Opinions

I picked up a book at the library yesterday called Paper Towns by John Green. I guess it was on my Goodreads "to read" list. I don't remember when I put it there, but then there are over two hundred books on that list, so I probably don't remember most of the books on that list.

Anyway, I started looking up Paper Towns and John Green and other books that he has authored because I wanted to know what my friends thought. He gets some mixed reviews from the people I know or at least the people whose reviews I follow.

I'm still going to read it because it looks like it might be good. Notice how I am now emphasizing "might" when yesterday, at the library, without any information about the book besides the actual cover information, I thought, "This looks really good."

Of course, now that has me thinking about why I do that. Why do I feel the need to find out what other people thought about it? Why don't I just read it myself and forget about what other people my think?

I don't think it's because I can't form my own opinions about a book, but maybe I just don't want to waste my time? At least, that is what I tell myself. I don't want to waste my time. That's probably legitimate, at least to some degree. But I think it's an easy way to dismiss things that I might like, too. It's also a really bad way of forming an opinion of something before I ever get the chance to see what I think myself.

You see, even readers with whom I share the most in common as far as preferences go, well...sometimes we disagree on a book or two. I really really liked the book North of Beautiful but my friend Jami? Nope. She didn't like it at all, really. And usually we love the same books.

Conclusion...I think I need to just read the books I want to read without any preconceived notions about them.