A Literary Confession

So, I'm a little bit of a literary snob, and I absolutely refuse to jump on any popular book bandwagons. I never read the Harry Potter books and the Twilight series makes me gag. Fifty Shades of Grey? Sooooo not my thing.

That's part of why I was so excited to be among the first of my friends to read the Divergent series, before it becomes super popular, which I have no doubt it will. But. There is one exception to my no-book-bandwagons rule, and that is of course The Hunger Games.  I actually did refuse to read it for quite some time, but I kept hearing so much about it that I finally gave in. I am not planning to post a review of it here, since it's been reviewed to death, suffice it to say that this is one story that will stick with you. And as much as I thought it might be too violent for me--and indeed, it was quite violent--I am glad I stuck it out and read the whole series.

One thing that The Hunger Games did for me is open my mind to a completely new genre--new to me, that is. I have found that I really enjoy Young Adult (YA) books. For one thing, they're easy to read, and I don't have to think overly much. That sounds stupid but when you're as busy as I am with a full-time job, a 9 month old, two stepkids, and 8+ pets you get your "easy" perks where you can!

I've also found I really enjoy the dystopian theme. Actually a simple search on "if you liked The Hunger Games..." is what led me to Divergent. There's a huge plethora of not only dystopian but also paranormal YA books out there, and I've been enjoying sampling many of them on my Kindle.

Speaking of sampling: what a Godsend! I love that I can read a few chapters of a book before deciding if I want to spend money on it, or even if it's worth my time to check it out free from the library. I have downloaded countless samples of books that sounded really interesting, only to discover I wasn't all that entertained by the storyline, or that the author's particular writing style bugged me. Amazon sampling is the bomb!

All that said to pave the way for my next few book reviews: YA novels. I've read some good ones and not-so-good ones lately and I can't wait to share my reviews with you!