We Listen And We Don’t Judge… 5 Controversial Bookish Opinions

I’ve absolutely loved seeing the whole ‘we listen and we don’t judge’ craze flying through TikTok and so I thought I would bring it over here with some of my controversial book opinions, or some not so controversial opinions but things that frustrate me about the bookish community.

1. Nobody cares what you do, or do not add to your reading challenge

It’s not that deep! It honestly doesn’t matter. I am sick to death, every year without fail of seeing people going ‘can I count audiobooks to my reading challenge?’ ‘can I add re-reads to my reading challenge?’ It is YOUR personal reading challenge, so it is absolutely nothing to do with anyone else what you add. It’s personal… it doesn’t matter. Include a instruction manual for your new coffee machine if you want… it doesn’t matter.

2. Smut/Spice can ruin books, particularly contemporary romance books

This is where the controversial side of it comes in. In the past few years we have seen such a rise in spicy books, but in some of them it absolutely ruins it. I have seen so many Romantasy books going spicier and spicier where we are losing the impact of the storyline. I am sick to death of people acting like if a book doesn’t have spice that it’s not worth reading or that it is somehow less than. The majority of spicy books, in my opinion are no longer romance. The romance is nowhere to be seen as you are rushing into the spicy parts. I want to see the come back of ACTUAL romance books, where the characters actually start to feel some sort of love for each other before jumping into the spice. In my opinion the spice should be the pay off for the development of a relationship. If there’s spice by chapter 2 I’m not reading it. Because I feel absolutely nothing for these characters. We need to just calm down.

3. Binge reading can ruin the reading journey

I am not a binge reader. In fact, I hate reading a series right the way through. How many series have you binge read and you can’t remember the details because the series has just merged in your mind? I find reading them separately actually makes you appreciate each individual book better. I hear you say but what about cliffhangers? It’s all part of the reading experience. The anticipation of waiting for the next book not knowing what is going to happen… it’s just better. My favourite series, every single one of them had a major cliffhanger somewhere. I love them. Honestly waiting for a full series to be finished before starting it… it just ruins the excitement and anticipation for me. Not to mention, authors have had series cancelled because they’re deemed as not popular if they’re not performing well in terms of sales and reviews. It’s best to read them as they release.

4. The best thing you can do as a reader is DNF

If you’re like me, you probably read 5+ books a month… that’s a lot of books in a year and if you are forcing yourself to read something you’re not enjoying, you’re going to end up in a slump and not wanting to read. Even if it’s popular, do yourself a favour and just DNF the book. Life is far too short and there are far too many books out there to struggle through bad books. Just DNF and move on to something you do enjoy.

5. Throne of Glass is SJM’s best series and Tower of Dawn is one of the most superior books of the series

I’ve left probably the most controversial to last. As a huge fan of SJM, none of her series even come close to being as good as Throne of Glass. I see so many people hating on this series because it’s slow and nothing much happening. We have become a group of readers who want instant gratification and cannot stand waiting for the payoff and I genuinely believe that is why her other series get more love. But they are no where near as deep and complex and heartbreaking as this one. In addition to this being my favourite series, Tower of Dawn gets so much hate but if you look at it completely independently it is probably the best book of the series. The adventure, the character development… it is on another level. And the impact of that journey is lost by doing the tandem read. The tandem read ruins the journey.

What are your controversial opinions?