reacting to your bookish unpopular opinions! 📖 

We badly need more stories that focus on close friendship and not something more. I really need book recs about this kind so if you have any, please tell me.

On viewing old books through their context, I wanted to relate that with something disney put as warnings on their old tv shows. It said "this show includes negative depictions/mistreatment of people and culture... rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact". So I agree 100% with what you said and the unpop opinion of the person who commented about it. We can learn a lot from viewing content through the lens of now and the past!

In terms of cultural bias, I would say that it counts for other Western cultures too, not just non Western. I have seen so many, mostly American, reviewers give Anna Burns 'Milkman' poor reviews. Their reason is that they didn't understand it, therefore it was a bad book. 'Milkman' is a story about the Troubles in 1970s Northern Ireland, a brief Google search would make it easier to understand. If you don't want to do any research, that's fine but a lack of understanding the cultural, historical, etc, context on your part does not make the book bad.

To The House in the Cerulean Sea-question: the same thing (or a variation of it) happened in North of Norway, Canada etc. Horrible, and created generational trauma... I think it’s a good thing that Klune’s book is making people discuss the issue, creating awareness! :)

Regarding the Howl's moving castle opinion, to be honest I actually read it because of you, I was so curious after watching all those videos where you mentioned it, and yes I loved it, I watched the movie afterwards and I enjoyed it, but I do prefer the book 😅 so thank you Christy 💛💛💛

christy you more than a blessing to this community

I watched this video right now while having my breakfast here in Michigan. I usually reserve my intellectual brain for post-coffee but Christy managed to turn my brain on before coffee 😂 Loved this video so much!!

I typically annotate with post-its only. This changes with research books or books I use for research. I like older and newer books equally and for different reasons. There is something refreshing about a new book and there is something lived in about older books.

It took me many years, up until this year, to finally feel okay DNF'ing books I wasn't enjoying. I think a big part of that is because, in school, I didn't have a choice about what I read and I HAD to read what was given to me because we had assignments and tests about those books. But now, having graduated college, I can finally feel okay putting a book down, unfinished, if I'm not enjoying it. And I've been reading way more than normal because of it! We only have this one life to live (and to read!) so if you're not enjoying the book you're reading, stop reading it!

I really like how you reacted to these opinions, and I agree with a lot of yours. On an unrelated note, we both watch the same booktubers! Okay, I've been nodding really fiercely in the second half of the video. Love this

What you said about The Midnight Library perfectly sums up how I feel about it. Omg Howl's Moving Castle is also one of my favorite books!

Went into this video without expecting this but i really went down the rabbit hole learning about the Sixties Scoop. Also thank you for being brave enough to stand up for and express your opinions! :)

I dislike the notion that not everyone is allowed to cover certain topics or talk about issues because it doesn't concern them. All injustices should concern EVERYONE. If only certain groups have the privilege to be published, read and discussed then surely we would want to recruit these people. Then these stories can see the light of day in order to eduacate the general populace and hopefully hinder anything similar from happening in the future. Why are journalistic and literary freedoms of expression suddenly drawn among ethnic lines? I understand the critique if someone is doing a poor job of unearthing stories, but surely you can apply intellectual/journalistic/academic integrity to stories from outside of your realm of experience in order to aid those underprivilged and less present in mainstream media.

Omg this is the first time an opinion of mine makes it into a video! (I was the six of crows commenter!) This was a really interesting video Christy! And I finished reading Howl’s moving castle recently and I loooooooved it just as much as I love the movie!

These are great opinions. I liked the overall message from the Midnight Library and that is was accessible to read, but it did feel it skimmed the surface of a lot of emotions. I recently watched Midnight Mass, which has some incredible monologues about death, those truly blew me away.

I loved how you took an "thornish subject" (as we say in my country) and made a nice and funny video 💕 Love you, Christy, have a nice day 💛

youre so underrated omg, i love your channel!

Such an interesting video, thank you, Christy! 😊 I would love to contribute to some of the topics from my point of view as literature student, but I had a long working day today and I'm just too tired right now. 😂😭 Lately, I tend to watch RU-vid videos half-heartedly while doing other stuff. Not the best habit... But for your videos, I always try to sit down with a cup of tea, unwind a bit and really focus on the video. Helps my mental health a lot. 💛

I absolutely loved how light and giggly you are in this video (:

This was the most frustrating but also fulfilling vid ever hahaha. I both screamed from annoyance and from understanding. Also yessss to understanding that things were written at different times. Problematic as it is, it is akin to reading a history book. Does it make us uncomfortable by modern standards? Absolutely. But it's important to understand how we used to think. However, I do think that modernizing the lists of books we read in public schools is important to include a wider variety of books written by a wider variety of authors/opinions. Just like you said much more eloquently!

I love your mug!

I'm the same with my books, I get so sad if they get tarnished in any way as buying books was always such a privilege to me. The more I've watched booktube the more I've learned to understand why people write in them etc and it does show how much the book is loved. I think I'm quite a way from doing that myself. I also really dislike when people are on the cover of books, I need beautiful art or illustrations, not a random person staring back at me. Maybe because it takes away the freedom of creating what a character looks like down to the writing.

Weeeeeeee a new video from Christy 😍💕💕

I feel like with a Court of Thorns and Roses people either seem to love it or hate it; there’s not like happy medium. I will say though if you want a good and sexy book about Fae read Karen Marie Moning’s Books the Fever series; those are great and you learn a lot about Irish history and mythology too

“We’re all just sacks of flesh, bumping around into each other…” Came for the spicy thoughts, stayed for the existential crisis

Lol, I read ACoTR because I found some fanart of Feyre - in her awful wedding dress - nailing Rhys in the back of the head with her shoe. XD I saw that and NEEDED to know who those characters were and the context of the scene. And honestly? I went into with that level of expectation of te series, and it's 100% my guilty pleasure because of it. XD

the house in the cerulean so was so corny

I agree with the opinion about characters being 'real' rather than likeable. HOWEVER if the character makes me want to punch them in the face because they're so annoying, I'll do what I do to those people in real life and DNF them hahaha.

I started goodreads in 2007 and i swear it hasnt even changed since even then!

You can love the art and not love the artist. I enjoyed this, thank you for sharing it. It's so wonderful how we as bookish people can have strong opinions about books, but still love them and respect each other. Books are teachers, they teach us if we are willing to learn. I'd love to see more good friendships as well.

Agree with Midnight Library!

Me who loves to highlight her books , looking at Christy like : 👀👀👀👀👀👀😥😥😥😥😅😅

I've been on Goodreads since 2011 and it hasn't changed at all . . .

my unpopular opinion: sometimes spoilers make the book better

I wouldn't call not liking Wuthering Heights an unpopular opinion. Most people seem to hate it and prefer Jane Eyre. I picked it up expecting to hate it but thus far I actually like it... a lot. But I'm only on chapter nine.

"Society has outgrown the need for HP." ... And just this week they announced the HP reboot via HBO Max as a 7 season series. 😩

How much I wish you could upload twice a week though I know you have your own personality life too... It's just that I am obsessed with your videos and waiting one whole week is difficult! But anyway take your time❤️❤️❤️ Love ya❤️💖❤️💖 India

I love the Keira Knightley "Pride and Prejudice" too and have never read a Jane Austen book. For someone who loves many of the TV/film adaptations of Austen novels, specifically "Mansfield Park," "Emma," and "Persuasion," if I were to read one of her books, I wonder which one would be the best choice?

I couldn't finish Norwegian Wood even though I was almost at the end of it. I enjoyed the writing style and I actually wanted to know the ending but I just had the feeling that I couldn't stand the tragic anymore. It's the only book I ever had to put down because it was too sad. I didn't know that a book could actually cause me to feel this way so that was also an experience.

I am one of those people!! I mean those who make your screen crawl..I highlight 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Finally, another person who's not too crazy about OotP! That book is super bloated and should've been edited more aggressively 😩 really enjoyed this video, Christy! ❤

Omg, I’m so relieved to hear someone else also thinks The Invisible Life of Addie Larue is boring and overhyped! I have so many issues with this one, the biggest one Addie being completely self absorbed and lacking personal growth. The point where the (millennial) reader can relate to her - wanting to explore and see the world, living her life different from others, not wanting to grow and settle down - wasn’t relevant to me, and her despising of family people with kids was outright off putting for me (a mom of a 2yo). I kept reading, hoping that this would be turned into a lesson crucial for character development, but no, the author is very firm on that message, which makes me sick to my stomach

A lot of classics just straight up suck, and the insistence by teachers and academics on reading and over-analyzing them is what mostly turns people away from reading in general.

james and sirius were bullies but they were also children, snape was never a saint, he called his supposed best friend “mud blood” and invented a spell intended to torture the marauders AND HE NEVER GREW OUT OF HIS HATRED, on the other hand the marauders did grew out of it and became part of the order of the phoenix (hate dumbledore tho) and they formed a family while snape went out to join fucking tom riddle

Oh wow I once tried reading Murakami and didn't like his style, however I was planning on giving him another chance. This just finalized that I don't wanna read him at all now

Hi I’m new and I am impressed with your video 👍😁👍

Ooooooh I Also didnt like six of crows lol

I read 1Q84, Kafka on the Shore, and two of his short story collections in the span of two weeks a few months ago. I think a lot of the problem people in the "west" have with his work, despite his reputation as a west-style writer, is the cultural differences (rape, incest, etc.) However, I think he also describes his male characters in similar ways to the women but I agree it isn't his strong suit. All of his books have really similar elements such as everyone being into classical music, keeping in shape, and (as someone on the autism spectrum) a lot of the dialogue feels autistic. The dialogue issue might be because of the English translations, maybe the dialogue is more natural feeling in Japanese. Can anyone confirm this for me?

if you break a spine as you’re reading okay, it happens, but doing it on purpose will just age your book rapidly and unnecessarily. in five years pages will start to fall off. same with highlighting with markers. if you ever want to donate those books so people thrift them later, they will be unsaleable.

we literally have the same views on everything!!

Not here to rave about classics but trust me I hated classics in school but now that I have read some classics among them the writing style of Jane Eyre is so good.

Christy I remember you talking about bullying in your own school days and how Harry Potter was such a good escape and place of comfort. Regarding JKR's awful opinions she put out there, I particularly feel for trans kids/teens for whom the HP books were a safe space during bullying related to their gender identity.

for the problematic books i think they are actually important imo. the thing about them is that they are realistic! like, for sure, books where everyone is morally good even the villains have their place, but books where horrible things happen are also important. its to make us reflect on why some things are wrong, how that affects our lives etc. its in its majority, on purpose. Of course a writer need to be rightfully judged if they put something gruesome on a cute romance novel. but if the intent of the book is to depict something horrific with their properly labeld adult fiction, doesnt mean they agree with what the character is doing. For exemple, i have this historical fiction mistery short story that i'm working on where my protagonist is a murderer, and he kills a pedo, its a really dark story! its obvious that i dont condone any of the actions my characters take, but its a realistic story that has its place. its not because its an older story (its not written yet so its not old) but rather, its a depiction on how people are in fact bad sometimes. and fiction is the perfect place to depict that and talk about those issues without harming anyone. Most authors have the same sense in mind when it comes to writting problematic characters. others might be problematic themselves but thats not either the problem. we have this tendency to over censure ourselves and think in a black and white fashion as if only good and evel exist, when in fact humanity is waaayyy more nuanced than that. people should approach fiction with the same nuance and stop judging the authors and books by it being problematic, but rather analizing why are those situations problematic in the first place, where the problem stems from, what was the purpose of the writer. things like that.

I couldn't get into The House in the Cerulean Sea. I've tried reading it twice and just was bored into DNFing it. I totally don't get the hype -- and I like MG.

My Unpopular opinion : the Folk of Air Series isn't as good as it is portrayed to be and is rather boring 🤷‍♀️ don't understand the hype for it. I know hands are gonna be thrwon for this so go ahead 😂

I'm thinking the "Book Snobs" may have a couple valid points, actually. The reason I think people may say audiobooks are not equivalent to reading is bc one misses the opportunity to see new words and how they are used within a sentence structure and spelled. As far as most YA, I compare it to fast food - can be delicious occasionally, but not something one should live on. One of the goals of reading is to open oneself up to new ideas and to live many lives through the characters in books, and for this to be effective there needs to be some substance. Well drawn characters with depth, and an author that's able to delve beneath surface level is really important in order for one to grow as a reader and as a person. All that being said, I do not expect the average 12 year old to be particularly enamored of Austen or Bronte lol, so my comment is definitely more in relation to adults. Always enjoy your content, Christy!

And about HP: there's a whole generation that should be called "HP and the people who should have read another book by now!" I liked the books... but I don't understand why people can't be more critical or level-headed about it. I don't get the point of blind devotion to any work of art, TBH.

TJ Klune's problem is that he writes with a preconceived claim. It makes characters like Arthur infallible and Linus completely blank. The nuance behind characters is lost because rather than exploring a theme the story reinforces a message and dilutes the ability to interpret his story and turns the emotionality into an analytical practice rather the ambiguous nature emotions tend to take. That leaves the emotional affect to form more of an affect due to manipulation instead of substance. Stories exist for narrative affect which is emotional, not scientific. Producing and supporting a claim is based on logic and therefore science, and his book therefore is frigid and stale rather than dynamic and perspective.

I found Norwegian Wood boring as well. It turned me off from every Murakami's book 0.0

I need Harry Potter =)

hello

About the House in the Cerulean Sea: while you can argue that the book is making people aware of the issue of residential schools and colonization, it doesn't do a very good job. It coats a thick layer of fantasy and metaphor over real life genocidal practices, and so removes it from reality. It now becomes a cute found family story that holds eerily similar rhetorical tones to residential schools' propaganda: come to the school you'll find a new family that treat you right, not like your old ones that suck; without really condemning, irl, what is basically ethnic cleansing. Idk I just think you shouldn't learn about racism through X-Men movies and you shouldn't learn about contemporary colonial practices through some appropriating fantasy book.

I don't have any unpopular opinions; I don't know anyone else that reads books to have another opinion.

Oh, audio books!.... it's not reading. It's listening. You can still absorb the material, but it's literally not the act of reading. It's being read TO. Nothing wrong with it, but.... it's not reading lol

I hate this idea that JK Rowling is being "cancelled" and "hated" on by people for and opinion than not even 8 to 10 years ago would have been uncontroversial at all..on any level. I don't even agree with most of her positions on wide variety of topics, but this idea that "she betrayed" her readership is utterly insane.

I also have a Harry Potter tattoo (got in 2010) and I also have trans friends so yeah it sucks she has such terrible thoughts about them.

Just because a problematic book is a product of it's time doesn't make it any more readable. Maybe it's easy for privileged white people because they're so detached from the bigotry presented in the books but for those of us who are part of targeted identities it hits hard. Like this book's protagonist just called me a slur and it's presented as an okay thing and that they're the hero? or the characters with my identity are presented in such disgusting degrading depiction and I'm meant to just gloss over it? it ruins any enjoyment of the whole thing, in fact I end up feeling enraged, sad and frustrated which is not really the goal of reading. I'm trying to escape from reality not get slapped in the face by it.

You almost certainly won’t see this but omg what’s your lipstick? 🥹 It’s the perfect shade I’ve always wanted but never found an exact match for!