💬 Friday Thread: What's a Reading Hill You'll Die On?
And what have you been reading this week?
Hello and Happy Friday!📚
The book and reading space on Substack (and Instagram too) has been entirely too judgmental lately, so I thought it would be fun to lighten things up in our discussion this week. This feels like a good week to share a bit of our bookish identities and to get a little playful, maybe even a bit controversial.
I started thinking about this week’s question when I decided to DNF an upcoming release, but not before skipping to the end to find out what happened. I know I know, this is not the “right” way to read a book. And while it’s going in my Storygraph as a DNF (not a finished read) I did get through 35% and basically just wanted to know what actually happened, who was the “bad guy or girl,” and how did it all turn out.
The book is A Twist of Fate by Se-Ah Jang (July 29). This upcoming psychological thriller is translated from Korean and I thought the premise was good—a woman named Jae-Young is escaping something by getting on a train, meets another woman who has a baby, they talk and when Jae-Young comes back from the restroom, the woman is gone but the baby is there with a note.
Things take off from there. I was interested in Jae-Young and what would happen, but as the story progressed I felt disconnected from the narrative and the flow of the story became “clunky” at times (for lack of a better word). It seemed like there was something off with the translation. The characters said things that didn’t seem to fit the story and the narrative became one in which the reader is told what’s happening. I lost interest and decided to stop reading.
Sometimes, in a mystery or thriller where I don’t want to continue reading, but I want to know something specific like whodunit, I’ll skip to the end, find out and then move on. I don’t feel the need to force myself to finish a book that I’ve completely lost interest in….sometimes not finishing with a side of skipping to the end is exactly what this reader needs. And I feel no readerly guilt or shame about doing this.
This leads directly to my question —What’s a book/reading hill you’ll die on?
By that, I mean a strong opinion, belief, or personal rule about books, reading, or literary culture that you stand by—no matter how popular or unpopular it might be. These are the bookish stances that shape how you read, what you read, or how you talk about books.
Here are a few of my hills
Our reading lives are our own. No one else needs to be “shoulding” on them
Life is too short to force ourselves to finish books. We aren’t in high school anymore and that book will be there if you decide to try it again
Deckled edges are meant to torture readers
A 3 star review isn’t a “bad” review
A beautiful sentence doesn’t make up for a boring story
If a book’s description has the word cozy in it I probably won’t read it
Just because a book is easy to read doesn’t mean it’s not worth reading
Different books meet different needs—and that’s the beauty of reading
Audiobooks count as reading
I don’t care if a character is “unlikeable.” That’s the point sometimes
But if your characters are all unlikeable, they better be really interesting.
Books with blurbs that say “If you liked X, you’ll love this” are usually lying
Many one-book-a-year authors need to rethink that publishing schedule
There is never a good reason to include animal cruelty in a story
Let’s make this a fun, philosophical, quirky, playful, etc discussion. We are a wonderful, considerate group of readers, I know you know this is all in good fun:) Whatever your book/reading hills are, plant your flag, I can’t wait to see what you share!
The questions I ask in weekly threads are meant to be fun and help us connect, so please know you don’t have to answer each question, if you only have the time/desire to answer one, great! Please put book titles IN ALL CAPS for easy reading:)
Question Time
What’s a book/reading hill you’ll die on?
What have you been reading this week?
Friday Threads is the place where we share our reads and connect with each other in a space free from bots. If you’ve been missing community in your reading life and enjoy getting and sharing book recommendations, as well as recs for the best tv shows and more, simply upgrade your subscription and join the conversation!
Happy Weekend Reading!📚
-Renee