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Friday, June 6, 2014

10 Things You Should Be More Ashamed of Reading Than YA

In the publishing world's furor du jour, some lady at some internet blowhard site has opined that adults who read YA should be ashamed of themselves because YA books have immature baby cooties. Earlier this week, I think (it happens all the weeks), there was someone opining that romance was what gave you the cooties, and also romance writers were fat awful women who mooched off of and mistreated their husbands with their obsessive hobbies and bad writing.

Today, I thought I'd share 10 things you should be more ashamed of reading than YA (or romance, come to think of it).

1) Internet blog comments sections (except for this blog, heh)

2) Your negative reviews (if you're an author) (and even if you're NOT ashmed of reading them, it's still slightly more shameful--meaning not very--than reading YA)


3) Diatribes about how much cats are horrible animals, unless it's meant in jest

4) Someone else's mail

5) The entire book in the bookstore, while breaking the spine, so you don't have to pay for it

6) Your ex's FB feed

7) The answers to the test you pried out of the teacher's locked drawer (or hacked computer account) before the test itself

8) Purchased term papers you intend to submit as your own or plagiarized books or internet content you intend to publish as your own. Though I guess it would be worse if you DIDN'T read them?? I don't know, but you should feel a lot more shame when you read these things than when you read YA, genre fiction, etc.

9) The crochet pattern, or other how-to instructions, after you have completely fubar'd the item you're trying to make. Granted, the shame here comes from not reading the how-to FIRST...but still.

10) Blogs, Twitter, FB, Wikipedia, Tumblr, random websites, and so on when you're supposed to be working on your damned novel or being otherwise productive! (except for this blog, heh)

Join in, everyone. List some more in the comments!!! (The comments you do not have to be ashamed to read because I said it was okay.)

Jody Wallace
Author, Cat Person, Amigurumist of the Apocalypse
http://www.jodywallace.com  * http://www.meankitty.com  

6 comments:

  1. Angela Korra'tiJune 6, 2014 at 12:53 PM

    Jody, this post WINS THE INTERNET. Where would you like your Internet delivered? :D

    Because yeah, I saw that particular blowup on Twitter last night, and _wow_ am I tired of people sneering at anyone else's reading choices, no matter what the genre.

    You should be ashamed of reading online articles that sneer at you for your reading choices, because chances are good they're clickbait anyway and they're deliberately trying to get your attention, and no good can come of reading that because it's just going to elevate your blood pressure. Seriously, who needs that shit? There are loads of better things to read in your life!

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  2. Nicole LuikenJune 6, 2014 at 1:11 PM

    11/ Celebrity gossip, especially those taking actresses to task for not having a perfect body.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJune 6, 2014 at 2:14 PM

    Be ashamed if you're reading the National Enquirer for any real news...

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJune 6, 2014 at 3:18 PM

    Pirated books no matter the genre or age level.

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  5. R.L. NaquinJune 6, 2014 at 5:53 PM

    Text messages on someone else's phone, especially if you had to hack his password to get in during the five minutes he was in the bathroom.

    Then again, who leaves their phone out when they go to the bathroom? That's just asking us to take a peek. Seriously. And if he didn't have anything to hide, why lock it? That bastard!

    I think he WANTS you to read his text messages.

    Wait. What was the question?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wendy QuallsJune 7, 2014 at 2:44 PM

    Subtitles on CSPAN. Or a lot of talk/rwality shows.

    ReplyDelete