It’s December already! And this means I have been managing this blog for three years now. Officially, Sci-fi Connections was inaugurated on February 1st, 2020. Still, I started to plan and design the website and my author brand in December 2019.
Last year, I also shared some personal stuff in December when I talked about how my degree of aphantasia affects my reading experience. So, let’s make this a habit! To commemorate this memorable date, I want to get closer to you folks by sharing a few of my bookish opinions that, from what I gather, are not super popular among readers.
Before you judge me… actually, you can judge me. Try to change my mind, if you’d like. Although I have tried to change my mind, it did not work. So I accepted these opinions, and now I’m at peace with the fact that I do not enjoy the reading experience as the majority does.
I don’t mind spoilers
The length people go through to avoid spoilers in the internet age tells me this opinion is really unpopular. The truth is, not only I don’t care about spoilers, but sometimes I even prefer reading about the general direction of a story beforehand.
Very seldom I am blown away by a plot twist. For me, the fun is not really about the big reveal; the story has to be crafted well, with characters and plotlines beautifully woven into a narrative that will stick with me.
Surely, twists can be fantastic, too (case in point, Your Name by Makoto Shinkai—and the whole Kishotenketsu plot structure). However, if the story depends only on the element of surprise for it to work, it is not for me. Because I often seek spoilers.
Or maybe my indifference toward spoilers is connected with my second unpopular opinion…
I wouldn’t say I like to read; I like having read.
I envy the people who can enjoy the journey and not think of the destination when it comes to reading. I don’t enjoy reading, though fortunately, I don’t dislike it either. It is a bit boring, and it often makes me sleepy.
Also, my head keeps getting distracted trying to anticipate the story, and this tiresome habit of my brain is annoying.
However, once I finish the book, I can let my brain regurgitate over the details, consequences, climax, and how the author puts it all together to create a story. And this process is super rewarding! I love the lingering taste of a finished book.
It has its downsides, surely. Nonetheless, one good thing about this peculiar process is that I can hate the whole book and change my mind about it at the end. If the author can stick to the landing, I can easily forgive the frustration over the plot course of a book I was not enjoying. The story might become an absolute favorite. For example, Fahrenheit 451 and Children of Time. Boy, did Bradbury and Tchaikovsky know how to end a story!
I’m bad at instant rating
This one may also be connected with the previous one. Since I enjoy thinking about the story after I have finished it, I tend to form a solid opinion on the story only a couple of weeks after I read the end. I need this time to process it and see its beauty before rating it.
Usually, people ask for my opinion right after I finish a story. I give them one, not to be impolite. However, it is never final. It's often not final.
Movies before book
If I read the book first, you can safely bet I will not want to watch its series/film adaptation. This one seems unpopular because of the spoiler-avoidance fever. Since it is not a big deal for me, I stand with a minority who prefer to watch an adaptation before diving into the book.
Adaptations are a grand entryway to a world I haven’t been before. I can go after the expansion as a written narrative if it is interesting. It carries that sentiment about thinking more about the story I was talking about.
The opposite seldom happens. The written version is usually way more detailed than the adaptation, so it adds nothing to me to watch the live-action version. On the contrary, the director’s vision of the story often bothers me.
That said, I do think there are adaptions as par or better than the books out there. (Should I write a blog post about it? Let me know if I should make a list in the future)
Short stories are more entertaining than novels.
If you read all of the others, this one is a bit obvious. I get the food for thought quicker with short stories. That’s it.
This is also why I have such a hard time with book series. I never finish them. As a matter of fact, I’ve never finished a series ever! Not yet, anyway.
That’s it for today, folks.
Do you share any of these opinions with me? Let me know in the comments.
See you next post,
Ra.
Carla Ra is a scientist by day, sci-fi writer by night.
You can check out her anthology ARTIFICIAL REBELLION here.
