Are there good and bad books? || Book-shaming || A Book talk

 

Hello everyone,

I'm back with a discussion topic that is as old as time, yet new for this blog. 

Reading is one of the most beneficial activities that an individual can pick. It's one of the activities that always has something to offer more than just pure entertainment, whether that is learning fresh vocabulary and new/different ways to express yourself, learning facts and skills, acquiring knowledge, or developing new ideas and views for the world, gaining empathy, understanding for others and perspective in life! The reading experience is enriching and becomes even more so the more you exercise it.

Naturally, the argument that would follow would be that not all books can offer you the same and that some books may be beneficial as if you've not read anything at all. Or that certain types of books don't really count because they are too short, too childish, too funny or you haven't physically read them, so they're not as much of an experience. This could not be further from the truth! The truth is that reading all kinds of books in whichever way or form they may be, is still consuming books, you still invest your time and attention, you still take in all its contents, you still have the ability to understand and process it in your mind, you can still think about it, overanalyze it, talk about it with others, and make it the center of conversations, you have still taken everything in. And the truth is that fully and successfully consuming whichever book in whichever form can very rarely be not beneficial, not informative, not enlightening, not entertaining, and not helpful in any way.

There is much prejudice when it comes to reading choices. Some genres are considered to be inherently lesser than others, and it has recently come to my attention that this bias extends to not just genres, but also forms of books (e-Books, audiobooks, etc.). If you've been a reader for a while then you are no stranger to ideas like: "only classics are serious books", "listening to audiobooks doesn't count as reading", "comic books are stupid and have nothing to offer", "non-fiction books are boring", etc. We all like to lie to ourselves about such prejudice and pretend that we are above it, that we do not care, and that we are free spirits. But the truth is that at one point or the other anyone might be guilty of it whether willingly or not and most readers have at some point been subjected to it. We're surrounded by it so it's not always easy to avoid it.

Reading tastes and preferences are strictly personal and they shouldn't be criticized and/or laughed at. Yet, we continue to see that reading preferences are often not only criticized, compared (with other, theoretically better choices), and looked down upon, but are also being immediately associated with the reader. In many people's minds, the types of books someone chooses to read define their personality and character. Please, don't get me wrong it is true that what we choose to read does correlate to some extent to our lives, personalities, interests, and experiences and we certainly do tend to pick things that we can relate to. But, this is definitely not a one-way road, and to take it to the extreme where every single book you may pick is immediately connected do your whole identity is irrelevant and absurd. 

For one thing, human beings are not one-sided, they are not defined by one single quality or trait. Nor are all people the same, fitting into defined little boxes. Human beings are multi-dimensional, they have many sides, various depths, and layers and they are usually more complex than what could be narrowed down to a few words or a couple of choices. Sure, this one book may be saying something about you, maybe you relate to this theme or character, but that cannot possibly be all you really are. We are more than just our favorite color, piece of clothing, food, more than just smart, or just athletic, or just sensitive, more than just our appearance and sexuality. All these are just some of our traits and the total of them that we carry comprises our identity. They are just small individual parts of a large and complex puzzle and just like a puzzle could not be comprised by one single piece, humans cannot possibly be just what you assume with a single glance.

For another, nobody is obligated to like and enjoy only one thing! Just because you love dark chocolate doesn't mean you won't occasionally enjoy white, just because you love action movies doesn't mean you won't occasionally enjoy a good romance and, similarly, because you love this genre of book doesn't mean you won't enjoy or want to explore other genres, authors and styles! As a matter of fact, I find it that if you are a big lover of a particular hobby, it will be nearly impossible for you to limit your choices down to only a couple of variables. We are free to enjoy many different genres and styles of works and we can definitely choose to have them in different phases of our lives, in order to express different aspects of our characters. I can't imagine how boring it would be if someone had to decide to follow one single thing (book, movie, food, style of clothing, etc) for your entire life and exclude all other different options. 

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if you want to think that one work is lesser than the other for whatever random reason then it's fine, you do you. But nobody has the right to shame, criticize or berate others, or make quick assumptions about them based off of this! Because everyone has just as much of a right to enjoy whatever they like and whatever are they want in whichever way they prefer just as much you have a right to your opinion. All people have the right to enjoy what they like better freely without being bothered. Nobody should be discouraged to read whatever they like because nobody should be discouraged from such a nice hobby, such an interesting pastime, and such an active, engaging, and enlightening activity as this of reading. On the contrary, people should be encouraged to enjoy whatever book they want without being ashamed of their choices. Readers should always feel that the reading community is a safe space and they are always welcome to it no matter what. Because even if there were such a thing as good and bad reading choices, discouraging someone from reading in general, will only lead them away from it. But if you encourage them to keep reading, they will definitely find their way back to it and they may even eventually find their way to want you to consider to be better and even if this does not happen they will surely find what's better for them.

And besides, criticizing somebody else's choices and tastes never made anyone better at anything or superior to others, quite the contrary, it shows that you are below. However, being unashamed and keeping doing what you love and specifically reading can only make you better more interesting, and raise you up to higher standards every day. Bottom line; do whatever makes you happy and don't care about what anyone else says and try not to make others feel bad for their own preferences. And while there are books that have stronger story, prose, or character than others I don't think there are universally good or bad books, only books that are good for specific readers and not so good for others. Even if there was such a concept I don't think I'd want to view the matter like this, I think I'd much rather go with the concept that there's the right book for each person. And when you find it, you will inevitably fall in love with reading!

I would love to read your opinions and experiences on this matter, so feel free to share! In the meantime, thank you for reading for one more time! 

"Blood Wedding" by Federico Garcia Lorca || Book Review

I don't usually read plays and, to be honest, I kind of avoided them for quite some time thinking that they wouldn't be my thing. This was one of the first plays I've read in general and definitely the first one I read of my own free will, and not because I had to do read it for some lesson. I'm not yet convinced whether it is something I love or not, but now I'm a lot more willing to step out of my comfort zone and give plays a try in the future. I read this a couple of years back and I thought it was fine, though not outstanding, so I never bothered writing a review about it, but recently it has been popping up in my head and this is what prompted me to write this post.

The selection of this book was completely random, it just fell in my hand at a moment when I really needed something to read and had nothing else around. I had heard of it, and it did intrigue me, but I knew nothing else about it so I went in with no expectations but with a lot of curiosity about what was coming.

It was a very fast and easy read - I read it in two sittings - mainly because it is a play and it goes by really fast, but the pacing and the rhythm of the story are excellent as well, they work and they compliment the story, since, on the one hand, the subject is quite heavy, but the plot quite simple and straight forward. So, it couldn't have been any longer and it shouldn't feel any longer either.

The first time I read it, it felt like something was missing and maybe that was just me, or maybe it's because of the form since plays are meant to be played and seen, not merely read. But I recently found myself remembering it and thinking about it. I was suddenly filled with an urge to re-read some parts of it and so I went on and read some parts that I remembered to have enjoyed. I realized that reading these small parts for the second time felt like an entirely different experience. This time around I could hear the voices distinctly, I could see the story unfolding before my eyes, almost as if actually "seeing" it, so I think that this time around I got it right.

The story itself is very intense and tragic, it tackles the conflict of love and duty, the tragedy of unfulfilled love and expectations, and the tragedy of death in the name of love and passion. Lorca uses very strong imagery that is not just about the visual enjoyment, but also very strongly symbolic, relevant, and enhancing to the theme he tries to convey each time. His writing is generally very poetic, rich in symbolism and metaphors but without it getting too heavy to read. On the contrary, even though it is a work that belongs to a different time, it reads as easily as if it was modern. It's a strange combination, but it works.

The female characters were my favorite ones, especially the mother, I just loved her lines (even though my single favorite line belongs to Leonardo*). Most of the characters don't even have a name and I have to admit this was strange for me, but again, it works. We don't really know them, but we know them. We get to know only what is important and we need to know and nothing more and there's nothing missing from them. They too symbolize something...

Overall, it was a nice first try at reading plays for me and it made me eager to try and read some more. I really liked it, but it didn't blow my mind, so I rated it with 3*.

Thanks for reading!

*"To keep quiet and burn is the greatest punishment we can heap upon ourselves. What use was pride to me and not seeing you and leaving you awake night after night? No use! It only brought the fire down on top of me! You think that time heals and walls conceal, and it’s not true, not true! When the roots of things go deep, no one can pull them up!"*