An Open Letter: Let’s Stop The Hate

Book bloggers we should all be able to read what we like and enjoy without the fear of discrimination and hate, please let’s all stop the hate.

There are so many books out there for us all regardless of genre, something for everyone and a cornucopia of excellent books just waiting to be enjoyed. Obviously, readers of my blog know that I tease and make jokes about Y-A and ‘those‘ types of books (romance) but that’s all it is, banter and a laugh. I wouldn’t ever tell anyone what they should be reading and legitimately hate on them for it.

Y-A fans hate on each other, some of the things I’ve read are vicious just because some like different fandoms and others like a book that others hate or they hate the latest hyped book that everyone else loves. Chillax kids and just enjoy reading. We can all like different things and get along, you don’t need to hate on a fellow Y-A reader just because they don’t like exactly the same as you!

I’ve seen people being hated on for reading Y-A because of their age. I guess if you are being technical then yeah, I guess the genre is called ‘young adult‘ and that implies a certain age range but really, who gives a shit about technicalities and if a 40-year-old loves reading the Y-A genre then so be it, let them read it and don’t hate on them. The age of the reader is irrelevant, the fact that they love reading is what’s important and relevant!

Some genres and readers of those genres seem to garner hate simply because they are deemed to not be ‘proper‘ literature. Fantasy is often maligned as being of less importance and not a real genre to read merely because it’s fantastical and make-believe and that adult fantasy readers should be reading something more serious and realistic! Sigh! Fantasy is my favourite genre and to all those who say shit about it and that as an adult I shouldn’t be reading it, well, I’ll buy you a bag of nuts so you have some nuts to choke on like I choked on your irrelevant opinion and then……..if you’re not down with that I got 2 words for ya!

There have been recent cases of certain words causing hate. Yes, words can be weapons and they can hurt but there’s a difference between words hurting and you taking offence to a single word being used. Words form sentences and sentences like ‘I’m sorry, you have cancer‘ or ‘you need to have her put to sleep‘ or ‘I want to end it all‘ are powerful sentences made by the use of words and hold meaning, hurt and can be life changing. The use of single words in a book like ‘swarthy‘ and ‘cripple‘ don’t hurt and aren’t harmful to you. Yes, you might take offence to them being used and that’s fine but tell us simply that you don’t like the usage of the word and it offended ‘you‘ don’t proclaim the author evil incarnate just for using them and then launch a vitriolic hate filled tirade about the whole book and the author deriding the book as awful and the author as vile telling everyone not to read it simply due to your own delicate sensibilities being offended.

It’s the society that we live in, there is always going to be something that offends someone somewhere in the world, deal with it. It’s tiresome seeing all these people with opinions who give themselves labels often merely to justify what they are preaching (you are the ones who make a big deal out of your own label and tell us all that you are different, if you want to be treated the same, stop telling everyone you are different to them, simple). It’s all well and good having an opinion, everyone does and everyone is entitled to their own, it’s called freedom of speech. However, when someone disagrees with your opinion it seems that instead of having a constructive discussion/dialogue about it and seeing things from the other person’s perspective, trying to come to some accord and middle ground or even having an argument you instead hide behind the label that you have given yourself and play the victim card for the sympathy vote. You can’t use a label as a way to give and voice your hate, it’s an excuse! If you want to hate, then hate, don’t hate and then play the victim card to try and justify your words making out that you are the innocent party.

There’s bound to be someone who takes offence to this part of the post and that is fine, I respect that, it’s your choice and decision. Please then respect my point of view as it’s just as valid as yours. I also have no label to hide behind and I wouldn’t play the victim card anyway even if I did. And maybe just maybe the only labels that we need are ‘readers’ and ‘book lovers’ probably also ‘book bloggers‘ too as most who read this will be that most awesome of people, book bloggers! 🙂 Though of course authors are awesome too, no hate here just my own views. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you everyone is awesome as the world is full of cunts but our book blogging community is great but there shouldn’t be hatred over the books and genres that we read.

Readers of diverse books hate on those who don’t read diverse books or diversely. You say anything remotely negative or against the movement and you are subject to hate from a number of people. Yes, they are standing up for what they believe in, that’s fine but don’t hate on others for their opinion and classify them as ‘bad‘ just because they have a different opinion to you. See, there’s that word again, hate, hate, hate!

I’ll point this out, the definition of diverse is: ‘showing a great deal of variety; very different‘.

Many readers do read diverse as they read outside of their own favoured genre. I’m a fantasy fan, it’s predominantly what I spend most of my time reading and whenever I read another genre that to me is me reading diversely and trying something different. I’m sure there will be those diverse fans amongst you who will chime off and state that that isn’t actually reading diversely and it’s simply reading another genre as you class ‘diversely‘ as purely diverse books. But you would be wrong as that isn’t the only definition of diverse which was why I included the definition of the word, firstly to validate my point and secondly, so you didn’t have to go and check. Yes, I’m that nice, thank you, Drew!

It often feels like you are vilifying authors for their lack of diverse characters, that’s a fair point I’ll give you that and yes, of course, there needs to be and there should be more diverse characters in literature and diverse books too, the world always needs more books just imagine the horror if tomorrow there was no more books! But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it and at times it comes across as outright and abject pure rabid hatred towards the authors and readers who don’t write and read diverse, that’s just uncool and isn’t acceptable behaviour.

I choose to read what I want as should everyone else, there’s no reason for me to be hated because I don’t read diverse books, it doesn’t mean that I have any issue with them or the ‘read diverse books‘ movement’ as I don’t! Just that I don’t really want to read them and that is fine, don’t make out it isn’t or that people like me have some hidden hatred, prejudice or agenda, we don’t, you hate on us for not reading diverse, we don’t hate on you! We simply choose to spend our precious time reading what we want just like you do too.

For me, personally and I guarantee that I’m not alone in this but I don’t even have enough time to read every book/series/author that I want in my preferred and favourite genre (fantasy) without branching out and trying different genres and something new. We respect the diverse movement but we don’t need to be part of it.

I will add, as, after all, I like to be controversial! That while yes, if you read diverse books then you are reading diversely but you pull others up for not branching out from their own preferred genre. So, if all you read is diverse books are you actually reading diversely or just reading the one group of books?!? And before anyone chimes up and says that diverse books incorporate a range of genres, my own favourite genre fantasy, for example, contains a variety of subgenres. So, if I read a grimdark book followed by a traditional epic followed by a dark fantasy would that under your own label of the word not be reading diversely or at least similar to your own definition as each is from a different sub genre with different attributes?!

The hate readers receive for not reading diverse is wrong and it doesn’t make us bad people it just means we read what we want. Maybe we are stuck in our ways and don’t try different genres but that’s not an affront to nature or a hanging offence yet we get crucified like we are Hitler, Bin Laden or Trump while you hide behind your ‘diversity‘ label as an excuse to preach your hate to those who don’t read diverse books. It isn’t wrong to just read what we enjoy and want!

Let’s not forget the hate book bloggers also receive at times, we shouldn’t be hating on each other or our favoured genres when there are idiots who hate on all book bloggers! It wasn’t that long ago (a few months) when lots of people were stating that book bloggers aren’t real readers! That is hate against all of us! Granted it’s hate from other readers so at least these people read! But other than that, really, their opinion is obviously irrelevant as they have an inflated sense of self-importance to deem themselves ‘real’ readers and us less! That is hate and there is no place for that amongst readers!

At the end of the day with whatever genre we read, a book is meant to be enjoyed and that’s what we should all do. Just enjoy reading what we read.

Of course, I’m still going to extoll the virtues of fantasy as the best genre, after all, it’s my favourite just like I fully expect you all to shout about the genre/genres that you love, it’s what we do. But there’s enough hate geared towards reading as it is with the Internet, online streaming and instant access to thousands of TV shows, games and films all at the click of a button without readers hating on other readers.

Recent events have once again shown that there is enough hatred in the world already without readers hating on their fellow readers over something as trivial as the genre they prefer. We should stand together against those that hate what we love and not each other.

So please, let go of the genre hate and allow us to read what we want without fear of prejudice, attack and reprisal and let’s all just be book lovers, book bloggers and readers together!

While I’m on the subject of hate, I’ll add this, a review of a book is simply our own personal view, we are all allowed them and we can word them however we want but they aren’t the gospel. While I’m sure that there are those of you who think yourselves entitled and place your arse on a pedestal, wear a crown and think yourself better than others due to the genre you read and how you run your blog and write your reviews, I’m sorry to disappoint you, you’re not any better! We are all the same.

And finally, to all the self-entitled book bloggers out there, please get over yourselves and step down from your high horse! We are all the same! You may have more followers, more comments and have been blogging longer but that doesn’t mean you are any better, only that you are more experienced. We all blog because of our genuine love of books, no hate or jealousy needed, we are all equal.

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