Hear, hear. On Mon, Jun 5, 2023, 12:04 p.m. Lesley K <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > There is nothing more tedious than someone explaining how someone else is > doing reading "Wrong" - unless it is someone explaining how someone else is > doing *living* "Wrong". > > Tropey romance, fanfiction, comic books, whatever - stories are what make > us human, and there is no way to human "wrong". > > On Mon, Jun 5, 2023 at 12:03 PM Jorgenson, Jane < > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> I think she has some points – but it’s also kind of not anything new? And >> not anything I’m concerned about (as a reader or a librarian). Like teenage >> girls have always gravitated to a certain kind of melodramatic/plot heavy >> book? And publishers have always tried to piggyback on successful ones with >> similar tropes. There was Lurlene McDaniel and then the Twilight phenom, >> etc. And romance readers have always talked in terms of tropes. Heck the >> All About Romance site (which has been around for many years) has extensive >> trope-based lists explicitly because romance readers like to read their >> favorites. >> >> “What’s most alarming is not having to witness conservations between >> adults and teenagers using the word “seggs,” or even to see writers >> advertising by listing tropes, it’s that the books they’re doing all of >> this for are thoroughly, catastrophically bad. >> >> I am a woman of my word, and I didn’t want to write about these books >> without giving them a fair shot, even if they’re not to my taste at all. >> There are a few main categories, outside of the “trope lists” — sports >> romance, office romance, fantasy romance and regular romance with socially >> relevant undercurrents. It has been a genuinely miserable week of my life, >> trudging through as many of the most popular books from each genre as I >> could. >> >> The last category, despite seeming the most normal on the surface, is the >> most worrisome. The subcategory has a champion, of course. Colleen Hoover >> <https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-2022/colleen-hoover-popularity.html> >> is to TikTok industry-generated romance as John Grisham and James Patterson >> are to airport novels. Her most popular novel, “It Ends With Us,” has sold four >> million copies >> <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/books/colleen-hoover.html> and, >> along with being the most controversial >> <https://msmagazine.com/2022/09/07/it-ends-with-us-book-review/> of the >> books popularized by TikTok, is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. >> >> Without entering too much into the plot, it’s about domestic abuse. This >> book is meant to be a harrowing, melancholic analysis of how devastating >> violence is when it comes from someone you love. Shockingly, it does not >> manage this, instead taking what is a frequent, devastating experience and >> turning it into a soap opera.” >> >> The alarm about “bad” books being popular and ‘oh no, this is bad for >> publishing’ recycles itself every ten years or so. There was alarm with the >> rise of Goodreads and with Twitter and with YouTube. >> >> I get a lot of BookTok content in my “for you” feed on TikTok and I see a >> wide variety of books discussed by a diverse group of people (mostly women, >> but a few men). Yes, there is more fantasy and fantasy romance, then other, >> but I also see a lot of litfic and thrillers/mystery. It’s far more than >> what she talks about. >> >> If I have a concern about TT or other social media is how it affects >> attention span, but given that a lot of the booktok’ers I see are reading >> many books, and many that are chunky, that is likely more a ‘me’ thing than >> anything else. >> >> Jane >> >> >> >> >> >> *From:* Fiction Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> >> *On Behalf Of *Todd Mason >> *Sent:* Sunday, June 4, 2023 12:46 AM >> *To:* [log in to unmask] >> *Subject:* On "BookTok", a critique >> >> >> >> Caution: This email was sent from an external source. Avoid unknown links >> and attachments. >> >> >> >> Courtesy Anna Biller, and perhaps a bit collegiate, but not necessarily >> wrong as a result... >> >> >> >> https://pittnews.com/article/177256/opinions/opinion-booktok-is-a-mistake/ >> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__pittnews.com_article_177256_opinions_opinion-2Dbooktok-2Dis-2Da-2Dmistake_&d=DwMFaQ&c=byefhD2ZumMFFQYPZBagUCDuBiM9Q9twmxaBM0hCgII&r=PgZGf0msvD01DFE8NzO3oBljh-snuayCkeTfH0Xd08i8wSlPnWDvMO_VTADN55Ac&m=EMhS6-mTzvtteRwPsR5bBjmuFZ13WAd-7meFzNb1P6LXUnJ2SahVsZi53tuvP6-k&s=uKUllEtWA7qVBR3B9pTPLASeXAfkIww2oQ7r6-mUVRM&e=> >> >> >> >> TM >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> To unsubscribe from the FICTION_L list, click the following link: >> >> http://ccpllists.cuyahogalibrary.net/scripts/wa.exe?TICKET=NzM4NzA1IGpqb3JnZW5zb25ATUFESVNPTlBVQkxJQ0xJQlJBUlkuT1JHIEZJQ1RJT05fTKsaSqKXU8Gr&c=SIGNOFF >> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ccpllists.cuyahogalibrary.net_scripts_wa.exe-3FTICKET-3DNzM4NzA1IGpqb3JnZW5zb25ATUFESVNPTlBVQkxJQ0xJQlJBUlkuT1JHIEZJQ1RJT05fTKsaSqKXU8Gr-26c-3DSIGNOFF&d=DwMFaQ&c=byefhD2ZumMFFQYPZBagUCDuBiM9Q9twmxaBM0hCgII&r=PgZGf0msvD01DFE8NzO3oBljh-snuayCkeTfH0Xd08i8wSlPnWDvMO_VTADN55Ac&m=EMhS6-mTzvtteRwPsR5bBjmuFZ13WAd-7meFzNb1P6LXUnJ2SahVsZi53tuvP6-k&s=JPhZpv0X0mfgBwbz8Q5RqFcoUThUfrQImXbP6Jl-aJ8&e=> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> To unsubscribe from the FICTION_L list, click the following link: >> >> http://ccpllists.cuyahogalibrary.net/scripts/wa.exe?TICKET=NzM4NzA2IGtsZXNsZXlrQEdNQUlMLkNPTSBGSUNUSU9OX0wgIOUT7VYXWFKA&c=SIGNOFF >> > > > -- > -- Lesley Knieriem > Rogers Public Library > Rogers AR > > Nunc adeamus bibliothecam, non illam quidem multis instructam libris, sed > exquisitis. -- Erasmus > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the FICTION_L list, click the following link: > > http://ccpllists.cuyahogalibrary.net/scripts/wa.exe?TICKET=NzM4NzA2IHNoZWlsYWhhbW1vbmR0b2RkQEdNQUlMLkNPTSBGSUNUSU9OX0wgIFQigjN27xMC&c=SIGNOFF > ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the FICTION_L list, click the following link: https://ccpllists.cuyahogalibrary.net/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=FICTION_L