Most of us at one point or another have read books we didn't expect to like for any number of reasons, whether it's school, a book club, a personal challenge, or otherwise. I'm interested in hearing about books that comfortably surpassed your expectations! All genres are on the table, and a brief explanation for why you think it subverted your expectations/assumptions would be appreciated.
To give an example, for me that book would be Jane Eyre. The subject matter of the book just didn't really appeal to me, and typically any other media with similar themes and time periods that I've tried consuming over the years have not held my interest very well. But, I asked my sister for a recommendation of a book that was important to her for any reason, and Jane Eyre was what she came back with.
What surprised me was how accessible the language was despite being published before 1850, how clever and frequently funny Charlotte Brontë was as an author, and how shockingly progressive (for the book's time) Jane was as a character. The humor especially really swayed me, I was not prepared to laugh out loud nearly as many times as I did for a book that I had written off for so many years.
by PsyferRL
2 Comments
I didn’t like having to read “Rebecca” in school, but Daphne Du Maurier is now one of my all time favorite authors (I especially like her short stories).
I thought of Guns, Germs, and Steel, non-fiction historical perspective on why certain areas of the world had advantage over others (…based on guns, germs, and steel)
But I also felt the same with Jane Eyre!! Did not like reading in high school, but for some reason, that book was crazy!