Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Top Ten Tuesday: Popular Books that Lived Up to the Hype

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! If you've ever read a book everyone told you was really good, and thought "really?" when you finally finished it, you've been bitten by the hype bug. I think a lot of us have gotten a little gun-shy over the years about the next hyped release! So here are ten books that (at least for me, everyone has different tastes) actually lived up to high expectations!



Jane Eyre: Classics, especially "beloved" classics, have literally hundreds of years of hype. I thought this book was going to be a straightforward romance and was delighted to find a story about a young woman coming into her own that happened to end with marriage. It's really good, y'all!

War and Peace: I tell everyone I've read War and Peace both because it's a gigantic classic and half the point of reading it is to brag about it but ALSO because it's honestly an incredible book that people think is intimidating and likely serious and boring and it is long but it is wonderful.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: I resisted this one for a long time because mystery/thriller is not a genre I've had particular luck with and I figured that its bestseller status confirmed that it was dumb. Joke's on me for being snobby, once I read it I raced to get the sequels because I looooved it.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: I remember a list I read several years back that said this was the best book since the turn of the century, which made me raise my eyebrows because it's a book about dudes writing comic books. How good could it be? The answer is: phenomenal.

The Hunger Games: I don't read a ton of YA. I'm not trying to sound like I'm hating on it, but I usually find that I'm looking for books with more complex characters/plots and more elegant prose styling for my personally most enjoyable reading experiences. So when this series got a ton of buzz, I kind of wrote it off as not for me and then I raced through all three of them because they're so good.

Gone Girl: A missing wife. A husband with a secret. Sounds like something you pick up at the airport to read on the plane and immediately forget. But I found myself staying up late and reading while I ate because I didn't want to put it down and that Cool Girl breakdown is a masterpiece.

Americanah: I read this just recently and there have been years of continually low-level hype about it that made me almost sure it would inevitably disappoint. Nope, turns out it really is that good.

A Game of Thrones: I actually watched the first season of the show before I picked up the books. Though I love The Lord of the Rings, I'd tried reading some other fantasy epics before and they'd just never clicked, but these books are so damn good and I re-read one over the holidays every year and I just want the sixth one nowwwwwwww.

Me Talk Pretty One Day: People love David Sedaris, which had always made me a little wary. Humor can be tricky on the page, and I've often found myself reading things that are supposed to be funny and being completely flummoxed. But happily, this book kept me laughing and I've picked up several of his other works to read.

Big Little Lies: I literally just posted my review of this last week, so I won't belabor the point. I read it as the miniseries (which I STILL haven't watched) was airing and getting raves so I read it at Peak Hype and still really liked it.

16 comments:

  1. I should probably give Game of Thrones another try. I actually found myself loving the show more than the book, which is the ultimate bookworm heresy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To be fair, the show captures the essence of the books really well and the books can be dense. I just love what Martin does with his characters, they're all so interesting (even though there are probably too many of them, to be honest)

      Delete
  2. I really, really want to read Americanah! This has convinced me even more :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's really good! It's long and sometimes challenging but very worth it.

      Delete
  3. I hope to read War and Peace one of these days. First in English. One day hopefully my Russian will be good enough to read it in the original Russian (I know the original is partly in French too, but I know a little French as well).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's so good, and while it does take a long time to read it moves faster than you think. It's not dense or heavy. And reading it in Russian would be amazing! I can't imagine being good enough with a second language to read much more than children's books

      Delete
  4. oooh, Kavalier and Clay! One I definitely need to look up after your blurb!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've read three of Michael Chabon's books now, and this one is the best so far!

      Delete
  5. Out of this list, I particularly like Americanah, Gone Girl, and the Kavalier and Clay book, they're all so good. I had no idea what to expect when I started Americanah (I'd heard a lot about Gone Girl and gotten recommendations for Kavalier and Clay, so I knew what I was getting into there, but just picked up Americanah on a whim), and it really took me by surprise. The extracts from the main character's blog in particular are just so sharp.

    I really adored Gone Girl and enjoyed Flynn's other books. Recently, I've been reading a lot of other bestselling thrillers that are clearly quite influenced by the success of Gone Girl, but most of them are nowhere near as good, which is very disappointing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I'm also at the point where anything comparing a thriller to Gone Girl has me more skeptical than intrigued. I actually haven't read Flynn's other books yet, though I have copies of both!

      Delete
  6. I still feel such shame when I have to admit I haven't read Jane Eyre. haha I haven't read any Sedaris either! Fail.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do recommend Sedaris, he's easy to read and very funny. And Jane starts off a little gothic drama but turns into a really well-realized coming-of-age story! I only read it a couple years ago myself!

      Delete
  7. I’m terrified of hype. So many popular books suck. The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones made my list, though. I liked those series.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SOOOO many. I almost avoid the bestseller list at this point, it works out so badly so often!

      Delete
  8. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is just superb!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is SO amazing. I just read it pretty recently and I already want to read it again!

      Delete