Bull headed

I have a personality characteristic that I guess would be pure stubbornness. 

The more people tell me that I HAVE to read, watch, view something the less likely I am to do it.

Dirty Dancing came out in my senior year in high school. It wasn't something I was very interested in from the get go, but after EVERY frigging girl in school told me, squealing, that I HAD TO SEE THIS I made the decision to never sit though it ever, even on pain of death.

It's been 20 years. I still haven't seen it. And I never will.

This applies to TV shows and books as well. I thank the gods that I discovered Harry Potter prior to the hysteria, because otherwise I never would have read them, and I would have missed out on something great. In 1999 a friend of mine I had worked with in a book store in NJ sent me an email and said, "There's this book called Harry Potter. Read it." And I did. If she had told me that 2 years later I would have dug in my heels and never read them.

There's this little book called The Bridges of Madison County. Never read it. Never saw the film either.

I read a book called The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks because he was a "local author." It exploded. He became the patron saint of male written romance. And I never touched another one of his books ever. I also haven't seen THOSE films.

This happened with The Sopranos and Sex and the City as well. I really had no interest in either anyway, but after the rabidness started there was no way in HELL I would ever watch either. I have walked in on parts of The Sopranos and walked right out again. I have NEVER seen an episode of SATC and I never ever will. Ever. Even if I'm tortured.

This doesn't mean that I won't enjoy things that are popular. I couldn't wait for The Dark Knight to come out, and when it hit DVD I was bouncing up and down waiting for my copy from Amazon. And I'm a pop culture junkie. I watch 24, I watch Idol. I really don't have highbrow tastes.

However, enough people have now informed me that I MUST see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that they have guaranteed that I will never in my life sit through it.

If only I had listened to my instincts for Titanic and Cast Away.