Book Hype: Good or Bad?

As you can see, I'm a major sucker for hype surrounding books. Which is not surprising actually since I love books so much and do sometimes wonder what other people are reading? What is the most popular book out there? Those on the New York Times Best Selling List. The books everyone seemed to buy.The one even those casual readers are talking about.

Casual readers are the masses in my country. They don't follow a specific genre. They read what's currently popular just to be in the know. Crazy book lovers (like you and I) have a long list of favourite authors, favourite genres, series that we're collecting and so on. A casual reader will buy a book or two a year and talk about it incessantly while the book lovers just smile politely thinking how much books they can get for a $100.

Most of my friends are casual readers. Thanks to book hype, they're read several popular fiction such as Twilight, the Harry Potter series and even got hooked on the Hunger Games series. But I toed the line when one of them forced me to buy Fifty Shades of Grey. Erotica is certainly not my thing, darling. And yes the movie and book was banned here which is kind of funny because I saw  the series being promoted on a local bookstore in front of children months before the movie was out.

But the latest book hype surrounding female eccentric mystery thrillers baffled me. Gone Girl and now The Girl on the Train. Apparently women love to read about other women being murdered or turned into a murderer these past few years. And men apparently. Blimey. But, it is certainly an improvement from erotica. No offense to those avid fans.

So what do you guys think of book hype? Is it good or bad? Overblown promotional stunt without substance? What happened if the popular book does not meet our expectations? Its good that there's a hype at all surrounding books. Otherwise how do we get those casual readers and non readers (like my husband) to even read a book. And when those popular books get turned into a movie, we'll be the ones who knew the plot as well as the ending well before the others. And I'll be the only one thinking I much prefer the book to the movie after all.