I was worried I was sexist because I don't like romance books

hi hello I'm Derby welcome to my channel I get the impression that it is a very bad look to say that you don't like romance books it's a red flag it might mean that you're just kind of like a tedious pseudo intellectual it might mean you're boring you don't like to have fun or maybe you're kind of a pikm kind of a GU girl kind of an anti-woman sort of Lady and I've been worried lately that my reflexive disinterest in the book covers with the lineless cartoon art on them might mean I myself have a little uninterrogated internalized sexism maybe I do hate these books because they are for girls as a test I decided to read some books from good Read's top 100 recent romances I used a very unscientific method for selecting the books based on how much they just seem to appeal to me and then I spent a below average amount of effort evaluating them and now I can say with some confidence that I don't hate Romance Books I'm just very very picky about them there's a kind of unspoken quietly agreed upon formula for whether or not you're going to like a romance book number one do you relate to the main character their dreams their fears their profession whatever personal crisis they are currently experiencing I just need to relate to them just enough so that their Journey finding love becomes my journey and I'm very proud to say that I think I'm going to beat the I hate women allegations plenty of protagonists that are well written interesting immediately sympathetic and fun to read in the genre this part of the formula is not the problem for me the second criteria the second standard the second requirement that I see must be fulfilled for someone to like a romance book is are you horny for the romantic interest there's probably a more delicate way of saying that but it is this standard where Romance Books fail me the love interests suck they suck so much the demand more from your male leads at best the love interest is this styrofoam Bland flavorless cardboard trophy for the usually female protagonist to try to win over and at worst they are like emotionally immature childish or just outright cruel it makes me wonder if I'm the freak for wanting just a sweet little guy a person like Jack Black in the holiday is my ideal he is the template and I get it little gooses who just want to be supportive and nice to you are not fun to read about but I'm doomed to like what I like which means most of the genres full of love interest that just represent pure Agony for me I did walk away from this experiment liking and appreciating some books the first book I want to talk about is love theoretically by Ali Hazelwood and I was shocked by how much I liked it I understand why people like this they are books for a social media po poisoned brain they are books for people who are too online every time my attention started to fade she would just drop in an internet reference or a joke about Lord of the Rings in Harry Potter and I was right back in like Hazelwood has a reputation for writing pretty unhinged scenes I think why this book probably worked for me where some of her earlier things wouldn't is I believe this is probably more grounded than the other book she's written certainly the least unhinged and again just the title wave of nerdy jokes that she crams into each page like it's a 30 Rock episode so after reading love theoretically I kind of wanted more of the same so I read Checkmate and this is Ali hazelwood's version of Queen's Gambit and it's a cute very readable story about an eldest daughter with Cinderella syndrome kind of learning to get over her martyr complex set against the uh I don't know glamorous backdrop of international chest tournaments I loved how the main character solved all her family's problems with chess The Bodyguard it is about a woman who is a bodyguard and she falls in love with her client this book was very fun it was easy to overlook some of the corny bits but I almost closed the book and put it away forever when um but there is a scene that just drives me nuts it's a very irrational hatred of something that appears a lot in media which is a character makes a big dramatic emotionally vulnerable speech at a party or some other public event and the whole room claps just makes me skin crawl I hate it I did rally past that scene and finished it very fun three star book for me next I read the CH offensive and this is fantastic it's about a writer on a reality TV show that is like a fictional version of The Bachelor and he slowly falls in love with the contestant with the bachelor I found all the main characters charming and their interactions with the rest of the cast very fun very cute and I think I really liked how the book handled mental health like this book could have fallen into that trap of the writer wanting to be very sensitive about an important topic so then they just write it in the most sort of clinical after school special way possible so then it's boring and not fun to read but I I think the author hit a very good balance I also did not know that high stress situations could cause heartburn and indigestion and I learned you should not be taking more than six Tums or calcium tablets at a time this book just immediately improving my quality of life next I wanted to try the the darling of the Romany genre fourth wi and intellectually I know that liking this book is indefensible but I do like it I think this was inaccurately described to me as Hunger Games with dragons because what it is is it's a shown in anime the part of my personality that is 100% brain stem that just Delights in Gore blood mindless Ultraviolence loves this book for all the reasons I like the manga berserk I love this book my favorite recurring segment in fourth wi is the very melodramatic announcement where the school updates its body count I read book lovers and liked it enough to try some more Emily Henry books Book Lovers was fun to read because I was really suckered in by the gimmick what happens if you take the stereotype that appears in romantic comedies of the uptight career obsessed City girlfriend that the male lead needs to break up with in order to settle settle down with his hometown girlfriend what if you just focused on her made her the main character of a story I liked how all the pieces came together in the end just a very well done story but since reading that book I have found that every Emily Henry book has just been kind of bland for me I guess I just want there to be more jokes or something they're like weirdly serious said in another way she writes books for people who have an adult attention span which probably means I'm not her target audience so after giving it a good college try and reading some stuff in the romance genre I have discovered that I'm not anti cute silly book I'm not anti-romance I'm just very very particular so I think that's it for this week's Valentine's Day snack if you made it this far please like the video subscribe to the channel Channel thank you for watching bye-bye

Channel: Darby Snacks

Views: 10,711

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Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2024