 I asked for the tea and you guys delivered. And welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today I'm so excited. I've never done a video like this. I can't believe I've never done a video like this. Today I'm going to be acting to your controversial book opinions. Number one, please judge me. Number two, please hate me because number three, I love it. And I asked you guys to make them as scolding with the tea as you guys could. And I already know, listen, you've sent a lot in. There is a lot here. I'm not going to be able to react to all of these. So I'm just going to scroll randomly. But listen, I've tried not to look at them so we get my actual reaction. But before we get into the video, I want to thank the sponsor for today's video, which is Boxu. So I've spoken about Boxu lots. They are a Japanese snack subscription. Every month you get a box. And it has a theme and there are just so many snacks in this box. I don't think you guys can understand how much is in this box. And it's just full of cool Japanese snacks. They are all sourced locally in Japan with like local vendors and family businesses. The culture guide shows you exactly where all of the different snacks come from in Japan. And something that's really great is that you can use my code MEGWINFORKS for 10% off your snack subscription. I sent this in my last video, but I really feel like Boxu is like a great gift to give to someone who loves Japanese culture or travel in general or food. Like there's always so much new stuff to explore. And I've really enjoyed exploring snacks that are so different and interesting. These are blueberry gummies. How cute! You can't tell me that's not so cute. And if you were to gift this to someone in your life, not only would you be gifting them Boxu, but you would be gifting them a chance to go to Japan, which is so exciting. So Boxu running this competition will get free tickets to travel to Japan. All you need to do is be a subscriber by December 31st. I will leave all the information, all the terms and conditions down below. But it's so cool that not only could you get Boxu for them, you could get them tickets to Japan. Japan has always been one of mine and Tom's dream holidays for like when we're rich. Like that's like in a couple, well in a couple years. I'm not going to be rich for a couple years, but like that is not on our budget right now. But it's definitely a dream, like probably our dream place to go together. So yeah, I'd really recommend picking Boxu up and trying out all these snacks. Okay, so let's get into the controversial opinions. I genuinely don't know where to start. All right, let's get to work. Wait, I just saw one at the beginning and then one at the top. We're one person saying middle grade is better than YA and then I scroll to the top and Gavin says middle grade is better than any other age range. Okay, so here's the thing. I would say I don't read a ton of middle grade. I've read a few bits, but I don't read a ton. Middle grade is very like consistent in its quality, right? I feel like YA an adult, you get some absolute howlers published like awful like bad books. But I don't feel like that's the same with middle grade. I feel like middle grade has the highest standard out of all of the age ranges. Also, I feel like it has less drama YA book, Twitter, authors have so much drama. There's so much going on, whereas I feel like middle grade authors just like sit like off to the side and just like, we're just cute. We're just like writing books for kids. We have no drama. Oh my god, I flipping hate bookmarks with tassels or charms. I just want a plain I love when a bookmark has a tassel. Now here's the thing. Here's, I will agree that I hate when they're made shittily and the tassel breaks in like two seconds. You know when they just fall apart, like the tassel just falls apart, like then don't have it there. But if a tassel is made well, I love, I don't have enough bookmarks with tassels. I love that personally. I can't agree. But I will agree that often they are not made well and that annoys me because they're neg on. And what was the point of that being there? I also love metal bookmarks. Metal bookmarks are my preference, but I've lost my favorite one. I have a fairly one that's like, it was gold and bronzey. I think it was in the law box, the box that law was in, and I've lost it. It's like down my sofa somewhere. I know I lost it there, but I can't find it and I'm very sad about it. Jane Austen is overrated. I said what I said. No. That is not correct. Jane Austen is my home girl. I love Jane Austen. Listen, I haven't read a lot. I have only read Pride and Prejudice back in the day and Persuasion. I own these gorgeous editions. I love these editions. I think they're so cute. So I'm very excited to read more of Jane Austen. Now, when that is going to happen, I don't really know. I disagree. I feel like Jane Austen was like a bit of a revolutionary at a time. I feel like she just like had this je ne sais quoi about her. And I love, listen, Pride and Prejudice. I'm watching the 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice with my patrons. We're doing a watch along and we watched the first two episodes the other night. And I just like the way that Mr. Darcy, him as a character, I just, I just love him. I love him. And it's so funny. Like I feel like Jane Austen's classics are funnier than other classics. Like she had a great sense of humor. And I feel like she wrote a love story and made it popular at a time that it wasn't necessarily like the thing, you know? Well, then she said, women all this, I did a whole course on this, writing a book was a woman's thing. And then they got turfed out and all the men, like Charles Dickens came in and women couldn't write for ages. So that's like tragic. But listen, I love Jane Austen. People should not be expected to read classics person with an English degree. Yes, I feel like I've seen this on Twitter recently as well. Like someone having a go at people for like all reading YA, right? And like, let people read what they fucking want. Who gives a fuck? That was beautiful. You did such a good job of expressing yourself. Do you know what I mean? Like I have not read a classic this whole year. I've read classics in the past and I enjoy them. I own quite a few. But I have not read a classic this year. And do you know what? That's okay. Who cares? Like at the end of the day, they're just books. And I feel like particularly within some sections of the Twitter or the book community, there is this like, people look down on people who only read YA. You're an adult who reads YA. Like who cares? Do you know what I mean? Like life is too short. I feel like sometimes, I don't know if this is controversial. I don't think it is. But I feel like sometimes the book community can be like so up in people's lives. Like who cares? Like focus on you. Do you know what I mean? That's why I get annoyed sometimes when people care about what like maybe a particular booktuber is doing and take so much outrage at like something a booktuber is doing, going about their day to day life. I'm like, why do you care? Why do you care? So let people read what they want. If people want to read like YA, middle grade, graphic, only want to read graphic novels, only want to read comics, like who cares? People are reading. You know what I mean? Oh, this is a good one. Miss Me With Books 500 Plus Pages takes a lot more skill for a writer to distill a story into 200 pages. I completely agree. Quite often, I feel like those longer books are just so like, what's the word I'm looking for? Like indulgent. They're so self-indulgent, right? Like long books, they didn't need to be long. Where is, okay, it's here, can you see it? I don't want to like take it out and mess up all of my shelves. But The Gold Finch by Donna Tartt. His thing, I enjoyed the book. I gave it four stars. I just dropped my phone. And we all know my love of the secret history. However, The Gold Finch, self-indulgent. It did not need to be that long. Edit. Like that you have an editor for a reason, edit your book. You are not so important that you need another 100, 200 pages in your book. Good God, get a grip girl. So I agree. I think some of the best books I've read are like, in that I like to read a lot of books in the kind of 200 to 300 page mark. They're quick, they get the job done, they tell a story, and they're amazing. Now here's the thing, sometimes I do love a longer book. Oh my God, we've got two here about where the cordad sing being hot trashed. I haven't publicly announced this yet. I'm saving it for when I next do a big unhaul video, but I am unhauling slash have unhauled where the cordad sing. Sorry to everyone who is so excited for me to read it, but I'm not reading a murderous, but no way, no ma'am. Sorry. If you don't know, the author of where cordad sing like murdered people. Murdered people in Africa, like thinking that she was on this like human crusade and like everyone just kind of like accepts it and she never got in trouble for it? Like what the fuck? So I'm not reading that. Dog-earing a page is my preferred bookmark. Now here's the thing, I don't think that's necessarily controversial. Before I had my booktube channel, I dogged everything. I dogged everything. I had never used a bookmark. Now I'm pretentious and like I have to use a bookmark. When my mum borrows a book, I make her use a bookmark. I don't let her dog in my books. Not on my watch. Not on my watch. But I feel like I've been conditioned to think that way by the book community. So I completely think that dog-earing is valid, but I wouldn't let people do it to my books. We've got multiple the secret history slanders in the chat. I didn't like the secret history. The secret history was just boring and dragged to 600 plus pages. Okay, in this case I don't agree. I do not agree. I need to reread the secret history because I haven't read it in years and years. But that book, although it is long, I feel like everything is necessary in that book. That book was the book that got me back into reading. I don't know if everyone knows this, but like I stopped reading for a couple years when I was like 15, 16. I think I read that at the start of 2019. So I had not read for years before it and I read that book in a couple of days and I fell in love with it. And then from then on I just went on to read like I think 80 books that year. So I hold a lot of love and appreciation for the secret history. I just think it is so well written. I think it's amazing. So I will not take any secret history slander. However, I do recognize that I've read a lot since then and my taste may have evolved or changed. I've read a lot so I have a higher standard I think now. So I do need to reread it, but I'm kind of scared. Like let's just leave her there and not talk about it for a while. Seven husbands of every Hugo's horrendous could not be me. Could not be me saying that. Could not be me. You're wrong. You are wrong. This is totally unacceptable. I'm on my way. People in the community always say they're reading romance when it's a little porn. Okay, here's the thing. I kind of agree with this. Like in my brain smart is smart. Romance is romance. I wouldn't call smart romance, but I don't know if that's just from like Tumblr days. So yeah, I think I would agree with that. I find it confusing when we're just branding everything romance when I feel like they're separate things. Romance for me is like the relationship story. It can be smutty, like for example the Brown Sisters series. This is a romance, but it's you know it has like sex scenes in it. But if it's literally just sex, like that's all that the kids, that's smart to me. Six of Crows was shit? No. However, I will give, I will give one of my controversial opinions. The Shadow and Bone show wasn't very good. It's disgusting. I'm blocking you. Can I block somebody on this thing? This is gonna be fun. I haven't finished it. I only watched like the first four episodes. It was cringy as fuck. I'm sorry, it was cringy. Here's the thing. I quite liked the Six of Crows storyline. They were good, but it's not just because I didn't like Shadow and Bone as a trilogy. I didn't, do I say this? I didn't like, I personally, I personally didn't like the actress who played Alina. I thought she was cringy. Is that unpopular opinion? I didn't like it. I didn't like it. So that's one popular opinion. I've seen quite a few people saying that the song of Achilles is awful. Like, okay. I've never heard anyone say that. I haven't read it. And to be honest, I haven't had the greatest interest in reading it. Like, it's not a book I've put on my want to read or anything. I own Cersei and I think in my brain, I'm like, I'm just not going to buy another book by the author until I've read Cersei and like know if I like their writing. So I'm surprised to see so many people on here saying that it's shit. I've never heard that opinion. How interesting. Okay, hang on. I'm actually, I'm actually, this is going to be what makes me check out. This is going to be what makes me quit. This is going to be what makes me deactivate my channel. Sprayed pages look so ugly. I was angry. I was angry. Generally, who hurt you? Who made you think that? What made you? What? How could anyone think that? How could anyone think that? How? I'm sorry. There's never been more of a wrong opinion in the history of controversial opinions. Exhibit A, right here next to me. Excuse me. Excuse me. You're telling me that looks ugly. You're actually saying with your chest that that looks ugly. Exhibit B. Exhibit B. I mean, come on. I mean, come on. Look how cute we are. Look how cute. It's just very incorrect. Just very wrong. I'm sorry. This is the worst. This is the worst. This is the worst. Yeah. Anyway, hardbacks are not the one. Just heavy expensive shit. Only fantasy readers enjoy. Okay. Oh, creaky. I disagree. I love hardbacks. I prefer how they look on my shelves. I prefer how hardbacks look. I don't know, but I feel like actually since I've put all my paperbacks together on my, you can't see, but on my fancy shelf at the top, it's all paperbacks. I'm starting to appreciate them all, but I do love hardbacks. However, one of my opinions is hardback should all be the same height. I don't like variations. I don't like short. Like, come on now. I actually quite like them as a book, like as an individual book. But for shelf purposes, I want them all to be the same height. Some people are just way too precious about the way their books look. Yeah, true. You're what? I'm you. I've started to become this, and listen, I don't want to be, but also as a booktuber, I care more about my shelves and stuff than I would if I didn't make videos. I don't think I would give a fuck if I didn't make videos, but because I do, I feel like there's more of an expectation on me and like, yeah, like more of an expectation. However, I only really care about my hardbacks because they're expensive. Like paperbacks, my mom can do anything with them. But with my hardbacks, I'm like take good care, especially like special edition hardbacks or new release hardbacks. That's the only time I really care about how they look. A lot of my paperbacks kind of look like shit, and I don't mind that. So I think I'm really precious around things that have cost me a lot of money because I want to keep them cute, essentially, because I've spent a lot of money on them. Shanice says the love hypothesis is overhyped. Here's the thing, when I read it and gave it five stars, there was like rumblings of hype, but the hype hadn't truly set in yet. Do I love it? Yes. Is it the best romance book I've ever read? Yes. I feel like it's not overhyped, but it's just like ridiculously hyped, like everyone is talking about it. But it's amazing. Like it was five stars, one of the best books I've read this year, one of the best romances I've ever read. I know not everyone agrees, but I think I'm also a sucker for grump sunshine. I think you have to be a sucker for grump sunshine, hence why I love Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy is the blueprint. He is the blueprint of everything I want in life. I'm not really a fan of Sally Rooney's books. Tried a few and they're just met. I feel like more people have said shit about Sally Rooney as well, which I, it does! No, okay, not as Sally Rooney as a person, but I read Normal People Yonks ago. Like that was year one of uni and I've now graduated. So it was a long time ago and I hated it. Oh my god. Why are we reading about these horrible people who the whole book is just miscommunication for no fucking reason? Just communicate. I hate, no, I fucking, oh, I'm getting outraged. I'm so fucking angry! I hate miscommunication when there's no reason. Like you could have just fixed years of anguish of your life if you'd just spoken. Is that a radical concept? Is speaking to each other and communicating a radical concept? It doesn't need to be, it doesn't, I hate Normal People, so I'm never gonna pick up another Sally Rooney. Listen, you can see everyone loves her. Like everyone loves her. She doesn't lose any coin. She doesn't lose any sleep at night for me not liking her books, but like you could actually not pay me to read a Sally Rooney book again. I don't think that's ever gonna happen. Okay, we'll end on this. A lot of people have said they enjoy breaking the spine of paperbacks. Now, I don't really, I feel like a fake fan of books. I'm a fake fan of books. This whole channel is a lie. What actually constitutes breaking the spine? I don't actually know. Is it when there's creasing or is it when the spine has come apart from the book? What? So here's the thing. I don't care about creasing, right? Some people, I've seen like read their paperbacks like this. Like this, so it doesn't create, this to be fair, this is the kind of floppy paperback that doesn't really ever crease. But some people like read their more like stiff paperbacks like that. So it doesn't crease. I don't understand. Like, I like creasing. If we're talking about that, I like creasing on the spine, but breaking the spine. I don't think I've ever done that intentionally. It's all because I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I'm a fake book fan. This channel is a fraud. So there we have it. That is me reacting to your controversial book as opinions. There were so many more, but that was so much fun. I really found it so interesting seeing what you guys said. If you got into the end of the video, comment the emoji with like a sweary mouth. For the controversial opinions, comment that if you've gone into the end. Thank you so much as always for watching this video. I love you so much, and I'll see you very soon in another one. Bye!