Are you looking for fictional non-fiction (like the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)? Or are you looking more for non fiction that explores the dragon myth across cultures and where it comes from?
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon by John Topsell was one of my favorite childhood books. It's incredibly informative and a joy to read, it fit in perfectly with my books on raising dogs and goats and horses.
I found in high school that being forced to read a book that you ended up not liking at all, then being told to exclusively write how good the book was always a chore. Teachers always marked your work poorly if you dared criticised the book in any way. This put me off reading for many years. Then I found dragons and now we good.
Fun fact: both my grandma and my mom are die-hard catholic christians. Grandma loves fantasy novels and my mom likes comic books, especially some old ones (one of her absolute favs is Thorgal, volumes 1-29). Last week I gave "Game of thrones" to my grandma and she found it so interesting she took the second book herself from local library and is currently reading it. All it takes is that little bit of critical thinking whenever they read something: "well, I can enjoy it for what I like, I don't have to agree with every author ever on everything". It hurts me that not everyone from religious families grows up with people like that around. I honestly think grandma is one of the reasons I came back to reading books after a looong break between primary school and high school (the other reason was that the last books I had to read in high school were actually some interesting stuff I liked enough to come back to reading). And our taste is pretty similiar, so I can use her as a tester whenever I'm not sure if I'd like a certain book XD
I'm always glad to see this kind of nuance. I and my family are Catholic too and we all value broad reading very highly and avoiding dismissing things out of hand. (Although I think I am probably the only one in my family that has read ASOIAF past the first book. My mom didn't like it but wasn't really bothered by my reading it once I was old enough to choose my reading material freely.)
I’m both a mom and Mimi { grandma!!!😂 I made reading a part of life never a chore ! My adult children are 50 - 50 Readers but we had such fun reading a myriad of bedtime stories I approve even reading below grade level I sure do!🐾📚🐾
Game of Thrones has such an interesting take on religion though! I love that every religion is both real and not real, since prayer & rituals kinda work, but never in the way the believers expect. Characters are equally motivated to do good and bad things, depending on their personality. So, ASOIAF is essentially pro-, anti- and neutral towards religion. I imagine this prompting a religious person to think critically about their own faith without it feeling like a slap in the face.
This video touches on so many points in my reading life! Most recently I got myself out of a long reading slump by accepting my current reading-self as a strictly romanasy, smut and KU garbage reader. It's what fits best with my hectic life, keeps me reading and makes me happy. I still collect fic-lit and non-fiction on my shelves and TBR, waiting for when I have the time and brain power for them. But having reading as a constant part of my life means it changes with it too, and that's ok.
I only read what I want to read. If I encounter a book on social media, of course I may be influenced to read it, but for the most part I just read what I want.
Helloooo. I found your channel a couple of weeks ago through the Riftwar Saga video and absolutely loved it. I’ve been binge watching every single one of your videos ever since. I love the way you review books and book series, the way you break everything down, the things you touch upon, and how you try to be as impartial and thorough as possible. I also really appreciate the critical outlook on representation and human rights/social issues you usually give, you seem very down-to-earth. Thank you for your videos, they’re super wonderful
But to fair, gems that typically adolescents arent capable of appreciating because its often outdated because of the time period its set in leaving the teens finding it hard to relate to.
@@ashleyashleym2969 True, but a skilled teacher can help bridge that temporal divide. Looking back, I think I may have been fortunate. Shout out to Ms. Ruth Eason (10th, 11th, and 12th grade)!
Omg! Thank you So much for this. I can completely relate to the religious pressures since I grew up in a Christian home. I also can relate to experiencing people telling me that reading fiction books are not really true reading. And people feeling like they are better because they only read non-fiction books. I am starting to truly tune people out and read what I want to read. Thank you for this video. It was awesome! ❤️😊
Forced reading in high school and college put me in a decade long slump. So glad to have found a love of reading again. I also worried way too much what people thought of my reading, now I'm old enough I quit caring. Lol Wish I could get those years of reading back though. Thank you for another wonderful, well thought out video!
As someone who is new to reading over the past year, I’ve been feeling unmotivated to read. This video has inspired me to find something I want to read. I will say, it’s hard to find what you like to read when starting out, because you have to go through some boring reads to figure it out.
I love your intro and I've loved this video! I started watching this video to practice my listening (I'm studying english) and I started loving your channel! About this video, it helped me so much to understand the reason I stopped enjoying reading this year, it was because of trends and academic snoberry, tank you very much, I hope you never stop doing those content!
As a scientist I can vouch that writing a fiction book is waaaaay harder than writing a non-fiction one. Non fiction takes hard work, yes, and forming new ideas and hypothesis is not easy, but sweet baby potatoes, the amount of creativity, emotional intelligence and sheer stubbornness needed for completing a novel! At least I don't have to think about hitting just the right amount of tension between my methodology and results sections for a good pay-off in the discussion :)
I’m very thankful for the friend who encouraged me to read children’s books (mostly middle grade) I found some truly wonderful books that I love. And they can be so much nicer to read than adult books sometimes
On the point of having to read books for school: I learned to read before I ever knew that I couldn't. I would read for fun as a kid just because I was curious. Then assigned reading and book reports became a thing and I learned to hate reading. Fast forward to me being 30 years old, I found booktube and got a chunk of books for Christmas. The first one I read was one that I was made to read in school, "Of Mice and Men." This 100 page novella was not only easier than I ever remembered from high school, but because I chose to read it myself, I actually took handwritten notes about what I thought the book might be trying to say. It single-handedly reignited an old flame. One that still burns slow (I've only read about 5 books since January), but still it burns. Returning to these books after so much time, I can really look at them with my own eyes and find in them what I can see today, removed enough in time from what I might have been told to see as a teenager. All that to say, if you feel like the joy of reading was taken from you at about the same time in your life as me, don't be afraid to look again at them with new eyes. Sometimes time is a teacher you never knew you had. But take all the time you want, and read as much fun as you want. Connect to that child mind with an adult's insight. We learn through play, after all.
College (and the pressure of societal/job productivity) kinda killed my love of reading for a while. I primarily read fanfic 😂 but couldn't pick up any original works until I started working in the backroom at Walmart and listened to Name of the Wind and Red Rising. Love of reading restored sort of, it wasn't until a year later when I marathoned all the Lunar Chronicles books over inventory weekend that I really started to lean on Audiobooks more. Finally got Audible and then two years ago I discovered my library had audiobooks for download and I've been an addict again like I was when I was a kid. Thankfully I work back of house at a bookstore now so I can listen to books 90% of the time. Moar books!! I'm slowly reincorperating paper books back into my scheduled r&r time now. I read across all genres! Military sci-fi to contemporary romance! I just love a good story!
As a Christian, but didn't become one till I was adult, I truly appreciate your section on religion and your courteous way of sharing. Something I have found when I try to talk about books with some Christians, is they say, oh well I only read the Bible. It sounds very holier than thou answer, but come to tell they read maybe devotional or 10-20 minutes of Bible, and the rest of their time is spent else wise. But it often makes me feel bad to say I read my bible, but also read other books. Some of those books (often including fiction not even allegorical ones) drive me closer in my faith!
Hi Book guy! I used to visit an all girls catholic school in German (although I'm a protestant Christian myself...anyway..) We used to read the most BORING books ever! I just hated it! So my friend and I would read Mangas underneath our desks 🫣😁. Things like Evangelion, romance Manga. And I really fell in love with Battle Angel Alita. That was one of my absolute favs. But I sold the entire collection once I got older 😓🤦🏾♀️ I could just kick myself for doing that! Thank you for the video!
Can’t agree more, read what you want to! My religious grandparents told me I was in a cult for reading Harry Potter as a child 🤣, and my mother also thinks fiction is a waste of time and is beneath her.. 🥲 I always got shamed for what I like to read, but got to read what I wanted. I’m luck my father does like the same kind of books, he just started (after recommending it) his Cosmere journey and he loves it. It took me years before I got back to reading, for anyone who’s trying to get back too: don’t give up, be kind to yourself and read what you want there’s no shame in that!
I believe encouraging kids to read what they want throughout school gives them the confidence to read more variety as an adult. I have come to enjoy classics more as an adult and seek them out regularly because I view it as my own choice. I can research the book, watch Booktube videos by other people who have read it, and even DNF it if I’m struggling too much with it. But then I love my cozy mysteries and middle grades!
This was really helpful! I have books on my shelf that I’ve internalized that “serious readers” are supposed to have read. But I’ll be honest I can bet I’ve enjoyed my Hunger Games reread more than I will reading Ulysses. Your videos have been a breath of fresh air!
I don't know if I could last another week without a Book Guy video! Now, you got me thinking about one reading pressure. I think sometimes I read something that will make people say "Wow, you actually read that?". Sometimes it's to challenge myself to read different genres and that's cool, but there may be a part there to impress other people. It's reading not to be like other people, but to be different from other people. It's still a form of self inflicted pressure.
Growing up in scotland, i never had to read shakespeare in english class, but we did have to read the poems of carol ann duffy, analyse them to Perth (Australian one) and back, we also read plays set in the postwar period and interestingly, both were about italian immigrants trying to survive, one in scotland, the other in the US. We did experience serious books, but i cant remember which. Maybe it's just the education system being a bit different but i dont recall having to read a book within a short timeframe and having to analyse the whole thing in a series of essays. instead it was usually excerpts plucked from books or articles that we did close reading on
I realate to this so much. There were very few books in school that I liked. I LOATHED Great Expectations. It was so long and I never 'correctly' pinpointed what the teacher wanted. Like, "what does this persons dress color mean?" I wanted to toss it into fire when I was done reading and not touch another book. I recently picked reading again now that I'm not being forced to read anything, and I've read only sci-fi and fantasy. I have read more this year than I've read in all previous years combined. I'm currently at 52 books read.
I am so grateful I had a mother who encouraged me to read, and read what I wanted. I was reading books like Gone With the Wind at 11 without any backlash. The greatest thing a parent can do is encourage a child to read. Of my three my girls loved to read but my son never did. And that was ok. I never pushed him because I knew he wouldn’t enjoy it. His wife has gotten him to read more, they read books together. It’s different for us all and we all need to remember that.
Enjoying reading really started for me when I read Mistborn in English. As it is not my first language it was distinct from the reading I had to do for school. This separation in language really helped me to find the joy in it. Since graduating high school I haven't touched a German book.
I had an assignment like that in high school where we had a list of books, each worth a certain amount of points, and we had to read a total of however many points. I remember I chose Gone With the Wind because it was very long and thus worth *all* of the points on it's own. It still stands as one of my favorite books and I have a very treasured hardcover copy of it that I've had since then.
Loved this video! Also grew up in a very Christian household and community that frowned upon most of my reading choices. Glad I’m out of there. Now I read what I want, mostly fantasy 😊
High school ruined reading for me way until my late 20’s. I live in the states. I slowly started reading a few books a year in my 30’s and branching out into all kinds of genres. I now read over 250 books a year and they are all fiction and it’s my main hobby that I love. I also grew up in a very religious household where certain books were deemed “bad” based on the type of fiction. That took years to get over the guilt of reading what I enjoyed.
Holy cats...250 books a year!!!? I think my best year was 137. You're incredible! And after such a slow start in your twenties, that's inspiring! Well done!
Really great video, it also called me out on a few mistakes I sometimes still make. As a child I used to hate or more like loath reading. I am a girl and as such other people and also somehow I thought that I should only read books about horses. Also I have dyslexia so I was terribly slow and also hated the content of these books with a burning passion. In middle school there was a program in our country where booksellers would come to our school once a year and we could get 2-3 books for just a few euros. And I remember so vividly that I had to have a discussion with the woman selling the books because I wanted a book about a vampire and another one about a dragon. She insisted they were boys books and I should not read them. I didn't listen to her because my mum in her desperation showed me the first Harry Potter movie on tv. And after that I could not be stopped. We bought the second book the next day. And I decided after that that I just liked "boys books". Still it was very hard to get my hands on them. I love a lot of genres now but every time I give a popular ya book a shot because it's popular and everybody and their mother talks about it I end up hating reading again. So I probably should just take your advice and stop trying so hard to love what everybody else loves. 😊
1 thank you for saying what you did about religion. Been there too. I had a pastors wife make me delete my romance ebooks infant of her. I had backups though. But it did stop me reading for a few years. Now I'm reading voraciously - I left church. 2. Academic snobbery. Yeah. Let's out it this way I have read Homer and I have read ice planet barbarians and enjoyed both. The snobs need to take about 50 seats.
1. Thank you! I was nervous about the religious section, but it seems lots of people had the same experience. It's good to talk it through. 2. Oh wow, I hear you sister! I swear on a good day I could run circles around some academics. But I'm not so egotistical to make it everyone else's problem! :D
Yes The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is by far my absolute all time favorite book series ever. Next being Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern. Now I’ve gone through war history, YA, cozy cat mysteries, dog detectives, all the Tony Hillerman books and now his daughters, CJ Box and his Game Warden series with the infamous Joe Picket, and of course horror/thrillers, zombies, Anne Rice and Twilight, stabby books and any cryptozoology creature knocking people off in the woods I can get my hands on! So fun! I did find that last year I was reading more to complete my self set Goodreads goal than for enjoyment. Very silly! I believe the true enjoyment when discussing books with others is the passion we can all share and relate to. Well done and insightful! Thank you.
This is why I homeschool. I teach my kids to read, get them off the ground and flying, then let them loose on the bookshelves with relatively low input on their choices. My only requirement is they keep a log of their reading and rate the books.
Yep, high school and college definitely killed my love for reading. I read so much as a kid, and honestly I felt like such an incompetent reader in high school/college just because I struggled to get through the books they assigned. They wouldn't hold my attention, so my mind would wander and I could "read" whole pages without really comprehending anything because I wasn't really paying attention. The first books that finally got me back into reading were the Throne of Glass books by SJM. And of course, then I faced the snobbery of how those are "quality" books or "real" fantasy or whatever. But those were the books that reignited my love for reading! I read the first 4 books in that series in about a week, and that's an intensity and fervor I've just never had since. Now I'm a 50+ books/year reader, and I've discovered a lot more about my own tastes as a reader. I've tried a lot of popular books and I followed the trends for a while, and some things click and some don't (sorry Wheel of Time! 7 books in and I'm a hater lol. I will probably finish the series /eventually/ but mostly out of some sort of pressure to understand the hype. But I'm certainly not prioritizing this series anymore). As a mostly fantasy reader, I feel like I've always faced criticisms for my taste in books. As a kid, it was something I was supposed to "grow out of". And as an adult, it's apparently my childish, immature hobby. 🙄 I don't think we should ever discount the books we connect with due to any external pressure about what we should or shouldn't be reading. Some people will just never understand, and those people just not worth listening to.
I learned to love reading in grade school. The teacher would read to us for half an hour two or three times a week. When we got to visit the school library, which we had back in my day, I would look for other books by the author the teacher was reading. Love, love, loved The Boxcar Children series. I have a set of them to this day....and I am 67. I "had" to read Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm in high school. Hated both of them. I did however like George Orwell 's 1984. I have never lost my love for reading. I am reading Agatha Christie's works right now. Oh....and I own quite a large collection of cookbooks. They are very informative about more than just recipes. 😉
I LOVE THIS VIDEO!! It's almost impossible to not be influenced by something or someone else on what to choose to read. But I usually am picking based on the genre I love or just because it's a pretty cover lol. Or it's a genre I love that has a extremely high rating on Goodreads, or it's reccomended to me from booktubers I love to watch, or it is something I see on Tik Tok. But i don't use Tik Tok that much lol. But it's always because I want to read it and then I look up the rating on Goodreads to see if I want to spend the money on buying that book. But I just recently got back into reading last year, and now I understand that I didn't love reading as much as I do now because I can pick and choose what I want to spend my money on to read lol and what I think I am going to enjoy! And I literally could give zero f*cks on what people think about what I want to read, the older u get the less u care lol.
Joining goodreads definitely changed my reading behavior 😅 when I logged some books I read before that time, when I really was purely reading for fun because I suddenly had time commuting to my new work place, it felt really strange. 😂
Ironically, I feel like this video should be mandatory for anyone still in higher education. Brilliant work, as always. I work in the video game industry and the same is true there, perhaps to an even greater degree. The latest releases are always promoted as the "next big thing" and there can be a lot of pressure to partake in the current trend and avoid the dreaded FOMO. Now that I'm in my thirties with a young daughter, time is a precious commodity and I will only play, read, or watch what I want. Life is far too short to worry about what others think you should be doing.
I really like the channel and I’m a devout Christian. I have a special place in my heart for the Narnia series, but I understand it’s not for everyone.
My mother taught me how to choose books, and she never censored me. I remember picking up The Graduate at age 12. She told me that she won't stop me from reading it, but that I probably won't understand it. I should reread it now at 60, lol.
School was such a huge one for me. For some reason at my school we were expected to read things like Jane Eyre and The Count of Monte Cristo in eighth grade, and even though I was at a reading level that could handle it I was too bored to do the assigned reading. I know I'd probably enjoy Jane Eyre now, but I can't force myself to pick it up. I also spent a long time fully bought-in to the academic snobbery. I could circumvent it for fantasy and sci-fi since I grew up in a house that valued those genres highly, but I didn't read contemporary fiction until I got curious enough to read Where the Crawdads Sing when the movie was coming out (and even then I went in expecting to think it was an awful book - turns out I loved it). I spent a very long time reading for improvement instead of enjoyment.
Who would have thought that studying literature would take all the fun out of reading - that's what happened to me. After I studied English literature, I barely read books for fun for about 10 years or so. I had to wade through so many books that I absolutely despised reading, and I think during all that time there were only about 3 books in my curriculum that I actually enjoyed. I only recently re-discovered reading, and your channel has been a tremendous help in finding the right books for me!
I had a similar experience! I studied writing and literature, and i definitely felt guilt for not reading more 'high brow' books. I tried writing 'literary' books, when what I really wanted was commercial fiction. It's very hard to distinguish your own desires from all that pressure. I'm still glad I could study what I did, but it took a while before I could love it again.
I do think this is great for someone who isn't reading. Find what you like and read what you like. I do think that it is important, if you are a reader, to stretch yourself and try out different things. Your tastes change as you grow and your taste in books will likely change as well.
In Poland where Im from it is a huge problem that in high school we have something called canon of books we’re obliged to read and its very strict. This makes most students hate books and most of the time they just look at the analysis of said books (same as the teachers) and learn to go around reading. I’d say it is a very effective way of discouraging people from reading when they are still young. And as you mentioned its the same case as in US that most of the books are old and not appealing to young audience
when I was elementary school we had a special program. You read a book and take a test on that book. The tests were made by scholastic and they kept up with book for kids. Anything more then a few years was good to go. This meant you could read book written for kids and the teacher gets to see a test grade to prove you read it. On a side note the importance of communication is really really important, just look at what happens to deaf kids that are denied access to sign languages.
I remember how at 15 I started to read William Shakespeare. Just out of curiosity, and also because it was shorter than a novel. I still checked phrases here and there on sparknotes. But I surprisingly enjoyed the plays. However, I doubt I would have liked it as much if I was forced to read them. Curiousity for me is the key to try new things.
Interesting video!! There was a time when my dad was concerned that I "was replacing friendship with books" (and I guess in the 60s/70s certain groups of people earned Lord of the Rings a bad name, so that might've been his true concern). He never tried to dictate what I could read, fortunately. Honestly, he got me into fantasy movies, which eventually led to me discovering fantasy books, so it's a little ironic that he was even a little concerned about the books. (: Now I definitely jump around and read whatever I want, and I always try to get a good idea of what I'm getting into, even to the point of finding some spoilers so that I feel confident that I've found something I'm going to enjoy. :3
I fell into that trap of reading lots and lots of self-improvement books and didn't realize after a long time that I practically read non-fiction exclusively and I was burned out(ironically). Now I'm reading only books I genuinely want to read and I've been plowing through amazing series(dark tower right now - so fun) and I've been so much happier enjoying my reading time. (Not to discredit self-help there were some genuine good books)
My reading pressures are all my own fault. 😅 I keep joining bookclubs, Discords and Patreons. So I end up with 3-4 books a month that have been selected, and then there's all the side chats/discussions about other books 😳. But I like a wide array of genres and writing styles, so it generally works out and I enjoy the books.
Oh man, to add onto the conversation at around the 17 minute mark, I get so confused about people that give me snobby vibes bc I read ebooks, worse I alternate between ebooks and audio books and sometimes both at once! Gasp! I feel like telling them that I understand that the only reason they pick up a book is so that everyone else can see them holding a book, But I'm just here for entertainment. Sometimes thought provoking and inspiring, and sometimes a novel equivalent to a cheesy popcorn scary movie. I'm just here for a good time haha.
I'm stuck under the pressure of reading in French, because I'm currently learning that language. But I want to read the rest of the Cosmere I've got left :D and that must be in its original language! Also, I want to finish WoT!
Thank you! Unfortunately I only have my patreon. I'm terrible at social media, as you can see from how I took 13 days to reply to this. 😁 But it's something I'm thinking about.
@@cronkthebookguy if you ever make social media profiles, even if you just post snippets of your vids, I'd love to follow you! So I hope you can be persuaded >:)
I’ve felt a lot of the pressure you describe in this video. I remember when I was a kid, I loved Eragon. When I first read it, I thought Eragon was the dragon and Saphira was a human. My imagination ran wild. One day, I went on the internet to see what other people thought about it and to my shock, people HATED it. They described my favorite book as trash, as a Tolkien wannabe, and that the writing was awful. I didn’t understand, because I loved both Eragon and The Hobbit. The books in my bookshelf as a kid were mostly hand-me-downs from my older brother. What did these comments say about him? I stopped looking at online book reviews, but I can still feel that shock to this day. I recently re-read the series all the way through Murtaugh. I shrugged off the stigma of reading YA. I shrugged off all the comments I’ve read about Paolini’s writing style. I read them because I wanted to. Sure, as I read through them I could see how some criticisms were valid. But it didn’t matter, because there’s a part of me that identifies with Eragon’s character. The most recent example of reading pressure I can think of is Brandon Sanderson and the Stormlight Archive. I was surprised by how many people do not like Oathbringer or Rhythm of War. When some people talk about what they don’t like about these two books, they write whole dissertations about how it didn’t meet their expectations and why they didn’t like it. I can accept these comments for what they are now: opinions! Each book I read takes me a on a journey, and I think it’s amazing how two people can read the same book and leave with completely different feelings about it. I’ve rambled on and on! This video has me thinking quite a lot. We live in a society…
lol we live in a society! Amazing reference It's funny, I've just finished re-reading the Inheritance Cycle for the first time as an adult. The amount of unjust hate that series got was insane! I had a similar experience with the Star Wars prequels. I still remember the very review that made me realise other people hated them. It's shocking as a kid to see such intense hatred for something you like. You're absolutely right. At the end of the day, people will have their opinions on books. Its best not to let them affect your own enjoyment.
Hello Book Guy! Thank you for the message in your video today. It really struck a chord with me. I picked up Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb to start the Realm of the Elderings series. Ive heard so many good things about the series and was influenced to try it. Im on the struggle buss, though. Half-way through book 1 and I'm bored. Ill stick it out for the 1st trilogy in hopes that it captures my attention eventually. Otherwise, I'll DNF the series. And thars okay 😊. Read what you like, right?
Hello friend! I'm thrilled that you're reading Assassin's Apprentice. Yes it's definitely a slower book. Robin Hobb writes a lot of deep characters first and foremost, before she adds in plot and worldbuilding. If you DNF that book, you could try the Liveship Traders. It's a trilogy set in the same world, but I feel like it's much better. She had more practice writing at this point.
In my Freshman Year of High School I had to read Shakespeare and it killed my love of reading. I hated Romeo and Juliet so much I didn't touch another book for almost 5 years. Comparing that to 7th grade where I read both the Hunger Games and Maze Runner trilogies in the same month, it was bad...
I get it! I personally love Shakespeare, but it really should not be mandatory for kids. I would love to see Hunger Games is schools instead...but that's possibly a controversial choice.
I am an adult but I read lots of middle grade and YA books as well as adult ones. Albert Einstein said that if you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. Books are for everyone.
I don’t have trouble choosing what I want to read but getting my hands on the books I want is a problem. A distressingly large number of authors have gone out of print and (the ones I’ve been seeking recently) are not plentiful in the market. On top of that when I do find them, they’re being price gouged. Last year there was a three volume set of short stories by Robert Bloch I wanted. But very few listings and most listings wanted $300 per volume… these are paperbacks from the 80s. I did eventually acquire them for much more reasonable prices because I’m patient and diligent in my quest. Note: I wasn’t being picky about the set. I wanted the collected short stories of that author and this was the only complete collection I could find
HA! You're asking that question and your name is Andross Guile. That's amazing! 🤣🤣🤣 Sadly I've dropped Lightbringer from my schedule for now. 😫 But I'll include it somewhere ASAP. Long story short, I've thrown my entire six month plan out the window so I can get my books written. Once they're written, I'll revisit the schedule. I think that'll be in May. Fingers crossed!
I live near a US base. Everyone I know who has been in combat has lost at least one brother in arms due to suicide. Our politicians on both sides of the aisle use the military for their personal and financial gain. Their actions are inexcusable and their wars are illegal according to the Constitution.
0:28 - I dunno, I've pretty much always only read what I've wanted to, from the first moment I was able to pick out and read books all for my own self and had stopped only having the books that people older than me would bring into the house available to me. Lol Even if I choose to read a popular book or a book recommended by a fan or such, I still don't do so only because it's popular nor only because a fan of it recommended it. I do so IF it's popular and/or a fan of it recommended it and I am genuinely interested in checking it out for my own self. But....I s'pose I have also kinda always been an unusually independent personality type, myself. So ...I would really never say that I am or should be the standard "rule" for anything for anyone else, I guess.😂😂 My mother always taught me that if you want to be able to lead well you must first learn to follow and sympathize/empathize with those you are leading-and even though I've never truly had any genuine interest in actually leading anyone or anything other than my own self, I always understood that this was her way of teaching her kids the value of respecting her and other people's / other place's rules and teaching us to be patient because one day we were going to legally independent adults in control of our own lives and able to determine our own rules for ourselves, one step at a time. The first thing we were allowed to exercise independence over was our hair, because it was our hair and no one else had to wear it but us. (And even that was a concession that I had personally kind of fought for, and later defended be upheld for my brothers too when they wanted to keep their hair longer but our maternal grandfather nearly bullied my mother into making them cut it when they really didn't want to.) The next thing we were able to exercise independence over was what we read, because once we were old enough to read it for ourselves it only affected us, other people around us weren't forced to also interact with it too unless they wanted to. And after personal Walkmans and personal CD players became a thing[ and digital music on computers / over the internet that could also be plugged into with headphones], then we finally also got to exercise control over the music we listened to, so long as we didn't blast it so loud that everyone could hear it anyway even despite the headphones and we were probably going to hurt our ears. Lol So, like, for me the entire point of reading was always for the express purpose of reading what I wanted to-like vampire and/or werewolf fiction that my mother would never have read to us herself(and as a specific act of defiance because my mother had told me "No" once when I randomly picked up an old Dracula film from a movie bin having no idea then what Dracula or vampires were just because I thought the cover looked cool-I might not be allowed to watch that Dracula movie because my mother didn't like or approve of it and/or didn't believe it was appropriate for my younger siblings to be exposed to, but I could read whatever I wanted; although it still took me a surprisingly long time to ever actually read Dracula in its entirety for myself rather than merely reading ABOUT Dracula and Dracula's historical influences and cultural impact on things later influenced by it and so on). ((Reading, for me, has always been a form of self-expression much like hair/makeup/clothes/etcetera is fot so many other persons.)) 😊🤭🤭🤭💖💖 2:50 - Similarly, I also don't find something boring just because it is maybe something that takes actual work or more time and effort and not necessarily just all fun n games to really accomplish. (Although that isn't to say that I never need any breaks from this kind of thing either, of course I still do!) And I wasn't required to read the same kinds of books in school as other people were because I was homeschooled, so many of the books that other kids were forced to read and hated in school actually WERE the exact types of books that I would have chosen to read for myself if I had been able to but either didn't know of or had forgotten about by the time I was finally actually choosing my own reads for myself. 8:58 - YES! I was fortunate to have grown up with a dad and uncle who exposed me to a lot of "boys" stuff, even though I was myself a girl, (like working outdoors and action/espionage/political-intrigue type movies and sci-fi/fantasy) because that stuff appealed to my tastes personally way more than most of the stuff my mother and sisters were exposing me to(which was largely dolls and dress-up and romance and contemporary or historical type fiction)....although that isn't to say that I hated everything I got introduced to by the gals in my life(especially as I got older and the things I appreciated in the world expanded or grew in complexity somewhat). But I absolutely can not imagine how much less fun and interesting my life and growing up would have been for me if that had never happened, or how much less pulled into my love for reading I would have been and likely would still be. 9:29 - True. But, also, untrue. Lol (I have never seemed to have any trouble intimidating boys if I really wanted/needed to. But the discrimination or mockery still makes an impact on people, either way, and should be eradicated from the world.) 9:50 - _COMPLETELY_ AGREED! 💖💖🙂 11:41 - *EXACTLY!!* 😂😊 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 12:34 - Yep, yep, yep!!!🤭😏😁 13:07 - This was always my big gripe with my mother and her gift giving when I was younger. She had a huge problem with gifting people things based on what HER tastes were, even sometimes her tastes and the other person's were completely unaligned, so even when she meant well it oftentimes did not feel to the receiver of those gifts as if she did. She has, fortunately, gotten a little bit better about that these days though. 🙂 And your grasp on this type of concept, yourself, is what I have personally always gravitated toward and most enioyed about TheBookGuy channel! 💖💖 13:18 - RIGHT ON!!!!! Say it again! Say it louder! 💖 13:49‐14:18 - Yup, yup; for surely. 14:28 - I really appreciate that you recognize that religious disapproval can take many many differing forms. 14:57 - My mother disapproved of Disney princess movies, because magic is real and should be taken much more seriously rather than being treated so so very lightly and frivolously, in her opinion.😅😅😅 🙃🙃 👀 16:26 - The first thing I started writing was about cats, and that was actually back before the Warriors / Warrior Cats books became a thing. Lol ....I hope the reason you won't share them isn't just because they are allegories but more just because they weren't the kinds of stories you actually wanted to write, and I'm really sorry that happened to you. I am glad you seem to have been able to grow beyond that so very well, now, the way you always should have been allowed to! 😊 💖💖 16:35 - That is so completely wild to me. But...I can definitely see where something like that might easily have come from religion. I mean, for my mother, even something being by Christians for Christians or being Christian allegorical wasn't satisfactory enough to gain her approval, she had to approve that something was Christian enough and in what she deemed the correct/proper/appropriate way(s) or whatsuch, too. 👀 🙃🙃 >__< 16:56-17:08 - I appreciate you so much for making this point so tactfully and sensitively, this is unfortunately a nuance and respectfulness I fear many actually lack. Nothing should ever be all about trying to force conformity to all the same beliefs or tastes on everybody just completely indiscriminately. 🙂 💖 17:28 - TRUE. + V. RELATABLE.! 17:51-17:59 - 🤣🤣🤣😭😅😂🙂🙂 (Also truuee!.😆😹😹) Lolll 18:17 - I think the issue, these days, is less about looking un-smart so much as it is about look poorly-educated and generally more uninformed about the greater goings on the world and life or being perceived as less glamorous or less elevated or less-respected/less-respectable or such somehow. (If that makes any sense.😅😅) 🤔🤷🤷🏻♂️🤷♀️ 18:31 - YAASSS!!!!😊💖💖💖👏🏻👏🏻 19:31 - Totally fair point. Balance is generally good, balance is generally key, in my own opinion. 😂😂😏🤭😊💖😁🤣 19:42-20:40-21:17 - YES ^--^ 💖 Thank you for such a great, needed and kind video!!! I really hope it help uplift or educate any who truly need it or who may for any reason have still been in dark before seeing this.💖💖😊
The biggest thing I've seen driving "reading pressure" is what will help people grow their social media presence... There's a bit of an echo chamber online around the big authors (Sanderson, SJM, etc), and if you never talk about them, you're unlikely to grow your channel or instagram or what not. I think there's some merit in trying them and giving your honest opinion so you can cement your reading taste and allow a community to help find other books in alignment with it. And, sometimes an initial bump in views/likes while talking about popular books is all you need, and then you can continue on with lesser known books once you have a following! But i definitely see some content creators stuck in a cycle of speaking about the same series over and over again, and while we can all blame the algorithm, it's driven by what gets people to click, and fanservice is an easy way to engagement. I really don't blame creators for using whatever means they can to grow an audience, just as long as it's not a detriment to their own enjoyment!! I also have to send a BIG hug over the religious discussion... My father is a minister, but he's just as big a nerd as I am. His books were stacked with Anne McCaffery and Asimov when I was a kid, and he owns a nicer set of Harry Potter than I do. I wish everyone had that experience, but so many people use religion as a means of control and limitation and it's heartbreaking. I'm glad you bucked against it and followed your passions!!
Such a thoughtful comment! Yes as a youtuber it's challenging to try to grow an online presence without resorting to click-bait topics. I've tried to avoid it where possible and hope that people will appreciate the integrity instead. I just find it frustrating that everyone focuses on their own opinion of the book, like they're the one true source of enlightenment! 😁 But that affect on readers can resort in a ton of pressure. Not everyone has to worry about views and subscriber rates! Also thank you, my friend. I return that hug! ❤
I grew up in a very religious family. I wasn’t allowed to read Harry Potter either !! I think it might do the opposite….i read a lot of smut….and alot of fantasy novels!
I gotta disagree about the stories having a lesson in them. I really enjoy books that have deeper meanings and lessons in them and frankly theyre a lot more aproachable than non fiction for me with the exception of science subjects, but anything else that I wish to learn, I find it much easier to read in a fictional book than non fiction.
Totally disagree that fiction shouldn’t be used to make a point about an issue. To me that’s the whole purpose of fiction. It can make points in ways that non- fiction simply can’t.
That's interesting. Have you ever heard of 'demand avoidance'? It's a neurodivergent trait of deliberately opposing a demand because you can't stand to be told what to do.
The only reading pressure I'm feeling these days is coming from the immense amount of books already written or being currently published that I would all love to read or at least give them a try. This is also where that last (awesome)advice of yours kinda fails, because even if I was the last person on Earth, I'd still have to chose between a myriad of books that I all want to read. And that's only Sci-Fi fantasy. I mean I haven't even started reading well-known authors like Abercrombie or Gwynn, because I still have to play catchup with the likes of Sanderson. And you book tube people with all you're talking about indie authors aren't very helpful with that (kiddin' of course, I love getting introduced to new stuff even if I'll probably never get to read them).
So weird your parents told you to only read non fiction. I mean there Are a huge variert of non fiction out there, ladt year a book about DnD came out. I read a book earlier this year about the history of the tomatoes. Are they better than PJO?geek girl?soulless?
Might be an outlier here but I hard disagree on your stance on school reading. School reading isn't supposed to be fun, it is supposed to be educational (because that's why you're going to school in the first place). And the hard truth is, that if the only things you read is the stuff you get "forced" to in school, that's a failure of your parents more than that of the school you're going to. Because home, that's the place that decides where you'll initially land on the scale of literacy. Now I am aware that I'm an old guy (counted in youtube years), so I come from a completely different universe, but the actual issue is that the gap between what you're learning at home and what school can expect you to already know has became huge in recent decades. I learned reading and writing before I even went to school, I grew up on the bedtime stories read by my mother (mostly Grimm Fairy Tales) that a lot of well-meaning people these days think would turn you into a psychopath if you get early access to them. I read Michael Ende's Momo and the Neverending Story, Narnia, Astrid Lindgren, Jules Verne, Twain, Robertson and basically all the European sagas and myths and a whole lot of other stuff that falls into the Realms of actual literature at home, before I even entered secondary school (Tolkien came shortly after that). So when we started reading actual books in secondary school (and as an aside, we started with Schiller's Tell, basically the German Shakespeare), I was already well prepared to do that. Add a good teacher to the mix and I actually enjoyed the heck out of that drama. Was it work? Yes. Was it fun? Definitively. Was I the only one having it? Absolutely not. Before this one, I watched the video about the reasons why adults don't read, and I wholeheartedly agree that you have to work up your grade of literacy, so starting with literary non-fiction when you didn't read anything else will of course go over the head of most kids these days. But that's not the failure of the school system, that's the failure of those people who should do the actual parenting.
I only want to read non-fiction books about dragons. But I can't find any.
Check out The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson. :)
Are you looking for fictional non-fiction (like the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)? Or are you looking more for non fiction that explores the dragon myth across cultures and where it comes from?
@ADHDlanguages Well, The Flight of Dragons seems a good start for fun. Any other suggestions for non-fiction.
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon by John Topsell was one of my favorite childhood books. It's incredibly informative and a joy to read, it fit in perfectly with my books on raising dogs and goats and horses.
@@someothercharacter it's a bit on the younger side but Wings of Fire is a really good series from the perspective of dragons.
I found in high school that being forced to read a book that you ended up not liking at all, then being told to exclusively write how good the book was always a chore. Teachers always marked your work poorly if you dared criticised the book in any way. This put me off reading for many years. Then I found dragons and now we good.
Fun fact: both my grandma and my mom are die-hard catholic christians. Grandma loves fantasy novels and my mom likes comic books, especially some old ones (one of her absolute favs is Thorgal, volumes 1-29). Last week I gave "Game of thrones" to my grandma and she found it so interesting she took the second book herself from local library and is currently reading it. All it takes is that little bit of critical thinking whenever they read something: "well, I can enjoy it for what I like, I don't have to agree with every author ever on everything". It hurts me that not everyone from religious families grows up with people like that around. I honestly think grandma is one of the reasons I came back to reading books after a looong break between primary school and high school (the other reason was that the last books I had to read in high school were actually some interesting stuff I liked enough to come back to reading). And our taste is pretty similiar, so I can use her as a tester whenever I'm not sure if I'd like a certain book XD
Your grandma sounds awesome
@@KitCronk she is!
I'm always glad to see this kind of nuance. I and my family are Catholic too and we all value broad reading very highly and avoiding dismissing things out of hand. (Although I think I am probably the only one in my family that has read ASOIAF past the first book. My mom didn't like it but wasn't really bothered by my reading it once I was old enough to choose my reading material freely.)
I’m both a mom and Mimi { grandma!!!😂
I made reading a part of life never a chore !
My adult children are 50 - 50
Readers but we had such fun reading a myriad of bedtime stories
I approve even reading below grade level
I sure do!🐾📚🐾
Game of Thrones has such an interesting take on religion though! I love that every religion is both real and not real, since prayer & rituals kinda work, but never in the way the believers expect. Characters are equally motivated to do good and bad things, depending on their personality. So, ASOIAF is essentially pro-, anti- and neutral towards religion. I imagine this prompting a religious person to think critically about their own faith without it feeling like a slap in the face.
This video touches on so many points in my reading life! Most recently I got myself out of a long reading slump by accepting my current reading-self as a strictly romanasy, smut and KU garbage reader. It's what fits best with my hectic life, keeps me reading and makes me happy. I still collect fic-lit and non-fiction on my shelves and TBR, waiting for when I have the time and brain power for them. But having reading as a constant part of my life means it changes with it too, and that's ok.
Such great advice!
Your enthusiasm convinced me to read Wheel of Time despite feeling intimidated by its length, and I'm loving it, so thank you!
I love your reviewing style and the wide variety of books you cover
I only read what I want to read. If I encounter a book on social media, of course I may be influenced to read it, but for the most part I just read what I want.
Helloooo. I found your channel a couple of weeks ago through the Riftwar Saga video and absolutely loved it. I’ve been binge watching every single one of your videos ever since. I love the way you review books and book series, the way you break everything down, the things you touch upon, and how you try to be as impartial and thorough as possible. I also really appreciate the critical outlook on representation and human rights/social issues you usually give, you seem very down-to-earth. Thank you for your videos, they’re super wonderful
I'd love to read what I want, but Nerdforge stole my book collection and turned it into one single book. Now I can't take them on the bus.
Say what you want, that list of books required in high school was full of gems!
But to fair, gems that typically adolescents arent capable of appreciating because its often outdated because of the time period its set in leaving the teens finding it hard to relate to.
@@ashleyashleym2969 True, but a skilled teacher can help bridge that temporal divide. Looking back, I think I may have been fortunate. Shout out to Ms. Ruth Eason (10th, 11th, and 12th grade)!
Omg! Thank you So much for this. I can completely relate to the religious pressures since I grew up in a Christian home. I also can relate to experiencing people telling me that reading fiction books are not really true reading. And people feeling like they are better because they only read non-fiction books. I am starting to truly tune people out and read what I want to read. Thank you for this video. It was awesome! ❤️😊
Forced reading in high school and college put me in a decade long slump. So glad to have found a love of reading again.
I also worried way too much what people thought of my reading, now I'm old enough I quit caring. Lol Wish I could get those years of reading back though.
Thank you for another wonderful, well thought out video!
As someone who is new to reading over the past year, I’ve been feeling unmotivated to read. This video has inspired me to find something I want to read. I will say, it’s hard to find what you like to read when starting out, because you have to go through some boring reads to figure it out.
I love your intro and I've loved this video! I started watching this video to practice my listening (I'm studying english) and I started loving your channel!
About this video, it helped me so much to understand the reason I stopped enjoying reading this year, it was because of trends and academic snoberry, tank you very much, I hope you never stop doing those content!
As a scientist I can vouch that writing a fiction book is waaaaay harder than writing a non-fiction one. Non fiction takes hard work, yes, and forming new ideas and hypothesis is not easy, but sweet baby potatoes, the amount of creativity, emotional intelligence and sheer stubbornness needed for completing a novel! At least I don't have to think about hitting just the right amount of tension between my methodology and results sections for a good pay-off in the discussion :)
What a well thought out and articulate video. Bravo. I also love the pop culture clips you sprinkled in there.
I’m very thankful for the friend who encouraged me to read children’s books (mostly middle grade)
I found some truly wonderful books that I love. And they can be so much nicer to read than adult books sometimes
On the point of having to read books for school:
I learned to read before I ever knew that I couldn't. I would read for fun as a kid just because I was curious. Then assigned reading and book reports became a thing and I learned to hate reading. Fast forward to me being 30 years old, I found booktube and got a chunk of books for Christmas. The first one I read was one that I was made to read in school, "Of Mice and Men." This 100 page novella was not only easier than I ever remembered from high school, but because I chose to read it myself, I actually took handwritten notes about what I thought the book might be trying to say. It single-handedly reignited an old flame. One that still burns slow (I've only read about 5 books since January), but still it burns. Returning to these books after so much time, I can really look at them with my own eyes and find in them what I can see today, removed enough in time from what I might have been told to see as a teenager.
All that to say, if you feel like the joy of reading was taken from you at about the same time in your life as me, don't be afraid to look again at them with new eyes. Sometimes time is a teacher you never knew you had. But take all the time you want, and read as much fun as you want. Connect to that child mind with an adult's insight. We learn through play, after all.
College (and the pressure of societal/job productivity) kinda killed my love of reading for a while. I primarily read fanfic 😂 but couldn't pick up any original works until I started working in the backroom at Walmart and listened to Name of the Wind and Red Rising. Love of reading restored sort of, it wasn't until a year later when I marathoned all the Lunar Chronicles books over inventory weekend that I really started to lean on Audiobooks more. Finally got Audible and then two years ago I discovered my library had audiobooks for download and I've been an addict again like I was when I was a kid. Thankfully I work back of house at a bookstore now so I can listen to books 90% of the time. Moar books!! I'm slowly reincorperating paper books back into my scheduled r&r time now. I read across all genres! Military sci-fi to contemporary romance! I just love a good story!
As a Christian, but didn't become one till I was adult, I truly appreciate your section on religion and your courteous way of sharing. Something I have found when I try to talk about books with some Christians, is they say, oh well I only read the Bible. It sounds very holier than thou answer, but come to tell they read maybe devotional or 10-20 minutes of Bible, and the rest of their time is spent else wise. But it often makes me feel bad to say I read my bible, but also read other books. Some of those books (often including fiction not even allegorical ones) drive me closer in my faith!
Hi Book guy! I used to visit an all girls catholic school in German (although I'm a protestant Christian myself...anyway..)
We used to read the most BORING books ever! I just hated it!
So my friend and I would read Mangas underneath our desks 🫣😁.
Things like Evangelion, romance Manga. And I really fell in love with Battle Angel Alita. That was one of my absolute favs. But I sold the entire collection once I got older 😓🤦🏾♀️ I could just kick myself for doing that!
Thank you for the video!
Can’t agree more, read what you want to! My religious grandparents told me I was in a cult for reading Harry Potter as a child 🤣, and my mother also thinks fiction is a waste of time and is beneath her.. 🥲 I always got shamed for what I like to read, but got to read what I wanted. I’m luck my father does like the same kind of books, he just started (after recommending it) his Cosmere journey and he loves it.
It took me years before I got back to reading, for anyone who’s trying to get back too: don’t give up, be kind to yourself and read what you want there’s no shame in that!
I believe encouraging kids to read what they want throughout school gives them the confidence to read more variety as an adult. I have come to enjoy classics more as an adult and seek them out regularly because I view it as my own choice. I can research the book, watch Booktube videos by other people who have read it, and even DNF it if I’m struggling too much with it. But then I love my cozy mysteries and middle grades!
This was really helpful! I have books on my shelf that I’ve internalized that “serious readers” are supposed to have read. But I’ll be honest I can bet I’ve enjoyed my Hunger Games reread more than I will reading Ulysses. Your videos have been a breath of fresh air!
I don't know if I could last another week without a Book Guy video!
Now, you got me thinking about one reading pressure. I think sometimes I read something that will make people say "Wow, you actually read that?". Sometimes it's to challenge myself to read different genres and that's cool, but there may be a part there to impress other people. It's reading not to be like other people, but to be different from other people. It's still a form of self inflicted pressure.
Growing up in scotland, i never had to read shakespeare in english class, but we did have to read the poems of carol ann duffy, analyse them to Perth (Australian one) and back, we also read plays set in the postwar period and interestingly, both were about italian immigrants trying to survive, one in scotland, the other in the US. We did experience serious books, but i cant remember which.
Maybe it's just the education system being a bit different but i dont recall having to read a book within a short timeframe and having to analyse the whole thing in a series of essays. instead it was usually excerpts plucked from books or articles that we did close reading on
I realate to this so much. There were very few books in school that I liked. I LOATHED Great Expectations. It was so long and I never 'correctly' pinpointed what the teacher wanted. Like, "what does this persons dress color mean?" I wanted to toss it into fire when I was done reading and not touch another book.
I recently picked reading again now that I'm not being forced to read anything, and I've read only sci-fi and fantasy. I have read more this year than I've read in all previous years combined. I'm currently at 52 books read.
I am so grateful I had a mother who encouraged me to read, and read what I wanted. I was reading books like Gone With the Wind at 11 without any backlash. The greatest thing a parent can do is encourage a child to read. Of my three my girls loved to read but my son never did. And that was ok. I never pushed him because I knew he wouldn’t enjoy it. His wife has gotten him to read more, they read books together. It’s different for us all and we all need to remember that.
Enjoying reading really started for me when I read Mistborn in English. As it is not my first language it was distinct from the reading I had to do for school. This separation in language really helped me to find the joy in it. Since graduating high school I haven't touched a German book.
I had an assignment like that in high school where we had a list of books, each worth a certain amount of points, and we had to read a total of however many points. I remember I chose Gone With the Wind because it was very long and thus worth *all* of the points on it's own. It still stands as one of my favorite books and I have a very treasured hardcover copy of it that I've had since then.
Loved this video! Also grew up in a very Christian household and community that frowned upon most of my reading choices. Glad I’m out of there. Now I read what I want, mostly fantasy 😊
High school ruined reading for me way until my late 20’s. I live in the states. I slowly started reading a few books a year in my 30’s and branching out into all kinds of genres. I now read over 250 books a year and they are all fiction and it’s my main hobby that I love.
I also grew up in a very religious household where certain books were deemed “bad” based on the type of fiction. That took years to get over the guilt of reading what I enjoyed.
Holy cats...250 books a year!!!? I think my best year was 137. You're incredible! And after such a slow start in your twenties, that's inspiring! Well done!
Really great video, it also called me out on a few mistakes I sometimes still make. As a child I used to hate or more like loath reading. I am a girl and as such other people and also somehow I thought that I should only read books about horses. Also I have dyslexia so I was terribly slow and also hated the content of these books with a burning passion. In middle school there was a program in our country where booksellers would come to our school once a year and we could get 2-3 books for just a few euros. And I remember so vividly that I had to have a discussion with the woman selling the books because I wanted a book about a vampire and another one about a dragon. She insisted they were boys books and I should not read them. I didn't listen to her because my mum in her desperation showed me the first Harry Potter movie on tv. And after that I could not be stopped. We bought the second book the next day. And I decided after that that I just liked "boys books". Still it was very hard to get my hands on them. I love a lot of genres now but every time I give a popular ya book a shot because it's popular and everybody and their mother talks about it I end up hating reading again. So I probably should just take your advice and stop trying so hard to love what everybody else loves. 😊
Great breakdown, and I love your shirt. 💛
1 thank you for saying what you did about religion. Been there too. I had a pastors wife make me delete my romance ebooks infant of her. I had backups though. But it did stop me reading for a few years. Now I'm reading voraciously - I left church.
2. Academic snobbery. Yeah. Let's out it this way I have read Homer and I have read ice planet barbarians and enjoyed both. The snobs need to take about 50 seats.
Same here with Homer and Ice Planet Barbarians😊
1. Thank you! I was nervous about the religious section, but it seems lots of people had the same experience. It's good to talk it through.
2. Oh wow, I hear you sister! I swear on a good day I could run circles around some academics. But I'm not so egotistical to make it everyone else's problem! :D
Yes The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is by far my absolute all time favorite book series ever. Next being Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern. Now I’ve gone through war history, YA, cozy cat mysteries, dog detectives, all the Tony Hillerman books and now his daughters, CJ Box and his Game Warden series with the infamous Joe Picket, and of course horror/thrillers, zombies, Anne Rice and Twilight, stabby books and any cryptozoology creature knocking people off in the woods I can get my hands on! So fun!
I did find that last year I was reading more to complete my self set Goodreads goal than for enjoyment. Very silly!
I believe the true enjoyment when discussing books with others is the passion we can all share and relate to.
Well done and insightful! Thank you.
This is why I homeschool. I teach my kids to read, get them off the ground and flying, then let them loose on the bookshelves with relatively low input on their choices. My only requirement is they keep a log of their reading and rate the books.
Yep, high school and college definitely killed my love for reading. I read so much as a kid, and honestly I felt like such an incompetent reader in high school/college just because I struggled to get through the books they assigned. They wouldn't hold my attention, so my mind would wander and I could "read" whole pages without really comprehending anything because I wasn't really paying attention.
The first books that finally got me back into reading were the Throne of Glass books by SJM. And of course, then I faced the snobbery of how those are "quality" books or "real" fantasy or whatever. But those were the books that reignited my love for reading! I read the first 4 books in that series in about a week, and that's an intensity and fervor I've just never had since.
Now I'm a 50+ books/year reader, and I've discovered a lot more about my own tastes as a reader. I've tried a lot of popular books and I followed the trends for a while, and some things click and some don't (sorry Wheel of Time! 7 books in and I'm a hater lol. I will probably finish the series /eventually/ but mostly out of some sort of pressure to understand the hype. But I'm certainly not prioritizing this series anymore).
As a mostly fantasy reader, I feel like I've always faced criticisms for my taste in books. As a kid, it was something I was supposed to "grow out of". And as an adult, it's apparently my childish, immature hobby. 🙄
I don't think we should ever discount the books we connect with due to any external pressure about what we should or shouldn't be reading. Some people will just never understand, and those people just not worth listening to.
I learned to love reading in grade school. The teacher would read to us for half an hour two or three times a week. When we got to visit the school library, which we had back in my day, I would look for other books by the author the teacher was reading. Love, love, loved The Boxcar Children series. I have a set of them to this day....and I am 67. I "had" to read Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm in high school. Hated both of them. I did however like George Orwell 's 1984. I have never lost my love for reading. I am reading Agatha Christie's works right now. Oh....and I own quite a large collection of cookbooks. They are very informative about more than just recipes. 😉
I LOVE THIS VIDEO!! It's almost impossible to not be influenced by something or someone else on what to choose to read. But I usually am picking based on the genre I love or just because it's a pretty cover lol. Or it's a genre I love that has a extremely high rating on Goodreads, or it's reccomended to me from booktubers I love to watch, or it is something I see on Tik Tok. But i don't use Tik Tok that much lol. But it's always because I want to read it and then I look up the rating on Goodreads to see if I want to spend the money on buying that book. But I just recently got back into reading last year, and now I understand that I didn't love reading as much as I do now because I can pick and choose what I want to spend my money on to read lol and what I think I am going to enjoy! And I literally could give zero f*cks on what people think about what I want to read, the older u get the less u care lol.
Joining goodreads definitely changed my reading behavior 😅 when I logged some books I read before that time, when I really was purely reading for fun because I suddenly had time commuting to my new work place, it felt really strange. 😂
I just found your channel! What a great surprise. You just gained a new suscriber
Ironically, I feel like this video should be mandatory for anyone still in higher education. Brilliant work, as always.
I work in the video game industry and the same is true there, perhaps to an even greater degree. The latest releases are always promoted as the "next big thing" and there can be a lot of pressure to partake in the current trend and avoid the dreaded FOMO.
Now that I'm in my thirties with a young daughter, time is a precious commodity and I will only play, read, or watch what I want. Life is far too short to worry about what others think you should be doing.
I really like the channel and I’m a devout Christian. I have a special place in my heart for the Narnia series, but I understand it’s not for everyone.
My mother taught me how to choose books, and she never censored me. I remember picking up The Graduate at age 12. She told me that she won't stop me from reading it, but that I probably won't understand it.
I should reread it now at 60, lol.
School was such a huge one for me. For some reason at my school we were expected to read things like Jane Eyre and The Count of Monte Cristo in eighth grade, and even though I was at a reading level that could handle it I was too bored to do the assigned reading. I know I'd probably enjoy Jane Eyre now, but I can't force myself to pick it up.
I also spent a long time fully bought-in to the academic snobbery. I could circumvent it for fantasy and sci-fi since I grew up in a house that valued those genres highly, but I didn't read contemporary fiction until I got curious enough to read Where the Crawdads Sing when the movie was coming out (and even then I went in expecting to think it was an awful book - turns out I loved it). I spent a very long time reading for improvement instead of enjoyment.
Who would have thought that studying literature would take all the fun out of reading - that's what happened to me. After I studied English literature, I barely read books for fun for about 10 years or so. I had to wade through so many books that I absolutely despised reading, and I think during all that time there were only about 3 books in my curriculum that I actually enjoyed. I only recently re-discovered reading, and your channel has been a tremendous help in finding the right books for me!
I had a similar experience! I studied writing and literature, and i definitely felt guilt for not reading more 'high brow' books. I tried writing 'literary' books, when what I really wanted was commercial fiction. It's very hard to distinguish your own desires from all that pressure. I'm still glad I could study what I did, but it took a while before I could love it again.
I do think this is great for someone who isn't reading. Find what you like and read what you like. I do think that it is important, if you are a reader, to stretch yourself and try out different things. Your tastes change as you grow and your taste in books will likely change as well.
In Poland where Im from it is a huge problem that in high school we have something called canon of books we’re obliged to read and its very strict. This makes most students hate books and most of the time they just look at the analysis of said books (same as the teachers) and learn to go around reading. I’d say it is a very effective way of discouraging people from reading when they are still young. And as you mentioned its the same case as in US that most of the books are old and not appealing to young audience
Thank you for making so much sense. I think we might be sharing brain waves!
when I was elementary school we had a special program. You read a book and take a test on that book. The tests were made by scholastic and they kept up with book for kids. Anything more then a few years was good to go. This meant you could read book written for kids and the teacher gets to see a test grade to prove you read it.
On a side note the importance of communication is really really important, just look at what happens to deaf kids that are denied access to sign languages.
I remember how at 15 I started to read William Shakespeare. Just out of curiosity, and also because it was shorter than a novel. I still checked phrases here and there on sparknotes. But I surprisingly enjoyed the plays. However, I doubt I would have liked it as much if I was forced to read them. Curiousity for me is the key to try new things.
Interesting video!!
There was a time when my dad was concerned that I "was replacing friendship with books" (and I guess in the 60s/70s certain groups of people earned Lord of the Rings a bad name, so that might've been his true concern). He never tried to dictate what I could read, fortunately. Honestly, he got me into fantasy movies, which eventually led to me discovering fantasy books, so it's a little ironic that he was even a little concerned about the books. (:
Now I definitely jump around and read whatever I want, and I always try to get a good idea of what I'm getting into, even to the point of finding some spoilers so that I feel confident that I've found something I'm going to enjoy. :3
I fell into that trap of reading lots and lots of self-improvement books and didn't realize after a long time that I practically read non-fiction exclusively and I was burned out(ironically). Now I'm reading only books I genuinely want to read and I've been plowing through amazing series(dark tower right now - so fun) and I've been so much happier enjoying my reading time. (Not to discredit self-help there were some genuine good books)
Wonderful! Yes self-help can be genuinely helpful, but it can also be exhausting. Great job reading dark tower! Excellent choice!
My reading pressures are all my own fault. 😅
I keep joining bookclubs, Discords and Patreons. So I end up with 3-4 books a month that have been selected, and then there's all the side chats/discussions about other books 😳.
But I like a wide array of genres and writing styles, so it generally works out and I enjoy the books.
Thank you, I appreciate this!
Loving your energy 😊
Oh man, to add onto the conversation at around the 17 minute mark, I get so confused about people that give me snobby vibes bc I read ebooks, worse I alternate between ebooks and audio books and sometimes both at once! Gasp!
I feel like telling them that I understand that the only reason they pick up a book is so that everyone else can see them holding a book,
But I'm just here for entertainment. Sometimes thought provoking and inspiring, and sometimes a novel equivalent to a cheesy popcorn scary movie. I'm just here for a good time haha.
Berserk is a romantic fantasy, and guys love it
I'm stuck under the pressure of reading in French, because I'm currently learning that language. But I want to read the rest of the Cosmere I've got left :D and that must be in its original language! Also, I want to finish WoT!
Just discovered your channel and I LOVE IT. Do you have any other social media or do you mostly post here? Ty for your wonderful content!! ❤
Thank you! Unfortunately I only have my patreon. I'm terrible at social media, as you can see from how I took 13 days to reply to this. 😁 But it's something I'm thinking about.
@@cronkthebookguy if you ever make social media profiles, even if you just post snippets of your vids, I'd love to follow you! So I hope you can be persuaded >:)
I’ve felt a lot of the pressure you describe in this video. I remember when I was a kid, I loved Eragon. When I first read it, I thought Eragon was the dragon and Saphira was a human. My imagination ran wild. One day, I went on the internet to see what other people thought about it and to my shock, people HATED it. They described my favorite book as trash, as a Tolkien wannabe, and that the writing was awful. I didn’t understand, because I loved both Eragon and The Hobbit. The books in my bookshelf as a kid were mostly hand-me-downs from my older brother. What did these comments say about him? I stopped looking at online book reviews, but I can still feel that shock to this day.
I recently re-read the series all the way through Murtaugh. I shrugged off the stigma of reading YA. I shrugged off all the comments I’ve read about Paolini’s writing style. I read them because I wanted to. Sure, as I read through them I could see how some criticisms were valid. But it didn’t matter, because there’s a part of me that identifies with Eragon’s character.
The most recent example of reading pressure I can think of is Brandon Sanderson and the Stormlight Archive. I was surprised by how many people do not like Oathbringer or Rhythm of War. When some people talk about what they don’t like about these two books, they write whole dissertations about how it didn’t meet their expectations and why they didn’t like it. I can accept these comments for what they are now: opinions! Each book I read takes me a on a journey, and I think it’s amazing how two people can read the same book and leave with completely different feelings about it.
I’ve rambled on and on! This video has me thinking quite a lot. We live in a society…
lol we live in a society! Amazing reference
It's funny, I've just finished re-reading the Inheritance Cycle for the first time as an adult. The amount of unjust hate that series got was insane! I had a similar experience with the Star Wars prequels. I still remember the very review that made me realise other people hated them. It's shocking as a kid to see such intense hatred for something you like.
You're absolutely right. At the end of the day, people will have their opinions on books. Its best not to let them affect your own enjoyment.
Hello Book Guy! Thank you for the message in your video today. It really struck a chord with me. I picked up Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb to start the Realm of the Elderings series. Ive heard so many good things about the series and was influenced to try it. Im on the struggle buss, though. Half-way through book 1 and I'm bored. Ill stick it out for the 1st trilogy in hopes that it captures my attention eventually. Otherwise, I'll DNF the series. And thars okay 😊. Read what you like, right?
Hello friend! I'm thrilled that you're reading Assassin's Apprentice. Yes it's definitely a slower book. Robin Hobb writes a lot of deep characters first and foremost, before she adds in plot and worldbuilding.
If you DNF that book, you could try the Liveship Traders. It's a trilogy set in the same world, but I feel like it's much better. She had more practice writing at this point.
In my Freshman Year of High School I had to read Shakespeare and it killed my love of reading. I hated Romeo and Juliet so much I didn't touch another book for almost 5 years. Comparing that to 7th grade where I read both the Hunger Games and Maze Runner trilogies in the same month, it was bad...
I get it! I personally love Shakespeare, but it really should not be mandatory for kids. I would love to see Hunger Games is schools instead...but that's possibly a controversial choice.
I am an adult but I read lots of middle grade and YA books as well as adult ones. Albert Einstein said that if you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. Books are for everyone.
I don’t have trouble choosing what I want to read but getting my hands on the books I want is a problem. A distressingly large number of authors have gone out of print and (the ones I’ve been seeking recently) are not plentiful in the market. On top of that when I do find them, they’re being price gouged.
Last year there was a three volume set of short stories by Robert Bloch I wanted. But very few listings and most listings wanted $300 per volume… these are paperbacks from the 80s. I did eventually acquire them for much more reasonable prices because I’m patient and diligent in my quest.
Note: I wasn’t being picky about the set. I wanted the collected short stories of that author and this was the only complete collection I could find
I thought this video was going to be about mood-reading-associated decision paralysis, which is what makes it hard for me to read what I want 😂
Are you not going to make a video on The Lightbringer Series? and good luck for your future book series
HA! You're asking that question and your name is Andross Guile. That's amazing! 🤣🤣🤣
Sadly I've dropped Lightbringer from my schedule for now. 😫 But I'll include it somewhere ASAP. Long story short, I've thrown my entire six month plan out the window so I can get my books written. Once they're written, I'll revisit the schedule. I think that'll be in May. Fingers crossed!
@@cronkthebookguy what on Orlahams itchy nutsack😢😭, but remember where you have to start from once the schedule is back 👍👍
Made me laugh at the soldier self help books. The soldier thing might be an American thing since it's definitely a more warrior culture than others.
I live near a US base. Everyone I know who has been in combat has lost at least one brother in arms due to suicide. Our politicians on both sides of the aisle use the military for their personal and financial gain. Their actions are inexcusable and their wars are illegal according to the Constitution.
0:28 - I dunno, I've pretty much always only read what I've wanted to, from the first moment I was able to pick out and read books all for my own self and had stopped only having the books that people older than me would bring into the house available to me. Lol
Even if I choose to read a popular book or a book recommended by a fan or such, I still don't do so only because it's popular nor only because a fan of it recommended it. I do so IF it's popular and/or a fan of it recommended it and I am genuinely interested in checking it out for my own self.
But....I s'pose I have also kinda always been an unusually independent personality type, myself. So ...I would really never say that I am or should be the standard "rule" for anything for anyone else, I guess.😂😂
My mother always taught me that if you want to be able to lead well you must first learn to follow and sympathize/empathize with those you are leading-and even though I've never truly had any genuine interest in actually leading anyone or anything other than my own self, I always understood that this was her way of teaching her kids the value of respecting her and other people's / other place's rules and teaching us to be patient because one day we were going to legally independent adults in control of our own lives and able to determine our own rules for ourselves, one step at a time.
The first thing we were allowed to exercise independence over was our hair, because it was our hair and no one else had to wear it but us. (And even that was a concession that I had personally kind of fought for, and later defended be upheld for my brothers too when they wanted to keep their hair longer but our maternal grandfather nearly bullied my mother into making them cut it when they really didn't want to.) The next thing we were able to exercise independence over was what we read, because once we were old enough to read it for ourselves it only affected us, other people around us weren't forced to also interact with it too unless they wanted to. And after personal Walkmans and personal CD players became a thing[ and digital music on computers / over the internet that could also be plugged into with headphones], then we finally also got to exercise control over the music we listened to, so long as we didn't blast it so loud that everyone could hear it anyway even despite the headphones and we were probably going to hurt our ears. Lol
So, like, for me the entire point of reading was always for the express purpose of reading what I wanted to-like vampire and/or werewolf fiction that my mother would never have read to us herself(and as a specific act of defiance because my mother had told me "No" once when I randomly picked up an old Dracula film from a movie bin having no idea then what Dracula or vampires were just because I thought the cover looked cool-I might not be allowed to watch that Dracula movie because my mother didn't like or approve of it and/or didn't believe it was appropriate for my younger siblings to be exposed to, but I could read whatever I wanted; although it still took me a surprisingly long time to ever actually read Dracula in its entirety for myself rather than merely reading ABOUT Dracula and Dracula's historical influences and cultural impact on things later influenced by it and so on). ((Reading, for me, has always been a form of self-expression much like hair/makeup/clothes/etcetera is fot so many other persons.)) 😊🤭🤭🤭💖💖
2:50 - Similarly, I also don't find something boring just because it is maybe something that takes actual work or more time and effort and not necessarily just all fun n games to really accomplish. (Although that isn't to say that I never need any breaks from this kind of thing either, of course I still do!) And I wasn't required to read the same kinds of books in school as other people were because I was homeschooled, so many of the books that other kids were forced to read and hated in school actually WERE the exact types of books that I would have chosen to read for myself if I had been able to but either didn't know of or had forgotten about by the time I was finally actually choosing my own reads for myself.
8:58 - YES! I was fortunate to have grown up with a dad and uncle who exposed me to a lot of "boys" stuff, even though I was myself a girl, (like working outdoors and action/espionage/political-intrigue type movies and sci-fi/fantasy) because that stuff appealed to my tastes personally way more than most of the stuff my mother and sisters were exposing me to(which was largely dolls and dress-up and romance and contemporary or historical type fiction)....although that isn't to say that I hated everything I got introduced to by the gals in my life(especially as I got older and the things I appreciated in the world expanded or grew in complexity somewhat). But I absolutely can not imagine how much less fun and interesting my life and growing up would have been for me if that had never happened, or how much less pulled into my love for reading I would have been and likely would still be.
9:29 - True. But, also, untrue. Lol (I have never seemed to have any trouble intimidating boys if I really wanted/needed to. But the discrimination or mockery still makes an impact on people, either way, and should be eradicated from the world.)
9:50 - _COMPLETELY_ AGREED! 💖💖🙂
11:41 - *EXACTLY!!* 😂😊 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
12:34 - Yep, yep, yep!!!🤭😏😁
13:07 - This was always my big gripe with my mother and her gift giving when I was younger. She had a huge problem with gifting people things based on what HER tastes were, even sometimes her tastes and the other person's were completely unaligned, so even when she meant well it oftentimes did not feel to the receiver of those gifts as if she did. She has, fortunately, gotten a little bit better about that these days though. 🙂
And your grasp on this type of concept, yourself, is what I have personally always gravitated toward and most enioyed about TheBookGuy channel! 💖💖
13:18 - RIGHT ON!!!!! Say it again! Say it louder! 💖
13:49‐14:18 - Yup, yup; for surely.
14:28 - I really appreciate that you recognize that religious disapproval can take many many differing forms.
14:57 - My mother disapproved of Disney princess movies, because magic is real and should be taken much more seriously rather than being treated so so very lightly and frivolously, in her opinion.😅😅😅 🙃🙃 👀
16:26 - The first thing I started writing was about cats, and that was actually back before the Warriors / Warrior Cats books became a thing. Lol ....I hope the reason you won't share them isn't just because they are allegories but more just because they weren't the kinds of stories you actually wanted to write, and I'm really sorry that happened to you. I am glad you seem to have been able to grow beyond that so very well, now, the way you always should have been allowed to! 😊 💖💖
16:35 - That is so completely wild to me. But...I can definitely see where something like that might easily have come from religion. I mean, for my mother, even something being by Christians for Christians or being Christian allegorical wasn't satisfactory enough to gain her approval, she had to approve that something was Christian enough and in what she deemed the correct/proper/appropriate way(s) or whatsuch, too. 👀 🙃🙃 >__<
16:56-17:08 - I appreciate you so much for making this point so tactfully and sensitively, this is unfortunately a nuance and respectfulness I fear many actually lack. Nothing should ever be all about trying to force conformity to all the same beliefs or tastes on everybody just completely indiscriminately. 🙂 💖
17:28 - TRUE. + V. RELATABLE.!
17:51-17:59 - 🤣🤣🤣😭😅😂🙂🙂 (Also truuee!.😆😹😹) Lolll
18:17 - I think the issue, these days, is less about looking un-smart so much as it is about look poorly-educated and generally more uninformed about the greater goings on the world and life or being perceived as less glamorous or less elevated or less-respected/less-respectable or such somehow. (If that makes any sense.😅😅) 🤔🤷🤷🏻♂️🤷♀️
18:31 - YAASSS!!!!😊💖💖💖👏🏻👏🏻
19:31 - Totally fair point. Balance is generally good, balance is generally key, in my own opinion. 😂😂😏🤭😊💖😁🤣
19:42-20:40-21:17 - YES ^--^ 💖
Thank you for such a great, needed and kind video!!! I really hope it help uplift or educate any who truly need it or who may for any reason have still been in dark before seeing this.💖💖😊
(Wow, that was a lot of rambling - Sorry!🙏 😂)
The biggest thing I've seen driving "reading pressure" is what will help people grow their social media presence... There's a bit of an echo chamber online around the big authors (Sanderson, SJM, etc), and if you never talk about them, you're unlikely to grow your channel or instagram or what not. I think there's some merit in trying them and giving your honest opinion so you can cement your reading taste and allow a community to help find other books in alignment with it. And, sometimes an initial bump in views/likes while talking about popular books is all you need, and then you can continue on with lesser known books once you have a following! But i definitely see some content creators stuck in a cycle of speaking about the same series over and over again, and while we can all blame the algorithm, it's driven by what gets people to click, and fanservice is an easy way to engagement. I really don't blame creators for using whatever means they can to grow an audience, just as long as it's not a detriment to their own enjoyment!!
I also have to send a BIG hug over the religious discussion... My father is a minister, but he's just as big a nerd as I am. His books were stacked with Anne McCaffery and Asimov when I was a kid, and he owns a nicer set of Harry Potter than I do. I wish everyone had that experience, but so many people use religion as a means of control and limitation and it's heartbreaking. I'm glad you bucked against it and followed your passions!!
Such a thoughtful comment!
Yes as a youtuber it's challenging to try to grow an online presence without resorting to click-bait topics. I've tried to avoid it where possible and hope that people will appreciate the integrity instead. I just find it frustrating that everyone focuses on their own opinion of the book, like they're the one true source of enlightenment! 😁
But that affect on readers can resort in a ton of pressure. Not everyone has to worry about views and subscriber rates!
Also thank you, my friend. I return that hug! ❤
Just, thank you !
No one listens to scientists anymore? What? I'm massively into physics, using the phrase no one, it's quite a stretch.
Awesome video! 🙏
I grew up in a very religious family. I wasn’t allowed to read Harry Potter either !! I think it might do the opposite….i read a lot of smut….and alot of fantasy novels!
I gotta disagree about the stories having a lesson in them. I really enjoy books that have deeper meanings and lessons in them and frankly theyre a lot more aproachable than non fiction for me with the exception of science subjects, but anything else that I wish to learn, I find it much easier to read in a fictional book than non fiction.
Totally disagree that fiction shouldn’t be used to make a point about an issue. To me that’s the whole purpose of fiction. It can make points in ways that non- fiction simply can’t.
What do you think about book apps ? Such as Goodreads ?
i'm actually the opposite where the more a book is talked about the less i want to read it. No rhyme or reason for it.
That's interesting. Have you ever heard of 'demand avoidance'? It's a neurodivergent trait of deliberately opposing a demand because you can't stand to be told what to do.
i have not heard of this, but it's pretty spot on LOL@@cronkthebookguy
Please please please read and do Kings of the Wyld!
That book is on my shelf, waiting for me to read it! It'll happen.
@@cronkthebookguy yaaaaaas. It is so cleverly written and one of the only books to ever have me actually laughing out loud
The only reading pressure I'm feeling these days is coming from the immense amount of books already written or being currently published that I would all love to read or at least give them a try. This is also where that last (awesome)advice of yours kinda fails, because even if I was the last person on Earth, I'd still have to chose between a myriad of books that I all want to read. And that's only Sci-Fi fantasy. I mean I haven't even started reading well-known authors like Abercrombie or Gwynn, because I still have to play catchup with the likes of Sanderson. And you book tube people with all you're talking about indie authors aren't very helpful with that (kiddin' of course, I love getting introduced to new stuff even if I'll probably never get to read them).
So weird your parents told you to only read non fiction. I mean there Are a huge variert of non fiction out there, ladt year a book about DnD came out. I read a book earlier this year about the history of the tomatoes. Are they better than PJO?geek girl?soulless?
What is this book you speak of that has both dragons and space ships?
Haha um....I may have unintentionally referenced an idea I have for a book that I want to write one day...
Warhammer 40K
Might be an outlier here but I hard disagree on your stance on school reading. School reading isn't supposed to be fun, it is supposed to be educational (because that's why you're going to school in the first place). And the hard truth is, that if the only things you read is the stuff you get "forced" to in school, that's a failure of your parents more than that of the school you're going to. Because home, that's the place that decides where you'll initially land on the scale of literacy.
Now I am aware that I'm an old guy (counted in youtube years), so I come from a completely different universe, but the actual issue is that the gap between what you're learning at home and what school can expect you to already know has became huge in recent decades. I learned reading and writing before I even went to school, I grew up on the bedtime stories read by my mother (mostly Grimm Fairy Tales) that a lot of well-meaning people these days think would turn you into a psychopath if you get early access to them. I read Michael Ende's Momo and the Neverending Story, Narnia, Astrid Lindgren, Jules Verne, Twain, Robertson and basically all the European sagas and myths and a whole lot of other stuff that falls into the Realms of actual literature at home, before I even entered secondary school (Tolkien came shortly after that). So when we started reading actual books in secondary school (and as an aside, we started with Schiller's Tell, basically the German Shakespeare), I was already well prepared to do that. Add a good teacher to the mix and I actually enjoyed the heck out of that drama. Was it work? Yes. Was it fun? Definitively. Was I the only one having it? Absolutely not.
Before this one, I watched the video about the reasons why adults don't read, and I wholeheartedly agree that you have to work up your grade of literacy, so starting with literary non-fiction when you didn't read anything else will of course go over the head of most kids these days. But that's not the failure of the school system, that's the failure of those people who should do the actual parenting.
This is a great vid. will You make a video on Michelle West and her epic fantasy series.
People who think fiction doesn't contain profound lessons, or that it isn't an interface for expressing ideas, have clearly never heard of The Bible!