john green | The Bubble Bath Reader

I try hard not to be a book snob. I know how irritated I get when people turn up their noses at what I’m reading. I read books that friends recommend to me pretty regularly, and I also read a fair number of new releases. But sometimes there are books that generate a lot of hype that, for one reason or another, I just don’t read. So for today’s Top Five Friday, here are my top five popular books I haven’t read.

	1. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. I have a friend who only read one book in 2013, and it was this one. For a while, it seemed like everywhere I went, I bumped into someone reading this. I haven’t been purposefully avoiding Gone Girl, but somehow it just doesn’t grab my attention. A husband who may or may not have killed his wife doesn’t sound all that original to me (as someone who reads a lot of mysteries, not as someone who thinks her husband might murder her), but maybe I’m wrong. I know there is a movie version set to release in October, so maybe I’ll get around to reading it before then.
	2. The Fault in our Stars, by John Green. I’ve actually been wanting to read this one for a while, but there is never a copy available at the library, and I don’t really need to own it. But I do like to keep up with “what the kids are reading these days.” I guess it’s a hold-over from teaching high school. Anybody have a copy they want to loan me?
	3. A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. I do like fantasy novels, but I really can’t get into lots of blood and stabbing. I hear people talk about how great the TV series is and how excited for the next episode they are, but the people that I’ve asked to tell me a little bit about it have basically said, “Lots of people die.” I’ll pass for now.
	4. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. I do want to read this one, I just haven’t gotten my hands on a copy yet. I like the idea of a story about the art underworld. Critics have compared Tartt to Charles Dickens, and supposedly this novel deals with how unpredictable life can be and the way that decisions made in a moment can affect the rest of your life. I will get to this one eventually.
	5. Inferno, by Dan Brown. This is another book that I couldn’t seem to get away from in 2013, but this one I was avoiding on purpose. I felt like The Lost Sybmol was a pretty big let-down, so I didn’t see any reason to carry on with this one. I have heard some good things about it, but I’ve also read some critiques of Brown’s writing style that make it difficult to enjoy his books now.