This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is ten bookish confessions, so here goes...
PS. All of these were really hard to come up with, and most of them aren't real confessions.
1. I haven't read the Harry Potter series and don't plan to. All the magic/wizard stuff is the reason and I know, I know, that is not like "the point" of the series or anything. But still. (This is probably not a secret. Are these things supposed to be secrets? I don't even know.)
2. I sometimes search out horrible reviews of books I love. I don't quite know why. Just to prove how truly subjective all this book stuff is, maybe.
3. I hate dog-earing, but doesn't everybody?
4. I way prefer physical copies to ebooks. Especially when it comes to YA. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm (mostly) fine with buying ebooks of memoirs or adult titles, but when it comes to YA the only reason I ever buy an ebook is if it's way, way cheaper and not something I think I'd want to keep or write in or reread.
5. Sometimes my opinion of a book changes drastically over time. I can think of at least two books that I was totally hooked on as I was reading them, but after a few days of sitting on the book realized that I really, really didn't care for them. These books were hard to put down, but it didn't make them good.
6. Casual drug use is probably my number one pet peeve in YA books. Or at least, it's the surest way to make me set a book down and not pick it back up again.
7. I loathe the terms "fluff" and "beach read." They always feel super-insulting and dismissive to me. And I've even used the term "fluff" myself; I even hate when I do it. I wish there were a better term for light, cute books. Something that doesn't sound so dismissive.
8. It bugs me when all the characters and a book have dull names. A book full of Mary, Bill, John, and Beth bores me. And it's so stupid, I know, but I just hate getting the feeling that the author didn't care about the character's names. This is such a silly thing. I feel silly even writing it but it's true.
9. It's cheaper for me to buy books than check them out of the library. Honestly, I'm such a chronically late book returner that the library should just have my face on a flyer up front: DO NOT LEND TO THIS PERSON. It's awful. Sorry, librarians, I really mean to return the books on time. Really!
10. It makes me laugh when people associate YA so strongly with vampires and paranormal romances. Probably this is because (with the notable exception of Twilight) these are precisely the YA books I know nothing about.
I completely understand your #9! I keep on taking books out of the library, though, because I've learned to take them back, and I like to think that the occasional pound or two that I give them is supporting their services :)
ReplyDeleteGreat list! Happy reading!
So true. It just adds too much weird and unnecessary stress to me. I'm always worried about when the books are due, how late I am, what if I lose them, etc. etc.
DeleteI'm totally with you on #2 and #8. Your thoughts about #6 and casual drug use are really interesting to me, though. I'm trying to figure out if I have anything similar that's an automatic DNF for me, but I don't think there is.
ReplyDeleteGreat list.
Well, I wouldn't say it's *always* an automatic DNF... for instance I recently read Love & Other Perishable Items and even though it had drug use (and some other content I didn't care for), the characters and their relationship and the writing was just SO GOOD that I ended up finishing and really loving the book - there are just parts I'd probably skip the next time I read (that's not cheating, right?)
DeleteI hate casual drug use in books too. I just read Beta by Rachel Cohn, and although drugs were used as a writing device in the book, I hated it. :/
ReplyDeleteGreat list!
Oh, bummer! That's one I was looking forward too, also.
Delete& so glad to see that someone agrees with me on this.
#9 is SO ME. :D I don't have a library card anymore, either. It's cheaper, really!
ReplyDeleteRight??? I'm really surprised that other book lovers have this problem, too. But it does make me feel less like an anomaly. ha.
Delete#1 I was in this club until earlier this year. I finally read book 1 and I have books 2 through 4 to read, but I don't know if that will ever happen. So for now I am keeping them just in case a friend wants to borrow them.
ReplyDelete#4 I prefer physical copies of books. There are a few e-books that after reading them I had to have the physical copy. I try to not think about how many duplicate books I have.
There are other popular books/series I haven't/won't read, but HP is definitely the biggest.
DeleteI actually gave my Kindle to my sister because I just SO RARELY use it (and she LOVES reading on it.) I still have an iPad and have read a few ebooks on there, which is nice for when a book is super-cheap as a ebook or it's self-published or something, but it's pretty rare for me to go the ebook route still. I like having actual physical books too much.
Ooh, I really like this TTT! I don't like the terms "beach read" or "fluffy" either. On the opposite side of your #8, I find it confusing and distracting when characters have WEIRD names. Like, how am I supposed to take a character seriously when her name is Blue? I probably am one to talk, though.
ReplyDelete