Bestselling Books I Didn’t Care For

Today I will talk about a few hugely popular books which didn’t do much for me. I’m not saying they were bad, just not for me. 

In no special order, here we go.

Twilight. I read it because the girls using my library were reading and loving it. To be honest, I found it dull; not much happened till well into the book. I couldn’t bring myself to read the next one. 

BUT - I bought two sets of the series for my library, because I saw kids reading it all over the school. They read it curled up on steps outside, if the classrooms and library were not open yet. They read it and passed it on by word of mouth. Only the girls, true, apart from one boy I saw carrying his copy around. I well remember another boy who had read it complaining that instead of going up in flames in the sun, as they should, these vamps sparkled, dammit! 

But the thing is, here was a book which was exciting readers - even non-readers were giving it a go. My librarian soul shouted for joy.

I remember a member of my lunchtime book club who told me it was the first book she had ever read, back in Year 5. She was now a passionate reader, as I knew. 

Another student, an ESL girl, read all four books in as many weeks. She told me that she simply read at home. She did housework, then read. She skipped family events to read. If she didn’t know a word, she figured it out from the context, or from the dictionary if she couldn’t get the context. Mind you, that was just her - she was a bright kid we lost to the private system when she got a scholarship. But the series inspired her to read hard words, and learn more English from it. 

So...not a book I cared for, but its intended audience did - and got a lot out of it. 

Next, Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. The story involves the world’s greatest assassin, a teenage girl, who is competing for the job of King’s Champion -not as you may imagine,  the one who fights on his behalf, but more like official royal assassin!  

This one was getting poor reviews when I read it, and I should tell you that I thought it was not as bad as everyone was saying. However, I also found it rather silly, and the descriptions of the fighting and climbing the heroine does really needed beta readers with some expertise in those areas to see if they were possible. 

However, the author went on to become hugely popular(still is) and my female library users were asking for the books in this series, and others she was writing, so I bought them. My library was there for the kids’ benefit, not mine, after all. I don’t judge. The books were not racist or sexist, as far as I could see and I left it to be recommended by word of mouth, as I really couldn’t. 

Divergent by Veronica Roth. The heroine is a girl in a society where they have a version of the Hogwarts Sorting ceremony, only it’s not in a boarding school, it’s how you live your life. The girl comes from a family which expect her to join their “house”, but she chooses another one, Dauntless, the equivalent of Gryffindor... 

 Hugely popular, oh, yes, and it was turned into a series of films, and I was one of a minority who didn’t care for the original book and certainly didn’t read the rest.  I didn’t mind it, even gave it a reasonable review. I just couldn’t read the rest, and I was dubious about whether or not the system could possibly work.

Interesting that in this novel, the villains were in the equivalent of Ravenclaw! Says something about the author’s attitude to intellectuals, doesn’t it? Plus, the head baddy had the very villainous name of Janine... a bit like Marion Zimmer Bradley giving her Merlin character the distinguished name of Kevin.

Again - the intended audience at my school loved it. So I bought all the books. 

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, the only adult title on this list. I read it out of curiosity, since so many people I knew were making a fuss over it, and ended up very glad it was a library book. I’m sure you have read about it, even if you haven’t read the book, so I will skip the details. It involved Jesus and a quest for secret papers and a lot of running around, with baddies from a church group that actually exists. 

Quite honestly, I thought it was a perfectly good thriller of the airport-reading type, the kind you buy before a long flight and get rid of when you reach your destination. I’ve never seen the movie and don’t want to. However, it might have sold a lot fewer copies if the Church hadn’t made such a fuss about it that aroused readers’ curiosity. 

My main issue with it was that it was set over about 24 hours, during which time nobody ate, slept or went to the bathroom. Okay, I know that the third on my list is rarely mentioned in any book, but you would think that the main characters would at least eat and sleep! Not only didn’t they rest, but they were quite fresh and prepared to fight the baddies near the end! 

Maybe it’s a thing about airport thrillers, but I have read at least one other where everyone did take rest breaks, and it was still exciting, so no excuse! 

Okay, these are a few of mine, what about you? Do you have some books that everyone else loved and which you found “meh” at best? Did you enjoy the books I mentioned?