I watched the movies when I was a child and read the book when I was a young teen. It‘s quite a while ago and I don‘t remember much about the book itself. Only that it was about the first instance that I realize that movies can‘t do a book justice. For example, the book plays around with font colour to indicate where the story takes place. I thought it was great to make a plot literally visible like that and obviously the movies couldn‘t pick that up.

I really loved both -movie and book- but the movies clearly is not as in depth as the book was.

„Children of Men“ was the first book that came to mind when I read the title of the post.

I’ve heard things like the rise in Internet (and internet fandom), JKR’s rags-to-riches story, etc all contributed.

In addition to that my personal opinion is that a lot of the continuing hype comes from the publishers (and later movie production companies) applying an excellent media and PR strategy to keep the hype going. The PR behind HP was probably the first and so far pretty much best PR startegy for a book series to this date. I guess “Game of Thrones” could have launched a similar succesful campaign if season 8 wouldn’t have been so bad and if Martin would finally get around to publish books.

It may sounds dismissive, but I think it’s actually quite impressive to find a strategy that has been going for basically over two decades without pissing too many people off or -much worst- to bore people. It’s not easy to do but they managed it and I find that very impressive.

„A little life“ is even more awful because it‘s readable and it sucks you in so completely. I also read in just a few days. I‘m don‘t really count it as accomplishment because it‘s very difficult to put it away in my experience and since finishing it I grew much more critical of the book. So not sure. In terms of length Paul Austers „1,2,3,4“ I‘d probably count as an accomplishment because I read it in like a week and I think it‘s about a 1000 pages. I think one I‘d call accomplishment is finishing Will Self‘s „Dorian“ in English because of the unusual language.

I browse bookstores. And by now I‘m secure in my habit to totally be judging a book by its cover. Well, not completely, but I‘m a total sucker for good book cover design. And if a book has a good cover design I‘ll be much more likely to pick it up and give it a closer look. Sometimes also titles stick out to me. Good book cover design + interesting title will automatically upgrade books into round 2 of giving it a closer look.

By now book covers are actually quite a good estimator for what kind of vibe a book has and if I might enjoy it. Book cover designs usually follow certain rules (for example: YA use a lot of pastel colors and have a distinct character drawing style, crime novel covers tend to be dark (unless it‘s meant for a light summer holiday read then they‘re often blue), sci-fi works a lot with very clear and crisp designs & drawings and fantasy hardly ever have a reduced or minimalistic design, but tend to be quite busy). And the design choices give me an impression about the book and if I might enjoy it. I‘m probably more drawn to books which somewhat defy the covet tropes of their genre or which just have a design I really enjoy. A good example for my book buying habit is probably „Rivers of London“. It‘s one of my favorite books (actually book series) and I picked it up in a store because the title made me curious (I‘m a big fan of London and fantasy books set there spark my interest automatically) and it had a really really lovely sketch of a London map on the cover. In the US, the book was released under the title „Midnight riot“ with a very standard, more crime book like cover with a picture of a male shadow running in the night. Super boring. I doubt that it would have even registered with me in a shop.

So long tangent short: I do love good book cover designs and they have quite the impact on whether I may pick up a book and give it another look. I probably have missed out on good books this way but I also have made some unexpected great finds. And I do love book covers so I‘ll stick with it.

About the edit: i can only see one comment that has a slightly different opinion? Not even truly opposing, but just different. But the edit sounds like hordes of people are coming after you with pitchforks. Where are all the other comments from butthurt potterturds?

To put it short, for me as a German, if I‘d know someone went out of their way to get Mein Kampf, I will assume -unless you‘re a historian and need it for research- you‘re at minimum a Nazi sympathizer. Noone goes into that much trouble unless they have very deep interests and if you‘re not an academic historian, that level of devotion/motivation to get that book doesn‘t leave much else room for why you want it.

Opposing opinion here, but I actually think there are a lot of good reasons out there to a have a browse through the bible.

For example for people from countries with a long history of christianity it would be useful given it’s part of that countries history and the content provide some context for historical events (for example, it‘s kind of good to know basics about the bible, it‘s content and meaning in society to understand the reformation).

Reading the bible doesn‘t automatically turn you into a reactionary hardline christian. Same way that this is not true for other religions. I‘d argue that knowing the bible actually helps standing up against reactionary hardliners, since they tend to cherry pick the bible and mold the words to further their own use. They can do that because not many people read the bible. If more people read the bible themselves I think less people would become reactionary hardline christians.

Really? That feels like a really hard reaction to a mediocre book. I read it a few years ago (I guess before the hype? Definitely way before the movie. ) and I found it a good summer read. Nothing ground breaking, but nothing too bad either. Just easy to read and entertaining for a few hours.

I vaguely noticed that the book drew quite the opposition a few years later, but I really didn‘t care enough to look into it further. But now I‘m curious. What makes the book so hateable by so many?

Sorry to hear that you got this backlash. But also good you offer some behind the scenes info on that, because I don’t think many people know how audiobooks are recorded. I really love the Rivers of London audiobooks, read by Kobna Holbrooke-Smith and in some books there’re interviews with him and Ben Aaronovitch which give some insides into how these audiobooks are developed and produced. Really interesting stuff and I only realized how much work actually goes into these audiobooks when I listend to the interviews. Maybe you could do an AMA or something here about your work at some point. I think many people might be interested.

I absolutely read blurbs. And I hate nothing more than when it‘s not a synopsis but just some useless testimonials or „praise“. What do I fucking care if some fucking reviewer thought it was „Stunning!“ or some current hot shot author felt „It‘s a revelation!“ when I don‘t even know what the goddamn book is all about because it doesn‘t have a fucking synopsis?!?!? Yes, testimonials on books are my pet fury, why do you ask?!

As a rule, I don‘t buy books where I have to search for a synopsis while stupid testimonials scream at me. I have passed on quite a few books that way, but the testimonials just made me so angry that I couldn‘t look past it. If you still work in publishing, please pass this on. Thank you.

Do we have a third fun trope for a well rounded trilogy?

But then, in the midst of blissful cottage life, tragedy strikes and dead bodies start piling up in middle of nowhere quaint british isle village. What? Why? Why has this village a murder rate that would have made Pablo Escobar shake his head in disbelief? And why does hottie have so many convenient alibis? Is bestie really just running an antique store or is it the headquarter of an international smuggling cartel? And is that depressed drunk in a trenchcoat -who is also somewhat hot- really a genius detective, who was fired from his job at MI5 because of his strong morals?! So many questions, but luckily also so many answers (some may or not may make sense, but they‘re answers nevertheless).

Not gonna lie, that sounds like a good comedy. I‘d totally read a book where the blurb would go „What happens when the most stupidest FBI agent meets the dumbest CIA agent?!“ Sounds like fun times.

I do like the trope of unlikely allies where characters who are on the other end of a scale overcome their differences and team up for some bigger thing. It‘s really really cliche, but I just like it. I like it because it‘s somewhat promotes selflessness and working together to self-centeredness and ego trips.

A kids book series centered around a girl and her pony when I was about maybe 7-ish. The series wasn‘t finished when I eventually stopped reading it at about 12 or 13 and I sometimes wonder if I should pick up the books I missed just to know how the story ended.

I find my old books of choice in antique/second hand/used bookstores or fleamarkets.

My focusing levels have also somewhat dropped over the years. A book really needs bring something to the table to keep me engaged for long periods of time. And even then, it can get exhausting. However, recently I discovered one of my favorite writers has released a couple of books with essay-like short stories ranging between half a page and 15 pages. And I realized that this format is really well suited to my lacking focusing skills. I don‘t have to force myself, can take frequent breaks and still finish stories and I don‘t get that guilty feeling of struggling through a book. I can recommend trying that format.

In regards to audiobooks: I listen to audiobooks while I do something else, which is not to cognitively demanding (like cleaning or drawing). I can‘t just sit around and do nothing but listen. That would be terrible for me. Hence, I would recommend trying that. I really enjoy it.

I really did enjoy reading „Wuthering Heights“. And a few years back -in preparation for seeing „Macbeth“ for the first time in English (better to get a bit familiar with the language)- I read it in English and it was surprisingly gripping.

Feel free to copy/paste it.

I‘m so done with how important people make these books and analyze every goddamn word of it as if it‘s a scripture that defines our all being.