READER PROBLEMS

Hello everyone! Today I'm here with a special guest again. We have Amy Kaufman, co-author of These Broken Stars and This Sh**. We're here to do a tag video, and we're going to be doing the Reader Problems Tag created by About to Read. So... I'm ready. You ready? Okay, let's jump straight in. Alright. You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next? I almost do have 20,000, so it's kind of like what's on the top of the pile. The pile won't kill me when it falls. Or... No, really? Or friends tell me I have to read something. What about you? It depends on priorities, so obviously school at the top of the list, if there's any review copies. Otherwise, I'm a mood reader, so I kind of go by genre, what I feel like reading, and then I narrow it down. And again, if someone's recommended it a lot, I'll go for that. Otherwise, I'll just randomly pick a book. You're halfway through a book, and you're just not loving it. Do you quit, or are you committed? I quit. Life is too short, and I have so many books to read. That's true. If I'm absolutely hating the book, I will quit. If it's meh, for the most part, I'll try. But it depends on the situation. If I've been told it's worth keeping going, I might. Exactly. Then continue reading, hopefully. Yeah, if I'm absolutely hating the book, I can't physically read it. Because the thing is, it doesn't mean it's a bad book, it just means it's not for me. Exactly. And if it's not for me, it's probably not going to become for me. Just what's the point? You're torturing yourself. The end of the year is coming. It is. And you're so close, but so far away on your Goodreads reading challenge. Do you try to catch up, and how? Yeah, I once wrote 12,000 words in a day to finish NaNoWriMo. I'm a finisher. I will catch up. I will probably do it by lying and cancelling social engagements. I hope my friends aren't watching this. Sorry. How about you? It depends. If I'm really close to my goal, then I'll try and power through. But if it's the last month and I'm like 10 books behind, I'm just going to be like, it's not going to happen. I'll just go at my own pace. Let it go. The covers of a series you love do not match. How do you cope? You know, I cope okay because I would like them to match, but it is what's inside that actually matters. That is true. For the most part, I do try and get them to match as much as possible, but if there's nothing I can do about it, then one more time. Let it go. Everyone and their mother loves a book you really don't like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings? That's tough. When someone really loves a book and you don't, that can be a moment in the friendship. I haven't read a lot of books that I absolutely hate, but the ones I do, they're really well-known ones. I didn't like Jane Eyre, for example. I won't finish it. I know. It's okay. We can still be friends. I haven't come across many people that don't like it either, so I don't know who else I could bond with over that. It's how you find them. How do you tell who really loved the book and who's faking it? They're with you. They didn't like it either. Exactly. Because if everyone and their mothers loved it, you're more than likely alone. I guess the thing is, at risk of sounding a bit perky, if I didn't like it, I'm probably just going to move on to something I do like. You can apply this to every response. There'll be a chorus after every question. You're reading a book and you're about to start crying in public. How do you deal? I cry in public. It's happened. When I was finishing The Book Thief, I got off the train and I had three pages to go, so I wasn't going to walk home. I'm sitting there on the platform, reading it and sobbing, and this really nice lady comes and she's like, oh honey, are you? And then she sees the camera and goes, I know. I don't know if she goes and I'm like, thank you. I do it. It's happened. I have no fear anymore. I, yeah. I just, I cry as well. For the most part, I'll try and hold it in, but yeah. Eventually, what do you have to do? Just let it go. One example was I was reading Wonder on a bus and I just took it. There was no way out of that. With The Book Thief as well, I wasn't reading the book, I was talking with another person on a bus about the book and we both started crying. I've had quite a few angry emails from readers who are not as okay about crying in public, who blame me for things that have happened. I'm hoping I'm going to apologise, but sorry, not sorry. That's what I was trying to do. Exactly. Make you feel the feels. That's when you know it's a good book. You feel all the feels. Like it's in your soul. A sequel of a book you love just came out, but you've forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you reread the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on Goodreads? Cry in frustration? All of the above? No. This is a common problem for me. I am not good at remembering and my worry is if I write to reread it, I won't get a chance to reread it and so then the sequel doesn't get read. Exactly. So I tend to just head for the recaptains.com or something or just ask someone or google it. I usually try and push through, but if I'm really confused, I will look up a review or spoiler discussion review or something like that. Otherwise, I will try not to start the series until at least the second book's out. For example, Throne of Glass. I did read the first one, but I knew that there were going to be like six books in that series. So I put it down, I'm going to wait until a few more of those are out, then I'm just going to marathon the whole thing. You don't have to deal with that. Yeah, George R. R. Martin is a long-term commitment. Oh yes. I keep forgetting what happened at the start. Yeah, that's a tricky one. You don't want anyone, anyone, borrowing your books. How do you politely tell them nope when they ask? I tell them that the books and I need to be alone. They probably won't ask again, I would think, after that. Yeah, probably not. No. No questions asked. I like to touch their covers. I'm tricky because once I've lent one book out to someone, because I'm very picky with people who I lend them out to. So I've lent a book out to someone, then someone else asks and they know about it and I feel weird being like sorry you can't but they can. Yeah. So I've got myself in a situation where I've got quite a few books lent out and I'm dying. I am dying. Yeah. Because I lent out Divergent probably two years ago and I still don't have it back. It's flipped between like there's I think five or six people that have read it but they keep giving it to other people. I don't know about it. That freaks me out though. Yeah. Yeah. If anyone watching this has my copy of The Princess Bride, I don't know where it went. So bring it home to me please. Thankfully I know where they are but it's still like just out of my reach. Yeah. I hate it. How do you know they're okay? I know. It's torture. Reading ADD. You've picked up and put down five books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump? I think the two things I would I do are either one I go to an old favourite that I know I'm gonna rip through or two I go for something I ask for recommendations something that's really pacey. That's gonna like really drag me in and make me keep reading. Action, suspense. Yeah. That's designed to make you keep going. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. That's a good idea. The other thing if I'm in a reading slump I will usually slow down my reading because I hate forcing myself to read when I'm not enjoying it because then I won't enjoy the book. It's a hobby. I might love that book and then I'm just like not enjoying it because of the slump. So if I don't put down the book if I have to read the book I'll do the same sort of thing. I'll look for a book that's really fast-paced or I'll go back to an old favourite reread Harry Potter for example. Yeah. Something with no pressure. Next is there are so many new books coming out that you're dying to read. How many do you actually buy? All of them. I have a whole bedroom at home that is a library the walls are lined with books. It's a serious problem. And I know there are probably people watching who are like no it's not like no there's a lot of books. It's a problem. I think yeah. I'm just I don't plan on seeking help but I do know that it's a problem. But we're okay with that. Yeah I've embraced it. This is a beautiful thing. I'm not complaining. No I'm in the same boat. I'll At the moment I've been slowing down but you guys know how crazy my book hauls can be. Okay our very last question. After you've bought the new books you can't wait to get to how long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them? It varies because the thing is I am buying them at a much greater rate than I can possibly read them. Yes. So it's like how do you decide what to read next? We're talking before it's like there's a bit of mood there's a bit of do I need to read this for some reason? Exactly. Do I need to talk about it? It really depends. Yeah it really depends on yeah all kinds of things. Definitely books on my shelf that have been there for several years. I'll get to them one day but might be another 10 years before that happens who knows. But like it doesn't mean I'm not excited about them. Exactly yeah. Sometimes though I do buy a book and I read it immediately. Yeah. I think it depends on my excitement like my level of excitement for the book. Like if it's a sequel. Yeah. For a book that I absolutely loved I'm more than likely to pick it up straight away. Yeah. But honestly number one determinant for me is recommendations. If a bunch of people have told me you're gonna love this then I'm probably gonna start reading it before I get home. So those are all the questions from the reader problems tag. I hope you guys enjoyed this. Yes. A special thank you to Amy for joining me today and discussing our reader problems. Letting it go. Thank you for having me. Anytime. We did do another video talking about This Shattered World in particular. The new book out or coming out in the States from the Starbound Trilogy. So I'll leave a link to that down below if you'd like to go check it out. And yeah that's all that we have so see you next time. May your books always be returned. I really hope so. Let's, let's, we'll just eat our feelings with these little little cupcakes. They're so cute. All right. Officially wrap this up. See you guys next time. Bye.