Okay, so today we are going to be talking about books i was wrong about. I went in with the wrong
expectations either thinking i would love them, or hate them... and it was the opposite. We're going
to start with an old one and that's The Ocean At The End of The Lane. This was my very first
Neil Gaiman book. I bought it from a bookstore; one of those "blind date with a book" things, if
you know what i'm talking about; where bookstore workers will wrap a book and then write a little
a little note about what the book is about and then you pick it based off of that. Okay,
so this book was written about a young child who goes on a journey with a girl next door
and she made it sound so sweet and whimsical and that was rude. So i showed it in a reading vlog,
me picking this book and unwrapping it in the vlog; found out that it's a dark fantasy.
At the time i didn't read anything dark, anything grim, anything gritty or scary
in any sort of way. Yes, i'm a different reader now than i once was. I was sure i would hate this,
but because it was a whole event in the vlog i felt obligated and it's short,
so i did. Not only did i fall in love with one of my favorite authors of all time, Neil
Gaiman happens to be one of my favorite audiobook narrators of all time (because i switched back and
forth between the physical and the audio) and i loved this story so much. When i unwrapped this
book i was positive i would hate it. I almost didn't read it and it introduced me to one of
the best authors out there, in my opinion. Just wonderful. Another oldie but a goodie;
one that i talk about on this channel a lot: Pet Sematary. My first experience with Stephen King
was The Long Walk i'm pretty sure it's called, which was written under his pen name.
I was told it was the best place to start with King. I could, i could do a whole rant video
on this book. I hated it so much so i thought, "Wow. Don't ever want to read another King book.
Really, really don't want to touch this author again." So this was around the time that Daniel
and i had just recently become friends. He is a really big Stephen King fan. He was positive that
i would like more King if i gave him another go. He sent me Pet Sematary for my birthday and he was
right. This is a book that i have loved so hard because of its incredible exploration of grief.
I think the story itself was really interesting as well, but the story, it really felt like the story
and the horror were a tool to discuss grief and it's one of the best explorations of grief i've
ever read. And i read it shortly after losing someone very close to me so it was much needed.
Speaking of Pet Sematary, the next book on my list is gonna be The Eyes of The Dragon. So...
I read Pet Sematary. I loved it. I read Misery. I really enjoyed it. I read The Eyes of The Dragon
thinking, "Oh my goodness, King is one of my new favorite authors." I hated this book so much! So,
funny story. The Eyes of The Dragon was a book that King wrote for i think i think his daughter
because he was writing horror and she wanted to read something of his so he wrote a middle
grade fantasy. I really didn't like it at all. Apparently neither did any of his fans
and he got a very visceral reaction from him about this... from them... he got
a very visceral reaction from them about this book which was what inspired Misery;
which i just think is the funniest story ever. But anyway, i was really excited to read whatever King
wrote. I was really excited to read a fantasy by him; did not like The Eyes of The Dragon, but uh
you know i've had a journey with King in general. Next up, i can't find my copy of it, but Wuthering
Heights. This is a book that a friend read and hated so much that she did an hour-long rant
video on her channel and she wanted me to read it because she was sure that i would hate it too
and i loved it so much! To be fair, she went in expecting a romance (which i did too)
but you know, it's not a romance. It's a tragedy. I love tragedies and i just also really loved
the exploration of the cycle of abuse in this book. It's a dark book. It's not uh, it's not,
it's not easy to read. It's not a fun experience to read, but i got so much out of it and i really
enjoyed reading it. So i was really wrong about this one. Anna And The French Kiss. Oh. This is
a book that was really popular on booktube when i first joined up and i didn't read a
lot of contemporary, but i thought if i'm going to like contemporary it's got to be this one because
nobody doesn't like it. Enter: Merphy. I wrote a rant review on Goodreads so check that out if you
want to, but i started off the review by saying that it gets one star because Goodreads doesn't
allow you to give zero stars, so i really didn't like this book. To summarize it, it's a romance.
Oh my golly. How do i even summarize this book without just going into a rant? Our main
character, she's not very likable. She... i don't even know how to do it. She went,
she went to Paris to boarding school and she wants to be the number one film review-er in the world,
but she's shocked that Paris has cinemas and movie theaters and likes movies. She, she falls for the
first guy she meets who's just the most cliche, nothing of a man and he's in a relationship so
she just proceeds to cheat. And it's romantic. She also has these really strange, disturbing thoughts
thinking about like, ripping the girl's hair out and keeping a tally of like, who spends more time
with him and like, she has these weird internal thoughts that are very uncomfortable. And the
girlfriend's a really pleasant, sweet, trusting kind girl, but she's villainized because...
you know. She's gonna be cheated on, but we should like the main character. I don't know, man. I
didn't like it. Next book on the list is Percy Jackson. So i did not expect to like this series.
I read it because it won a poll of like, i did a video of popular books that i don't want to read,
but people really want me to read. And i did a poll. You guys get to pick which of these books
i'm going to choose and you chose Percy Jackson. I was really nervous about reading this because
i don't tend to read a lot of middle grade. I have a hard time with middle grade, not because
i have an issue with it, but just because i have a really hard time turning off my critical brain
and just going along with the whimsy of the story (which i did struggle with with this book as well)
but eventually got over it and had a great time. And i was afraid that i would really not like it
and disappoint a lot of people's nostalgia because this is a series that a lot of people grew up on
and love really hard, and i ended up really, really, really enjoying this book...
on the other side of that, i was excited to continue on with the series and a really, really,
didn't like book two. But as i've said in other videos, i will be continuing on with the series.
I'm finishing book three, i'm reading book four and i hope to at least come out of the series
having enjoyed it. Next book in the video is going to be Twice In A Blue Moon. So Christina Lauren is
a writing duo; two friends who write romance books. And romance isn't my preferred genre,
but Christina Lauren is an author duo that have won me over. I've read several of their books
and i've enjoyed everything that i've read by them. Enter: Twice In A Blue Moon. So they're,
they're... when i'm in the mood for a romance they tend to be the team that i go to. They're more
recent books where when they started leaning more into romance and less into... i haven't read their
earlier work. But anyway, I'll be brief about Twice In A Blue Moon. It was supposed to be a uh,
uh, what's it called? Second chance romance and what it ended up being was two really unhealthy
people that are very very bad for each other and they hook up sometimes when they meet up and they
never really get good for each other and it wasn't romantic. I also have a Goodreads review for that
one if you want to see me go into more depth about it. Last book in this video may not be a surprise.
Well, actually it may, because it was a long time ago that i read this book. Peter Pan. So a long
time ago i realized that i haven't read very many classics. The school system that i was in did not
require classics as reading. Their biggest concern was that kids were reading and if they weren't
picking up books on their own they got assigned books, but if they were picking up books on their
own then we're good. Which, you know, appalls some people, but i thought it was a really good system.
It made me not hate reading. So i was an adult with a booktube channel and realized i've read
one classic in my entire life. Maybe i should give classics a go. So i set myself a challenge
to read a certain number of classics and the very first classic i picked up was Peter Pan because i
thought it'd be an easy start. I don't know if i went into this book expecting to hate it. I don't
think i went into this classics challenge with the anticipation of coming out of it saying: "Classics
are terrible." I genuinely wanted to give this... category? Not genre... category a chance. But i
know that i didn't go in expecting it to be my favorite book of all time and now i love classics
a lot. Actually in that vein i guess we could also talk about my favorite series of all time:
The Lies of Locke Lamora. I didn't... how did this one go? I recently re... oh that reminds me!
Dagumit! Another book that could be in this video. I had recently realized that i liked fantasy;
didn't know it before. So i tried The Lies of Locke Lamora; it was way too complex for me
and i just couldn't handle it. Not because the magic system is complex, but because
Scott Lynch's writing style didn't lend itself well to where i was as a reader at that point.
So it wasn't my favorite book. A lot of stuff went over my head. About a year later i came back
and re-read it and fell in love with this series hard. Which reminds me, i thought the end of the
video was a while ago, but i guess we're gonna keep going. Mistborn has to be on this list. So my
brother was a big Sanderson fan; a hyper fan, and kept telling me: "You need to read Mistborn. It's
better than everything else you have read." Even though he hadn't read anything else that i had
read. He was sure that he was right. He was pretty right. It took me a while to get into it because i
thought i didn't like fantasy the genre and i have a lot of old videos that are probably probably all
private at this point where i used to proclaim: "I don't like fantasy." Turns out i love fantasy
and this was the first book to help me realize that and from here i started exploring the genre
and i love the genre. Which reminds me... i should also talk about The Name of The
Wind because i went into this expecting not to like it. I know Jay... so my friend Jay
over on Captured In Words; he loves this series, right? And Daniel, my friend over on Daniel Green
doesn't. So i went into this book knowing some people that tend to agree with me on certain books
have different feelings about this. I wonder where i'll land. I had watched reviews on it
before i read it, which i usually don't do, but i did for this one and i was positive that i
was gonna land in: "I'm gonna hate this book." but i wanted to try it anyway for some reason
and i loved this book so much it's ridiculous! I didn't love the sequel as much, but
this book really surprised me. Okay, i guess i'll cut it off there. That's a whole bunch of books
that i went in expecting one thing and getting the exact opposite. I'm curious what books surprised
you in this way. What books in this stack are you gonna pick up now or not pick up now
after this video? Be sure to check out my Patreon if you want to buddy read books with me or
see some of my own writing. I post videos every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday... no i don't! I post
videos every Tuesday through Friday. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye. That will do the job.