I’ve never been a big fan of hyped books. I just don’t believe in the marketing. Too many times have I been lied to and mislead. Do I feel a little left out when everyone is talking about a certain novel? Well, yeah. But sometimes being part of the crowd is not worth it to me.
I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with enjoying a book that has been hyped by what feels like the whole community. I’m not saying I’ve never enjoyed a book that so many people have promoted. I’m not saying books that are hyped don’t deserve to be hyped. But I cannot deny my bad experiences with super hyped books.
Whenever I see people raving about the same book everywhere I go, I usually take it as a sign that I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. Or at least, not as much as I want to and certainly not as much as everyone wants me to.
There’s just so many problems with hyped books. I’m a victim of overhyped books. The more popularity a book has, the higher expectations I have for it. Which means that I usually start reading with unreasonably high standards that are not met.
Not to mention, the pressure I feel to like a book that is highly promoted is so high. I don’t want to be that one person who doesn’t like a book everyone is talking about. Whenever I don’t like a book that everyone else enjoyed, I feel like a disappointment, and then I feel dumb for feeling that way.
In short, in most cases, reading hyped books is not worth it to me. I might miss out on things, but it’s not worth risking my enjoyment of a book just to be a part of the crowd. I’ll just read it after its hype has died down a little. 😉
What about you?
How do you feel about hyped books?
Are you a victim of overhype like me?
This is how I feel all the time! I always feel like I am the dissenting voice in this conversation, though. I’ve tried talking about this before on my blog, but I don’t think many cared for it. I avoid books like the plague that are super hyped.
Totally agree! Hyped books are the bane of my existence. I’ve finally learnt though, the more love and adoration I hear about a book, the more likely I will be to avoid it like the plague. Some of it comes, like you mentioned, from having very high expectations of the book. I mean, everyone loves it, why wouldn’t I? But also, I’ve discovered that I have different tastes in books than most people, things they love I don’t tend to like at all. So, sometimes I do read a book after the hype has died off, but not BECAUSE of the hype, because I would have read the book even without the hype. But more often than not, I do just enough research on the book to figure out it’s not for me then politely roll my eyes whenever I see it mentioned.