Hyped up books! - did you read them?

[tobee]

I'm probably a bit too fascinated by this, but what books do you remember being hyped up to the max and "everyone was reading"? Did you read them at the time? Did they live up to the hype? Do they stand the test of time?

So, off the top of my head, I'm thinking

The Silence of the Lambs
The Secret History
The Essex Serpent
Where the Crawdads Sing
A Little Life

I think it's interesting to me because I tend to shy away from anything hyped because I assume it will be disappointing, I'm stubborn and don't want to feel duped by the hype.

For example I never hear people talking about The Essex Serpent any more or see it recommended. But people still talk about The Secret History as evidenced by the thread on here currently. The Silence of the Lambs has been superseded by the film.

I never read any of the Classics at school as we were made to read Scottish literature and science fiction so when I moved to England I felt like a real country bumpkin as everyone else knew about the Classics.

I gave in and tried Pride and Prejudice and lasted about 10 pages. suffice to say I haven't bothered with any of the others.

Just popped back to this thread and it's always amusing to see what is one man's meat is another man's poison!!