5 Popular Series That I Haven't Read

I love to read. If you told me I had to choose between being able to read or having the ability to watch TV, I would choose reading, no hesitation. After all, I get bored with TV after a while. But reading opens up such a wealth of experiences. Unless I find the book uninteresting, I could read for hours.

I read a lot, and quite often. However, there are several popular book series that I haven't read. I haven't even seen all the movies or TV shows for them. Here's a list of five of those series.


1. Harry Potter 

I listed this one first because I imagine it's going to be the most surprising. My friends are surprised when I tell them I've never read Harry Potter. Of all the series on this list, this is the one which appears to be the most popular among children who are just starting to read them and adults who grew up reading them. So why haven't I read them?

In all honesty, I did read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and watched the movie based on it. I think J. K. Rowling is a very good writer, and I enjoyed it. It was an interesting read, and it did keep my attention.

However, the subject matter doesn't really interest me. I'm not really into books about witches and wizards. And maybe I don't hold the same attachment to them that a lot of other people my age seem to have because I didn't read them as a child. I might pick up the series again someday, because I did enjoy the first one. Right now, though, there's other books I'm interested in reading.


2. The Twilight Saga

This is the second series that's been really popular among my friends. But it's one I've never even turned a page in.

I haven't read this series for the same reason I haven't finished Harry Potter, lack of interest. Except whereas I may finish Harry Potter someday, I've no interest at all in picking up Twilight. I've no interest in vampires. They actually kind of creep me out (the reason why I've never read Dracula). Love triangles (such as the one which from what I've heard of the series is between Bella, Edward, and Jacob) actually are kind of annoying to me. What I've heard of the plot just doesn't interest me as well.


3. A Song of Ice and Fire (also known as Game of Thrones)

Unlike the first two series, this one does sound interesting to me. I enjoy history-based fantasy stories (my own book, Thorn Changer, is very loosely inspired by my readings of the Middle Ages), and from what I've heard, George R. R. Martin works very hard to write his books so they sound like they actually took place. I probably would give it a try, except that my mom has read some of the books, and told me enough about them for me to realize this series isn't for me.

From what she told me, Martin has done too good of a job of making these books seem like historical fiction.

I'm not a fan of obscenities of any form. I try to keep them out of my own writing, and I try to avoid them in the books I read (and if you've ever wondered why on earth I would mention profanities in my book reviews, that's why: I try to mention them so you can avoid them if you wish to). From what my mom has told me, and from what I've heard other people talk about with this series, there is too much swearing, sex, nudity (TV series), etc. for me to really enjoy it.

I don't doubt stuff like that happened back in medieval times. If I'm honest, his portrayal is much more accurate than my own of how life probably was back then (one of the reasons I say Thorn Changer is very loosely inspired by those times). But I like to read books that I could read to someone else and not blush during, that I could leave not and not be embarrassed if someone found it and started reading it.

Another telling thing: my one cousin was embarrassed to watch an episode of the TV series with her father. I'm more conservative about such things than she is, so I think that's a good sign I should leave it for other people to enjoy.


4. The Hunger Games

I've seen bits of the movies (though they never interested me enough to actually sit down and watch the entire thing). Because of all the hype, I actually started listening to the first book on my iPhone. But I never finished it, and I'm not certain I'm going to return to the series.

Honestly, I'm not into dystopia.

I know it's been a hot genre for a while. I know a lot of people who really enjoy this kind of books. But I'm just not interested. Plus, I don't really relish reading about children killing each other. For now, I'll skip this one.


5. The Divergent Series

Of all the series I mentioned, I know the least about this one (although I know precious little about The Hunger Games as well). My sister has watched at least two of the movies, so I've seen pieces of them. I've never picked up one of the books. My friends are more into Harry Potter and Twilight. But I know that in the book people are sorted into different groups based on their skills or something like that. And that the main character, Tris (whose name I had to look up), is consider "divergent" because she doesn't quite fit their sorting mold.

Based on that, I haven't read them because they don't sound very interesting to me. And since I've found other books I enjoy reading, I haven't looked into them more.


Most of these five series I haven't read because of a lack of interest. And whereas I might read Harry Potter in the future, and possibly even Divergent and The Hunger Games (if I can convince myself to try dystopia), I don't plan on ever reading Twilight or Game of Thrones.

But like I said, I don't know a lot about them. If there's a reason you love one of these series, please let me know.

Have you read any of these series? Do you think I should read them? What about them do you like, and think I might as well?

None of the links above are affiliate links (although of course if you buy Thorn Changer, I get some royalties). I'm not going to try to get you to buy books I haven't read myself and enjoyed. I provide the links so you can find out more about them if you wish (and so I don't have to make this post super long by giving a short overview of each).