I'm sick.
I also have a new hobby that takes my mind off it more. (watercolor painting/drawing)
I have read 46 books so far this year. My goal is 52. It's always 52. Well, for the last three years it's been 52. A book a week seems reasonable to me. (Last year I read 115.)
Anyway, I have been reading much discussion online about the over-hyping of books and whether that keeps someone from reading them.
Interesting. It's kind of a chicken/egg situation. How did the book get so popular -- over-hyping or the intrinsic quality of the book?
My theory is that it's a combination of both in most cases.
In most cases, a book won't be chosen for Reese's or Oprah's or Whomever's book club if it doesn't meeting a certain standard. Given that it meets that standard, some people will read it whether they follow book club picks or not. But there are people who only buy a book if it's a celebrity book club pick. That's hype, I think. The over-hype comes into play when casual readers pick it up and, not having as much to compare it with, think it's the best book they've read all year, and post it all over social media.Well, if it's September and this is the third book you've read all year, you should let us know that, too.
Or, it could just be that my tastes are not as diverse as I thought they were and I really do strongly dislike some books that other readers are giving 5/5 stars. I can think of three off the top of my head that were so boring I didn't even bother finishing them while other people said they were so moved they were moved to tears. When I think of one author I get angry because she's so popular (I'll admit, I gave two of her books good reviews) when most of her books are "blah" at best. There's also a male author, who I used to love. I can't tell you how many of his books I devoured over the years. I DNF'd the last two, although they got rave reviews online. You can't tell me that's not because of name recognition.
I rarely read reviews before I read a book. I trust a few people, in person and online. (I lovingly call the online people my gay book tokers because my four favorites are all gay and haven't steered me wrong yet.)
If you want to see the books I've read:
https://www.goodreads.com/readingchallenges/annual
