Ten Unpopular Bookish Opinions

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we're talking about unpopular opinions. As the founding member of the black sheep club, I can tell you I have plenty of those. I hope I don't step on any toes with this post, but I think we're all adults here, so let's get into it.

1. The book as an object is not sacred. I see people lose their crap over dog-earing, highlighting, and things like that. You look in the comments on any booktube video and see viewers extremely unahppy that the youtuber dared to DROP her book. Remember when Anne Rice blew a gasket over crafting with an old copy of her book? Yeah, I don't believe in any of that. To me, the story is what's important. The book itself, as a bound stack of paper and ink, is no more sacred than any other object. Obviously I have physical books that are important to me because of who gave them to me or where I was when I got them, but your random old paperback? No.

2. I prefer eBooks. I have a pretty sizeable library of books I own, don't get me wrong. I love a beautifully designed hardcover as much as the next person, and of course the tactile experience of reading the big floppy fantasy paperbacks. But as a mom of two tiny babies, nothing beats the portability and convenience of an eBook. I can read on the go, I can read on my phone, I can carry just about every book I own in my purse. I love the accessibility of being able to change the color, font, and the font size.

3. I love Twilight. Okay, so maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but the truth is I'm tired of seeing it disparaged. The relationships were squicky at best, but there was a lot of creativity in the series. I think it's great in that it gave so, so many girls something to connect to. It broke open doors for speculative YA. I just think it's great for so many reasons, including the vampires sparkling! And shitting on it in this year of our lord 2019? TIRED.

4. Reading is not a marker of a Good and/or Smart Person. I think us bookish types have the tendency to become snobby and almost look down on those who don't read. But let me be the first to say there are different ways to be smart. For example I don't know anything about fixing things or anything about computers, while maybe there are people out there who aren't readers but can do those things! They're still smart! There are also other ways to experience storytelling, from films to theater to video games. None of these hobbies or interests are inherently better than the other and bookish people need to quit acting like it.

5. I have no interest in any HP material outside of the original 7 books and the original 8 films.  This one comes from the latest HP announcement: more books! And I feel like I'm the only one in the world who doesn't care. I don't care about the Fantastic Beasts stuff, Pottermore, any of it. The most I've really gotten into "branching out" was the video game for Order of the Phoenix. I also don't really care or want to know about what JK Rowling is tweeting about. I want HP to stay in its little bubble in my heart, un-fucked with.

6. Speaking of HP, I unship Ron and Hermione. I'm just gonna leave this here and go on.

7. Throne of Glass started great and turned into trash and ACOTRASH has always been trash there I said it. ACOTAR is just bad, the ships are bad, the writing is bad, it's not clever, it's not smart, it's not surprising. Worst of all, it bled into the later Throne of Glass books and ruined a perfectly acceptable series. Her new series will probably be terrible too but is that gonna stop me from reading it? Of course not.

8. I've DNFd a book on the first page, and have no regrets. There absolutely nothing in me that feels compelled to finish a book I'm not enjoying. Life is too short and I have too little time. I've stopped a book on the first page, and I've stopped as late as 80%. I know some people just physically can't but idgaf!

9. I love love triangles. This is one of my favorite YA tropes and I just can't get enough of it. I love the tension, I love that usually it's a metaphor for choosing your own path in all areas of your life. I love love, so two love interests means twice the romance!

10. I prefer standalones.  Which makes reading difficult as a reader who vastly prefers fantasy over everything. But there's something special about picking up a book and reading a single, contained story, whether that's a nice short one-sitting read, or a giant tome that you can really sink into. I like knowing how things end and where the characters go without having to wait a year or even longer for the next installment. I still read series obviously, but I just love standalones!

Do you agree with any of my unpopular opinions?