I literally had a whole discussion just some weeks ago over someone insisting about the fact that "Poh could have never defeated Tai Lung", it is not a book, but it amazed me how many people were actually uncapable of interpretating how the movie was not suposed to be taken literally and how the movie itself is a representation of the philosophical interpretation of Tahoism and Dahoism. It's like, "Of course this talking panda couldn't learn kung fu well enough to defeat the buffed tiger", inside this ficctional universe where the rules of the real world canno't be applied. A 7 year old can easily interpretate what succes and achievement through personal struggle mean
I understand your point about the skipping paragraphs thing, but my problem is these are people who presumably review and recommend books to decent sized audiences. If they aren’t willing to read the paragraphs and consume the stories critically, then I don’t think they should be reviewing or recommending any books
Also, these influencers and their opinions based on the fact that they don't actually enjoy reading will more than likely greatly effect future trad published literature, because the squeaky wheel gets the oil; them loudly complaining about things like long paragraphs or too many words can negatively impact us all when the big publishing houses take these critics to heart and start harshly judging author's new work by those standards. I don't think it's policing how another person enjoys their hobby to say that maybe those specific booktok influencers don't actually enjoy reading at all and are using us all for an easy payday, that's 100% fair to point out especially when their complaints can effect authors as a whole.
They’re influencers turning books into fast fashion. I have a love hate for the online book world because it’s great talking books together but collecting multiple copies and complaining about word counts among other things is becoming a negative consumerism practice
Exactly. If they weren't reviewing I wouldn't have a problem with it, but if they're reviewing and I follow those reviews, I know I'd be disappointed when realizing while reading the book that THEY didn't actually fully read the book. Sometimes those paragraphs hold important information! Not everything is poured out in dialogue.
But I would also say that taking book recommendations from someone who clearly says that they didnt actually read the whole book is kinda stupid. Unless you have a very sinilar reading habit and then theres no problem, because the recommendations actually fit you.
I'm hoping the cozy trend that seems to be taking over multiple industries spills over into actual cafés and bookshops. I mourn the death of the "third place," and I'm hoping to see a revival of coffee shops with comfy chairs and nooks to read in and a open mic night, etc. People need places to connect again.
I don't totally agree with you on this one, and here's why. I don't think there is a death of the 'Third Places' but that the application of it by people has shifted. For many the third place is the online space, be that gaming, social media etc and people find great community in that (admittedly not always healthy community, but community none the less). There is a wonderful Netflix documentary call The Remarkable Life of Ibelin which is about a young Norwegian man calls Mats Steen who was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy which meant over time he was less able to take part in every day life. However he found his third place through the game World of Warcraft which he would play for hours. When he died his parents and family were shocked at the amount of people who came from all over the world to his funeral, all because they knew him from one game. That was his third place and his escape from his everyday reality. If you are referring to the third place in the sense of the physical third place, which I think you are, I would agree to an extent, but would say that its dying rather than dead which means we have time to save it to an extent and that can only be done by people actually using those third places, too many people will complain about the loss of a local pub or cafe, but then will have never actually used it. Also human geography changes an area, new people coming in and old people leaving an area will see old third places go and new ones come into being, its a constantly shifting dynamic and what we see as our third place now isn't what we will see it in years to come.
@@forceninewinds That's a very fair, thorough, and insightful response. I agree with you, and none of what I'm saying is to rebuff what you've said. I'm just adding on to further the discussion. It's true that the physical third place has been largely replaced with online community and connection. I'm so happy that exists for people to connect around the world and regardless of ability to utilize physical third places due to any number of circumstances. I still believe it's important to have physical third places available to those who can use them. We are steadily loosing the art of in-person connection. Once we are out of school, we are often out of touch with the people who are geographically near us. We are more thoroughly entrenched in ideological echo chambers than ever before. It think these issues can be, though not solved, alleviated by the revival of third places. Encountering new people, philosophies, and ideas in the wild - and having a human face and name that often demands empathy and respect attached to those ideas - is good for us. It's also good for our mental health to have somewhere other than home and work that we can feel comfortable and welcome in. I really hope you're correct that we can turn this around and revive the third place because I am having a really heard time finding a café with a couch within an hour's drive of my house. Even libraries don't have a place you can sit and read without your backside going numb within an hour. I did recently see some articles claiming that the new CEO of Starbucks wants to bring back comfy seating and community spaces, so fingers crossed that this actually happens and smaller companies follow suit. I really miss curling up in a big leather chair with a book and a latte, and striking up conversations with random people 3 times my age about the joys of reading (of course, now I'm older, they'll likely only be twice my age👵).
For me, the sad trend of this year is that my local libraries dismissed the whole science fiction section and the old fantasy section to replace them with the books that are popular in Tik Tok.
Skipping entire paragraphs of exposition, lore, descriptions etc to get to the dialogues aligns very well with the whole social media competition of 'i read 300 books in a year'. At that point to me that's not reading, that's consuming. You're not 'participating' in the hobby of reading, you are consuming a story as fast and barebones as possible.
I understand not gatekeeping reading... That being said, that always has to be balanced with not watering down reading for too many people who don't want "too many words". I don't want books to become shorter, simpler and quite frankly less intelligent because people don't actually enjoy reading but want to pretend they do.
@@silverdweller2809 Umm, I agree sometimes. However, for instance, Atlas Shrugged was totally brilliant philosophically, but was paced so poorly that it holds the book back. You could have cut 40 percent without losing any substance at all. The pacing is so poor that it makes this book really hard to recommend - despite the value that I got reading it. There is a standard that Oxford uses that I quite like. They posit that if you can say something in fewer words without losing context, your writing will be more elegant. I think as a rule, even in fiction, this method won't lead you wrong most of the time, but fast pacing isn't always good pacing. Something, it's worth spending the extra word count for emotional weight, tension, or various other reasons.
I think shorter books can be just as great as longer books. I have ADHD, and have a very busy life (working full-time and commuting 4 hours each workday), so shorter books are a lot easier to digest for me. I don't always have the brain power to read after a day of work, so reading more casually helps me do so. I have lots of medieval history books I want to read, but realistically I don't have the energy or time to read them unless I have a few days off.
@@AseAPS I hate to break it to you, but Atlas Shrugged was NOT philosophically intelligent, much less brilliant. Ayn Rand wrote the foundation for a dystopia about how rich elites will burn everything to the ground rather than give up their privilege and decided the rich elites burning everything to the ground were the good guys. Make it make sense.
I don't understand the not gatekeeping reading. Reading is already divied up into genres and types of books (long, short story, illustrated, manga). We should absolutely be gatekeeping these. I don't want your short story in my longform fantasy novel because you can't be arsed to read paragraphs upon paragraphs over hundreds of pages. I don't want your cozy in my dark fiction novel. And so on. In particular, I do think more books need to have better separation between age demographics according to classification, perhaps using reading levels too. If I want simple easy reading, but with adult themes, let me find that. If I want higher level reading with simple YA themes, give me that option too. And then we can effectively gatekeep. As a popular example, ACOTAR series by Sarah J Maas should absolutely not be aimed at teens, but it landed in YA due to marketing. If we had reading levels (give them fun naming), you could dump it in the junk food reads aimed at adults because smut. Categories and hobbies need a basic level of gatekeeping. If you hate reading and your reading hobby involves trying to minimize the amount of reading you do, it's not really your hobby. It's like having art as a hobby (let's say it's painting) and actively finding ways to avoid working with paint, and then influencing stores to carry less oil paints because the medium is harder to use and takes forever to dry and people listening because all the other normal oil painters are spending their hours painting and not bitching on tik tok so they think the squeaky wheels are the dominant opinions. Then they go after your watercolours. And then the damn publishers, in this case, start mainly publishing and promoting special edition fancy cover junk food, badly world built, shorter long-form novels because it's an influencer job past a certain point, not an actual hobby they enjoy. The hobby is collecting the books more than reading them.
I want to weigh in on the topic of cozy books. I work mostly with Korean literature, and in the recent years there’s been a whole movement of “healing books”. These stories centre around book stores, convenience stores, laundry mats, and all such places. The books could be considered “cozy”, however, they exist in a different cultural and literary context, so at its core the trend is different, and I would like to see it develop. “Healing literature” offers social critique in a society that reacts negatively to direct criticism. Even someone like Han Kang was largely overlooked before she received the Nobel prize. Her books were seen as too controversial, too disruptive. Korean cozy literature lulls readers with coziness and delivers important messages under its cover. And believe me, the points raised can be so acute and “out there” (especially for Korea) that we have a hard time publishing these books in Russia. Some parts have to either be full-on censored or the books are put behind the 18+ barrier. The cover of coziness seems to not work on Russian censors, what can you do. Anyways, my point is: don’t overlook Korean “cozy” books just because they seem like Western cozy books. They offer a lot of social commentary and are an interesting look into contemporary Korean society. Though your country might be different, there are also a lot of universally human pains and struggles told in these books. I believe “Welcome to the Hyunam-dong bookshop” by Hwang Boreum has an English translation (though I cannot speak on its quality), but if you can, check out the “Inconvenient convenience store” by Kim Hoyoun or “Marigold’s soul laundry” by Yoon Jongun as well (not sure about the availability of English translations, but there are very good Russian ones if that’s an option for you. Honestly that’s my hope for the 2025 book trends: translate more Korean books into English, please! They are different from what we are used to in the West, but it’s a perspective on life worth examining. This year’s Nobel prize gives me hope that my wishes will come true sooner rather than later. Keep an eye out for Korean books. Even if they seem familiar on the surface, they are far from it, trust me).
That's so interesting, thanks for this perspective. I've read two of the ones you cited, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop (in English) and Inconvenient Convenience Store (in Italian, it hasn't been translated to English yet) and the first was 5 stars for me, but the second seemed too simplistic. Now that I've read your explanation I think it makes sense for Korean society and what the book was trying to do.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop literally healed me. I want to see more healing literature translated because I see it in k dramas but I want to read it as well!
I will say, as somebody who has mainly picked up translated books from the cozy subgenre, they seem to widely differ from american/western cozy novels and focus more on character studies and how societal expectations often fade away in places considered "insiginificant" like bookstores and cafes. 100% agree with your comment and Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a book that I will always return to when I just need a little bit of peace away from the world
I‘m very certain that there will be a lot of translations coming over the next years. There even are several german translations and I still havent read them but I read a few articles a few weeks ago that discussed the quality of translated korean books and they seem to be really good.
I think if someone skips entire chunks of texts, then their reviews aren't exactly worth much except to others who do that. Like I get, it, I struggle to stay focused, I DNF a lot, but as a result I also don't make book and reading related content myself.
I feel it’s a little unfair to have Before the Coffee Gets Cold as one of the examples when talking about books jumping on the cozy cafe trend. It was originally written as a play 14 years ago, and the novel came out 9 years ago. And the setting isn’t just a gimmick, it’s central to the plot and this same story couldn’t be told in almost any other setting. I also found it to be very sincere and heartfelt.
yes, i read it about 4 years ago, before cozy fantasy as a genre became mainstream and started the shops trend, and i would not even have thought to use the word cozy to describe it at that time (although it's definitely a part of the japanese healing fiction genre) as it has such serious themes like reflecting on the past, overcoming grief/regret, trying to be hopeful for the future, etc. It also made me cry a lot!
I appreciate you talking about the importance of not speeding through a book but taking your time with it and thinking about it critically. I notice the need to consume more not only on booktok but on booktube as well
Yes! I spent all of this past summer reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and I’m so glad I didn’t speed through it. It follows a long period of time in the main character’s lives and I think it deserved that time for me to think critically about what was happening. I hope to do this more with other books! It really makes reading more enjoyable and not just something to do so you can say you read X amount of books in a year.
I zoom through it lol, but its more because I have adhd and its easier for me to pay attention at 1.5 speed because it feels like the standard speed of my thoughts 🙃
Heck, even on Facebook, it seems like everyone is in competition to be reading as many books as physically possible to the point of stressing out about how much you’ve read (or not read) once December hits. Goals are great to have, but the way people are treating these goals is extremely unhealthy
It makes perfect sense for someone who produces content. It’s not entertaining to create a short: “I’m slogging through the 14th chapter and this is slow-going.” There’s no sizzle in that.
I'm not sure the "too many words" woman was taken out of context like you said. I think the video responses she made about it & her reading habits are deleted but I remember seeing at least one. She never said anything about formatting. She said there were too many details she didn't want to read. That she doesn't care about backstories, flashbacks, settings etc. She said she only wants to read dialogue & action. Seeing just some of her book content I think she ragebaits so yeah... Idk all I know is she is weirdly extremely aggressive in her book content but calm in her beauty content & neither is for me
this is so funny because six of crows or at least the characterisation of the crows is very backstory heavy 💀 like that book is talking about how each of them ended up in ketterdam, ended up in their predicaments and subsequent heist 😭
Yeah I was thinking if she did mean the formatting she expressed it very badly. I also don't think the formatting on that book even looks that bad, I've seen much worse! But also like, I don't care if someone skim reads or skips long paragraphs, that's always allowed, do what you like, but I don't understand why people feel the need to tell everyone they do it if they don't want the reactions, you know?
my hope for romance cover trends is that it shifts back to the big flouncy cursive text covers with an image of a rose, a pair of lace gloves, a scrap of ribbon etc. it was a trend for a bit in the 90s/2000s as an alternative to the fabio or just shirtless man cover. it’s always stuck me as demure while conveying the lushness of romance
Agreed! They were so pretty! I wasn't really into romance then, but I remember always thinking the covers looked gorgeous. I loved when they were shiny especially. Shiny cover with pretty artistic elements, elaborate cursive, and a nice chonk of a book? I loooove finding those in Little Free Libraries now
This is probably my favorite take on year end bookish videos. It's almost like Spotify's Wrapped but for books trends, though I like when people also include trends that started up that they want to see keep going
I think that even though reading is a hobby, it is also an art form and that is why there is a value to reading a book as the author intended. BUT, if you don't like a book's writing, there should be no shame in not finishing the book.
My reading goal for 2024 was 104 books, but for 2025 it's 3. I found myself often choosing books based on meeting my weekly goals and not falling behind my reading schedule, and that really took away from the excitement I felt about reading books. Next year I start Brandon Sanderson for the first time, and I'm so excited!
@elleliterate I just finished reading Words of Radiance, book 2 of storm light archive. This was my first time reading a big fantasy like this and I’m HOOKED. Idk which series you’re reading from him but I hope you enjoy they’re amazing!
I agree with letting people have their hobbies, but like imagine you’re Reading Only dialouge, and then your fav character dies in a paragraph, and you just have to figure it out through dialouge. Like-
The reason cozy is popular again (it’s one of the oldest sub genres) people are seeking community and third places. That’s why it’s popular in Japan and now it’s coming back here
Wild to see someone in a kkk robe in the comments of a left-leaning booktok channel 😬 yikes for those outside the US (I know Leonie is Dutch and much of her audience isn't American) the kkk is a US-based racist hate group that has committed hate crimes (including murder) against POC.
Is it just me or what but I really really miss the days of booktube when there were no names and labels for all those cores and tropes? Bloggers would just tell you the genre of the book and that they liked it and you go and buy it and read it. That’s it 😂 nowadays it’s all about cozy dark academia enemies to lovers spicy chai latte oompa loompa space romance 😭 you have to learn a whole separate lingo just to find and read a damn book
YES! All the names for every single type of book make me want to vomit. I mean, "cozy horror" is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Horror is my favorite genre, and labeling a book cozy is going to turn me off right away.
this!! and it does feel a little spoiler-y to me like I was so excited to read this one book and at the end of the synopsis it was like "enemies to lovers that doesn't build until the 2nd book, confirmed HEA for everyone!!" like ty I don't even wanna read it now lol
"let people enjoy their hobby however they want" when applied to reading means reading your preferred genres, reading physical copies vs digital ones, tabbing your books etc, but not skipping paragraphs and only reading dialogue. Because at that point are you even reading? that aside, the crux of the anti-intellectualism debate is not about hating on those girls but it's about being more critical of the books you consume
Cozy mysteries have been a thing for decades. The same for cozy stories set in book/tea shops. Not a new thing just because online book influencers have just discovered them.
It’s still a trend though? Trends come and go. There was also a vampire trend when twilight came out and a dystopian trend when the Hunger Games were popular. Saying it’s a current trend doesn’t mean it’s a brand new concept…
@alexreid1173 Well, cozy mysteries have been a thing since at least the 1920s. It's actually considered a subgenre of crime fiction. Books set in various cafes have also been a thing at least since the 1990s. Granted those have mostly been mysteries as well. Now centering fantasy stories around them is largely an emerging trend, but that's probably because they sell. I definitely agree Twilight boosted vampire romances.
@@alexreid1173i don't know if it can be considered a trend if it's been a constant mainstay of the genre since at least the golden age of detective fiction where one could point to agatha christie's miss marple books as one of the progenitors of the cozy mystery subgenre. i mean we even had the murder she wrote tv series in the 80s and 90s and that's top tier cozy mystery. for decades people have been writing cozy mystery series that often span dozens of books, but i guess they've just been more ignored by book influencers until lately. unlike something like vampire romances, cozy mysteries aren't gonna go anywhere.
@@spudrina It's always about the mainstream. Stories about vampires, fae, dragons.. all of these existed before but they needed a catalyst to really become mainstream (again). Twilight happened - we got a lot of vampire (romance) novels. Forth Wing happened - we got a lot of books with dragons. Acotar happened - we got a lot of Fae books.
I don't really mind those illustrated covers, but I think they should somehow differentiate what age group they're targeting - maybe adding a 15+ / 18+ sticker on the cover or something like that. Movies and video games already do that, not sure why it's not as common for books...
the reason is because most countries have government agencies who rate video games (and movies and TV) and they have standard rating criteria. E.g. Just Dance games censor lyrics about alcohol to get a G rating. There has never been an equivalent for books. That said, I have seen some publishers put a recommended age next to the barcode, mostly manga seems to do this but some YA fiction on rare occasion too. It's something I'd like publishers to do more, but I doubt they will
@elskabee yeah I've seen ratings on manga and comics quite often as well, would be great if publishers start doing it with books too, though I guess they might not want to spend extra money on it
THIS. I totally agree. Books containing medium-high levels of smut should be labeled with like a 17+ or 18+ or even just be considered adult at this point (cough cough Sarah J. Mass, Icebreaker, Fourth Wing, etc). I would be horrified if I had like a 13 year old kid and opened up the book they were reading to see an extremely graphic sex scene and then they tell me the book is “YA”.
@@Spidermonkey43 while I do agree with you, none of those books are YA FYI. They're all adult, ecept mayyybe acotar which started as YA but is pretty much always shelved as Adult or New Adult these days
Here in Brazil, a book costs almost 10% of the minimum wage. More than half of the population doesn't read any books in a year. When the top-selling books on Amazon are religious or about how to get rich, that too is political. Which books are available for purchase and which have been censored, which books the publisher chooses to release, and how it's legal to Amazon exploit independent authors, paying mere fractions of a cent per page, are also political. EVERY BOOK is political, not just some of them. The act of buying a book itself is political.
I am Brazilian (but have lived abroad for over 20 years now), and I was very privileged to grow up with parents who loved books and who could afford them. When I moved abroad and discovered the power of a well stocked library, it was life changing. I am still an avid user of the library system and I so wish that was an option over there.
@@marinaramalhoI also wish we had libraries as readily available and well-stocked as there are abroad. I lived in England briefly as a kid and it was a totally mind-blowing experience to walk into the library in my small neighborhood and get absolutely anything I wanted! Not to mention the digital book systems many have in place nowadays. It would be life changing for many, many people.
I always find it fascinating how often people equate "cozy" books with being less smart, challenging, or intellectual. As you put it, stories that don't require "too much of our brain". Those same people are probably going to wax lyrical about the latest dark romantasy they read and give themselves an honorary PhD for the Definitely Not Escapism of it all. A book being edgy and violent doesn't make it necessarily smart, or good. And reading darker fiction doesn't make a reader smarter, either. Heck, some of the dumbest people I know only reason nonfiction.
I thought the commentary about "mass production" was a bit unnecessary. It gives the idea that there's a factory out there, where a single writer is pumping them out every day, as opposed to a lot of different writers just engaging with a popular idea in their own way. Is it all good? Probably not, but that's no different than any other genre, it's just more popular and therefore more of it exists! (And, on everything being cozy, I feel like we're conflating "serving a growing/profitable niche" with "everything" -- League of Legends and Call of Duty didn't shut down and replace themselves with cozy versions, all the non-cozy stuff still exists! Both of these points are very "we need to ration how much of a thing is made because otherwise I'm overwhelmed and mad" type arguments)
It's because cozy books are the equivalent of Hallmark movies. One of the actual selling points is that there is nothing to challenge the viewer/reader. Either intellectually or emotionally. It's just fluff. Which is FINE, sometimes you want something chill and not think too hard, but they ARE stupid because of that, and they're proud to be so lol.
I mean that's kinda the point of cozy right? To be chill and relaxing and not too heavy right now. I read sff in part for the escapism, I don't want direct real world stuff in my books (although I'd rather have a bit more stakes in my books).
Agreed!! I would describe myself as intelligent, musical and sensitive. I don't enjoy reading about violence, I find lingering violence or threats suffocating while reading. I really enjoy "cozy" mystery, witches, crime. I feel the same about music. Writing depressing, lamenting music is imo much easier than uplifting, inspiring stuff. And that's what I look for in books too! I want to feel inspired and comforted.
Oh no, just came to the part where she say's cozy stuff is for turning off you brain, and that's a sad thing. I very much disagree on this with Leonie. To me it seems like there's a bit of stereotypes going on for her.
I think part of the problem/why people were getting annoyed with the skipping paragraphs/too many words people relates to the tiktok sensation trend. Books do well on the app so then booksellers focus on those books to make sales. Publishers then focus on those types of books and trends again to sell more books and make money. But if there is a group of people not fully reading the books, how does that affect what books are being published? Are publishers focusing less on quality because they know people are being less critical about the books they read and will still buy stuff as long as it has certain sellable tropes?
Honestly, I hate the idea of skipping but I did *skim* a lot of passages in Iron Flame! It was poorly edited and so repetitive that you actually could do it and not miss anything. In a better book it doesn't feel like a chore to get through as fast as possible.
The trends I would leave in 2024 are: 1. Every villain is also a sexist predator and every sexist predator is a villain. Please god can I have a bad guy who isn't simply a bad guy because of misogyny. Give me an actual reason for once. 2. The whole "he's awful but he's hot" thing. Like kill it immidiely please. It might have been a funny joke the first couple times, but I'm so sick of it. Like, let's not moralize physical appearance maybe. Very gross. 3. The fmc is magically or accidenty intoxicated/drugged/aphrodisiaced for the sole purpose of the mmc denying her to show he "cares about concent" because apparently the only difference between a good guy and a bad guy is whether or not he'll sexually assult you. Even if the "good guy" has committed literal war crimes, murder, and whatever other atrocity the author finds hot. 4. Marketing an attraction plot as a romance. Plain and simple. Quit calling it a romance when it's just the mcs finding eachother hot, boning, and then getting mutually obsessed and infatuated with eachother. Most of the time they don't even like each other. Like seriously.
Well ofcourse. A bad guy could easily assault you but a good guy will not do anything while you're drugged. That's how reality is as well. If you don't like those good guys then go forward with bad guys
@gohan12991 You didn't understand a single thing I said. I said I dislike when the ONLY thing making the "good guy" different from the "bad guy" is not respecting consent. Even if the bad guy has done no other misdeeds but the good guy has committed war crimes and genocide. He's not a good guy for not fucking someone under the influence. That's what any decent person would do. He isn't special.
We should leave using the words "spicy" and "spice" to refer to sex scenes and sex-filled books in 2024. It's infantilizing, pro-censorship, and catering to an audience that prefers to keep women "decent." Whatever the fuck that means. I am dead serious when I say that it's revolting the way that TikTok and ad revenue has shifted the culture to deliberately censor and mask words, phrases, and context under the guise of being "appropriate." Appropriate for whom? Who's voices and preferences do these structures benefit? The more frankly we talk about the content of books, the better people are able to decide if those discussed books are for them. And on top of the detrimental effects of language used against women, what about the ways that this kind of censorship is deliberately burying queer voices and stories? People of color? Disabled people/people with disabilities? And EVEN FURTHER, using "pdf file," "unalive," "SA," and the myriad of other terms that careful and exacting censorship has birthed through short form content platforms is horrific. Say the actual words. And I get that it's this weird cycle of not saying the tiktokification words means your video gets censored so you incorporate those words in new videos, and those new videos perform better so you get more viewership and maybe more money. But catering to weird, puritanical, loud-mouths that take every instance of body and death words as a personal attack and a reason to silence voices they disagree with until those voices are either suppressed or non-existent, ain't it, chief.
Totally agree. Except the part "women decent" - what women? Which women? I thought it's about both sexes. Sexy, intimate, lusty - there's so many good words. Hate it when sex, though it's literally the basis of all life is being swiped under the rug.
Hard agree. I commented under someone else about how "spice" has serious unnecessary self-censoring vibes. Like at this point they're just doing for work for the people who wanted to censor content. It really isn't helping.
To be fair (without denying you have a point, just introducing another one) part of it has to do with the way people are raised, both by their families and their culture/community, and what the school system is like. If your normal is this, then the blunt honesty some would prefer would be like a blow to the face. And some people are just straight up more sensitive, and desensitisation doesn’t work for everyone.
@@mousegrey6747 to add on to that. a huge part of this cencorship comes from the algorithm. Especially stuff like the pdf file or SA since plenty of platforms, including TikTok, does not want certain topics openly discussed on their platform. However, these things are checked through algorithms and real life people rarely check what the content is actually about. This algorithm does not just give your video less views or less money, it might only do that, but it may also leave your tiktok to rot with barely anyone seeing it. if you use the word rape you risk anyone ever seeing it, if you say the word grape. That's just a grape, and definetly not meant to reffer to anything else, so why would a computer program do anything? I do not know if sex and erotica are on the list of "words we do not want creators using" but i would not be surprised. Since TikTok has a lot of kids on the platform, and does not want to loose a giant part of their userbase because parents decide TikTok is too inapropriate. I still do not necesarrily like these terms, but a lot of them are there cause internet platforms only give you two options: Talk about a topic with cencored words, or don't talk about the topic at all. It is not necesarilly self censorship, it's just censorship.
I like BookTok but imo you’re off here. They’re not participating in the hobby of reading if they’re demeaning books and the writing in those books. Not criticizing the quality, not discussing what they don’t like, just ranting about the existence of long paragraphs. It’s like, they’re calling people doing the hobby elitists even though no one was even talking about what they do until they started bragging about not reading. Also, it’s not a hobby if your career is making money recommending books. It’s dishonest to talk about books you haven’t read.
@@karolinahernandez7442 that's a fucking weird take when talking about people monetizing their opinions on a book they only skim read, kinda like hamparte if u are doing an art analogy.
@@karolinahernandez7442 hobbies are done for leisure, if you're doing it for money that's by definition not a hobby. that's not to say you can't enjoy your work but it's an important distinction because doing something for money, especially for a living, fundamentally changes how you approach the activity
just started watching the video, but Leonie!!! your hair is so freaking gorgeous!!! everything from the cut to the colour to the way you styled it looks so so so elegant!!!
5:09 Okay, let's not police how people do things. Thing is, if they're skipping over entire paragraphs, reading only the dialogue, wanting it to only ever be easy to read or what have you, they're... er, not reading. Not doing the hobby. And they still post on Tiktok, they want the participation.
Also, they can try switching to Korean webnovels, less paragraph, more dialogues, more drama and make content about them. But the problem with some of these tik-tokers are trend and attention chasing. They want to be known by talking about the hottest books that people are talking about but they don't want to read 😅
@@monster-enthusiast But it's false, it's so blatant. You listen to them, and it's... underwhelming. Like a fast food ad for reading. What use is you promoting a book if all you can say is "ohmygosh I loved it"?
@@0okuzukirio0 It's all a big advertising machine at this point, an outgrowth of the side of the publishing industry that puts out books ever faster, ever easier to rip through. Almost like fast fashion. Korean webnovels wouldn't help, they would need to show up nicely on a screen.
That's why it's so important to call these influencers out, because if you're young, attractive and have even basic editing ability then you can become a booktok influencer practically over night, and they're making mad bank off of all of us. I don't believe in policing or shaming anyone over a hobby either- but I do believe in calling people out for being users.
There are deeper and darker layers behind the whole astrology concept. I highly recommend exploring them in the book named Hidden Signs of the Universe by Olivia Cooper
Maybe I'm living too much in my historical romance bubble, but I feel like historical romances/bodice rippers have already become popular again. Ever since the Bridgerton series by Netflix, there's been a huge amount of regency & victorian romances published (also with cartoonish covers of course lol)
Skipping paragraph discourse is threatening because publishers look for trends. If they see this type of thing as a trend, they'll start pressurising writers to write more dialogues than necessary, they'll start publishing books with large ass font and then make like a "series" of a book that should've been a single book becausethat way they'll make more money. This is why EVERYONE should speak against it.
Cozy books have been around forever though, it's just that the younger audience has just discovered them, so now they're trendy. A few of those cozy books you showed are actually not just about being cozy and have deeper conversations, specifically The Spellshop, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, and Before the Coffee Gets Cold. I also think there needs to be more cozy sci-fi like The Monk and Robot books by Becky Chambers, which feel cozy but also make you really think. The Pumpkin Spice Cafe was definitely just cozy vibes, which was fine. Not every book HAS to be deep. Personally, I try to read a lot of different genres so I don't feel like I'm only reading the same thing. I absolutely agree with you about the whole Shadow Daddy trope. I would love to see a dark villain type character be put in his place by a powerful woman over 40 who will take absolutely none of his shit.
I cannot agree more! The Spellshop was such a lovely read. I read so many genres, and sometimes, those cozy and simple books are refreshing between heavier reads.
completely agree. i first got back into reading after watching booktubers who were reading 7 books a month and as someone who isnt an extremely fast reader, i felt pressured to get through books as fast as possible which meant occasionally skimming and for the most part it was NOT enjoyable. i find it so much easier to slowly read books even if it takes me a month to get through 1, i find it a lot more enjoyable and relaxing.
I'd always enquire how long those books were when someone told me that they had read a certain amount of books in a month. Also, how they arranged their daily duties and activities to make space for such long periods of reading. I read a lot of news per day (decelerated it a little this week due to holidays), and have to copy a lot of interesting quotes from books I read on my eReader, so I often am a little short on time for reading except during my walks, so I often take about two months to read a book, also because I'm a slow reader. Seven per month sounds to me like either skimming through them only, or they dominantly read novellas and collections of short stories. Once you feel pressured to read books by quantity, you make it a task and strip it of the enjoyment it is meant to induce.
I work in a public library, and had a 7th grader come up and (seemingly very innocently) ask me where she could find Icebreaker. All of our copies of Ice Breaker were checked out, and I was able to show her some YA romance instead. She was very happy to find Lynn Painter and Jenny Han. I do feel very confident that she wouldn’t have asked for Ice Breaker if it had more of the 80s vibe or shirtless man cover….
I have a few thoughts on fanfiction to trad published books, reading as a hobby, and romance covers. Fanfiction to published books: my main gripe with it (as someone who enjoys fanfics) is that popularity doesn’t equal quality and often hugely popular fanfics aren’t even that good compared to the “hidden gems” that writers will recommend to each other. But the fanfics and authors that will get publishing deals are usually the most popular ones and often the fics are easier reads (which is totally fine). I’d just like to see more fanfic writers published who are writing the actual fandom gems and it annoys me a bit how outsiders will judge the whole diverse fanfic landscape based on the latest fanfics that got the trad publishing deals, or how “it reads like a fanfic” has become a whole description that means “easy & fast read, not challenging, smutty, enjoyable but lacking”. Reading as a hobby/anti-intellectualism: I think the issue with this topic is that reading is one of those hobbies that isn’t just a hobby but also a vital skill. So yes, reading for fun is great and important, but at the same time we can’t afford to look at it in isolation in the current climate. There’s a lot of “this isn’t that serious, let people have fun” but it really is that serious. I find the current statistics of functional literacy in the US alarming and it reflects in book spaces when a lot of readers appear to be unable to pass middle grade literacy analysis & understanding. English isn’t my native language so it always shocks me when a native speaker fails in basic reading comprehension and cannot read on the same level as I can in my secondary language. Obvious themes and intent regularly go over people’s heads (similar stuff is happening with other media) and this lack of critical thought & understanding is dangerous when we globally experience a descent into fascism. (I’m also really fun at parties /j) Romance book covers: I immediately thought of how publishing could follow the example of manga. Not every explicit manga has a telling cover, so manga publishing started to print little contrasting “flags” on the cover/the outer back/spine with a clear age indicator for 18+. I think some also have a 15+. I really like that solution bc it can allow for creative covers that don’t have to be overly sexual while still clearly marking their contents so both those who wish to read them and those who wish to avoid them can easily recognise them.
I get where those girls are coming from, and I do think they have a point, even if they don’t express it that well. Like, a lot of people do prefer books with more dialogue or faster pacing. BUT… when they say things like 'there are too many words in this book' or 'this book is terrible because the font is small,' it makes me seriously question if they’re even processing what they’re reading. I mean, do they even like or enjoy reading at all? If you really love something, you don't tend to complain about its basic parts. Books are made of words-so why complain about there being 'too many'? Books have many sizes, so why take your time complaining about a big one instead of getting a smaller one that you'll enjoy?? It all makes me feel like they're purposefully rage baiting readers for views...
I think a large reason why people (me included!) are loving the cozy bookshop/coffee shop vibe so much is because we have lost the idea of a third space. There aren’t enough places to just exist peacefully anymore and many places just feel like pay and go and it makes me sad
I used to take my time with a book, I don’t remember when I started speeding through that I would listen to the audiobook version so I “don’t waste time”. Taking my time with a book is definitely on my New Year’s resolution! Happy holidays Leonie ❤️
No I think what bothers me about the skimming isn’t the actual skimming. It’s that they say “oh this book is bad” without ever stopping to think that maybe this book just isn’t for *them.* Its fine to enjoy short stories and smut but if you pick up an epic fantasy book with a side of romance don’t be mad when it turns out to be mostly fantasy with a side of romance. To me this is like if an artist wanted acrylic paint, bought high quality watercolor, and then complained about how bad the watercolor is because it’s nothing like acrylic, all to their audience of millions of people.
Why should I trust the recommendations of someone skipping paragraphs. This people are making book content and are not engaging with them not critically. You can do what you in your private life but when you start making content about it, it is no longer private and there should be some basic requirements.
The 'too many words' thing reminds me of how so much media and literature is simplified recently. People can't watch Netflix shows without their phone so they make the scripts and acting absent of subtext and imagery. Popular video games are basically playable movies that give people no time to figure things out for themselves before they get pulled along to the next thing. Also everything is cosy. Maybe we're all just tired and our declining attention spans make sense.
I'm not trying to disagree here, but I would like to know what video games you're referring to? Because I can think of many popular games from this year and last year that aren't what you said, like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring (because of the dlc release this year), and the consistently most played games each year are multiplayer shooters which aren't very "playable movie" to me. I do recognize that I have a limited scope of what games are most popular because I don't necessarily only play new releases/even know about a lot of new releases though.
@@rubythorns2349 Ah, thanks for asking. I'm mainly referring to popular and mainstream games such as God of War, as an example off the top of my head. I saw several sections of that game in which the AI partner would instruct the player a lot, barely giving them room to think. When encountering puzzles or new areas that were blocked off, the player would have around 5 seconds to find it themselves before they are directed to the solution. Arguably other games such as those of the Tomb Raider series will do similar hints, and lots of games nowadays are very movie-like and do not emphasise gameplay much at all, and what gameplay there is does not require much effort or 'thinking outside the box'. There's also the infamous 'yellow tape' concept in which lots of popular games (such as the Resident Evil series) are given super obvious yellow markings to show the player what to do and what can be interacted with, because they found that the average player/playtester will miss them without the yellow marks. Various other games such as those of the Pokémon series have been simplified over the years to cater towards people who barely get invested. My main observation is that a lot of 'mainstream games', not all of them, are catering towards an audience that would rarely get invested or take the time to learn nuances and complex mechanics, and it feels like a feedback loop of expectation and development that results in games being simplified into 'playable movies'. If all the player has to do is move a character occasionally and press one or two buttons to make things happen without much thought, then it's not that much of a game. (Also yes, Baldur's Gate and Elden Ring are very much the exception from my generalisation. Good games for sure.)
@@shib9164 okay, I get more what you mean now. I have noticed that the games you're talking about tend to fall into the "we called it a AAA rpg but it's really a graphics showcase disguised as a game" category. While I don't disagree that modern developers want to keep as much player engagement as possible in a world of shorter and shorter attention spans, I think a lot of it has to do with good graphics = appealing trailers = more sales so that takes precedence. Because the games I can think of that are less hand-holdy tend to be made with a non hyper-realistic art style. Modern pokemon is way too easy though, I'll give you that. I've played a couple of the 3d mainline games and they were fun but not hard.
THIS or people/booktubers who read 200 books a year cannot remember a single moment from one of the books they read when trying to review them in their wrap up videos....... many people read to accomplish goals not bc they are enjoying the journey of a book & that is just extremely annoying in my opinion :/
I totally agree about the spicy books having cute covers, I have been tempted to buy some because I’m like why not read a romance one a year but I’m not interested in smut at all in books so I’m glad I never bought any because I would be so mad to find out the cute romance I thought I was getting was a total super spicy book, those are always on tables in B&N and there is nothing to stop a teen from getting it because it looks cute.
I have a thought on the “skipping paragraphs” readers. And this might be controversial to viewers on this channel. I didn’t grow up reading, I’ve struggled with ADHD my entire life and trying to focus on something that doesn’t keep my attention has previously been difficult. However, the past year I’ve worked really hard on “dopamine fasting” or essentially depriving myself from instant gratification and just slowing down. And so I’ve been off social media and started to read books. I think the younger generation has been raised with instant gratification so trying to introduce someone who’s been accustomed to swiping through ticktock and getting new captivating content every minute, and trying to sit them in front of a “difficult to read” book, it’s going to take some time. It’s something they’re not used to. I started on easy to read short books that kept be hooked the entire time and have slowly gotten used to and enjoy more complex and longer books. So I’m not saying the girls on ticktock are justified for making content complaining about something that’s silly like that, but maybe just a clue into why they have that struggle. 🤷🏼♀️
I think you have a good point, and anyone who is aware of Dopamine Nation might have considered it as well. (Disclaimer: haven't read the book, just listened to interviews with the author.) Like most things, the issue is probably more complex than that, but I know my husband's experiment with removing his biggest dopamine habit (t.v.) had an impact on his brain that was measurable to us. He is also ADHD and struggles to stay awake for slow content and especially reading physical books, and sticks to audiobooks for that reason. I like that you are not placing the blame for this on the readers because, to me, it's simply a result of how we live.
Agreed. As a late in life diagnosed adhd-er I used to struggle with reading and these judgments about me really not being a reader really made it hard for me to engage with others about reading. Now that I understand that I have adhd, I don’t deny myself any accommodations that help me enjoy this hobby even if some social media influencer wants to claim I’m not really reading or I’m not reading the right way or blah blah blah.
The problem is not that they do it, the problem is that they are influencers being paid for what they do and if they normalize it as the new way to read, then it affects what books get published and which ones don't. I too have adhd btw
@nbucwa6621 I do agree that people like that might influence what is getting published and shouldn't be holding themselves up as experts. (But are they? This is social media, not journalism, so you could also blame the readers for watching that content instead of seeking out educated reviews.) I'm pretty pessimistic with regards to the state of publishing already. It's suffering from algorithms and popularity contests like everything else. I also don't see this as getting better any time soon.
Okay, as a person who never skims and who is also a writer, not pressing the enter key to separate ideas IS bad writing. It isn't anti-Intellectual to have a problem with this. I don't have Tic Tok and maybe I've missed some context here. I talk to a lot of amateur writers, and they'll give me these paragraphs that are absolutely gigantic. They, notably, contain several separate ideas. This is avoidable! That all said... I don't understand skimmers at all. What do you do when you skip, and now you've got no idea what's going on?
Omg, you just reminded me that I saw a fic once where the entire (like maybe 3k or 5k) thing was like a handful of HUGE paragraphs. There was no line break between dialogue and description, and obviously none between ideas. It was the most murderous thing I've ever seen and I instantly blocked them 🤣🤣🤣
I am an occasional skimmer, and I usually just do it if I feel the pacing of the story slowing down too much for me. Like, I'll skim until it gets exciting again. For example, if a story is really ramping up towards a big action sequence, and the author ends the chapter on a cliffhanger, and the next chapter stops the action to focus on a side plot somewhere else, I will skim until I get back to the action. If I feel like I missed something important while skimming, I'll just go back and read over the skimmed parts lol
@@queencleopatra007 Hmm I didn't really understand this at all, but I didn't read most of the stuff in the middle.... JK. I feel like I'd have to go back every time because I know I'd be lost.
@@yukihirasouma4691 Thanks for saying it out loud. "Most books are political" is such a disingenuous take that completely skips over what people mean when they say "I don't want politics in my books". Nobody cares if a book tackles political themes, most welcome it. They just don't want to see real world politics being shoehorned into a story where they don't belong and feel out of place. We can read non-fiction for that.
i like politics in books as long as it's not irl politics. i love a corrupt fictional government, but i get enough of my own corrupt government in life, so why would i want it in a book? the politics is why i like the hunger games, but if it was set in the modern day and it was a critique of....idk....donald trump, i would be bored out of my mind because i see that specific annoying politician enough already.
like various forms entertainment all books should be written Apolitically no one for specific side you can be inclusive without being preachy. Apeasing both sides is possible and can be done. Guess what it SELLS. Apoltical Author Frank Herbert has changed my perception on this.
What do you mean real life politics? There's tons of stuff in hunger games about systematic oppression, which as you might or might not be aware is happening in the real world.
Re: Skipping paragraphs & there’s no such thing as doing a hobby wrong… let’s take your own example of drawing. If someone gets joy from from drawing terrible unrecognizable stuff, that’s cool. But if they TRACE someone else’s drawing and then go around saying they “drew” that…. That’s a big no. So no you don’t get to skip huge sections, just read the spark notes, etc and still say you “read” that.
The TikToker complaining about the formatting of books is something I totally agree with. I’m a second-year law student. Almost all of my textbooks are huge with tight margins and small fonts. That format is awful to start with and, to me, it’s especially bad to use in smaller paperbacks and hardcovers; it hurts my eyes. When I shop for books now, I check the formatting before paying. If it’s small font, narrow margin, etc., it goes on my Kindle and/or Audible list. I’ll also check the library for large print versions.
I feel you. Some books really have AWFUL formatting!! and despite being someone who likes reading long books I can still get discouraged/annoyed when there's just toooo much written on one page, it can feel tedious to get through. And I also love taking notes as well :)
Interesting. I lean more towards the opposite. I get frustrated when books are monstrosities in size, and then the formatting inside is also unnecessarily large. It just seems so wasteful.
It’s a huge problem for nonfiction especially. I have so many books that are around 10.5 pt font. That doesn’t even meet standard accessibility guidelines for print materials! I feel like people listened to “there are so many words on this page” and somehow heard “this book has too many words”, which isn’t the same thing at all. I literally use a magnifying glass for certain books so I don’t have to squint lol
Agreed!! All the discourse I saw around that TikTok was so critical/judgemental and I was like "girly low key has a point though 👀" Like I don't want my books to have less words in them, but if the type face is tiny and the margins basically non existent I'm just not gonna have as good a time with the book as I could have and I would definitely prefer another format in that case.
I’m sorry but the take on before the coffee gets cold, is a very beautiful written piece of work, and that perception of romanticization you brought is completely, of the coziness, is not “souless” nor is it romanticized, and neither is it cliché. It was written so long ago, and it actually is a very heart warming and thought provoking book. I'd suggest you read it or re read it, and then put it up as an example.
I just finished reading The Chimes by Charles Dickens. It needs to be a new Christmas tradition. He goes full throated reformer in this one. I'm remembering why I love him so much. Hope your year is winding down well, Leonie! Have a great Christmas week!
4:20 - lowkey, my mom does this!! It irritates me so bad LOL I can't be in the same room when she's reading and just gets tired of a section and starts flipping pages once a second to get to a not-boring part! And she's definitely not an anti-intellectual herself, she just wants to like, make sure there's no awful racism or smth towards the climax (1920s mystery novels diiiid have that problem), and then if it passes her skimming vibe-check, she'll read it slower 'for real' and still have plenty of the book to actually experience?? That's how she likes to do it! ,XD I do not get, personally! But! It doesn't hurt me... If I leave the room XD
7:30 when it comes to reading. I have three different versions first I have: I’m just reading for fun and for the vibes and sometimes I forget what I read immediately afterwards, but it was fun during that moment. Then I have books that I read that are completely in my mind like I can think about them 24/7. Then there are books that I know I really wanna pay attention to so maybe I’ll annotate them or I’ll take notes on them or I will highlight them or do notes and those are books that I know I really want to pay attention to, and so I will really take my time reading them, but I really think I just depends on the book that I’m reading.
Speaking as someone on the trad publishing end of things, I am a bit wary of the trend of just how many publishers are picking up indie books these days. To be clear, this isn't because of the books themselves and the authors themselves. There's genuinely good stuff that gets self-published and often, we see certain types of experimentation happen first in the indie space before moving over into trad, due to the fact that indie authors are often less risk averse than trad publishers are. But that's where the problem with the uptick of publishing buying indie titles is getting concerning to me - this is a strategy of publishing getting increasingly more and more risk averse by focusing their resources/dollars on proven winners, rather than acquiring stuff to break out on their own. And increasingly, Amazon is getting more and more pay-to-play when it comes to ads and how feasible it is to make a living off of it. In other words, authors have to make a fairly large investment of their own capital in order to publish well and get the kind of numbers that would attract traditional publishers. We're talking in the range of thousands to tens of thousands of dollars that would need to be available for the author to invest upfront, before they see returns. In other words, publishers are trying to do less and less of what trad publishers are most useful for - taking on the burden of risk for a project by offering an advance to the author and taking on the upfront costs of production and promotion. As you kind of hinted at, publishers are only swanning in when the author already has turned a profit after *their* investment and then making a low-risk offer in order to line their own pockets. So while for individual authors and books, this might not be a negative (like you said, it's nice some of these self-pub books are getting their flowers!) this is not a trend that makes publishing more accessible or more author friendly but - in fact - the opposite. It shows a lack of interest in breaking out new authors and doing the grunt work of actually helping an author launch a career.
Seeing the lost bookshop at 10:26 made me laugh cause it DEFINITELY doesn’t fall within a cozy cafe genre. That book is far from cozy. More like death and traumatic experiences with magic tied in it.
Leonie, thank you for bringing critical thinking and insightful comments to your channel! That's why I follow you, it's so refreshing to hear your voice of reason!
I think my least favorite book/reading phenomenon (and really a media consumption phenomenon in general) nowadays is the apparent inability of a lot of people to distinguish between fiction and reality. A lot of people seem to treat fictional characters and plot lines in a really weird way, and promote engaging with media in sort of a “good, clean, sanitized” way exclusively, and that grates on my nerves so much. There is no need to hold fictional characters up to real people moral standards, and analyze and criticize their behavior the same way as real people’s. Labeling media as “problematic” has become a real problem in itself. Enjoying reading about something doesn’t mean you do or condone it in real life.
So, you know how psychologists say that humans are programmed to need religion in their lives for our own mental health? This behavior is what you get when people don't have any concrete beliefs or community, lol. They live in delusion and try to find weird ways to validate their own goodness, by tying it to the fiction they're obsessed with. ( I'm not trying to promote religion here, btw. There's non-religious ways to fill that need, but pretending fictional characters are real is just one of the unhealthy ones. 😂 The healthy version is things like volunteering, donating, or enriching their life with hobbies/other social engagements outside of social media).
I feel that. I read a lot of transgressive fiction which refers to works of fiction that intentionally push the boundaries of what is considered "acceptable" to publish, morally or otherwise, (think American Psycho, think de Sade), and because of that, I struggle with a lot of the romance novel discourse out there. I don't read romance, but I don't understand why I should be horrified because Stephanie from Iowa City gave Haunting Adeline five stars and said it was hot lmao. She's not going to leave her perfectly nice husband and three kids for a serial killer. And the way people talk about teenagers reading books like that is wild to me. It's like a lot of these people forget being a teenager and reading taboo books with depictions of unhealthy relationships and sex and whatever because it intrigues them. Most teenagers did that, and most teenagers grow up to be adults with functional lives and in healthy relationships. The kids are going to be fine.
I also read A Gentleman and Moscow during lockdown and it made me feel not alone. Your description of its brilliance is so well done. Very excited to check out all the books I haven’t read on your list because the 4 I have are all time favorites of mine as well!!
For the ilustration cover of spicy books, i feel like it's cooler when you're among people and you're discret in you reading. It could be miss leading for younger reader but that is the respinsability of the sellers/publisher. And ilustrations more pleasant to look at. Can't wait to see your videos in 2025
I had a quick look at what was going to be discussed and felt called out by the cozy cafe / bookshop books. I can't help loving it, I work in a library myself. I have also noticed a lot more asian literature (particularly from South Korea and Japan) being available in bookshops too. I have been really enjoying it.
23:25 happened to me when I was reading Icebreaker! 😂. The cover made it seem it was gonna be cutesy, but all I got was smut, smut, and more smut. I DNFed it.
I guess many of the trend-related issues we face could be avoided if tropey books had a dedicated space or category, similar to light novels in Japan. Light novels receive specialized awards, adaptations, and coverage, like the support they get from Da Vinci magazine. These books are not mixed with those competing for the Naoki or Akutagawa awards; they are marketed in completely separate niches.
I'm annoyed by the tik-tok label because I can recommend really "sophisticated" books with a deep message like The Poppy War and as soon as people see that it was popular on TikTok they make fun of me
Oof 😢 i try not to judge anyway (people like what they like), but yeah, I'm guilty of losing interest in a book immediately after I see the tik tok label. I'll look into them more if someone is know likes the same things as me recommends it, but otherwise I end up putting it my "not a book for me" pile. 😅
I love that you acknowledge both ideas of “let people enjoy things the way they want to” and also “maybe you should read the whole book.” You have a great capacity for empathy and nuance in your takes, and I always really appreciate it
19:34 OK so I have a weird theory because I wanna know if a lot of the book people whether it’s on RUclips or on Instagram or TikTok and also the authors like are they getting paid to talk about Taylor Swift because I feel like a few years ago, even if you were a big Taylor Swift fan, you never heard about this stuff I feel like every single author talks about her or every booktuber talks about Taylor Swift and it feels weird to me. Like it feels so forced.
I agree on all of your takes on this video, we need to think a little bit deeper on what we consume on social media and I mean not only the actual content but also the subtext on those opinions. On another note, I LOVE your earrings, BEAUTIFUL.
as someone who loves Taylor, seeing her songs being used as a title or featuring in those "book playlists" makes me put the book away because, as you said, I feel like I'm falling for a scam if I keep on reading. oh, and as much as I agree with you on the "there's no wrong way to practice a hobby" part, how can I discuss about a book, talk about theories with someone who skipped through the paragraphs describing how that universe works? it wouldn't be a conversation, but a lecture
I have ADHD, and I will admit, the way a book is laid out can really affect how much I enjoy it. I usually have an aim of reading a chapter when I sit down, but if that chapter is over 50 pages, or there is no clear division between chapters, that can make it pretty difficult for me. Lots of long paragraphs can also make it difficult for me, but I tend to not notice them as much. I can still get through the book, but there will be a lot less enjoyment, and it might affect my overall view of it.
I feel like we need to really differentiate between anti-intellectualism, and the perfectly valid criticism of book formating. Publishers have been cramming too many words on the pages just to save money on paper, making the reading experience a lot less comfortable and enjoyable in the process for a very long time, and like it or not, it plays a huge role in a person's willingness to read. I love reading , but big blocks of texts give me a headache. It has absolutely nothing to do the the content of the text, or the lenght of the text, it's about straining your eyes. Reading involves your body, and some poeple like to forget that not all bodies are the same. Tiny print and big blocks of texts are not hindering your reading? Well good for you, but not everyone is like you.
Often on Booktube, I really feel like yall are just kids and don't remember anything. Cheers the biggest show on TV in the 80's was a cozy story about people hanging out at a bar after work and Angela Landsberry spent a decade on Tv as the nice quiet granny writer lady solving cozy mysteries.
Okay the issue i have with people skipping paragraphs is exactly the same issue I have when I watch a movie with a friend and they‘re on their phone constantly. I want them to know why I like the book/movie and I want them to like it for the same reasons I do :,) and I want to see them react to certain scenes and be into it and get hyperfixated with me :,)))
It’s not policing hobbies to say that skipping all of the descriptive paragraphs isn’t reading. (1) it’s not a hobby to the people being dragged - they see it as their business or influencer brand and for them it’s a numbers game where they have to “read” 100+ books for their *brand* and not their enjoyment, (2) it’s genuinely inauthentic to act as a subject matter authority on books and criticize books for having “too many words” - even going as far as to not recommend them and hurt book sales - when you are BY DEFINITION not reading entire chucks of those books, and (3) the first shot was not fired by anyone judging the book skimmers. They invited the criticism. It was a shot in their own goal. It was a self own. You can be disappointed by the dogpile or the media reaction but it wouldn’t have taken place at all without some dumbass saying “these pages have too many words” or “am I the only one who slips paragraphs and only reads dialogue?”
Cozy is my go to genre. I like a good mystery but i want it to be lighthearted with a focus on characters and character development. I adore the Lady Dunbridge Mystery series, its historical fiction and I recommend it if you don't like when your books make you sad.
The “too many words on the page” discussion could have been such a great opportunity to talk about how many publishers fail to meet bare minimum accessibility guidelines for print materials. But instead people took it as “people don’t want to read.” The original video reminds me of how many of my friends with dyslexia talk about trying to read books. Large print books are so expensive and often unavailable, and I know so many people who just struggle through. I have books from big publishers like Penguin that are in 10.5 font (classics mostly). That’s ridiculous
There are some books that I literally will not buy in physical form because I can't read the print without straining my eyes. I know page magnifiers do exist but they aren't perfect and I wish it wasn't a consideration I had to make when buying a book. On the plus side it means I only buy books in person to combat this.
“too many words on the page” should be mentioned in the context of having to fucking squint to read. I just bought east of eden and good god are the words small 😭 I get that some publishers do this to largely save money but do I really gotta squint my eyes to read… my eyesight is already as bad as it is 😭😭😭
Yes as someone with dyslexia, I struggle a lot with some of the things mentioned and the way the discussion went on it made me feel really down on my reading. Switching to an ebooks and making print larger helps a ton but there is just something special to read a physical book.
I saw you put The Lost Bookshop in the cosy cafe/bookshop genre and i don't think that's fair, tbh. Because firstly, romance is a subplot in this book. Love is talked about from a familial perspective. It's about women in their families and how it changed through time. It's about the connection between three women through time. From what i remember the fmc doesn't even get together with her love interest at the end. Secondly, the bookshop in question is a metaphor for home. It's a big part of the plot and the whole backstory. The whole story revolves around the bookstore and helps with telling the story of the two fmc's. The book is obviously about a bookshop, but there is sooo much more to it than just a cosy bookshop romance. It's about women in the literary world when it was a male dominated field, it talks about history (i learned so much about Irelands history from this book) and about love from families, especially found family. as you can see, i'm very passionated about this book, i loved it! so i really recommend it if you love fantasy in a real world setting and a bit of history/background info of characters
i was stressing about if i’m speeding through books too quickly but then i remembered im an early teenager and need to stop letting others define how i enjoy books 😭 i’ve always been quick to consume things so getting books done in a week or less is normal for me and i think it’s okay to get through books fast, it doesn’t mean you’re not enjoying the book! i think we need to leave judging everyone’s taste and trying to dictate the way people read in 2024
This was cool to watch. I'm not locked in with the trends on many things, and this includes on Booktok/the online book community. Thanks for the video. I do agree about the illustrated book covers. There needs to be some indication of spice level. Oh! And I love your art. It's so unique.
I'd like to see video essays about a book somebody recently read or revised after so many years. I read for the enjoyment; I'm in no rush in making a hobby I enjoy a chore.
i agree with the changing up the covers a bit for smutty books, like I was out with my mum and younger sister who is 12 in the book section of Kmart since I am one of the readers in the family said little sister comes over and asks if she can have ice breaker and before my mum says yes I had to explain that it is not what it looks like also the book was in the teenager section sure it might have a cute cover but this is why I don't think smutty books should have a change in covers (just not to the half naked man again)
I'd understand if the "too many words on a page" was a "too small font is too difficult on my eyes" or if the "I skip paragraphs" is in context of "gods this is so bad but I wanna finish the chapter/skim the ending before I full on drop it". Sadly too many readers mean it as "I don't see reading as an enjoyable hobby, I just want to be seen as someone who reads a lot" and "I don't understand this so I'll just skip it instead of trying to understand"
Firstly, as everyone else is mentioning your hair looks AMAZING. Also, agreed on all of these except for cozy fantasy/bookstore, LOL - that's my absolute favorite genre - more Legends and Lattes, The Cat Who Saved Books, and House on the Cerulean Sea please! (Also, you missed the opportunity to insert a clip of Kylo screaming "MOOOOORE!!!!!!!" when you put Reylo fan fiction in "MORE")
Great video. I love cozy book. I'm just a tired adult who need comfort in her life. Not that not read book that more serious. But I something just need a book that feels like a warm hug. 😊
I love your art so much! It has such a fairytale whimsy that is just so nice to look at. Please consider sharing more art, I’d love to see that content!
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Reading trends I'd like to see in 2025: basic media literacy
Considering the people who struggle to read books with "too many words," just basic literacy.
I literally had a whole discussion just some weeks ago over someone insisting about the fact that "Poh could have never defeated Tai Lung", it is not a book, but it amazed me how many people were actually uncapable of interpretating how the movie was not suposed to be taken literally and how the movie itself is a representation of the philosophical interpretation of Tahoism and Dahoism. It's like, "Of course this talking panda couldn't learn kung fu well enough to defeat the buffed tiger", inside this ficctional universe where the rules of the real world canno't be applied. A 7 year old can easily interpretate what succes and achievement through personal struggle mean
Can I add critical thinking, or is that too high of a bar…
@@honorbound1337 these kids quote the "blue curtains" meme, let's walk before we run
@@sassytabascoI’m begging people to listen and participate in English class before opening TikTok…come on Youth, I believe in y’all
I understand your point about the skipping paragraphs thing, but my problem is these are people who presumably review and recommend books to decent sized audiences. If they aren’t willing to read the paragraphs and consume the stories critically, then I don’t think they should be reviewing or recommending any books
Totally agree dude
Also, these influencers and their opinions based on the fact that they don't actually enjoy reading will more than likely greatly effect future trad published literature, because the squeaky wheel gets the oil; them loudly complaining about things like long paragraphs or too many words can negatively impact us all when the big publishing houses take these critics to heart and start harshly judging author's new work by those standards. I don't think it's policing how another person enjoys their hobby to say that maybe those specific booktok influencers don't actually enjoy reading at all and are using us all for an easy payday, that's 100% fair to point out especially when their complaints can effect authors as a whole.
They’re influencers turning books into fast fashion. I have a love hate for the online book world because it’s great talking books together but collecting multiple copies and complaining about word counts among other things is becoming a negative consumerism practice
Exactly. If they weren't reviewing I wouldn't have a problem with it, but if they're reviewing and I follow those reviews, I know I'd be disappointed when realizing while reading the book that THEY didn't actually fully read the book. Sometimes those paragraphs hold important information! Not everything is poured out in dialogue.
But I would also say that taking book recommendations from someone who clearly says that they didnt actually read the whole book is kinda stupid. Unless you have a very sinilar reading habit and then theres no problem, because the recommendations actually fit you.
ngl it'd be hilarious if the next big romance thing would be pirates for no reason at all. like why the hell not atp lmao
I would love that tbh lol
I mean, there are a lot of pirate books out there. 🤷♀️
I'd welcome more swashbuckling/nautical stories. 😌
@@ceilinh6004 sure! but they rarely hit the mainstream
Oh I’m so down.
I'm hoping the cozy trend that seems to be taking over multiple industries spills over into actual cafés and bookshops. I mourn the death of the "third place," and I'm hoping to see a revival of coffee shops with comfy chairs and nooks to read in and a open mic night, etc. People need places to connect again.
This is what the hipsters brought! ❤
I was gonna comment this as well.. third places should be brought back 🥺
This comment made me think the cozy trend in books may be a by-product of a lack of third places
I don't totally agree with you on this one, and here's why. I don't think there is a death of the 'Third Places' but that the application of it by people has shifted. For many the third place is the online space, be that gaming, social media etc and people find great community in that (admittedly not always healthy community, but community none the less). There is a wonderful Netflix documentary call The Remarkable Life of Ibelin which is about a young Norwegian man calls Mats Steen who was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy which meant over time he was less able to take part in every day life. However he found his third place through the game World of Warcraft which he would play for hours. When he died his parents and family were shocked at the amount of people who came from all over the world to his funeral, all because they knew him from one game. That was his third place and his escape from his everyday reality.
If you are referring to the third place in the sense of the physical third place, which I think you are, I would agree to an extent, but would say that its dying rather than dead which means we have time to save it to an extent and that can only be done by people actually using those third places, too many people will complain about the loss of a local pub or cafe, but then will have never actually used it. Also human geography changes an area, new people coming in and old people leaving an area will see old third places go and new ones come into being, its a constantly shifting dynamic and what we see as our third place now isn't what we will see it in years to come.
@@forceninewinds That's a very fair, thorough, and insightful response. I agree with you, and none of what I'm saying is to rebuff what you've said. I'm just adding on to further the discussion. It's true that the physical third place has been largely replaced with online community and connection. I'm so happy that exists for people to connect around the world and regardless of ability to utilize physical third places due to any number of circumstances.
I still believe it's important to have physical third places available to those who can use them. We are steadily loosing the art of in-person connection. Once we are out of school, we are often out of touch with the people who are geographically near us. We are more thoroughly entrenched in ideological echo chambers than ever before. It think these issues can be, though not solved, alleviated by the revival of third places. Encountering new people, philosophies, and ideas in the wild - and having a human face and name that often demands empathy and respect attached to those ideas - is good for us.
It's also good for our mental health to have somewhere other than home and work that we can feel comfortable and welcome in. I really hope you're correct that we can turn this around and revive the third place because I am having a really heard time finding a café with a couch within an hour's drive of my house. Even libraries don't have a place you can sit and read without your backside going numb within an hour.
I did recently see some articles claiming that the new CEO of Starbucks wants to bring back comfy seating and community spaces, so fingers crossed that this actually happens and smaller companies follow suit. I really miss curling up in a big leather chair with a book and a latte, and striking up conversations with random people 3 times my age about the joys of reading (of course, now I'm older, they'll likely only be twice my age👵).
For me, the sad trend of this year is that my local libraries dismissed the whole science fiction section and the old fantasy section to replace them with the books that are popular in Tik Tok.
Oof
☹️☹️☹️
OMG THIS!!! like I won't deny, I do enjoy a good romantasy, but that seems to have replaced the fantasy section! I want my classic fantasy back!
This should be iilegal
Sacrilege.
Skipping entire paragraphs of exposition, lore, descriptions etc to get to the dialogues aligns very well with the whole social media competition of 'i read 300 books in a year'. At that point to me that's not reading, that's consuming. You're not 'participating' in the hobby of reading, you are consuming a story as fast and barebones as possible.
Leonie's hair is off the charts in this video ✨✨✨
she's so pretty i just cant (ToT)
so is her drip contempory Librarian
real atp we need a hair care video XD
It totally caught my eye and made me watch😂❤
I understand not gatekeeping reading... That being said, that always has to be balanced with not watering down reading for too many people who don't want "too many words". I don't want books to become shorter, simpler and quite frankly less intelligent because people don't actually enjoy reading but want to pretend they do.
There will always be books on various reading levels. It is merely hype for content. The sky is not falling. All is well.
@@silverdweller2809 Umm, I agree sometimes. However, for instance, Atlas Shrugged was totally brilliant philosophically, but was paced so poorly that it holds the book back. You could have cut 40 percent without losing any substance at all. The pacing is so poor that it makes this book really hard to recommend - despite the value that I got reading it.
There is a standard that Oxford uses that I quite like. They posit that if you can say something in fewer words without losing context, your writing will be more elegant. I think as a rule, even in fiction, this method won't lead you wrong most of the time, but fast pacing isn't always good pacing. Something, it's worth spending the extra word count for emotional weight, tension, or various other reasons.
I think shorter books can be just as great as longer books. I have ADHD, and have a very busy life (working full-time and commuting 4 hours each workday), so shorter books are a lot easier to digest for me. I don't always have the brain power to read after a day of work, so reading more casually helps me do so. I have lots of medieval history books I want to read, but realistically I don't have the energy or time to read them unless I have a few days off.
@@AseAPS I hate to break it to you, but Atlas Shrugged was NOT philosophically intelligent, much less brilliant. Ayn Rand wrote the foundation for a dystopia about how rich elites will burn everything to the ground rather than give up their privilege and decided the rich elites burning everything to the ground were the good guys. Make it make sense.
I don't understand the not gatekeeping reading. Reading is already divied up into genres and types of books (long, short story, illustrated, manga). We should absolutely be gatekeeping these.
I don't want your short story in my longform fantasy novel because you can't be arsed to read paragraphs upon paragraphs over hundreds of pages.
I don't want your cozy in my dark fiction novel. And so on.
In particular, I do think more books need to have better separation between age demographics according to classification, perhaps using reading levels too. If I want simple easy reading, but with adult themes, let me find that. If I want higher level reading with simple YA themes, give me that option too. And then we can effectively gatekeep.
As a popular example, ACOTAR series by Sarah J Maas should absolutely not be aimed at teens, but it landed in YA due to marketing. If we had reading levels (give them fun naming), you could dump it in the junk food reads aimed at adults because smut.
Categories and hobbies need a basic level of gatekeeping. If you hate reading and your reading hobby involves trying to minimize the amount of reading you do, it's not really your hobby. It's like having art as a hobby (let's say it's painting) and actively finding ways to avoid working with paint, and then influencing stores to carry less oil paints because the medium is harder to use and takes forever to dry and people listening because all the other normal oil painters are spending their hours painting and not bitching on tik tok so they think the squeaky wheels are the dominant opinions. Then they go after your watercolours. And then the damn publishers, in this case, start mainly publishing and promoting special edition fancy cover junk food, badly world built, shorter long-form novels because it's an influencer job past a certain point, not an actual hobby they enjoy. The hobby is collecting the books more than reading them.
I want to weigh in on the topic of cozy books. I work mostly with Korean literature, and in the recent years there’s been a whole movement of “healing books”. These stories centre around book stores, convenience stores, laundry mats, and all such places. The books could be considered “cozy”, however, they exist in a different cultural and literary context, so at its core the trend is different, and I would like to see it develop.
“Healing literature” offers social critique in a society that reacts negatively to direct criticism. Even someone like Han Kang was largely overlooked before she received the Nobel prize. Her books were seen as too controversial, too disruptive. Korean cozy literature lulls readers with coziness and delivers important messages under its cover. And believe me, the points raised can be so acute and “out there” (especially for Korea) that we have a hard time publishing these books in Russia. Some parts have to either be full-on censored or the books are put behind the 18+ barrier. The cover of coziness seems to not work on Russian censors, what can you do.
Anyways, my point is: don’t overlook Korean “cozy” books just because they seem like Western cozy books. They offer a lot of social commentary and are an interesting look into contemporary Korean society. Though your country might be different, there are also a lot of universally human pains and struggles told in these books. I believe “Welcome to the Hyunam-dong bookshop” by Hwang Boreum has an English translation (though I cannot speak on its quality), but if you can, check out the “Inconvenient convenience store” by Kim Hoyoun or “Marigold’s soul laundry” by Yoon Jongun as well (not sure about the availability of English translations, but there are very good Russian ones if that’s an option for you. Honestly that’s my hope for the 2025 book trends: translate more Korean books into English, please! They are different from what we are used to in the West, but it’s a perspective on life worth examining. This year’s Nobel prize gives me hope that my wishes will come true sooner rather than later. Keep an eye out for Korean books. Even if they seem familiar on the surface, they are far from it, trust me).
That's so interesting, thanks for this perspective. I've read two of the ones you cited, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop (in English) and Inconvenient Convenience Store (in Italian, it hasn't been translated to English yet) and the first was 5 stars for me, but the second seemed too simplistic. Now that I've read your explanation I think it makes sense for Korean society and what the book was trying to do.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop literally healed me. I want to see more healing literature translated because I see it in k dramas but I want to read it as well!
I will say, as somebody who has mainly picked up translated books from the cozy subgenre, they seem to widely differ from american/western cozy novels and focus more on character studies and how societal expectations often fade away in places considered "insiginificant" like bookstores and cafes. 100% agree with your comment and Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a book that I will always return to when I just need a little bit of peace away from the world
Thank you for this comment and the recs, will definitely check them out :)
I‘m very certain that there will be a lot of translations coming over the next years. There even are several german translations and I still havent read them but I read a few articles a few weeks ago that discussed the quality of translated korean books and they seem to be really good.
when i realise i have started skipping lines while reading i just close the book and do something else
yeah, same
If I'm skipping I must be tired and shouldn't be reading because I'm not actually taking in the bokk
i just sometimes do when the convo is so interesting but only single sentences
I think if someone skips entire chunks of texts, then their reviews aren't exactly worth much except to others who do that. Like I get, it, I struggle to stay focused, I DNF a lot, but as a result I also don't make book and reading related content myself.
As a religious goodreads user I don't review a book if I haven't finished it no matter how boring it was j bc I don't think it's fair
I feel it’s a little unfair to have Before the Coffee Gets Cold as one of the examples when talking about books jumping on the cozy cafe trend. It was originally written as a play 14 years ago, and the novel came out 9 years ago. And the setting isn’t just a gimmick, it’s central to the plot and this same story couldn’t be told in almost any other setting. I also found it to be very sincere and heartfelt.
I absolutely agree
Agreed
Agreed
yes, i read it about 4 years ago, before cozy fantasy as a genre became mainstream and started the shops trend, and i would not even have thought to use the word cozy to describe it at that time (although it's definitely a part of the japanese healing fiction genre) as it has such serious themes like reflecting on the past, overcoming grief/regret, trying to be hopeful for the future, etc. It also made me cry a lot!
i think she showed it because she said "anything that has café on the title" meaning the bookstores are careless with what they consider cozy fantasy
I appreciate you talking about the importance of not speeding through a book but taking your time with it and thinking about it critically. I notice the need to consume more not only on booktok but on booktube as well
Yes! I spent all of this past summer reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and I’m so glad I didn’t speed through it. It follows a long period of time in the main character’s lives and I think it deserved that time for me to think critically about what was happening.
I hope to do this more with other books! It really makes reading more enjoyable and not just something to do so you can say you read X amount of books in a year.
@@Sharletwitch I love Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow! Such a good book
I zoom through it lol, but its more because I have adhd and its easier for me to pay attention at 1.5 speed because it feels like the standard speed of my thoughts 🙃
Heck, even on Facebook, it seems like everyone is in competition to be reading as many books as physically possible to the point of stressing out about how much you’ve read (or not read) once December hits. Goals are great to have, but the way people are treating these goals is extremely unhealthy
It makes perfect sense for someone who produces content. It’s not entertaining to create a short: “I’m slogging through the 14th chapter and this is slow-going.” There’s no sizzle in that.
I'm not sure the "too many words" woman was taken out of context like you said. I think the video responses she made about it & her reading habits are deleted but I remember seeing at least one. She never said anything about formatting. She said there were too many details she didn't want to read. That she doesn't care about backstories, flashbacks, settings etc. She said she only wants to read dialogue & action. Seeing just some of her book content I think she ragebaits so yeah... Idk all I know is she is weirdly extremely aggressive in her book content but calm in her beauty content & neither is for me
LMAO
this is so funny because six of crows or at least the characterisation of the crows is very backstory heavy 💀 like that book is talking about how each of them ended up in ketterdam, ended up in their predicaments and subsequent heist 😭
100% agree!
Yeah I was thinking if she did mean the formatting she expressed it very badly. I also don't think the formatting on that book even looks that bad, I've seen much worse!
But also like, I don't care if someone skim reads or skips long paragraphs, that's always allowed, do what you like, but I don't understand why people feel the need to tell everyone they do it if they don't want the reactions, you know?
Lmao why is she so intense 💀
my hope for romance cover trends is that it shifts back to the big flouncy cursive text covers with an image of a rose, a pair of lace gloves, a scrap of ribbon etc. it was a trend for a bit in the 90s/2000s as an alternative to the fabio or just shirtless man cover. it’s always stuck me as demure while conveying the lushness of romance
Those are my favs! I personally don’t like cartoon covers for adult romance, I love the ones with objects that convey the books vibe ♥️
Agreed! They were so pretty! I wasn't really into romance then, but I remember always thinking the covers looked gorgeous. I loved when they were shiny especially. Shiny cover with pretty artistic elements, elaborate cursive, and a nice chonk of a book? I loooove finding those in Little Free Libraries now
An in the case of fantasy romance, I want more illustrated covers that don't just show the characters, but a full-fledged moment.
i LOOOOVE the paintings from 80s/90s romance covers though, i want those back STAT
I love the illustrated covers but these sound lovely! Honestly I'll take anything that isn't a shirtless man cover lol
This is probably my favorite take on year end bookish videos. It's almost like Spotify's Wrapped but for books trends, though I like when people also include trends that started up that they want to see keep going
I think that even though reading is a hobby, it is also an art form and that is why there is a value to reading a book as the author intended. BUT, if you don't like a book's writing, there should be no shame in not finishing the book.
My reading goal for 2024 was 104 books, but for 2025 it's 3. I found myself often choosing books based on meeting my weekly goals and not falling behind my reading schedule, and that really took away from the excitement I felt about reading books. Next year I start Brandon Sanderson for the first time, and I'm so excited!
Good luck, have fun, and don't forget to take breaks!
I love setting my annual book goal as 1. I knock it out of the park every time! lol
@elleliterate I just finished reading Words of Radiance, book 2 of storm light archive. This was my first time reading a big fantasy like this and I’m HOOKED. Idk which series you’re reading from him but I hope you enjoy they’re amazing!
Funny you mention him, after I finish a book that I'm currently reading I'm going to go and read Brandon Sanderson mistborn book
I agree with letting people have their hobbies, but like imagine you’re Reading Only dialouge, and then your fav character dies in a paragraph, and you just have to figure it out through dialouge. Like-
Now you know damn well-
It feels more effort to only read dialogue than to read the whole thing?
The reason cozy is popular again (it’s one of the oldest sub genres) people are seeking community and third places. That’s why it’s popular in Japan and now it’s coming back here
Wild to see someone in a kkk robe in the comments of a left-leaning booktok channel 😬 yikes
for those outside the US (I know Leonie is Dutch and much of her audience isn't American) the kkk is a US-based racist hate group that has committed hate crimes (including murder) against POC.
Is it just me or what but I really really miss the days of booktube when there were no names and labels for all those cores and tropes? Bloggers would just tell you the genre of the book and that they liked it and you go and buy it and read it. That’s it 😂
nowadays it’s all about cozy dark academia enemies to lovers spicy chai latte oompa loompa space romance 😭 you have to learn a whole separate lingo just to find and read a damn book
Omg yess
“Cozy dark academia enemies to lovers chai latte oompa loompa space romance” HELP-😂😂😂
YES! All the names for every single type of book make me want to vomit. I mean, "cozy horror" is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Horror is my favorite genre, and labeling a book cozy is going to turn me off right away.
this!! and it does feel a little spoiler-y to me like I was so excited to read this one book and at the end of the synopsis it was like "enemies to lovers that doesn't build until the 2nd book, confirmed HEA for everyone!!" like ty I don't even wanna read it now lol
"let people enjoy their hobby however they want" when applied to reading means reading your preferred genres, reading physical copies vs digital ones, tabbing your books etc, but not skipping paragraphs and only reading dialogue. Because at that point are you even reading?
that aside, the crux of the anti-intellectualism debate is not about hating on those girls but it's about being more critical of the books you consume
Cozy mysteries have been a thing for decades. The same for cozy stories set in book/tea shops. Not a new thing just because online book influencers have just discovered them.
It’s still a trend though? Trends come and go. There was also a vampire trend when twilight came out and a dystopian trend when the Hunger Games were popular. Saying it’s a current trend doesn’t mean it’s a brand new concept…
@alexreid1173 Well, cozy mysteries have been a thing since at least the 1920s. It's actually considered a subgenre of crime fiction. Books set in various cafes have also been a thing at least since the 1990s. Granted those have mostly been mysteries as well. Now centering fantasy stories around them is largely an emerging trend, but that's probably because they sell. I definitely agree Twilight boosted vampire romances.
My grandma was reading cozy in the 70s
@@alexreid1173i don't know if it can be considered a trend if it's been a constant mainstay of the genre since at least the golden age of detective fiction where one could point to agatha christie's miss marple books as one of the progenitors of the cozy mystery subgenre. i mean we even had the murder she wrote tv series in the 80s and 90s and that's top tier cozy mystery. for decades people have been writing cozy mystery series that often span dozens of books, but i guess they've just been more ignored by book influencers until lately. unlike something like vampire romances, cozy mysteries aren't gonna go anywhere.
@@spudrina It's always about the mainstream. Stories about vampires, fae, dragons.. all of these existed before but they needed a catalyst to really become mainstream (again).
Twilight happened - we got a lot of vampire (romance) novels.
Forth Wing happened - we got a lot of books with dragons.
Acotar happened - we got a lot of Fae books.
I don't really mind those illustrated covers, but I think they should somehow differentiate what age group they're targeting - maybe adding a 15+ / 18+ sticker on the cover or something like that. Movies and video games already do that, not sure why it's not as common for books...
the reason is because most countries have government agencies who rate video games (and movies and TV) and they have standard rating criteria. E.g. Just Dance games censor lyrics about alcohol to get a G rating. There has never been an equivalent for books. That said, I have seen some publishers put a recommended age next to the barcode, mostly manga seems to do this but some YA fiction on rare occasion too. It's something I'd like publishers to do more, but I doubt they will
@elskabee yeah I've seen ratings on manga and comics quite often as well, would be great if publishers start doing it with books too, though I guess they might not want to spend extra money on it
THIS. I totally agree. Books containing medium-high levels of smut should be labeled with like a 17+ or 18+ or even just be considered adult at this point (cough cough Sarah J. Mass, Icebreaker, Fourth Wing, etc). I would be horrified if I had like a 13 year old kid and opened up the book they were reading to see an extremely graphic sex scene and then they tell me the book is “YA”.
@@Spidermonkey43 while I do agree with you, none of those books are YA FYI. They're all adult, ecept mayyybe acotar which started as YA but is pretty much always shelved as Adult or New Adult these days
@@elskabee Either way there’s definitely YA books that contain large amounts of smut and should not be labeled as YA
Here in Brazil, a book costs almost 10% of the minimum wage. More than half of the population doesn't read any books in a year. When the top-selling books on Amazon are religious or about how to get rich, that too is political.
Which books are available for purchase and which have been censored, which books the publisher chooses to release, and how it's legal to Amazon exploit independent authors, paying mere fractions of a cent per page, are also political.
EVERY BOOK is political, not just some of them. The act of buying a book itself is political.
Jesus! Desculpa, sou gringa, mas meu Deus do céu. Nunca imaginei que ler e comprar livros foi um ato político no Brasil. Uau
Simmmm
I am Brazilian (but have lived abroad for over 20 years now), and I was very privileged to grow up with parents who loved books and who could afford them. When I moved abroad and discovered the power of a well stocked library, it was life changing. I am still an avid user of the library system and I so wish that was an option over there.
Lacre, tá certíssima. Ler é um ato politico!
@@marinaramalhoI also wish we had libraries as readily available and well-stocked as there are abroad. I lived in England briefly as a kid and it was a totally mind-blowing experience to walk into the library in my small neighborhood and get absolutely anything I wanted! Not to mention the digital book systems many have in place nowadays. It would be life changing for many, many people.
my unpopular opinion is that we should stop calling sex/erotica scenes spice
RIGHT it reminds me of the “lemon” days on wattpad. too childish just call it what it is
I'm guessing that term has cropped up because social media platforms autocensor so many words.
@@SpocksCat i think we have “smut” for this case. i would argue that it is more straightforward and less “cozy”/infantilizing
I always call it smut. It's the traditional term and everyone knows what you're talking about in real life when auntie asks what you're reading 😂
exactly! like if you're mature enough to be reading it, then call it what it is
I always find it fascinating how often people equate "cozy" books with being less smart, challenging, or intellectual. As you put it, stories that don't require "too much of our brain". Those same people are probably going to wax lyrical about the latest dark romantasy they read and give themselves an honorary PhD for the Definitely Not Escapism of it all. A book being edgy and violent doesn't make it necessarily smart, or good. And reading darker fiction doesn't make a reader smarter, either. Heck, some of the dumbest people I know only reason nonfiction.
I thought the commentary about "mass production" was a bit unnecessary. It gives the idea that there's a factory out there, where a single writer is pumping them out every day, as opposed to a lot of different writers just engaging with a popular idea in their own way. Is it all good? Probably not, but that's no different than any other genre, it's just more popular and therefore more of it exists!
(And, on everything being cozy, I feel like we're conflating "serving a growing/profitable niche" with "everything" -- League of Legends and Call of Duty didn't shut down and replace themselves with cozy versions, all the non-cozy stuff still exists! Both of these points are very "we need to ration how much of a thing is made because otherwise I'm overwhelmed and mad" type arguments)
It's because cozy books are the equivalent of Hallmark movies. One of the actual selling points is that there is nothing to challenge the viewer/reader. Either intellectually or emotionally. It's just fluff. Which is FINE, sometimes you want something chill and not think too hard, but they ARE stupid because of that, and they're proud to be so lol.
I mean that's kinda the point of cozy right? To be chill and relaxing and not too heavy right now. I read sff in part for the escapism, I don't want direct real world stuff in my books (although I'd rather have a bit more stakes in my books).
Agreed!! I would describe myself as intelligent, musical and sensitive.
I don't enjoy reading about violence, I find lingering violence or threats suffocating while reading.
I really enjoy "cozy" mystery, witches, crime. I feel the same about music.
Writing depressing, lamenting music is imo much easier than uplifting, inspiring stuff. And that's what I look for in books too! I want to feel inspired and comforted.
Oh no, just came to the part where she say's cozy stuff is for turning off you brain, and that's a sad thing.
I very much disagree on this with Leonie. To me it seems like there's a bit of stereotypes going on for her.
I think part of the problem/why people were getting annoyed with the skipping paragraphs/too many words people relates to the tiktok sensation trend. Books do well on the app so then booksellers focus on those books to make sales. Publishers then focus on those types of books and trends again to sell more books and make money. But if there is a group of people not fully reading the books, how does that affect what books are being published? Are publishers focusing less on quality because they know people are being less critical about the books they read and will still buy stuff as long as it has certain sellable tropes?
Honestly, I hate the idea of skipping but I did *skim* a lot of passages in Iron Flame! It was poorly edited and so repetitive that you actually could do it and not miss anything. In a better book it doesn't feel like a chore to get through as fast as possible.
Such a good point!!
The trends I would leave in 2024 are:
1. Every villain is also a sexist predator and every sexist predator is a villain. Please god can I have a bad guy who isn't simply a bad guy because of misogyny. Give me an actual reason for once.
2. The whole "he's awful but he's hot" thing. Like kill it immidiely please. It might have been a funny joke the first couple times, but I'm so sick of it. Like, let's not moralize physical appearance maybe. Very gross.
3. The fmc is magically or accidenty intoxicated/drugged/aphrodisiaced for the sole purpose of the mmc denying her to show he "cares about concent" because apparently the only difference between a good guy and a bad guy is whether or not he'll sexually assult you. Even if the "good guy" has committed literal war crimes, murder, and whatever other atrocity the author finds hot.
4. Marketing an attraction plot as a romance. Plain and simple. Quit calling it a romance when it's just the mcs finding eachother hot, boning, and then getting mutually obsessed and infatuated with eachother. Most of the time they don't even like each other. Like seriously.
2. I also am not loving the genuinely awful guys the tiktokers are swooning over.
4. it's all gone to smut tbh
Well ofcourse. A bad guy could easily assault you but a good guy will not do anything while you're drugged. That's how reality is as well. If you don't like those good guys then go forward with bad guys
@gohan12991 You didn't understand a single thing I said. I said I dislike when the ONLY thing making the "good guy" different from the "bad guy" is not respecting consent. Even if the bad guy has done no other misdeeds but the good guy has committed war crimes and genocide. He's not a good guy for not fucking someone under the influence. That's what any decent person would do. He isn't special.
@@gohan12991 Not what I said. Try again.
@@monster-enthusiast I said what I said
We should leave using the words "spicy" and "spice" to refer to sex scenes and sex-filled books in 2024. It's infantilizing, pro-censorship, and catering to an audience that prefers to keep women "decent." Whatever the fuck that means. I am dead serious when I say that it's revolting the way that TikTok and ad revenue has shifted the culture to deliberately censor and mask words, phrases, and context under the guise of being "appropriate." Appropriate for whom? Who's voices and preferences do these structures benefit? The more frankly we talk about the content of books, the better people are able to decide if those discussed books are for them. And on top of the detrimental effects of language used against women, what about the ways that this kind of censorship is deliberately burying queer voices and stories? People of color? Disabled people/people with disabilities? And EVEN FURTHER, using "pdf file," "unalive," "SA," and the myriad of other terms that careful and exacting censorship has birthed through short form content platforms is horrific. Say the actual words. And I get that it's this weird cycle of not saying the tiktokification words means your video gets censored so you incorporate those words in new videos, and those new videos perform better so you get more viewership and maybe more money. But catering to weird, puritanical, loud-mouths that take every instance of body and death words as a personal attack and a reason to silence voices they disagree with until those voices are either suppressed or non-existent, ain't it, chief.
Totally agree. Except the part "women decent" - what women? Which women? I thought it's about both sexes.
Sexy, intimate, lusty - there's so many good words. Hate it when sex, though it's literally the basis of all life is being swiped under the rug.
Hard agree. I commented under someone else about how "spice" has serious unnecessary self-censoring vibes. Like at this point they're just doing for work for the people who wanted to censor content. It really isn't helping.
To be fair (without denying you have a point, just introducing another one) part of it has to do with the way people are raised, both by their families and their culture/community, and what the school system is like. If your normal is this, then the blunt honesty some would prefer would be like a blow to the face. And some people are just straight up more sensitive, and desensitisation doesn’t work for everyone.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
@@mousegrey6747 to add on to that. a huge part of this cencorship comes from the algorithm. Especially stuff like the pdf file or SA since plenty of platforms, including TikTok, does not want certain topics openly discussed on their platform. However, these things are checked through algorithms and real life people rarely check what the content is actually about. This algorithm does not just give your video less views or less money, it might only do that, but it may also leave your tiktok to rot with barely anyone seeing it. if you use the word rape you risk anyone ever seeing it, if you say the word grape. That's just a grape, and definetly not meant to reffer to anything else, so why would a computer program do anything? I do not know if sex and erotica are on the list of "words we do not want creators using" but i would not be surprised. Since TikTok has a lot of kids on the platform, and does not want to loose a giant part of their userbase because parents decide TikTok is too inapropriate.
I still do not necesarrily like these terms, but a lot of them are there cause internet platforms only give you two options: Talk about a topic with cencored words, or don't talk about the topic at all. It is not necesarilly self censorship, it's just censorship.
Love how a sword is just chilling in the background 🎀
Is that the master sword???
@@ummidge Thank you!
I like BookTok but imo you’re off here. They’re not participating in the hobby of reading if they’re demeaning books and the writing in those books. Not criticizing the quality, not discussing what they don’t like, just ranting about the existence of long paragraphs. It’s like, they’re calling people doing the hobby elitists even though no one was even talking about what they do until they started bragging about not reading.
Also, it’s not a hobby if your career is making money recommending books. It’s dishonest to talk about books you haven’t read.
I feel its SUPER weird for her to call it a hobby, like so many youtubers/tiktokers have a income based on their book content?
@@nipitifor many people it is still a hobby??? For example if you like art as a hobby, you can also make money off of art?? Or content
@@karolinahernandez7442 that's a fucking weird take when talking about people monetizing their opinions on a book they only skim read, kinda like hamparte if u are doing an art analogy.
@@karolinahernandez7442 hobbies are done for leisure, if you're doing it for money that's by definition not a hobby. that's not to say you can't enjoy your work but it's an important distinction because doing something for money, especially for a living, fundamentally changes how you approach the activity
just started watching the video, but Leonie!!! your hair is so freaking gorgeous!!! everything from the cut to the colour to the way you styled it looks so so so elegant!!!
5:09 Okay, let's not police how people do things. Thing is, if they're skipping over entire paragraphs, reading only the dialogue, wanting it to only ever be easy to read or what have you, they're... er, not reading. Not doing the hobby. And they still post on Tiktok, they want the participation.
Also, they can try switching to Korean webnovels, less paragraph, more dialogues, more drama and make content about them.
But the problem with some of these tik-tokers are trend and attention chasing. They want to be known by talking about the hottest books that people are talking about but they don't want to read 😅
Like they want the image of being a reader and nothing else.
@@monster-enthusiast But it's false, it's so blatant. You listen to them, and it's... underwhelming. Like a fast food ad for reading. What use is you promoting a book if all you can say is "ohmygosh I loved it"?
@@0okuzukirio0 It's all a big advertising machine at this point, an outgrowth of the side of the publishing industry that puts out books ever faster, ever easier to rip through. Almost like fast fashion. Korean webnovels wouldn't help, they would need to show up nicely on a screen.
That's why it's so important to call these influencers out, because if you're young, attractive and have even basic editing ability then you can become a booktok influencer practically over night, and they're making mad bank off of all of us. I don't believe in policing or shaming anyone over a hobby either- but I do believe in calling people out for being users.
There are deeper and darker layers behind the whole astrology concept. I highly recommend exploring them in the book named Hidden Signs of the Universe by Olivia Cooper
i’ve never watched a single star wars movie yet somehow i keep getting tricked into reading published reylo fanfics 😭😭
But would you have known if someone hadn’t said anything about it?
Leonie outing herself as a Reylo shipper was not on my 2024 bingo card 😂
Maybe I'm living too much in my historical romance bubble, but I feel like historical romances/bodice rippers have already become popular again. Ever since the Bridgerton series by Netflix, there's been a huge amount of regency & victorian romances published (also with cartoonish covers of course lol)
I thought of Bridgerton as soon as she mentioned it 😂
Skipping paragraph discourse is threatening because publishers look for trends. If they see this type of thing as a trend, they'll start pressurising writers to write more dialogues than necessary, they'll start publishing books with large ass font and then make like a "series" of a book that should've been a single book becausethat way they'll make more money. This is why EVERYONE should speak against it.
Cozy books have been around forever though, it's just that the younger audience has just discovered them, so now they're trendy. A few of those cozy books you showed are actually not just about being cozy and have deeper conversations, specifically The Spellshop, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, and Before the Coffee Gets Cold. I also think there needs to be more cozy sci-fi like The Monk and Robot books by Becky Chambers, which feel cozy but also make you really think. The Pumpkin Spice Cafe was definitely just cozy vibes, which was fine. Not every book HAS to be deep. Personally, I try to read a lot of different genres so I don't feel like I'm only reading the same thing.
I absolutely agree with you about the whole Shadow Daddy trope. I would love to see a dark villain type character be put in his place by a powerful woman over 40 who will take absolutely none of his shit.
If you want a very funny 40 something divorcee please read Bleeding Edge
I cannot agree more! The Spellshop was such a lovely read. I read so many genres, and sometimes, those cozy and simple books are refreshing between heavier reads.
completely agree. i first got back into reading after watching booktubers who were reading 7 books a month and as someone who isnt an extremely fast reader, i felt pressured to get through books as fast as possible which meant occasionally skimming and for the most part it was NOT enjoyable. i find it so much easier to slowly read books even if it takes me a month to get through 1, i find it a lot more enjoyable and relaxing.
I'd always enquire how long those books were when someone told me that they had read a certain amount of books in a month. Also, how they arranged their daily duties and activities to make space for such long periods of reading.
I read a lot of news per day (decelerated it a little this week due to holidays), and have to copy a lot of interesting quotes from books I read on my eReader, so I often am a little short on time for reading except during my walks, so I often take about two months to read a book, also because I'm a slow reader. Seven per month sounds to me like either skimming through them only, or they dominantly read novellas and collections of short stories.
Once you feel pressured to read books by quantity, you make it a task and strip it of the enjoyment it is meant to induce.
I work in a public library, and had a 7th grader come up and (seemingly very innocently) ask me where she could find Icebreaker. All of our copies of Ice Breaker were checked out, and I was able to show her some YA romance instead. She was very happy to find Lynn Painter and Jenny Han. I do feel very confident that she wouldn’t have asked for Ice Breaker if it had more of the 80s vibe or shirtless man cover….
The cover looks too innocent for just how much sex is in the story. It's pretty much all smut no plot
I have a few thoughts on fanfiction to trad published books, reading as a hobby, and romance covers.
Fanfiction to published books: my main gripe with it (as someone who enjoys fanfics) is that popularity doesn’t equal quality and often hugely popular fanfics aren’t even that good compared to the “hidden gems” that writers will recommend to each other. But the fanfics and authors that will get publishing deals are usually the most popular ones and often the fics are easier reads (which is totally fine). I’d just like to see more fanfic writers published who are writing the actual fandom gems and it annoys me a bit how outsiders will judge the whole diverse fanfic landscape based on the latest fanfics that got the trad publishing deals, or how “it reads like a fanfic” has become a whole description that means “easy & fast read, not challenging, smutty, enjoyable but lacking”.
Reading as a hobby/anti-intellectualism: I think the issue with this topic is that reading is one of those hobbies that isn’t just a hobby but also a vital skill. So yes, reading for fun is great and important, but at the same time we can’t afford to look at it in isolation in the current climate. There’s a lot of “this isn’t that serious, let people have fun” but it really is that serious. I find the current statistics of functional literacy in the US alarming and it reflects in book spaces when a lot of readers appear to be unable to pass middle grade literacy analysis & understanding. English isn’t my native language so it always shocks me when a native speaker fails in basic reading comprehension and cannot read on the same level as I can in my secondary language. Obvious themes and intent regularly go over people’s heads (similar stuff is happening with other media) and this lack of critical thought & understanding is dangerous when we globally experience a descent into fascism. (I’m also really fun at parties /j)
Romance book covers: I immediately thought of how publishing could follow the example of manga. Not every explicit manga has a telling cover, so manga publishing started to print little contrasting “flags” on the cover/the outer back/spine with a clear age indicator for 18+. I think some also have a 15+. I really like that solution bc it can allow for creative covers that don’t have to be overly sexual while still clearly marking their contents so both those who wish to read them and those who wish to avoid them can easily recognise them.
I get where those girls are coming from, and I do think they have a point, even if they don’t express it that well. Like, a lot of people do prefer books with more dialogue or faster pacing. BUT… when they say things like 'there are too many words in this book' or 'this book is terrible because the font is small,' it makes me seriously question if they’re even processing what they’re reading. I mean, do they even like or enjoy reading at all? If you really love something, you don't tend to complain about its basic parts. Books are made of words-so why complain about there being 'too many'? Books have many sizes, so why take your time complaining about a big one instead of getting a smaller one that you'll enjoy?? It all makes me feel like they're purposefully rage baiting readers for views...
A trend I’d love to see for 2025: my book club peeps actually attending the meetings 😂
I think a large reason why people (me included!) are loving the cozy bookshop/coffee shop vibe so much is because we have lost the idea of a third space. There aren’t enough places to just exist peacefully anymore and many places just feel like pay and go and it makes me sad
I used to take my time with a book, I don’t remember when I started speeding through that I would listen to the audiobook version so I “don’t waste time”. Taking my time with a book is definitely on my New Year’s resolution! Happy holidays Leonie ❤️
No I think what bothers me about the skimming isn’t the actual skimming. It’s that they say “oh this book is bad” without ever stopping to think that maybe this book just isn’t for *them.* Its fine to enjoy short stories and smut but if you pick up an epic fantasy book with a side of romance don’t be mad when it turns out to be mostly fantasy with a side of romance.
To me this is like if an artist wanted acrylic paint, bought high quality watercolor, and then complained about how bad the watercolor is because it’s nothing like acrylic, all to their audience of millions of people.
Why should I trust the recommendations of someone skipping paragraphs. This people are making book content and are not engaging with them not critically. You can do what you in your private life but when you start making content about it, it is no longer private and there should be some basic requirements.
The 'too many words' thing reminds me of how so much media and literature is simplified recently. People can't watch Netflix shows without their phone so they make the scripts and acting absent of subtext and imagery. Popular video games are basically playable movies that give people no time to figure things out for themselves before they get pulled along to the next thing. Also everything is cosy. Maybe we're all just tired and our declining attention spans make sense.
I'm not trying to disagree here, but I would like to know what video games you're referring to? Because I can think of many popular games from this year and last year that aren't what you said, like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring (because of the dlc release this year), and the consistently most played games each year are multiplayer shooters which aren't very "playable movie" to me.
I do recognize that I have a limited scope of what games are most popular because I don't necessarily only play new releases/even know about a lot of new releases though.
@@rubythorns2349 Ah, thanks for asking. I'm mainly referring to popular and mainstream games such as God of War, as an example off the top of my head. I saw several sections of that game in which the AI partner would instruct the player a lot, barely giving them room to think. When encountering puzzles or new areas that were blocked off, the player would have around 5 seconds to find it themselves before they are directed to the solution. Arguably other games such as those of the Tomb Raider series will do similar hints, and lots of games nowadays are very movie-like and do not emphasise gameplay much at all, and what gameplay there is does not require much effort or 'thinking outside the box'. There's also the infamous 'yellow tape' concept in which lots of popular games (such as the Resident Evil series) are given super obvious yellow markings to show the player what to do and what can be interacted with, because they found that the average player/playtester will miss them without the yellow marks.
Various other games such as those of the Pokémon series have been simplified over the years to cater towards people who barely get invested.
My main observation is that a lot of 'mainstream games', not all of them, are catering towards an audience that would rarely get invested or take the time to learn nuances and complex mechanics, and it feels like a feedback loop of expectation and development that results in games being simplified into 'playable movies'. If all the player has to do is move a character occasionally and press one or two buttons to make things happen without much thought, then it's not that much of a game.
(Also yes, Baldur's Gate and Elden Ring are very much the exception from my generalisation. Good games for sure.)
@@shib9164 okay, I get more what you mean now. I have noticed that the games you're talking about tend to fall into the "we called it a AAA rpg but it's really a graphics showcase disguised as a game" category. While I don't disagree that modern developers want to keep as much player engagement as possible in a world of shorter and shorter attention spans, I think a lot of it has to do with good graphics = appealing trailers = more sales so that takes precedence. Because the games I can think of that are less hand-holdy tend to be made with a non hyper-realistic art style.
Modern pokemon is way too easy though, I'll give you that. I've played a couple of the 3d mainline games and they were fun but not hard.
Our attention spans aren't declining. That's a myth.
@@JenIsHungry I know but it's more useful to use that term in a conversation online than it is to say something long winded
Another bookish trend I want gone is people reading 200 books and then not understanding authors and writing written in different times 😊
THIS or people/booktubers who read 200 books a year cannot remember a single moment from one of the books they read when trying to review them in their wrap up videos....... many people read to accomplish goals not bc they are enjoying the journey of a book & that is just extremely annoying in my opinion :/
I totally agree about the spicy books having cute covers, I have been tempted to buy some because I’m like why not read a romance one a year but I’m not interested in smut at all in books so I’m glad I never bought any because I would be so mad to find out the cute romance I thought I was getting was a total super spicy book, those are always on tables in B&N and there is nothing to stop a teen from getting it because it looks cute.
I have a thought on the “skipping paragraphs” readers. And this might be controversial to viewers on this channel. I didn’t grow up reading, I’ve struggled with ADHD my entire life and trying to focus on something that doesn’t keep my attention has previously been difficult. However, the past year I’ve worked really hard on “dopamine fasting” or essentially depriving myself from instant gratification and just slowing down. And so I’ve been off social media and started to read books. I think the younger generation has been raised with instant gratification so trying to introduce someone who’s been accustomed to swiping through ticktock and getting new captivating content every minute, and trying to sit them in front of a “difficult to read” book, it’s going to take some time. It’s something they’re not used to. I started on easy to read short books that kept be hooked the entire time and have slowly gotten used to and enjoy more complex and longer books. So I’m not saying the girls on ticktock are justified for making content complaining about something that’s silly like that, but maybe just a clue into why they have that struggle. 🤷🏼♀️
I think you have a good point, and anyone who is aware of Dopamine Nation might have considered it as well. (Disclaimer: haven't read the book, just listened to interviews with the author.) Like most things, the issue is probably more complex than that, but I know my husband's experiment with removing his biggest dopamine habit (t.v.) had an impact on his brain that was measurable to us. He is also ADHD and struggles to stay awake for slow content and especially reading physical books, and sticks to audiobooks for that reason. I like that you are not placing the blame for this on the readers because, to me, it's simply a result of how we live.
Agreed. As a late in life diagnosed adhd-er I used to struggle with reading and these judgments about me really not being a reader really made it hard for me to engage with others about reading. Now that I understand that I have adhd, I don’t deny myself any accommodations that help me enjoy this hobby even if some social media influencer wants to claim I’m not really reading or I’m not reading the right way or blah blah blah.
The problem is not that they do it, the problem is that they are influencers being paid for what they do and if they normalize it as the new way to read, then it affects what books get published and which ones don't. I too have adhd btw
@nbucwa6621 I do agree that people like that might influence what is getting published and shouldn't be holding themselves up as experts. (But are they? This is social media, not journalism, so you could also blame the readers for watching that content instead of seeking out educated reviews.) I'm pretty pessimistic with regards to the state of publishing already. It's suffering from algorithms and popularity contests like everything else. I also don't see this as getting better any time soon.
@@heathiedoodle yes! Same! I don’t read like “book fanatics” but I’m working towards reading more and ENJOYING not forcing the hobby at my own pace.
Okay, as a person who never skims and who is also a writer, not pressing the enter key to separate ideas IS bad writing. It isn't anti-Intellectual to have a problem with this. I don't have Tic Tok and maybe I've missed some context here.
I talk to a lot of amateur writers, and they'll give me these paragraphs that are absolutely gigantic. They, notably, contain several separate ideas. This is avoidable!
That all said... I don't understand skimmers at all. What do you do when you skip, and now you've got no idea what's going on?
Omg, you just reminded me that I saw a fic once where the entire (like maybe 3k or 5k) thing was like a handful of HUGE paragraphs. There was no line break between dialogue and description, and obviously none between ideas. It was the most murderous thing I've ever seen and I instantly blocked them 🤣🤣🤣
I am an occasional skimmer, and I usually just do it if I feel the pacing of the story slowing down too much for me. Like, I'll skim until it gets exciting again.
For example, if a story is really ramping up towards a big action sequence, and the author ends the chapter on a cliffhanger, and the next chapter stops the action to focus on a side plot somewhere else, I will skim until I get back to the action.
If I feel like I missed something important while skimming, I'll just go back and read over the skimmed parts lol
I once read a book where I literally skimmed every single chapter from a specific character’s pov. Only way to finish the otherwise really fun book
@@queencleopatra007 Hmm I didn't really understand this at all, but I didn't read most of the stuff in the middle.... JK. I feel like I'd have to go back every time because I know I'd be lost.
@@ragingdevi Yeah, it's SOOOO hard to follow writing like that!
When their favourite book is The Hunger Games but they say "KeEp PoLiTicS oUt oF bOokS" 😒
Real life politics? YES
@@yukihirasouma4691 Thanks for saying it out loud. "Most books are political" is such a disingenuous take that completely skips over what people mean when they say "I don't want politics in my books". Nobody cares if a book tackles political themes, most welcome it. They just don't want to see real world politics being shoehorned into a story where they don't belong and feel out of place. We can read non-fiction for that.
i like politics in books as long as it's not irl politics. i love a corrupt fictional government, but i get enough of my own corrupt government in life, so why would i want it in a book? the politics is why i like the hunger games, but if it was set in the modern day and it was a critique of....idk....donald trump, i would be bored out of my mind because i see that specific annoying politician enough already.
like various forms entertainment all books should be written Apolitically no one for specific side you can be inclusive without being preachy. Apeasing both sides is possible and can be done. Guess what it SELLS. Apoltical Author Frank Herbert has changed my perception on this.
What do you mean real life politics? There's tons of stuff in hunger games about systematic oppression, which as you might or might not be aware is happening in the real world.
Re: Skipping paragraphs & there’s no such thing as doing a hobby wrong… let’s take your own example of drawing. If someone gets joy from from drawing terrible unrecognizable stuff, that’s cool. But if they TRACE someone else’s drawing and then go around saying they “drew” that…. That’s a big no.
So no you don’t get to skip huge sections, just read the spark notes, etc and still say you “read” that.
Agreed.
The TikToker complaining about the formatting of books is something I totally agree with.
I’m a second-year law student. Almost all of my textbooks are huge with tight margins and small fonts. That format is awful to start with and, to me, it’s especially bad to use in smaller paperbacks and hardcovers; it hurts my eyes. When I shop for books now, I check the formatting before paying. If it’s small font, narrow margin, etc., it goes on my Kindle and/or Audible list. I’ll also check the library for large print versions.
I feel you. Some books really have AWFUL formatting!! and despite being someone who likes reading long books I can still get discouraged/annoyed when there's just toooo much written on one page, it can feel tedious to get through. And I also love taking notes as well :)
I agree I would rather more pages and larger font. The small font tight margins put me off give me a headache
Interesting. I lean more towards the opposite. I get frustrated when books are monstrosities in size, and then the formatting inside is also unnecessarily large. It just seems so wasteful.
It’s a huge problem for nonfiction especially. I have so many books that are around 10.5 pt font. That doesn’t even meet standard accessibility guidelines for print materials! I feel like people listened to “there are so many words on this page” and somehow heard “this book has too many words”, which isn’t the same thing at all. I literally use a magnifying glass for certain books so I don’t have to squint lol
Agreed!! All the discourse I saw around that TikTok was so critical/judgemental and I was like "girly low key has a point though 👀"
Like I don't want my books to have less words in them, but if the type face is tiny and the margins basically non existent I'm just not gonna have as good a time with the book as I could have and I would definitely prefer another format in that case.
I’m sorry but the take on before the coffee gets cold, is a very beautiful written piece of work, and that perception of romanticization you brought is completely, of the coziness, is not “souless” nor is it romanticized, and neither is it cliché. It was written so long ago, and it actually is a very heart warming and thought provoking book. I'd suggest you read it or re read it, and then put it up as an example.
I just finished reading The Chimes by Charles Dickens. It needs to be a new Christmas tradition. He goes full throated reformer in this one. I'm remembering why I love him so much. Hope your year is winding down well, Leonie! Have a great Christmas week!
dickens is a genius honestly, i love his stuff sm (who doesn't tbh)
@@Wr1tersBl0ck He's been so sanitized by a lot of religious types, but dude was a reformer through and through. And his characters are beyond compare!
I wish he were as good of a person as he was a writer.
@@SpocksCat No one's perfect. He wasn't as bad as some others I could name.
@ He started a charity to help women, he was highly against child labour, can you please explain how he was a bad person?
Uploaded 22 seconds ago. I’m 22 seconds late
6 minutes😢😢
@ you need to work on this… I believe in you, though
Tell me about it, Iam 14 min late
@@andjela3527 i am 22 min
@@andjela3527 Shame on you! You should apologize to Leo by binge watching all the videos she uploaded in 2024!
4:20 - lowkey, my mom does this!! It irritates me so bad LOL I can't be in the same room when she's reading and just gets tired of a section and starts flipping pages once a second to get to a not-boring part! And she's definitely not an anti-intellectual herself, she just wants to like, make sure there's no awful racism or smth towards the climax (1920s mystery novels diiiid have that problem), and then if it passes her skimming vibe-check, she'll read it slower 'for real' and still have plenty of the book to actually experience?? That's how she likes to do it! ,XD I do not get, personally! But! It doesn't hurt me... If I leave the room XD
I recommend everyone to find the book titled The Hidden Path to Manifesting Financial Power, It changed my life.
7:30 when it comes to reading. I have three different versions first I have: I’m just reading for fun and for the vibes and sometimes I forget what I read immediately afterwards, but it was fun during that moment. Then I have books that I read that are completely in my mind like I can think about them 24/7. Then there are books that I know I really wanna pay attention to so maybe I’ll annotate them or I’ll take notes on them or I will highlight them or do notes and those are books that I know I really want to pay attention to, and so I will really take my time reading them, but I really think I just depends on the book that I’m reading.
Speaking as someone on the trad publishing end of things, I am a bit wary of the trend of just how many publishers are picking up indie books these days. To be clear, this isn't because of the books themselves and the authors themselves. There's genuinely good stuff that gets self-published and often, we see certain types of experimentation happen first in the indie space before moving over into trad, due to the fact that indie authors are often less risk averse than trad publishers are.
But that's where the problem with the uptick of publishing buying indie titles is getting concerning to me - this is a strategy of publishing getting increasingly more and more risk averse by focusing their resources/dollars on proven winners, rather than acquiring stuff to break out on their own. And increasingly, Amazon is getting more and more pay-to-play when it comes to ads and how feasible it is to make a living off of it. In other words, authors have to make a fairly large investment of their own capital in order to publish well and get the kind of numbers that would attract traditional publishers. We're talking in the range of thousands to tens of thousands of dollars that would need to be available for the author to invest upfront, before they see returns.
In other words, publishers are trying to do less and less of what trad publishers are most useful for - taking on the burden of risk for a project by offering an advance to the author and taking on the upfront costs of production and promotion. As you kind of hinted at, publishers are only swanning in when the author already has turned a profit after *their* investment and then making a low-risk offer in order to line their own pockets.
So while for individual authors and books, this might not be a negative (like you said, it's nice some of these self-pub books are getting their flowers!) this is not a trend that makes publishing more accessible or more author friendly but - in fact - the opposite. It shows a lack of interest in breaking out new authors and doing the grunt work of actually helping an author launch a career.
There's also a trend of big name publishes snatching up titles originally published and proven by indie presses which is its own can of worms.
Seeing the lost bookshop at 10:26 made me laugh cause it DEFINITELY doesn’t fall within a cozy cafe genre. That book is far from cozy. More like death and traumatic experiences with magic tied in it.
Leonie, thank you for bringing critical thinking and insightful comments to your channel! That's why I follow you, it's so refreshing to hear your voice of reason!
I think my least favorite book/reading phenomenon (and really a media consumption phenomenon in general) nowadays is the apparent inability of a lot of people to distinguish between fiction and reality. A lot of people seem to treat fictional characters and plot lines in a really weird way, and promote engaging with media in sort of a “good, clean, sanitized” way exclusively, and that grates on my nerves so much. There is no need to hold fictional characters up to real people moral standards, and analyze and criticize their behavior the same way as real people’s. Labeling media as “problematic” has become a real problem in itself. Enjoying reading about something doesn’t mean you do or condone it in real life.
So, you know how psychologists say that humans are programmed to need religion in their lives for our own mental health? This behavior is what you get when people don't have any concrete beliefs or community, lol. They live in delusion and try to find weird ways to validate their own goodness, by tying it to the fiction they're obsessed with.
( I'm not trying to promote religion here, btw. There's non-religious ways to fill that need, but pretending fictional characters are real is just one of the unhealthy ones. 😂 The healthy version is things like volunteering, donating, or enriching their life with hobbies/other social engagements outside of social media).
Its anti intellectualism, not being able tobtake a piece of media and taking it it in with a critical lense
I feel that. I read a lot of transgressive fiction which refers to works of fiction that intentionally push the boundaries of what is considered "acceptable" to publish, morally or otherwise, (think American Psycho, think de Sade), and because of that, I struggle with a lot of the romance novel discourse out there. I don't read romance, but I don't understand why I should be horrified because Stephanie from Iowa City gave Haunting Adeline five stars and said it was hot lmao. She's not going to leave her perfectly nice husband and three kids for a serial killer.
And the way people talk about teenagers reading books like that is wild to me. It's like a lot of these people forget being a teenager and reading taboo books with depictions of unhealthy relationships and sex and whatever because it intrigues them. Most teenagers did that, and most teenagers grow up to be adults with functional lives and in healthy relationships. The kids are going to be fine.
I also read A Gentleman and Moscow during lockdown and it made me feel not alone. Your description of its brilliance is so well done. Very excited to check out all the books I haven’t read on your list because the 4 I have are all time favorites of mine as well!!
For the ilustration cover of spicy books, i feel like it's cooler when you're among people and you're discret in you reading. It could be miss leading for younger reader but that is the respinsability of the sellers/publisher. And ilustrations more pleasant to look at.
Can't wait to see your videos in 2025
I had a quick look at what was going to be discussed and felt called out by the cozy cafe / bookshop books. I can't help loving it, I work in a library myself. I have also noticed a lot more asian literature (particularly from South Korea and Japan) being available in bookshops too. I have been really enjoying it.
23:25 happened to me when I was reading Icebreaker! 😂. The cover made it seem it was gonna be cutesy, but all I got was smut, smut, and more smut.
I DNFed it.
I guess many of the trend-related issues we face could be avoided if tropey books had a dedicated space or category, similar to light novels in Japan. Light novels receive specialized awards, adaptations, and coverage, like the support they get from Da Vinci magazine. These books are not mixed with those competing for the Naoki or Akutagawa awards; they are marketed in completely separate niches.
I'm annoyed by the tik-tok label because I can recommend really "sophisticated" books with a deep message like The Poppy War and as soon as people see that it was popular on TikTok they make fun of me
Oof 😢 i try not to judge anyway (people like what they like), but yeah, I'm guilty of losing interest in a book immediately after I see the tik tok label. I'll look into them more if someone is know likes the same things as me recommends it, but otherwise I end up putting it my "not a book for me" pile. 😅
I love that you acknowledge both ideas of “let people enjoy things the way they want to” and also “maybe you should read the whole book.” You have a great capacity for empathy and nuance in your takes, and I always really appreciate it
19:34 OK so I have a weird theory because I wanna know if a lot of the book people whether it’s on RUclips or on Instagram or TikTok and also the authors like are they getting paid to talk about Taylor Swift because I feel like a few years ago, even if you were a big Taylor Swift fan, you never heard about this stuff I feel like every single author talks about her or every booktuber talks about Taylor Swift and it feels weird to me. Like it feels so forced.
I agree on all of your takes on this video, we need to think a little bit deeper on what we consume on social media and I mean not only the actual content but also the subtext on those opinions. On another note, I LOVE your earrings, BEAUTIFUL.
as someone who loves Taylor, seeing her songs being used as a title or featuring in those "book playlists" makes me put the book away because, as you said, I feel like I'm falling for a scam if I keep on reading.
oh, and as much as I agree with you on the "there's no wrong way to practice a hobby" part, how can I discuss about a book, talk about theories with someone who skipped through the paragraphs describing how that universe works? it wouldn't be a conversation, but a lecture
I have ADHD, and I will admit, the way a book is laid out can really affect how much I enjoy it. I usually have an aim of reading a chapter when I sit down, but if that chapter is over 50 pages, or there is no clear division between chapters, that can make it pretty difficult for me. Lots of long paragraphs can also make it difficult for me, but I tend to not notice them as much. I can still get through the book, but there will be a lot less enjoyment, and it might affect my overall view of it.
I feel like we need to really differentiate between anti-intellectualism, and the perfectly valid criticism of book formating. Publishers have been cramming too many words on the pages just to save money on paper, making the reading experience a lot less comfortable and enjoyable in the process for a very long time, and like it or not, it plays a huge role in a person's willingness to read. I love reading , but big blocks of texts give me a headache. It has absolutely nothing to do the the content of the text, or the lenght of the text, it's about straining your eyes. Reading involves your body, and some poeple like to forget that not all bodies are the same. Tiny print and big blocks of texts are not hindering your reading? Well good for you, but not everyone is like you.
Often on Booktube, I really feel like yall are just kids and don't remember anything. Cheers the biggest show on TV in the 80's was a cozy story about people hanging out at a bar after work and Angela Landsberry spent a decade on Tv as the nice quiet granny writer lady solving cozy mysteries.
22:18 I actually like the cartoon drawings on the spicy novels. I would be very uncomfortable to actually pick up a book with a shirtless man on it.
Okay the issue i have with people skipping paragraphs is exactly the same issue I have when I watch a movie with a friend and they‘re on their phone constantly. I want them to know why I like the book/movie and I want them to like it for the same reasons I do :,) and I want to see them react to certain scenes and be into it and get hyperfixated with me :,)))
It’s not policing hobbies to say that skipping all of the descriptive paragraphs isn’t reading.
(1) it’s not a hobby to the people being dragged - they see it as their business or influencer brand and for them it’s a numbers game where they have to “read” 100+ books for their *brand* and not their enjoyment, (2) it’s genuinely inauthentic to act as a subject matter authority on books and criticize books for having “too many words” - even going as far as to not recommend them and hurt book sales - when you are BY DEFINITION not reading entire chucks of those books, and (3) the first shot was not fired by anyone judging the book skimmers. They invited the criticism. It was a shot in their own goal. It was a self own. You can be disappointed by the dogpile or the media reaction but it wouldn’t have taken place at all without some dumbass saying “these pages have too many words” or “am I the only one who slips paragraphs and only reads dialogue?”
Cozy is my go to genre. I like a good mystery but i want it to be lighthearted with a focus on characters and character development. I adore the Lady Dunbridge Mystery series, its historical fiction and I recommend it if you don't like when your books make you sad.
The “too many words on the page” discussion could have been such a great opportunity to talk about how many publishers fail to meet bare minimum accessibility guidelines for print materials. But instead people took it as “people don’t want to read.” The original video reminds me of how many of my friends with dyslexia talk about trying to read books. Large print books are so expensive and often unavailable, and I know so many people who just struggle through. I have books from big publishers like Penguin that are in 10.5 font (classics mostly). That’s ridiculous
There are some books that I literally will not buy in physical form because I can't read the print without straining my eyes. I know page magnifiers do exist but they aren't perfect and I wish it wasn't a consideration I had to make when buying a book. On the plus side it means I only buy books in person to combat this.
“too many words on the page” should be mentioned in the context of having to fucking squint to read. I just bought east of eden and good god are the words small 😭 I get that some publishers do this to largely save money but do I really gotta squint my eyes to read… my eyesight is already as bad as it is 😭😭😭
yes! thanks for putting it into words
Especially since, in the same video that the woman originally said that, she switched to reading the ebook and was fine.
Yes as someone with dyslexia, I struggle a lot with some of the things mentioned and the way the discussion went on it made me feel really down on my reading. Switching to an ebooks and making print larger helps a ton but there is just something special to read a physical book.
I saw you put The Lost Bookshop in the cosy cafe/bookshop genre and i don't think that's fair, tbh. Because firstly, romance is a subplot in this book. Love is talked about from a familial perspective. It's about women in their families and how it changed through time. It's about the connection between three women through time. From what i remember the fmc doesn't even get together with her love interest at the end. Secondly, the bookshop in question is a metaphor for home. It's a big part of the plot and the whole backstory. The whole story revolves around the bookstore and helps with telling the story of the two fmc's. The book is obviously about a bookshop, but there is sooo much more to it than just a cosy bookshop romance. It's about women in the literary world when it was a male dominated field, it talks about history (i learned so much about Irelands history from this book) and about love from families, especially found family.
as you can see, i'm very passionated about this book, i loved it! so i really recommend it if you love fantasy in a real world setting and a bit of history/background info of characters
i was stressing about if i’m speeding through books too quickly but then i remembered im an early teenager and need to stop letting others define how i enjoy books 😭 i’ve always been quick to consume things so getting books done in a week or less is normal for me and i think it’s okay to get through books fast, it doesn’t mean you’re not enjoying the book! i think we need to leave judging everyone’s taste and trying to dictate the way people read in 2024
This was cool to watch. I'm not locked in with the trends on many things, and this includes on Booktok/the online book community. Thanks for the video.
I do agree about the illustrated book covers. There needs to be some indication of spice level. Oh! And I love your art. It's so unique.
I'd like to see video essays about a book somebody recently read or revised after so many years. I read for the enjoyment; I'm in no rush in making a hobby I enjoy a chore.
Yeah I always wondered if the "too much text" complaint was more about font size
i agree with the changing up the covers a bit for smutty books, like I was out with my mum and younger sister who is 12 in the book section of Kmart since I am one of the readers in the family said little sister comes over and asks if she can have ice breaker and before my mum says yes I had to explain that it is not what it looks like also the book was in the teenager section sure it might have a cute cover but this is why I don't think smutty books should have a change in covers (just not to the half naked man again)
I'd understand if the "too many words on a page" was a "too small font is too difficult on my eyes" or if the "I skip paragraphs" is in context of "gods this is so bad but I wanna finish the chapter/skim the ending before I full on drop it". Sadly too many readers mean it as "I don't see reading as an enjoyable hobby, I just want to be seen as someone who reads a lot" and "I don't understand this so I'll just skip it instead of trying to understand"
I think the reason why ppl want just to scroll pages without proper reading is nowadays impatience. I believe it is called clip thinking.
Firstly, as everyone else is mentioning your hair looks AMAZING. Also, agreed on all of these except for cozy fantasy/bookstore, LOL - that's my absolute favorite genre - more Legends and Lattes, The Cat Who Saved Books, and House on the Cerulean Sea please! (Also, you missed the opportunity to insert a clip of Kylo screaming "MOOOOORE!!!!!!!" when you put Reylo fan fiction in "MORE")
That sword in the background ❤ and your hair❤ so gorgeous thank you for the amazing video
You're makeup is so good in this video!
Great video. I love cozy book. I'm just a tired adult who need comfort in her life. Not that not read book that more serious. But I something just need a book that feels like a warm hug. 😊
I love your art so much! It has such a fairytale whimsy that is just so nice to look at. Please consider sharing more art, I’d love to see that content!
Man: Will you marry me? | His door: *creaks*
Your drawings are genuinely great!! Very cute