I LOVE BOOKS. But that shouldn’t come as news to you. You are here on my blog, so you would know. I am just not a bibliophile; I love everything related to books. I love the book smell, the library, bookish characters, of course talking to the authors and everything and anything that falls between these obsessions.
I do not conform to the popular (read as mainstream) norms and opinions of the book world according to the Internet. Here are my top 10 unpopular bookish opinions. What are yours? Click To TweetWhile I love talking about books and hearing / reading your thoughts about any book, I can not somehow join the bandwagon that everyone (am looking at you Buzzfeed) calls as being a book-nerd. (Does anyone get as annoyed as I do when people overuse ‘nerd’?).
My unpopular bookish opinions
Why, you ask? I do not conform to the popular (read as mainstream) norms and opinions of the book world according to the Internet. Here are my top 10 unpopular bookish opinions.
10) I don’t give books ‘star ratings’.
Until a short while ago, I rated books too, but I have liberated myself from the obligation to summarize all my feelings about a book to a star rating. I don’t want to be struggling to decide if I should give the book a 3 star or 3.5 star. Or worse, to give two very different books the same rating when they clearly aren’t. Read more about my issue with ratings here.
9) I am rarely a fangirl
It might come as a shocker to some people and even confuse a few. I might love the plot and writing and still hate the characters or feel meh about them. I rarely have a fangirling moment, but when I do, I can not stop gushing about them.
8) I still have not lost my love for people.
Sure I might be misanthropic sometimes. And even wiggle out of meeting friends because I don’t feel like it. Oh, I might hate talking to you right now because I have a book in my hand and I would rather finish that than gossiping with you.
Well that is me! But none of that is due to my love for books. Not all book nerds have to be introverts or speak like a geek and be adorkable (I am looking at you, John Green). If you do, it is great and if you don’t it is great too!
7) Some movies are better than books
I find no qualms in saying that there are some movies that have been better than their books. I am not going to deny that. Though I mostly prefer books to movies or TV series, there have been times that movies were as good as the books (like Gone Girl, The shining) as well as some that did better than the books (LOTR, PS I Love you, The room).
6) I prefer stand-alones to series
I don’t read book series. There, I said it. While every other book lover I know reads and obsesses about series after series, but I don’t have the patience to wait for the next book to be released. Or by the time it does get published, I would have forgotten all about it.
5) Book-nerds are not as judgemental as they seem
The Internet people all over the world seem to love bashing (read as, critique reviewing) titles like Twilight or Fifty shades, etc. Even I am guilty of doing that. I am yet to meet any book lover in real life to judge someone who reads something they don’t approve.
We might do that over the Internet; it is yet one other thing that the big bad mean world of the web makes us do. In real life, I am sure any book lover would feel a sense of bonding to see a book in your hand, whatever kind of reader you might be.
4) I don’t organize my bookshelves by color
I love spending hours gawking at #bookstagram. Come on, who doesn’t like looking at beautiful things? But I know it is not for me. I still arrange my books based on genre and then the size. And I still pick function over design.
This is probably one of the most unpopular bookish opinions.
3) I am not cover obsessed
I don’t mind your judging the book by its cover; not at all. But I am surprised how far my fellow book people go with their cover obsession. It might have all started with the cover reveal parties; at least these parties, i.e., series of promotional posts have made book covers a huge deal.
I know friends who want the covers of all the books they own in a series to match. And if they don’t, they even buy multiple copies only for the covers. Sure they are pretty, but aren’t they a wee bit overboard? Maybe it is just me.
2) I highlight and dog-ear my books, sometimes… Rarely.. Okay never! But I don’t mind them
I treasure my books. I seldom lend them. And when I do, I may keep politely reminding (nudge or nag, rather) them until they give it back. Yet, I don’t mind an occasional highlight or dog-ear in my books. I don’t get a panic attack when some one does that.
Hey, I love loved books that I find from the thrift stores.
1) I don’t mind the spoilers
While the entire world is going crazy over the leaked spoilers, I for one don’t mind them at all.
If anything they make me more curious about how things are gonna turn into what I already know (thanks to the spoiler). See, I agree I would hate to know whodunnit too early, but dude, we know how most romance novels end.
So go on, tell me all about the book you loved, I still would read it without despising you. Spoilers are not a huge deal to me.
#Bonus: My non bookish unpopular opinion
I don’t understand pet parties.
I don’t, but I am almost sure your pets don’t enjoy wearing those party hats. The number of pet party supplies I see around my place is ridiculous. If you want to make them happy, let them be.
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Let’s chat
What are your unpopular bookish opinions? Do you conform to the mainstream image of a book-nerd? Let me know, we can gossip quite a bit about them.
You don’t mind spoilers?! Your power! :O
LOL! I know…
hahahah this post made me LMAO Gayathri !
I agree with many things here! So we can be unpopular together 🙂
Mea Culpa for making fun of Twilight (which I reread many times LOL ) and FFoG which I finished (even though I DNF 80% of my books) I don’t think we make fun of the readers BUT of some aspects of the book 🙂
OMG I didn’t even know there was such thing as a Pet Party!!!
I ADORE those beautiful bookstagram pics of bookshelves organized by color BUT I would never found a book if I did that 🙂
It is us against the world then!
I rarely fangirl too! I mean I love characters and books, but I don’t usually get excited about it all. It’s just not me. Great post!
Finally, someone I could relate to.
I share quite a few of your unpopular bookish opinions, Gayathri. I most especially don’t give my books star ratings or organize my books by colour (I would never find anything). Great post! 😃
Yay I am glad to hear that!
LOL – I love your posts!
Thanks, I am glad you do!
I agree with all of these! And the trick with the series is to wait till they are finished and then start reading 😉
On my audiobook blog I don’t use ratings either. Sometimes when I scroll through my Goodreads list I see two books I rated with 4 stars and think: “Hey, they weren’t the same at all!” Are you a mood-reader, too? Maybe there’s a connection.
The only way I would read a series is after all the books are out but by then everyone would have already read it and I would not have company.
And yes, I am a mood reader and TBR planning never works for me.
I agree with you on LOTR. I loved reading the series, but I totally think the movies are better. 🙂
I think we should make an exception to the ‘books are better than movies’ rules sometimes.
I totally agree from 1-7!
However … Im sorry but I do am from thoses who do a lil party for my dogs birthday.. 😂​ they’d only wear the lil hat for pictures though, and they have a special treat as a cake and a gift also. even some minigames for a few hours ..
OMG.. you have to tell more so that I can get myself around the idea. I love dogs, do not get me wrong. But why would they enjoy wearing a hat 😛
Oh I share most of your unpopular opinions, which is why if I start on all the things we agree on, I will have to write an essay in your comment section, so I'll talk about the exceptions instead.
I do enjoy standalones, but I also love reading series' as long as they are not overly long. BUT I only ever read series' once the last book is out, cause I have zero patience.
And the one other thing would be – I really avoid spoilers. Sure I don't mind them in a romance, because who cares. But in a mystery/thriller, I avoid spoilers like the plague.
P.S. I just added your blog to my reader on Feedly. So you'll be seeing a lot more of me around here.
Great post. I don't believe you go by how other people feel about a book. Some may think a book is great and when you read it you don't like it. If I shopping for new books I read a little snip of it and that's how I judge the book.
I dog ear and often write in my books, I love to have books that look well read, unpopular opinion though, as I know most people like to have their books in a good condition!
I don't colour co-ordinate by bookshelf either. If I'm honest my bookshelf is only 3 shelves high. Most of my books live in a cupboard.
A different kind of post, I liked it! 🙂
As an avid reader, I LOVED this! Someone who has similar views. This was great.
I have been known to write in a book. If there is a new to me word I will look it up and write the definition in the margin. Last of the Mohicans is the one book to movie I always think of when comparing both. They are NOTHING alike and I love the movie much better.
Being a book lover too, I agree with each and every point you have just put up. Especially the one with stand alones. I just don't have patience for series too
Wow, these really are unpopular opinions! Most people I know, always tell me that the book was better than the movie 🙂
OMG lol! You remind me of me in a majority of these. Although, I do judge books by their cover I won't go as far as buying multiple copies of a book because of the cover changes though…not that deep for me.
I love that you don't use star ratings, and I completely agree that sometimes the books are better!
Your personal posts always make me smile – haven't failed yet
I totally agree with number 8, there may be times I would rather read then go out but the doesn't mean I'm a complete introvert.
I also live bookstagram too and oogling over beautiful pictures but when I take pictures my main focus is the books as that's what we all love right?!
Thanks for the interesting post.
Gemma @ http://www.gemmasbooknook.blogspot.com
I can relate to your point about ratings. It's sometimes so hard to determine if this is a 3 or a 4. Why go through that pressure in the first place, right?
I am totally the same way about my books! I'm not an avid reader anymore but I hated dog eared pages or anything that made them look less than immaculate LOL
Hey girl, do you have a follow botten??? I can't find one and great post…
I agree with the whole dog ear and highlight thing. I think they ruin books. I use the post it stickies as my bookmark for two reasons. One, I loose my spot on the page when I come back to reading it. Two, it keeps from ruining the spine of the book. I started laughing when you said "book-nerds are not as judgmental as they seem". I agree with you there. We get looked at a certain way and criticized for something that we love.
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Totally agree with the spoiler part, and i don't organize my shelf by color either. awesome post!
Looks like you and I have a lot in common. I do love reading books, but I don’t obsess over everything bookish.
Not bothered about covers, don’t care about arranging books by any theme (in fact, I have a messy bookshelf!), don’t see the point in making a song and dance about upcoming books or new releases, absolutely hate dog-eared books and highlighting pages… but it doesn’t make me any less of a book lover.
Neither am I judging others for the way they choose to enjoy books and celebrate authors.
To each their own.
But those shelves are super pretty. I feel like 'I want to have the cake and eat it too'.
That is exactly what I feel too. What is the point if you can't get the book without pulling another 10 of them off the shelf?
Ha ha. I would totally lend you my books Kris, I would trust you with them.
I don't organise my shelf by color eighter. It looks cool, but I have to have my books on height otherwise I get annoyed at the height changes every few books.
Thank you for pointing out that you can love books without liking the same things everyone else does! So many people just don't quite get that. Also I'm the same when it comes to Bookstagram, yes it looks pretty, but how do you find your books? I would go crazy!
I am 100% with you I NEVER dog ear my books and won't lend them out unless I know the person knows how crazy I am and won't ruin any part of it ??
I love the way you describe yourself. In essence, you are a bookworm that doesn't act like the typical bookworm. I love it.
Very interesting!! I'm big on not being spoiled though. It just ruins the feels for me to know what's coming. Great post! It's interesting to see what everyone's unpopular opinions are.
I am doing a happy dance, and am quite happy that no one is seeing me.
My first time here and I must say, I am mightily impressed. I also relate to this kind of content, in terms of skimmable content. I am all for long form essays by the way (hello, NYT!) but that's because the writing quality is anyway stellar. I do wish more bloggers would make the reading easier for fellow bloggers and readers.
For the number of book bloggers I have seen on the web, yours comes across as authentic, frank and (most importantly) well written. As an editor, my typo and grammar radar is always on high alert and whew, you passed with flying colours. So kudos for that!
Con-Crit: To be clear, I had very little to quibble about, except a stray word here and there. For instance, 'Adorkable' and 'meh', but I am guessing that's more for the effect than actual sanctity of language?
All in all, glad to have found you and yes, you've earned yourself a follower 🙂
I do that totally. I have no idea why I started doing that but it makes it all more mysterious right?
I loved Gone girl, the book so much. But I saw the movie first, so I liked it too. I love your blog Kat and that you combine your love for movies and books.
Exactly. I am gonna read them even if you tell me awful things about it. But it is only because I can not put a book down once I picked it up (I am working on it thhough)
I don't think they are annoying at all. Pfft.. people can talk about anything they want, right?
Love reading this. As an avid reader it's interesting to find out about the quirks and opinions of other readers. I'm not a fangirl type person either.
Great post! I've actually started reading books without reading the back cover to find out what they are about. It's quite fun!
I agree w/the spoilers….always frustrates me! I've turned into such a reader lately shooting to have my own library at this rate!
I love reading and all things books but I don't have as much time to devote to it as I would like. I can relate to a lot of what you have posted here but I do still get annoyed at spoilers, maybe because I enjoy the not knowing while I am immersed in the book. I understand you point about series…I usually wait to start a series until they are done or there are plenty of books already published.
Haha I like what you've done here. I find it funny that people seem to think there's a right way or wrong way of being a booklover!!
Spoilers never bother me because I'm reading to the end anyway. 🙂 Books hold so many things that online reading just can't. There is nothing like sitting down with a good old fashion book in your hand with a quiet night and a hot cup of tea!
I understand your point of view for the spoilers. Its interesting though all the people find them annoying. I like you find the good from these.
A movie being better than the book?!?! GASP SHOCK HORROR Blasphemy! I did like the movie version of Gone Girl, but the book was still better to me.
I am a lover of bookstagram as well, but I definitely do not have the talent or patience to participate. I will stick to what I do best, gawking at pretty pictures of books.
Bashing people who enjoy Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey annoys me to no end. It's amazing when people find books that make them love reading again or for the first time. We book lovers should encourage more of that. There are plenty of books to go around. We don't all need to enjoy the same ones.
I am definitely anti-spoilers, but I'm less annoyed when I'm not as invested in the story.