May 05, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Probably Won't Read


Quite a while ago, I bookmarked a blog called The Broke and the Bookish as one I wanted to follow. Then life got in the way and deadlines loomed, and I never made it back to check out the blog ... until this morning. I discovered a feature on the blog called Top Ten Tuesday, which is a different top ten list every Tuesday. This morning, I decided to play along. Today's theme:

Ten Books I'll Probably Never Read


1. Let's start at the top of the list -- Fifty Shades of Gray. Just not something that interests me. I'm not a fan of erotic books (or movies), so the only reason for me to try one of these books would be to jump on the bandwagon so I could be one of the crowd. Since I've never been a "hop on the bandwagon just for the sake of being on the bandwagon with the rest of the world" kind of person, I'm pretty sure I won't be picking this one up. We'll just go ahead and add any other books in the series here, too.  

2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Nothing against the author. Don't know anything about his style of writing. This decision is based solely on the fact that someone mentioned that the book contains a particularly brutal rape scene. As a rape survivor, I tend to avoid books, TV shows, and movies that deal with the subject matter -- with the exception of Law and Order: SVU which, for some reason, I watched for many seasons before I inexplicably stopped watching. 

3. Anything in the Outlander series. I don't know why. My romance writing friends think I'm twisted beyond belief. This series is almost required reading ... and still, I'm giving it a pass.

4. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Aber J Jenkin (as my daughter used to call him) is one of my favorite presidents in history.  This just seems wrong to me. 

5. Any dragon book by Anne McCaffrey. I read one for a book club I once belonged to. I can't remember the title now, but it wasn't my cup of tea at all. 

6. Anything by J.R.R. Tolkien. You might be getting an impression that I'm not a real fan of the fantasy genre, and you would be right. That's not to say I don't ever give any fantasy books a try, but I dip my toes in those waters only occasionally and after a lot of thought. In spite of (or maybe because of) all the hype about The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books and movies, and after living in a neighborhood where all the street names came out of the books, I have yet to read a book or see any of the movies. 

7. Any fiction by Stephen King. While his book On Writing is one of my favorite books on the subject and I'd grab another one like it without blinking an eye if he ever wrote it, I'm not a fan of horror. Love mystery. Love suspense. Can take most psychological thrillers (although I'm thoroughly bored by serial killer books. Far too many of them out there.) But horror, not so much 

8. The Divergent series. My oldest daughter has read the books and warns me that I won't like them. My kids know me better than anyone else on the planet, so I'll take her word for it. 

9. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. There was a lot of talk about this book a while back, so I remember looking at it and giving it some consideration. Finally decided that the characters sounded a bit weird for my taste. They might have been wonderful. I might have loved it but a person can't read everything. Some decisions just have to be made. 

10. The Hunger Games series. Again, lots of hype. There's just something off-putting to me about the idea of children who are forced to kill one another. I'm sure the series is about so much more than just that, but I can't get past it to give the books or the movies a try. 


What about you? Are there any books on your "Will Not Read" list? 

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...


I like the Hunger Games, and didn't mind Divergent, although if your daughter said you wouldn't like it, listen to her. I'm not inclined to read The Hobbit either. Fifty Shades of Grey is also on my list.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/top-ten-tuesday-3/

Unknown said...

I agree with everything you said except for the Anne McCaffrey comment. I love her books, especially the Dragonriders of Pern series.

Bev said...

I have only read one of the books on your list . . . "The Hunger Games" . . . I read it for a book club and it was well written, but agree that the theme was off putting and I have no desire to read the sequels.