Ten Hyped Books That I Have Never Read

There are a few books that (almost) everyone else on the planet has read, but I haven't. You've probably read most of the books on this list, and I'm positive you'll have heard of at least the majority of them. I'm the lone one out on a lot of these, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who just isn't interested in reading about kids with cancer, adults having sex, or vampires marrying humans. Also, check out the Broke and the Bookish site to read other people's lists of hyped books they've never read.

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Sorry, but . . . not sorry. This is a book about kids. With cancer. And people die in the end (yeah, someone spoiled it for me). How on earth does this sound like an attractive read to anyone? My own grandfather died of cancer, I have zero desire to read a book about teenagers struggling with the disease (no matter how "gripping" a tale it may be).

2. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
I'm not so much antagonstic towards this book as I am ambivalent. I checked it out of the library at one point because the movie was coming out, but my mom read it and said she didn't want me to. I didn't push it because I didn't care, and maybe someday down the road I'll see it sitting on the shelf and pick it up. Or maybe not.

3. Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Yes, I did indeed reading The Hunger Games when the movie was coming out - even though my mother didn't really want me to. I've even seen the first two movies! But I know what happens in the third book, and I have no desire to either read or watch Mockingjay. I quickly caved to Mom on this: it's so terrible, I just can't cope. Plus, I guess I'm the only person on the planet who just doesn't care too much for Collins's prose. I'm really not going to put up a big fight about reading the last two books in the trilogy when I can just read the Wikipedia summary and get the jist. And that's really all I can handle.

4. The Divergent trilogy by Veronica Rother
I thought these looked pretty good until I heard how romance-heavy they were, and then I bailed. I honestly don't really mind the romance in the Hunger Games books, but it just looks so stupid in the Divergent trilogy that I'm not even going to try. Plus, I hear it also has a rotten ending.

5. The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer
Yeah, I read the Wikipedia summaries on these. I feel slightly bad about that, but not very. I don't really do paranormal books, but now I know the story well enough I can catch references to it in pop culture. And that's all I really need.

6. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I am never ever reading this, and that is it. Nothing else I can say on that front.

7. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
I thought this looked really neat, but my mom read Cinder and didn't like it. I think there was too much romance or something. Anyway, she didn't want me to read it so I didn't. I might come back and try the series again someday, but it's really not very high on my priority list - my mother is usually pretty dead-on when it comes to weeding out books.

8. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
She should stick to writing MG/YA fantasy. I was so excited when The Casual Vacancy came out, but one flip through it told me there was no way I could read it. Same goes for the Robert Galbraith books - double bummer because I love murder mysteries. If only Rowling could lay off the profanities.

9. The Selection series by Kiera Cass
The covers on these books are seriously gorgeous, but I just can't get away from the fact that the series is one big love triangle. And I am not going to deal with that.

10. The Winner's trilogy by Marie Rutkoski
Again, the covers are just gorgeous. I actually went so far as to check The Winner's Curse out from the library because I liked the premise, too, but my mom read it and said it was too romance-heavy (and not in a good way). Too much angst, too much physical attraction, too much of all of that. So I am perfectly fine not reading these books, though I may or may not stop to pet the covers when I see them in bookstores.

I'll end with a disclaimer: I have never actually read the books in this list, and have no first-hand knowledge about the veracity of the assumptions I have made about them. Please don't bite my head off if I just dissed your favorite book/series.