What If I Hate a Best-seller?

This is a guest post from Anna Cramer. Born in Alaska and raised in Missouri, Anna made her way back to The Last Frontier 9 years ago with husband and cats in tow. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Archaeology with an emphasis in Native American Studies from Missouri State University. Anna is an amateur photographer and professional daydreamer with a perpetual case of wanderlust, likely exacerbated by a healthy reading habit. A few of her favorite things aside from reading and writing: cats, K-pop, hip hop, walking in the woods, the ocean, red wine, a good wood burning fire, coffee, and being inspired.

What if I hate this book? It’s a New York Times Best-Seller, on all of the important lists, displayed at the end of every grocery and bookstore aisle, and has been chosen as my book club’s current read. I hate it. Okay, maybe “hate” is too strong of a word, but I’m really not enjoying this book. I feel like a whiny child refusing anything “good” for her, “Yucky! I don’t want it! Noooooo!” I might even cry and writhe on the floor.

I’ve started it and put it down. Picked it up. Put it down. Please tell me you know this drill. Now it sits on my nightstand with a bookmark maybe 50 pages in—and that’s a generous estimate. So the book lies there under the table lamp atop a stack of its predecessors who all fared markedly better. I’ve decided I don’t care and I’m not reading it tonight. I scroll through a smorgasbord of social media outlets on my phone as my husband sleeps next to me. Facebook alerts me that they’re adapting this book into a series. Insert any one of your preferred expletives here. I glance at the book. Am I not getting something!? Self doubt ensues. Should I tell by fellow book club members?