Is it possible for a book to be objectively good (or bad)?

 Anyone who spends a lot of time reading book review blogs and goodreads (and you probably are one of those people if you’re reading this) has probably noticed that two people can have wildly different opinions about the same book. I have often seen goodreads pages for books where one reviewer will be flailing wildly with happiness about how great the book is while the next with be ranting angrily about how much they hated it. Of course there are some  books that a majority of people share feelings about-Harry potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has almost entirely 4 and 5 star ratings and at least some of the few low ratings it has are joke reviews (there is one review from Voldemort complaining that the book is a disgrace to all pure bloods)- but a majority of books have very varied reviews. 

So the question is, what do these varied reviews say about the quality of a book? Are some people right in their opinions while others are wrong? Or does it just depend on what people are looking to get out of a book, or their subjective taste in books?

Personally, I think that there are no “right” or “wrong” opinions of books of books but that there are objective observations you can make about them. For example a lot of dystopian books that have been written in the last few years are not very original. This is a fact-if you’ve read a lot of YA dystopian fiction, you will see that a lot of them follow a very similar structure. However some people are more bothered by a lack of originality than others. This means that some people will automatically think a book is bad because of its lack of originality while others might have other criteria that they care more about and therefore like the book anyway. So opinions are subjective and people are allowed to feel how they do about a book. No one’s right or wrong, it’s just a variation in expectations. 

Do you agree with me? Or do you think it’s possible to rate a book completely objectively? 

Also, if you have any blogging critiques for me (does my writing style sound preachy? Do you like my choice of topics?) feel free to let me know in the comments. I’m very new to this and I want to improve!

Why do so many YA books have misfit main characters?

A complaint I have seen in goodreads reviews a few times is about the over use of misfit/odd/quirky protagonists in YA contemporaries. I too have noticed this trend. Some examples are both Elinor and Park from Elinor and Park, Blue from the Raven Cycle (not exactly a contemporary but still), Theodore Finch from All the Bright Places, Hazel and Augustus from The Fault in Our Stars and the list goes on. So the question is, why is this such a common theme?

Personally, I think it is because a majority of both readers and authors tend to be a bit quirky themselves. I absolutely fall into this category and most of the other bookworms I know (both in real life and the blog world) do as well. In a world where most people would rather watch TV or play video games, this is hardly surprising. Because of this, both writers and readers (groups with a lot of overlap obviously) can relate to quirky, misfit characters. When writers write them, they are, to some degree, likely writing reflections of themselves and when readers read them, they may see reflections of themselves.

That is how I feel anyway. I love reading about quirky, wierd characters and would probably have a lot more trouble relating to a “normal character”. But, I can understand where people are coming from when they say they’re too common.

Do you agree with my reasoning about why quirky characters are so common? Do you like reading about such characters or do you think they are overused?

My Future Blogging Plans

So, I haven’t posted since May. I was planning on giving up on blogging entirely because I didn’t really have any ideas or motivation to write. However, lately I have been having all sorts of blog post ideas floating around in my head and now I want to write them! So, I am going back to blogging and hope to post with some semblance of regularity.

I plan on primarily doing two different types of post on this blog: discussions of topics that are explored in the book I’m currently reading and discussions of more general book related topics, often inspired by trends I have noticed in the book blogosphere, or perhaps trends I’ve noticed a lack of. 

I am most excited about that first type of blog post. There are so many blogs that primarily review books and while I think that reviews can be useful and also a good way for the review’s author to tell us how much they love/hate the book, there are so many reviews out there and I want to do something different! So, basically, my thought is that all books, even seemingly fluffy YA ones, have various topics they deal with. Often these topics can easily be related to real life. Therefore, I want to use topics I find in the books I read to talk about issues and ideas that effect us in real life. I may also discuss the book I get the topic from a little bit, but that will not be the focus. If I write a review of a book, it will be on Goodreads. You can find my account here.

Would Being Able to Read People’s Minds Be a Good Thing?

I have long wanted to know what others are thinking. Whenever I am asked what super power I would want, I say that I want the power to read minds. However other people seem to think the idea of being able to read others minds is creepy, that they wouldn’t want to know what others are thinking or that they wouldn’t want you to read their minds because they think about bad things or things that might offend you. Hearing this just increases my desire to read other people’s minds. I want to know what others are really think of me. People tend to be really nice to me but for all I know, that is just because they think I can’t handle hearing the truth because I am too cute, little and innocent, and in reality they think I am stupid or annoying or something. I know that this sounds like a selfish reason, and it probably is, but I do think that if we were all were able to read each other’s mind it would be helpful for communication because we could send each other pictures and memories without having to describe them orally. Also I sometimes find that ideas form clearly in my mind but then, when I try to express those thoughts orally, they come out messily, or not sounding the way I meant them too. Therefore, if people could just look into my mind, it would make expressing myself much easier.

The reason I am thinking so much about the idea of being able to read other’s minds right now is because I am in the midst of reading The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. In it, aliens called Spackle have released a germ that projects all of the thoughts of men out loud so that everyone knows what everyone else is thinking. In the book, this is called Noise. In reading this, I am seeing that there really are pros and cons to knowing what others’ are thinking. The main pro is that you don’t have to rely on facial expressions to know how people are feeling, and if you want to recount a memory you don’t have to worry about how you will go about explaining it, instead you can just open up your noise and let the memory out. The primary con is that you have no privacy whatsoever. Sometimes, you just want to be able to think mean things about people without them knowing and with noise you can’t do that, people will know and it can sever friendships or at least damage them (this is seen with Viola and Todd in the book).

So, I guess there really isn’t that much point in weighing the pros and cons of a power you will never have, but I still think it is a fun and interesting thing to ponder. Based on what I have seen in The Knife of Never Letting Go, I would say that I would like the power of being able to read minds and having others able to read mine, but in an ideal world, the way I’d want it to work is that firstly, it would be a silent process unlike Noise in the book, and secondly people would only be able to read your mind if you gave them permission which could be for one specific thing at a time, for example if you wanted to show them a memory or something.

How do you feel about mind reading? If you could read peoples minds or have others read yours would you? Would you prefer a permission only format or do you think that peoples minds should just be open books?

 

 

 

First blog post

Welcome to my blog! My name is Karen and I am 18 years old. I like to read, climb trees, go on random adventures with friends, spend time outdoors, do karate and play my violin (sometimes, other times I have to force myself). I also like to think, letting my mind wander and seeing what it comes up with.

Lately I have been reading a lot of book blogs and spending possibly too much time on goodreads. I have also found myself having an increasing interest in writing even though I haven’t really done that much of it. I just have this idea that I’ll be good at it. Therefore, my plans for this blog include writing about books and/or book related themes and also writing some of my own stories. I also intend to include some random musings about life.