look there have been books that I haven't particularly enjoyed or have loved but I would never shame someone or make them feel bad for hating or loving a book . Especially Sarah j mass , Twilight colleen hoover and authors who are bestselling or on booktok there is a reason those books are bestsellers and popular on TikTok because people like them and find their books enjoyable , just because I didn't enjoy a certain book series doesn't mean every every else finds it shit or overrated or that the writing is bad it just wasn't for me . People including me have felt shamed and scared to admit they really enjoyed a book or series some else hates .At the end of the day not everything it marketed or made for me and that's ok .
by Positive_Worker_3467
5 Comments
Counterpoint: people can criticize a book you like. As long as they criticize the *book* and not the *readers*, it’s fine and actually helpful because it lets others recognize when things may be flawed.
There’s nothing less useful than people instantly jumping in and mindlessly repeating some variation of “let people enjoy things” or “don’t yuck someone else’s yum.”
I’m always banging on about this and it drives me nuts. Reading enjoyment and writing/story/book quality are 2 different things.
Just because you didn’t enjoy a book does not mean it is bad. And just because you enjoyed a book does not mean it is good. It means you enjoyed them, or did not. And discussing the reasons behind that is far more interesting and useful for book recommendations than just saying it was good or bad.
I can criticize whatever I want, and you can read whatever you want. If you feel ashamed because of my opinion of a book you like, that’s on you. Like whatever you like. Putting the onus of your feelings on other people is passive.
As a twilight book lover I’ve taken my fair share of criticism for saying I enjoyed the series. Stop yucking peoples yum!!!!!!!
If you can’t make the argument that a book or work of art in general is bad, there can’t be any serious criticism whatsoever. Should somebody not be able to argue, for example, that people should avoid buying a book that was written in an afternoon to hopefully make a few dollars on the Amazon marketplace just before somebody out there might listen it and leaving a bad review would hurt their feelings?
Sure, there can be an unnecessary amount of piling on when it comes to bestsellers like Twilight since they’re an easy target that most people know about. But at the same time, that means there are plenty of readers who are equally able to argue for the literary merits of these books to counter the haters.