Top 5 Wednesdays: Bookish Things You’ve Changed Your Mind About

When I first saw this week’s prompt, I thought it was meant to be about books that I’d changed my mind about and expected it to be quite difficult. I could only think of a couple of books that I’ve reread and actually had my mind changed, although I have a few that I’d like to give another chance. I realized upon re-reading the prompt that it was actually about bookish things, and not necessarily books themselves, which made it so much easier. I seem to go through phases with my reading and especially with my book buying habits, so it wasn’t too hard to find things I’d changed my mind about. I think in most cases, I changed my mind

Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.

1) Graphic Novels – For a long time, I wouldn’t read graphic novels at all because I assumed that I would not like them. I thought they would be confusing and difficult to understand. The only reason I started reading graphic novels at all is because one was a requirement for my Children’s Lit class in university. It wasn’t my favourite, but I at least found it relatively easy to read so it showed me that the format might not be so intimidating. Through my years of doing reading challenges, I’ve read a variety of graphic novels, some better than others, to the point where I’ve now made it a goal for the year to read more of them. I do have some trouble with the format at times, but many of the ones I’ve tried are such great stories that I don’t mind.

2) Reading series vs. standalones – This was another thing that I changed my mind about because of doing my reading challenges. The first few years, I tried to avoid “wasting” too many prompts on series by limiting myself to no more than one book per author per year, which I’ve come to realize was a mistake. It means that by the time I read the next book in a series, up to a year has passed and it’s much harder to remember what was going on. I also avoided reading series because some of them seemed overwhelming (ie. Cassandra Clare), and I didn’t want to feel “stuck” in the same world for too long if I had to read many of the books close together so I didn’t forget details. Over the past couple of years, I’ve started (and finished) some amazing series and I’m glad I loosened up my self-imposed rules around them.

3) Overhyped books – I’ve mentioned this one many times before, but I think it is one of the biggest changes I’ve made over the years. I actively avoid series that feel overhyped. It gets to a certain point where I get so sick of seeing it everywhere that I completely lose all interest in reading them. In the past couple of years especially, I’ve learned to listen to the hype a little more often because in most cases, when a book is getting that much hype, it’s worth it. My first experience of this was actually Harry Potter, which I almost didn’t read around the time it came out because even with just the first book, I got fed up of hearing about it. In the past few years, it’s also applied to The Lunar Chronicles, ACOTAR, The Raven Boys, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, just to name a few. Hype alone is not enough of a reason for me to pick up a book, but I won’t automatically avoid (most of) them either.

4) Buying books that aren’t in perfect condition – When I was younger, I used to bring home literally bags full of books from library book sales. I didn’t care at all about the condition of the books, and ended up grabbing a ton that I never ended up reading even though I kept them for years. After a while, I started to shift away from that to either using the library or only buying “real” copies of the books I wanted from a bookstore. Since discovering BookOutlet a couple of years ago, I’ve shifted back a bit toward being less picky about the physical condition of my books. I only buy books from the “Bargain Books” section, which are supposed to be in good condition but may have a bit of marker on the top or bottom or something small like that. I still generally want to buy “good” copies of my favourites, but I’ve definitely become a lot more open to buying books that aren’t in perfect condition. It does frustrate me a bit when a brand new book is damaged before I’ve even read it, but BookOutlet has definitely made buying books more affordable, ahd the condition in general has been excellent.

5) Book format – I have absolutely no idea why, but I used to have a very strong preference for mass market paperback books, and now I can’t stand the format! I think at the time I found them easiest to carry around with me and read, but I now find them kind of awkward and uncomfortable to hold. I also keep vacillating on whether I prefer hardcover or paperback books. I like paperbacks because they are lighter and often cheaper, but I also like hardcovers because they are much more durable and harder to damage. I actually avoid buying mass market paperbacks at all by now, and it’s about 50-50 for paperback and hardcovers. I also tend not to read e-books or listen to audiobooks because I find them somehow more difficult to pay attention to. I tend to skim e-books and lose focus if listening to an audiobook, but it’s possible my opinions on these will change too!

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