A Mini Tirade Against Bookish Apps...

Hey, everyone! ☺️ How are you all? How was your New Years? 🤗😉

Speaking of New Years…December and January are often the time to plan new goals for yourself, in reading and otherwise. Everyone seems to like to share these goals with all of their friends, online or in-person, either as accountability or just for fun. Because of this, I’ve gotten a look at a lot of people’s reading habits and goals…and they got me thinking. 🤔

There seems to be a rise of slightly concerning trends in certain bookish circles, particularly with younger women on BookTok (TikTok, specifically centered on books 😉). Aside from the horribly questionable reading choices of many, it seems that most readers hardly care about one very important aspect of reading and books anymore. 😕 Care to guess which? 😏

The stories.

I know. 😭😭😭

Very often now, it’s about only a certain aspect of the novel they pick up. “What tropes is it?” “Is there slow-burn romance?” “Enemies-to-lovers?” “Grumpy-sunshine?” “What are the vibes?” “What other books is it like?” “Is it indie or trad publishing?” “What are the author’s political stances?” “How long is it?” “What’s it’s Goodreads rating?”

And okay. Those could all be legitimate things to wonder. But back to the reading goals for a moment—

I’ve seen some--SOME, BTW, I know this is not everyone 😉--readers who claim they don’t even read the entire book, just skim through to get to their favorite parts. There are readers who only read based on “vibes”. Or there are readers who only read the book because it’s slim and easy, and will add to their number of books read. Doesn’t matter if the book interested them before, they need the number. They have to have 50, or 100 by years end. It doesn’t matter what it was they read, it matters that they read it.

We’ve all probably been guilty of that, at least a little bit. 🥴 I know I have. 😅

So this year, my goal is different. ☺️😉 Yes, I did put a number into my Goodreads for my book goals, but I could hardly care less about it this year. 😅 My goal is to read quality books. Books I’ve always wanted to read and will be proud of when I’m done, and books that actually take a percentage of brain power--I’m being harsh to my past self here. 🤣

What are your reading goals this year? 🙃 I’d love to hear them, even if you’re opinion is different than mine. 😉🤗

The second problem I’ve seen is the rating system. “Such a cute story, five stars!💕” “So profound, five stars! 👏🏼” “IDK, it was kinda terrible but I also loved it, four and a half! 🥹” “I just didn’t feel it, three stars. 😝” There’s certainly nothing wrong with people having these opinions. ☺️ But I think that before we go slapping labels of good and bad over books, we should at least have a standard, have a bit more meaning behind the stars than “High is good, low is bad.” 🤨

Sometimes when I’ve read a book, I really struggle figuring out how to rate it. Am I going on technical quality? 🤔 On all the things I’ve heard said about this book I may not understand myself? The feeling? The author? 🤔 The way I felt when such and such character did this or that? On style? What am I supposed to go on? And most importantly, what gives some random teenage girl who knows relatively little about literature the right to label any piece she can get her hands on? 😂

What do you all think? ☺️ What do you usually consider when rating your books? Or do you even rate them? 🙃

That’s all for now! 🤭 I dont really have an official conclusion for this post, but I hope it made you think! 😉🤔 And I also that you aren’t angry at me. 😆 I’d love to hear any other opinions on these points, or on the reading world in general! 😉😌 Thanks so much for reading! 🤗🩷

--Sara Noelle