SO FUNNY. We have a lot of the same hot takes. Mine is that hardcover books are the worst!!! I do most of my reading in bed and they're just too big and heavy. Not at all practical. But they do look nice on a shelf.
100% agree with your hot take on physical description! Same goes for setting description, imo. I love some sparing description of a landscape, room, etc. but once we get into, like, what the wall sconces look like, we've gone too far.
To your last hot take, I mostly agree *except* in recent years I've learned that my partner has no "mind's eye" -- like, he can't picture things in his head, and he has never remembered a dream (apparently it's called afantasia) -- and that makes fiction less fun for him than for me. When we listen to audiobooks together, he's much more able to stick with it if it's a full cast rather than one narrator (he can and does power through anyway, but it's just not as fun as it is for me). He's certainly into fiction TV/movies, but for books and audiobooks, he gravitates toward nonfiction. P.S. If you were wondering "is she some kind of psychologist or neuroscientist, or did she diagnose her partner with afantasia after learning about it on a podcast," it's 100% the latter -- in my defense, it was a BBC science podcast, so y'know, I'm expecting my honorary medical degree in the mail any day now) (podcast: The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry; episode: The Case of the Blind Mind's Eye)
Also: totally agree about book covers, and I love your "I ignore most physical descriptions," I never thought of doing that and will definitely do that now 😁
Ahhh I always eagerly anticipate your posts but this one is a real fav. I hate ugly covers and I constantly wonder if it’s a bad idea to donate / get rid of the books I love that have bad covers.
My hot take (as someone who is newer to audio books): some books are better in certain formats. I don’t think I would have liked Tom Lake, *if not for Meryl’s narration.* As you say, not everything needs to be read with our eyes.
My second hot take: some of the books championed by the general social media girlies (as opposed to bookstagrammers, booktokers, and bookstackers) are just not very enjoyable. I’m looking at you, The Cloisters.
my book hot take is more of a mystery related one; if you can predict the ending, it doesn’t mean the book is bad!
SO FUNNY. We have a lot of the same hot takes. Mine is that hardcover books are the worst!!! I do most of my reading in bed and they're just too big and heavy. Not at all practical. But they do look nice on a shelf.
100% agree with your hot take on physical description! Same goes for setting description, imo. I love some sparing description of a landscape, room, etc. but once we get into, like, what the wall sconces look like, we've gone too far.
LOVE your hot takes and full agreement with the one about people never reading fiction. Like get a soul why don't you?! 😂
100% agree on covers— life’s too short for an ugly cover.
I prefer paperback to hardback and look at hardbacks like last season’s fashion trends. 🫣
LEAVING by Roxana Robinson
In full agreement with most of your hot takes, especially used books! It’s something about the germs and potentially folded corners.
To your last hot take, I mostly agree *except* in recent years I've learned that my partner has no "mind's eye" -- like, he can't picture things in his head, and he has never remembered a dream (apparently it's called afantasia) -- and that makes fiction less fun for him than for me. When we listen to audiobooks together, he's much more able to stick with it if it's a full cast rather than one narrator (he can and does power through anyway, but it's just not as fun as it is for me). He's certainly into fiction TV/movies, but for books and audiobooks, he gravitates toward nonfiction. P.S. If you were wondering "is she some kind of psychologist or neuroscientist, or did she diagnose her partner with afantasia after learning about it on a podcast," it's 100% the latter -- in my defense, it was a BBC science podcast, so y'know, I'm expecting my honorary medical degree in the mail any day now) (podcast: The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry; episode: The Case of the Blind Mind's Eye)
Also: totally agree about book covers, and I love your "I ignore most physical descriptions," I never thought of doing that and will definitely do that now 😁
Wait YES to all these takes!! Also I deleted my threads after a month of having it 😅 it was not a healthy place!
Ahhh I always eagerly anticipate your posts but this one is a real fav. I hate ugly covers and I constantly wonder if it’s a bad idea to donate / get rid of the books I love that have bad covers.
My hot take (as someone who is newer to audio books): some books are better in certain formats. I don’t think I would have liked Tom Lake, *if not for Meryl’s narration.* As you say, not everything needs to be read with our eyes.
My second hot take: some of the books championed by the general social media girlies (as opposed to bookstagrammers, booktokers, and bookstackers) are just not very enjoyable. I’m looking at you, The Cloisters.