Thursday Thoughts: Book to Movie Agitation

Happy Friday Eve! Also, Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve (my counting might be a little off.) I hope you’re having a fantastic and stress free week.
So, if you couldn’t guess from the title, today I’m going to be sharing my opinions on book-to-movie adaptations. And, if you couldn’t guess from the title, these aren’t going to be very positive thoughts.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t completely hate book-to-movie adaptations. Some movies were really well done and I understand that the movies aren’t going to be a perfect replica of the books. Movies also can help introduce more people to these books that might help get them into reading. But it’s been a really long week and I’m in the mood to complain, so let’s get right into it! Here is everything I hate about book-to-movie adaptations.
(WAIT – SIDE NOTE: All of these things could easily apply to book-to-television adaptations, but I haven’t really gotten into watching any of those so for sake of simplicity and me not pretending to have experience with book-to-television thingymajiggers I’ll just be calling them book-to-movie adaptations.)

Book-to-Movie Agitations (Because I had to use that pun more than once)

WHEN THEY COMPLETELY CHANGE THE STORY:
Okay, I know that I literally just said “I understand that the movies aren’t going to be a perfect replica of the books”, but what I’m really talking about now is when they completely alter the entire story, to the point where the entire message or ending or both is different. *cough Percy Jackson cough*
I once read a book (which I won’t name because I’m going to spoil the ending but it won’t really be a spoiler if you don’t know what book I’m talking about) about two siblings and at the end of the book one of the siblings dies. This death leads to the whole realization of the heart-breaking message of the entire story and it was beautifully done, so I made sure to watch the movie adaptation soon after finishing it.
In the movie, they killed the other sibling. WHAT? You have the right to make a movie out of this book, not just go around killing characters willy-nilly. The fact that the other sibling died prevented the beautiful message from happening and made the entire story pointless and made me hate all of the characters because the death of that sibling could’ve been prevented.
Alone, that movie might not have been too horrible. However, it was advertised of the movie adaptation of the book. It would’ve been more accurate to say “Movie very loosely based on a New York Times bestselling novel but under the same title so that it’ll do better in the box office”.

THEY TAKE AWAY MY INNER HARRY POTTER:
I know a big issue that a lot of people have with book-to-movie adaptations is that the casting isn’t very well done. Personally, I don’t really notice things like this. I know that I’m horrible at fan-casting and I certainly couldn’t do any better. I get used to people being the characters very fast.
But that’s the issue. I get used to people being the characters very fast. Though it’s a little thing, I hate that I’ll never be able to think about Harry Potter without picturing Daniel Radcliffe. I can’t – and will never be able to – remember what Harry Potter looked like in my head when I was first reading the books, and that really bothers me.
At least I can always imagine what Peeves and Winky look like BECAUSE THEY WEREN’T EVEN INCLUDED IN THE MOVIES.

FAKE FANS: 
Look, I’m usually a firm believer in the fact that there’s no such thing as fake fans, and that you can be a huge fan of something without knowing every little nit-picky detail and reading all of the bonus material and waiting for midnight releases and all of that.
What drives me crazy, though, is the people who are “fans of the series” but only mean the movies. Since Mockingjay Part 2 has come out and everyone at my school is getting all excited about The Hunger Games series again, I’ve gotten into many debates with people about whether the books or movies are better… only to discover at the end of our heated conversations that they haven’t even read the books.
You can have fantastic books without movies. You cannot have fantastic book-to-movie adaptations without books. Books win.

UNNEEDED “PART ONE”S AND “PART TWO”S:
*loud sigh*
I’m not going to complain about the part one and two of the last Harry Potter movie, because I think it was well done and necessary in order to capture all of the action and excitement within that last book.
However, I really, really hope that this doesn’t become a trend for every single book series, although I fear that it’s too late. Mockingjay Part One and Two? Fine. A lot of people thought the book should’ve been more detailed and split into two as well. I can buy it. Just do it well.
ALLEGIANT, THOUGH? I’m not the hugest fan of the Divergent series in the first place, and I feel like those movies are going really off-course from the story. I haven’t seen Insurgent yet, and I don’t even know if I will, because it doesn’t seem like people really enjoyed it.
So what better solution than to make two more movies that people won’t really enjoy?
I guess I can’t really talk since I haven’t seen Insurgent. What bothers me the most about all of this, though, is that the movies aren’t being called “Allegiant: Part 1” and “Allegiant: Part 2”. They’re being called “Allegiant” and “Ascendant”.
I can just picture it now. Innocent “fans of the series” going to the bookstore after seeing the movie:

Worker: Can I help you?
Fan: Yeah, I’m a really big fan of the Divergent series. Do you have the books?
Worker: Yes, I love that series! We have Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant right over there.
Fan: Okay, thanks. And do you have Ascendant?
Worker: What?
Fan: Are you sold out of the fourth book?
Worker: There isn’t a fourth book.
Fan: Yes, there is! It’s called Ascendant.
Worker: No. There isn’t. Sorry.
Fan: You’re wrong. Ugh. And you call yourself a fan. (hair flip)

Also, apparently they’re considering making Hunger Games prequels? I volunteer as tribute to throw my copies of this perfectly-good-series-that-has-no-need-for-prequels at whoever thought this would be a good idea. Just leave the story as it is before you ruin it.

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I hope you enjoyed reading this post! I know it is a little dramatic, and obviously it’s not the end of the world if these movies keep coming out. I know that there are people who work very hard on creating them and people who really enjoy them. I certainly try to watch them when I can, but I don’t seem to have as positive of a reaction as everyone else. Sorry?
Be sure to let me know all of your feelings on book-to-movie adaptations in the comments.
Thanks for reading! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts: Accidental Plagiarism?

Hello and happy Friday eve! I’m sorry if this post looks weird in any way – I don’t know about you but I’m a little confused when it comes to this new blog post format, so if anything looks off, it’s because I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing!
So maybe it’s just me, but as a reader who loves immersing herself in the incredibly creative worlds of fantastically talented authors, I’m always wondering, “Could I create something like that?” I’m constantly attempting to write my own stories that would hopefully turn into a full-length novel, but I’ve yet to reach the end of one yet. The longest one I’ve started is over 40,000 words, but I realized that if I was starting to hate the characters that I’d created, there was a pretty good chance that everyone else would hate them too. I’m working on a second draft that makes them less… cringe-y.
Besides annoying characters, another reason I’ve stopped writing certain stories is because I realized that they weren’t as creative as I thought. I would be writing a story and would take a break to watch some BookTube, only to watch a video of someone talking about a book that seemed to have a very similar plot. I thought that book sounded really interesting so I started to read it, while simultaneously continuing to write my own. Before long, I started to realize that I was literally turning my book into that one. I had lost all confidence in my similar but slightly different plot when I knew that there was a New York Times bestseller out there that was clearly doing it better. I immediately stopped reading the book and took a break from my own writing in hopes that they would stop blending together. Can anyone else relate to something like this?
I think of it as accidental plagiarism.
If my seventh grade Digital Communications teacher is reading this: I promise I paid attention in your class. I know that there’s no such thing as “accidental plagiarism”, it’s either citing your sources or just hoping you’ll get away with it. Obviously it’s not really plagiarism since you’re not stealing direct works from someone else as claiming them as your own, but “accidentally adopting ideas from different stories until slowly it’s hard to tell them apart and then you feel really oblivious and uncreative and sad” doesn’t really have the same ring, does it?
They say that readers make the best writers, and in some ways I have to agree. We know what readers like to read because we’re constantly critiquing and deciding what makes a good book. We obviously have a good understand of plot and character development when we constantly fill our minds with plots and worlds that we completely lose ourselves in and characters that make us laugh and cry harder than many things in the “real world”.
However, our brains are also filled with so many fantastic book ideas that we’ve read that sometimes I feel like I don’t have much room for my own. How can I think about writing a middle grade without wondering how I can create something as fantastic as Harry Potter? Do I really want to write a violent dystopian, or do I just want to write The Hunger Games?
Maybe we’re too hard on ourselves. After all, as obsessive readers, we obsessively read many more books than your average person, and maybe we’re making connections to our own writing to obscure books that no one else will remember. But does that really excuse it? I can’t feel good about my writing when I feel like I’m making some cheap knock-off of other authors’. Or are the similarities even there?
Picture this: A kick-butt and smart girl, a sweet but strong boy, and a sarcastic yet lovable boy to complete the trio.
Who do you picture?
Katniss, Gale and Peeta?
Harry, Ron and Hermione?
Tessa, Jem and Will?
Hazel, Augustus and Isaac?
The group of three friends in my story that I ditched because it was too similar to other stories?
How is it that that description of characters matches with so many groups (not even just one character) from so many different books?Nobody accuses all of these very successful work of copying each other, and you wouldn’t really think that The Fault in Our Stars had anything in common with Harry Potter. But if John Green had wanted to, he probably could’ve convinced himself that he was accidentally plagiarizing J.K. Rowling’s work. Isaac’s blind? Harry wears glasses! How dare he copy J.K. Rowling in using characters that have vision problems.
Obviously when you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous, right? Maybe I’m the only one who does this. I guess I’ve convinced myself that all of the good ideas are taken, and that anything written now will never be huge, or completely original.
But that seems kind of crazy when you think about the fact that there was a time when there were no books about an orphan going to magical boarding school. Look where we are now.
Our stories are only as similar as we allow them to be.
However, I still totally believe that accidental plagiarism is a thing. Sometimes I’ve definitely been too hard on myself, convincing myself that a story I’m writing is too similar to a book that it will never top.
(Side story: All of that considered, however, in second grade I wrote a 10+ page story about an orphan that lived with her aunt and wasn’t allowed to leave her house until one day a visitor comes to fix their sink. The visitor told the orphan that she was actually a fairy and she had to come with her to help stop the evil fairy. Upon leaving, she met other fairy friends and they proceeded to go on tons of fairy adventures while getting their education at fairy school and trying to find a magical flower before the evil fairy did.
After finding this story and rereading it, I realized that I had just rewritten Harry Potter with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as fairies and Hagrid as a plumber with wings in a tutu).
I’ve started rewriting that story that I thought I ruined after being influenced by the similar New York Times bestseller, sticking to all of my own, completely original ideas. I think it’s okay if other works influence our works, or inspire us, as long as the other works don’t become our works.
All things considered, I’m still writing, and I’ll always be writing because I have my own ideas that I want to share with the world, even if I convince myself that they’ve already been done better than I ever can. I’m also refusing to read The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove even though it sounds absolutely fantastic because I have my own time travel ideas for a story and I refuse to let myself think myself out of it after reading something that is sure to be fantastic. The struggle is real.

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I hope you enjoyed that post! Usually I monitor the word count on my Thursday Thoughts to make sure that I don’t get too ramble-y, but I have no idea where the word count is on the new format. On the bright side, if you’re reading this, you can assume that I figured out to post. Baby steps.
Let me know any of your thoughts on anything I said, and if you’ve struggled with similar things in your writing! Seriously – use the comment section to spew any thoughts going through your head. You have no idea how long it took for me to find the button to allow comments, so take advantage of my persistent searching! 🙂 I hope I didn’t make any NaNoWriMo participants rethink all of their thousands of words… I’m sure whatever you’re writing is fantastic and creative and going to be a bestseller and you’re INCREDIBLE for participating and doing what you love no matter what your current word count is or how sleep deprived you are.
Thanks for reading! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts: I’m a Goodreads Flop!

What? Audrey’s actually making a Thursday Thoughts for two weeks in a row? Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see: I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy because I’m easy come, easy go, little high, little low. Anyway the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to meeeee.
Ahem. Sorry about that.
MAMA, JUST KILLED A MAANNN
But seriously I’m done now.
PUT A GUN AGAINST HIS HEAD. 
Can you tell that I have no idea how to end this intro so I’m trying to lessen the awkwardness with Bohemian Rhapsody? Because that’s what’s happening.
PULLED THE TRIGGER NOW HE’S DEAD

I’M A GOODREADS FLOP

Since you’re reading this I’m going to assume that you’re either a book blogger yourself or someone who is interested in/knows a lot about the book blogging community. Because of that, I’m sure you’re familiar with the website Goodreads. If you’re not, it’s basically a social media platform for book nerds where you can post book reviews, updates on books your reading, follow authors, shelve books, enter giveaways, take quizzes, polls, and much more. And if you call now, you can get all of that – plus free shipping – for just four easy payments of $9.99.
That’s going to be the last stupid joke of this post.
Maybe.
Anyway, Goodreads is free and fun and I would highly recommend creating an account if you love books as much as I do. However, maybe I’m not qualified to be recommending this website to you because I completely fail at using it.
I started a new Goodreads account when I made my blog. I figured I would re-shelve all of the books in my library onto my “Owned” shelf because it had been way too long since I updated my old one. I was going to have TBR shelves for every genre, sort all of my reviews into shelves by rating, when books are released, etc. I would update my “Currently Reading” books after every time I read from them and my reviews would be posted right away, linking back to the original post on my blog.
If any of my 117 Goodreads friends are reading this right now they’re probably laughing hysterically at my failure.
I mean, I did re-shelve all of my books, but that was back in June and I haven’t updated it since, though I have obtained a ton of new books. I also never created all of those other shelfs: I only have two, “Owned” and “Favorites”. The “Favorites” shelf has eight books. Seven of them are Harry Potter.
I do post all of my reviews on Goodreads within a day or two of finishing them but half of the time I forget to link it to my blog. Sometimes I’ll also forget to edit parts of the review to fit Goodreads so it’ll say something like, “You’ll already know that if you read my last Waiting on Wednesday” and I’m sure all the random Goodreads users are now wondering why I post Waiting on Wednesdays on Goodreads.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that you don’t have to have a million shelves on Goodreads to be a good Goodreads-er and it’s really just meant for keeping you organized however you most prefer it. It’s not that I won’t feel accomplished until I actively use every feature on Goodreads, but I did completely neglect the goals that I set at the beginning of my Goodreads account.
Thinking about it, though, some of the Goodreads features seem a little pointless. I mean, for every book you put on your “Owned” shelf you can specify the condition of the book for “Poor” to “Like New”. You can also say where and when you purchased the book and if you traded for it. Are some people actually that organized? Because, if so, you are Goodreads goals. Keep it up.
I love updating my reading progress, however. It’s fun to go back – especially when rereading – and see what your thoughts were at a specific part of a book. I always appreciate the news of giveaways, and I think it’s so much fun to read reviews from the people I follow. On Goodreads you can search for any book and if one of your friends has reviewed it their review will be right at the top and easy to find. It’s so nice to have such easy access to opinions that I trust and enjoy reading.
Maybe writing this post will help motivate me to start being more organized on Goodreads, but probably not. Sometimes I go on frenzies and convince myself that all of a sudden I’m going to be flawlessly organized with no book out of place, but that only usually lasts a day or two.

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So those are all my ramble-y thoughts on Goodreads and my general failings on that wonderful little website. While it definitely could use a few updates to make it easier to use, I enjoy it in general and would highly recommend it!
I’d love to hear what you think of Goodreads in the comments. I know that a couple years ago a lot of people were upset that they changed their policy about what was too harsh in a review. I don’t know too much about that, but if you would like to rant about that upsetting change and educate me, go for it!
If somehow me telling you how bad I am at using this website won you over, feel free to click that button with the “G” on it below and add me as a friend! Also don’t hesitate to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin’ because it’s been a while since I did a shameless self-promotion.
Thanks for reading! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts: This Week’s Happenings

Happy Friday Eve! Or maybe Friday… Guess what! I’m being edgy and unpredictable again by writing and posting this really late. We’ve kind of got a bit of a predicament now because I’m trying to make up for lost time every night but never quite getting back onto my normal schedule… I’m working on it.
I promise this Thursday Thoughts won’t be as boring as the title may suggest. It doesn’t really stick to one topic so it was hard thinking of a title. If you had enough faith in me to trust that this post would be semi-interesting and are taking the time to read it, thank you. I’ll try my best not to disappoint.
Basically because so many exciting bookish things happened this week, I thought I would make a post with a bunch of mini topics and my thoughts on them. Let’s get into it.

the crown by kiera cass

Now, if you’re wondering what The Crown is, it’s the title of the fifth book in the Selection Series by Kiera Cass. The title and release day (May 3, 2016 by HarperTeen) were announced today! If this is a complete shock to you, then why didn’t you read my blog post about it, huh? Nah, I’m just kidding. But if you are interested in reading that post, feel free! We had a fun time predicting what the title would be (and can I just say, we were spot on with most of our guesses?)
While I have a complete predictions post that is honestly long enough to probably be considered one of the Selection’s short stories (this will be going up once the cover and synopsis are released in a couple of weeks), it’s hard not to be making more speculations based on the title alone. The obvious thing that can be deduced from this is that someone is most likely getting crowned in this final book. But what kind of post would this be if I didn’t throw in my own crackpot theory? Ahem…

Book #1 was called The Selection and America was a part of the Selection
Book #2 was called The Elite and America was named an Elite
Book #3 was called The One and America was named the One
Book #4 was called The Heir as Eadlyn was the Heir
Book #5 is called The Crown because Eadlyn will be crowned

But wait… Eadlyn wouldn’t be crowned, she would get a tiara (which was also an option for the title). All of the other titles reflected something that was happening to the main character of the book, but this last title wouldn’t really reflect a going-on of Eadlyn’s life… so maybe she’s not the main character. What if the entire book of The Heir was just Eadlyn telling the story of the real hero, Ahren? Maybe Ahren is going to be the real Heir! After all, he’s already found a nice girl and seems to be a lot more logically thinking than Eadlyn. Plus, his name has a hidden meaning:

Ahren? More like HEIRren.

I’m just kidding, guys (although if this ends up being right: I KNEW IT ALL ALONG).
(P.S.: While researching for this theory I looked up what names meant in the book… turns out that Eadlyn means “born into royalty”, and Ahren means “high mountain” or something like that. Sounds like Maxon and America certainly weren’t picking favorites there…)

LIFE AND DEATH BY STEPHANIE MEYER

I don’t know if I’m allowed to have an opinion about this book because I never finished Breaking Dawn, but we’re going with it.
I was considering calling this blog post “A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH”, but I didn’t want to get clickbait-y on you. I was tempted though. It’s just such a dramatic title.
So if you didn’t already know, Stephanie Meyer was super sneaky and randomly dropped a new book on October 6. She pretended like the book was the Twilight 10th anniversary edition. However, while the book does contain Twilight, when you flip it over there’s a brand-new, full size book called Life and Death.
Well, kind of brand-new.
What Stephanie Meyer did is rewrite Twilight by switching all of the male characters to female characters and vice versa. For example, Bella is now Beau and Edward is now Edythe (another name meaning fun fact: Beau means “handsome” and Edythe means “spoils of war” which is… interesting). From my understanding, she did this in an attempt to prove that “Bella is not a damsel in distress, she’s a person in distress.” The idea is making sure that everyone knows that Bella isn’t representing some stereotypical, love obsessed, helpless little girl. She’s flipping the tables (is that a thing that people say?) to show that if Bella was a boy things might not be so different.
Though I’m not the hugest fan of Twilight, I definitely have to applaud Stephanie Meyer for pulling this big surprise off and for thinking of this idea. It’s definitely a really unique concept that’s sure to start some great discussions in the book community about the similar/different attributes of male vs. female protagonists. However…
From what I’ve been hearing from people who have read the book and from the Barnes and Noble sample the I read, it really seems like this book is a product of copy and paste. Obviously the concept of this role reversal wouldn’t really work if it was an entirely new story, but I can’t imagine purchasing and rereading Twilight just with some name swaps. Stephanie Meyer did say as part of her interview that there are some differences in the story, but the first chapter was so ridiculously similar that I’m having a hard time deciding if I want to put the time into reading it. Again, it’s a fantastic concept, but I can’t imagine how successfully it could play out.
One big reason why is because Stephanie Meyer obviously has to make some little tweaks to the story to try and make it more obvious that Bella is now a boy, right? But this raises another issue. Every time Stephanie Meyer changes something in the original Twilight story to make it “manlier” and fit Beau’s character as a boy protagonist, isn’t she kind of suggesting that whatever activity or inner thought Bella had in the original story was too girly? Isn’t that kind of perpetuating the gender stereotypes that this entire book is supposed to contradict?
I mean, maybe I’m completely misunderstanding the point of this new book or maybe the issues I mentioned aren’t really issues in the story. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this book in the comments if you have read it or plan on reading it. Let me know if you think it would be worth me reading as well. I mean, as long as it’s well done (at least on the level of Twilight or above) I’d be willing to give it a shot.
(P.S. If you love Twilight, I respect you. If you hate Twilight, I respect you. This post isn’t trying to convince anyone to love or hate Twilight in anyway. Everyone has their own opinions on the books. They were all pretty solid three stars for me. If you find this new book laughable, great. If you cried tears of joy when you got your copy, that’s awesome! Enjoy it.)

GIGANTIC BOOKSHELF SPIDER OF DEATH

So this last section is a little less book related than the other two, but it is terrifying, so I thought October would be the perfect time to post about it.
(And it happened yesterday, so it’s not like I could’ve posted about it in past months, and it wouldn’t be relevant next month…)
Yesterday I innocently went downstairs into a little room where I keep pretty much all of my books. I was getting #scandal by Sarah Ockler because a friend was interested in borrowing it. It was on my hardcover contemporary shelf so I removed it and I was bending down to admired my favorite shelf – my paperback contemporaries – when my view is obstructed by the largest spider you ever did see. This thing was huge. Like, Aragog would’ve been quaking in his boots at this thing.
Look down at your computer keyboard and observe the size of one of the keys. Or, if you’re on your iPhone, observe the size of the home button. Or, if you’re on an Android… why are you making this so difficult?
Anyway, do you have that general size in your mind? That was the size of its body. We’ve not even yet taken into account the size of its freaky, hairy legs (no shave November is next month, buddy).
And I know you’re probably thinking that I’m a wimp and I should’ve just picked it up with a paper towel. Yeah, not happening.
You know in elementary school when you would do those experiments where you tested the strength of different paper towel brands by stretching them and seeing how many pennies they could hold?
Even Brawny would’ve ripped itself in half before even getting near this thing.
The thing was, it wasn’t moving. Of course, this was understandable. It was on a contemporary shelf, so it had probably crawled on up, read a Jenny Han book, and then died of “the feels”. Even if it hadn’t, it was definitely dead by some manner. Like, when I took close-up Snapchats of it to send to all of my friends, it didn’t even raise its eyebrows to get one of the cool filters. No creature can be that much of a kill-joy and not be dead.
So I left. I figured that I could come back downstairs the next day (today) with a gas mask and a vacuum to dispose of the sad but gigantic spider body.
Everything was going according to plan until I went back downstairs…
AND THE SPIDER WAS GONE.
It wasn’t even dead. It was probably planning my murder as I sat there taking pictures of it. It could be running rampant among my books, weaving webs across the covers…
I left immediately and told my dad my dilemma. He had to go downstairs to clean anyway and said he would look for it.
He found it.
But you’ll never guess where (so I’ll tell you)! That freaky thing was chilling up in the corner of the door frame into the room. I walked right under it. It could’ve dropped down onto my head or suddenly started laying hundreds of spider babies into my hair (considering its size, I wouldn’t be too shocked if it was pregnant).
I’ll never be the same again.

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You’ve reached the end of the long and ramble-y post. I hope you enjoyed reading it – it’s been one of my favorites I’ve made in a while! I’m leaving for a weekend long fall retreat tomorrow, so I can’t say for sure if a blog post will be going up or not. I’ll have Wi-Fi while I’m there but there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be spending more time dealing with more spiders in actual nature than I will be blogging. We’ll see!
I’d love to hear your thoughts below on any of the topics I mentioned in this post. Are you planning on reading The Crown and Life and Death? Do you have any super freaky spider stories? Tell me all about it!
Thanks for reading 🙂

Thursday Thoughts: Hating Books

It’s (thedaybefore) Friday, Friday, gotta get reading on Friday, I’ve already, parodied this song, on, my blog…
Thursday Thoughts time! I’m trying to keep this intro short because I’m pretty sure that this is going to be one of my longer posts – what can I say? I have a lot of thoughts. Let’s just get into it.

hating books

If you really love books, you can’t hate books. 
Now, two or three of you that are still half asleep like I am might be thinking, Wow, what a profound statement. 
The rest of you are probably shaking your head and saying, No, duh. 
It’s also likely that everyone (including myself) are looking back and realizing, Dang, this post has a lot of italics already.

So, the more time I spend book blogging and constantly reading/watching reviews on WordPress, Bloglovin’, Goodreads, or YouTube, the more this is starting to bother me:
How can people who clearly love books so much completely bash a book with just as much or more passion?
Don’t get me wrong, not all bloggers do this. Every day I’m amazed at the skill every reviewer has in their writing and speaking abilities, and I love reading reviews: I do it constantly. The fact that I read so many reviews is probably the reason why I’m stumbling across so many incredibly negative reviews. It’s a well-known fact that negatives always stick out in your mind more prominently than positives, whether in book reviews or life in general, so this isn’t too surprising or hard to understand. However, I don’t understand these reviews at all.
Now, I totally know the feeling of closing a book and thinking to myself,
Wow. That was awful.
Do people actually enjoy this book?
Imagine all of the dramatic gifs I could use in my review… 
I don’t, however, ever think, I hate this book. I can’t imagine actually ever hating a book, just because I know firsthand how amazing books can be, and that different people will have different experiences with every book, and behind every book there is an incredibly hardworking author.
Now, I don’t want you to be thinking, Oh, so that’s why Audrey doesn’t have any reviews lower than a 3.5 star rating. She doesn’t want to hate any books. That’s not the case at all! I’m sure that soon I’ll discover a book that doesn’t click with me at all and I’ll give it a one star. For me, the book is a one star because I didn’t enjoy it, but I know that some people really will. That’s why I always try and do pros and cons in my reviews and not just cons. Because, even though it’s sometimes hard to believe, I know that someone will love that book.
The most common place I’ll find super negative reviews are on Goodreads because they’re usually the ones that get lots of thumbs up. I can totally understand why they get thumbs up. They’ll get a like when people agree with their opinions, and these reviews often make really great points. They’ll get a like because they’re brutally honest and someone who was maybe looking into reading that book thinks that they’ve been saved some time. They’ll get a like because honestly, those reviews are just super fun to read. I am the only one who will occasionally just go to the Goodreads page of a very commonly hated book and read the negative reviews? You know, the ones with tons of quotes from the book with large eye-rolling gifs and CAPITAL LETTER EXCLAMATIONS OF WHO PUBLISHED THIS? OR IS THIS REALLY WHAT THE BOOK WORLD IS COMING TO?
It’s completely different, however, when you’re on the other side: reading a review like that of a book you love. I’ve seen reviews that so strongly rip apart books that I loved so much that they leave me wondering if I actually did like that book… and if I did, am I completely ignorant for liking a book so stupid?
Guys, I am totally for completely honest reviews. That’s something that I always want to remain true to. I promise you guys that my reviews will be honest and the books that I gave high ratings are books that I found really enjoyable and books that I think you’ll like, too. There’s one factor I keep in mind when I’m writing or reading a negative review:

Is this review informative or persuasive? 

I know that that sounds incredibly seventh-grade English “let’s identify styles of writing”-esque, but in my mind it’s really important. When I write a review, I want to make sure that I’m letting whoever is going to be reading it what I liked and didn’t like. If at some point during the review the reader decides that, “Hey, maybe this book would be an enjoyable read for me, too!” that’s awesome. If the reader thinks, “The things that bothered this reviewer also usually bother me, so I’ll just skip it,”, then the review is doing its job. The review is to help someone make their decision on whether or not to read the book, not push them one way or another (I’m gonna find ya, I’m gonna getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha). It seems like with some reviews the reviewer is so determined to prove how stupid the book was, that it would almost seem to take more time to find so much evidence (and gifs) to support your opinion than it would to just talk about why, in general, you didn’t like the book. Evidence is great, but it’s definitely hard to read a review and see all your favorite quotes be ripped apart and mocked.
I started school three days ago (and I’ve only talked about it every single day since… sorry), and I’m honestly not loving it, but I know I’m getting something valuable out of it. Every time I read a book, I know that I’m taking something away from it, so how can I absolutely despise it, especially when I know that some other people are going to finish that book and walk away from it with a new favorite and love for reading?
I mean, think about Twilight. So many people hate those books, and yet they created so many readers. Honestly, I was among the people who hated them, that is until I actually read them. I’m not going to say they are the most amazing books or writing that I’ve ever read, but I found them incredibly entertaining and while Bella is, in my opinion, a pretty weak female character, we still have Alice who totally kicks butt. If you don’t like Twilight, it’s all good with me. Give it one star. But please don’t call it the worst thing ever written. Don’t frown upon people who did love it.
And, for anyone who, like me, love a commonly hated book, don’t worry about it! Display it on your bookshelf with pride.
There’s no need for low shelf-esteem.
Read it in public and don’t feel shelf-conscious!
Books are awesome and so are you.

(I promise I didn’t write this entire post to make two bad puns)
(Maybe)

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I know that this Thursday Thoughts it more opinionated then they normally are, but hopefully it made some sort of sense. I’d like to make some disclaimers because internet conflict isn’t fun:
1. If you’ve written a pretty negative review recently and you’re thinking that this is an indirect at you, I promise it’s not. I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while now, and today just happened to be the day (well, actually yesterday was the day because this is scheduled.) It’s not the result of any one post I’ve seen or any specific reviewers.
2. If you’ve made super negative posts in the past or recently, I don’t blame you, I’m not mad at you, and I don’t hate your reviews. We all read books on occasion that make us just want to rant about them, laugh at cheesy quotes, and express our feelings in gifs. It’s all good. This is just my thoughts on crazy negative reviews in general.
3. This is just my opinion. If you disagree with anything or everything I said in this post, feel free to let me know! I’m totally hoping to have some great discussions off of this post. There’s a reason I call it Thursday Thoughts, and not Thursday Facts or Thursday Universal Truths (plus, those just don’t have the same ring to them)
4. I love all of your reviews and posts 🙂

So I think that about covers it! Hopefully you enjoyed this long ramble-y post. Maybe you could relate, and maybe you couldn’t. Either way, I think we could have some great discussions in the comments, so if you have anything to contribute you know what to do!
Thanks for reading 🙂

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Thursday Thoughts: Book Rating

Hello! Happy last day before it’s the best day. I hope you’ve been having an amazing week so far. I’ve started getting really busy due to high school tennis season starting – two hour practice twice a day! I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to and I’m worried I might be entering a slump… but I shall fight it with every ounce of my being.

book rating

Since starting my blog I’ve been writing out a lot more reviews than I usually do. I would typically remember that I had a Goodreads account once a month and maybe review a book if I really enjoyed it. Now, I’ve been reviewing all of the books I’m reading and I’m actually finding it really difficult.
It’s not the writing out the review part that’s hard, it’s the end. At the end of all my reviews, I give it a rating from 0-5. And yes, I know that I could just skip this part and allow you to make your own conclusions based on everything I talked about liking and disliking in the post, but then how many stars would I know to give it on Goodreads? How would you be able to easily compare how I liked one book over another?
The issue with this system is that even if I give two books four stars, I might have liked one book more than the other. I could give one of them a higher rating, but then that book might become a 4.5 star book that I liked less than other 4.5 star books.
Take Harry Potter, for example. This series is my absolute favorite, and all of the books within it are five star books for me. However, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has always been my favorite. Since that book is the best five star book for me, does that mean that every book that didn’t live up to that standard should be rated less than a five star? I could get super specific and give books 4.7859 ratings, but frankly I’m too lazy and the only decimals that I like are .5’s or good ol’ Dewey’s decimals.
Personally, I don’t rate books by comparing them to other books. I’m not going to finish a book and think, “Well, I liked this book slightly less than that 5 star book I read yesterday, and more than that 4 star book I read a month ago, so that’s a 4.5.”
For me, I ask myself at the end of each book three main questions:

Did this book fall short of, meet, or exceed my expectations?
Did this book fulfill its purpose?
Was the overall reading experience enjoyable?

I know that it’s weird to think about a book’s purpose as if the book has a specific goal that it needs to achieve before its pages rot away, tossed aside, and/or chewed up by my surprisingly vicious dog. For me, a book’s purpose is usually either to entertain or inform, and because I don’t usually read non-fiction I’m typically hoping for entertainment. I know in English class we learn about how our writing could persuade, as well, but I don’t usually read books that are trying to persuade me (except Chew on This – if you ever need a book to convince you to stop eating fast food, this is the one).
I guess one example of a book “fulfilling its purpose” would be The Selection Series by Kiera Cass. The Selection is notorious for being a book that you either love or hate. Personally, I love it, but I know a lot (and I mean a lot) of people who don’t like the series because America Singer is incredibly annoying and indecisive. Even as someone who really enjoys the series, I have to completely agree with that. Her decisions throughout the series can be pretty self-centered and frustrating, which makes her hard to like as a protagonist. However, without fail I’ve given all of these books five out of five stars.
For me, I love America because she wouldn’t make me so frustrated if I didn’t really care about her character. It’s like when a book makes you cry – you wouldn’t be crying if the author hadn’t done such a great job of making you care about the characters and plot. The Selection Series is addictive for me: I’ve read it multiple times, usually finishing each book in one sitting. I’m never bored when I’m reading them, and while I can totally understand why some people might not enjoy them that’s just not the way it is for me.
I read The Selection and The Elite in one night, and I was so upset when I found out that I had to wait six months for The One to come out. When it did, I read it all in one day, reading the last chapters sobbing in the back of my mom’s car. I was supposed to be warming up with my soccer team before our game, but I refused to get out until I finished because I was so invested in the story. So even though these cute-sy, dystopian versions of The Bachelor will never have a fighting chance in my mind against The Goblet of Fire, they’ll always be five star books to me.

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I’ve read through that post about three times and I’m still trying to decide if it makes any sense at all. I just figured since you guys all seemed to be enjoying reading my reviews you might like to know how I review.
How do you rate books? I’m still constantly struggling with that final #/5 rating. I don’t want to disappoint you if I give a book 5/5 stars and you don’t find it to be the most incredible thing in the world. I also never know if I should adjust my ratings when I read two different books and give them the same rating but feel as if one is much, much better than the other. The struggle is real, but I think it’ll make for a good discussion, so be sure to comment your thoughts if you feel so inclined!
Thanks for reading! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts #5: Bookish Turn-Ons

Hello and welcome to today’s Thursday Thoughts which is actually going up on a Thursday instead of a Tuesday this time. (sorry)

A week or two ago in Thursday Thoughts I talked about some of my “Bookish Turn-Offs“, so in an attempt to prove that I’m not a completely horrible and negative person, I thought a great topic for this Thursday Thoughts could be:

Bookish turn-ons

I’m not going to even attempt to make that horrible light switch analogy again, so instead I’ll just remind you that just because a book has one or more of these components does not guarantee that I’ll like it/buy it, it just is something that might make me a little more inclined to give that book a shot. You know the drill, so let’s get started!

1. a pretty cover:

Are you surprised? You really shouldn’t be. Although I try to avoid book buying that is strictly cover based at all costs (hence my chanting “It’s what’s on the inside that counts” while walking past the gorgeous Barnes and Noble editions of classics that I already own in ugly versions), a pretty cover is definitely likely to make me pick up the book and read the synopsis, which can often lead to a purchase. I mean, which are you most likely to spend money on:

OR

I’m just saying.

2. FANCY CHAPTER NAMES:

This is honestly one thing that I think should be required in all books before they get published. I don’t want anymore of this simple “Chapter 1” business, oh no. I want chapter headers similar to those of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (Chapter 12: I Put the “Idiot” in “Videotape”), Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter (Chapter 1: Down the Zombiehole), and literally every Rick Riordan book ever. If I’m flipping through a book and I see that every chapter not only has a title but a name, I’m definitely intrigued. Chapter titles make books more fun to read because typically we’ll stop reading at the end of each chapter, right? But when there’s chapter titles that immediately grab you when you just glance over at them, you want to keep reading. You have to keep reading. 

3. GRAPHICS/PICTURES/DOODLES/unique text/ETC.:

As readers, we have the hardest jobs of any appreciators of different arts. People who are art (like paintings) enthusiasts? They’ve got it easy. All they have to do is walk around, look at pictures, and nod, pretending they seem some sort of deep meaning within the scribbles and pastels. Movie watchers? It’s pretty self-explanatory: they watch movies. Their work is done as soon as they pay for their over-priced popcorn. But readers? Authors are incredible, but we’re responsible for doing a lot of the work too. When you stop to think about it, we’re holding words for hours at a time, and we are the ones who turn it into the enjoyable spectacle that it is, by imagining and convincing ourselves for those hours or days that the characters and story are real. Now, it’s quite apparent: I love reading. If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this on a book blog, obviously. But if we’re all being honest with ourselves sometimes it can get a little boring just reading lines and lines of text, and we might need a little help imagining that it might be real. This is when the fun stuff that authors sometimes add in comes in handy. If you’ve ever read Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson (you really should if you haven’t – great book) you’ll know that this road trip story is told in a very unique way: not only is there narrative and dialogue like normal stories, but there’s also receipts from restaurants they visited, playlists of real songs that they listened to along the way, postcards, and oodles of other stuff included within the book which serves to make the story feel like it was an actual journey. In some other books, like Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella (review), there will be pages where the book is written out like a movie script, which can help make it easier to picture and read through. Don’t get me wrong – I love traditional books, but these unique touches can always help make for a really fun read. (Image taken from theprettybooks.wordpress.com – go follow her gorgeous blog!)

4. QUIRKY NARRATors:

Unfortunately for us, this particular bookish turn-on is usually found in middle grade books (at least that’s what I’ve concluded from my experience), but please let me know if you’ve found it in other places. I don’t really know how to describe this one, but if you’ve read The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch or A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. This is when the narrator isn’t even directly involved in the story but they have such a unique and hilarious personality that they seem like the star of the show. For example, in The Reptile Room (the second book in the Series of Unfortunate Events series) the narrator takes the time to fill up an entire page with the word ever, simply to remind you that you should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, (etc.) fiddle around with electronic devices lest you be electrocuted. It’s just so unique and hilarious and unexpected – I love it. With Pseudonymous Bosch, the narrator of his story (which is kind of him, as the narrator is supposedly the one writing the story) warns that the story he is about to share is incredibly secret in the prologue. He then begins the first chapter… and replaces every letter of every word with “x”. The only thing that remains are punctuation marks. Narrators like these are amazing and so entertaining to read – I really want more of them.

5. UNIQUE PREMISES:

I think this one goes without saying. It seems to me like all books lately can be grouped into four categories:
Boy/girl meets boy/girl
Someone’s dying
Someone wasn’t who they thought they were and now adventure ensues
I just am in the mood for something really weird and new and unexpected. You know, there must’ve been a time when people thought it wouldn’t be worthwhile to write about a neglected boy wizard, but look where we are now.

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Hey! So that’s the end of this week’s Thursday Thoughts. What did you think? Do you agree with my choices, or do you have things you think should be added to this list (there might be a sequel!)? Do you have book recommendations that fit any of this criteria, or would you like some? Leave anything and everything in the comments, I love discussing with you guys. Thanks for reading! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts: Buying Books

Happy Friday Eve! How’s life? Is it good? I hope it’s good.

Today on Thursday Thoughts I’m going to be trying something a little different. As a book buyer and lover, I often get questions from people who don’t enjoy reading and, specifically, buying books as much as me. This Thursday Thoughts will be told in FAQ format, with real questions I’ve gotten in real life from fake people who are not book-buying enthusiasts and with genuine answers from me. Enjoy 🙂

Why would you buy books when you can just get them from the library for free?
From,
Rhea Dingisdum
Great question Rhea! You see, I am not just a reader, I also collect books. I like owning the books I read and being able to display them and get excited about buying new ones.

But you do realize that you can get the exact same story for free at the library, right?
From,
Capt. O. Bvious
Yup. The issue I have with libraries is that you get a book, and enjoy the time you have with the characters, and then you just return it. If I had first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone from the library, I would be really upset that I don’t own the copy that I first experienced that wonderful story with. It’s not just a collection of books, it’s a collection of memories.

Books aren’t a very good investment.
From,
Sumban Kerr
First of all, Sumban, you should’ve submitted this to the Frequently Stated Statements section (FSS) instead of the FAQs. Second of all, I’m not hoping to sell my well loved copies of Twilight and Maximum Ride on eBay one day for a million dollars. Maybe one day books will become extremely valuable because eBooks are going to take over the world (God forbid) but the investment I’m making in buying these books now is knowing that my kids are going to be everyone’s #bookshelfgoals before they even know what a book is.

Why would you care to spend money to read about some made-up world that literally has no effect on anything that actually matters?
From,
Nomayg Ustabooks
Why do people spend five dollars on coffee every morning that will be gone in ten minutes? It makes them happy. I read because it makes me happy. So they can drink their coffee, and I can read my books, and you can keep sipping on that Haterade. You do you Nomayg.

Well, when will you stop collecting books?
From,
Stohpitz Hahmertime
Around the same time I stop doing everything else I enjoy doing like… breathing.

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So, those were my thoughts thrown at you this Thursday (woo-hoo, alliteration!). Since I know a lot of my followers are also self-proclaimed book hoarders, I’d love to hear if you can relate to my answers or your own original answers in the comments! If you prefer to borrow your books from a library, that’s perfectly okay too! I’m just saying that I love buying my books, and this is all about why.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts #3: Bookish Turn-Offs

Hello, hello!  Welcome to Thursday Thoughts, where you’ll find the only posts I actually make consistently on this blog! (Sorry)

On last week’s Thursday Thoughts I ranted about my extreme hatred for the word “giggle”, and it made me realize how many different things in books really irritate me.  Instead of making a bunch of little posts about things that irritate me in books, I thought for this post I would touch on a bunch of them, compiling them into one list of:

bookish turn-offs

Did that fancy header intrigue you?  Then let’s get started!

Actually, we’re not going to get started quite yet.  First, I want to discuss exactly what it means for their to be a bookish turn-off.  If a book I’m considering reading contains one of these things, it only means that I might be slightly reluctantly to buy it, and might rather want to get it from the library or wait to read it until I’ve read some good reviews about it.  Nothing I ever hear about a book will make me completely refuse to give it a shot if I’m interested in the story (unless the author is promoting racism or something horrific like that).  So, if you picture a light switch, these things – when present in books – don’t completely turned off the book for me.  Instead, it’s more similar to that thing we all did as little kids, when we attempted to balance the switch in between on and off and see what happens.  Does that make sense? (Hint: Probably not)

Okay, considering we’re 260 words in and I’ve already managed to be over-complicated and make a horrible light switch analogy… I’m guessing it’s time to get started (for real-sies this time)

Bookish balancing-the-light-switch-which-way-is-it-going-to-go-i-don’t-know-because-it-really-bothers-me-when-books-do-this

1) When all the books in a series have the exact same amount of pages

I mean, why not get the really weird one out of the way.  Maybe I’m the only person bothered by this, and maybe I’m the only person who’s ever noticed this. However, when I do notice it, it definitely is a bookish turn-off in the way that it makes me very wary of the book series.  I mean, there’s absolutely no way that that’s a coincidence, and I figure that it must limit the author in some way if they’re forcing themselves to meet the same amount of page requirements with every single book (whether that be by dragging out the story or by rushing it).  If the author is sacrificing the ability to make the length of the book perfect for the story, will the story still be good?  I don’t know… I guess we’d have to take the risk and see which way the light switch flips (I’m sorry, that’s the last time I’ll reference that).  I’ve seen this happen in a bunch of different series, but most notably The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney.  I understand that maybe for these particular books he wanted to make it seem as if all of the different diaries that Greg was writing in were the same length, but is it really necessary?  Really?

2) when FRIENDSHIPs TURN INTO MORE

I hate this so, so much, mainly because it’s so cheesily overdone.  Of course, there are some cases where I think it can be well done (though I’m not going to give any examples because that would be spoiler-y), but when this idea is the entire plot it drives me nuts, especially when the two friends have been friends since childhood.  Do you know how rare it is in books for a girl and a boy who have been friends since they were three to not fall in love?  For once, just once, I’d like to see one of those characters who is so determined to ruin a heartwarming friendship for a cheesy relationship shoved into the friendzone, never to return.  I nominate John Green for the job.

3) when there are LOVE TRIANGLES (warning: upcoming twilight and hunger games spoilers)

Again, you have to remember that this are things that make me wary of a book, not things that make me completely unwilling to read them.  The thing about love triangles is that they are done so often, but so often not done well.  I honestly like love triangles at the beginning, when you’re wondering who the person is going to choose and how the other person is going to react, but soon they get ridiculously one-sided.  Like, as much as I shipped #Kale (I mean, what a cool ship name first of all) did anyone honestly think that Katniss and Gale would just patch things up after everything in the first book and second half of the second?  His didn’t have a shot.  And sorry to everyone who was #TeamJacob, but there’s a reason that they were advertised as vampire novels instead of werewolf books.  Again, love triangles are fun when they’re done right.  Keep us guessing, but please, please, don’t pull an America Singer and just switch back and forth every other chapter.  I love you, but you give me gray hairs.

4) WHEN A BOOK IS VERY SHORT

I’m incredibly different from all of my friends because of this bookish turn-off.  Most of my friends will refuse to read a book that they think is too long, while I’m reluctant to pick up books that I think are too short (typically under 350 pages).  I guess part of the reason why I don’t like reading short books is because I usually like to buy all the books I read and I’m hesitant to spend money on a book that is very short and probably won’t last me very long.  I also worry that the author will struggle to cram all of the things the synopsis advertises into such a little package.  Like, are you sure that you’re going to deliver a “heart-pounding, tear-jerking story filled with romance, action, betrayal, and death” in just 220 pages?  Again, there are some pretty big exceptions to this one: some of my favorite books are short books, like Fairest by Marissa Meyer, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, and The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin.

5) When a book is compared to other books

With this one, you can either do it very wrong or very right.  For me, this can be incredibly helpful sometimes.  If I see a book that says, “Might appeal to the fans of Harry Potter” or something like that on the back of it, I’m interested because I really like Harry Potter and if they think this book might appeal to me then I might be willing to give it a shot.  However, I once saw a book that had a review included on the back of it that began, “Step aside Harry Potter…” What?! Guys, this book was a middle grade contemporary novel that was practically a graphic novel what with all of the pictures and huge words it had.  If a publisher or author is allowing their books to be compared to other really great books or even have the audacity to include reviews say that their book will replace other books, then that’s not good marketing – that’s just irritating.  Dearest publishers:

• Not every fantasy (or middle grade) book is the next Harry Potter
• Just because it’s a dystopian doesn’t mean it’s “Just like the Hunger Games!”
• If a character dies, you don’t get to brand your book as something “giving The Fault in Our Stars some competition”.

I don’t think I’m alone in this pet peeve.  Publishers do it, reviewers do it, and oh my goodness do my English teachers do it.  All I’m asking is that you please, please stop.

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So those are some of my bookish turn-offs (or the longer title, which I’m not going to type out again)!  I have a lot more – I never realized how much I like to complain – but I think I’ll stop there for now and maybe to a part two sometime later this year.  Do this things irritate/worry you as much as they do me?  Is there anything that really bothers you that you think should be featured in part two?  Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts #2: “Giggle”

Hello, hi, I hope you’re having an incredible Thursday.  Today’s topic for “Thursday Thoughts” is simply the word “giggle”, which may seem like a strange and insignificant topic but boy, do I have a lot to say about it.

As readers, we enjoy reading because it paints a picture in our mind.  It’s like we’re reading a manuscript for a movie but we’re casting all of the characters in our head as we go and thinking about how we hope the movie ends.  The only difference between a library and a movie theatre is that a library lacks overpriced popcorn.  We like being able to picturethings.

Keeping that in mind, I absolutely hate the word giggle – for many reasons.  For one, it sounds like a word that an overprotective mother word coo in the face of her child… words with double consonants in the middle typically come off as condescending, at least in my opinion.  Words like “baggie”, “kiddo”, and “silly” drive me nuts.  But, besides that reason, there’s another situation that – when the word giggle is used – there’s a chance I’ll scream.  That situation is in…

ANY BOOK.  EVER. 

I know authors are often advised to avoid using words like “said”, excessively, but I think what we need to teach them is to avoid the word giggle at all costs.

It may seem ridiculous, but think about it.  When was the last time you saw someone (who wasn’t four or ninety) giggle?  Giggling is so often talked about but it never really happens, which is what makes it so hard to picture.  Every time I’m reading a book and I’m picturing the scenes in my head – similar to a movie – and the word “giggle” pops up, what I picture in my mind is the same as this:

on a TV screen.  It’s just too hard to picture and it breaks up the flow for me.

Look, there’s a reason we say laughing out loud instead of giggling out loud.  No one does that.

If laughing is “haha” then giggling is definitely “hehe”, which to mean just either sounds like an evil witch cackle or one of those laughs that girls will do on TV when they’re playing dumb to get a guy’s attention. Please no.

While we’re talking about “hehe” and guys, let’s talk about when in stories guys giggle.  Look, I’m all for defying gender stereotypes and girls being able to try anything guys do and vice versa.  I’m not saying it’s impossible for guys to giggle – anyone probably could giggle, and for some people that’s probably their natural laugh, which is fine.  However, it’s not common, and still incredibly hard to picture, especially when a guy is said to be giggling in a book.  Every time I read that a guy giggles, it’s like a slap in the face saying, Yup, this is just a story, remember? For example:

“You baked me a cake?”  Jillian cried, running into the kitchen to give Bob a hug.

“Indeed I did,” said Bob, grabbing a knife out of the drawer and cutting her a slice.

Jillian took a bite and smiled.  “It’s so sweet!”

“I tried to make it match your personality,” replied Bob, giggling.

It just doesn’t work.  Like, it doesn’t even matter if it’s a flirty situation, it’s just impossible to casually giggle in the middle of a conversation.  I just spent five minutes trying to produce a natural sounding giggle and I still sound like a Barbie choking on a grape.  My dog gave me weird looks.

I don’t know guys.  Maybe I’m crazy.  Maybe giggle is your favorite word and now you feel personally attacked (that wasn’t my intention – I’m sorry!).  Are there any words that snap you out of your reading daze and just seem fake to you?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments!  or What are your thoughts on the word giggle?  Do you feel the same, or do you think I’m crazy?   I’m probably crazy.

Thanks for reading! 🙂