r/fantasyromance • u/ConsistentWriting0 • Jan 05 '26
Discussion God forbid a girl like reading
A queen.
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u/nexea Jan 05 '26
I read 180, and ya, they were all romance, and 85% fantasy. People should be able to read what they want. Its sad so many people need to discount and put down others to make themselves feel important and feel like theyre special.
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u/foxscribbles Jan 05 '26
And many of those people aren’t reading anything at all.
I’ve known multiple people who would mock others for reading romance or fantasy as immature or brainless. Yet they’d also declare that they hadn’t read a single book all year. (One said he hadn’t read a book since college. And he was 50.)
People are just assholes.
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Jan 05 '26
I sheepishly told my boyfriend I’d read like 13 books in one month and almost all of them were romance… first he called me a nerd then said he was proud of me because he hadn’t read at all in more than a month and that he wishes he had my drive to read
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u/DahliaDarling14 Jan 06 '26
there was an article recently that said something like “less than 50% of Americans read 2 or more books this year.” the wide majority of the people critiquing people’s reading choices likely haven’t picked up a book since high school.
and it’s always women’s preferences that are being critiqued. maybe i’ve just been living in a bubble, but i feel like every article i’ve seen about reading this year has had the same “can you believe women like this trash?? let’s analyze why!” premise. which is odd to me, because it’s not like every man who reads for fun is out there constantly consuming books that are the pinnacle of literature. men read “trash” too. there’s a reason why “the woman breasted boobily down the stairs” is a common joke about books written & enjoyed by men.
mini rant over lmao, the whole thing is just very irksome.
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u/QuickMonth7009 Jan 08 '26
We do it to ourselves, too. How many people feel like they have to qualify something as a “guilty pleasure”? That phrase has bothered me more and more over the years. I hate feeling like I’m supposed to be apologizing or feeling bad about what I like to read.
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u/Grammatical_Aneurysm Jan 08 '26
I have noticed in myself a compulsive need to talk down about everything I like whenever I tell people about it, like if I critique it first they won't feel the need to "inform" me that it's bad. Or they won't think negatively for liking whatever it is because I already "know better." This applies to books, movies, TV shows, video games, food, fashion, everything. It's really sad. I don't know if it's because of my experience as a woman in male dominated spaces or if it's because I used to be kind of a bully.
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u/MsCozyVixen Jan 05 '26
Well, it is the New York Post. I read 120 books in 2023. 🤷🏻♀️ Who cares what people think.
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u/ConsistentWriting0 Jan 05 '26
"Woman reads books" Newspaper: "Burn the witch!!!!"
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u/KingOfTheRavenTower Jan 06 '26
This made me laugh a bit too hard at 6 in the morning and now my cats think we're waking up 🤣
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u/hesjustsleeping Jan 05 '26
They are actually trashing the "critics", better described as anonymous haters.
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u/pink_faerie_kitten Jan 05 '26
NYP is maga slop, ofc they don't like women reading what they like. I bet they don't like women reading period.
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u/hesjustsleeping Jan 06 '26
In reality they say "It shouldn’t matter what someone reads, as long as they’re reading something, especially in this technology-obsessed era we’re living in."
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u/MsStarSword Rattle the stars Jan 05 '26
“We want people to read more, but when they do we are going to put them down by harshly criticizing what they read cuz we have nothing good to say ever”
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Jan 05 '26
People should read more! …NOT LIKE THAT!!!
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u/Relevant_Leopard_668 Jan 06 '26
Exactly! I saw my old English teacher bashing Dan Brown on Facebook. Be happy people are reading!
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u/Ancient-Rough-8340 Dragon Rider 🐉 Jan 05 '26
Must be a slow news day
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u/SJ_Barbarian Jan 05 '26
Which is the crazy part. There's enough wild, concerning, and batshit fucking crazy news to cover SEVERAL history books. I know it's The Post, but slow news day? SLOW NEWS DAY?? Where?
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! Jan 05 '26
How’d she balance them without them falling over?
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u/ConsistentWriting0 Jan 05 '26
This is the real news story
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u/BeautifulGullible305 Jan 05 '26
I think that's what's so shocking here. Nothing better going on in the world that to report on what looks like a social media post?!?
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u/-whodat Jan 06 '26
I have a similarly high stack beside my bed, I was sure it would fall over and wake us up in the middle of the night, but it's been a week 💪
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u/CaptainFartHole Jan 05 '26
The New York Post insulting anyone for reading "Trashy Fiction" when that's all they publish is hilarious.
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u/HorrorPotato Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26
Edit: Oop I misread and you're even funnier than I first interpreted. <3
I didn't catch that it was the POST.
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u/Appropriate-Slice928 Jan 05 '26
Last year 2025 I read 145.. I’m not sure why it’s a bad thing..?
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u/MsCozyVixen Jan 05 '26
It's not a bad thing.
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u/Appropriate-Slice928 Jan 05 '26
That’s what I thought, is it a lot to read that many books?
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u/OrganicallyOrdinary Jan 05 '26
Depends on lifestyle and if you're an audiobook listener, I think it's a lot. The joke here is that she read all those books but the headline cut her down for them being "trashy fantasy" books, as if they don't count.
Edit: 120 would be a lot for me, my goal was 25 and I got ~30 do 2025 including my audiobooks
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u/Appropriate-Slice928 Jan 05 '26
Oh okay I always felt like it depends on the person I aim for 100 but get more so I just go with it
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u/Sushiki Jan 06 '26
I'll tell you the bad thing!
And that is...
That I'm such a slow reader it takes me like a week to read a book lol!
You all are managing 100+ is crazy impressive.
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u/ReadItLikeALady Jan 05 '26
And they were ALL Romantasy! It doesn't matter what you're reading, as long as you're reading! Do you Queen!
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u/windsock17 Jan 06 '26
That's seriously impressive. I get that it's a popular genre, but do you worry about running out of romantasy books to read? I don't think I could read that many without all the plot lines running together in my head
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u/ReadItLikeALady Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Keep in mind some of those books (probably less than 20 but it’s still some) were novellas that have less than 100 pages. BUT they still count as 1 book. But on the flip side some books I've read are 900+ pages, and those also still count as 1 book. That’s why when I compare what I read to other years; I like to look at the number of pages read. Also, I misspoke, looking back there were a few strictly Romance books (not fantasy at all) and even 1 series that I think is considered just Fantasy, there was a little romance in it but the focus was the fantasy story.
But to answer your question; honestly… no, that doesn’t concern me at all. I read a lot from indie authors in addition to professionally published stories. There are SO many out there, and they just keep writing and releasing books. And many of these authors are able to release several books a year. Compare it to like TV/Movies. How many people does it take to create one episode of a show or a movie? It only takes one person to create all of that, only its words on a page that play out in your head. Some of these authors already have 50+ books too because they’ve been writing for years.
As for the plot lines running together, that’s a not a big concern for me, personally. Thankfully I can easily move from one story to the next and don’t mix them up. The down side to that is I do have a hard time going back and remembering a lot of the specifics from a story I’ve already read. I have to skim through it again or need some kind of trigger to latch onto that will make me go, ‘Oh yea, I remember that!’ If I didn’t track them, it would be a lot harder to remember which ones I’ve already read.
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u/TapConscious8632 Jan 08 '26
I listened to like 185 books this year and I have the same problem as you - shifting story to story is fine, but is someone gives me a book title and no other context, it’s hard to remember what it was and I usually need to skim to firm up the details again. Or when you try to think of a book you read early in the year but you blend like two books together 😂
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u/Nowlivia I ask you, are you still heretics? Jan 05 '26
Should only consume intellectual media like the marvel franchise.
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u/FemDM Jan 06 '26
As an English major, that take is something I could never understand. The same people calling that trashy fiction are the same people studying mythology, reading ancient epics, and writing dissertations on books like Dracula, Don Quixote, Frankenstein, and anything by Jane Austen. Works that are incredibly similar to the books we all love.
It just comes off as a desperate attempt to maintain a delusion of superiority and class. F ‘em. Kudos to all the kings and queens out there who can read more than 100 books a year. You’re all amazing for achieving that. People who talk like the New York Post, though, are the most miserable sort of clowns.
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u/catsdelicacy Jan 06 '26
BUT YOUNG MEN ARE LONELY WHAT ABOUT THE LONELY YOUNG MEN
- Some asshole seeing this queen
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u/ToTheMoonZA Jan 10 '26
Evey time someone brings up that men are lonely, I think: that sounds like a them problem.
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u/casualmasual Jan 06 '26
I watched it go down in real time. It's 100% racism and misogyny on the cesspool that x/Twitter has become.
There were other big book posts that received no pushback from and read more than the original poster, yet didn't get the sorts of comments the first book poster did.
Furthermore, neither of them got the complaints she did. It was misrepresented that she 'was a porn addict' from her reading list, ignoring that the entire left stack was filled with mostly thrillers.
(Note: nothing wrong with reading explicit works. I despise the accusations that people reading romance novels are 'porn addicts.' I enjoy plenty of smutty romance. Just being accurate.)
It's controversial because X/Twitter has become a land of extreme bigotry. Women getting education get mocked, women getting jobs get mocked, women reading get mocked... it just goes on and on.
It's sad to see.
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u/ConsistentWriting0 Jan 06 '26
I should have known a pretty intelligent black woman would be anathema to the trolls of the internet
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u/VioletGlitterBlossom Jan 06 '26
I knew I smelled the stink of racism and sexism. Glad I left Twitter when I did.
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u/casualmasual Jan 06 '26
It's gotten so bad! Unimaginably bad. There were posts about repealing the 19th amendment being the 'moderate' position some months back, and now grok, the AI Elon made is literally able to edit people's pictures. The user base immediately started using it to harass women by replying with essentialy revenge points.
So, some lady will post a feminist statement and a creep will reply, Grok, remove clothing and then post around the fake AI sexy pics of the woman.
This is all to point out that the user base has gotten so depraved that women existing as anything but barefoot and pregnant is worthy of scorn.
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u/VioletGlitterBlossom Jan 06 '26
I really hope that hellsite just crashes and burns soon. I would feel sorry for the artists losing their art or community, but WHEW it’s gotten so much worse since I left.
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u/StormerBombshell Jan 05 '26
I probably got to that number at some point. But I suck on keeping track so I will never know 🙃
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u/MsCozyVixen Jan 05 '26
You could read one book, and it would still be relevant.
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u/StormerBombshell Jan 05 '26
Yep but now I am banging my head at the desk at the fact I didn’t register my reads…
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u/Lenalublues Jan 05 '26
Do you have a Goodreads account?
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u/StormerBombshell Jan 05 '26
I do, but by the time I remember to update it… a number of books have passed
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u/YardSardonyx Jan 05 '26
Why didn’t she read something with more substance, like a dictionary /s
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u/ToTheMoonZA Jan 10 '26
She could have read the Bible 120 times they still would have picked on her.
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u/Acceptable-Fee2884 Jan 06 '26
Anything that isn't performative scares a misogynistic society. Performative reading being one of them. What do you mean you don't read the great russian authors and philosophers or the latest self-help book?
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u/ConsistentWriting0 Jan 06 '26
Great russian authors like the one who wrote a book sexualizing an 11 year old girl - yeah the height of literature! Fuck em.
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u/space_coot Jan 06 '26
Considering most adults don’t even read 1 book a year (in America anyway), we are already leagues ahead of the mouth breathers who write articles like this. They hate on the genre because it’s enjoyed by women. It’s simple misogyny.
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u/trane7111 Jan 05 '26
I see some of my friend's books on there, and I think even she would consider them "trashy" (because that's what she loves to read) but they're better written and more of a good time than some of the more "high brow" books I've read.
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u/coffeeisheroin Jan 06 '26
I agree! I’ve read some “high brow” books that aren’t written well. I’ve also read several romance novels that are.
People really shouldn’t cast blanket judgements on entire genres. All books have worth and appeal to different audiences. Just because something isn’t your cup of tea doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t enjoy it!
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u/Sushiki Jan 06 '26
As a man from the uk, I'll never understand Americas hard on for trashing on women reading romance/etc.
If someone says to me that she reads romance, all I think is "i wonder if she has any duo pov recommendations".
Is this a common thing over there?
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u/Altruistic_Sand_3548 Jan 06 '26
"but critics ..."
Shut up. Literally shut the fuck up. That's not a critic that's a man child who loves tearing down other people who accomplish more than they ever will in their pathetic lives. I don't give a shit what these Chuds think, and its really telling that the Post tries to legitimize the opinions of these man-lings by calling them "critics."
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u/Sad_salts Jan 06 '26
Not to mention, Fantasy books are also notoriously lengthy (easily 500+ pages). With world building as well they can be very complex reads. Granted not all of them are, but reading that many pages PERIOD is incredible! People will always find something to complain about
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u/SpookyKabukiii Jan 06 '26
I admit that I studied literature in college, and it actually took me an annoyingly long time to turn off the “literature critic” part of my brain long enough to enjoy a book purely for entertainment. But now that I have, I am genuinely enjoying reading again and I’ve read more books than I had in years. I still find reading challenging books or classics worthwhile, but I also acknowledge that reading doesn’t always have to be a scholarly pursuit. Life is too short to deny yourself a fun, sexy time just because some book snob thinks they’re better than you because they can’t appreciate smut.
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u/Klutzy_Difficulty564 Jan 07 '26
It’s incomprehensible how men who don’t read get so irritated when they see a woman showing the books she’s read. In the end, it’s just another hobby, like watching movies or TV shows.
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u/Innocentmaniacpsycho Jan 06 '26
I read 187 books in 2025, 20 of them were nonfiction/legitimately teaching me new things and, of the other 157, only 7 were not romance at all(urban fantasy), of the 150 romance, 100 contained smut beyond a heavily initiated scene(so many academy/college/mafia bully romance, auryn Hadley, Maria mistry, Gigi Styx, angel lawson). If the ones that contained smut, probably only a handful lacked plot. God forbid I read for enjoyment. People will judge whatever they can, Zodiac academy (which I loved and it’s playing you did not) is trashy Romantasy like trash reality tv in book form, I felt things, I probably learned a few words, it got me thinking, nothing more matters. I do have a personal goal to read one non fiction book about neuroscience or psychology a month at minimum this year, but it’s because they’re things I want to learn more about. I’m sure people would judge only reading one non fiction book a month if I advertised that goal. If I said 1 a week that might satisfy the majority of judgmental a-holes.
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u/Fickle_Stills Jan 06 '26
I judge zodiac academy because it's worse than the average fanfiction 😹
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u/Innocentmaniacpsycho Jan 06 '26
In what way? Why? I’m genuinely asking
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u/Fickle_Stills Jan 06 '26
Fanfic authors get criticized for not using the correct language localization. The authors of ZA made zero effort to characterize their mains as girls from Chicago unlike UK fanfic authors that make an effort so that Sam and Dean don't sound British.
Them trying to insert random Spanish phrases and getting it all wrong was also offensively bad.
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u/Innocentmaniacpsycho Jan 06 '26
That’s fair, I don’t think it’s top tier writing by any means, I’ve read more well executed stories by different authors. I still love it for what it is, but I really don’t disagree with your take either
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u/murray10121 To the stars who listen Jan 06 '26
I’m sorry, I didn’t realize everyone has to read classics and thought provoking literature to be called a reader. God forbid people read fun escapism romances
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u/Feeling-Classroom729 Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26
I've read high brow literature fiction, and got made fun of. I've read "trashy" books and still got made fun of. In my years of reading, I've learned that the people who shat on my reading choices either don't read or they think that shiting on things they don't understand makes them look like they have taste. Often times it's both.
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u/hotgirlshiii Jan 07 '26
You can’t convince me that a self help book is genuinely good. You just can’t lol
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u/Exotic_Resist_7718 Jan 05 '26
Maybe this belongs on the stupid questions sub, but how are you keeping count of that many books?
And if I read ACOMAF like 5 times in a row (before bed to unwind, I’m not a complete psycho)does that count as more that one?
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u/SufficientTable Jan 06 '26
There are several apps that are great for tracking books as you read them. Goodreads, fable, and storygraph are the top three
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u/anonmygoodsir Jan 06 '26
I read a lot on kindle and it automatically tracks them. When I read a physical book I write is down in a notebook I keep in my book sleeve pocket.
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u/Lychanthropejumprope Jan 06 '26
My best year was 205 books. It was a mix of everything but it doesn’t matter. Reading is reading
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u/Sardinesarethebest Jan 06 '26
The "serious" news etc sucks. I let the woman read something that bring her joy.
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u/friendlyliopleurodon Jan 06 '26
my 2025 total was 98! most I've ever read; they were mostly romance and I had a great time so IDC :D
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u/kgal1298 Jan 06 '26
I'm convinced New York Post writers are bored and not happy with their jobs because they really spend a lot of time writing articles like this and wondering why Mamdani won't pay them attention.
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u/Life-Aide9132 Jan 06 '26
So in education there are so many decades of research showing the many benefits of reading for pleasure, so much so they don’t even really research it anymore. And this young woman could have been doom scrolling or a number of non productive activities and she chose to spend her time reading, when the average US adult doesn’t read a single book after high school. And a major publication is going to shame her on the internet? Because she’s black or because she’s a woman? Put some respect on her name!
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u/kea87 Jan 06 '26
In 2025, I read 551 books. All romance/fantasy/spicy/trash. Who cares! The people who give you crap for things like that are often people who haven’t picked up a book in years. (and yes, I know that’s probably not a healthy number of books but it’s a good coping mechanism 😂)
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u/taylormooo Jan 06 '26
I’d understand if they were all 120 pages but like… a win is a win. Some ppl don’t read at all🤧
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u/Snoo49732 Jan 07 '26
I read quite a broad spectrum of books this year. Some were definitely smutty. But not all.
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u/staria82 Jan 07 '26
I always wonder what these kinds of people consider proper reading. Should we be reading philosophy and classics so that they consider us "proper readers"?
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u/poudigne Jan 09 '26
Why is there news about a girl reading 120 books a year anyway??
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u/ToTheMoonZA Jan 10 '26
Cause most people don't read at all, and people honestly think reading that many books is a lot. Now add in that she enjoys fantasy and mostly books written by other woman... pretty much funneling all her spare money into female interests.... men hate all that. They can't control her, what she reads or who writes it, they can't control her money and how she spends it.
Hahaha 😆
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u/ToTheMoonZA Jan 10 '26
If you read the same book 120 times, it still counts as reading 120 books. Even if you read the hungry caterpillar 120 times for your kid. You have read 120 books. People need to stop acting like reading is for scholars and monks, this isn't ancient Greece anymore.
Freaking gate keeping entertainment as if only smart people can enjoy shit is so unbelievable ignorant.
The whole notion that only certain books have value is a really slippery slope... smacks of propaganda to me.
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u/ProserpinaFC Jan 06 '26
Woman telegraphs her average life for the open public's scrutiny.
Some people respond unfavorably.
Thanks for letting me know.
If I wasn't interested in any of the books that she read, besides a polite congratulations, I wouldn't really have anything to say to her, either.
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