Managing Hype And Expectations
Posted 15th April 2015
Category: Chit-Chat Genres: N/A
4 Comments
I don’t know about you, but I’m finding that the longer I read, and the longer I remain in this world of books, it’s increasingly easier to lower my expectations for books that have been hyped up.
Now I don’t mean this to be cruel – I don’t go into a book with a desire to dislike it – rather that lowering my expectations is a sort of damage control. As much as hype can be fun. It’s easier, if you’ve low expectations, to accept that a book was bad, and it can be rewarding when the book turns out to be excellent. Of course it is more rewaring when you’re hyped and love the book, but more damning, I think, when you’re hyped and the book ends up not working for you. It seems worse than it is, you’re more disappointed than you might have been.
It often takes a concious decision (I won’t say ‘effort’, this topic’s not that serious) to lower your expectations. Reading several reviews, to get different opinions, can help, as can simply remembering other times books have ultimately failed to interest you. Sometimes it requires waiting a little longer to read it. Sometimes it’s impossible, but I’ve found that at least when it’s impossible, with experience it’s easier to acknowledge, to weaken the affect the hype may have on you.
I’m of the opinion that overall, low expectations are for the best.
What do you think?
April 16, 2015, 2:16 am
I agree with you SO much. Lowering my expectations has been key to so many glorious reading experience. It sounds cynical, but it pays off in enormous joy dividends.
April 16, 2015, 9:02 am
I find generally that the more I read the harder I am to impress. But, when it comes to hype I generally try and avoid a book till the hype dies down, because rarely do books live up to such enthusiasm (although when they do it’s epic).
April 16, 2015, 4:20 pm
What’s particularly difficult, I think, is separating your own expectations from what another person has said about why they love a book. Occasionally I end up kind of wondering about someone’s taste, when if I’d thought about it ahead of time, I’d have known that their taste is not like mine and so I probably won’t react the way they do to a book.
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April 15, 2015, 9:30 pm
I find that sometimes it’s the type of hype that gets me reading books that aren’t for me – that I know I won’t like – or just ultimately, I don’t find that good. The hype of books with big blogger marketing is typically the type I’ve been avoiding – sad to say. Instead, I keep a more open mind to looking at reviews of books I’ve never heard about that a blogger loves to death.