Fact: I don't like coffee. I just like saying Coffee Clutch in my best and deepest New York accent. Considering I'm a New Yorker, I'm pretty freaking good at it. So I've got my tea and I hope you have your heated beverage of choice, because it's time to gab the day away.
Recently I decided to organize my life on Goodreads (feel free to go friend me and whatnot). Honestly, I blame Cassie. She posted about TBR piles and I suddenly decided life would be be SO MUCH EASIER to pick my next book if I had lists. Lists of genres that is. Y'know, that way I can decide what I'm in the mood for and then find the right book to read without scrolling through an unspecific list.
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| David Tennant approves of my brilliant idea. |
However, this whole shelving by genre thing failed on epic proportions. There are just SO MANY SUB- GENRES these days: high fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, supernatural, contemporary, steampunk, dystopia, thriller, horror, romance, sci-fi, historical, mythology, fairytale retellings... Not to mention things like romance, horror, thriller, mystery and other classic genres can be folded into other genres like dystopian, steampunk, mythology, fantasy, etc.
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| Dean Winchester is overwhelmed. You should be too. |
But I think the worst thing about these genres is that no one tells you what's what anymore. I mean, when I was little, everything was explained in simple terms. There was the make believe stuff, the scary stuff, the real stuff, the old stuff and a couple other bits and bobs. Now, as an older person, I feel like I don't know who to turn to in order to suss out what's what in the genre world anymore. I'd have to read the book first before I could tell you what genre it falls under, and that kind of defeats the purpose of the lists I'm making.
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| FRUSTRATION |
Aside from my DEEP FRUSTRATION over how to categorize certain books (and how is there NO official list of book genres compiled by someone even reputable-looking), since books today can't just live in ONE genre anymore, I ALSO have to question the genres I've listed above. I mean, some of them really seem to overlap. Take, for example, Paranormal and Supernatural. I had a whole conversation with Daphne the other day about the difference between the two - because I really feel like there is one - and basically what I came up with is that they both revolve around characters/story lines that defy nature/science but Supernatural is supposedly miraculous whereas Paranormal is darker. So like, angels vs. vampires, really.
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| The Angel vs. Vampire paradox. |
And while it seems like there's really no distinction in what I just said, based on what I'm trying to do here, there REALLY IS. You see, in case it wasn't clear, I'm trying to separate the 959 books on my Goodreads shelves into specific genres I can refer to in order to find THE BOOK I'm in the mood for. And I guess I could make distinctions like ANGELS, MERMAIDS, WEREWOLVES, GHOSTS, ZOMBIES... but that's not the point is it? The point is to find that specific FEEL I'm interested in feeling in that moment. So is that all a genre is? A FEEL? As in, for as long as I FEEL a difference between paranormal and supernatural (which I do, I just couldn't really tell you about it. It's like when there's a word in another language that doesn't have a translation into English. Only that language is the language of feels), then there's a difference?
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| Aaand a Mean Girls gif. Of course. |
Ugh. This whole post makes my head hurt. But I hope it makes some sense to all of you out there in the Great Wide Interwebz. And I hope that SOMEONE can please help me make a more definitive list of genres. Or just take my Goodreads shelves and organize all the books so that when I want to read a book that reminds of Doctor Who, I can easily find THAT and when I want to read a book that'll creep the pants off me, I can easily find THAT as well. And then when I need something a little more normal feeling to calm me the heck down, I'll have a whole list of suggestions for THAT too.
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| If Sherlock's asking for help, you know it's serious. Or a ploy. |
Okay. I'm turning this over to you guys. CAN YOU HELP ME? Or are you just as frustrated as I am? Let's talk about our issues. The comment box below is a SAFE SPACE, I promise.
OMG yes!!! I was just having this conversation with a friend in publishing about how we will see Goodreads and bloggers mislabel a book and its soooo frustrating! It IS hard when you haven't read it and you are taking goodreads word for it!
ReplyDeleteUGH. Goodreads always lets me doooown. At least about this. So frustrating. Must. Devise. An. Answer.
DeleteThanks for stopping by Jamie!! :)
haha.... i totally FEEL where you are coming from! i feel this way all the time. when i'm writing a review and have to put the genre on there... i have to sit there and think about it and usually end up looking on goodreads to see what majority rules. you are right-- they all overlap! what happened to fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography? hahaha obviously there have always been smaller categories within, but it used to be so simple-- mystery, historical, romance, science fiction. THE END. at the book store i end up looking in every single section because a lot of times i see a book i love somewhere i would never think to put it. there are often so many elements mixed together in one book it becomes impossible to put it in one box. and now we've got NEW ADULT throw into the mix. sorry i am of no help, but i do share your frustration!! plus, i've got coffee.
ReplyDeleteIf I put it upon myself to label all of the genres in my reviews, I'd probably kill myself. Thank GOD I didn't put that upon myself. But Goodreads does mess with my head with all of this stuff. I feel like publishers should decide these things and that'll be the final word, y'know?
DeleteAnd New Adult also adds so many layers to my frustration. I can't even. >.<
But I'm glad you found a place to vent. AND you had the coffee. Because even if I can't find a solution, we should all get to talk, right!?
I always have this problem when I want to add tags to my reviews. What is this book? Is it a paranormal? A supernatural? Is it both dystopia or is it sci-fi? Is it considered contemporary or romance? When is a book a utopia and when is it a dystopia? What the what? DANG IT, there are SO MANY genres I wouldn't even know how to label them. Last semester I took a media language course, and when it came to genres my professor said: genres start existing when people start to acknowledge them. But WHY do there have to be so many genres? I usually check which genres Goodreads books are listed under, and there’s always AT LEAST two. And I think it was Forgotten by Cat Patrick that was labeled as a supernatural book, though I strongly disagree, since there’s nothing supernatural about it, and it’s more of a mystery romance. That really annoyed me. So um, I don’t think I can be of much help to you hahaha. It really frustrates me though, and I’m not adding any genre tags to my reviews right now.
ReplyDeleteYou and Betty. I can't imagine trying to tag reviews by genre.
DeleteI like what your professor said tho, about genres. Sounds fairly accurate me! So basically, everyone stop acknowledging new genres so I can live my life in PEACE.
I tend to stick to very, very broad genres when writing reviews. I think of it as: contemporary, literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fiction(there's stuff like mystery and romance, of course, but I tend not to read those). If it doesn't fit into one of those categories, in my mind it's just "other". There are so many books that span multiple genres it just gets hard to categorize, so I totally sympathize, though I'm not much help.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, your GIFs for this post are perfect. Just wanted to let you know!
Haha I was JUST SO FRUSTRATED I had to stick in a million gifs. But you're definitely more helpful than you think you are. You remind me to keep it simple, y'know? So maybe I'll try that. It'll require a lot of brainstorming, but I'll work it out, I hope. And then you'll all hear about it, to be sure ;)
DeleteOh I know, right! I did this myself last year and it took me FOREVER to figure out where to place everything! Plus, half of them the blurb wasn't all that helpful, so I had to just guess - there are still books that are on just 2 shelves - to-read and adult/YA. SO FRUSTRATING!
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes the blurb makes it sound like one thing when it's another, y'know? I just don't want any books to fall between the cracks! You'd think authors would want to label their books better so we know what to do with them. APPARENTLY NOT. Meh. :(
DeleteI, for one, have never dared to venture beyond the the three basic Goodreads shelf and the ones about challenges doesn't really count. I've seen others do it though, separate a book into so many genres and lists that it gets daunting. I've tried going through genres but it's really all in vain. However, I wholly agree with you when you say that you just feel like reading a book with a certain feel to it. If I ever go to my to-read to decide to read something from it, it's usually a meh reaction after about twenty or so books have passed my line of vision. So I can safely say that I'm just as frustrated as you are. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteSana @ artsy musings of a bibliophile
EVERYONE IS FRUSTRATED. How can we all be so frustrated and none of us are doing anything about it? I vote we start a project. An awesome, bomb dot com project to fix this issue.
DeleteBut you're right, too few shelves doesn't work, too many shelves doesn't work. It's REALLY ANNOYING.
Ugh. I'm going to put my mind to this and figure it out. Eventually. Maybe. Or at least figure it out for me and hope some people benefit from it, at the very least... :/
haha these gifs made me chuckle! I've been there before feeling frustrated trying to organize my goodreads. And it's still no where near perfect, but I have a pretty good system going. I so far these are the shelves I have. When I finally read the book I move it from the to read to the regular one. This way if I'm in a bookstore/library I can find something I haven't read yet fast. I need to come up with more shelves though...like you said paranormal and supernatural are two different things.
ReplyDeleteclassics (8)
contemp (63)
contemp-to-read (97)
dystopian (12)
dystopian-to-read (25)
historical-fiction (3)
loved (24)
new-adult-challange (9)
new-adult-to-read (12)
supernatural (52)
supernatural-to-read (52)
I'm glad you like the gifs!! And I'm sorry you're just as frustrated! I like your shelves and I'm glad they work for you. I think some of them would work for me, but not all of them. Which is why all of these shenanigans are the worst. >.<
DeleteI couldn't deal with the headache, so I don't bother to classify my books on GR by genre - though it's helpful when people do. Good luck :-)
ReplyDeleteIT IS A HEADACHE. But I will do it. I can do it and I will do it. Thanks for the well wishes though! :)
DeleteYour post reminded me that I need to clear out my Goodreads and organize things properly! HOWEVER, I don't think I'll be attempting to sort them by genres EVER. Mostly because it's too hard for me to distinguish them.
ReplyDeleteGenre's is killing me. I think I need to think of something else >.<
DeleteI NEVER know how to shelve things - even when I'm tagging my posts. I'm like, was this a dystopian? Or post-apocalyptic? But there was romance too...and some ghosts, so paranormal?! TOO MUCH.
ReplyDeleteIT IS TOO MUCH. My head hurts.
DeleteI recently stumbled on this problem when I was adjusting the tags to my reviews. I still don't know what to do! There is also the fact that some books have like 4 different genres, but what is the most important one? Can't a book just be one thing, like YA paranormal or YA fantasy. No, let's make it diffult by giving it all these other genres and subgenres. *sigh* I'm now sticking with the tags I think come closest to the genre, but it's getting crazy.
ReplyDeleteYou are so ambitious with the whole review tagging thing. I could never do it. The shelves are too much for me as it is.
DeleteI never put specific genres on reviews besides Young Adult or Adult...and I'm kind of glad I don't, for all the reasons you mentioned. Genres make my head hurt. Good luck on sorting your shelves, though.
ReplyDeleteBut there's SO MUCH MORE than just YA and Adult. Ugh. So hard. But thanks for the luck. I need it.
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