I will never reread this series, unless I am at some point offered a choice between reading Twilight and painful death. Sometimes I really, really loathe the series and all that it stands for and really wish it would just cease to exist and everyone would stop referencing it due to my moral repulsion. The rest of the time I leave vehement hatred of crappy books to other people, mainly because I don't really get anything out of it except bad feelings. Also there are disturbing romantic relationships in about 90% of paranormal romance books and I cannot protect all of the impressionable young girls from all of the disturbing books.
2. I never quite made it through the first Hunger Games book. I have not seen the film, nor do I plan to. I feel as if I am missing some monumental pop culture thing, since I never finished reading it nor did I particularly enjoy it, but if I try and read it again or see the movie now and it doesn't measure up to my now massive expectations, that will be terrible. I have very complex feelings about books. If you like we can still have conversations about the Hunger Games and both pretend I've read the whole series without me having to make an effort. I've read enough material about it to have effectively read it, anyway.
3. I never managed to get through the entire Harry Potter series. I own the first five books, but could never finish that fifth book. I was about eleven, though, so perhaps I should reattempt it now. They were at a quidditch tournament for a while. I really wanted to move beyond the quidditch tournament, but it seemed as if Harry and Co would be there forever, so I gave up and started reading The Hobbit. Is it bad to admit that I found that series boring? They were good enough, but I've never really understood why people love the series so rabidly. Is it worth starting over, seven years after I originally read it? Does it improve as it progresses? Is it something older, not-quite-wiser Steph would better appreciate? (I quite enjoyed the later films.)
4. As you may have noticed, I often don't 'get' popular or classic books or series. It's actually terrible, feeling both uncultured and awfully un-hip. I am reading War and Peace at the moment, and while I am sure it was brilliant nearer to the time it was written, reading it almost a century and a half later, it is actually quite a clunky piece of literature. Interesting historically, sure, but not remotely enjoyable for me as a modern reader. And yet so many people adore it. Really? There's all these rich people having inane conversations, and then a rich girl was going to marry this bloke, but then loved that guy! but it turned out he was really awful and then Napoleon has a sit down on a hillside and thinks about some stuff, like the war and the battle he's supposed to be winning. I am missing something, I am sure. I just don't know what it is.
5. I very often watch film adaptations before I read the original book! I'm a rebel! And then I sometimes prefer the film to the book. Sacrilege!
6. If someone lends me a book, and it's a really important book for them, I almost always say I loved it, even if I thought it was terrible. Mainly because it makes me sad when people don't appreciate the things I think are brilliant, and I don't want other people to feel sad! They're reaching out to me through literature! I appreciate that. I feel like I'm Dead Poets Society. It's a bonding experience. I'm trying not to do this anymore. Someday I will very tactfully say, to a friend that lends me a novel, 'you know, you're great, but, I don't know, your most adored book is not really my thing.' I'm working up to it.
Feel free to share your bookish confessions!
(Books you pretended to love, or books you pretend to hate, or books you could never read!)
