Radical Reads & Social Justice
For our December meeting, my book club had the theme 'Best of 2020' and voted on an award-winning book to read. We ended up choosing Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams which won the British Book Award - I loved it and you can read my review here! However, the time I spent trawling through different book award shortlists to put our poll together got me thinking - do book awards really matter?
I actually can't remember the last time I DNFed a book. In fairness, a lot of the books I read are for my degree modules so kind of require me to power through, but even when reading for pleasure I tend to cling on until the bitter end.
Over the years since I started blogging, I have noticed that so many other book bloggers aren't afraid to call it a day if they're not hooked after x number of chapters. This has got me thinking - could becoming a more ruthless DNFer improve my reading life?
Listening to audiobooks has revolutionised my reading life. However, they are not without their limitations, and I have seen them criticised on some platforms as not "really" reading.
This has got me thinking about today’s debate topic – can audiobooks ever replace print?
With the winner of the YA Book Prize due to be announced at the end of May, I thought it would be a good time to bring back this topical debate post. Can we grow out of YA books ... even award-winning ones?
It's that time of year when everybody is starting to plan out what their reading life will look like in 2019! With so many challenges and checklists, there are plenty of resolutions to choose from.
Personally, I have not set myself any reading goals this year. As an English Literature student, my compulsory reading is enough without setting myself any more deadlines! However, if you are reading purely for pleasure, can setting goals help to enhance this or turn reading into a competitive activity that puts you under pressure?
Sometimes the characters in a book are so relatable, interesting or just plain loveable that they make it a joy to read. A few that come to mind for me are The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Room by Emma Donoghue, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. However, what happens when the characters in a book are not relatable or even completely dislikeable? Is that a barrier to our enjoyment of the story?
As a teenager reading was perhaps an even bigger part of my life than it is now. Without the inconvenient responsibility of study, jobs and exams, I devoured books like they were going out of fashion, and was practically an expected presence in the YA section of the local library. However, as I progress into my twenties, I feel myself turning away from the books that inspired me in those years. I am somehow self-conscious about being seen reading YA books on the bus, I skip past YA reviews, and I avoid recommending them at my book club for fear of not being taken seriously.
This has got me thinking about today’s debate topic – are you really ever too old for YA?
Forget the origins of the universe, animal testing, voting age and the correct pronunciation of ‘scone’ – the debate occupying pretty much everyone in the literary community at the moment is the rising popularity of eBooks. Are they a wonderfully convenient new piece of technology, or leading to the demise of literature as we know it?
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