Week 22 - Late to the Party

[Ashley]

Hello, all!

I apologize for the slight delay in posting this thread. Those three-day weekends always knock me off-kilter!

So, to poke a bit of fun at myself for posting this belatedly, I want to know about the times you were late to the book party. Is there an insanely popular book or series that you did not get into until after the craze?

For me, it was definitely Harry Potter. The first book was released when I was about eleven. At the time, I felt as though I was above a silly little book about wizards. I was reading mostly horror and gore as I entered middle school, and I turned my nose up at Harry Potter. It wasn't until the summer Harry and the Half Blood Prince was due to be released that I finally decided to read them. I blew through the first five over the course of a single weekend (with very little sleep!), and I have been a fan ever since.

I guess I am still late to the Lord of the Rings party, since I have not read any of those yet. It is on my to-do list (which grows longer by the day, so who knows when it will get read).

Where there any major novels or series that you did not read until after the hysteria? Do you wish you had jumped on the bandwagon sooner?

[Ingrid]

Harry Potter for me also! Sad about that because I only saw the last one in the theatre & wish I had read them & saw the movies as they had been made.
Also, 50 Shades of Grey. Not really up my alley, but finally read them so I would know what everyone was talking about.

[Ann]

I think I started reading HP around book 4, and am glad I was able to read the books ahead of the movies. I read the Lord of the Rings early and often, and waited for the movies for years.

[Joanna]

I'm really enjoying how everyone was late to the party for Harry Potter because I was too! By the time I read it, the last movie had already come out.

Funny story, when I worked at the Aquarium, we had to sit in the back of the IMAX theater to ensure no one snuck in. They were playing the first part of Deathly Hallows so having no Harry Potter experience whatsoever that was the first movie of the series I ever saw. It was definitely interesting.

Back to books, I'm generally late to the party for anything that becomes a movie or a television show. Read Twilight after the first two movies. Still haven't read the Divergent series or A Handmaid's Tale or A Wrinkle in Time. Also, one of the only reason I've read any of the classics is because I forced myself to as an adult.

Writing this, I feel like I am basically late to every book party.

[Melissa]

I grew up in a family of readers and became an elementary school teacher. That has kept me feeling the pulse of what books are popular. My brother works in the entertainment industry and he also helps keep me reading the coolest books. I always like to ask the Youth librarians, too, since Young Adult seems to be the place to be. I almost never watch the movies though because they are often disappointing, with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings being some of the few exceptions. Recently, I finally read the first four books in the Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah Mass that the Greenbrier YFS staff had been recommending for years, so I guess I was late on that. However, now I wish I had waited until the whole series had come out. I am always game to talk about books, so it's always a party when you find a new person that likes your favorites or you convince a friend to read one of your favorites.