Her Book Self

As Book Blogger Appreciation Week continues, today's theme is "Unexpected Treasure" and bloggers are promted to discuss a book or genre that they read on the recommendation of a fellow blogger.  This one's a bit of a challenge for me as I don't often keep track of how or where I first hear about the books I read, and really, people would be hard pressed to identify a genre that I haven't read. 

There are instances, though, where a book will linger on my TBR list for far too long, until other people start talking about it.  It starts with a few casual mentions, some early buzz, and then it gets to the point where publicity overflows and  I've heard about the title from so many different places that I can't even say where I heard it first.  And then, eventually, I read it. 

This was the case for me with The Hunger Games.  It's been sitting on my shelf, alongside Catching Fire, unread for a year or more.  Before the book blogging community starts rallying with pitchforks, I knew it was planned as a trilogy and I really wanted to wait until all three books were published before I started to read the series.  And then there's the issue of hype.  When everyone I talk to raves about something as "THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD!!!" it sort of makes me not want to read it.  My expectations are raised so high, that I wonder if the product can ever live up to the promise.  As soon as Mockingjay came out, I was almost turned off the series entirely, as I desperately tried to avoid spoilers.  But since some of that buzz slightly settled, I finally did pick up The Hunger Games. 

I want to save my thoughts and review of this book (and series) for next week where I will be highlighting it as another entry in my Series in September meme, but I could not think of a better book (that I have not already blogged about) to highlight as my Unexpected Treasure.  I'm sure I would have read this book eventually, but it was my fellow bloggers that prompted me to read it now.  And I'm very, very glad that I did.  Despite the hype, and my own hesitations, this book won me over.  So much so that I will be hosting a giveaway of it in the near future!  I'm not sure if I want to design this as a 100-follower giveaway or just gift it away to a lucky reader that has not yet read it, but stay tuned to Her Book Self for more details.  As with my previous contest, there will likely be some type of reader-loyalty bonus, so if you're interested in scoring a win, following, reading and commenting can only help you out!