my requirements and preferences for media I consume: part 1, books

[belenen]

icon: "challenging (photo of me lifting one eyebrow and slightly squinting my eyes, wearing "Red Queen" makeup: searingly red lips, darkened pointed eyebrows, black eyeliner, deep red & black eyeshadow accented with gold & silver, and black-outlined silver hearts & diamonds with red shadows on my cheeks)"I feel that my mental experience is as much

Comments

[daphnep]

A few questions from a fellow book lover, if you don't mind.

-how do you research these things in advance?

I imagine it takes reading a lot of reviews (but maybe not), so do you ever worry or are conflicted about the amount of spoilers you get, doing this research?

I think of rape scenes, for example...those seem to occur sometimes almost in passing, and may not even be mentioned in an overview review.

-what happens if you're reading along and a book veers into one of those territories, unsuspectingly? Do you count infractions and hang up at a certain level, or is it just some moment where you throw the book against the wall, once it's too much you just know it with all your heart? How many books do you start and not finish, as a result?

-have you found certain trusted resources you can rely on? (Like a book group, maybe, or other?)

-how much spontaneity has this taken from your reading, and is it perhaps less than you might have expected? I think, for example, of books I find on "giveaway piles" in various places, or trading with

[rachel2205]

I read very few books by men these days! But I definitely need to include more people of colour, especially women of colour, as authors in my reading lists.

[peachpai]

Have you ever read Orleans by Sherri L. Smith? After reading your preferences I feel like this might be a book you would like. I think about it a lot - the world building is stellar.

[feladrone]

I like autobiographies too, or good biographies. They make up almost all of the non-fiction I read. (Excluding academic school textbooks.)

[4kudzu]

At least you know exactly what you like.