Reader Rayna

So I’ve been thinking about adding some discussions posts to my blog again, but hadn’t figured out a way in which I wanted to do so, when I stumbled upon Literary Inbox. I think this is a fun way to engage in some discussion for the month, and so here’s the first post of it!

Rules

Literary Inbox is a monthly bookish meme created by 24hryabookblog where participants engage in discussion related to topics all about bookish trends, the evolving book industry or publishing, reading culture and recent conversations within the book community.

♦ Link back to the original creator’s post 24hryabookblog ┃Literary Inbox – Meme.
♦ Read through the prompts/topics and choose whichever is interesting to discuss (your choice whether to do one or both throughout the month!).
♦ Answer the prompts or questions.
♦ Share your discussion(s) on any weekday of the month.
♦ Tag book bloggers around the community.
♦ Link your monthly post to the original creator’s to share yours & discover other bloggers.

Topic Chosen

Popular Book Genres seen as “Easy Reading”

Do you read from genres that others call “easy reads” or “quick to read”? When it comes to primarily women-led genres like Romance, Romantasy, YA or with visual literature like Graphic Novels can those labels be seen as reductive or insulting? Inspired by a recent #booktok, a creator mentioned certain books can be seen as “junk food” reads. Do you find that this “negative” connotation skews the opinion of a genre or category of books?

Discussion

I had originally typed up this post on a different day, and it was very heated, so I decided to think about it for a few days and rewrite what I was going to say. We call this growth! lol

Now for the topic at hand, I feel like when someone is saying something is an “easy read,” they might often be comparing it to something like a classic book. Many classics are dense and heavy, the writing difficult to understand because of the language used at the time. It doesn’t even come down to the writing of classics being “flowery” or “purple prose,” but rather much of the language used during the time classics were written was vastly different from how we speak, read, and write today.

That being said, are there “easy reads” or “junk food” reads that can be found today? Absolutely, of course there is. However, you can find these books across all genres, not just romantasy, romance, or YA books. You’ll be able to find books that challenge you in every genre, too, ones that make you question your own line of thinking, your own morals, how you view the world, etc.

Is it reductive and insulting? In ways yes, because often when someone says something is an “easy read” it often refers to more women-led literature. You won’t hear someone calling male authors easy reads or junk food very often, if at all. I honestly think that the most insulting part is that when someone is making content around books like this, they’re doing it in a very mocking, purposefully mean way for clicks and likes, rather than actually taking the time to actually decide if what the book they’re reading is working for them or not.

I’ve heard this whole statement come up a few times, especially in the last few years, about how dumbed down or quick and easy certain genres are becoming. If you look at books written now even compared to ten years ago, there’s a stark difference in the way many of them are written, but if you also look at some books from ten years ago, many are also written the exact same way as they are now.

It’s just now more people have platforms in which to air their opinions.

As for whether it can skew how people view a genre, I wholeheartedly agree and think that genres like romantasy, especially, are viewed as “easy, junk food” reads. There’s been such an uptick in romantasy coming out over the past five to ten years that many new readers – many of which are women – come into reading looking for something that is easier to get into, but that’s fun and exciting for them. Not everyone wants or is going to read harder books because of whatever reason they see fit in their day to day life.

And that’s fine because not every book needs to be critically analyzed or challenge us.

Some books are meant to be just for fun. Many of the books that some people consider “easy” also cover great topics like mental health, classism, race disparity, disabilities, and more. There’s still so much you can find within the pages of these books that make them worthwhile. They’re not “lesser than” for being easier to digest and read. They cover the human condition, which romance definitely falls under. We all experience love at some point in our lives, and that should never be viewed as less than or easy. Love is often not easy at all.

I think the term “quick read” is a much more agreeable statement because there are legitimately books that are very fast and easy to digest. Many thrillers, for example, are written in a way to hook you at the end of every chapter, pushing you to read it until the end rather quickly because you want to know what’s going to happen next. The same can be said for literary fiction, horror, and, of course, romance and romantasy. It also depends on the reader’s personal reading speed, as well.

I think that this is a discussion that will continue to crop up from time to time, and we just have to tackle it head on and really think: does it matter if something is an easy read or not? This is a hobby about having fun. If you happen to grow and learn something along the way, even better.

Let me know in the comments what you think of this topic. I’d love to hear your opinions!