"Just a Book"

Yesterday, I came across several instances of "just a book," which really got me thinking and, admittedly, ranting. Referring to something as "just a book" is incredibly dismissive, something that I'm used to hearing from people who don't read, but that breaks my heart to hear from a bookworm like myself.

I'm going to paraphrase what I saw, just as examples. I don't want to call out anyone specific, but more to consider why these phrases put my on edge.

1: An author, asked about the next writing project: "Just another YA book."

2: A Goodreads user: "This is just a dystopia/science fiction, so there's no reason to look at it with a critical lens."

3: A Goodreads user in response to a somewhat negative status update: "It's just a book; I think you're taking it too seriously."

If you're spending all of this time reading and interacting with a community of readers, perhaps blogging, why do you feel the need to lessen the importance of books. Even if the book has little to no intellectual value, you're reading it for a reason. Emotional uplifting, like the happy buzz a romance novel might bring or the enjoyment of puzzling out a cozy mystery, alone is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, the whole "just a book" thing seems to relegate reading to the position of a guilty pleasure.

Though I admit that I do enjoy the phrase guilty pleasure, and do still sort of like to use it, I don't actually believe that you should feel any guilt about the books you choose to read. I might term something like Anna Godbersen's Luxe series a guilty pleasure of mine, but I'm not actually embarrassed to admit that I had a blast reading them. I've sort of switched to calling them candy or potato chip reads: they may not be your bookish sustenance, but you just can't stop eating them.

Don't feel guilt about what you're reading and don't feel like you need to put down your own hobby. Books are important, and, in most situations, there's no cause to say "oh, it's just a book." I mean, sure, I can think of a few scenarios I might say it, but they're going to be exceptions. For example: if I were crying about a book and called a friend who was crying because of a family crisis, and then asked why I was sad, I might mumble something about 'just a book.' Sure, relative to certain things, just a book has valid meaning. However, when talking to other bookish people about nothing but books, there seems little reason to put them or yourself down for putting a lot of meaning in books.

Referring again to those examples up above, I would like to respond to each one with why I think such comments are poisonous to the atmosphere of the book blogging/GR world.

Scenario 1: In this case, the comment comes across as denigrating YA, rather than books as a whole. Where the author could have replied enthusiastically with "Another YA book!" instead this person put down their own work and the age group that it serves, as though YA is somehow lesser. Perhaps this person has goals to eventually write literary fiction for adults, or maybe they merely failed to think through the connotation of their statement. My point is that a phrase like that is harmful, and may have negative connotations you should consider. And, if an author truly does think it's just another YA book, and that that's a bit shameful, then they should probably be writing for the audience they value. Again, I'm not trying to make a commentary on the specific author, because tone is hard to read over the internet, especially in such a brief context; I don't know the author's motivations or thought processes, and speak solely to how it reads to me.

Scenario 2: Here again, we see a comment that puts down a specific genre. Speculative fiction is just that, asking a 'what if?', so the authors can pretty much do what they want and shouldn't be criticized for a poor portrayal of the way something works in the real world. With this case, there was no mistaking tone or intent. Honestly, I'm very sad that anyone would feel this way. All fiction is a reflection on the world we live in, no matter how original or disparate it may appear. We know nothing but the real world, and, if you think about it broadly, authors can only write what they know. Yes, we have powerful imaginations, but the creations therefrom are still reflecting on something real that's been observed and portraying it differently or combining things into something new, like someone looked at a horse, added bird wings, and imagined the pegasus. Any sort of fiction merits analysis, I think, and if you think so little of the genre you're reading that it shouldn't be held to a set of standards, then why are you reading it? Sure, there are books that go better for me if I can sort of 'turn my brain off' as it were, suspending my disbelief, but I would never make such comments about a genre as a whole. I believe that there are brilliant novels in every genre, even romance and erotica, which I cite not to personally insult them, but because they are oft-picked-on as being mindless entertainment/guilty pleasures. Just because something is entertaining or because it's set in a fantasy world doesn't mean it is without literary merit or that it should not be criticized for poorly interpreting our world. We readers can read however we want. That's our prerogative and we're not doing anything wrong.

Scenario 3: My problems with this one are myriad. Like the others, it's dismissive, and here it's insulting books as a whole. Like with the second scenario I witnessed, we have this idea that books should not be analyzed too closely. Of course, the context here was a status update commenting about how a certain phrase was offensive and made the reader uncomfortable. What are the odds that the "just a book" person would have felt moved to make the comment about the reader taking the book "too seriously" had it been an effusive status update declaring some quote from the book to be the best ever? Pretty much nil.

This attitude is pretty pervasive with regards to negative reviews and status updates. When book reviewers write these, we're accused of taking the book "too seriously," of not remember that it's fiction or "just a book." We're told we've read wrong, being too critical, too nit-picky, expecting too much from some words on a paper. Yet, when we praise a book to the skies, including quotes that made us want to be best friends with the character/author, where are the dismissive hordes, saying that we've taken the book "too seriously"? Now, believe me, I'm not suggesting trolls should hop onto positive reviews right now, but that people look at this from another angle to recognize the hypocrisy. Putting down personal opinions and reactions to a negative book devalues book reviewing as whole; such comments beg questions of which these individuals seem altogether unaware.

I don't know how it is for everyone else, but for me BOOKS MATTER. I'm not remotely ashamed that I read 367 books last year, and that I've read over 120 so far this year. To me, that time is well spent, even with the books I hated or the ones I was bored by. Sure, I might wish I'd read something else, but I'm glad that time was spent reading. I'm not embarrassed that I spend most of my day with my mind on fiction, whether reading, reviewing, twittering, GRing, or doing something else entirely while thinking about books.

Though, unlike some, I can't necessarily cite a specific book that had a monumental impact on my life, changed me as a person, I do think every single book I read plays into making me a better person. Looking at them critically, figuring out what I love and hate in characters and writing helps me decide what kind of person I want to be and techniques I might want to avoid or employ in my own writing. Even from the most facile novel, there are lessons to be learned, even if they're not factual. Books inspire me, they uplift me, they give me hope, they teach me, they thrill me, and they get me out of my own brain to see what life might be like from someone else's perspective, helping me with empathy, something I'm not good at by nature. Even if I can't point to a single book and say "That book made me who I am today," I can say that about the thousands of books I've read to date.

It's not "just a book" to me and it never will be.

*What do you guys think? Have you seen this phrase around? How do you feel about it? Can you point to a specific book that changed your life?*