Books

When You Finally Read A Book Everyone Else Read...

by Julia Seales

Everyone has that one book that’s been in your TBR pile for a long time. It has been propped up on your bookshelf, gathering dust, purchased long ago when everyone was raving about said book. “Oh, how was it? I’ve been meaning to read that,” you said any time someone mentioned it.

But you never got around to reading it. You forgot about it, or got distracted reading something else, and soon enough the book was no longer the talk of town. Everyone moved on to the “next big thing,” and you almost forgot you even meant to read the book in the first place.

Almost.

Because one day, while organizing your shelf, you found that old book. You just happened to have some spare time, so you thought, hey — why not give it a try?

Suddenly, you were completely pulled in. Maybe you loved it, maybe you hated it, but either way, you can see why everyone was talking about this bestseller. You finish in record time, now unsure why you never read the book in the first place, but better late than never, right?

Wrong. Because the minute you finish the book, you’re going to experience the following feelings.

1. You Want To Discuss The Book With Someone

When you finish the book, you want to talk about it. You bring it up in conversations with friends and family, but everyone just stares at you with a blank look. "Didn't that come out forever ago?" they say, confused. Yes, it came out ages ago, but you want to discuss it NOW.

2. You Congratulate Yourself For Avoiding Spoilers... Or Hold A Grudge If You DID Hear Spoilers

If you didn't hear any spoilers, you give yourself a pat on the back. It's hard to do in this day and age. If you DID hear spoilers, though... well, whoever spoiled the book is going to get an earful.

3. You Watch (Or Rewatch) The Movie

If there's a book-to-movie adaptation, you immediately watch (or rewatch) it. You can finally appreciate the story after having read the book, and you can even complain about what was left out or changed from the original story.

4. You Check For Sequels

You immediately try to find all sequels and spin-offs to the book, and read them quickly. You're not going to let a book from this series slip through the cracks again.

5. You Feel Slightly Out Of The Loop And Develop FOMO

If you missed things such as release parties and movie premieres because you hadn't yet read the book, you feel sort of out of the loop. You have serious FOMO. Why couldn't you have read the book sooner? You wish you could go back in time, but sadly, you can't locate any time-turners.

6. You Read Through Old Internet Posts About The Book

Since your friends have already read the book and moved on, you turn to old Internet posts about the books. Maybe you even find a fandom that's still going, so you can get in on some retroactive discussion about the book.

7. You Vow To Read The Next Bestseller In A Timely Manner

You start obsessively keeping up with what books will be the "next big thing." You don't want to miss out again.

8. You End Up Reading Whatever You Want Anyway

Of course, even though you vow to read the next bestseller in a timely manner, you can't help it — you're going to read what you want to read, and you'll get to everything on your TBR pile. Eventually. The truth is, there are so many books and so little time, so all you can really do is keep reading.

Images: Giphy (8), Instagram/the.blonde.bookworm (1)