I have a quick question for y'all today - expectations. How do you manage them? It seems that every single read these days starts out with expectations. Whether it's because of reviews, recommendations or even just series predecessors. Every single book starts out with expectations.
So how do you manage that? If you go into every book with high expectations, you're always going to be disappointed, but if you lower your expectations... you're still stuck with that sinking feeling. Maybe you didn't like the book that you already had low expectations for, and you're sitting around thinking about how sad you are.
Maybe you loved said book, but now you're wondering if it was because your expectations were so low. People never really know where they stand. But really... why should we have to lower our expectations for certain books? Why do we hold certain books to higher standards than others?
If you can't tell, I'm having a slight problem with expectations lately - so, how do you manage the pesky little things?
= I didn't like it.
= It was okay.
= I liked it.
= I really liked it.
= LOVE!
I don't. LOL for me, I try to keep my expectation low. I see a book with a lot of hype and I think "okay, this should be good... but lets not expect too much."
ReplyDeleteIt's different for series, though. I expect a book to be as good as the former one - and if it's not... *sad face* but I see no way to avoid that, because I already know how good the series can be.
I've never thought about the opposite side though. The "did I like it because I lowered my expectations" thingy. Never even crossed my mind, tbh. It doesn't bother me xD
I try not to read books when my expectations are sky-high. Hence why Unhinged is still staring at me...unread. I was disappointed in Smoke and Bone because I was expecting that BEST BOOK EVER. It was a good book, but it wasn't a "super fantastic OMG can you believe that just happened" kind of book. I think I'm going to reread Smoke and Bone because I just don't think I gave it a fair shot the first time around.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't even get me started on the extreme level of expectations for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows vs what was delivered. That POS epilogue....grr...still bothers me, since it was so LAME compared to the rest of the series.
I don't even try to manage them. I just try my best to pick books that I may like and go for it. I have a few trusted friends that I take recommendations from but for the most part I just wing it. Sometimes I hit the jackpot, sometimes I strike out. I think I kind of like it that way. If every book was a winner, there would be no urgency to ever read anything, and then where would we all be???
ReplyDeleteI was in a book funk for a while, but it looks like I'm on the right track again with Rainbow Rowell books. I don't like to read to many reviews of the books I want to read really bad - I like to dive in with no prejudices.
ReplyDeleteUsually expectations works against books for me. Like when books are surrounded by a lot hype, I don't want to read it because I don't think it's going to live up to the hype. I usually wait a while before reading those books, so I can sort of forget about it and the hype before trying it. I've found that if I obsess over a book and build it up in my head, it never lives up to expectations. My favorite books are the books that I've heard nothing about and just randomly picked up.
ReplyDeleteAly @ My Heart Hearts Books
With some books you can't help but have high expectations for (like when it's a book that popular). With those books I have to really think about if I did really like it or if it was all the hype that got me to like it.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's the books that aren't so widely known and I usually try to stay away from reviews to not be too biased of them. That's hard though. Usually I only go check out the ratings. :3
I'd like to know the answer to that as well heh. I try not to go into something with expectations, but it is impossible. I see reviews everywhere, and if it is a book club book and my fellow members have already read and rated it, then my expectations change. Maybe that's why I haven't been blown away by a book in a while.
ReplyDelete