Don't Be a Hater

I think I’m pretty transparent about my love for all things Harry Potter and Twilight. I mean, there’s not much chance you’d get any other idea from this blog. At the same time, I’m well aware that many people do not like these books and, in fact, have a passionate hatred for them.

Naïve as I may be, I just don’t understand that.

It’s easy to understand that some people don’t like certain books. I, for one, never really grasped the hype surrounding Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. There are millions of people in the world; of course we’re not all going to like the same books (or movies or television shows).

My confusion comes from the overwhelming hatred some people – bloggers, professional reviewers, authors, etc. – have for series like Twilight and Harry Potter. These people spend hours upon hours dedicating their time and energy into actively hating the characters and storylines of fictional books. Blogs are solely devoted to winning over more people to the “anti-” this or that movement. For all of the legions of fans, there are just as many people waiting to jump all over these novels, beating them into a messy pulp.

I’m not asking that everyone fall in line with my reading preferences. That would be silly. But I find it incredibly hard to comprehend that so many people spend so much of their time hating something that’s fictional. Furthermore, I find it mind-boggling that these same people want to make sure other people hate just as much as they do.

Whatever happened to respecting differences in choice? What’s wrong with saying, “It’s not a book I would like to read, but if someone else likes it, okay”? In our plugged-in, digital age where schools are replacing libraries with computers and Kindles, why not celebrate the act of reading – any reading – instead of bemoaning the choice of literature?

The Twilights and Harry Potters of the world aren’t going to replace Shakespeare and Jane Austen. So why can’t the two worlds co-exist? Why can’t we enjoy all of it, the classic literature, the “literary” novels, and the YA super-series? What’s with all the hate?

[Photo Credit: Lusty Reader]