better than that. Men too... I hope." That was SAVAGE, my friend."
LOL, that "savage" made me smile so hard it hurt!
OMG! Seriously, you had me at like, Christopher Pike, Reid from CM, and Supernatural. lol. I swear, it's kismet or something akin to that. lol. I used to read the crap out of all of the Christopher Pike books that I could get my hands on, I just preferred those to the R.L. Stine books. Not saying that R.L. Stine wasn't or isn't a good author, I just preferred Christopher Pike. I so remember the Remember Me and the The Last Vampire series, I think I actually still have the books in storage somewhere out in the shed on a random bookshelf. This is crazy and I've started reading the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire too. I sort of caved to the hype on that one and so far it's been pretty good, although I paused to take a break and finish up The Program series by Suzanne Young that I absolutely loved. Anyway, tangent over. lol.
ReplyDelete*Snorts* How about Fifty Shades of Nope all the way around and I actually loved The Hunger Games after I got over my fear and intrepidation surrounding the hype. It really was a great trilogy, although my heart screams GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALE! That's all I'll say to that and when I originally started reading the Twilight series waaaay back before it became a cult phenomenal trendy thing to do, I actually thought there was a fun innocence about it that I enjoyed. Although, the more it persisted the more I kinda wanted to throw a brick at the author's head. You should really try The Host that is so much better, I promise you. It's nothing like Twilight. lol.
Fantastic post and I absolutely love your blog, it looks like we have a lot in comment so I'm totally following you.
If you get the chance, come by my blog and check out my TMST post.
Suz @ Bookish Revelations
LOL, I loved your comment! It's so candid and funny. Not to mention LONG. I love long!
DeleteI got into Pike at a ripe age...and most of his books I haven't had the chance to read yet, because being in Italy, it's not easy for me to get my hands on them (only a handful have been translated, and the original versions - which I'd go for anyway - can only be found on Amazon...but I can't shop on Amazon...).
I've only watched the odd episode of CM because it's so distressing - which is a pity, because all the characters are interesting and engaging, especially little precious Reid (well, he's more than 13 years younger than me, so I feel kind of protective towards him LOL). Supernatural I follow religiously, though we are way behind here in Italy - we still have to see Season 12...
I've subscribed to your blog by email, and I'll comment later for sure! I'm at work now...my boss should be here anytime 😶.
I can't believe you've ruled out Harry Potter! Haha. I grew up with that series, so it has a special place in my heart. I was always the same age as the characters when new books would come out, so it's like I was returning to Hogwarts with them every year. It's nostalgic and something I want to pass on to my children. <3
ReplyDeleteI have read 50 Shades of Grey, and I think the second book... I can't remember. I know I didn't finish the series and jumped into it when everyone else was doing it. I know, I know... it's why I avoid hyped books now. I wait until things die down and I can make an informed decision. It's hard not to get swept away sometimes.
Thanks for listing the next few prompts! I always forget to check.
-- Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear?
It's not like I think Harry Potter might be a bad series...I was just never interested in it. I haven't even seen the movies, and David Tennant is in one of them 😂. It's nice that you sort of grew up with the characters though. I would have been too old for that LOL.
DeleteThe concept of "getting swept away" is totally foreign to me haha. When everybody is doing something, I usually feel the overwhelming need to go the other way - I always have. Now, with books, I try to have at least a general idea before I refuse to commit. I don't purposely avoid them just because everyone I know is reading them...but so it happens that, most of the times, I'm not on board (though I guess it might be because I'm not into fantasy and contemporary that relies on romance, which are the genres most people prefer).
I love the concept of "informed decision". That should prevent us from making a bad book match!
Like you, I refuse to read the 50 Shades series or Twilight on principle. YA has evolved so much since those books were published and we have much better things to choose from. I have to admit that Twilight did a lot to promote YA as a genre and got adults into reading it, but I can't say anything nice about the story itself.
ReplyDeleteAs for popular series I can't get into, the Truthwitch series is at the top of my list, despite my love for fantasy. I also couldn't get into the ever-popular Shatter Me series after extremely disliking the first book. Everyone loves the writing style and the romance, but I found both to be repetitive and over-the-top.
Even though I still read a lot of popular series, I have been trying to read some underrated series. I have always enjoyed how you hype up books that don't get enough attention and I want to bring a little bit of that to my blog. It can get tiring to see reviews for the some popular series over and over again, and your blog is a nice breath of fresh air. Don't apologize for not reading the "popular" series because you are doing great without them anyway!
Tessa @ Crazy for YA
Thank you hon! I'm happy it rubbed off on you as well 😉 (just kidding, I'm sure you don't need my blog to get the idea of reviewing more unhyped/underrated books yourself). It's just sad how so many books with A LOT of potential aren't successful just because, basically, there's not enough publicity revolving around them, or they don't appeal to the blogs geared to the popular stuff, the ones that might help them find an audience. We shouldn't be afraid of reviewing books that most people don't know already, at least by name. Book blogs are there to spread the word!
Delete