I was going to do a blog post about my all-time favorite books, and then I started to overthink that many of my favorite books are too "mainstream" and even worthy of an eye roll. I was for five seconds even ashamed of having such an unoriginal taste. But after my brief self-pity party, I reached the conclusion that "so what?". If it makes me happy that's what matters. People nowadays try to be so original that I feel originality is getting depleted and it becomes even harder to stand out.
I used to be that type of person who judged people who liked mainstream stuff. I remember I made the typical commentary when I was 14 of "ugh, I don't understand people who like reggaeton, it has stupid lyrics and anyone could make it". Now I have to pray for that music to be played in American clubs because honestly, it is the best kind of music to dance at a party. It is upbeat, it is fun, it makes me be in a good mood. So I listen to it. There is music out there so lyrically beautiful and full of effort from the artist, and that music, of course, deserves praise, but I will keep listening to pop music, to reggaeton, or pretty much anything that makes me happy, because I can admire music that is considered original but I've reached a point in my life where my taste depends on what I genuinely enjoy, not what it is "socially acceptable". Just like me when I was 14, people will always judge, so now that I have grown and changed my mind, I can certainly advise that you might as well do whatever makes you happy, as long as it doesn't offend anyone! - that is the life motto.
I'm saying all of this because - confession time - sometimes I feel in this class like my taste is not original enough. Of course, the goal in life is to do your own thing without caring what others think of you, but that self-doubt can be stronger than you sometimes. I'm writing this to say that I reached a point where I'm trying not to care what others think because what I like should never make me feel bad or like I should lie about it, so know I'm going to talk about some books that I really like and that so many other people all around the world like as well.
One of my all-time favorite books is "The fault in our stars", and it can be so popular and so mainstream and whatever you want to call it, but when I read it years ago it made me feel so much and I loved it and now being almost 21 years old I cannot dismiss how that book shaped me at a certain point in my life, so I still consider it one of my favorite books. Is it unoriginal or annoying to say you like this book? You know what? You may think yes or no, but the whole point is that as long as you respect the opinion it is a completely irrelevant matter.
In my Goodreads profile, I have a "favs" folder and in it, I have 34 books. "The hunger games" of course is in there, I loved it so much and I'm proudly among the 3,065,041 people who gave it a 5-star rating. In the list, there is also "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell, which was a light read but at the same time some parts really made me feel and empathize with the character and I thought it was amazing. It is part of the young adult genre, and my mindset will be most definitely different when I'm forty, but right now this is what I like and enjoy.
If I go book by book, this blog post will turn too tedious so I will end up by saying that I also have many romance books in my "favs" folder. I love reading them because they make me forget real-life problems, they can be either fun and light, or emotional and intense so there is always one for any mood you might have, and I also love them because I truly enjoy the lie of the perfect guy wandering around just so the perfect girl finds him or vice-versa and for them to fall in love and have a happy ending. I'm not naive enough to not recognize the extent of unrealistic perfection in those books because let's be honest, the "6 pack abs-6 feet 2"-fun-smart-nice hair-well dressed" guy is a mythological creature made up by mostly women authors, but the whole part where that amount of love might exist in real life gives me some hope in this messed up world we live in. Also, they can be hot as hell and that is always a plus.
No comments:
Post a Comment