yes, i too was shocked and surprised

I read a lot of books and have probably read well over 1,000 in my lifetime so far.  Generally I stick to the same genre (romantic suspense or psychological thrillers and government conspiracy types) but sometimes I’ll branch out when I feel like I’ve run out of books to read.  Reading Twilight opened up a whole new genre that I really hadn’t tried before, YA Fantasy and YA Fiction.  I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed the fantasy genre in YA though I’ve only just now started an adult fantasy book.

Sometimes in my branching out I’ll read something rather reluctantly because either the hype surrounding the book drives me to a frenzied state of curiosity (thank you spell check as I would’ve sworn curiosity was spelled cursiousity) or because the guilt of not reading some classic breaks me down.

And some of those I’ve finished and thought to myself ‘Self, you were right.  That was not your kind of book’ but sometimes I’m just in love with it and rather surprised at myself.

This may be revealing more than I should about my taste in books (or rather lack thereof) but I’m going to tell you anyway.  These are the books that surprised me the most.

I can’t even remember when I read this one, but I know I was pretty young when I did.  At this point in my reading career I was obsessed with Dean Koontz & Stephen King.  The idea of reading a 1000 plus book that wasn’t It didn’t really sound that appealing, but I really wanted to watch the movie and even then I was a firm believer in reading the book before seeing the movie.  I devoured the book.  Scarlett was a brat, of course, but she was captivating and for some reason, against better judgment you rooted for her.  I guess what was even more surprising was that I loved Scalett by Alexandra Ripley just as much as I loved Gone with the Wind.  Oh, and the movie … the best.

In college I read this one as an assignment for my Asian-American Lit class.  To me, any book that is assigned is doomed to fail on my like-o-meter.  Amy Tan’s masterpiece wasn’t one of them.  While not Chinese myself I felt a kinship to Jing-Mei “June'” and her love-hate relationship to her more traditional mother.  I was intrigued and horrified at the lengths the women of the club went through to make their way to the United States.  I learned things I never knew before about a culture that I had grown up somewhat exposed to.  The book haunted me and stuck to me like very little else ever has in such a way.  It started my love of Gail Tsukiyama’s Chinese and Japanese based books.

At first I balked at reading this mainly because of the little sticker claiming Oprah loved it.  Now, I think Oprah is fantabulous, but she and I do not share the same taste in books, but my aunt passed it down to me so for lack of anything better to read I picked it up.  And boy, was I glad I did.  Definitely not a warm & fuzzy book Lamb delves into a twisted and complicated book about mental illness, sexual abuse, betrayal and heartbreak.  Sounds depressing, I know and it is, but so well written and multi-layered that I fell into the book and wished so badly I could reach in and fix Thomas and find some way to make Dominick happy.  The story had such a way of sucking the reader in and making you invest so much of yourself that in the end you feel wrung dry, but somehow wildly triumphant.

I generally don’t like books that take place earlier than 1970.  First I feel like I can’t relate.  I spend much of the book wondering how they could possibly get anything done without any sort of modern technology (I know, I’m a boob) and the author tries to write as they spoke back then and I just can’t get into it.  When my book club chose this one as one of our monthly reads I was slightly disappointed, but also mildly curious about the subject matter.  Taking place sometime during or just after the Crusades (I believe) the reader finds a town in England that is cursed with a child killer.  No one is able to solve the crimes and the King calls upon his Italian cousin to help.  The cousin sends a forensic investigator who is trained in ‘The Art of Death’ hoping maybe this professional might be able to gleam facts from the deceased children’s bodies and solve the murders.  The only problem?  She’s a woman.  The writing was superb.  Ariana Franklin gives the sense that people are speaking the way speech was back in the day, but doesn’t confuse you with the actual patterns.  The story itself is twisting and dark, the suspense – magnificent!

I loathe non-fiction (unless it’s true crime) and the touchy-feely-goodness of this book really put me off.  But again, I succumbed to the pressure of society and because I wanted to see the movie I picked up the book … and I loved it.  The beginning was an awakening for me.  I had been where Elizabeth had been.  I had been married and left for reasons my ex couldn’t really understand – nor did he really want to.  I fell into another relationship that drained me emotionally, but I didn’t have the courage to walk away from everything the way she did.  Oh, I was green with envy at the personal journey she took to find what she was looking for in herself.  I cried so many times throughout the book, was charmed by some of it and reflected on others.  I haven’t picked up Committed yet and not really sure I will, but this one’s a keeper.

And finally there’s Twilight.  I remember way back, way, way back I started seeing the name ‘Edward Cullen’ pop up in weird places.  Once I even saw something that said ‘Edward Cullen could kick Angel’s ass’ and thought ‘whoa there, you can just go straight to hell now’.  My sister and I wondered what all this Edward Cullen nonsense was until I discovered it was a teeny bopper book.  Dismissed.

But then my friends who were not book friends started asking me if I had read the books.  Shocked when I said I hadn’t they insisted that this was right up my alley and I must go pick it up at once.  When my friend Gina basically told me our friendship depended on me reading the books I shrugged and found the cheapest copy I could get online.  But there were four books in the series and I never read any series without having all the books on hand so I waited until I had all four.  This drove Gina nuts.

I dragged my feet.  I really didn’t want to read a teen romance and being a Buffy loyalist I couldn’t see loving any vampire more than Angel.  But I’d had enough bullying so I began reading.

I got to page 83.  Set the book down and called Ray and told him ‘I LOVE this book.’  Now, when I read a book I read 6 at the same time.  I divide the book into 1/6 sections read one section and move onto the next.  It keeps my ADD under control.  I got to the end of the first section and forced myself to put it down.  By the time I got to Eclipse my 6 book requirement went out the window.

And I get all the critiques on the book.  No, it isn’t well written, but it is a well told story.  Yes, Bella could be annoying and probably did take a whole generation of young girls back to the days before feminism, but dangnabbit I loved it.  I loved the courtship and the anticipation.  I loved to hate Jacob.  I loved the Quileute lore.  I loved the setting.  I loved the surrounding characters.  I loved the fierce loyalty both clans possessed.  Most of all, I loved remembering what it was like to be in love for the first time.  I am jealous of the people who have not yet read these books, but will someday pick them up and read them for the first time.

So there it is folks.  What books have you read that surprised you?