If you enjoy these discussion videos, definitely let me know whether there's any topics you want to see me cover. EDIT: The description now has chapters, so if you want to skip to certain sections, they are as follows -- 0:00 are books good anymore? 0:18 getting more critical 1:40 booktok & publishing trends 5:21 tastes change 9:38 solutions?
Very petty complaint but so many "enemies to lovers" are not ACTUAL "enemies to lovers," it's more along the lines of "hot person I mildly dislike for a bit but am purely only physically attracted to bickers with me before we rush into a relationship founded on little more than lust and surface-level acquaintance"
Only loosely related but l dislike how so many modern romance novels predominately consist of upper class, conventionally attractive characters who have little to no responsibilities in life. I'm not saying people aren't allowed to like these books, but for me it's completely unenjoyable and unrelatable to read about an extremely attractive girl (who doesn't know she's beautiful but secretly all of the guys want her) who goes to an exclusive academy and has the prince/mafia boss/billionaire fall in love with her specifically and who buys her everything she could want. I wish there was more romance catered to the working class and people in poverty, and this is one of the reasons why Little Women is one of the rare romances I actually do like
Not only is it a good idea to explore new genres, explore new cultures as well. I have read Swedish, Icelandic, English, Welsh, French, Soviet, Greek, Roman, Italian, American, Sumerian, Babylonian, Chinese, Japanese books and probably more. There are fascinating shifts in perspective throughout cultures and centuries. Victorian novels often have passive and melancholic characters suffering from their own affluence. Contemporary French novels have driven characters facing societal injustices. Russian books of the same era focus on the cruel circumstances people live in, and how they can ruin people's morals and lives. American sci fi by male authors are frequently power fantasies, which can be contrasted with Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic having the protagonist cry out that society never taught him how to be a good man.
There actually should be 0 typos in books because the copy’s read by *multiple* people before it’s sent to print. There used to be no errors in books. Now everything is sloppily done.
Thats complete bullshit - typos and print errors are as old as time. Multiple proofreaders will never catch so much in 100,000 words as the thousands of readers once the book is published. "There should be 0 typos in a novel" is like saying "there should be 0 bugs in software" or "there should be not a single mistake done by a surgeon" or "there should be no unsolved murder" Even if theoretically possible, its statistically highly improbable.
I'd definitely agree that there are more now, but I've read two books containing multiple typos only this month and both were first editions of popular books from the 20th century
If you feel a bit burnt out and/or dissatisfied with the current books that are coming out, I implore you to go back and read more of the classics! My interest in reading kinda died out because I felt everything felt dull and the same, until I decided to read Treasure Island and the Sherlock Holmes novels. They are classics for a reason, and in a weird ironic way felt incredibly refreshing when comparing to a lot of today's books that come out. I do think it is a mix of those older books not sticking to a certain formula for the sake of sales like I feel like a lot of modern stuff do, and them being less rushed, but mainly that we only remember the good stuff after a lot of years have passed. So if you look for one of the old classics you can be pretty sure that the quality is pretty high, otherwise it would not be remembered, while if you look at books that have come out the past few years it can be very hard to sift through the ones that are truly great from those that are just mediocre but the same genre
One of the biggest reasons why the "classics" are considered classic is because they have literary value; that is, they have conversations worth having, characters worth trying to understand and who represent a philosophy and archetype of person, and tend to be well written. Not to be like "back in my day," but many modern books lack these traits. I've noticed that many, though not all, modern book characters are one-dimensional and are simple enough to where you could project yourself onto the characters, many modern book plots are relatively simple to understand and are filled with familiar tropes (such as enemies to lovers, there was only one bed, etc.), and lack difficult prose/grammar. They're predictable, they're safe, and, not to be rude, but some of these newer books are the mental equivalent to McDonalds
@@H_54321,,,, they are classic because time filtered them out for their greatness , the mediocrity fell into the oblivion of forgotten litterature and only the shinies best remains
Fantastic video. Well put! I especially like the last point about tastes changing. It seems like some people are banging their head against a wall with a genre that they just simply have grown out of/don't like anymore. I like reading short story anthologies to find writers that I resonate with, then reading more of their longer fiction. This way you can discover new writers without having to commit to a full book. The "Greatest American" series every year is a great place to start.
I've been pondering this too. I think I am overly critical about books because I know how amazing books can be. Also I don't seem to know my taste very well but I have discovered that I almost always dislike debut novels (no matter the genre) and lit fic, and I almost always love memoirs
I don't have issues finding books I enjoy but idk if my advice will be useful, basically I stopped reading books by modern English native authors. I read mostly books originally written in other languages, those printing industries have not been contaminated by tiktokification as much yet. Being bilingual surely helps but I'm sure you can find any of those books in English as well.
@@ChemicalPenguinn some of my favorites authors are Mariana Enriquez, Isabel Allende and Cristina Peri Rossi, they are native Spanish speakers but you can find their works in English!
just widen your net and read classics from different countries. of course it's not a surprise that most gems have stood the test of time, so if something is considered a classic in its home country, it's definitely worth reading. the only thing not guaranteed is if it's your taste or not. edit: you can always switch it up and read manga, comics and graphic novels. a lot of cool reads are overlooked simply because these media aren't as "respected" as traditional literature.
Bingo. There’s more great books than you could read in several lifetimes, yet people read illiterate garbage from TikTok 😂 Life is WAAAY too short to waste on garbage.
As an author who comes out with 4-6 novellas or novels a year. Thank you very very much for pointing out how we are on an eternal countdown to finish our books or we become irrelevant.
This is why I don’t even want to start with novels. It’s just like all other commercial art- be churning stuff that hits the exact beat on the exact page, with these exact characters that you have to use. Then in between novels, promote it all on social media, do appearances, and make videos, podcasts blogs and otherwise spend any time not actually writing your next boilerplate novel promoting yourself and your books.
@@TheresaReichley yeah, that's why for the most part I write what I myself would want to read. Although, I am not going to lie, I have had to do books that were not entirely my style to try and hit a target category I should try for to make money. This is since no one is interested in my genre and tiktok actively surpresses authors like me that write lgbtq books. So I have tried hitting more popular genres to attempt to make some sort of money at all. But it is a very crowded market and very few care if your book is amazing and you are super talented, they just want to read the next popular book that is already trending. That's why Rebecca Yarros was forced to write a Fantasy by her publishers. She didn't even want to do it and now makes 3million dollars a month off one book in sales on amazon. All because her publishers were like you are making money but you could make more do fantasy. Like good for her she is making millions a month. But it would be great if people could support multiple authors, there are tons of readers, and there are amazing authors out there but they just flock to the popular. Which fuels the need for smaller authors to write random stuff to try and hit that market and to pump out stuff like a factory. Which can degrade the quality an author could have created if they had genuine time to really invest in things. Exactly what happened to Rebecca by the way. She had to write a sequel extra quick. And I want to preface this by saying she was already making hundreds of thousands of dollars off her romance books. She already had Trad publishers, she already got a bonus payment upfront. She was already doing well. Now because her team is good at marketing she is set for life. And yet she is still being forced to pump out these books quickly to stay trendy and relevant. If a girl making millions every month is still being forced by publishers to work at ground breaking pace (And so is her team)imagine what the little guys get. We get smashed into smithereens when we were already specks of dust. Of course giant names huge ones like Twilight, Harry potter or This Ends With Us(not this girl literally making up 49% of all romance sales in North America period). They are so large their earnings will be consistent forever until far into the future from now. I really beg people, check Indy authors out help us afford groceries. The hype is great for big names, put those on your tbr for later and help the little guy. The books are not going anywhere, and putting the pressure on a few people to uphold a strict regiment of constant book releases leads to everyone having to drown in releases. And big pubs don't even need to do these rapid releases either. Yet they do to keep up with demand. Rapid release used to be all the Indy authors had as leverage against the big pubs. Now we don't even have that. The big monsters have already destroyed the valley. Now let us have the crumbs. Please. - If you made it to the bottom, thanks for coming to my ted talk. Here is a 🍪 XD
@@myopicdreamsthanks for the cookie. But may I ask how and where to go to know what’s the trend and people reading? I already outlined some books, written some chapters, I was so happy but I don’t know why, now looking at my work I feel like they are already outdated.😢
@@Paikoun22 oh also important note you do not have to buy publisher rocket you can find the same info online but it is. Alot more tedious to do. I understand publisher rocket is 110usd or something like that. It's a lot of money and times are really stressful right now. I myself purchased it because they said they have plans to change it to monthly charges and I was like buy it for lifetime now or monthly charges no thank you haha.
You're onto something ✅! I find myself gravitating toward the classics (currently reading Don Quixote published in 1605!), though I don't exclusively read those types of books since I also like nonfiction and poetry. Just take up a book written in the 1930s, 1950s for a start and compare it to contemporary writing. There is a big discrepancy. I don't mean to come across as a snub, I'm simply calling a spade a spade🙂 You're not alone in having the perspective you've shared.
I agree. When people are saying that there’s no good books to read, they are forgetting that books have been written for hundreds of years. Books appearing on TiKTok and UA-cam are not the only options
The most frustrating thing is that a lot of YA books have very promising summary and looks amazing, but when you actually read it, it ends up falling short. The ones I've tried to read lately were poorly written, with an underdeveloped worldbuilding, shallow characters and boring romance, and the disappointment is horrible. Not all YA books are like that, but I often feel like I'm reading a first draft of something that could be really good if only it was properly edited, with more depth and maturity... But if I criticise the books, people tell me I should just enjoy what I get and "turn off my brain", which is honestly concerning.
When I started to read more again in adulthood, I really wanted to get into booktok and find more things I'd enjoy, but I was so frustrated as almost every book recommended by booktok seemed to range from mediocre to awful. The one that annoyed me most was Fourth Wing. It should have been great for me, fantasy, features my own disability, a character overcoming their struggles? Nope, have some extreme toxic perseverance and damaging misinformation with a health condition that only causes issues when dramatically appropriate (trips over and dislocates, can have very rough /relations/ without issue). I mostly end up sticking to older books now, which is sad, because I'd like to support newer authors.
I think my reasons for books not being good, for most people anymore. Is because Reading books is viewed as a niche Hobby, I mean you could say it always was. But not to this extreme extant, where it is now in 2024. And people do most of their reading online now, but mostly if there's something to read about. Like a UA-cam video title, or comment like mine. And also, when it comes to the education Geeks. Podcasts, are the new book. At least that's what a lot of them say. podcasts are more of a listening thing, than a reading thing. But that's just, my opinion.
I think your content is very interesting. You might read and therefore recommend books published in the past... not necessarily classics, but perhaps books written a couple of decades before social media got to be.
You can request books. And I’m pretty sure they’ll stock a lot more than just crappy TikTok vanity publishing. Classics, history, geography, popular science… There’s no excuse for reading garbage.
@@happymaskedguy1943 tbr I do order stuff but they dont stockée up they just bring one for you , that how I got my song of ice an fire set . I try the classics section , so far , it dont disappoint ofen , mainly in french tho , I try to branch put arabic sometimes , wich so far is untounched by tiktok crazes , but the Egyptian dialect wich is not my own who can show up sometimes is my bane , English is where the issue lies the importation ix already expensive so they only bring à limited catalogue of séries that will sell well , classics afin ont disappointment but I am kinda wear to adventure into not well established names And piracy because sometimes its jut not available
There are thousands of books coming out every year, it might be harder to find the good ones in the sea of promotion and book tok, but there is always something for everyone
Finished Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Sea, The Sea’, now reading Karen Blixen’s ‘Out of Africa’. After that I think I’m reading Heart of Darkness. My general rule is to only read things over 40 years old. If it’s still in print, chances are it’s worth reading. And anything older than 40 years old that’s out of print will generally be 100% higher quality than anything recommended on TikTok, because back then people could write. And read.
i just need a well-written, multi-themed novel with characters having plots beyond their romantic storylines and please, just for ONCE, no sex. If it’s fantasy, I don’t want lazy and often times, plagiarised worldbuilding, that only serves as background for more romance. I don’t want tropes more than plots. I don’t want to read something that reads like a wattpad story circa 2014.
For me it's definitely a combination of being more critical and a lot of low quality books being released. There also seem to be some genres that are just particularly poorly written. For me 2 of those are romantasy and litrpg. Romantasy definitely isn't my thing, but I picked up a few before I knew it was the new thing. The world building in those books tends to be rather poor and the actions of the characters often don't make sense. It's all just an excuse to write some smut. Which is fine, but at least put some effort in the rest of the story. Litrpgs I thought would be fun since I like fantasy and play a bunch of games, but they are also often poorly written, and I often find them hard to enjoy. There are some interesting worlds, but often they aren't fully thought through which results in plotholes. The interactions between characters are also often poorly written, especially between a male pov and female characters. This obviously doesn't apply to all books in these genres. I've read good books in both, but they have been extremely common across the books I've read. A thing that can make a book go from 4-5 stars to instantly dropping it is things not making sense. Often this is a character doing something stupid that only happens to move the story in a particular direction. Poorly written combat where a monster just stands by doing nothing as the hero does some impractical move to damage them or where they easily cut off the massive, armoured legs in a single swing of their normal weapon is just an instant dislike from me.
This is not to discredit the criticism that some books are being written too quickly to satisfy demand because I think that's accurate. But I'd just like to make a note about the author coming out with the 5 books in 12 months. I actually work in the industry on the distribution side and often times that is simply them rereleasing a series under a new publisher or just after being self published. For instance after the success of Blood and Ash, Jennifer Armentrout has been rereleasing her Covenant series (YA) under Sourcebooks since May. I believe this may be happening with some of her other adult series as well. And a new one in each of these is being released every couple of months or so. Just to add some context! Good points all around in this vid! :)
Honestly such a great video. I've been having trouble with finding interesting fantasy books because most of them feel like they're from booktok or atlesst read similar to those kinds of books, I do like the popular enemys to lovers trope but I find that most books with that trope have a annoying amount of sexual content in them and a plot that is pretty boring. I mostly read science books to be fair so maybe I could just not like fantasy all that much in general but trying to get into fantasy when pretty much all the fantasy books I come across read like something from booktok makes it pretty annoying :/
As someone who's very picky about the fantasy books I read, I would suggest that if you're trying to avoid reading fantasy books that feel like they're from booktok, it's best to read some of the older fantasy works. Also, you might like to search for books which are worldbuilding heavy. I've found that booktok books are majorly synonymous with romantasy and while this is not to say all romantasies are bad, its' hard finding one that doesn't read like something churned out just to please the masses. If you'd like recommendations I can give you.
@@sheepgrass500 For worldbuilding heavy works, it's usually best to read one of Sanderson's works. You can read one of his standalone such as 'Warbreaker' or 'Tress of the emerald sea' to get a feel for his writing style and find if you like it. I have two debut novels that I read this year that I did like which are 'Spin of fate' which came out earlier and 'The Dollmakers' which came out just last week (I'm currently reading this one and while it has an unlikeable main character, the world is intriguing). Looking for older works, sorry if it's cliche but read 'lord of the rings', there's also 'the sword of shannara' (you can read the original trilogy), 'the wizard from earthsea', and while this is a huge commitment that I myself I've not started, you can read 'the wheel of time' series (Although I've heard some of the later works are not as good but, I've heard wonderful things about the final battle.) While this is a booktok book, it's actually one of the few I enjoyed and it is 'Six of crows'. Moving away there are booktube darlings such has 'the faithful and fallen' series, 'the first law' trilogy and Robin Hobb books which are good.
If you want some good fantasy books that don't come from BookTok I can give three different series as recommendation: 1: The Wardstone Chronicles: My favourite fantasy series of books and unlike a lot of fantasy, a lot of it feels fairly grounded. It is about a kid who becomes an apprentice to a "Spook", whose job is to guard the local people from evil creatures like boggarts, witches, etc. They are easy to read and very engaging. The best part about it is that first three books (and especially the first one) are fairly standalone. So you can read the first one (The Spook's Apprentice) to see if you like it, without feeling like you need to commit to the whole book series. 2: The Books of Earthsea. One of the old classics, and is what I can best describe as "Harry Potter before Harry Potter was a thing." It is also way better than HP with much better worldbuilding and story themes. 3: The Hobbit / Lord of The Rings. They inspired pretty much all of fantasy after them for a reason. If you have not read them then I would highly recommend it. If you feel unsure about committing to LotR, then just read The Hobbit. It's a relatively short and easy read, but a great adventure nonetheless. I hope you'll find any of these recommendations helpful!
I recently finished an English translation of an insanely long Japanese light novel book series with amazing worldbuilding, a lot of diverse characters (in their minds not skin) and it's all available for purchase and reading digitally right now. It's even getting more anime adaptation next year, very exciting. It's called Ascendance of a Bookworm. My point is, try books from other countries. From the perspective of my native Russian I can recommend some fantasy books that I'd love more people to read.
Tips for finding books you like coming from someone who can be incredably picky. I try to try new books from time to time (get a library card, it gets expensive otherwise) I love me some goodold high fantasy without romance but don't mind a romance subplot. I am currently reading a dystopian romance. Is it my thing exactly no but I try it to try. I also tried a gay historical(ish) fantasy romance and am really enjoying it. If anyone wonders what the books are Dystopian love: Shatter me (the dystopian is mostly decor and the love story is at center) Gay fantasy romance: A taste of gold and iron (it is set in a world where being gay is while not the norm fairly normal so not a forbidden romance)
I am and I've been talking with a lot of mid-list writers. The really big issue is that if you're not an indie publisher who knows how to work all the corners, and that includes #booktok and similar things, you're on your own. You have to do your own marketing, your own editing, your own promotion, commission covers or make them yourself, etc, etc, etc... Most of the big publishers want lottery wins and the J.K. Rowlings and Steven Kings, not steady plugger novels that can be trusted to sell decently if not massively. Politics get in the way as well-if you're book won't sell to the people in Manhattan or London (who are an extremely socialist/communist/fascist bunch, very insular and terrifyingly Karen), you have to be a Major Author to get past those gatekeepers. And if you don't write for a very particular niche, you're very hard to market in a lot of these places. ("Imagine if Harry Dresden was a magical girl." "...that's hard to market. Need to add more yuri sex." "They're not legal yet." "So?") It's rough all around.
Read classics. Not just traditional ones, but modern ones. Stop reading derivative TikTok crap. Widen your horizons. Read about different cultures, different historical landscapes, different themes, different artistic styles. You are all likely pretty young. Once you get into your thirties, and people that you know and you are close to begin to die, only then does the true reality of how SHORT life is hit you. Don’t waste precious hours reading crap. Read literature that enhances your life, your mind, your intelligence, your empathy, your awareness. Trust me - the hour is much later than you think.
Leviathan Falls was published in 2021, Nona the Ninth the year after, Ann Leckie's Translation State came out this year. As did Timothy Zahn's Cloaked Deception. Murderbot and The Sojourn are still ongoing as well. I do not understand the issue? Excellent books are still being written and published.
I'll tell you why most books aren't good anymore. It's because the story and characters are just a checklist. They've become so formulaic to the point where they just aren't interesting. The authors aren't putting forth much effort these days.
Would it be fitting to list the variety of genres and notably, origins I read? • The "Classics" • Horror, late 19th & early 20th century • Horror, modern • Detective stories, classic • Detective stories, hard boiled • Science Fiction, classics • Science Fiction, modern • Science Fiction, Soviet • Space Opera (Star Wars) • Fantasy, English • Fantasy, Celtic • Fantasy, Japanese • Historical Fiction • Thrillers • Light Novels, Court Intrigue • Light Novels, fantasy Isekai • Light Novels, WW2 Isekai • History textbooks • Historical alchemical & magical books • Historical texts on history • Historical military manuals • Norse Sagas • Various ancient myths • Chinese philosophy
If you enjoy these discussion videos, definitely let me know whether there's any topics you want to see me cover.
EDIT: The description now has chapters, so if you want to skip to certain sections, they are as follows --
0:00 are books good anymore?
0:18 getting more critical
1:40 booktok & publishing trends
5:21 tastes change
9:38 solutions?
Very petty complaint but so many "enemies to lovers" are not ACTUAL "enemies to lovers," it's more along the lines of "hot person I mildly dislike for a bit but am purely only physically attracted to bickers with me before we rush into a relationship founded on little more than lust and surface-level acquaintance"
@@soapyteethmcgee7324 omg so true
Would have to agree with you there
Only loosely related but l dislike how so many modern romance novels predominately consist of upper class, conventionally attractive characters who have little to no responsibilities in life. I'm not saying people aren't allowed to like these books, but for me it's completely unenjoyable and unrelatable to read about an extremely attractive girl (who doesn't know she's beautiful but secretly all of the guys want her) who goes to an exclusive academy and has the prince/mafia boss/billionaire fall in love with her specifically and who buys her everything she could want. I wish there was more romance catered to the working class and people in poverty, and this is one of the reasons why Little Women is one of the rare romances I actually do like
this is sadly so true
Not only is it a good idea to explore new genres, explore new cultures as well.
I have read Swedish, Icelandic, English, Welsh, French, Soviet, Greek, Roman, Italian, American, Sumerian, Babylonian, Chinese, Japanese books and probably more.
There are fascinating shifts in perspective throughout cultures and centuries.
Victorian novels often have passive and melancholic characters suffering from their own affluence.
Contemporary French novels have driven characters facing societal injustices.
Russian books of the same era focus on the cruel circumstances people live in, and how they can ruin people's morals and lives.
American sci fi by male authors are frequently power fantasies, which can be contrasted with Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic having the protagonist cry out that society never taught him how to be a good man.
There actually should be 0 typos in books because the copy’s read by *multiple* people before it’s sent to print. There used to be no errors in books. Now everything is sloppily done.
Thats complete bullshit - typos and print errors are as old as time. Multiple proofreaders will never catch so much in 100,000 words as the thousands of readers once the book is published.
"There should be 0 typos in a novel" is like saying "there should be 0 bugs in software" or "there should be not a single mistake done by a surgeon" or "there should be no unsolved murder"
Even if theoretically possible, its statistically highly improbable.
I'd definitely agree that there are more now, but I've read two books containing multiple typos only this month and both were first editions of popular books from the 20th century
unless its qn indie autor
If you feel a bit burnt out and/or dissatisfied with the current books that are coming out, I implore you to go back and read more of the classics! My interest in reading kinda died out because I felt everything felt dull and the same, until I decided to read Treasure Island and the Sherlock Holmes novels. They are classics for a reason, and in a weird ironic way felt incredibly refreshing when comparing to a lot of today's books that come out.
I do think it is a mix of those older books not sticking to a certain formula for the sake of sales like I feel like a lot of modern stuff do, and them being less rushed, but mainly that we only remember the good stuff after a lot of years have passed. So if you look for one of the old classics you can be pretty sure that the quality is pretty high, otherwise it would not be remembered, while if you look at books that have come out the past few years it can be very hard to sift through the ones that are truly great from those that are just mediocre but the same genre
One of the biggest reasons why the "classics" are considered classic is because they have literary value; that is, they have conversations worth having, characters worth trying to understand and who represent a philosophy and archetype of person, and tend to be well written. Not to be like "back in my day," but many modern books lack these traits. I've noticed that many, though not all, modern book characters are one-dimensional and are simple enough to where you could project yourself onto the characters, many modern book plots are relatively simple to understand and are filled with familiar tropes (such as enemies to lovers, there was only one bed, etc.), and lack difficult prose/grammar. They're predictable, they're safe, and, not to be rude, but some of these newer books are the mental equivalent to McDonalds
@@H_54321,,,, they are classic because time filtered them out for their greatness , the mediocrity fell into the oblivion of forgotten litterature and only the shinies best remains
Fantastic video. Well put! I especially like the last point about tastes changing. It seems like some people are banging their head against a wall with a genre that they just simply have grown out of/don't like anymore.
I like reading short story anthologies to find writers that I resonate with, then reading more of their longer fiction. This way you can discover new writers without having to commit to a full book. The "Greatest American" series every year is a great place to start.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I've been pondering this too. I think I am overly critical about books because I know how amazing books can be. Also I don't seem to know my taste very well but I have discovered that I almost always dislike debut novels (no matter the genre) and lit fic, and I almost always love memoirs
I don't have issues finding books I enjoy but idk if my advice will be useful, basically I stopped reading books by modern English native authors. I read mostly books originally written in other languages, those printing industries have not been contaminated by tiktokification as much yet. Being bilingual surely helps but I'm sure you can find any of those books in English as well.
I learn French, so that's a great tip thanks!
@@ChemicalPenguinn some of my favorites authors are Mariana Enriquez, Isabel Allende and Cristina Peri Rossi, they are native Spanish speakers but you can find their works in English!
just widen your net and read classics from different countries. of course it's not a surprise that most gems have stood the test of time, so if something is considered a classic in its home country, it's definitely worth reading. the only thing not guaranteed is if it's your taste or not.
edit:
you can always switch it up and read manga, comics and graphic novels. a lot of cool reads are overlooked simply because these media aren't as "respected" as traditional literature.
Bingo. There’s more great books than you could read in several lifetimes, yet people read illiterate garbage from TikTok 😂
Life is WAAAY too short to waste on garbage.
As an author who comes out with 4-6 novellas or novels a year. Thank you very very much for pointing out how we are on an eternal countdown to finish our books or we become irrelevant.
This is why I don’t even want to start with novels. It’s just like all other commercial art- be churning stuff that hits the exact beat on the exact page, with these exact characters that you have to use. Then in between novels, promote it all on social media, do appearances, and make videos, podcasts blogs and otherwise spend any time not actually writing your next boilerplate novel promoting yourself and your books.
@@TheresaReichley yeah, that's why for the most part I write what I myself would want to read. Although, I am not going to lie, I have had to do books that were not entirely my style to try and hit a target category I should try for to make money. This is since no one is interested in my genre and tiktok actively surpresses authors like me that write lgbtq books. So I have tried hitting more popular genres to attempt to make some sort of money at all. But it is a very crowded market and very few care if your book is amazing and you are super talented, they just want to read the next popular book that is already trending. That's why Rebecca Yarros was forced to write a Fantasy by her publishers. She didn't even want to do it and now makes 3million dollars a month off one book in sales on amazon. All because her publishers were like you are making money but you could make more do fantasy. Like good for her she is making millions a month. But it would be great if people could support multiple authors, there are tons of readers, and there are amazing authors out there but they just flock to the popular. Which fuels the need for smaller authors to write random stuff to try and hit that market and to pump out stuff like a factory. Which can degrade the quality an author could have created if they had genuine time to really invest in things. Exactly what happened to Rebecca by the way. She had to write a sequel extra quick. And I want to preface this by saying she was already making hundreds of thousands of dollars off her romance books. She already had Trad publishers, she already got a bonus payment upfront. She was already doing well. Now because her team is good at marketing she is set for life. And yet she is still being forced to pump out these books quickly to stay trendy and relevant. If a girl making millions every month is still being forced by publishers to work at ground breaking pace (And so is her team)imagine what the little guys get. We get smashed into smithereens when we were already specks of dust. Of course giant names huge ones like Twilight, Harry potter or This Ends With Us(not this girl literally making up 49% of all romance sales in North America period). They are so large their earnings will be consistent forever until far into the future from now. I really beg people, check Indy authors out help us afford groceries. The hype is great for big names, put those on your tbr for later and help the little guy. The books are not going anywhere, and putting the pressure on a few people to uphold a strict regiment of constant book releases leads to everyone having to drown in releases. And big pubs don't even need to do these rapid releases either. Yet they do to keep up with demand. Rapid release used to be all the Indy authors had as leverage against the big pubs. Now we don't even have that. The big monsters have already destroyed the valley. Now let us have the crumbs. Please. - If you made it to the bottom, thanks for coming to my ted talk. Here is a 🍪 XD
@@myopicdreamsthanks for the cookie. But may I ask how and where to go to know what’s the trend and people reading? I already outlined some books, written some chapters, I was so happy but I don’t know why, now looking at my work I feel like they are already outdated.😢
Don’t play to the gallery.
@@Paikoun22 oh also important note you do not have to buy publisher rocket you can find the same info online but it is. Alot more tedious to do. I understand publisher rocket is 110usd or something like that. It's a lot of money and times are really stressful right now. I myself purchased it because they said they have plans to change it to monthly charges and I was like buy it for lifetime now or monthly charges no thank you haha.
You're onto something ✅! I find myself gravitating toward the classics (currently reading Don Quixote published in 1605!), though I don't exclusively read those types of books since I also like nonfiction and poetry. Just take up a book written in the 1930s, 1950s for a start and compare it to contemporary writing. There is a big discrepancy. I don't mean to come across as a snub, I'm simply calling a spade a spade🙂 You're not alone in having the perspective you've shared.
I agree. When people are saying that there’s no good books to read, they are forgetting that books have been written for hundreds of years. Books appearing on TiKTok and UA-cam are not the only options
The most frustrating thing is that a lot of YA books have very promising summary and looks amazing, but when you actually read it, it ends up falling short. The ones I've tried to read lately were poorly written, with an underdeveloped worldbuilding, shallow characters and boring romance, and the disappointment is horrible.
Not all YA books are like that, but I often feel like I'm reading a first draft of something that could be really good if only it was properly edited, with more depth and maturity... But if I criticise the books, people tell me I should just enjoy what I get and "turn off my brain", which is honestly concerning.
this!
When I started to read more again in adulthood, I really wanted to get into booktok and find more things I'd enjoy, but I was so frustrated as almost every book recommended by booktok seemed to range from mediocre to awful. The one that annoyed me most was Fourth Wing. It should have been great for me, fantasy, features my own disability, a character overcoming their struggles? Nope, have some extreme toxic perseverance and damaging misinformation with a health condition that only causes issues when dramatically appropriate (trips over and dislocates, can have very rough /relations/ without issue). I mostly end up sticking to older books now, which is sad, because I'd like to support newer authors.
This vid was amazing, video essays as well as book reviews are definitely ur style. I only learn abt books and booktok from you
Thank you! I remembered how much I like doing video essays with this video!
I think my reasons for books not being good, for most people anymore. Is because Reading books is viewed as a niche Hobby, I mean you could say it always was. But not to this extreme extant, where it is now in 2024. And people do most of their reading online now, but mostly if there's something to read about. Like a UA-cam video title, or comment like mine. And also, when it comes to the education Geeks. Podcasts, are the new book. At least that's what a lot of them say. podcasts are more of a listening thing, than a reading thing. But that's just, my opinion.
I think your content is very interesting. You might read and therefore recommend books published in the past... not necessarily classics, but perhaps books written a couple of decades before social media got to be.
thank you!
Here’s a free tip:
Stop reading social media promoted garbage.
I know right, crazy.
counter point my local library stock up mainly on what they think will sell and often is#ts popular books
You can request books. And I’m pretty sure they’ll stock a lot more than just crappy TikTok vanity publishing.
Classics, history, geography, popular science… There’s no excuse for reading garbage.
@@happymaskedguy1943 tbr I do order stuff but they dont stockée up they just bring one for you , that how I got my song of ice an fire set .
I try the classics section , so far , it dont disappoint ofen , mainly in french tho , I try to branch put arabic sometimes , wich so far is untounched by tiktok crazes , but the Egyptian dialect wich is not my own who can show up sometimes is my bane , English is where the issue lies the importation ix already expensive so they only bring à limited catalogue of séries that will sell well , classics afin ont disappointment but I am kinda wear to adventure into not well established names
And piracy because sometimes its jut not available
There are thousands of books coming out every year, it might be harder to find the good ones in the sea of promotion and book tok, but there is always something for everyone
Finished Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Sea, The Sea’, now reading Karen Blixen’s ‘Out of Africa’. After that I think I’m reading Heart of Darkness.
My general rule is to only read things over 40 years old. If it’s still in print, chances are it’s worth reading. And anything older than 40 years old that’s out of print will generally be 100% higher quality than anything recommended on TikTok, because back then people could write. And read.
i just need a well-written, multi-themed novel with characters having plots beyond their romantic storylines and please, just for ONCE, no sex. If it’s fantasy, I don’t want lazy and often times, plagiarised worldbuilding, that only serves as background for more romance. I don’t want tropes more than plots. I don’t want to read something that reads like a wattpad story circa 2014.
Read actual literature then.
For me it's definitely a combination of being more critical and a lot of low quality books being released.
There also seem to be some genres that are just particularly poorly written. For me 2 of those are romantasy and litrpg. Romantasy definitely isn't my thing, but I picked up a few before I knew it was the new thing. The world building in those books tends to be rather poor and the actions of the characters often don't make sense. It's all just an excuse to write some smut. Which is fine, but at least put some effort in the rest of the story.
Litrpgs I thought would be fun since I like fantasy and play a bunch of games, but they are also often poorly written, and I often find them hard to enjoy. There are some interesting worlds, but often they aren't fully thought through which results in plotholes. The interactions between characters are also often poorly written, especially between a male pov and female characters.
This obviously doesn't apply to all books in these genres. I've read good books in both, but they have been extremely common across the books I've read.
A thing that can make a book go from 4-5 stars to instantly dropping it is things not making sense. Often this is a character doing something stupid that only happens to move the story in a particular direction. Poorly written combat where a monster just stands by doing nothing as the hero does some impractical move to damage them or where they easily cut off the massive, armoured legs in a single swing of their normal weapon is just an instant dislike from me.
This is not to discredit the criticism that some books are being written too quickly to satisfy demand because I think that's accurate. But I'd just like to make a note about the author coming out with the 5 books in 12 months. I actually work in the industry on the distribution side and often times that is simply them rereleasing a series under a new publisher or just after being self published. For instance after the success of Blood and Ash, Jennifer Armentrout has been rereleasing her Covenant series (YA) under Sourcebooks since May. I believe this may be happening with some of her other adult series as well. And a new one in each of these is being released every couple of months or so. Just to add some context! Good points all around in this vid! :)
that's a good point! I'm not sure it applies to the author in context, but I could be very wrong!
Honestly such a great video. I've been having trouble with finding interesting fantasy books because most of them feel like they're from booktok or atlesst read similar to those kinds of books, I do like the popular enemys to lovers trope but I find that most books with that trope have a annoying amount of sexual content in them and a plot that is pretty boring.
I mostly read science books to be fair so maybe I could just not like fantasy all that much in general but trying to get into fantasy when pretty much all the fantasy books I come across read like something from booktok makes it pretty annoying :/
thank you!!!
As someone who's very picky about the fantasy books I read, I would suggest that if you're trying to avoid reading fantasy books that feel like they're from booktok, it's best to read some of the older fantasy works. Also, you might like to search for books which are worldbuilding heavy.
I've found that booktok books are majorly synonymous with romantasy and while this is not to say all romantasies are bad, its' hard finding one that doesn't read like something churned out just to please the masses. If you'd like recommendations I can give you.
@@oyindamolaoluwadiya180 oh yes please! I'd love some recommendations :D
@@sheepgrass500 For worldbuilding heavy works, it's usually best to read one of Sanderson's works. You can read one of his standalone such as 'Warbreaker' or 'Tress of the emerald sea' to get a feel for his writing style and find if you like it. I have two debut novels that I read this year that I did like which are 'Spin of fate' which came out earlier and 'The Dollmakers' which came out just last week (I'm currently reading this one and while it has an unlikeable main character, the world is intriguing).
Looking for older works, sorry if it's cliche but read 'lord of the rings', there's also 'the sword of shannara' (you can read the original trilogy), 'the wizard from earthsea', and while this is a huge commitment that I myself I've not started, you can read 'the wheel of time' series (Although I've heard some of the later works are not as good but, I've heard wonderful things about the final battle.)
While this is a booktok book, it's actually one of the few I enjoyed and it is 'Six of crows'. Moving away there are booktube darlings such has 'the faithful and fallen' series, 'the first law' trilogy and Robin Hobb books which are good.
If you want some good fantasy books that don't come from BookTok I can give three different series as recommendation:
1: The Wardstone Chronicles:
My favourite fantasy series of books and unlike a lot of fantasy, a lot of it feels fairly grounded. It is about a kid who becomes an apprentice to a "Spook", whose job is to guard the local people from evil creatures like boggarts, witches, etc. They are easy to read and very engaging. The best part about it is that first three books (and especially the first one) are fairly standalone. So you can read the first one (The Spook's Apprentice) to see if you like it, without feeling like you need to commit to the whole book series.
2: The Books of Earthsea.
One of the old classics, and is what I can best describe as "Harry Potter before Harry Potter was a thing." It is also way better than HP with much better worldbuilding and story themes.
3: The Hobbit / Lord of The Rings.
They inspired pretty much all of fantasy after them for a reason. If you have not read them then I would highly recommend it. If you feel unsure about committing to LotR, then just read The Hobbit. It's a relatively short and easy read, but a great adventure nonetheless.
I hope you'll find any of these recommendations helpful!
I recently finished an English translation of an insanely long Japanese light novel book series with amazing worldbuilding, a lot of diverse characters (in their minds not skin) and it's all available for purchase and reading digitally right now. It's even getting more anime adaptation next year, very exciting. It's called Ascendance of a Bookworm. My point is, try books from other countries. From the perspective of my native Russian I can recommend some fantasy books that I'd love more people to read.
Tips for finding books you like coming from someone who can be incredably picky. I try to try new books from time to time (get a library card, it gets expensive otherwise) I love me some goodold high fantasy without romance but don't mind a romance subplot. I am currently reading a dystopian romance. Is it my thing exactly no but I try it to try. I also tried a gay historical(ish) fantasy romance and am really enjoying it.
If anyone wonders what the books are
Dystopian love: Shatter me (the dystopian is mostly decor and the love story is at center)
Gay fantasy romance: A taste of gold and iron (it is set in a world where being gay is while not the norm fairly normal so not a forbidden romance)
I am and I've been talking with a lot of mid-list writers. The really big issue is that if you're not an indie publisher who knows how to work all the corners, and that includes #booktok and similar things, you're on your own. You have to do your own marketing, your own editing, your own promotion, commission covers or make them yourself, etc, etc, etc...
Most of the big publishers want lottery wins and the J.K. Rowlings and Steven Kings, not steady plugger novels that can be trusted to sell decently if not massively.
Politics get in the way as well-if you're book won't sell to the people in Manhattan or London (who are an extremely socialist/communist/fascist bunch, very insular and terrifyingly Karen), you have to be a Major Author to get past those gatekeepers.
And if you don't write for a very particular niche, you're very hard to market in a lot of these places.
("Imagine if Harry Dresden was a magical girl."
"...that's hard to market. Need to add more yuri sex."
"They're not legal yet."
"So?")
It's rough all around.
Read classics. Not just traditional ones, but modern ones. Stop reading derivative TikTok crap. Widen your horizons. Read about different cultures, different historical landscapes, different themes, different artistic styles.
You are all likely pretty young. Once you get into your thirties, and people that you know and you are close to begin to die, only then does the true reality of how SHORT life is hit you.
Don’t waste precious hours reading crap. Read literature that enhances your life, your mind, your intelligence, your empathy, your awareness.
Trust me - the hour is much later than you think.
Leviathan Falls was published in 2021, Nona the Ninth the year after, Ann Leckie's Translation State came out this year. As did Timothy Zahn's Cloaked Deception.
Murderbot and The Sojourn are still ongoing as well.
I do not understand the issue? Excellent books are still being written and published.
Pray to the book gods 😂
😂😂😂
I'll tell you why most books aren't good anymore. It's because the story and characters are just a checklist. They've become so formulaic to the point where they just aren't interesting. The authors aren't putting forth much effort these days.
It's a real shame!
Would it be fitting to list the variety of genres and notably, origins I read?
• The "Classics"
• Horror, late 19th & early 20th century
• Horror, modern
• Detective stories, classic
• Detective stories, hard boiled
• Science Fiction, classics
• Science Fiction, modern
• Science Fiction, Soviet
• Space Opera (Star Wars)
• Fantasy, English
• Fantasy, Celtic
• Fantasy, Japanese
• Historical Fiction
• Thrillers
• Light Novels, Court Intrigue
• Light Novels, fantasy Isekai
• Light Novels, WW2 Isekai
• History textbooks
• Historical alchemical & magical books
• Historical texts on history
• Historical military manuals
• Norse Sagas
• Various ancient myths
• Chinese philosophy
Yeah T_T