Books I Never Expected to Like

I read books for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes I've been bullied into reading a book. That's what happened to me with Harry Potter. I read book one and I thought that was enough, but sixth graders at my school library just couldn't believe I hadn't read the entire series. Finally I caved. Happily, it turns out.

Sometimes I'm forced to read a book given to me by a relative or a friend. No easy way out of that. And nine times out of ten, it's a very bad experience. But there is the rare time that a relative urges you to read a YA book that turns out to be a fantastic read.

Then there are the times I pick up a book at a reading conference from an author who is sitting all alone with an enormous pile of advanced reader copies of his first children's book. I bring the book back to the hotel and spontaneously decide to give this book, with a sad cover, a try. And I find myself hooked from page one.

Assigned readings are always fraught with danger. How often do these turn out to be beloved books? Not too often, in my experience. But not so with the one book I was assigned to read in college for my Educational Philosophy class.

Westerns have never had any appeal for me. It was with great reluctance that I began this book. And now it's one of my favorite reads ever.

I tend to stay away from bestsellers. But if there is one category that other people are always trying to push me to read it is bestsellers. So I was very happy to learn that bestsellers sometimes becomes bestsellers because bestseller authors know how to tell a good tale.

As much as I typically dislike the overhyped, I also tend to steer away from the underhyped, those little books that I suspect never even made the publisher back the author's advance. But there have been many unexpectedly delightful books among this category.

Classic is a category that scares many people off. But I've been happily surprised by more books I expected to hate in this category than any other.

What are books that you never expected to like?

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