The scenario: You’re at a gathering of book lovers. Maybe it’s a conference, a dinner party of friends, a Tweet-Up someone arranged. The conversation, naturally, turns to books. Being a book lover yourself, you happily throw yourself passionately into the conversation until it happens. The moment you dread. Your conversational companions start talking about that book everyone has read. The one that falls on every “100 books you must read” list. The one you’ve never read.
There could be any number of reasons you haven’t read it. The book didn’t interest you, you’ve been meaning to read it but it keeps getting buried under all the other books you’ve moved to the bottom of your TBR pile. Or maybe you’re a little contrary and all of the hype has made you so tired of hearing about it, you never want to read it, watch it (when it’s eventually made into a movie) or hear about it.
I’ve had conversations with romance readers where I’ve gasped when they’ve told me they haven’t read a book or an author (usually it’s Nora Roberts, because I tend to think of her as a romance staple) but there haven’t been many conversations where I’ve had cause to make someone else gasp. After all, I’ve got twenty-five years of reading romance under my belt, since I started in the fourth grade, when I’d sneak my mom’s Harlequin categories out of the brown grocery bag she carried them home from the used bookstore in.
Until a few months ago, that is, when, during a conversation about a recently published book, I mentioned my shameful secret : I have never read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice*. I’ve never watched the movie either. Oh sure, I know the main characters of Pride and Prejudice. I know Colin Firth is supposedly the perfect Mr. Darcy and some women nearly swoon when his role in the movie is mentioned. I know the book is probably romantic, and wonderful and…one of those “must reads” for any romance reader. But I haven’t read it. I don’t know how that happened, it’s one of those things I try not to talk about or think about too often, keeping my secret shame buried deep (heh, I’m kidding).
There are other books I haven’t read that “everyone” else seems to have: Twilight by Stephanie Meyers, The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling to name a few non-romances (there are other romances/romance authors I could list, but I don’t want to cause too much shock in one day). Some I may read eventually, some I have no interest in delving past the cover. To be honest, I don’t worry too much about it because I think I’m fairly well read and, well, no matter how much I read there are always going to be books I haven’t read and that I won’t ever read. I can live with that. There’s a whole reading world out there to explore and it would be boring if we all read the same books, even the bestsellers. I know I’m not the only one out there who’s made someone gasp by admitting I haven’t read a particular book. I’ll bet most of you have as well. So what’s your “secret shame”? What book or author haven’t you read that might make me, or someone reading, gasp?
*I did download Pride and Prejudice to my iPhone some time back and actually started reading it last week.
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I should be ashamed because I have never read Pride and Prejudice. Never read Harry Potter either. You are not alone.
But I have read The Hunchback of Notre Dame three times! LOL
I tried reading Pride and Prejudice 3 times and couldn’t keep the characters straight. That is until I watched one of the movies. I’m sorry, but I love to read about Jane Austen and her books, but when I actually try to read that book my mind wanders. I can’t be the only one and I was an English major!
Are you my twin? I’ve never read Pride and Prejudice and I don’t really want to. I couldn’t sit through the movie, either. I also gave up Nora Roberts because, although she’s an immense talent, I get the sense that her newer books are reruns: I’ve already read it, therefore am paying again for something I’ve already bought when I could be using that money to find a terrific new author.
Great post!
Well, I’ll usually read the books (’cause I speed read so I read anything I can get my eyeballs on) but I have a terrible, terrible memory so I can never remember them well enough to discuss them.
I don’t know if that is better or worse than not reading them at all.
I liked Pride & Prejudice for its study of alpha dynamics (Darcy and Lizzie being alphas) which is why I like the BBC P&P. They actually get that right.
For me it’s Gone with the Wind. Never read the book, never watched the movie, never bought the collectible Barbie or carried the commemorative lunchbox or played dress-up in my mama’s curtains, etc. My aversion comes from my grandmother; it was the only book I ever heard her call stupid and a waste of time.
My shameful secret: I’ve never read Jennifer Cruisie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, or Eloisa James. I, too, avoided Twilight and I’ve only read the first HP book, but I read Gone With the Wind three times in high school.
Let’s see — never read Pride & Prejudice. Or Twilight. Only the first 2 Harry Potter books because my daughter left them here. GWTW? Can’t remember. If it was assigned in high school, then I must have. Never saw the movie.
I’m definitely sorely lacking in the “classics” unless they were school assignments. And if the blurb says werewolf or vampire, I’m not picking it up, no matter what the buzz is.
These aren’t ’secret shames’ to me. I make no bones about what I read or don’t read. I’m always reading something, but there has to be something tempting about it to get me started (which, as mentioned above, could be nothing more than having it lying around). The ones I’ve read have all been freebies, and they haven’t lured me into the genre.
I read all of Jane Austen and the Brontes in high school and really loved it all. The only Austen I’ve reread as an adult is Persuasion, which is my favorite. I’ve also reread Jane Eyre–you get more out of it as an adult.
I’ve also read all the Harry Potter. The plotting is really good, and they really improved stylistically as the series went on.
But as to books I’ve never read…that’s a huge list. Basically, if it’s weepy women’s fiction, I’m not going to touch it. Same with literary fiction in which people (esp mothers and/or children) are going to die tragically, books in which the author is trying very hard to be quirky, or mystical literary fiction (magical realism?).
I have never read Tolkein. I tried the Hobbit in jr high, but found it to be just too boring (I feel the same way abt the LOTR movies). I have no desire whatsoever to read the Twilight series. It kind of scares me that all the grown women I know who’ve read it slobber over it, including the stranger over by the posters at WalMart. I’ve never read Catcher in the Rye, and Hemingway doesn’t do it for me. I read some abridged Alice in Wonderland and found it disturbing; the Jabberwocky doesn’t thrill me, either. And, um, I don’t like Dickens. Sorry.
Oh, and if Oprah picked it, I probably won’t. I can feel bleak and depressed with little provocation all by myself. I don’t need fiction to take me there.
I’ve never read Twilight. And I just can’t get past 25 pages of any Tolkien book, which always seriously damaged my fantasy street cred.
My most shameful secret is Stephen King. I haven’t consciously NOT read him for any particular reason other than that I don’t often read horror books, but I’m betraying my cultural loyalty there as someone born in Bangor, Maine. Or so I’ve been told.
I’m still planning on fixing that secret…some day.
I actually stopped reading the Harry Potter series when grown ups started dressing like teenaged wizards for book release parties.
I avoid Oprah picks like the plague, and only finished the Twilight series because I’m a wuss and cannot say no to my friends children when they asked me “pretty please with sugar on top” to read the series so they can talk to me about it.
I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, several times including the recent Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which needed more zombies, frankly) and enjoyed it every time. I stopped reading the Harry Potter books when I realized I liked the evil Malfoys better than the sniveling Harry and needs-to-die Ron. Read Twilight, didn’t enjoy it, and never read the rest of the series despite all my female cousins and 3 of my aunts swooning over them. I used to read Nora Roberts, but stopped when I read 2 different trilogies that read and sounded the exactly same.
Don’t feel bad about not reading so-called staples. Sure, everyone else has, but think of the authors you’ve read that no one else has even heard of! And I bet you enjoyed those stories more!
I have actually read Gone with the Wind and liked it quite a bit more than I liked the movie, but it’s not a book I’d go out of my way to recommend or read again.
And I’m also unlikely to read the Oprah book picks. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything that’s landed on her list.
I think you’ll need to step down from your post until you finish the book.
Actually, I read it so long ago and it barely registered, that I’m also in the “haven’t read it” category.
I never got past page 50 of War and Peace. Tried about 7 times. Would rather pick up a new Nora Roberts book (I don’t think they are rehashed old stuff, like someone said–or if they are, it doesn’t matter to me.)
I’ve never read most of the the bestselling romance authors, and have been slacking in fantasy recently as well. I’m working my way through a 500 title long “best books” series.
“Oh, and if Oprah picked it, I probably won’t. I can feel bleak and depressed with little provocation all by myself. I don’t need fiction to take me there.”
I am so glad I’m not the only one!
I *think* I’ve read P&P … but I can’t quite remember.
Twilight, Harry Potter, LOTR, The Hobbit? Nope. Some of GWTW, and I don’t think I’ve seen the whole movie.
Do I get points for having read all of Anna Karenina, and, if I remember rightly, War and Peace? But to tell the truth, my reading history has a great lack of ‘the Classics’ – Oh except Shakespeare. We did a lot of The Bard at school, and I rather liked his plays. I think it was the irony and dark humor and tragedy all rolled into one
I was the same way with Harry Potter and the DaVinci Code. I was given both as gifts and read them, if only to be polite to the friends who presented them to me.
Harry Potter was love at first read. I could relate to Harry’s position (I’ve been forced to live with relatives who didn’t care about me and the idea of being saved by that situation by attending magic school was very much appealing).
The DaVinci Code, however… Oy. I still don’t get why people think it’s so great. It was so bad that I just didn’t feel like reading it to the end.
I will never ever read The DaVinci Code.
That is the only novel
my hubby has read in the 16 years
I’ve known him
so I won’t take away
the joy he gets
from knowing
he’s read a book I haven’t.
(Whenever books come up in conversation,
he discusses that one
and I play along
by admitting to never reading it)
I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice (although it grieves my sister greatly), but I have read the Bronte sisters. And I was an English Lit major in college! I haven’t read Twilight (nor do I intend to).
And, here’s the biggie: although I’ve read JD Robb, I’ve never read through a whole Nora Roberts book!
You are my reading TWIN.
I have never made it through the first chapter of NR
I’ve read everything Nora’s ever written, and all of Jane Austen’s novels, too–more than once. I’ve read War and Peace (and Anna Karenina), and nearly every other literary novel you can name (I’m working on my PhD in English, though, so it’s kind of expected).
My “secret shame” is that I haven’t read Harry Potter or the Twilight Series, in spite of the fact that I teach Children’s Literature. And I read the Tolkien books (of course), but after sitting through the first of the marathon-length movies with a whiny Froto grating on every last nerve, I just couldn’t face the other two. Give me the Chronicles of Narnia any day…I’m not anti-fantasy by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m definitely anti-whine (which is why I’ve avoided Harry so diligently).
Since we’re confessing here, I haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books either, although I’ve been meaning to read them.
I honestly don’t remember if I’ve read P & P. If I did, it was clear back in high school, and I’ve not seen the film either.
And too funny–I just downloaded it to my Iphone last week as well. Gotta love those free public domain classics.
Frankly, I’ve become somewhat numb to the hype around the bestsellers and Oprah picks. I’ve read too many of them that I disliked.
I have read P&P as well as GWTW and Harry Potter. I also managed to slog my way through the Hobbit and LOTR, but must say I preferred the movies on these, shameful secret there! I have not read any Nora, or at least don’t remember reading it. I have also resisted reading Twilight despite everyone telling me I would love it if I just gave it a chance, lol. And I also refuse to read any Oprah picks or as someone else said “weepy womens literary fiction” for the same reasons!
Love Harry Potter (it’s the summer holidays here and I’ve just spent 2 hours watching a YouTube Potter musical with my daughters…) but I’d argue that it is actually more shameful – in your average book lovers discussion – to be an adult who has read Rowling or Meyers.
You can just about get away with having read them and thought they were dreadful (”…not a patch on Pullman”) – but liking Harry, that’s a most shameful secret. Same goes for the Da Vinci code: you can read it, but to be one of the cool kids, you have to hate it.
I think my shameful secrets would be less about what I haven’t read – because I’ve read as much as the average bear – but more about what I don’t like.
I thought, for example, ‘One hundred years of solitude’ was decidly dodgy, where clearly if I was literate enough, I’d recognise a work of genius. That sort of thing. I’ve lowbrow tastes.
I would say though, Austen is really worth a try – and much more fun to read her before watching any of the adaptions.
I must confess. I’ve never read a Harry Potter book.
I keep hoping when the girls grow up a bit I might remedy that…
~Ashley
Hmm… I don’t think I have any secret shames. But I work at a large format bookstore, and 80% of the females who work there have read The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I’ve bought but haven’t read yet. I’d say that’s the biggest *must read* that everyone in Bookland is talking about these days.
I’m not knocking anyone for not reading Austen (I’ve never made it through Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights), but perhaps this little snippet will change your mind:
http://www.cartenoire.co.uk/pride-and-prejudice
I’ve loved Harry Potter. Twilight started good then crashed and burned. My shameful secrets are more in those people whom I’ve read and not loved – Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I did give them a try, but just didn’t feel it the way everyone else seems to.
I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice, though I hope to have done so by the end of the year. I have watched the miniseries w/Colin Firth, and even parts of the new movie starring Keira Knightly.
Loved Twilight in 2006/2007 when I read it but I’m not certain I’d have as much love for it now.
It’s all a matter of taste, I suppose.
Time Traveler’s Wife is another one I haven’t read, which I was reminded of when I saw the movie previews last week before The Proposal.
I suggest attempting the Time Traveler’s Wife if you have the chance.
It’s a mind-bender, sure, but I have had a lot of fun talking about it.
P & P – read it in college–along w/ complete works of Shakespeare and the Homeric Epics–and never since. Don’t consider reading classics fun. There are too many great new books to conquer! I did take the time to “get comfortable” and have a cup of coffee while being read to by an amazing looking Englishman. (see Lynn’s post above)
http://www.cartenoire.co.uk/pride-and-prejudice
Who cares what he’s saying as long as he keeps making eye-contact.
Thanks for the post…
Ashley
Hmm, I haven’t read many classics.
I did read P&P last year with my niece for homeschool english. I didn’t think I would like it, but I did enjoy it very much.
Never read GWTW and haven’t seen the movie either. No interest at all.
I’ve read Twilight, loved The Davinci Code, although Angels and Demons is a million times better.
I don’t read contemporary books any more.
Agree with you on Angels & Demons beating out Da Vinci Code! we’ll see what Dan Brown has next in store for us this fall, I guess.
Read Twilight to see what hubbub was about. Could have missed it. Did you see the folks who mashed Twilight scenes with Buffy? HILARIOUS! I posted it on my blog last week…
Ash
I haven’t read Angels and Demons yet and I wasn’t going to, but now you’ve got me curious. I’ll have to pick it up next time I’m at the book store.
Haven’t seen the movie… the book is worth the read.
Ash
I don’t think there’s any shame in what you enjoyed reading or not and I know most of you said with tongue firmly in cheek. I’ve read most of the books many claimed not to have read. I think one appreciates Jane Austen’s books more when you think about when she wrote them. Her ideas were really enlightened for her time.
I’ve reread LOTR so many times I’m on my third book. My children and I wore the others out and I finally bought them their own copies. I admit the first part of that book is kind of boring. Tolkien apparently wrote during a time when editors didn’t care if you captured your audience in the first few pages.
And like a few of you stated above, it Oprah recommends it I’m probably not reading it.
I’m pretty well-versed in the classics, but in the best-sellers-I’ve-missed category are Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Carly Phillips (anyone named Phillips, really), Lori Foster, and Charlaine Harris – though at least I know who Sookie Stackhouse is. And when it comes to old skool romance, I made someone gasp last week when I confessed I’d never read Kathleen Woodiwiss or Danielle Steele.
Never read Twilight either. No interest. Or DaVinci Code, although I gave the book to my hubby and he loved it, promptly bought and read any Dan Brown he could find.
Never read Tolkien, but have read Chronicles of Narnia.
Don’t think I’ve ever read a Dickens straight through, except for A Christmas Carol, which is a short story. And yet I’ve read Tom Jones, Madame Bovary, and Crime and Punishment (you think Oprah books are downers? Yeesh.).
War and Peace? Fuggedaboutit. But I seem to remember slogging through Anna Karenina.
Never read GWTW. But then, I think I was 40 before I saw the movie.
P&P (and other Austens)? Yes. Harry Potter? Yes. But there’s a slew of “classic” romance authors I’ve never gone near — Woodiwiss, Lindsay, Deveraux, Rogers, Krentz.
Like everybody else, I read whatever appeals to me at that moment in time. (shrugs) Since there’s no way I can read everything, the ones I “missed” don’t bother me overmuch.
I haven’t read P&P, either. I do have it on my TBR pile and keep meaning to get to it, just haven’t done so yet. However, I have read four other Austens, and seen two movie versions (the originl B&W and the one with Keira Knightly).
I also have not yet read the HP series, though I did pick up the first book not to long ago at the local UBS.
No one has *confessed* to not having read Georgette Heyer, so I will assume that everyone on the planet HAS.
As it should be.
Sorry, nope. Not I.
I haven’t read any Georgette Heyer, or Nora roberts, or the Twilight books. I love Jane Austen, can’t read Tolkein and couldn’t finish Dan Brown. The Time Travellers wife was horrific – I really disliked it.
Pride and Predjudice is my favourite novel – I’ve read it maybe 20 times – maybe more. it’s my comfort food. If you find me with it in my hands, it usually means life is a bit stressful. If my Austen complete works in on my bedside table, just bring me tea and chocolate, as it means my life is exploding and I need all the comfort I can get.
As to the others mentioned: read the Da Vinci code because wanted to see what the fuss was about. Thought it was a perfectly serviceable thriller but had no desire to read the rest of his work.
REad Twilight because a friend of mine was obsessed and needed someone to talk to, as the other member of our gang of three nearly slit her wrists getting through the first book and couldn’t face the rest. Didn’t mind the story, but I wanted to slap all of the major characters most of the time. Teen angst just leaves me cold.
Love both Tolkien and Dickens, but can completely understand modern readers finding them hard work. Can understand people not loving Harry too, but I did. Hanging out for the last three movies!
I had not read GWTW until just recently. Haven’t seen the movie, either. Now that is one that will make people stare – admitting that you’ve never seen GWTW. I did enjoy it, but it too is a book of its time and it is very long and dense, by modern standards, so I can see it not being everyone’s cup of tea. I was also regularly flabbergasted by what a mighty labour of love it must have been. It chronicles a quite extraordinary period in stunning detail. No wonder it was her only work. I’m sure it was a life’s work.
My cred is bad in the romance world. I have read some Nora, but I don’t think I have ever read any Georgette H (not quite sure how that happened as I read an awful lot of historical fiction as a teen) and there are many other ‘classics’ that have escaped me, too. I love Jenny Cruisie, but only read her after I met her. As a late-comer to the genre, it just seems to vast to try to ‘encompass’. I just read people as I come across them. Otherwise my head might explode!
I think life is too short to read anything that doesn’t take your fancy. Or to stress that you have missed something while you have been reading something else you enjoyed. To paraphrase the bard, ‘If reading be the food of happiness, read on! Give me excess of it!’
I have never read Georgette Heyer. She was one of the others I was thinking of as I was reading the article. But she’s also one that I probably won’t ever read.
I am proud to report I have managed to avoid most of Dickens, all of Austen, a large chunk of Hemingway and, to my knowledge, have never picked up an Oprah’s Book Club pick.
Thanks, I feel better for having confessed my sins.
I second that!!
Have read some Austen, agree with everybody that DBs Angels and Demons was much better than DC and I loved them both. Never read a Harry Potter or Twighlight…Gah! no intention of it either. Also never read anything that the big O has recommended. I like uplifting stuff to read, not depressing. Didn’t read GWTW, but seen the movie many times. Love Woodiwiss, SEP and JC. I have read a couple of La Nora.
Apparently the real Shameful Secret is reading Oprah books!
I read A Fine Balance and The Poisonwood Bible and LOVED them. Can’t recommend them enough, especially A Fine Balance.
@Miss Mabel, to be fair to Oprah, it really has nothing to do with her, I am just very author/genre specific in my reading habits and since true romance/suspense/thriller generally doesn’t end up on her list, the train never meets.
The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I admit that I’ve seen the movie, was amused, and still have no desire to read it.
And I’m writing a sci-fi type romance right now. Space aliens and flying ships and all.
Actually, I’ve not read much in the sci-fi realm at all, and when I mention what I’m writing, I always get the “Oh, you have to read blah blah blah”. Um, no thanks. I’m quite happy making this stuff up as I go without cross-contamination. Watching the new Star Trek movie was bad enough, because now I’m wondering if this character is too much like Spock, or that description looks too much like their uniforms or whatever.
Kristi
I am a huge Douglas Adams fan – Hitchhikers is irreverent, hokey, and fun. If you ever find the time, read at least one. The movie *cringe* didn’t do the book justice.
LOL on cross-contamination! ((forcing myself not to recommend you anything of the sort.))
~Ashley
I made it into the second CD of Pride and Prejudice before ejecting it. Not only was it boring but everyone in it was completely useless! I grew up around women like that, only concerned with who was marrying who and how much money he made and who couldn’t just flat out say they liked a man, but had to hint around and go for the antagonistic flirtation.
I hated Jonhan Strange & Mr. Norell for the same stylistic reasons.
I’ve read a couple of Oprah picks, before she picked them: Pillars of the Earth is amazing and The Poisonwood Bible was good.
My shame is that I don’t like Sherrilyn Kenyon. Everyone I know was drooling over ACHERON, and I’m like oh no…
I have never read Austen. I have not read Harry Potter, Tolkein and/or Twilight. Fantasy/Paranormal/Sci-Fi (or whatever you want to classify it as) is just not my cuppa, at all.
I have read The Da Vinci Code. I have also read GWTW, twice.
I also have not read Georgette Heyer, SEP, JD Robb or Janet Evanovich.
Like someone mentioned earlier, you CANNOT read everything so why worry about the stuff you haven’t read. Worry more about the stuff you have read.