Super popular books I haven’t read yet + my officialTM excuses

~ Alice @ Love For Words

Hi everyone, and welcome to this post of me wincing at my ineffectiveness!

Can you keep a secret? Because I have one that is even worse than judging a book by its cover yes, the small font is in hope that some of you would skim over the awful confession.

*looks left and right* *whispers* There are some darlings of the bookish world that I still haven’t read.

Ah, there, I’ve said it.

Can someone please explain to me why I am so cringe-worthy?

Brace yourselves, we’re starting.

Harry Potter

The Sorcere's Stone cover

No, come on. I haven’t been living under a rock. HP and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book I’ve ever read in English.

Gimme some credit.

The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings

The Hobbit cover

Turns out I have been living under a rock.

I have a copy of The Hobbit, okay? A very pretty blue and gold vintage edition (in Spanish, though). But there has always been another book to catch my attention when I thought of getting to it. It’s like someone put an Alice’s-brain-will-forget-about-you-in-favor-of-some-eventual-deception spell on it.

Ah, and I haven’t watched the movie either while there is a freaking Ed Sheeran song in the track list, what is wrong with me???

The Lord of the Rings Pt1 cover

Now, about the intended sequel that turned into one of the best-selling novels ever written (thank you, Wikipedia, for making me feel worse). Lemme try to find a valid excuse here. Um- Ah, yes… My dog ate my homework?

Everyone and their mom are familiar with the Lord of the Rings. They may have loved it or may have hated it, but they at least can differentiate it from The Hobbit and I couldn’t until Google told me that they were two different stories. About two weeks ago, lol.

LOTR is fantasy, it’s Norse-mythology-based, it’s got magic and dragons and elves AND I’M ALMOST LEAVING FOR COLLEGE WITHOUT HAVING READ/WATCHED IT?

The movie stars Orlandy Bloom, so the joke’s on me.

legolas gifs | WiffleGif

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones Book 1 cover

Those who haven’t read the books have watched the series, and I haven’t done wither so I’m a complete failure on that one (big news). I mean, my parents have watched the series. They never watch fantasy. Yeah.

But seriously, I don’t have time for 103832-hour-long stuff right now (7 books with a mean of over 900 pages each, seriously?) unless a spell to stretch days has been discovered (in which case, please share, my sleeping schedule will be grateful).

Maybe I’ll watch/read GoT with my grand-children, and we’ll enjoy all the drama and dragons and royalty feuds together.

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol cover

I’ve watched The Man Who Invented Christmas and read at least half a dozen synopses of A Christmas Carol for school (plus watched a loosely adapted play), but I’ve never turned its 48 pages. HOW??

To be honest, Charles Dickens wasn’t my thing. Until last year, his English was TOO complicated for my English. Then 2019 Christmas time fell upon us, my midterms as well, my jobs followed suit, the fam went all crazy about some life stuff, I met the one true love of my life and he didn’t even glance twice at me, and Christmas was over in a blink. I was just not in the mood anymore.

But next December WILL be the right time (hello, college, any chance you’ll let me live for this?)

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby cover

Oh. Oh. Oh, my. I even still surprise myself. THIS NERD, a fan of historical fiction, still hasn’t read Fitzgerald’s great classic, the Bible of the 1920s which has a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that I still haven’t watched either welp.

How??

Same-ish as with Dickens, I just wasn’t skilled enough in the English department before 2018/2019 to properly enjoy this book. I’ve read countless times that it either clicks for you or it doesn’t, and I wanted to have the best chances on my side to love it.

“So why haven’t you read it in the past months?” you may be asking. “It’s not like it has to be read during Christmas period.” (Does it?)

I- um- have been reading a lot of YA… And stuff by contemporary authors… (And I’m a chicken because I’m afraid I won’t like it as much as I want to.)

Twilight

Twilight 1 cover

I don’t plan on reading it.

I’ve watched the movies, but can’t find the courage to pick up the books, sorry Twilight fans, I’m sure it’s a great cup of tea, just not mine. It’s not even because it’s a vampire story (which most of the times I avoid). I think it’s something about the weary-bleary mood. Or the bland characters.

Or maybe it’s related to that time when I was watching the movies at my best friend’s place. I ruined the afternoon by shattering the huge popcorn bowl (glass bowl, who gives one-ton glass bowls to 10-year-olds?) We had to pause the movie to clean the carpeted floor (carpeted!!) and there was no more popcorn left 🙂

What musts have you missed until now? What super popular unread book do you hide?

Please scream at me in the comments to pick up one of those. (Or tell me which ones I should add to the list of shame.)

42 thoughts on “Super popular books I haven’t read yet + my officialTM excuses”

  1. Don’t feel too bad – I haven’t read The Great Gatsby despite studying English in college ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ oops! And to be honest, I don’t think you’re missing much by not reading Twilight. YA has moved on to much better things by now. *whispers* but you should definitely read Harry Potter like ASAP

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    1. 😂😂😂 Thank you, I feel better now. I hope whichever of us reads it first enjoys it! *whispers back* Everyone keeps talking about it and I’m just lost+confusedTM. Then people tell me that I remind them a lot of Harry for that particular reason…

      PS: I’m SO eager for March to start, I’ve scheduled my WHMR post to be published in some days.

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  2. It’s okay. Of all the books you’ve mentioned on this post I’ve only read two: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Twilight. 😆 I tried to read A Game of Thrones once and was not a fan of the writing so not sure if I’ll ever resume reading that and it’s soooo long… 😀

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      1. Twilight is not bad but it is not great either. When I read it, I’ve already read a lot of vampire paranormal romance books and my impression was just meh. The movie removed and added some scenes and basically is like the book. GoT is too long and it doesn’t have an ending yet after all this time so I’m really not interested to try anymore. 😆

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      2. You have just saved me from getting myself into a helluva complicated situation. I didn’t remember about GoT not having a book ending, since the series have one, so you’re right, doesn’t feel worth the loooong read right now.

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      3. My bad, GoT book has an ending but the series where it belongs ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ is not yet finished and it has a lot of books (each of them very long). I’m quite sure the TV series ending is not base on a book? 😯

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      4. Well, I’m completely uneducated on the subject, so thank you for taking the time to inform me xD The only thing I’m sure of is that there was some controversy about the ending, whether it’s the books or the series or another series I couldn’t know.

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  3. Same same…I have read Twilight and that Potter boy but I haven’t read any of the others. The only one I am even remotely tempted to read is Gatsby…but even then, I saw the movie and it’s probably a bit late to unsee it now.

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    1. Oh, I’m sorry. Sometimes having lasting memory is a pain. I watched the Harry Potter movies before reading the books (a child’s innocence or stupidity? I did not know yet how cool books are.) I hope you’re reading something good at the moment!

      PS: could you link to your blog, please? The one linked to your profile is not available.

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  9. The Great Gatsby is an awesome book – if you didn’t end up having to over-analyse it to try impress an English teacher who hated your guts (this totally isn’t based off personal experience, pfft)
    Twilight is definitely a controversial one, so I can definitely understand why you haven’t picked it up.
    LOTR and GOT are also very very very very very intimidating!
    Amazing post, Alice 🙂
    – Emma xxx

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    1. Askklfsfdhfk I sentence that English teacher to copying the whole Anna Karenina three times: one in original language, one in English, and you choose the other one 😉

      Have you read Twilight?

      I’ll have to read LOTR at some point. xD

      Thank you, Emma ♡

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      1. I have, and I’m the first to admit (with barrels of shame) that I loved it to pieces at first. I read it when I was maybe 11? I idolized it, but looking back I think most of it was hype and the fact that Bella and Edward were “the” couple of the book world (+ the movies).
        Now, I look at it and kind of feel unsettled by the whole concept and the relationships.
        Reluctantly, it is still a large part of my childhood and I guess I’ll always have a small soft spot for it (even if I don’t agree with it now)

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  11. Oh no, please don’t watch/read Game of Thrones with your grandchildren, you will scar them. That is if you mean that said *hypothetical* grandchildren are under 18.

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  13. I have also not read The Great Gatsby…. I just read the first page and then I read it twice more while consulting the dictionary side by side but still couldn’t understand most of what the first page was saying🙈

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      1. Yup, I actually dnfed it after reading that first page only, I just can’t believe people list it under easy classics. Ya it is short, but it is quite difficult at least for someone like me whose native language is not English.

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      2. I’ve never found “easy classics” in English (unless they were Dr. Seuss’ stories, do they count as classics?) That’s why I’ve come to like them, they’re a good way to learn about the complexity of the language. Hey, now I want to make a post on classics! xD

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  14. Hey, totally understandable some of these. Tolkien is hard for native English speakers to read. The wordy nutcase! Same for Martin! Some of these are just finding the right time… like Gatsby and Christmas Carol. They’re short and classics so might as well give them a go. 😉👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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  15. Honestly I don’t think you’re missing out on much by not reading Twilight. I think most of the fandom has moved on anyway. I certainly have. I don’t think it’s a very cheery series either, and I quite like dark fantasy, but Bella’s depression throughout New Moon was just awful to read.
    I love Game of Thrones the TV series, with the exception of Season 8. I’m told the books go in a very different direction, however. I do hope to read them at some point, but right now I have my hands full. I also don’t like the idea of having to wait years for The Winds of Winter to come out once I do catch up.
    I tried Harry Potter, but it just wasn’t for me. I don’t know if it’s because I read it at 16, or if it’s specifically because at the time I was obsessed with romance novels. Part of me thinks I’m too old for it.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Wadzanai! I am definitely not going to read Twilight, then. Unfortunately, one of my closest friends is obsessed with it and that’s mostly all she talks about when we discuss books (someone save me) xD

      You’re right on that. The GoT book series is already long as it is, it must be excrutiating to have to wait for a book to come out. I’ll watch the show some day.

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  16. Don’t feel too bad lolol, you’ll get there soon! Unlike other people, I actually liked Twilight lol. Also, I haven’t even read half the books you listed in here, I guess we’re on the same boat lolol. Also, your blog is such lovely shade of pretty pink! I love your blog<3

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