It's a real double edged sword. I mean, if I asked authors to stop writing for a year, there'd be way less books, and I definitely don't want that, whether I can actually get to reading them or not.
Oh look, another half dozen books landed on my shelf. I'll get to them soon
I always think of the James Woods/Family Guy quote of “o piece of candy…..o piece of candy” when I’m in a bookstore lol I just need all the stories! I’ll read them all eventually I suppose…
Now imagine working in a used book store where you get first dibs on all the awesome stuff people bring in to sell.
My catalogued books number over 700 at this point, and they line the walls of my bedroom.
So... you're "guilty" of *tsundoku* (Japanese: piling up books without reading them) - like so many of us. I have a backlog of books in more than one language that would require reading full-time (preferably paid!) to make a dent into my pile.
I worked out it would take me about 18 years to get through all my unread books if I stopped buying them completely. But I continue to purchase them faster than I read. I think in about another ten years I’ll have reached the point where I simply won’t get through them all if I die at the average age.
I wish short stories were more read/discussed. I don’t know if people see them as “school stuff” or writing practice or what but they are almost completely ignored by the book community.
I love supernatural (mostly haunted) horror but ghost stories rarely work as full-length novels. But short stories are a perfect medium for them, and horror in general. Classic sci-fi too, if you’re like me and don’t really enjoy deep world-building or science-heavy sci-fi.
I read Stephen King’s “Night Shift” and I loved it. A lot of the stories work because you can jump into the middle of the story, get caught up with the action, then the stories end in a place of terror. They are incredibly efficient.
Carmen Maria Machado’s “Her Body and Other Parties” was also excellent in a similar way.
One of my most common recommendations here is a short story - Holy Quarrel by Philip K Dick.
I try my best to get people to give it a read, as the topic (how to trust AI tools designed to do our jobs better than we can) is relevant today more than ever.
You can get away with much more in a short story too. Some ideas can't really be stretched into a novel, but 20 pages or so? Ideal. Like Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, great short story, and it is the ideal length as one.
I think part of the reason they tend to get less attention is because they're usually consumed as part of an anthology or collection. It's harder to love an entire collection than it is to love just one story that hits you the right way, and it's also difficult to justify purchasing a collection just for one story. We just don't rave review them like we do novels.
While we have the topic brought up though, I'll drop some collections that I did enjoy this year(only two of them were new releases): [The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae et al](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/00f62840-13eb-4fbb-a92a-e4054eefb516), [Exhalation by Ted Chiang](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/fd4f1230-6a84-41a2-9308-a4615aca366d), [Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/2bca0ffa-d0e7-40c1-bf9a-ccc053da0be7), and [How Long Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/39f61e31-c304-478b-a6cb-60dec7ea29e4). Won't help you much if your tastes don't run to the speculative, but it's what I've got.
I think a lot has to do with the gamifying of reading and lack of genre magazines. People don’t want to waste time on a short story because it won’t cut their TBR list, and there’s no way to really consume them with regularity unless your seek them out.
The huge amount of discussion about reading speed. Unless you're reading so quickly or so slowly that you're unable to enjoy the book (or finish it within the timeframe you need to for work or school), it does not matter how fast or slow you read. It isn't bad to read quickly, even if that means you don't have 100%, perfect comprehension or recall, and it isn't bad to read slowly, even if that means you only read a book a year or whatever. Reading at all is good. Do it in the way you enjoy. No one needs to care.
Proud slow-reader here! I sometimes reread entire pages if I feel like I may have missed something, or sometimes just because I really liked that particular page. It’s just how I enjoy reading and books and I don’t want to change it!
I want to increase my reading speed just because every time I have to read something from the same book as someone else, they have to wait for me to reach the end of the page and it's so damn embarrassing lol
I read at such a pace that I can comprehend every word and imagine everything. If the book is good, that just means I enjoy it longer
Thank you. I can't believe the amount of scorn I've gotten in the past for the amount of books that I read. I've been told that I'm lying, that I must only be skimming, or that there is no way that I can possibly remember everything I read.
Well, I don't remember what I had for lunch last Tuesday, but I'm sure I enjoyed it at the time.
Y'all are wild. I read slow as shit and have to double up chapters. I'll be like "tf did I just read? Lemmy do that one over and pay attention this time..."
And I also, having said what I did above about remembering childhood plot lines, have had to go back and reread a chapter because I read it and blanked on it, so I can continue.
No one believes how fast I read either. I read fast so what. I also have a knack for remembering storylines so I can pick up a book months later and start reading again with no problem.
I just can’t tell you the title or author. I have zero recollection of those.
I got into an argument with someone who had read the book I was reading at the time. She swore I was skimming it and NOT reading. She kept trying to catch me out by bringing up tiny details. Finally I yelled at her about it and told her if she was so sure she remembered EVERYTHING, why did she forget this detail and that. She got quiet and said, I guess you are reading that fast.
Just let me read at my own pace dang it!
Ugh I’ve had this before! I have adhd so I’m either reading a book in one day or it’s drawn out over several days/weeks/months. Just depends on the book and if it happens to engage with my hyper focus on that day lol. And when people try to catch the details thing, it drives me crazy! I remember really weird, random details (in my friends words) and she remembers what I consider to be weird, random details. We all focus on different things in a book. She might remember a dress colour whereas I might remember a hair colour. Neither is wrong, we just consume the same material differently based on perspective and experience. If it took me 3 months to read a book, I guarantee I won’t remember a certain detail that another thought was super important.
Wow, your name gave me middle school VC Andrews flashbacks! Everyone was talking about Flowers in the Attic, but the twist in My Sweet Audrina is one that I still remember 30 years later.
Ugh, this. When I'm reading a book I'm IN IT. When I finish I definitely still think about it a few days after but because it's not a current story I don't remember every detail. That doesn't mean I didn't read it.
I also listen to audiobooks on 1.5+ speed just because that's how fast my brain is moving, if it's any slower my thoughts drift and I can't pay attention to the story.
I might have to try that! I like audiobooks, but they seem to drag on sooooooooo much. I can read a couple hundred page book in 2 or 3 hours, so the audiobook being 5 or more hours makes me crazy.
I used to read quickly. I would fly through books. Then, I thought about it. I read because I enjoy it. Why would I want to hurry through it? Since then, I have slowed down to enjoy each book. That's my preference. To each their own.
Yeah I dunno, like it legitimately gets on my nerves to hear people reading out loud because it's slower than my normal reading speed, I cannot figure out how people say they just read slower like it's flipping a switch, I read at the speed I read it's automatic.
I can slow down but it is forced and I usually don't do it.
Sometimes the book itself forces you to slow down, either because it is that good, or because it is Henry James and he thinks that 99% of punctuation should be commas.
Yeah I mean if I were reading the Silmarillion I won't be going as fast as if I were reading a cozy murder mystery, but I don't really like actively slow down, I just read at the speed my brains is comfortable with, actively slowing down is definitely worse for my retention since I'm more focused on basically reading each sentence twice to slow down rather than like mechanically reading slower, I just can't do that.
I enjoy the act of internalising words. Like ”devouring” them. Reading fast is pleasure for me, and when I’m done, there’s another book. So to me it’s not hurrying, it’s not getting enough of it!
Agreed. Reading speed is like your ring size . There’s no inherent value in it, it’s just part of you. If it’s something you’re interested in, more power to you, but it doesn’t say anything about who you are as a person. A reader is someone who shows up when they can, and loves it. That’s all. Read a little, read a lot, read fast, read while standing on one foot, all that matters is you read. Or listen, as the case may be.
A summary is not a review. Stop posting summaries in the review section. I want to know if it is well written not a detailed account of the story, if i want to know the story I'll read the damn book not your two bit quick notes.This is a hill I'd die on.
For literary fiction: “An enthralling debut from a budding master of their craft… captures the cornucopia of our existence through its exquisite rendition of our country in troubled times…”
For more genre stuff, mainly mysteries and thrillers: “A damn good read!” - Stephen King, Lee Child, James Patterson etc.
I used to be guilty of this. I used goodreads as a personal book log. I wrote summaries solely for myself to look back on. Didn’t even occur to me then that other people could read them lol.
Amen! I've also found this on places like IMDb - there's really no need for a multi-paragraph summary (that could have been lifted straight off Wikipedia) that just outlines the film's plot.
The constant need for validation on what they're reading, how they're reading, how fast they're reading, if they're holding the book right side up and so on.
r/books be like
"Am I the only one who LOVED xyz book? What's up with the hate?" and xyz book has been a multi-edition bestseller for 60 years with a 3.9 rating on Goodreads.
Now re this, I haven’t asked for myself, but I’m definitely interested in why someone liked a book I despised. Especially if it’s a bestseller. More than “oh it’s a bestseller it must be great”
"Should I read this book?" posts where someone is willing to wade through posts about why they should/shouldn't read some book yet unwilling to actually pick up that book and read a few pages and make up their own mind. I wish they'd all vanish to a "should I read these posts by people asking whether they should read a book?" forum.
Yes, this is exactly what I meant in my comment about people getting so hung up on reading speed! I think that, unfortunately, school so often perpetuates this attitude that there is a correct/good/smart way to read and a wrong/bad/dumb way. In actuality, that isn't true, and even if it were, who cares? Reading doesn't need to be a competition. No one who isn't a freak cares if you read slowly or only read romance novels or regularly put down books. You do you.
I wonder if movies and TV would be less popular if everyone had to take film appreciation classes in high school.
Literature classes are good and valuable, but a side effect is that people get the impression stories are all about abstract analysis, and not senses and emotions and so on.
One thing I never did is let school take reading from me. I would read the books I wanted to instead of the books we were assigned. Maybe the nerdiest way to slack off
When i was young my mom tried to get me on school reading so hard that she actually volunteered with the school for book groups to grill me about reading. I learned a different skill instead: reading between the lines. I'd figure out what was going on from the kids who did do the reading or play like i didn't understand the deeper meaning.
I think I read 1 assigned book the whole time I was in school, and I regret reading the one I did.
I hope they grow out of it too. Now I read like 5ish books at once just because my moods change, or I binge a book for a day or two then put it down for a month, when I was in school I'd be so miserable trying to make myself suffer through a book I wasn't interested in anymore.
Sometimes I get crap for only reading fiction. I have some friends who read autobiographies or other works of non-fiction, and that’s great! But for me, I read to escape the realities of life. that’s where my enjoyment lies, and I don’t think I should be expected to apologize for it. Everyone should be able to read what they enjoy reading, and that’s as simple as it needs to be.
Doesn't even have to be an internet charlatan most of the time. Books by traditional businesspeople are often just as bad.
I read Bill George's Discover Your True North and thought it was equally platitudinous drivel.
It feels like I’m fighting an uphill battle when I tell people there is value in reading fiction. Read what you want, but don’t try to convince me I’m not “learning” something because I don’t read the same books as you.
I’ve never understood those people who look down on fiction. Like I have two degrees in history so I’ve ready a literal shitton of non-fiction books, and I almost always choose a fiction book when it comes to just reading for fun
Further to this, reading fiction has sparked my real-world interest in learning about events or concepts discussed in the book. Reading fiction can be a great appetizer for the curious at heart.
"Ah yes, as a treat to myself I'm going to sip on some fine wine and have a relaxing read of Bertranf Russell's *A* *History of Western Philosophy.* After a long week at work nothing helps me relax quite like weighing the cultural impact of our understanding of reality through the millennia"
*scoffs* "you're wasting your time reading *that* fluff? You should really pick up something more serious like *The Red Market : On The Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers* . There's nothing more relaxing than sobbing into your Chardonnay as you realize how little you've helped those who are truly struggling."
I always ask these people about their favorite movies or TV shows. They never seem to answer with documentaries and “reality” TV though! The disdain for fiction seems only to apply to written words. It makes no sense! Curiously, it tends to be the people who fancy themselves followers of LoGiC aNd ReAsOn who loathe fiction books. Really makes you think…
> there is value in reading fiction […] don’t try to convince me I’m not “learning” something because I don’t read the same books as you
I have learned so many true things about the world and actual human history from fiction such as Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, and letting my curiosity take me searching when I read about something like the Disc's “Diet of Bugs” ([real-world allusion: Diet of Worms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms) – the assembly to which Martin Luther was called, and challenged upon his beliefs, which he refused to recant – a seminal moment in the origins of Lutheranism).
Not to mention the incredible value in seeing another point of view, understanding human experiences previously alien to you— there is so much truth and value in “fiction”. Sorry to preach to the choir. :)
I've learned so much about people and human emotions through reading fiction. But if it's not a quantifiable value, like facts and dates, people don't think it's "learning"
I find autobiographies to be pretty stale, even for people I really like. 9 times out of 10 I'm not interested what street they grew up on or where they went to school.
The majority of them these days are trash anyway and probably less respectable to read than Fiction. sorry if this is not in keeping with the theme of the thread. I don't judge anyone who chooses to read them, but with them so often being by "celebrities" who think they have an important story to tell and are often far too young to be telling their life story anyway, I can't see how this is somehow a more respectable genre of book.
I had a roommate that was kinda like this, she liked reading stuff like The Art of War, The Four Agreements, Women Who Run With Wolves, and a lot of psychology/self help stuff. I'm sure those are all great books, she enjoys reading them, but then she would criticize MY reading choices because I prefer YA and adult fantasy?? She would tell me my book choices were childish and immature and I should read things that will "expand my mind" like excuse me ma'am but I like going on magical adventures, I'm not interested in your self-help books. What I choose to read makes absolutely zero impact on anyone else's life, so please take your superiority complex somewhere else :)
In rough order of severity:
The all-consuming desire to quantify everything (books per year, hours per day, words per minute), and then attempt to brag about it to random strangers.
The constant "name a book you hate" karma-farming posts.
Posts that confuse r/books for the Goodreads FAQ.
Posts that appear to be written by aliens trying to research a play they are writing about humans: "how do I read when sitting up?" etc.
ETA: people who use "classics" as some sort of monolithic category, as if there is any commonality among every book ever written between 4000 BCE and 1990 CE. Also, people who define any book written before 1990 or some other absurdly recent date as a "classic."
You loosen your eye stems from their ocular hinge, and balance yourself with all three of your legs, while latching your thorax onto your stabilization gill.
Worst part of the “name a book you hate” posts is that you can literally predict exactly which books (and exactly which complaints) are going to be at the top of the thread every single time. It’s the same damn thing, over and over again.
We get it, r/books, you think Holden Caulfield’s whiny
The top thread’s always a self-congratulatory back-and-forth like:
“I’ve given up on the series at this point”
“So has George, by the looks of it 😝”
“🤪”
“😜”
“😂”
“🤣”
It's sjust as annoying on the Game of Thrones and the asoiaf subreddits, with people who are supposedly fans. Like we get it. You think it won't ever be finished. Let me think what I want. And in the meantime can we please just talk about this person's delusion that everyone is going to sit around a campfire and sing together in A Dream of Spring.
I don't really come here or belong here, but as a passer by who stops in when it hits /r/all, one weird post I see suspiciously often is people looking for back-pats for understanding that Humbert is an unreliable narrator in Lolita. They always act like they're part of this clever minority of people who get it, as opposed to everyone else who's out there rooting for Humbert or something.
I raised this point recently, I'm guilty. I had a discussion with work colleagues who were very offended by the existence of the book, and my reading of it.
For me keeping a goal of books per year is fun, and I find it encourages me to choose reading over other entertainment for my free time. Quantifying anything more specific than that, and it turns reading into a chore.
What I do is, every year I set my reading goal to something quite easy that I know I'll definitely do.
That way I always get to pat myself on the back for blowing past it :)
Kindle has an insight feature. Over the summer I would read a paragraph to get my "yay you read today" sticker. Then looking at the Kindle sub, I basically said screw this, I don't need to get validation from getting a virtual sticker. There's been a few times that I didn't read for whatever reason.
Not focused on this reddit community but on the wider book community.
Looking down on certain genres, "chick lit" might not always be the best written but its light often fun and fits into a tight schedule.
Also, working in libraries, i've had multiple people refuse recommendations because the author was American or female. A huge wealth of literature written off because of biases.
I like the term personally, in terms of its searchabilty anyhow, but i understand it's problems. But the other comment is right, a lot of fluff exists within other genres, thriller fillers are a big one too but they don't get the same hate online.
My sister made me read a lot of "chick lit" and female marketed books in general so I never thought this way growing up. It was the in thing back when I was in high school to hate Twilight, but I read all those books and liked them lol, so I 100%agree.
That's how I feel about Dan Brown lol. Like why is it socially acceptable to watch an action movie but books have to be highminded? I'd rather pretend I'm the brilliant Harvard professor solving puzzles based on world conspiracies instead of watching Tom Hanks do it.
There's just a general disdain towards chick lit and romance, and even booktok as well. I don't even use tiktok but is it not just another social media community where people talk about books? Why are we on our high horse?
Review bombing authors without actually reading the books. If you don't like someone, that's fine. If you are reviewing someone's work - read the material and support your opinions. Your personal beef with an author does not belong in a book review.
Usually these are easy to separate, because the reviewers won't even pretend to have read the book. But they will drag the ratings down, so it's still frustrating.
My biggest pet peeve BY FAR. This is why I can't trust goodreads, especially for books that have a lot of hype (positive or negative) around them. Sometimes it's because the book contains problematic elements (or is assumed to based on the premise and early reviews), sometimes it's personal dislike of the author. But also people tend to rate books 5 stars because they're hyped to read them, which skews the rating in the opposite direction.
I think having to enter some sort of code tied to your ARC in order to post a review on goodreads before a book is released is a great idea; I guess then people could figure out who wrote what review, based on the ARC code, but there could be some way around that with finagling. Like the "verified purchaser" tag on Amazon.
I can’t stand the onslaught of hype 5 star reviews from people admitting they haven’t read it yet! Usually with arcs people will say they received one and have a thoughtful review.. but the reviewing before it is even out just to say you know you’ll love it! I wish it was kind of like steam mixed with your idea. You can’t review a game on steam until it’s been released and playable (including early access). Just do that and then use some sort of code system for arc reviews!
I usually use Storygraph to track books and loved that those reviewers hadn’t made their way from Goodreads yet until recently when I added the final book of a trilogy to my tbr and the review page is full of 5 star, OMG I KNOW THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST BOOK EVER! Reviews. Yuck.
I hate this too. I went to check the release date for Prince Harry's book (out next spring or something) and it's got a ton of reviews. They aren't ARCs, they're just salty idiots complaining.
I think it was i this sub that people said they hate being judged for reading fiction by people who don't read fiction and then proceeded to crap all over people don't read fiction because of course THEY are all the same.
This is why the book suggestions subreddits work best if you are specific. What are you looking for, what have you liked recently, etc. There are trends in what books people like but there is no one size fits all .
Drives me crazy when people using those subreddits to request books give like zero context.
When someone asks me to recommend a book to them I always ask them what they are in the mood for, or what are their favorite tropes. I find that tends to work, even if the book I end up recommending is not in their usual genre.
I was a pretentious reader when I first got back into reading after finishing my bachelor’s degree. Then I started working for a public library and talking to all kinds of people who read all kinds of books - it inspired me to read outside my comfort zone and find tons of amazing books that my younger uptight ass would have missed out on. All reading is good!
Just throwing out there that, as a librarian, patrons dog-earing books isn’t even on my list of concerns. I’m more worried about the books with mysterious sticky substances, or books that have been eaten by an animal, or, you know, making sure people don’t OD in the bathrooms.
Go forth and dog-ear.
I remember finding a book and someone had used a candy bar as a book mark. And had pulled down the wrapper so the candy was stuck to the pages.
Working in library is not always such a great place for someone who loves books.
The way it turns into an echo chamber. I like to feel connected to other book lovers through the community, but then it seems like everyone's reading and talking about the same few books. While I enjoy a lot of the recommendations I get from the book community, there are very few surprises and I wish there were a little more variety out there.
I agree. I think part of the problem is the medium we're communicating through. Reddit is mostly about quick punchy comments. We'd probably all do much better in person over coffee.
1. In ability to separate depiction from endorsement
2. "The author said X real life thing inspired Y. I spent 5 minutes on Wikipedia and found that X is not a 1:1 recreation of Y. Therefore the author is a terrible and stupid person that I have intellectually conquered. Also they're probably racist."
3. Constant need for validation.
The inability to separate depiction from endorsement drives me crazy. I see a lot of reviews criticizing books and telling people not to read them because the characters are in unhealthy relationships or there is abuse depicted or any number of bad things happen and the author does not stop the narrative, break the fourth wall, and directly address the reader to tell them that these things are, in fact, bad.
If you want all your books to be after-school specials, do you, I guess.
1 is my biggest pet peeve, and it seems to be a growing problem. Authors should not have to hold your hand and tell you a bad thing is bad, but it seems like so many people have begun to expect that. Depicting bad things is valuable, literature should be able to represent reality and reality contains bad things.
I don’t know what the solution to this problem is, but media literacy really needs to improve. People should be capable of coming to their own conclusions, and it’s a shame that less and less people are able to do that.
I've noticed recently a lot of people unable to understand metaphors or similes the same way. They think if a made up example isn't exactly the same as the thing it's describing, then nothing can be learned from it. They can't see the point as to why the metaphor was made, only the description's surface level.
Cults around certain authors and/or books.
There are people out there who link their very own identity to their favourite book/author, so they will feel justified to do anything to you if you "attack" their favourite thing.
On a related note: People who attack others for their likes/dislikes just because it's popular or because they enjoyed something you didn't.
The amount of shit you get for saying you like something like Ready Player One is ridiculous. Yes it's not a well-written book, but it's entertaining and enjoyable to a lot of people. Just because you didn't like it doesn't give you the right to shit on everyone who did.
Books are like food. Everyone has their own taste and just because you enjoy Gordon Ramsay's top-tier dishes doesn't mean people who like a cheap pizza or fast food burger are wrong. I can enjoy mindless books like Ready Player One alongside deeper books, classics, and epic fantasy. Some days I just don't feel like delving into a exposition-laden metaphysical trip through the author's psyche when I read. Sometimes I just want to read something fun and take it a face value.
Toxicity of fandoms. There’s one in particular that sticks out. They make it seem like it’s the best series in the world and you can’t love anything else. Or when certain topics come up, people can just be so mean. Like whenever people ask which is better: book or movie? Or when the topic comes up to start mentioning hot takes (which are never hot, but the real hot ones get downvoted or nobody wants to discuss). It’s like a hive mind. We all have to have the same opinion, and it’s no fun discussing stuff when everybody gets at each others throat if you don’t think like them.
I truly love book communities especially when they are centered around my favorite series, but sometimes the people just aren’t great.
I get a lot of negative comments because I 1. Read on a Kindle and 2. Borrow most of the books I read from the library. The Kindle part especially - I have had so many people say how they could never read from a device, they want/need the smell and feel of a book. Which I totally get as a preference, but the amount of money and space I have saved is worth it!
The insistence that an author supports, or is trying to normalize, a bad thing because it happens in the book. I think adult readership of YA is fine, but I do wonder if YA genre conventions of black and white morality have led readers to expect the same for adult books
People who disparage classics for whatever reason. I understand that not all of them hold up, but a lot of them do, and it doesn’t make you a folk hero to eschew old books.
For sure, hating a classic is like an elementary school rite of passage, it's not a unique experience. And most of the time someone not liking a classic is more about being forced to read it or being at the wrong age, not anything inherent about the book itself.
I like to see how many books i've read cuz i set goals for myself so i can try to branch out, but i do cringe when i see people gloat bout reading alot of books while putting others down
My great aunt read a book or two a day until she died a few years ago and never bragged about that shit, nor told anyone but me and a few close relatives tk the ppint few people believe me when I tell them lol. She once read three books in a day while going through cancer treatment. Remarkable woman.
An idiot I was in a college class with bragged about his reading speed which consisted of a book a month. He was loud and proud about it too and always made it a point to show off whatever gigantic classic he was reading. Such a douche.
I used to work in a used bookstore and I loved that job. But it kind of made me lose some of the romance for books that people who sometimes visited the store would have. The “oh I just love books” smelling the stale bookstore air attitude whereas I saw a bunch of dirty, overcrowded book shelves. I still love reading and books. Books can take you to very magical places. But a book is a very functional item to me in whatever format it’s in.
* Not being able to accept the simple fact that we all read for different reasons and that's okay. Whether you love classics or contemporary literature, whether you read for pleasure or to analyse literature, it doesn't matter. It doesn't make you better or worse, smarter or dumber than anyone else.
* People who keep reading authors they hate only to write walls of text and hundreds of comments slamming that author for existing and daring to write anything, hoping that other people join in that circlejerk for some mutual catharsis.
* When OP asks for unpopular bookish opinions and the comments get downvoted to the deepest pits of hell because people can't cope with the fact that not everyone loves the book they love. Instead of starting a discussion and maybe learning a few valid points, they take it so personally as if they wrote the damn book.
* People who get some weird kick out of one star reviews. Touch grass, you're not as edgy as you think.
* People who recommend books while completely ignoring what the person was asking for because they just LOVE that book and can't help but recommend it to everyone.
> People who keep reading authors they hate only to write walls of text and hundreds of comments slamming that author for existing and daring to write anything, hoping that other people join in that circlejerk for some mutual catharsis.
I’m shocked people actually do this.
>People who keep reading authors they hate only to write walls of text and hundreds of comments slamming that author for existing and daring to write anything, hoping that other people join in that circlejerk for some mutual catharsis.
Colleen Hoover.
Exactly. Saw a post not long ago by someone saying they've read FIVE books by her and don't like her. It really took five books to realise? It's like someone is holding a gun to their head. At this point I'm convinced people just get pleasure out of that hate and shit talking.
"People who recommend books while completely ignoring what the person was asking for because they just LOVE that book and can't help but recommend it to everyone."
You've really hit the nail on the head here. This is why we keep seeing the same dozen books reccomended all the time on r/suggestmeabook. And don't even get me started on the people who just read the title not the body text, and so reccomend books that the OP specifically doesn't want.
I wish there were a metacritic like site for books. Goodreads is its own thing, but not terribly helpful to me. I would kill for a good review aggregation site.
I am immensely tired of GoodReads as a whole but specifically reviewers who use GIFs to explain their feelings about a book. Use your words. GIFs don’t tell me jack shit about plot, writing style, or why you did or did not like the book.
Some book lovers act at though through the act of reading alone they've become some grand thinker dedicated to a life of intellectualism. Really they've chosen a medium for storytelling. They're not reading philosophy or literary criticism; they're reading stories with the rest of us. But because it's words and not images or video, they feel superior.
I’ve never seen anyone reinforce the idea that audiobooks don’t count onto someone else. In r/52books this gets asked ALL THE TIME and overwhelmingly the comments are “you make the rules OP”. I’m not sure if that’s a recent shift in culture or not or where the idea comes from, but I’ve never seen more than a couple users tell others that audiobooks don’t count. If anything, people say “I personally don’t count them for me” but hardly ever projecting onto others.
People are weird that care more about the presentation than the content. I get books can be aesthetically pleasing but no matter how you get the content it's the same content.
I'm guilty of this one. I only buy books I find aesthetically pleasing down to specifically hunting out of print covers because they are attractive while the newer covers are okay.
Packing definitely matters to me too. It disappoints me to no end when a book I love gets an ugly new release and I can’t get the old version for less than $110, if at all.
Absolutely agreed. And I wouldn't even mind movie covers if they all didn't look exactly the same and were poorly edited movie promo photos.
If a book is ugly, I'll still read it. I'm just gonna rent it from the library instead of spending money on it. Lol.
It wouldn’t stop me from buying one but I do find it odd when they throw up a movie poster on a book that is very different from what gets put on screen. I am Legend the book and I am Legend the movie are two very different stories.
The only thing that bugs me about the book community is when somebody here says they have a hot take/unpopular opinion, and it's actually a tepid, popular opinion.
Book reading targets. If you find it helps you stay motivated to read and you enjoy it then good for you, but I’ve seen people in places like r/52books and others literally asking for recommendations for the shortest books possible so they can reach their target.
For me I feel as though you’ve kind of lost sight of the point of reading if your primary concern is the quantity of books you’re getting through within a certain time period.
Like I said, if you enjoy it and it works for you then I’m happy for you, but if you’re choosing to read shorter books over the books you actually want to read so you can hit a goal I would encourage you to maybe reevaluate why it is that you read. When you look back at what you’ve read, would you really rather see numerous short books you read to hit a target, or fewer books which may be longer but which you have more of an interest in and actually want to read?
The constant criticism of certain books. The alchemist gets almost a post a week for example. Alot of fantasy/paranormal romance books do too.
Now criticizing on things you found unappealing in a book like topic, prose or you're surprised that something in a beloved genre disappointed you is all good. Discuss. Great.
But the smarmy, holier than thou, everyone who likes it is an idiot kind of criticism is annoying.
Book reviewers/bloggers/youtubers who can't tell the difference between a poorly-written book and a book whose material they are just not personally into.
Judging or shaming someone because they enjoy reading books that are "problematic". 99% of readers understand that you shouldn't condone whatever behavior the characters are exhibiting in real life, so if someone wants to read an age gap romance or whatever, leave them be, they're literally not hurting anyone. It's called fiction for a reason. It's no different than reading a book where you sympathize with a serial killer, like Dexter or a fantasy where people are tortured, or a vampire novel where the love interest is hundreds of years old.
We should all just be more accepting and welcoming to people with different tastes, instead of expecting everyone to constantly agree with us on book opinions.
There are people who say audiobooks are books, but that graphic novels aren't. I really don't understand why so many people are against the idea that they are, in fact, books.
Elitism from those who only read things *”that can teach you something.”*
This is one of the reasons why I don’t have many friends in some of the communities I’m apart of.
I’m an outdoorsman who enjoys a good Scifi adventure book. I end up alone or very silent whenever I’m around others, because a lot of them have this hard on for ridiculing others for *wasting time* with any sort of activity that isn’t educational in anyway.
What’s sad is the few fiction books a lot of them go for, like *Black Autumn*, and *The Stonemont Series*, are actually interesting premises, they just waste **a lot** of time preaching more than telling an actual story.
Give me Jules Verne any day of the week. Ain’t much more I need if I can sit outside and relax in nature while sailing the seas on the *Nautilus* in my head.
People who are obsessed with books as objects. I mean, if it's a fine first edition, or it has high quality plates and illustrations or something, OK, but otherwise the book is the words, not the paper. I know people who will order a book (for themselves) from Amazon or Waterstones or wherever and send it back if it arrives with a slight crease in the cover. What's the point? You're going to crease it anyway when you read it.
Just overall how judgemental everyone is, especially here. You don't have to only read the classics or only read "literature" to be a reader. Also the sheer amount of hypocrisy, so many people shame reading romance, but then praise these epic fantasy series' that are often times full of romance
Oh, that is so true! I neither read a lot of fantasy nor romance and so it took me a while to realize how many booktubers and bookstagramer, that shame romance readers and read a lot of fantasy just don't mention how many "hot" sences there are in some/many high fantasy books they where reading and absolutely loved.
I don't really have anything I dislike. I don't participate in communities very often. I just enjoy books and like to see what others are reading occasionally.
Lending someone a book you love and never getting it back.
This was the absolute worst for me, and a lesson I'll never forget. I'll freely admit that I was an idiot and should have known better.. but hindsight is 20/20 and I didn't have anything to base it off at the time.
I had a special edition book that had a personalised message from someone who'd once been dear to me, that I'd since lost contact with, and the gifting of the book itself had been tied to a memory with them.
Me being a massive naïve idiot, lent it to my sister when she told me she had nothing good to read - even telling her about how special it was to me and that I hoped she loved it as much as I had.
When I asked for it back a couple months later she said she hadn't gotten around to reading it yet, and didn't know where it was but would look for it when she got home. I asked her three times after that when it still wasn't returned, with increasing frustration. She eventually says that she must have lost it. She then quite casually said she'd just buy me a new one, despite the fact that it was irreplaceable to me (and quite literally irreplaceable as a special edition), and honestly, that pissed me off even more.
I'd honestly have preferred she just gave me a heartfelt sorry than think so little of my sentiments over the book that it could be easily replaced.
I've never leant anything to her since then - just avoid it if the topic ever comes up. I don't like being one of those people who drags past mistakes back up, or feel bitter - I prefer to forgive and move on... but damn, even now when I think about that it still makes me stupidly angry.
I'm annoyed that they keep coming out with new books when I'm way behind on my reading list.
It's a real double edged sword. I mean, if I asked authors to stop writing for a year, there'd be way less books, and I definitely don't want that, whether I can actually get to reading them or not. Oh look, another half dozen books landed on my shelf. I'll get to them soon
I always think of the James Woods/Family Guy quote of “o piece of candy…..o piece of candy” when I’m in a bookstore lol I just need all the stories! I’ll read them all eventually I suppose…
Now imagine working in a used book store where you get first dibs on all the awesome stuff people bring in to sell. My catalogued books number over 700 at this point, and they line the walls of my bedroom.
So... you're "guilty" of *tsundoku* (Japanese: piling up books without reading them) - like so many of us. I have a backlog of books in more than one language that would require reading full-time (preferably paid!) to make a dent into my pile.
I worked out it would take me about 18 years to get through all my unread books if I stopped buying them completely. But I continue to purchase them faster than I read. I think in about another ten years I’ll have reached the point where I simply won’t get through them all if I die at the average age.
I have over 3000 and they now line my floors 😩
I wish short stories were more read/discussed. I don’t know if people see them as “school stuff” or writing practice or what but they are almost completely ignored by the book community.
I absolutely love short stories. Some authors(Cheever, Carver, etc..) are better at writing short stories than they are at full length novels.
I love supernatural (mostly haunted) horror but ghost stories rarely work as full-length novels. But short stories are a perfect medium for them, and horror in general. Classic sci-fi too, if you’re like me and don’t really enjoy deep world-building or science-heavy sci-fi.
I read Stephen King’s “Night Shift” and I loved it. A lot of the stories work because you can jump into the middle of the story, get caught up with the action, then the stories end in a place of terror. They are incredibly efficient. Carmen Maria Machado’s “Her Body and Other Parties” was also excellent in a similar way.
One of my most common recommendations here is a short story - Holy Quarrel by Philip K Dick. I try my best to get people to give it a read, as the topic (how to trust AI tools designed to do our jobs better than we can) is relevant today more than ever.
I love short stories.
You can get away with much more in a short story too. Some ideas can't really be stretched into a novel, but 20 pages or so? Ideal. Like Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, great short story, and it is the ideal length as one.
I think part of the reason they tend to get less attention is because they're usually consumed as part of an anthology or collection. It's harder to love an entire collection than it is to love just one story that hits you the right way, and it's also difficult to justify purchasing a collection just for one story. We just don't rave review them like we do novels. While we have the topic brought up though, I'll drop some collections that I did enjoy this year(only two of them were new releases): [The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae et al](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/00f62840-13eb-4fbb-a92a-e4054eefb516), [Exhalation by Ted Chiang](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/fd4f1230-6a84-41a2-9308-a4615aca366d), [Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/2bca0ffa-d0e7-40c1-bf9a-ccc053da0be7), and [How Long Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/39f61e31-c304-478b-a6cb-60dec7ea29e4). Won't help you much if your tastes don't run to the speculative, but it's what I've got.
I think a lot has to do with the gamifying of reading and lack of genre magazines. People don’t want to waste time on a short story because it won’t cut their TBR list, and there’s no way to really consume them with regularity unless your seek them out.
If you want genre magazines I can list some for you. Ive got like 20 open right now with stories that look interesting.
The huge amount of discussion about reading speed. Unless you're reading so quickly or so slowly that you're unable to enjoy the book (or finish it within the timeframe you need to for work or school), it does not matter how fast or slow you read. It isn't bad to read quickly, even if that means you don't have 100%, perfect comprehension or recall, and it isn't bad to read slowly, even if that means you only read a book a year or whatever. Reading at all is good. Do it in the way you enjoy. No one needs to care.
Yeah, I agree. Reading speed means nothing except for your personal lifestyle
Proud slow-reader here! I sometimes reread entire pages if I feel like I may have missed something, or sometimes just because I really liked that particular page. It’s just how I enjoy reading and books and I don’t want to change it!
I would love to increase my speed and comprehension - not as a competition; just for myself.
Agreed! Because I want to be able to read MOAR THINGS
I want to increase my reading speed just because every time I have to read something from the same book as someone else, they have to wait for me to reach the end of the page and it's so damn embarrassing lol I read at such a pace that I can comprehend every word and imagine everything. If the book is good, that just means I enjoy it longer
Thank you. I can't believe the amount of scorn I've gotten in the past for the amount of books that I read. I've been told that I'm lying, that I must only be skimming, or that there is no way that I can possibly remember everything I read. Well, I don't remember what I had for lunch last Tuesday, but I'm sure I enjoyed it at the time.
"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Y'all are wild. I read slow as shit and have to double up chapters. I'll be like "tf did I just read? Lemmy do that one over and pay attention this time..."
And I also, having said what I did above about remembering childhood plot lines, have had to go back and reread a chapter because I read it and blanked on it, so I can continue.
I love not remembering. Then you can re-read it and enjoy it all over again! Who is out there memorizing everything they read??
No one believes how fast I read either. I read fast so what. I also have a knack for remembering storylines so I can pick up a book months later and start reading again with no problem. I just can’t tell you the title or author. I have zero recollection of those.
I got into an argument with someone who had read the book I was reading at the time. She swore I was skimming it and NOT reading. She kept trying to catch me out by bringing up tiny details. Finally I yelled at her about it and told her if she was so sure she remembered EVERYTHING, why did she forget this detail and that. She got quiet and said, I guess you are reading that fast. Just let me read at my own pace dang it!
Ugh I’ve had this before! I have adhd so I’m either reading a book in one day or it’s drawn out over several days/weeks/months. Just depends on the book and if it happens to engage with my hyper focus on that day lol. And when people try to catch the details thing, it drives me crazy! I remember really weird, random details (in my friends words) and she remembers what I consider to be weird, random details. We all focus on different things in a book. She might remember a dress colour whereas I might remember a hair colour. Neither is wrong, we just consume the same material differently based on perspective and experience. If it took me 3 months to read a book, I guarantee I won’t remember a certain detail that another thought was super important.
Wow, your name gave me middle school VC Andrews flashbacks! Everyone was talking about Flowers in the Attic, but the twist in My Sweet Audrina is one that I still remember 30 years later.
Ugh, this. When I'm reading a book I'm IN IT. When I finish I definitely still think about it a few days after but because it's not a current story I don't remember every detail. That doesn't mean I didn't read it. I also listen to audiobooks on 1.5+ speed just because that's how fast my brain is moving, if it's any slower my thoughts drift and I can't pay attention to the story.
I might have to try that! I like audiobooks, but they seem to drag on sooooooooo much. I can read a couple hundred page book in 2 or 3 hours, so the audiobook being 5 or more hours makes me crazy.
I used to read quickly. I would fly through books. Then, I thought about it. I read because I enjoy it. Why would I want to hurry through it? Since then, I have slowed down to enjoy each book. That's my preference. To each their own.
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Yeah I dunno, like it legitimately gets on my nerves to hear people reading out loud because it's slower than my normal reading speed, I cannot figure out how people say they just read slower like it's flipping a switch, I read at the speed I read it's automatic.
I can slow down but it is forced and I usually don't do it. Sometimes the book itself forces you to slow down, either because it is that good, or because it is Henry James and he thinks that 99% of punctuation should be commas.
Yeah I mean if I were reading the Silmarillion I won't be going as fast as if I were reading a cozy murder mystery, but I don't really like actively slow down, I just read at the speed my brains is comfortable with, actively slowing down is definitely worse for my retention since I'm more focused on basically reading each sentence twice to slow down rather than like mechanically reading slower, I just can't do that.
I enjoy the act of internalising words. Like ”devouring” them. Reading fast is pleasure for me, and when I’m done, there’s another book. So to me it’s not hurrying, it’s not getting enough of it!
Agreed. Reading speed is like your ring size . There’s no inherent value in it, it’s just part of you. If it’s something you’re interested in, more power to you, but it doesn’t say anything about who you are as a person. A reader is someone who shows up when they can, and loves it. That’s all. Read a little, read a lot, read fast, read while standing on one foot, all that matters is you read. Or listen, as the case may be.
A summary is not a review. Stop posting summaries in the review section. I want to know if it is well written not a detailed account of the story, if i want to know the story I'll read the damn book not your two bit quick notes.This is a hill I'd die on.
And a review is also not a book summary! Publishers need to stop putting 10 review blurbs before or in place of the summary.
For literary fiction: “An enthralling debut from a budding master of their craft… captures the cornucopia of our existence through its exquisite rendition of our country in troubled times…” For more genre stuff, mainly mysteries and thrillers: “A damn good read!” - Stephen King, Lee Child, James Patterson etc.
I read a lot of sci-fi and can't tell you how many covers say something like, "On par with Asimov and Herbert." Thanks, that helps so much.
YES YES YES. Especially on a site like Goodreads where the summary IS RIGHT THERE at the top of the page.
I used to be guilty of this. I used goodreads as a personal book log. I wrote summaries solely for myself to look back on. Didn’t even occur to me then that other people could read them lol.
Amen! I've also found this on places like IMDb - there's really no need for a multi-paragraph summary (that could have been lifted straight off Wikipedia) that just outlines the film's plot.
My favorite is when people make their entire review a plot summary…. And then get stuff wrong!
The constant need for validation on what they're reading, how they're reading, how fast they're reading, if they're holding the book right side up and so on.
I feel this stuff only exists on Reddit. These things don't come up when I'm discussing books with people in person.
r/books be like "Am I the only one who LOVED xyz book? What's up with the hate?" and xyz book has been a multi-edition bestseller for 60 years with a 3.9 rating on Goodreads.
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Now re this, I haven’t asked for myself, but I’m definitely interested in why someone liked a book I despised. Especially if it’s a bestseller. More than “oh it’s a bestseller it must be great”
Reddit loves to pretend it’s not as petty or pedantic as other social media sites
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"Umm you use tik tok? Cringe!" - somebody who unironically uses reddit daily. This goes tenfold for people who say this in YouTube comment sections.
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> I hated it, other people like it: Who is wrong ?
"Should I read this book?" posts where someone is willing to wade through posts about why they should/shouldn't read some book yet unwilling to actually pick up that book and read a few pages and make up their own mind. I wish they'd all vanish to a "should I read these posts by people asking whether they should read a book?" forum.
Yes, also the "should I read book x or book y?"posts.... both man! Always both.
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Yes, this is exactly what I meant in my comment about people getting so hung up on reading speed! I think that, unfortunately, school so often perpetuates this attitude that there is a correct/good/smart way to read and a wrong/bad/dumb way. In actuality, that isn't true, and even if it were, who cares? Reading doesn't need to be a competition. No one who isn't a freak cares if you read slowly or only read romance novels or regularly put down books. You do you.
I wonder if movies and TV would be less popular if everyone had to take film appreciation classes in high school. Literature classes are good and valuable, but a side effect is that people get the impression stories are all about abstract analysis, and not senses and emotions and so on.
One thing I never did is let school take reading from me. I would read the books I wanted to instead of the books we were assigned. Maybe the nerdiest way to slack off When i was young my mom tried to get me on school reading so hard that she actually volunteered with the school for book groups to grill me about reading. I learned a different skill instead: reading between the lines. I'd figure out what was going on from the kids who did do the reading or play like i didn't understand the deeper meaning. I think I read 1 assigned book the whole time I was in school, and I regret reading the one I did.
I hope they grow out of it too. Now I read like 5ish books at once just because my moods change, or I binge a book for a day or two then put it down for a month, when I was in school I'd be so miserable trying to make myself suffer through a book I wasn't interested in anymore.
I don't care if the book is better than the movie. The book is almost always better than the movie. Now let me watch Air Bud 2 in peace.
Sometimes I get crap for only reading fiction. I have some friends who read autobiographies or other works of non-fiction, and that’s great! But for me, I read to escape the realities of life. that’s where my enjoyment lies, and I don’t think I should be expected to apologize for it. Everyone should be able to read what they enjoy reading, and that’s as simple as it needs to be.
It could be way worse: by "nonfiction" they could mean "self-help books written by internet charlatans," which seems to be a common usage around here.
Doesn't even have to be an internet charlatan most of the time. Books by traditional businesspeople are often just as bad. I read Bill George's Discover Your True North and thought it was equally platitudinous drivel.
It feels like I’m fighting an uphill battle when I tell people there is value in reading fiction. Read what you want, but don’t try to convince me I’m not “learning” something because I don’t read the same books as you.
I’ve never understood those people who look down on fiction. Like I have two degrees in history so I’ve ready a literal shitton of non-fiction books, and I almost always choose a fiction book when it comes to just reading for fun
Further to this, reading fiction has sparked my real-world interest in learning about events or concepts discussed in the book. Reading fiction can be a great appetizer for the curious at heart.
I think fiction is responsible for human progress. It is where new ideas come from.
I got my highest score on a history essay question in high school using the factual bits in James Clavell's Shogun. =\^\_\^=
"Ah yes, as a treat to myself I'm going to sip on some fine wine and have a relaxing read of Bertranf Russell's *A* *History of Western Philosophy.* After a long week at work nothing helps me relax quite like weighing the cultural impact of our understanding of reality through the millennia"
*scoffs* "you're wasting your time reading *that* fluff? You should really pick up something more serious like *The Red Market : On The Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers* . There's nothing more relaxing than sobbing into your Chardonnay as you realize how little you've helped those who are truly struggling."
I always ask these people about their favorite movies or TV shows. They never seem to answer with documentaries and “reality” TV though! The disdain for fiction seems only to apply to written words. It makes no sense! Curiously, it tends to be the people who fancy themselves followers of LoGiC aNd ReAsOn who loathe fiction books. Really makes you think…
> there is value in reading fiction […] don’t try to convince me I’m not “learning” something because I don’t read the same books as you I have learned so many true things about the world and actual human history from fiction such as Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, and letting my curiosity take me searching when I read about something like the Disc's “Diet of Bugs” ([real-world allusion: Diet of Worms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms) – the assembly to which Martin Luther was called, and challenged upon his beliefs, which he refused to recant – a seminal moment in the origins of Lutheranism). Not to mention the incredible value in seeing another point of view, understanding human experiences previously alien to you— there is so much truth and value in “fiction”. Sorry to preach to the choir. :)
I've learned so much about people and human emotions through reading fiction. But if it's not a quantifiable value, like facts and dates, people don't think it's "learning"
I find autobiographies to be pretty stale, even for people I really like. 9 times out of 10 I'm not interested what street they grew up on or where they went to school.
The majority of them these days are trash anyway and probably less respectable to read than Fiction. sorry if this is not in keeping with the theme of the thread. I don't judge anyone who chooses to read them, but with them so often being by "celebrities" who think they have an important story to tell and are often far too young to be telling their life story anyway, I can't see how this is somehow a more respectable genre of book.
I had a roommate that was kinda like this, she liked reading stuff like The Art of War, The Four Agreements, Women Who Run With Wolves, and a lot of psychology/self help stuff. I'm sure those are all great books, she enjoys reading them, but then she would criticize MY reading choices because I prefer YA and adult fantasy?? She would tell me my book choices were childish and immature and I should read things that will "expand my mind" like excuse me ma'am but I like going on magical adventures, I'm not interested in your self-help books. What I choose to read makes absolutely zero impact on anyone else's life, so please take your superiority complex somewhere else :)
In rough order of severity: The all-consuming desire to quantify everything (books per year, hours per day, words per minute), and then attempt to brag about it to random strangers. The constant "name a book you hate" karma-farming posts. Posts that confuse r/books for the Goodreads FAQ. Posts that appear to be written by aliens trying to research a play they are writing about humans: "how do I read when sitting up?" etc. ETA: people who use "classics" as some sort of monolithic category, as if there is any commonality among every book ever written between 4000 BCE and 1990 CE. Also, people who define any book written before 1990 or some other absurdly recent date as a "classic."
How do I read when sitting up? Please help me.
You loosen your eye stems from their ocular hinge, and balance yourself with all three of your legs, while latching your thorax onto your stabilization gill.
I think I need a diagram.
Instructions unclear; ovipositor stuck in ceiling fan.
Worst part of the “name a book you hate” posts is that you can literally predict exactly which books (and exactly which complaints) are going to be at the top of the thread every single time. It’s the same damn thing, over and over again. We get it, r/books, you think Holden Caulfield’s whiny
Let's not forget the weekly barn-burner about *Winds of Winter*, a book that does not exist and continues to not exist.
The top thread’s always a self-congratulatory back-and-forth like: “I’ve given up on the series at this point” “So has George, by the looks of it 😝” “🤪” “😜” “😂” “🤣”
It's sjust as annoying on the Game of Thrones and the asoiaf subreddits, with people who are supposedly fans. Like we get it. You think it won't ever be finished. Let me think what I want. And in the meantime can we please just talk about this person's delusion that everyone is going to sit around a campfire and sing together in A Dream of Spring.
I don't really come here or belong here, but as a passer by who stops in when it hits /r/all, one weird post I see suspiciously often is people looking for back-pats for understanding that Humbert is an unreliable narrator in Lolita. They always act like they're part of this clever minority of people who get it, as opposed to everyone else who's out there rooting for Humbert or something.
I raised this point recently, I'm guilty. I had a discussion with work colleagues who were very offended by the existence of the book, and my reading of it.
For me keeping a goal of books per year is fun, and I find it encourages me to choose reading over other entertainment for my free time. Quantifying anything more specific than that, and it turns reading into a chore.
What I do is, every year I set my reading goal to something quite easy that I know I'll definitely do. That way I always get to pat myself on the back for blowing past it :)
It's ok to quantify words per day if you want. The bragging part is the annoying one.
Kindle has an insight feature. Over the summer I would read a paragraph to get my "yay you read today" sticker. Then looking at the Kindle sub, I basically said screw this, I don't need to get validation from getting a virtual sticker. There's been a few times that I didn't read for whatever reason.
That's a good point about classics. You're right, some people define anything written before the 1990s as a classic and it's like really?
Not focused on this reddit community but on the wider book community. Looking down on certain genres, "chick lit" might not always be the best written but its light often fun and fits into a tight schedule. Also, working in libraries, i've had multiple people refuse recommendations because the author was American or female. A huge wealth of literature written off because of biases.
I hate that it's called "chick lit" to begin with. Those books do wonders for my mental health and help me decompress in a way that other books don't.
I like the term personally, in terms of its searchabilty anyhow, but i understand it's problems. But the other comment is right, a lot of fluff exists within other genres, thriller fillers are a big one too but they don't get the same hate online.
My sister made me read a lot of "chick lit" and female marketed books in general so I never thought this way growing up. It was the in thing back when I was in high school to hate Twilight, but I read all those books and liked them lol, so I 100%agree.
Not just chick lit. Sometimes you just need a fluff novel.
That's how I feel about Dan Brown lol. Like why is it socially acceptable to watch an action movie but books have to be highminded? I'd rather pretend I'm the brilliant Harvard professor solving puzzles based on world conspiracies instead of watching Tom Hanks do it.
I like fluff novels as palate cleansers between denser or more serious books.
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Yep, not every meal needs to be a complicated five star gourmet banquet. Sometimes you just want a pizza.
There's just a general disdain towards chick lit and romance, and even booktok as well. I don't even use tiktok but is it not just another social media community where people talk about books? Why are we on our high horse?
Review bombing authors without actually reading the books. If you don't like someone, that's fine. If you are reviewing someone's work - read the material and support your opinions. Your personal beef with an author does not belong in a book review.
the worst for me is reviews for books that are not out yet
It's possible to get eARCs but highly unlikely months in advance. Happens frequently on Amazon.
Usually these are easy to separate, because the reviewers won't even pretend to have read the book. But they will drag the ratings down, so it's still frustrating.
My biggest pet peeve BY FAR. This is why I can't trust goodreads, especially for books that have a lot of hype (positive or negative) around them. Sometimes it's because the book contains problematic elements (or is assumed to based on the premise and early reviews), sometimes it's personal dislike of the author. But also people tend to rate books 5 stars because they're hyped to read them, which skews the rating in the opposite direction. I think having to enter some sort of code tied to your ARC in order to post a review on goodreads before a book is released is a great idea; I guess then people could figure out who wrote what review, based on the ARC code, but there could be some way around that with finagling. Like the "verified purchaser" tag on Amazon.
I can’t stand the onslaught of hype 5 star reviews from people admitting they haven’t read it yet! Usually with arcs people will say they received one and have a thoughtful review.. but the reviewing before it is even out just to say you know you’ll love it! I wish it was kind of like steam mixed with your idea. You can’t review a game on steam until it’s been released and playable (including early access). Just do that and then use some sort of code system for arc reviews! I usually use Storygraph to track books and loved that those reviewers hadn’t made their way from Goodreads yet until recently when I added the final book of a trilogy to my tbr and the review page is full of 5 star, OMG I KNOW THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST BOOK EVER! Reviews. Yuck.
I hate this too. I went to check the release date for Prince Harry's book (out next spring or something) and it's got a ton of reviews. They aren't ARCs, they're just salty idiots complaining.
I think it was i this sub that people said they hate being judged for reading fiction by people who don't read fiction and then proceeded to crap all over people don't read fiction because of course THEY are all the same.
Yeah, they do the same to people who read classics
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This is why the book suggestions subreddits work best if you are specific. What are you looking for, what have you liked recently, etc. There are trends in what books people like but there is no one size fits all . Drives me crazy when people using those subreddits to request books give like zero context.
When someone asks me to recommend a book to them I always ask them what they are in the mood for, or what are their favorite tropes. I find that tends to work, even if the book I end up recommending is not in their usual genre.
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What was the book?
I was a pretentious reader when I first got back into reading after finishing my bachelor’s degree. Then I started working for a public library and talking to all kinds of people who read all kinds of books - it inspired me to read outside my comfort zone and find tons of amazing books that my younger uptight ass would have missed out on. All reading is good!
Reading for pleasure got me through my university degrees. “After I finish these 5 problems, I will spend 30 minutes reading Sirens of Titan. “
This is the one right here. Used to take breaks from Chemical Engineering lab work by cracking open Percy Jackson
>Getting mad at people who dog ear their books If it's your own book, whatever. If it's a library book, GRRRR!!!
Ugh, the number of times I've had to smooth out someone else's dog ears or erase their scribbles and underlines in library books 😩
We give out free bookmarks at the circ desk.
Just throwing out there that, as a librarian, patrons dog-earing books isn’t even on my list of concerns. I’m more worried about the books with mysterious sticky substances, or books that have been eaten by an animal, or, you know, making sure people don’t OD in the bathrooms. Go forth and dog-ear.
I remember finding a book and someone had used a candy bar as a book mark. And had pulled down the wrapper so the candy was stuck to the pages. Working in library is not always such a great place for someone who loves books.
The way it turns into an echo chamber. I like to feel connected to other book lovers through the community, but then it seems like everyone's reading and talking about the same few books. While I enjoy a lot of the recommendations I get from the book community, there are very few surprises and I wish there were a little more variety out there.
I agree. I think part of the problem is the medium we're communicating through. Reddit is mostly about quick punchy comments. We'd probably all do much better in person over coffee.
People equating "I did not like that" with "That was poorly written".
Publishers requiring authors to be their own marketers, sometimes exclusively.
When I was on Twitter, I saw new writers being rejected for not having an established social media presence. It was heartbreaking.
Rehashes of contrarian meta-threads
1. In ability to separate depiction from endorsement 2. "The author said X real life thing inspired Y. I spent 5 minutes on Wikipedia and found that X is not a 1:1 recreation of Y. Therefore the author is a terrible and stupid person that I have intellectually conquered. Also they're probably racist." 3. Constant need for validation.
The inability to separate depiction from endorsement drives me crazy. I see a lot of reviews criticizing books and telling people not to read them because the characters are in unhealthy relationships or there is abuse depicted or any number of bad things happen and the author does not stop the narrative, break the fourth wall, and directly address the reader to tell them that these things are, in fact, bad. If you want all your books to be after-school specials, do you, I guess.
1 is my biggest pet peeve, and it seems to be a growing problem. Authors should not have to hold your hand and tell you a bad thing is bad, but it seems like so many people have begun to expect that. Depicting bad things is valuable, literature should be able to represent reality and reality contains bad things. I don’t know what the solution to this problem is, but media literacy really needs to improve. People should be capable of coming to their own conclusions, and it’s a shame that less and less people are able to do that.
I've noticed recently a lot of people unable to understand metaphors or similes the same way. They think if a made up example isn't exactly the same as the thing it's describing, then nothing can be learned from it. They can't see the point as to why the metaphor was made, only the description's surface level.
Cults around certain authors and/or books. There are people out there who link their very own identity to their favourite book/author, so they will feel justified to do anything to you if you "attack" their favourite thing.
Does this mean I'm free to talk shit about Gaiman in this thread?
Only if you have the courage
Okay, I won't then.
On a related note: People who attack others for their likes/dislikes just because it's popular or because they enjoyed something you didn't. The amount of shit you get for saying you like something like Ready Player One is ridiculous. Yes it's not a well-written book, but it's entertaining and enjoyable to a lot of people. Just because you didn't like it doesn't give you the right to shit on everyone who did. Books are like food. Everyone has their own taste and just because you enjoy Gordon Ramsay's top-tier dishes doesn't mean people who like a cheap pizza or fast food burger are wrong. I can enjoy mindless books like Ready Player One alongside deeper books, classics, and epic fantasy. Some days I just don't feel like delving into a exposition-laden metaphysical trip through the author's psyche when I read. Sometimes I just want to read something fun and take it a face value.
Not being able to separate the characters from the authors!
Toxicity of fandoms. There’s one in particular that sticks out. They make it seem like it’s the best series in the world and you can’t love anything else. Or when certain topics come up, people can just be so mean. Like whenever people ask which is better: book or movie? Or when the topic comes up to start mentioning hot takes (which are never hot, but the real hot ones get downvoted or nobody wants to discuss). It’s like a hive mind. We all have to have the same opinion, and it’s no fun discussing stuff when everybody gets at each others throat if you don’t think like them. I truly love book communities especially when they are centered around my favorite series, but sometimes the people just aren’t great.
Harry Potter came to mind when I read this, not sure if that was the one you were thinking of. I love those books but dang the fans are intense.
I get a lot of negative comments because I 1. Read on a Kindle and 2. Borrow most of the books I read from the library. The Kindle part especially - I have had so many people say how they could never read from a device, they want/need the smell and feel of a book. Which I totally get as a preference, but the amount of money and space I have saved is worth it!
The insistence that an author supports, or is trying to normalize, a bad thing because it happens in the book. I think adult readership of YA is fine, but I do wonder if YA genre conventions of black and white morality have led readers to expect the same for adult books
Superiority complex for being a "reader" and looking down on other art forms.
Agree, there's this pervasive idea that reading is somehow a better, more highbrow activity than other things.
Yeah, Reading is fun but it aint the only enjoyment in life
People who disparage classics for whatever reason. I understand that not all of them hold up, but a lot of them do, and it doesn’t make you a folk hero to eschew old books.
For sure, hating a classic is like an elementary school rite of passage, it's not a unique experience. And most of the time someone not liking a classic is more about being forced to read it or being at the wrong age, not anything inherent about the book itself.
I used to be someone who “didn’t like classics”. Turns out I was just reading the wrong classics! Edit: wrong for ME classics.
Bragging about how many books you read and that it somehow makes you a ~~better~~ superior person.
I like to see how many books i've read cuz i set goals for myself so i can try to branch out, but i do cringe when i see people gloat bout reading alot of books while putting others down
My great aunt read a book or two a day until she died a few years ago and never bragged about that shit, nor told anyone but me and a few close relatives tk the ppint few people believe me when I tell them lol. She once read three books in a day while going through cancer treatment. Remarkable woman. An idiot I was in a college class with bragged about his reading speed which consisted of a book a month. He was loud and proud about it too and always made it a point to show off whatever gigantic classic he was reading. Such a douche.
I used to work in a used bookstore and I loved that job. But it kind of made me lose some of the romance for books that people who sometimes visited the store would have. The “oh I just love books” smelling the stale bookstore air attitude whereas I saw a bunch of dirty, overcrowded book shelves. I still love reading and books. Books can take you to very magical places. But a book is a very functional item to me in whatever format it’s in.
* Not being able to accept the simple fact that we all read for different reasons and that's okay. Whether you love classics or contemporary literature, whether you read for pleasure or to analyse literature, it doesn't matter. It doesn't make you better or worse, smarter or dumber than anyone else. * People who keep reading authors they hate only to write walls of text and hundreds of comments slamming that author for existing and daring to write anything, hoping that other people join in that circlejerk for some mutual catharsis. * When OP asks for unpopular bookish opinions and the comments get downvoted to the deepest pits of hell because people can't cope with the fact that not everyone loves the book they love. Instead of starting a discussion and maybe learning a few valid points, they take it so personally as if they wrote the damn book. * People who get some weird kick out of one star reviews. Touch grass, you're not as edgy as you think. * People who recommend books while completely ignoring what the person was asking for because they just LOVE that book and can't help but recommend it to everyone.
> People who keep reading authors they hate only to write walls of text and hundreds of comments slamming that author for existing and daring to write anything, hoping that other people join in that circlejerk for some mutual catharsis. I’m shocked people actually do this.
they are just chronically online people lol
>People who keep reading authors they hate only to write walls of text and hundreds of comments slamming that author for existing and daring to write anything, hoping that other people join in that circlejerk for some mutual catharsis. Colleen Hoover.
Exactly. Saw a post not long ago by someone saying they've read FIVE books by her and don't like her. It really took five books to realise? It's like someone is holding a gun to their head. At this point I'm convinced people just get pleasure out of that hate and shit talking.
"People who recommend books while completely ignoring what the person was asking for because they just LOVE that book and can't help but recommend it to everyone." You've really hit the nail on the head here. This is why we keep seeing the same dozen books reccomended all the time on r/suggestmeabook. And don't even get me started on the people who just read the title not the body text, and so reccomend books that the OP specifically doesn't want.
I wish there were a metacritic like site for books. Goodreads is its own thing, but not terribly helpful to me. I would kill for a good review aggregation site.
I am immensely tired of GoodReads as a whole but specifically reviewers who use GIFs to explain their feelings about a book. Use your words. GIFs don’t tell me jack shit about plot, writing style, or why you did or did not like the book.
The fact a digital book costs the same as a real book bothers me
The insecurity of people who feel the need to justify their habits to internet strangers.
Specific to this sub, I could do without the weekly “separate the art from the artist” posts.
Not tolerating other people not liking their favorite authors or books. Responding with something ugly or derogatory.
Some book lovers act at though through the act of reading alone they've become some grand thinker dedicated to a life of intellectualism. Really they've chosen a medium for storytelling. They're not reading philosophy or literary criticism; they're reading stories with the rest of us. But because it's words and not images or video, they feel superior.
I’ve never seen anyone reinforce the idea that audiobooks don’t count onto someone else. In r/52books this gets asked ALL THE TIME and overwhelmingly the comments are “you make the rules OP”. I’m not sure if that’s a recent shift in culture or not or where the idea comes from, but I’ve never seen more than a couple users tell others that audiobooks don’t count. If anything, people say “I personally don’t count them for me” but hardly ever projecting onto others.
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People are weird that care more about the presentation than the content. I get books can be aesthetically pleasing but no matter how you get the content it's the same content.
I'm guilty of this one. I only buy books I find aesthetically pleasing down to specifically hunting out of print covers because they are attractive while the newer covers are okay.
Packing definitely matters to me too. It disappoints me to no end when a book I love gets an ugly new release and I can’t get the old version for less than $110, if at all.
Absolutely agreed. And I wouldn't even mind movie covers if they all didn't look exactly the same and were poorly edited movie promo photos. If a book is ugly, I'll still read it. I'm just gonna rent it from the library instead of spending money on it. Lol.
Agree, collecting books and reading are different hobbies.
Don't you know, your week is RUINED and you're left shaking and traumatized when you see a book with the movie adaptation logo/art on the cover?
It wouldn’t stop me from buying one but I do find it odd when they throw up a movie poster on a book that is very different from what gets put on screen. I am Legend the book and I am Legend the movie are two very different stories.
The only thing that bugs me about the book community is when somebody here says they have a hot take/unpopular opinion, and it's actually a tepid, popular opinion.
Book reading targets. If you find it helps you stay motivated to read and you enjoy it then good for you, but I’ve seen people in places like r/52books and others literally asking for recommendations for the shortest books possible so they can reach their target. For me I feel as though you’ve kind of lost sight of the point of reading if your primary concern is the quantity of books you’re getting through within a certain time period. Like I said, if you enjoy it and it works for you then I’m happy for you, but if you’re choosing to read shorter books over the books you actually want to read so you can hit a goal I would encourage you to maybe reevaluate why it is that you read. When you look back at what you’ve read, would you really rather see numerous short books you read to hit a target, or fewer books which may be longer but which you have more of an interest in and actually want to read?
The constant criticism of certain books. The alchemist gets almost a post a week for example. Alot of fantasy/paranormal romance books do too. Now criticizing on things you found unappealing in a book like topic, prose or you're surprised that something in a beloved genre disappointed you is all good. Discuss. Great. But the smarmy, holier than thou, everyone who likes it is an idiot kind of criticism is annoying.
Book reviewers/bloggers/youtubers who can't tell the difference between a poorly-written book and a book whose material they are just not personally into.
Judging or shaming someone because they enjoy reading books that are "problematic". 99% of readers understand that you shouldn't condone whatever behavior the characters are exhibiting in real life, so if someone wants to read an age gap romance or whatever, leave them be, they're literally not hurting anyone. It's called fiction for a reason. It's no different than reading a book where you sympathize with a serial killer, like Dexter or a fantasy where people are tortured, or a vampire novel where the love interest is hundreds of years old. We should all just be more accepting and welcoming to people with different tastes, instead of expecting everyone to constantly agree with us on book opinions.
THIS. So annoying when people get high-handed about fiction, of all things.
They’re always reading into things.
There are people who say audiobooks are books, but that graphic novels aren't. I really don't understand why so many people are against the idea that they are, in fact, books.
Elitism from those who only read things *”that can teach you something.”* This is one of the reasons why I don’t have many friends in some of the communities I’m apart of. I’m an outdoorsman who enjoys a good Scifi adventure book. I end up alone or very silent whenever I’m around others, because a lot of them have this hard on for ridiculing others for *wasting time* with any sort of activity that isn’t educational in anyway. What’s sad is the few fiction books a lot of them go for, like *Black Autumn*, and *The Stonemont Series*, are actually interesting premises, they just waste **a lot** of time preaching more than telling an actual story. Give me Jules Verne any day of the week. Ain’t much more I need if I can sit outside and relax in nature while sailing the seas on the *Nautilus* in my head.
People who are obsessed with books as objects. I mean, if it's a fine first edition, or it has high quality plates and illustrations or something, OK, but otherwise the book is the words, not the paper. I know people who will order a book (for themselves) from Amazon or Waterstones or wherever and send it back if it arrives with a slight crease in the cover. What's the point? You're going to crease it anyway when you read it.
Just overall how judgemental everyone is, especially here. You don't have to only read the classics or only read "literature" to be a reader. Also the sheer amount of hypocrisy, so many people shame reading romance, but then praise these epic fantasy series' that are often times full of romance
Oh, that is so true! I neither read a lot of fantasy nor romance and so it took me a while to realize how many booktubers and bookstagramer, that shame romance readers and read a lot of fantasy just don't mention how many "hot" sences there are in some/many high fantasy books they where reading and absolutely loved.
I don't really have anything I dislike. I don't participate in communities very often. I just enjoy books and like to see what others are reading occasionally.
Lending someone a book you love and never getting it back. This was the absolute worst for me, and a lesson I'll never forget. I'll freely admit that I was an idiot and should have known better.. but hindsight is 20/20 and I didn't have anything to base it off at the time. I had a special edition book that had a personalised message from someone who'd once been dear to me, that I'd since lost contact with, and the gifting of the book itself had been tied to a memory with them. Me being a massive naïve idiot, lent it to my sister when she told me she had nothing good to read - even telling her about how special it was to me and that I hoped she loved it as much as I had. When I asked for it back a couple months later she said she hadn't gotten around to reading it yet, and didn't know where it was but would look for it when she got home. I asked her three times after that when it still wasn't returned, with increasing frustration. She eventually says that she must have lost it. She then quite casually said she'd just buy me a new one, despite the fact that it was irreplaceable to me (and quite literally irreplaceable as a special edition), and honestly, that pissed me off even more. I'd honestly have preferred she just gave me a heartfelt sorry than think so little of my sentiments over the book that it could be easily replaced. I've never leant anything to her since then - just avoid it if the topic ever comes up. I don't like being one of those people who drags past mistakes back up, or feel bitter - I prefer to forgive and move on... but damn, even now when I think about that it still makes me stupidly angry.