October ~spooky~ TBR

I want to read so many books this month, it's ridiculous. In addition to three non-spooky library books, I also have a mighty need to read every 'Halloween-y' book on my shelves. That includes physical and kindle shelves. Here is a list of all October appropriate books I desire to read, of which I will probably only get to half of:

This would be my third reading of Frankenstein, but it gets better every single time. I do believe this novel holds the title for my favorite classic, so of course I have to read it this month. It's the perfect time for another rereading!

Obviously I love Frankenstein, so a modern version with a crime element is right up my ally. I read the first novel about two years ago, so it get through the next two I will either be confused out of my mind for the next two, or I'll just have to suck it up and do a reread of the first book. These are hefty books, folks. Three plus the original Frankenstein is quite a lot to read during my favorite month.

I have never read Dracula! I've been meaning to read it but I kept telling myself I'd read it closer to Halloween. Well, it's closer to Halloween! Also, Jason from TheHeavyBlanks is doing a kind of read-along this month so what better time to finally get this read, eh?

I honest to God don't even know what this is about other than it's a gothic (possibly queer?) love story with a female vampire, but Jessie Quinn from CupOfBooks read it and we have similar tastes in books. Also it's short and I found it online for free.

 Well, it's about vampires and I own it and should really get around to reading it. Now's as good as a time than any, I suppose.

I'm so obsessed with the new television series Sleepy Hollow and while I know the novel is not anything like the show, I desperately need to read it. It's scary and in the public domain.

This was on my Stember TBR list and I never got around to read it. It's about magic so it could totally go with my Halloween-y books.

This has been on my Goodreads TBR list forever and it's only $1.99 on Kindle. I think the title speaks for itself. I obviously need this book in my life.

I've owned this forever and haven't got through it yet, but I'm in the mood for really cheesy zombie stories. Plus I'm always in the mood for Pride and Prejudice.

All of the books on this list so far have been books I own, are in the public domain or I could get for less than 3 bucks. This is not one of those. However, I've been putting off buying this book but I think needing a good ghost story is a good enough reason to spend money. Plus, I loved the first novel and need to know what happens. Also, Maureen just got a new puppy and needs money to raise Zelda in a stable household.

Forgive me, Rainbow Rowell

(Today's blog comes with a disclaimer: I am much more focused in my Booktube videos than I ever will be in this blog. It evidently all ties up just stay with me here.)

Yesterday the wonderful Christine from polandbananasBOOKS posted a quick FAQ style confessions video in which she explained that she can not read The Fault in Our Stars because of her physical reaction to diseases. She had to explain this because of the sheer number of questions plus several rude demands that she read it.

I feel like by being part of any book community there are pressures and expectations to read certain things. It really shouldn't ever be a shock to find out someone hasn't read a book that has come out in the last two years. For me, books are far more expensive than movies or music. Not that I have ever tried, but books are far harder to illegally download than movies or music.

However, now that I think of it, no one should ever be rudely shocked ("Why isn't there a review of this book on your site? YOU'VE NEVER READ IT? WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!") that someone hasn't read a book. Any book, classic or not. The Gwendolyn Reading Method recently uploaded a video called "You Haven't Read WHAT??" talking about her experiences with people shocked over her unread books.

There are far too many books and not nearly enough time. That is the struggle of the reader. Therefore, we should all respect each others book choices. We can't read EVERYTHING. My time on Earth is precious, so I'm only going to read certain books. I use a very complicated system to decide what those books will be (let's just call it "I Read Whatever the Fuck I Feel Like") but I do have a few things that would stop me from reading a book even if I really, really wanted to read it.

College.

If you've been subbed to me on YouTube for a while, you might know that I talk about my anxiety a lot. Basically college messed me up and it was really bad for a long time. It's still bad. In fact, it's so bad that I totally understood where Christine was coming from because I experience a physical and emotional reaction due to fiction containing college plot lines. I don't faint, but I do shake and hyperventilate and cry and other things related to panic attacks.

I can't watch Undeclared despite the fact that it has my favorite actor of all time in it. I skipped several episodes of Buffy during her first year at college. Most recently, I discovered I can't read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. This is a book I should read, one that people will be shocked to discover I haven't read in a few months. I own it and the cover art is by my favorite illustrator. I've read Rainbow's other work and loved it. It's based on the Harry Potter fandom. It's title is literally in my username for every site. The summary is a summary of my life. I thought it was going to be the book for me. Opened up to the first page, read that the main character is moving her stuff into her freshman dorm, went "nope," closed the book and proceeded to have a panic attack that left me drained and depressed for over two days.

So, yeah, I'm not going to be reading Fangirl until I have completely sorted out my anxiety over college because I don't wish to cause myself real emotional and physical distress over a book (although it can be argued that I have emotional distress over all fictional stories that I care about at all, but that's normally welcomed. This is not).

Just for the record, I know that college is not a trigger for me and that this whole post is about typical 'first world problems,' but it's still a thing that happens to me and apparently other people, too. Also I'm totally not comparing Christine's thing to mine because they're not the same thing at all but her video just prompted me to talk about this. Lot's of disclaimer's today. 

Basically,  this is a really convoluted way to say let's not judge people by what they've read or haven't read. There could either be a "legitimate" reason for it, or "just freaking because, that's why." No big deal, wither way. Unless it's Harry Potter. Then you better get on that.

Kidding.

Dear Ben Aaronovitch and other creators

I’ve never read any of Ben Aarononwitch’s work, I intended to, but now I highly doubt I will after all the drama he caused last week. Let me quickly run down what went down: Ben commented on The Book Smuggler’s review of his Peter Grant series. I would like to point out that in this review she says that she loves these books. However, the criticism she gives about the book is the treatment of women. Personally, the quotes she, Ana the reviewer, cited make me as a women really uncomfortable. Ben comes in and goes “You’re totally misinterpreting what I wrote!” He doesn’t address the comments about sexism, other than saying a rather rude and untrue comment about how strong women wouldn’t put up with unwanted sexually advances. He bashes the reviewer for assuming the two main characters have feelings for each other when he admitted that he added “a few lines” that shows that they do. He tells us to look passed the meta. He then stays and argues with the reviewer.

Now, this happens a lot but there’s an added bonus to this story! The whole ordeal sparked a really awesome post from Strange Horizons about fan spaces and creator spaces. It’s something you should DEFINITELY read because it’s about fandom and can be related to booktube. It basically talks about how creators are entering fandom and how that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Fans should be able to discuss things, especially the social impact of the thing, without the creator coming in and saying “NO THIS IS JUST A THING DON’T LOOK AT IT CLOSER!” Fans should be able to have headcanons and ships and so forth without the creators coming in and saying “THAT’S NOT CANON! STOP IT!”

However, Ben Aaronovitch disagreed. How surprising. He showed up in the comments AGAIN. Ben says he “loves throwing his canonical weight around” and that he’s “ more than happy to provide a NO WRITERS icon if you need one.” He literally called someone an idiot in the comments. It felt a bit like Amy’s Baking Company, to be honest.

Ben, no. Shhh. Stop talking. I don’t care about your canon. Once I read a book, that book is mine to think whatever I want about. I’m going to ship Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray no matter what canon says. I don’t give a shit about what you intended, because I took it a different way. I hate quoting John Green, but seriously books “belong to their readers now, which is a great thing–because the books are more powerful in the hands of readers.” As an author, your job is done once a reader reads a book. It is not your job to force people to read your book a certain way.

You are do not belong on fanfiction.net. You do not belong on Tumblr searching the tags of ships. You do not belong on Goodreads arguing with everyday readers. You do not belong on any book reviews you don’t agree with. Feel free to read everything, I don’t care. But expect to be bitched out if you enter a space not made for you, a space we as fans think it a save space to discuss our favorite works in painstaking detail.These spaces are ours, for the readers to tell other people who are thinking about reading the books what we thought about it. We don’t need a “NO WRITER’S” icon because you shouldn’t be so insecure that you need to argue the fact that you're a good author. We don’t need a “NO WRITER’S” icon because it’s common sense. It’s not up to us to protect your ego. Go to your own website and talk about what you meant when you wrote something. Talk to fans on Twitter if they tweet at you. Go somewhere you’re invited to go. Blogger’s always like inviting authors to guest blog about their work. I get that talking about writing is fun, but we didn’t ask you to come correct us about your sexist writing or about the relationships we choose to root for. Our reviews, at least FAN reviews, are not for you. They are for people thinking about reading the book. They are for people who read the book and want to discuss it with other people who read the book. As a reviewer myself, I don’t want you on my review telling me I’m wrong because my reviews are my honest thoughts about the book. A “thank you for reviewing my book and giving it more publicity” will suffice if you're going to comment.

And lastly, if If a woman says she thought your book is sexist, it’s sexist, okay? You as a man can not tell a women that she is reading your sexist bullshit “the wrong way.” This applies to a POC telling you your book is racist, or displays their race in a bad or incorrect light. I could explain why, but jesus christ just have some compassion and some common sense and just accept that’s the way it is.