Books I Haven't Read Due To The Fear

Have you ever got excited for a book, so excited for an upcoming title or a title that you haven’t bought just yet that, when you have a copy of it in your hands, on your eReader or the audiobook on your iPod, you don’t read it? You become scared and terrified for it because what if it doesn’t live up to your expectations? To the hype that everyone is screaming about?

We all suffer for it. I seem to suffer from it more than others. I’m serious. I have books on my KIndle, on my TBR shelves, on my Audible app that I am so excited to read or listen to, but am completely terrified over because what if it isn’t that good?!

So, what I thought I would do two or so posts about this, airing some my dirty, shameful “I have the fear” To Be Read (physical, audiobook and ebook) in the vague hope that I will, in the next 12 months, I will read these and go “What the hell was I on about?”

I suppose that, though I don’t want to use my affiliate links but, if you are curious over these titles and you want to know more, why don’t you click on my affiliate links of Book Depository, Audible, Foyles or Waterstones and check them out! 

Ok, with that awful plug out of the way (that made me feel uncomfortable), let’s chat books I want to read but THE FEAR!!!

THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas

Let’s start with the big momma! OK, I have been so excited for this book, ever since I first heard that Walker Books were going to be the UK publishers. I was bouncing off the walls and annoyed the heck out of them over this title. I was shocked/delighted/gasped for sheer joy when I got the advance reader copy of it a few days before Christmas 2016. I planned to read it almost immediate… and then I didn’t. I froze. And when I said I froze, I mean I froze. My brain jammed every time I picked it up. What if it didn’t live up to my hype? Ok, I decided at the time, I will read it once the hype inside my head and in the booksphere calms down. Expect the hype train hasn’t calmed. The book exploded, won ton of praises and awards, got turned into a movie, won more praise from the movie and now her second book, On The Come Up, and that has won so much praise and movie deal was bought before the book’s release and I STILL HAVE THE FEAR! I a thinking of forcing myself to put this in one of my “Pick My Next Read” polls over the coming few weeks/months, just to get it done and dusted. But, I have several other titles in this and my other The Fear posts that are going to go on these polls so we shall see if I do or don’t… 

THE BOOK OF DUST: LA BELLE SAUVAGE by Philip Pullman

I had been waiting for this book, like nearly every fan of His Dark Materials series, for over TEN YEARS! Ten years after reading The Amber Spyglass, I have been waiting for The Book of Dust. Ten Years. I keep saying that so you understand that the hype has been building in my head for A LONG PERIOD OF TIME! So, of course, when it came out, I got the hardback edition and the special hardback Waterstones edition. And I even started reading this… I got about under 100 pages in. And I stopped. I just stopped. There was (and still is) so much pressure on this book that I panicked. I physically panicked over it. And because it wasn’t where I thought it would be (remember, this is set 10 years prior to the events of Northern Lights or Golden Compass, depending on where you live in the world!), I just couldn’t do it to myself. I just… Plus, I didn’t know when the sequel of La Belle Sauvage was going to come out, I didn’t want to read this then wait for several years for it. But it’s coming out this October - The Secret Commonwealth - so I now have to get past my fear and read it. This will be on one of my polls also. If it doesn’t win, I am hoping to force self to read this over late summer/September so is fresh in my mind when The Secret Commonwealth comes out… 

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak

Don’t look at me like that! I know!!! But everyone - and I mean EVERYONE!!! - has read and loved this book. And I don’t want to read it and be That Guy. You know the guy. “I read this and I can’t see why you all love this…”. That guy. I have got a lot better about this over the past few years. I care a lot less about being that guy - as you know, I can very happily rip a book I love to pieces (next time you see me, corner me and ask what faults I have over Harry Potter. You will be there for HOURS!), but I still have a tiny fear over this book of being That Guy. But I am going to be brutal with self over this and say that if I don’t read this within next 12 months, it’s gone. I have to give up on this as if I’m not going to read it now, when am I going to read it… 

POISON STUDY by Maria V Snyder

I don’t know anyone who hasn’t read this and not loved it. It seems one of the cornerstones of fantasy in the past few years. And I have quite a few titles by this author on my kindle and I do have every intention to read this (I do love a good fantasy), but I have been stung in the past with some “cornerstone” fantasy titles in the past and that is one of reasons I have held off reading this. I don’t want to be stung again and then have a problem of reading more books by this author that I bought during a sale and a whim… 

NOUGHTS AND CROSSES by Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman is one of those authors I love and respect. Always have, always will. And this is one of her best loved, best respected and badass book. And I am scared to read it. Not because of the subject matter, but because everyone loves this book and its series so much. Plus, I heard it will rip your heart out and I’m not sure if am emotional strong to read this… 

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

I was going to end this post with Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, but decided to end with this classic instead. And it’s because this book is such a beloved classic that I haven’t read it. And I wanted to read this FOR YEARS! My sister studied this for her A Levels (I was about 15/16 at the time) and I wanted to read it because she was studying it. But this is such a beloved classic and I AM TERRIFIED TO READ THIS. Once I start, I will be fine, but I have to start it… and to do that, I need to get away from the Fear…