Read Whatever You Want, You're Still a Reader

I'm pissed, so there will be swearing. A LOT of swearing.

I have been in the book business off and on since 1994—more on than off, to be clear—and I have always read genre fiction. This made me an outlier and, to be perfectly honest, an outcast among independent booksellers for a long time. I always found kindred spirits with whom I could talk Romance or Science Fiction or Mystery, but we were like Catholics during the Reformation, recognizing each other by secret hand signals and fearful of exchanging more than whispered recommendations for fear of being caught out by our more literary-minded peers. In time, that started to change. I not only found more indie booksellers who read what I read, but more and more booksellers who may not share my tastes, but accepted and respected them nonetheless.

But, the Old School Independent Booksellers are still out there. They're still gatekeeping. They're still trying to make me feel lesser because I don't read and love the "right" books. (They're still pretty much all older white men.) And in the last couple of months, I've experienced several of them. Today, it just got too much and I cracked. Not in public, because I still have to deal with these assholes in my professional life and I'm not quite ready to be a pariah. But, FUCK THEM. How dare they fucking try to tell me I'm not a reader or a bookseller because I don't swoon over the Dead White Man Canon. How dare they fucking judge me because I like happy endings and magic and shit blowing up. HOW FUCKING DARE THEY.

I'm done. I'm done being quiet. I'm done apologizing for what I choose to read. I'm done sitting back and pretending it's okay that industry newsletters don't review the books that I like to read and sell. I am starting a fucking revolution that shouldn't even need to be a revolution. I am declaring, here and now, that YOU ARE A READER and YOUR BOOK CHOICES ARE WORTHY.

You love Hemingway? Great. Let's have a conversation about why you do and I don't. You haven't read Nora Roberts? Let me try to convince you why you should and why she is a fucking goddess. You don't like Nicholas Sparks? Neither do I, but Jane Doe does. Let's ask her what it is about his books that works for her. We don't have to agree on books or authors. The world would be really boring if we all did that. Instead, let's celebrate the fact that we are all readers and we have found each other. Let's have each others' backs and protect our fellow readers from the scorn of the gatekeepers and tastemakers and anyone else who dares to try to make us feel lesser.

We are the revolution. We read whatever we want. We reject your scorn and your judgment. You have no power over us or our choices. WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO MAKE US FEEL LESSER.

Bite me, motherfuckers. Your time is so fucking up.

My Very Own Book Tournament Thingy

It's nearly December, so everyone's coming out with their "Best of 2018" book lists and folks like The Morning News are starting to gear up for their book tournaments and I am, again, trying really hard not to groan so loud that people in the next room can hear it. I mean, sure there are lots of books on these lists that are, by any objective measure, really good books. But, sweet baby jeebus in the manger, so few of them are actually enjoyable that it makes me sad/angry/frustrated. Howsoever, where there is a problem, there is probably a solution and I think I've come up with one. Granted, the solution will probably make me batshit insane by the end, but I think I'm okay with being more crazy.

Here, then, is what I am doing:

I am creating my own book tournament.

I am asking my bookish friends to help me pick a slate of titles that came out in 2018 and were enjoyable to read. I don't care if they are "good" in a critics'-darling sort of way, as long as they were, in some way, enjoyable to read. Did the story captivate you? Were the characters people you wanted to have dinner with? Were the characters people you wanted to set on fire with your brain? Really, did you just care about the characters in some way, either good or bad? Did you have an awesome time hate-reading a book? Was there a book that was total book crack for you? These are the books I'm going to pit against each other in my tournament. I don't care about the hot literary novel about a broken family. I want the hot Romance novel with two broken people finding love. I want the Mystery novel where you figured out whodunnit by page 10, but kept reading because the dialogue was sparkling. I want the memoir that made you laugh out loud or decide that the memoirist was your new BFF, even though you've never met and likely never will. I want the historical fiction wherein a dress was so lovingly and exquisitely described that you did a Google image search for it. I want the YA-fantasy-love triangle that had you saying "Well, that was a cliche from top to bottom, but I cannot wait for the next book in the series." I know that, for some of my friends, the books they most enjoyed will also be good books and I want those, too. I just don't want anyone to feel like books they nominate need to be impressive in any way. This is about the joy of reading and of sharing the books we love with others and maybe arguing their merits, depending on how "fancy" I want to get with this here tournament-thingy.

If you are reading this and haven't already been invited to join the Facebook group created for the tourney, you can find us here. Come join us and fight and vote for your favorite books of 2018.