Friday 4 March 2011

Book Discussion: Must Read Books... Do They Exist??

book discussion
Must Read Books... Do They Exist??

The other day, when browsing videos on YouTube, I came across one video that kinda annoyed me. It was a BookShelf tour, of a YA Video Book Reviwer. Obviously they were showing all the books they own and they came across the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices (two different series) by Cassandra Clare and it was the comment they made which angered me :' These are both must read series and if you don't read them, then well your just not a YA book lover' (<-- Not exact quote). This comment made me wonder, can you possibly be defined as not a classified book lover if you haven't read this series, because if so then I'm the furthest thing away from a book lover. I have nothing against Cassandra Clare nor her writing but I have multiple times attempted reading the first book in her Mortal Instruments Series: City Of Bones, to the point where I can't even look at the book anymore. It just doesn't intrest me in the slightest.
Isn't in the end reading a book and being a book lover about reading what you wanna read about, instead of what other people say you have to read. Isn't reading about choices and freedom, a form of escapism, something I never felt when reading City of Bones.
I class myself as a book lower, despite if I haven't read Mortal Instruments, nor a classic etc...

But onto the main point of this book Discussion is there really must read books out there.
Well I guess obviously there is books which people will class as must read due to how amazingly fantastic they are... but is there really books out there that you must read to be able to be defined as something in life...

What do you think?
And what books would you class as must read?

1 comment:

  1. It's so subjective. Yeah, there are books I'd classify as must-reads (The Outsiders, Harry Potter, Lord of the Flies, for example). But would I ever say someone that who hasn't or doesn't want to read those is not a true book lover? No way. A book lover is someone who loves book. That doesn't mean he or she has to love the same books I do. There are so many things I have absolutely no interest in reading that I'm sure people would say I have to read them and maybe that I don't truly love books or YA fiction if I don't (including the Mortal Instruments series--never finished the first one; it doesn't interest me at all; also including things like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights). I hate it when people say things like, "You're not a book lover if you haven't read this" or "You haven't read this/you didn't like this? What's wrong with you?" Nothing's wrong with me, and I certainly am a book lover. We just have different tastes. Not a big deal.

    Thanks for a great post! :)

    ReplyDelete