An Important Note: These reactions are shared by real people–and as a talk show would put it: The views and opinions of these people do not necessarily state or reflect my own.
How would you define book discrimination?
When choosing not to read a book for the reason of judging it before you even give it a chance. This always occurs when the person doesn’t like the book cover, clearly goes against the saying “Don’t judge the book by its cover”. Another reason that I have noticed is when the author is not famous or doesn’t have the title of “#1 New York Times Bestselling Book/Author”, some people just really trust that no matter how inaccurate it may be. Some people tend to discriminate a book when it’s either too short or too long, if they don’t know or don’t like the publisher or if it’s the author’s first book to get published. But book discrimination usually happens when the person have read another book of the author from the past and didn’t come to like it, setting a mind set that the other books of the author wouldn’t be any good. Another common form of book discrimination is unavoidable though, when you’ve come across a person or more than one that says how ugly the book is.
How do you feel about it?
I, for one, have witnessed this a lot of times when I’m at the bookstore with my friends or just random strangers there. It is easy to hear my friends discriminate books that they haven’t read because I could always voice out my opinions with them. Although hearing such words from a stranger is much more difficult. I actually feel wronged when others discriminate books because I really do think that each book has its own beauty and it wouldn’t get published in the first place if it has no potential. I just want to hug all those books getting bullied and protect them. Book discrimination is awful and it definitely should end!
What do you think is the cause of book discrimination?
Honestly, I don’t think there’s a specific cause of book discrimination just like other types of discrimination. It is just found in the everyday lives of some people and unfortunately; people just couldn’t help judge sometimes in whatever aspect. It is just the way of people, how their mind set works and how they voice out their opinions. It is safe to say that discriminating books, people and other things are in the nature of us humans; we all just deliver it in different ways.
What would you do against it?
With my friends, I just voice out my honest opinions with them. If I’ve read the book, then I’d definitely go on a defense mode but if I haven’t, I’d just advice them to give it a chance. With strangers, I tend to use my guts on approaching them and saying the same things, but honestly, it is easier to come across people like that through social media. On the other hand (I really apply this), when you read bad reviews of a book, it is more of a reason to read it. We all have different opinions and maybe others just couldn’t appreciate the story, yet what if you’ll actually love it? Every book deserves a chance. If reading it proved your point that you won’t like it, then voice out on why you didn’t like it specifically so as not to prevent others from not reading. Like I say: Every book deserves a chance. You don’t like the author, the publisher, the book cover, or whatever? Fine. But don’t judge until you’ve read it from the first page until the last.
Fill in the blanks. More people should read ________ by ________ because ________.
More people should read unfamiliar or not popular books by any author or publisher because not all great books are acknowledged by everyone and sometimes the books that will be perfect for you is just there waiting to be noticed!
Bibliophile Soprano 
Reblogged this on Mileventwelve and commented:
A random reaction from Feather! She blogs at Bibliophile Feather. 🙂
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