Books I read reluctantly, but then really enjoyed

I was mulling over this topic last night. I am a voracious reader, meaning I'm always reading a book in the van for the car rider line, one by the bed for the occasional evening chapter or two, one in the living room that I'm serious about reading, and usually at least one Bible study. And all of these books have back-ups for when they are finished -- I really don't want to be caught without reading material.

So, I was chuckling to myself about some of the books I read only because I thought I should, or someone I care about insisted, or some other reason that made me reluctant to pick them up, and then I became pleasantly caught up in the story. So, here they are:

1. The Lord of the Rings series, and anything Tolkien, including The Hobbit. I think this dates to my high school days. I had a group of friends who were obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, and who also loved Tolkien. Although they were friends and all, I thought the D&D obsession was kind of weird. Also, a subset of these people built small pipe bombs on the weekends for fun, which they dropped from one of those remote-control airplane models in someone's field. That was really weird. So, it was guilt by association.

However, after the first movie was made, the Hawkeye bought me the trilogy in book form. Given that I generally enjoy science fiction and fantasy, I finally read it. At first I was intrigued, then finally I gave in and was caught up in the story, to the point of reading the appendices and The Hobbit. I loved it. I had to see the movies. I loved them. You would think I'd have learned my lesson.

2. Jane Austen. I don't really know why I was reluctant to pick up Austen's books. I have always enjoyed historical fiction, particularly if it has well-drawn characters. However, I never read an Austen novel until a few years ago. Perhaps it has to do with being a journalism major instead of an English major. There's a lot of 'must-read' classics that I have never read, although one semester in college, I had to read the entire New York Times every day. That takes a long time, people. A really long time.

However, once I did pick up Austen, I was embarrassed that it took me so long. The characters! The plots! The heroines! The scenery! What an idiot I was, to have missed it for as long as I did.

3. Conan Doyle. I like mysteries, but Sherlock Holmes wasn't ever even midly interesting to me. However, thanks to Laurie King's Mary Russell series, (which projects Holmes, later in life, acquiring a female partner) I picked them up, and lots of references I've read elsewhere made more sense. It's a bit like reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology in order to understand references in classical poetry -- no one in America needs to know all of those myths to get by just fine in life, but when you are familiar with them, many of the things you read acquire a new dimension. And you feel like less of an idiot. Or maybe that's just me.

4. The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara. I don't care for war books, or really anything that is considered 'important,' which is code for 'you will cry buckets and be depressed when you finish this book' to me. I'm shallow, I guess -- happy endings for me, thankyouverymuch. I only picked up this book for my PaPa, who was a Civil War fanatic. As in he was from South Carolina, was a member of the Sons of the Confederacy, and went to the Citadel fanatic. I thought he hung the moon, and therefore read all of his civil war books as a preteen/teenager, including Shelby Foote and lots of other authors. So, I picked this one up remembering him. Amazingly, I found it fascinating, and I can't put my finger on why I did. The people were very real and the setting was well-described, I think. As a result of this experience, I've picked up some others here and there and enjoyed them, including Band of Brothers, which was a compelling, powerful story (yes, I know about the author's unfortunate plagiarism issues), and Unknown Soldiers: the Story of the Missing in the First World War, which was disturbing but I couldn't put it down.

So, there you go. This list could be even longer, but these are definitely some biggies. Maybe having this here will remind me in the future to branch out a little more. Happy reading!