Top Eight Books I Feel As Though Everyone Has Read But Me

I read a lot of Front-list books (those books that are about to be, or have just been, published. I’m getting better at reading Back-lists, but it still needs work. Despite spending a reasonable amount of time in bookshops browsing what’s on offer, I can easily fail to pick up the latest “must read”.  Here are some of the books that I’ve managed to avoid reading to date, that I suspect many other people have at least said they’ve read….

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – I read the first few chapters, but didn’t care for it, so passed it on to someone who did want it. No, I haven’t seen the film either.
2. Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins – I saw a lot of noise about it in 2015, but seeing it compared to “Gone Girl” – which I had recently just ditched – was not a way of making me want to read it.  Looks like the film will come out in 2016.
3. 50 Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James. I’ve read none of them, and wouldn’t admit to it even if I had! I have no problem in reading sexy stories/erotica, but I do have standards and heard from people I trust that the books were simply badly written. Don’t get me onto the fourth in the series, as it was clearly done as a money-making exercise.
4. Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer – I read the first one, wasn’t particularly impressed (sparkly vampires? What’s the point of vampires if it’s not about sex, right? Christian values, No sex before marriage, etc. Bah Humbug!). I’ve caught bits from the movies, which are now on irregular repeats on the TV, but have never sat down to watch an entire film.
5.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I’m not big in YA arena so to hear the ravings of fans when the films came out made me wonder, but not enough to go out and read one of them!
6. It’s the same with Divergent by Veronica Roth – another YA book that got enough critical mass when the films came out
7. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. This is perhaps more my style – large with a cast of thousands and historical fiction. It’s actually on my bookshelf somewhere and I’ll get around to it at some point, however, I refused to read it at the time because of the hype. I suspect it’s one of those books that people claim to have read it (but haven’t really) in the hope it will impress people.
8. Most of the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. I read the early books after the films came out. I have neither read the later books nor seen the later films. I’m bad I know. So Be It.  I am not sure I have (had) all the books – I can’t actually remember the last one I read, but it was certainly long before the end of either the books or watching the movies. The last one is on the bookshelf, and I’ve read the last few pages, so in theory I know how it ends, but still…

Have you read any of these books? Were they worth it? Did you read it because of the hype?