Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Popular Author I’ve Never Read

I thought this would be a pretty difficult topic, but it turns out there are quite a few popular authors whose books I’ve never read, so it was almost easy.

And, even though I say this, there’s a good chance people will still do it, but you really don’t have to rush to the comments to tell me that I just have to read these authors’ books. For pretty much every author listed here, I’ll probably explain why I’ve never read any of their books and why I probably never will. So, if that’s what you plan on doing, I really hope you’ll at least read my descriptions first and think before you tell me that it’s a sin not to read John Green’s books or something. And I’m not saying this to be mean, I’m saying this because I want to open up a dialogue about these authors, but beyond simply “You have to read them!”

I don’t know if she’s as popular as she used to be a couple years ago, but I’m pretty sure she still has a vampire series going on and I’ve seen it focused on quite a few different blogs, so I think it works. Anyway, by the time I really got into blogging and looking at other blogs, her initial fairy series was already at least two books into a trilogy (or did it expand? I think it might have?), so I was a bit out of the loop and not that interested. I don’t really have anything against her books, I was just never interested enough to bother picking them up.

This is one of my big “shockers,” or I assume it’s going to be. Yep, never read Fangirl or Eleanor and Park (which I almost always think is Parker, not Park, which tripped me up quite a bit the first few times) and I don’t really feel the need to do so. There have been a lot of rave reviews for both of these books, but there have also been some less-glowing reviews from some bloggers whose tastes I tend to trust. Plus, there’s the hype. Hype almost always works against a book for me; not always, but most of the time, and right now the blogging world is obsessed with Rainbow Rowell and I’m getting a little sick of hearing about these two books all the time. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with liking her books – I mean, you’re in a very big and good company – I just don’t feel like trying them out right now. Maybe in a few years, when the hype has died down, but I really can’t say for sure.

I’m not a big fantasy person, so that’s the main reason I never read any of her books. I actually do remember some of my friends in real life being obsessed with her in late middle school or so, so I had heard of her, but I think I thought I was too good for her books or something (I know, it makes no sense, but trying equating sense with a middle schooler). And, since then, I’ve just never bothered changing that. I suppose I should at some point, but I really don’t push myself too hard at trying new fantasy books, so I’m not sure that’ll ever happen.

Yes, I managed to avoid the massive series (well, on page, not screen – sorry TMI fans (a name that kind of amuses me, if you think about it), but the movie obviously isn’t as massive as the books) that is The Mortal Instruments, as well as its companion/prequel/whatever trilogy (which had better stay a trilogy or so help me god). I remember some of my friends being obsessed about the books (and having a discussion or two about incest or something, which was an interesting introduction to this series) and my sister even read and enjoyed the books, so I was initially planning on checking them out, but then better books I cared about more kept getting in the way and I heard about the whole plagiarism thing. Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with liking her books, but I can’t forgive her for the plagiarism scandal or the way she often seems to bully critics of her books, so I don’t want to bother with these books on the off chance that I like them because it’s much easier to remain unbiased (well, kind of unbiased – because, honestly, I have a negative bias toward her, if you can’t tell) if I don’t read them in the first place. So, yeah, the most I’ll ever do is get the movie from the library and probably laugh at most of it.

And here’s another that’s probably go to cause a minor uproar. This kind of goes along with my explanation for Rainbow Rowell (you know, too much hype and some less-glowing reviews), but I’ve also begun to sour toward the author himself. It’s mostly due to some tweets of his after the release of Allegiant – you probably know the ones, where he basically (or outright, can’t remember for sure) said that everyone who disliked the books were simply reading them wrong. I’m sorry, but that’s not okay with me. And he often seems to get way more attention from the media simply for being a male and successful YA author. Oh, and I guess this isn’t his fault necessarily, but late last year Entertainment Weekly did a bracket of the most popular YA books, and it ultimately came down to The Faults in Our Stars and Harry Potter. Yep, his book beat books like The Catcher in the Rye and A Wrinkle in Time and To Kill A Mockingbird, and it was probably due to a bunch of fans who just wanted him to win. It just kind of annoyed me.

And now I’m going to stop before I start sounding too similar or something. Sorry, didn’t realize this topic was going to bring out so many mini-rants from me!

This is another short answer, finally. I just never bothered reading any of her books and have read some of the less-excited reviews, and figure they aren’t my thing. I might try to read some of her more beloved books or series or whatever later, but for now I’m fine with sticking to authors I already like.

This is the author on this list who probably has the best chance to making it off this list. I’ve heard nothing but good things about her contemporary books, so I’ll probably try to read them sometime in the future, but as of now I’ve just never bothered.

I hope this is who I’m thinking of (he’s the author of Two Boys Kissing, right? And something with a guy named A?); anyway, I think he might have a good chance of making it off of the list as well, since his latest book is a LGBTQ book, and I really need to read more of those, but I’m still unsure about.

I was going to read Divergent, but it was never at the library and then I started to read some negative reviews and it was so freaking long and I just decided not to. I semi-recently read the Chapter Snarks of it on Reading With a Vengeance (which is quite entertaining and can be found here), and it made it clear that I probably wouldn’t have liked this book a ton. I probably wouldn’t have hated it, especially if I read it back when I was initially excited about it, but I don’t think it would have withheld the test of time for me. I might check out the upcoming movie, though.

I love the movie Stardust, yet I’ve never read it, or any of the other books by him. OK, so maybe there are three authors who have a decent chance of making it off this list.

OK, so now that I’m at the end of this, I’m kind of worried that I might have offended some people in the process, and if so, I am so sorry! You can read and love whatever, the important thing is just to read!