You're probably wondering what I mean by that. I'm often late to the game when it comes to popular series and books. I just read The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy and Throne of Glass. I didn't read The Fault in Our Stars, The Lunar Chronicles, or Divergent until last summer. I get tons of great recommendations from friends and other book bloggers. They're often books that sound really good.
But I usually worry that the books won't live up to the hype, that I won't enjoy them after all. And that's what keeps me from reading a lot of books right away. When friends recommend books that they love, it really scares me. They'll usually follow up, especially if they see I bought the book or checked it out of the library. And I'm scared to disappoint them. What if I thought it was just okay? What if I didn't like it at all? What do I tell them?
I still read the books, obviously. Some are absolutely fabulous (i.e., Grave Mercy, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Scarlet, Pivot Point, Divergent...). Some are definitely good and worth rereading (think Splintered, Throne of Glass, All Our Yesterdays, Six Months Later...). And then there are the books I didn't like. Maybe I just couldn't get into the story. Maybe the main character or premise ended up bothering me. Thankfully, I haven't had too many friends asking about those. But when they do, I'm inwardly like...
So how do you handle recommendations from friends, whose opinions you value? What do you do if you don't like a book that a friend loved?
Like you, I tend to be something of a leery reader- though just how leery also depends somewhat on how desperate I am for more books. There's pretty much only one friend whose recommendations I'll take more or less without question.
ReplyDeleteIn general, when I get book recommendations, I tell the person 'Thank you' and that I'll look into it. Whether or not this extends past seeing if my library has it and/or looking it up on Amazon depends on the book.
I can't remember many times when I've disliked a book a friend liked, but it's not exactly common for the friend to really follow up on the recommendation either, at least not for me.
Have you seen Heather Vogel Frederick's blog recently?
ReplyDelete~D. Skye <3
Of course! I saw her tweet about it almost immediately.
DeleteI read this the other day and totally forgot to comment so here's a short one because I don't have much to offer input-wise, but you are not alone! I'm a leery reader as well and it sometimes works in my favor, but sometimes not. I always get so nervous when a friend hands me a book, that Sheldon gif is PERFECT.
ReplyDeleteI know what kind of stuff I like, but I'm also open to recommendations. If I end up not liking a book that someone recommended because they love it, that's okay. We don't all have to like the same books! Mostly, though, I just get recs from Rachel and Julianne, since most of my friends aren't big readers!
ReplyDeleteI love this post, because I am the exact same. I have discovered and bought so many new books since I started blogging and I haven't read many of them yet because I'm worried I'll hate them.
ReplyDeleteI worry I'll hurt the book's feelings...
ReplyDeleteInteresting...
DeleteI was mostly joking. :) Really, I feel bad for the author
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