Discussion

Discussion: Hyped Books

Kirsty and the Cat Read

Once upon a time (pre 2015) in a far away land (England) there was a girl who read whatever took her fancy. Then one day (January 2015) she stumbled across Goodreads and from there she fell down the slippery slope into booktube, bookblogs & bookstagram and the girl got lost. Everyone around her was reading the same/similar books and she felt to be considered a real reader she must try to catch up even if she already had a TBR a mile long and even if she didn’t particularly enjoy most of the books.

I’ll stop the story style narrative now but that was pretty much me last year. I don’t regret the books I picked up because of the peer pressure of Booktube, BookBlogs or Bookstagram but I’ve found this year I have become more aware of what I was doing and how I wasn’t particularly enjoying what I read as much as I had before 2015. 

See, I don’t mind books getting hyped up or people fan-girling all over the place – just because that’s not me doesn’t mean others shouldn’t – but my issue is the types of books we hype over. A lot of the time certain books are being built up months before they are even released. 

For example November/December last year both Passenger by Alexandra Bracken and Truthwitch by Susan Dennard were being raved about by popular booktubers who hadn’t even read them yet. This seemed to cause somewhat of a snowball to avalanche affect among the book community. What happened when they were both released? Well at first all I saw were people slamming them! Usually because it didn’t meet there expectations.

I know it’s really hard to not get swept up in the hype (trust me, I’ve been there) but I would strongly urge people to actually look at the description and really think about it before you get yourself excited. In most cases these Booktubers are sponsored to promote these books and that always makes me a little wary to trust the recommendation. 

However, and I can’t stress this enough, when it comes to hyped books I don’t really think it’s others faults when they don’t meet our expectations. We’re all able to read a blurb/synopsis/spoiler free review and decide from there if we’ll enjoy it. I will never understand why we carry on reading the same old books with the same/similar rehashed plots and complaining that they fell short when the reason they fell short is because it’s not your taste.

It’s okay not to like the same book everyone else. It should be more important to us to pick up books because we are genuinely interested in them and not because we think it will get us more likes/views/comments/shares and ultimately I think that’s why a lot of people chose the books they choose.

Sometimes I view videos or look at blogs and feel a little sad that I’m not a fan girl or I’m not one of these people that highly anticipates lots of new releases. However when I come across a series or a book I am genuinely really looking forward to it makes it that much more special than it would have a year a go when I was following the crowd.

Do you agree?

Do you think I’ve been too harsh?

Let me know your thoughts on hyped books below

 

5 thoughts on “Discussion: Hyped Books”

  2. I have to admit I have definitely fallen into the hype spell for a few books I decided to read this year. Most of the hyped books I see in the bookish community tend to be within the YA genre, which tends to be pretty hit or miss for me. I find it very hard to read rave review after rave review and not become curious, but it has more often than not came back to bite me in the butt. I am definitely going to try and be more selective in 2017.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. It definately seems to be in the YA community predominantly and I have noticed my tastes are more historical fiction than YA this year. I agree, I think 2017 is going to be more of a selective year for me too, and I plan on only buying 1 book after finishing 5 that I own so that will be tricky

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment