Top Ten Tuesday #2: Top Ten Hyped Books I’ve Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme asks bloggers to list the top ten hyped books they have never read. I considered a few factors in determining the “hype” of a particular book as I compiled my list, including popularity on Goodreads, the frequency with which I see it on other blogs, and the level of general discussion about it including among friends, family, coworkers etc. I tried to select from both YA and adult fiction. I ordered this list based on a rough approximation of the order in which I might read these hyped-up books:

1. Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon: I know! Time travel, historical fiction, romance… I am fully expecting to love this series once I finally get to reading it. I have the first one at home and I’m just waiting for the right time to be able to read them all.

2. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: This series has gotten good marks from my friends who’ve read it, and it sounds like a great new spin on some classic tropes. Looking forward to it 🙂

3. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: I think the reviews for this book have been a little more polarizing in that some readers seemed to hate it, but those who love it really love it, so I am very curious to see whether this book will live up to the hype for me.

4. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: This book is high on my TBR as I am always trying to read more award-winning books in addition to the books that I’m recommended or just find intriguing, and this won the most recent fiction literature Pulitzer. Both my mom and my bookish friend Rebecca, whose opinions I always respect, did not love this book, so I want to see whether or not I feel it was worthy of the award and whether I agree with them.

5. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: The fact that I adored Fangirl as much as I did makes me nervous that I won’t love this one as much but I am definitely interested in giving it a try.

6. The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater: I see this series mentioned very often when I go on Tumblr. I’ve actually never read anything by Maggie Stiefvater but based on her Goodreads page she and I seem to like a lot of the same books so I’m hopeful that I will enjoy her writing.

7. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: Another Pulitzer winner that I am interested in especially based on how much I enjoyed The Secret History. Most of the hype from this one for me has come from friends’ parents and parents’ friends.

8. The Selection series by Kiera Cass: Probably some of the prettiest book covers I have ever seen. Those dresses are drawing me in and I want them!

9. If I Stay by Gayle Forman: We’ve reached the part of my hyped books list where I probably won’t ever read this book, but still included it because of the tons of attention it has received. Despite a successful movie adaptation and many positive reviews, and even though I don’t know specifically what happens, it just seems like kind of a downer and I’m not really interested in it.

10. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: I know that this is one of the most popular books ever read on Goodreads, with overwhelmingly positive reviews, but many of the negative ones I’ve seen have convinced me that this isn’t for me.