it's just funny to me that a couple people got very sensitive over the mention of people enjoying the book the hunger games. as if it makes any impact on your life what so ever lol
I mean the people primarily engaged in the discussion are authors and teachers. The rapid drop in the literacy of the world does affect them. Why dismiss that actual discussion with the trite “let people enjoy things” bullshit?
Voting the Hunger Games the best book of all time is not going to kill me. I am not going to starve because of it, and no one else said that they would. We can still call that dumb as hell lol. If anything, why are people jumping in here to defend such a silly choice when that wasn’t even what Grimace was saying to start this conversation
I like the Hunger Games. The worst thing I’ve said about it is that it is objectively, inarguably dumb as shit to call it the best book ever written. Your argument is in bad faith
As I’ve gotten into my 30’s I’ve realized most people in my life don’t read and haven’t read a book in a decade. Makes me sad! So I just won’t scoff at anyone who wants to read, even if what they’re reading is what a 37 year old “teacher” thinks isn’t good. Especially as it all derived from a social media app who’s main demographic is younger women, voting a YA novel predominantly read by younger women, was voted as their top book. I just don’t find that surprising that people aren’t flocking to goodreads to say they loved A Tale of Two Cities in their spare time
I don’t think so? An app used by a specific demographic voted a book read mostly by that demographic???? If that’s your gotcha reaction dear lord you suck haha
Yeah, I’m glad I mostly stayed out of this. It was bound to hurt feelings. I can say I take this stuff personally because I write to cope with my own life. It’s painful and challenging to pull the right words out from the deepest part of me—but it’s the only thing that feels right. I don’t know why anyone who feels this way would write something shallow, or want to read something shallow. I’m writing trying to understand what makes me human, why I’m alive. And it hurts. And it’s hard. And it’s thankless because there are those who call it purple, and they’ll pick up the latest viral beach read and praise it as a masterpiece.
just a vote by goodreads users. I wonder if goodreads used “favorite” instead of “best” this discussion would have even happened
There was none, so far as I could tell lol. I think it’s just an aggregate of average ratings/number of logs?
I think a large portion of you are missing the point that @OotyPa was initially trying to make, which is why you’re coming out of the woodwork to defend The Hunger Games.
Sorry I gotcha, that definitely wasn’t my intention with that comment. I was just trying to get to my point that goodreads, in my experience, is a social media app typically targeted for what’s new and popular and most people I follow/know are not reading literary “classics” and discussing those on that app and getting those to trend. Maybe they are and it’s not my circle???
Also I’m not shaming anyone for liking what they like. It’s whatever. I was just expressing how it made me feel as an author. Not trying to be elitist like people are calling me and other folks here in the NFL thread.
Of course there are a ton of people reading and rating literary classics on the most popular book app. The “tiktok-ification” of literature is what you and @OotyPa are both referring to, I think.
This idea that Goodreads is a little niche site doesn't hold up to the numbers. It has six times as many users as Letterboxd, which seems to have taken over film culture.
Ahhh that’s where all the bad faith nonsense is coming from. It makes more sense now. anyway yeah, it isn’t about taste. My point is more that after a certain point/age, reading anything for the sake of reading is not inherently beneficial outside of keeping you from doing something worse.