BTT: Dinner Party; and Peer Pressure

Dinner Party (from Booking Through Thursday)

1. Which three authors would you invite to a dinner party (they can be dead)?
2. Why?
3. Would they get along?

I can only think of two authors.  I would invite Robert J. Sawyer and Kerry Greenwood because I love their books.  It's hard to know what people you have never met would be like as dinner guests though.  I've met Rob Sawyer and he seems like a genuinely nice, polite, gracious man.  From what I have read from her bio, I imagine that Kerry Greenwood would be a fascinating person to learn more about.


Peer Pressure (from Booking Through Thursday)

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because 'everyone else' was reading it?  Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist?  If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it's your duty to keep up on current trends?

Everyone keeps telling me to read the "Hunger Games" series by Suzanne Collins.  And now that the series is being made into movies, it's being recommended again.  I wouldn't say I've felt pressured to read anything.  Titles are highly suggested by the people in my life and I choose whether or not to follow through on it.  Even if the suggestion comes with a certain force or urgency, it is still my decision in the end.  Having read the synopsis of the books, I have no interest in reading the "Hunger Games" series.  But here is the tricky part with this particular suggestion.  My sister-in-law made my interest in it go up a little when she said that Katniss is a strong female character.  But having heard other not-so-strong-female comments from other friends, my interest is now gone.

Of all the 'it' books that have been recommended to me, I can't think of any that I have given in to reading unless I was already interested in it.  Apparently, I am a resister.

I am not a professional reviewer; I do this all for my own enjoyment (and hopefully yours if you are reading this) so I have no professional obligation to keep up with trends.  And when trends coincide with my interests, I can balk.  For example, "The Fault in our Stars" by John Green.  It was on my TBR before it became a bestseller.  Now that it's all the rage, I have decided to read it later when the hoopla dies down.  And no, I won't be seeing the movie.

Read on,
Paula