Today I will be doing a different sort of post that I haven’t yet done on this blog before and that is a discussion post. I don’t know why but I’ve been straying away from doing a post like this for some time. It’s not like I’ll think others will bash me and my opinions, but I guess I’ve just been sort of unsure if I should let my opinions fly around for others to read or if I should just keep them to myself.
Well, I’ve finally decided: why keep this to myself? This is called a discussion post for a reason, to discuss! I’ve had so many ideas for discussion post topics, but I’ve never written any of them down for future reference when I feel like actually writing the post, thus the reasoning behind no discussion posts ever being written.
But I’m the type of person who has a lot of thoughts on certain topics – good and bad – and I like expressing those thoughts with other people. Like-minded people, preferably (conflict isn’t my intention, after all), but I think we know each other pretty well. Y’all know that I don’t read romance books – nor do I even want to think about Divergent – so it pleases me to know that my followers out there followed me because they either have some of the same thoughts and opinions as I do on books, or they don’t make a big deal out of me not liking a book they consider their favorite (or vise-versa).
We book readers are very opinionated and unique in our own ways. We all enjoy different authors and genres and we all have our own little book quirks that just make us who we are.
Although that’s a great thing, it can also cause conflict between people who aren’t ones to just ‘let it go’. I haven’t experiences said conflict yet (I have you amazing blogger friends to thank for that) but I am aware that it’s present in the blogging community (as well as BookTube, Goodreads, etc.) because although the book community is the best, most understanding community out there, there are always going to be a few bad apples. That’s just how it works on the internet.
I’ve already strayed away from my original topic, but I hope this introduction clears up a few things before I actually properly begin this discussion (it’s my first time, cut me some slack). So this title mentions hyped up books. We are all familiar with the term, it’s used all the time in the book community no matter who you are or where you’re from, books get hyped up. This can be a good thing because sometimes books that get a lot of hype are able to live up to said hype, but more times than not, those books end up being a complete let-down as result of the hype that surrounded the book.
There are many different reasons a book gets hyped up. Maybe a really popular author who has written a bestselling, beloved series before is releasing another book, thus everyone automatically thinks that since this author is a god/goddess all future books by this author are bound to be 5 stars. Other times, there is a debut author who’s book gets picked up by a large publishing company that everyone knows of and the cover is all beautiful and shiny and large book bloggers and BookTubers see it and start anticipating it themselves, for debut authors could be the next big thing! And finally, sometimes the book being hyped up just has wonderful marketers who do everything in their power to market the book on every social media platform us bookworms utilize throughout our day-to-day lives.
Whatever the reason, hyped up books can be both a good and a bad thing. Most of the time I see it as a bad thing, personally, for a lot of books that I’ve purchased and read that have been hyped up in the book community have been simply okay. The thing is, if this book hadn’t been all hyped up, and I hadn’t heard so many stellar things about it, I wouldn’t have gone into the book with such high hopes for it, and then I probably wouldn’t have ended up being let down as much as I had been. I hope some of you understand where I’m coming from here because this can be such a big problem in the book community at times because you’re not sure if a hyped up book is truly as wonderful as people say it is or if everyone’s heard of it because the marketing managers for that book are just that good at their job.
That’s why whenever a book is hyped up I tend to wait until the hype has died down a bit before deciding to pick up the book myself or not. This saves me loads of money and loads of time that could’ve been wasted if I had just jumped onto the hype train with everyone else. Also, if I’m reading a book that everyone has praised I try and lower my expectations of the book before leaping into it. This keeps me from being heartbroken once finishing a book because I had been expecting so much more from it because it had been so hyped up. Doing this has helped me out so much in the past and will hopefully help some of you as well if you’ve been dealing with bad heartbreak after finishing a hyped up book.
I hope you enjoyed this discussion post! This was a sort of spur-of-the-moment thing, as I wasn’t expecting to write an entire nearly-1000 word discussion post this morning (as I am still a bit groggy from sleep). Please let me know some of your thoughts on hyped up books so we can discuss our likes and dislikes on the topic! Also let me know if I should write some more discussion posts in the future!
The Book Prophet 
Over the last few years I’ve read many great books that I wouldn’t have even heard of if it wasn’t for the hype. Most recently – Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. But those great reads seem to be few and far between. I’ve noticed that for every 1 unique, fantastic 5 star read, there are probably 20 others being promoted that I won’t even bother picking up. They are usually contemporary, or the tropes have been done millions of times and have nothing really all that unique about them. I am thankful for book hype because it lets me know what’s out there, but generally I don’t pick up most of what is being hyped.
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For some reason I JUST saw this comment lol. I completely agree with you. Some books are worth the hype and others just aren’t and there are a ton of books out there that I never would’ve picked up if it weren’t for the hype.
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No worries. Comments have been weird for a lot of people lately!
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I ignore new releases completely. For one, I own way too many books I haven’t read yet to run out to the store and buy a copy of a new book. Secondly, I totally agree with you that hype can be really dangerous. If I let hype build up a bit too much, my own expectations can really ruin the experience of a book for me. I hate when that happens! So, instead of letting it, I just read what I want to and wait for my own hype to die down. I’ll probably seek out a newish book a couple of months after it’s been out and maybe give it a try then.
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Yes! I own so many books I haven’t read and haven’t purchased a new book in a month or so because I’m trying to lower my TBR. Sometimes reading a book you just feel like reading, not do to hype, can be the best thing. Checking out a book after it’s been out for a few months is a good thing to do because then you can ease your way into it since the hype probably died down a bit by then.
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I agree completely! I always feel put down when I read a book that I’m “supposed to” love and in fact I thought it was okay. Even if the book was quite good, it still feels less good, because my expectations were so high. I’ve experienced this for a few times now and it’s really annoying. I’m trying not to read books that are too hyped up, so I won’t get disappointed. I had this with ACOTAR, Caraval (not too much, but it still felt a little disappointing) and I’ll Give You The Sun and probably a few more.
Great post! I’ll look forward to reading more of your discussion posts! I plan on writing a few myself in the future 🙂
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I haven’t read Caraval yet but I’m planning to next month, so I’ll see how I feel about it. My sister read it first and loved it. I haven’t read those other two you mentioned but they are on my TBR. I’m glad you liked it 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading your future discussion posts.
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I hope you’ll like Caraval, I thought it was quite good however I wasn’t as absorbed by the story as I expected to be.
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Very interesting post! I tend to have a bad habit to buy almost immediately all hyped up books and then I have to reget it afterwards, probably not because the book was bad, but because I’ve spend so much money in just one book. Nowdays, I try to wait three to six months before getting some hyped up book, only because then the price has dropped. But of course it’s hard to wait if you’re really waiting some book and wanna get it on your hands as soon as possible (#Iknowthefeeling).
I understand really well if some people don’t like same books as I. You, for example, said that Divergent isn’t your favorite series, while I, on the other hand, almost worship it. In those kind of situations I wanna first defend the book/series because I love, but I don’t do it ever because I know that people like different kind of books, and that’s fine. (: Of course I might mention that I really liked it (and it might be the other way around; I hate some book while someone else loves).
I enjoyed reading this post because it raised so many thoughts and opinions. Also, I would definitely like to see more these kind of post. (:
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I used to have that habit and I ended up having half my bookshelf filled with books that I only bought because of the hype that I never felt all that compelled to actually read. Yeah the entire dynamic of us book lovers is so unique and great because even though someone might like a book, another person might not like a book and I love how most people respect other’s opinions like that. I’m glad you ended up liking this post! I’ll definitely write more posts like this in the future 🙂
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