Welcome back to our whatever-we-feel-like-talking-about month here at Fully Booked, the month that allows us to discuss any book podcast topics we like in December. Today we’re tackling general reading habits and the idea of “guilty pleasure” reading.
We’re reminiscing how asking people about their guilty pleasures in books, music, movies, TV shows, hobbies, collections, etc used to be very common. People would hesitantly share the things they felt were embarrassing or frivolous interests. However, this appears to have changed in the past few years, and people don’t seem to bring up the idea of guilty pleasures anymore.
We posit that the rise in popularity of social media and niche special interest communities online could have contributed to this shift. These spaces have allowed people with all types of interests to find others like them, thus normalizing interests that may have been seen as unusual in the past. The internet has also fostered greater acceptance of all niches among people overall.
RelatedWe Read The Top 5 Colleen Hoover Books So You Don’t Have To
Guilty pleasure talk used to be prevalent, especially for older generations like our parents. As millennials ourselves, between the early 2000s to 2010s, we noticed a strong tendency for people to shame others over their pop culture and entertainment likes and dislikes.
Although everyone was consuming this same media, such as by seeing wildly popular Twilight and Hunger Games films, people still criticized others for their tastes. This seemingly revealed an underlying current of cynicism and judgment even over harmless personal preferences.
Within higher education programs focused on arts and literature, there can be a lot of snobbery around what’s considered worthwhile fiction. People tend to elevate complex classics while looking down on popular contemporary, commercial fiction as low-brow and unintellectual. We believe that anything produced and published as fiction qualifies as literature, regardless of one’s subjective standards and what narratives one prefers.
Shirin has some personal experience with this; in her own experience earning an English literature degree, she felt almost ashamed to continue reading young adult fiction or her favorite paranormal romances once she reached university. She felt pressure to exclusively read classics and more “sophisticated” texts. But ultimately she embraced reading whatever brings her joy, from 19th century novels to YA paranormal stories. The escapism of wholly immersing herself in fictional worlds remains her favorite part of reading.
There also appears to be a conspicuous cycle that often emerges around popular book-to-film adaptations like those in the Twilight and Hunger Games franchises. Though droves of people consume and enjoy these stories, they still face mockery and criticism in pop culture for their interests. We feel there was an excessive amount of shaming around fans of the Twilight Saga specifically.
This may stem from an underlying jealousy that as people grow up, they feel they need to perform a certain mature, refined identity by scorning the commercial fiction aimed at young adults. But readers should never feel shame for whatever stories resonate with them. All fiction can have personal value.
RelatedWhy Are Book Adaptations Always So Controversial?
Transitioning back to guilty pleasures, we truly feel that the concept may now be fading. Social media has carved out ample space for fans of even the most taboo or unusual interests to find community. With so much acceptance and representation for diverse reading tastes online now, from sports romances to werewolf erotica, it’s almost impossible to deem something a guilty pleasure anymore when it has an actively engaged audience sharing their love openly.
Thanks to advocacy and destigmatization from niche internet spaces, genres like romance have attained far more mainstream credibility and representation in recent years. Where romance sections were once tucked away in back corners of bookstores, often with cookie-cutter covers aimed at middle-aged women, now diverse, illustrated covers have become more popular.
Contemporary romance design makes these reads seem fun, approachable, and equivalent to watching a lighthearted romantic comedy film. The explosion of online engagement around the breadth of romance subgenres, from historical to paranormal to erotic, has revealed a hungry readership among all genders, backgrounds, and ages.
Related5 Must-Watch Netflix Series You Didn’t Know Are Based On Books
We again touch on the cultural shift of more TV shows and movies taking inspiration from popular book tropes and genres that shape reading tastes and pop culture fandoms. Shirin argues that as constant access to negative news becomes exhausting for many, the mainstream turn toward lighter, more optimistic content makes sense.
In closing, we firmly believe the concept of guilty pleasures no longer carries weight or social consequences around reading preferences. Online spaces fostering representation for diverse bibliophiles to discuss all fiction openly and positively are breaking the stigma. No reader should feel shame for what nourishes their mind and spirit through storytelling. Thus we invite listeners who still consider any reading guilty pleasures to share and examine why, when acceptance thankfully abounds in the contemporary reading landscape.
Enjoying this episode? Be sure to check out all of our coverage of the genre over at https://fully-booked.ca/. We’re a listener-supported podcast! Please consider pledging and helping Fully Booked to grow our library over at https://ko-fi.com/fullybooked, or by leaving us a 5-star rating and review wherever you’re listening. Thanks, bookworms, and don’t forget to keep on reading.
