Friday, May 4, 2012

If Your Favorite Author is Zane, Don’t Add Me On Goodreads

Guest Post from @sarahsosincere

Just call me the big bad book snob now. Once you’re done rolling your eyes at the title of this post, or nodding your head in agreement, hear me out. 

What’s the first thing you do when you get a request to connect with someone on a social networking site? You check out their profile page and see what you have in common, right? Friends, interests or whatever, usually there’s SOMETHING that would bring you two together on the interweb. 

Yesterday, I got a request to be friends with a lady on the social networking site for booklovers, Goodreads.  The first thing I noticed when perusing her profile was that her favorite authors were Zane and Sister Souljah.   On her “Currently Reading” shelf was “Missionary No More: Purple Panties 2.”  And this is the point when I completely closed my web browser. 

Let’s not discuss my disbelief at there being a SERIES called “Missionary No More.” Let’s not even get into the fact that someone read the first book in the “Missionary No More” series and then made the conscious decision to read the second. (Obviously, a lot of somebodies did since they published a sequel!) Let’s just talk about why anyone making these types of literary decisions shouldn’t add me on Goodreads.
  
Social networks are generally for the likeminded. I don’t like anything about Zane’s mind and neither should you. But you do. So, don’t add me on Goodreads. 

While I’m being snarky, I’m also being serious. Enjoying trashy and egregiously poorly written novels isn’t a crime but to say the author of said novels is your all-time fave? No ma’am, I will not take your book reviews seriously. I just can’t do it. 

Maybe this woman was trying to diversify her reading by following my reviews on Goodreads. That’s great but I still don’t want to see the review for “Missionary No More: Purple Panties 2” on my timeline. Purple Panties 2? Word? 

As much as I really really hate it, this isn’t about my abhorrence of Zane’s writing. This is about knowing your audience. You have the option to simply follow another Goodreads user’s reviews without asking them to subject themselves to your own. If you’re going to be reviewing Zane and other filth flarn filth, please use this option. Please.


I'm already a well-documented book snob, so you know that I agree with Sarah wholeheartedly.  Where do you stand?

No comments :

Post a Comment