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It's Wednesday already, but it's my chance to post a Top Ten Tuesday list to link up at The Broke and The Bookish. This week the list is "Top Ten Hyped Books I've Never Read". There are a lot of books that have been top of the best-seller lists in the last couple of decades that I have never touched. For whatever reason, I tend to stay away from the books that are the latest reading fad. Often it's because I'm just not much into contemporary fiction. Often it's because I don't want to buy a book that I'm not confident I'll care for, and since everyone else and their brother is reading it, the wait list at the library is too long and I've lost interest. Sometimes I've read a current best-seller and been so profoundly disappointed that I wasted any of my life on a book I thought was stupid, no matter what anybody else thought of it. And sometimes, it's just a matter of not getting to it yet.
So, here are ten books that the general populace seems to have drooled over at some point, but that I have not read.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Just not my genre for several reasons. A couple of my daughter's friends absolutely loved this book (and movie) and convinced her to read it. She hated it. My apologies to those who love it - I have nothing against it, it's just not of interest to me.
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling - I know. Hard to believe that anyone living today has not read any of this series, but I haven't. When it first came out, my kids were too young to care, and they never started caring, so I couldn't be bothered. This goes in the "never got to it" column, and although I bet I'd like the books, I think that train has left the station.
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins - This is another train I've kind of missed. My daughter is crazy about The Hunger Games and owns the books, and she's basically told me the entire story. I've seen bits and pieces of the movies too. So I could read this, and I might someday, but I don't really need to since my daughter has told me everything that happens.
Divergent series by Veronica Roth - See my notes on The Hunger Games. Very similar situation.
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown - I actually tried to read this. More because I wanted to know what everyone was all excited about. I didn't get very far because I thought it was stupid and refused to waste any more of my own brain cells in reading it. It also aggravated the daylights out of me that so many people apparently took it as truth and forgot that it was total fiction.
The Shack by William Paul Young - Here's another one that people went ape over, and talked about how it changed their views about God etc. Please. It's FICTION. My husband read it and didn't loathe it, but the picture of God it presents is NOT Biblical. So I do not even get how people have "Bible studies" that are based on this book, unless it's to point out how UNBiblical it is.
Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice - I'm not sure why I never read this book. I remember wanting to, but I must have gotten over it.
And speaking of vampires... The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer - It's not that I don't like vampire stories, it's more that I recognized that this isn't the "love story" that many young people thought it was. All the hype about the movies and the fan obsession with it made me cringe from start to finish. While it's nice that some young people were inspired to actually read a book, it concerned me that children were reading this.
Also not a love story? Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James - I will not even post a picture of this book. I find it disturbing that anyone described this as a "love story" - it is all about control, abuse, and obsession. Didn't read it. Wont' read it.
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding - I can't even tell you why I didn't read this. Maybe I will someday. But then again, it's contemporary fiction, and as I said, that's not really my thing.
Ever feel like you're the only person who hasn't read the latest and greatest book? What hyped books have you NOT read?
by Mary Conneally - Read my review 
by Jenetta James - I actually finished this last week, but didn't get the review posted until Tuesday. Read it 
by Susie Larson - I'm not getting through this as quickly as I would like, possibly because it keeps hitting me between the eyes!
by Jen Turano
by Stephen R Lawhead
) - this is one of those books I never get tired of re-reading. It's very convenient too, because it will help me in two of my reading challenges - to read a novel with a character's name in the title, and it's book #1 in the 
by Robertson Davies - this one will work for the 
by Julie Klassen - the first book by Julie Klassen I'd read, and she became an instant favorite author, as you'll see later in this list.
by Lisa Mantchev - absolutely loved this young adult steampunk novel. Truth is, I was hooked just looking at the cover!
by Cary Elwes - delightful memoir about the making of the iconic movie.
by Julie Klassen
by Jill Eileen Smith
by Julie Klassen - for those of you keeping score at home, that's the third Klassen novel in the list. 
by Jill Eileen Smith - and yes, this is the second novel by Jill Eileen Smith in my list. She does great novelizations of Bible characters.
by Jody Hedlund - another series that I am loving is this Beacons of Hope series about lighthouse keepers around the Great Lakes.