An Unapologetic Reader

Hi there. I’m Jenn, an unapologetic reader. In this blog you will find exactly that: my opinions. If I love a book, I will tell you why; if I hate a book, I will tell you why. I may not agree with the popular consensus on a particular title, or I might be at the very center of that bandwagon. But no matter where my opinion falls on that spectrum, you can trust that it is my own.

There are a host of wonderful book bloggers out there just waiting to share their opinions with the universe. Jennine’s “My Life In Books” http://livingawritinglife.blogspot.com/ and Kat’s “Katytastic” http://www.kat-tastic.blogspot.com/ are a couple of my favorites. (Kat’s YouTube channel is more active than her blog and just as entertaining https://www.youtube.com/user/Katytastic/featured) Since I enjoy reading and discovering new book bloggers so much, I decided it was time I join the newbie ranks of book bloggers, myself.

So what’s with the whole “The Unapologetic Reader” thing? That is a two part answer. First, I do not expect to be apologetic about my opinions. Sometimes I read a book review or watch a book tube video of someone reviewing a book and notice the reviewer apologizing for giving a book a low rating, or (unbelievably!) for giving a book a high rating which a lot of other people didn’t like.

Think about that for a minute.

They’re apologizing for their opinion.

Maybe it’s because I’m female, or grew up in a household of eleven people where you were lucky if your opinion was ever truly heard, or maybe I’m just hormonal at the time of writing this introductory blog post, but I think the idea that we should ever feel apologetic about our opinions regarding which books we do and do not like is outrageous.

Secondly, I do not want to be apologetic about what I read. This is one I have to work on. The idea entered my head a few months ago when a lot of book tubers were up in arms about some critical voices that hit the internet criticizing the young adult (YA) genre. As you’ll soon learn, I love reading young adult novels, but can sometimes feel self-conscious when reading them in public or talking about them. I am in my thirties and haven’t been considered a “young adult” for a while. So what? Some might call these my “guilty pleasures”, but I want to remove the idea of “guilt” from the experience all together. We shouldn’t feel guilty for reading.

So, there you have it. I will talk about my love of books, the books I’m reading, and anything else reading-related and I will not be apologetic about it. Since a big buzzword last year was “affirmations”, here’s mine:

I will not apologize for the types of books I read.

I will not apologize for my opinions of those books.

Oh, and for the record, my favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla. I know Baskin Robbins has 31 and Ben & Jerry will never stop inventing more, but I only need one favorite. My one is vanilla. What’s yours?