Reacting to Your Unpopular Book Opinions || Books with Emily Fox 

This is a long one!! Leave any other UNPOPULAR BOOK OPINIONS because there were enough for PART 2!

When every character is like 17 and somehow everyone has already found the love of their life? at 17? why? this really annoys me.

Totally agree about contemporary. I read for escapism, so there's no reason for me to read about real life when I try so hard to escape it😅

I get so frustrated when someone says they, “only read nonfiction.” It has always been in the context of looking down at other genres... never just a simple expression of preference. I think it actually put me off reading nonfiction for a long time.

"I only read nonfiction" These are the same kind of people who say "I only watch documentaries."

I think lots of popular booktubers put too much focus on number of books read rather than trying to read ‘better’ books. I’d much prefer to only read 2 books per month that are incredible and stay with me for life rather than read 10 of the same type of book each month. Quality over quantity for me any day.

Potentially unpopular opinion: I judge books by their covers. Some of my favorite books I picked up just because they have pretty covers, knowing nothing about them.

i sort of agree and disagree with the judging older books by today's standards. i think we definitely should read literature from the past and admire the writing and discuss the important themes relating to the societal climate of the time. however, i also think its important to talk about the more problematic aspects of these books and WHY they would no longer be acceptable in a text in the present day! you can absolutely consume and even admire a "problematic" piece of art or fiction, as long as you take the time to educate yourself on its possible harmful aspects

An unpopular book opinion that I hear a lot is that once you “age out” of a certain age group that you can’t enjoy reading them anymore. For example, as a female in their late 20s, I was told by someone in a book club forum that I couldn’t read children’s literature, middle grade, or YA because I can’t properly appreciate it. Good writing can be appreciated what ever age you are.

Well, I see people complaining all the time about the characters in freaking GONE GIRL not being likable, so go figure. I mean, that book wouldn't even exist if the characters were likable!

I get why people on booktube don't understand people who don't like reading. But tbh, some people just won't ever get into reading and that's okay??? I am getting bored watching movies and series, not because the movies are bad, but because I just get bored? So I prefer reading. Other people may feel different. To each what he prefers, right? Just let people enjoy things🤷

i like to crack the spine of my books wins as the most unpopular one

Unpopular opinion: Many bookubers read what they read just because of traffic the book/series will generate and if they weren’t on RU-vid they would read at least some different books.

Yeah... I don't really trust people who give everything 5 stars. Same with reactors on YT. It's good to be optimistic, but when person likes everything it just feel like they're scared to offend some part of their audience so they pretend to love everything.

I LOVE your bangs girl!!! Keep them if you like them too:)))

My brother-in-law is a nonfiction snob and makes fun of my husband and me for reading "books with dragons." 🙄😂

I had a weird phase where I'd deliberately crack the spin on trilogies. Book one got cracked once, two twice and, the third three times. I don't know why

Who hates redemption arcs? Have you not read good redemption arcs? Oof. I tend to love them. I get when the villain/antagonist are redeemed just before they sacrifice themselves or when they fall in love with the hero/heroine because *gag* but I've seen it done really well. But even better than redemption arcs? Temptation arcs. Count of Monte Crisco---yES.

Pretty much all of the books on my goodreads are 3, 4, or 5 stars because I have the unpopular opinion/skill of being easily able to DNF a book. I started a separate shelf on goodreads just for my yearly DNFs. If I'm not enjoying the writing or story or the execution of the idea, and I don't feel like pushing though? DNF. I think people need to get over their fear of DNF-ing books, especially on booktube, because it always feels like they read a book they aren't enjoying just because of their fear of missing out or keeping up with the crowd. Apparently my unpopular opinion is that people should DNF books more!

Person: “mistborn is boring AF.” Me : “BURN THE WITCH!”

This was a really fun videos! My unpopular opinion is: a lot of people misplace many books in the “magical realism” genre. I’m probably salty af because I’m latina and magical realism was born in Latin America, so I’ve read plenty of them and mostly all books that in Booktube are classified as magical realism are not. Maybe it’s a way to not answer for shitty magical systems, but true magical realism is when unusual or “magical” stuff is viewed as completely normal in the real world. Therefore, any fantasy world is not in the genre. Good examples are One hundred years of solitude, by García Marquez and like water for chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

About the not all classics are good, well, I totally agree that some might be boring for some ppl, or that they don't reflect current values. However, they are classics for a reason, and I feel like ppl don't understand how a book enters the literature canon. There is a criteria used by ppl who spend their lives studying them, and it varies according to time and culture. So, yeah it's totally valid to question why a book is so praised by the critics, but you should at least research it? Idk

Saying Stephen King is overrated is the most shocking and bravest thing you’ve ever said 😂

I agree that most BookTubers I've found are into fantasy, YA , or romance, and I can understand it's because of promotions, I wish someone could tell me of a BT'er that talks about thrillers/mysteries or harder SF.

Jane Eyre is my favorite classic ever 🙁💔

I’m so lucky that my sister reads and we read similar books. Idk what I would do without her!

Your bangs look fantastic! I also get frustrated when people hate on "unlikeable characters" (interestingly enough, most of the time it's the female ones that bother them even though there are plenty unlikeable male ones too, hmmm...). I honestly never realised that being able to like a main character is such a big deal for people lol

I love mass market paper backs tbh, they're nice to hold because my hands are small! Not to mention they are way cheaper lol. And I think some booktubers should definitely utilize libraries more if they have the option. I hate when I'm watching a video and they say they can't read a book because they can't find it in a store (obviously this is fine if they don't have access to a library, but I feel like most people I hear this from would have access to a library 🤷‍♀️) And I think we should make it more common to count book length by word count because it feels more accurate than page count

My unpopular opinion is that against my own better judgment, I love Mr. Rochester. He’s a prickly ass & I think he’s just a great flawed character. 😆

I totally relate to the "unhealthy relationships in YA" comment, and I'm so glad this came up...I always felt like I was the only one who thought that! I do think it's gotten much better over the past few years though, as we're seeing much more diversity in YA publishing specifically--though I still say we have ways to go!

I LOVE REDEMPTION ARCS. ONLY IF THEY ARE GOOD THOUGH SCREW SEVERUS SNAPE.

Six of Crows was the most disorienting book I've ever read! Every time I would get into the romance/conflict the fact that they were TEENAGERS just boggled my mind and completely took me out of the story. Like we have grown as women simping over Kaz. He is a child in a grown-up suit. Vincent Adultman with trauma.

Both my parents read a lot, but our taste is totally different most of times, and it's kinda sad because we can't really discuss the same book. But onece my dad was telling me how bad the book he was reading is. And the plot sounded familiar so I asked for the name, and it turned out to be Throne of Glass🤣 Like, dad, why the F do you get ya romance/fantasy book and then complain about it?!? He seriously should start to read annotations before reading something 😆😆😆

I'm the one who said Mistborn was boring lolololol, I was waiting for this 😂😂 I'm actually currently reading Elantris and I'm really enjoying it, which I feel is another unpopular Sanderson opinion. I see a lot of his fans saying Elantris is the worst one and only hardcore fans should read it for completion's sake but I like it a lot! It's good! He needs to learn how to write female characters and stop having characters endlessly hand-wringing over religion because oh how I don't care, but I've come to expect that from Sanderson so I'll put up with it. I stand by what I said about Mistborn though, I literally couldn't finish The Hero of Ages because I was so bored. I often see this discussion that book reviewers who give everything 5 stars aren't trustworthy, but honestly, what reviewer are they talking about? I'm subscribed to a lot of reviewers and I've never seen anyone rate everything highly. Maybe it's something that happened in the early days of Booktube but I was around back then and I still can't recall anyone who gives every book they read 5 stars. I know it's an old joke but every time I see Emily in the background it makes me laugh 😂

Oh right out of the gates huh? lol. I’ve been with my boyfriend 8.5 years and I’m like 73% sure he’s actually illiterate lmao

It would be nice to see a French themed TBR, where you have French books or translations in French that you have read/want to read and do the whole video in French. That would be nice. 😊😊

I read Twilight as a teenager and loved them. The movies were ok. I tried to reread Twilight as an adult and thought it was horrible.

Oooff only 700+ page books are big books. I think 500+ is a big book. Getting close to a 1000 pages is huge.

IM SO HERE FOR THIS

i wish i could like unlikeable characters but if i don't care about them i spend the whole book hoping they mysteriously die and then i get sad when they don't 😂

I thought Aristotle and Dante.. would be a nice story about how gay and straight boys can be friends and still be loving and affectionate toward each other. So I was disappointed by the ending

I think you shouldn't read a classic if you can't handle the era it was written in and know your not going to like it because it has things in it you don't agree with, it's like me reading sci-fi when I know I am not a fan of science driven books. 😃 I think booktube has evolved over the last few years and we are seeing more readers of every! I have found so many new horror booktuber and its great!

On classics I feel like we should remember that most of the popular and widely known classics were written just for fun and that there weren't meant as a lesson for the generations to come. Of course some were but I think that most writers have been writing for the same reasons authors write now so there is no point in humiliating people for not enjoying classics when we weren't the primer target for this books and the fact that generations before us thought them good, doesn't mean much, there were a lot of shit that those generations thought were good ideas including genocides and segregation and a lot of other questionable stuff. I believe that the main point of reading is enjoyment and if educating yourself be it through classics or nonfiction brings you joy then great for you but not everyone have to read like this

My unpopular opinion: Based on evolutionary psychology... The "problematic" relationships in YA novels are just exaggerated scenarios that feed our natural instincts as a species... that’s why they are so popular....I think they are really important to the development of young people and the time they are at in life....(Think twilight for example). I also think that these relationships don't cause unhealthy relationships to form.. these relationships would form with or without these relationships in books based on the personality/trauma of the people that enter them... not because they read them as a child. I could give an entire ted talk on this topic.

The Winner's Curse is one of my favourite series and I agree - the angst and drama in the second book was top notch

I love how heated Emily was in big parts of this video

The too fast relationship one got me thinking, is there any (ya) books where the main character is already dating in the beginning of the first book? And they are still together at the end of the series?

on love triangles: I agree, most of the time they're not done well - with Twilight, for example, I was totally shocked that there were people out there who were Team Jacob, to me it was always crystal clear that Bella is (& will always be) with Edward, Jacob was just a kid she's friends with who happened to have a crush on her but she didn't have any interest in him at all. Same with The Mortal Instruments (though that was even weirder because Clary does date Simon for almost an entire book). Though I gotta say, The Infernal Devices series (also by Cassandra Clare) actually did the love triangle really well - I genuinely liked both people and both possibilities for coupling to the point where even though I had a clear favorite (Will), during scenes with the other love interest I genuinely wanted them to come to fruition as well

[Reads primarily non-fiction] It CAN be lyrical and amazing and wonderful! BUT fiction is also great too! I do wish we had more non-fiction specialists on Booktube but I LOVE finding people who do :) Really fun video

The Well of Ascension is my favourite Mistborn book!! Sazed is everything

I sooo agree with hating on unnecessary romance/love scenes in books. I semi-enjoyed the Court of Thorns and Roses, but the love scenes were too excessive. Couldn't help but think throughout the series that it would have been WAY better without the excess smut. It was just too much...

I try to buy all my books used unless I'm super pumped for a release. I would love to use my library but i have no urgency to read them for some reason...😅

I hate Mass Market paperbacks they look and feels like bricks and their spines break so easily like the book breaks in half

I'm so shocked when you name dropped Jane Eyre as I literally just finished reading it for the first time right now, and feel exactly the same! I felt extremely guilty, thinking I didn't like a classic work when there were clearly too many things wrong with the romance. Glad I'm not alone!

"I like to crack the spine of my books" actually hurt me. Ouch. Ouch.

Reading has been my quarantine escape ESPECIALLY fantasy genre. Definitely agree on the escapism. Ugggghh A Wizard of Earthsea. It was so very painful. I finished it only because I had a very good friend who begged me to read it and my love for my friend was the only thing that kept me reading it.

Jane Eyre is a favourite book and I fell in love when I read it last year, and still the way you talked about it gave me a good laugh! :)

I do think Catching Fire is the best in the Hunger Games trilogy.

I read the winner's curse series because of you Emily and it was sooooo Good .I loved it !

I completely agree about the big series with the lead who didn't want kids who ended up having them, seemingly begrudgingly. I assume we are talking abt the same one, but this pisses me off so much, when people end up matched and it's just not realistic. It's OK to end up alone!!!

Aristotles and Dante, bad ? well that fucking hurts, it's one of my favourite books of all times...That's typically the kind of book I love: slice of life, coming of age, contemporary YA, especially those that have LGBTQ+ and/or mental health rep. I guess it all depends on our tastes :)

I actually read Warbreaker because of you last year & it made it to my top books of the year! (Or my life, actually..) Gonna go with Elantris or Mistborn next ^^

THANK YOU for saying that steven king is overrated. I feel like the only person ever who doesn't like his work. I've tried reading several of his books and I was just bored through them all. The book I got the furthest with was Misery and I put it down and didn't pick it up again even though I was at the climax of the book. Very unpopular opinion. I don't like any of Brandon Sanderson's work. I've tried reading three of his series and I was very bored through it all. The only thing I liked about any of his work was the character Kaladen (I don't know if I'm spelling his name right) from the way of kings.(I only got to around 300 pages of the hardcover of that book) I've just found everything from his work to be vey boring and I couldn't find myself caring about any of the characters except for Kaladen. I was also very bored reading Six of Crows and never liked Twilight. Although Heist stories and Vampires are generally things I don't like anyway so... yeah.

you should totally post the video of you reading 1 star reviews of your favorite books!

I destroy my books when reading them. Spines get cracked, covers get torn, pages get dog eared and I love it. I have no problem with others damaging my books either. I want my books to be well loved and I don’t mind when they look the part.

Unrelated to this video, but seeing Daughter of Smoke and Bone on your unread shelf makes me slightly nervous but excited for you to read it. Laini Taylor is one of my favorite authors, I'll read anything she writes. But I also know you are a slightly more critical reader than I am, and I don't want you to hate it. 😅

I honestly really agree with His Dark Materials. I'm trying so hard to like it but they're so disjointed. Some of the people were so self-righteous and pretentious with their unpopular opinions.

I am 100% with you on Jane Eyre. It's one of the few books I have very strong feelings against (Romeo & Juliet, Snow Falling on Cedars, and The School for Good and Evil are the others).

Just finished Fifth Season and loved it! Outside of having to look up the terminology, I really didn't see what confused people about it. Also, the relationship was so good, coming from someone who hates relationships in my books.

Hardcover for looks and Paperback for the reading experience!

28:36 the most accurate description ever, without using words

Love these videoes, hopefully you have enough unpopular opinions to make more :D I find we usually agree on a lot of points, so I don't even know what my unpopular opinion would be

First of all, love your video! I thank you for being so honest about your opinion and I found you very charismatic :) I wanted to "clarify" or start a discussion about what "overrated" means. Sure we can all say a book or an author is overrated because we don´t like his/her work. But is it ok to say that when we are critically analyzing a book and/or and author? I think not. You may not enjoy something since it might not be your taste but it could be contributing a lot to the genre, or using resources really well but it just doesn´t suit people. All of that said, I don´t think people should be ALWAYS thinking in EVERY conversation about what overrated means. But I encourage every person who is being part of a critical discussion on something to differentiate both things: one thing is your taste, another is if it technically works (or not) in many, many and many more different aspects. Personally, I love Stephen King´s work. Me liking or not doesn´t make it overrated or not, I don´t think. But that said, we could discuss that he is a master of the genre and storytelling. He had made his way into many people´s hearts with his work (I´m not talking about the marketing here, and how well he sold). Even if I didn´t like anything of his, maybe I should take that into account in my "critical opinion" and then judge if its overrated or not. And there is the counterpart: you could have many, many flaws on your "technical" craft as an author, like Harry Potter and so on, but still be doing a hell of a job of getting a beautiful message out there or the consumer just likes it a lot. And I absouletly love Harry Potter, and not just for nostalgia, I love it of the themes it tells, some technical things the author does so well, and I just completly subjectively love it for the way it makes me feel. As an artist myself, I feel comfortable saying that every piece of art is flawed in some way or the other: it can be the message that is not told well, the technical stuff just doesn´t work right, etc. And that´s ok, ´cause that´s how life works, nothing is perfect. So I would conclude that the word "overrated" in a critical situation is more damaging than anyhting else, just because it doesn´t really tell you anything. You can critique an author or a book but in the end there will be many conclusions to it: the technical stuff, your personal taste, if it works well with some criteria, if it sells well or not. Overrated is not one of them. At least, those are my thoughts. It doesn´t make justice to any author, neither to the work itself nor the reader, that is, in my opinion, the most important factor in the equation. Anyways, if anyone thinks differently, I´d like to hear it :).

30:28 Six of Crows isn't a heist book though? That's not the purpose of the book, it's just marketing. It's a slow, character-driven, character exploration type book with significant heist elements. It's not about the plot, it's about the characters and how they became who they are.

You are so calming and smooth

There are so many points that I agree with - namely breaking book spines (I can’t handle that and people I see do that make me grind my teeth - yeah I’m sad) 😅, my new books remain new-looking after I’ve read them (including paperbacks), I hated Blade Runner film and couldn’t finish the book and yeah 3 stars is not a bad review at all! Great video, Emily - I love how passionate you are! 😊

I love magical realism as a general rule but didn’t think it was a popular opinion because I, personally, don’t know anyone else who actually likes it.

Yes please to more 3 stars books recommendation! I’m kinda tired of the same books on many videos recs i got from youtube..

My biggest problem with classics is that the required reading list in school hasn't changed in probably more than 50 years. At that age people should be exposed to books that are more relevant nowadays and a lot more diverse.

well to be fair, Jane Eyre is considered to be Gothic like Rebecca. I didn't like the romance either lol

Some of the facial expressions here are 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼 It can be such a pain to try and preserve the newness of the cover, though it depends on the book; my **A Little Life** book spine shall be preserved. Actually, now that I've mentioned ALL, it is a big book, and yet it is just as thick as my sister's books that are under 500pg. I mean, why publishers? Why? I love magical realism but I don't care for sci-fi so I suppose to each their own haha. My mum is actually one of those people who say that fiction is a waste of time. My heart hurts a little every time it is brought up.

Murderbot is a pretty lighthearted SF series! I’ve only read the first one but it’s so good

Another video where you read 5 star reviews for books you didn´t like would be awesome. It was really entertaining :)

Emily's on my level when it comes to all things Pride and Prejudice (including the Bollywood movie was just *chef's kiss*).

Just found your channel and I love it.

The only redemption arc I really loved was bobos from Beartown by Fredrick backman

I don’t love to crack the spine of my books and won’t do it on purpose but I feel relieved once they are cracked.

omg the rainbow shelves one! Totally agree. If it's only a few shelves, or a specific series sorted by colour (the penguin English library for example) then I'm totally here for it. But fully rainbow shelves make me gag - why would you separate series and mix genres aaarrghhhh

The girl with a pearl earring is a good example of a face on the cover that is well done. Also as I’ve gotten older I’ve started writing more in my books. And underlining. Because I go through so many books I know I’ll need my own version of place markers/memory joggers when I come back to it later and I probably won’t read the whole thing again when I do.

I prefer hardcovers, they’re just so pretty. Put I agree with floppy paperbacks

I have a copy of a wizard of earthsea and I had no idea it was considered a classic. I read maybe a few chapters and then stopped because I wasn't deep into a reading phase

The Cruel Prince was really popular actually! I personally liked it because I loved the main character but I totally get why there are people who didn’t. The last book was TRASH.

I’m with you on books looking new. I have read some books several times and they still look brand new. The person who bent your book putting it in the bag- I might have asked to replace that book! I also get so upset with myself when I accidentally drop a book and then the cover bends. Nooo. And, before I loan out a book, I first ask them how they treat books. That determines if I will loan my books to them. I had one friend who very kindly bought a new hardback to replace a book I loaned her that she accidentally spilled water on. She is someone I would loan books to again. Because you get it!

The Long Walk was one of my favorite Stephen King books. King really is a hit or miss to me, so I totally agree.

I'm not a fan of redemption arcs... and then I read the Wounded Kingdome trilogy, by RJ Barker and I LOVED the redemption arc for one of the chracter, I was really surprised to enjoy it!

Im early ❤️ you!! Read soo much because of you and agree with you ❤️

Once I went shopping with a friend and I bought a book, she asked to see it and proceeds to crack the spine. I almost broke up the friendship right then and there. What I really hate is over-rating books. For me 5 stars is for a favourite, something I want to re-read. Not all books can be favourites. I don't trust anyone who has an average rating of over 4 stars. Oh and finally, I love ebooks (I barely own any physical books), why is that such a problem for some people??

If you thought the second book in the To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy was pointless, wait till you read the third one 😂 I felt like the only point of that book was to make me roll my eyes a million times

I LOVE Jane Eyre but there's a great Bit of Fry and Laurie sketch where Stephen Fry tries to return a copy of Jane Eyre to a book store insisting it's "balls" and it makes me laugh so hard.

I think people recommend Stranger in a Strange Land because--yes, there may be some problematic things, it doesn't dominate the book. BUT it does have those things you mentioned, there are concepts and ideas and behaviors that are really engaging and interesting. I really liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress--I think there are fewer issues than in Stranger in a Strange Land, but similar large concepts that are quite enjoyable. Friday was a lot of fun, but more because of the adventure than larger concepts (it also was one of his cases against polyamory, and yet it seemed to show how well it worked?)