The really sad thing is I grew up in an area that has swung hardcore Trump (the district Walz represented when he was a congressman), & while these ads are so grating to me, I also know that they hit exactly the right buttons for certain people. It' so frustrating, b/c no amount of logic helps.

All I can say is don't force it. If you're not enjoying it, don't feel like you have to stick to it. <3

I'm so sorry. Your body is being rude and the lack of sleep makes everything so much more difficult. Please be kind to yourself.

And it gets worse. The lack of supplies and running water means horrible hygiene and thus infections...

Or you have a parent who does pretty well independently and is still paying on their LTC insurance in their late 80s, but it doesn't cover the small bit of home help they could use since they can mostly care for themselves. It's not as big of a deal as your experience, but still super frustrating.

It's especially silly because YA is a genre that is often dismissed for not being intellectual enough or good enough and it also happens to be popular with young women, when the reality is that there are lots of genres with the "all very similar" thing, because that's how genres tend to work.

Of course YA is popular on TikTok. It's primarily teens & young adults. The problem is publishers chasing that b/c they believe it's easy money. Marvel movies & remakes are the same thing. I don't like superhero movies, but it would be silly to say they're all bad just b/c Hollywood won't move on.

If that's the case, the issue is publishers only publishing what they think BookTok would like, not YA itself. Which is an issue; authors of various genres hate BookTok pushing things. But that doesn't make YA bad.

Then what are you saying?

No. Books that people engage with are good. Stories that we consume, even historically, have never always been 'challenging' or 'deep.' If we want people to read a variety of books, encourage reading what they enjoy. If they branch out, great. If not, they're still reading, which is also great.