Let’s talk bookish is a weekly meme, created and hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books and Dani @Literary Lion, here different topics will be discussed.
This weeks topic is ‘The popularity of YA’, I’m not really sure what to say about this topic, so I will just follow the example questions!
Should YA take up most of our reading (if indeed it does)?
Uhm no?! You should read whatever you enjoy most! I do feel YA is the most popular within the book blogging community, but if it is not what you enjoy most then there is no point in forcing yourself to read it!
Do you like reading YA? Why or why not?
Definitely! I would say I read 70% YA and the rest is adult and a bit of middle grade! I really enjoy reading YA fantasy and sci-fi books, for contemporary/romance I prefer new-adult/adult books.
I mainly read YA fantasy books but lately I’ve been more and more interested in adult fantasy. Since the world and magic in adult books are even more advanced and well explored compared to YA. But often YA is a bit more easy to understand and follow along! They are often also faster to read, I guess because of the writing and the pacing! I feel like YA books are often quicker than adult, since worlds and backgrounds are a bit less explored (which is not necessarily a bad thing!).
What do you love/hate about YA books?
I feel like I kinda answered this in the previous question haha!
For YA fantasy I enjoy that the books are often quick paced, quite easy to follow and enjoyable characters. The reason why I’m starting to like adult fantasy more is that the worlds and magic systems are broader and more explored!
For YA contemporary I used to enjoy them because they are also fast paced and often quite funny. But they often take place in high school, and I think I’m a bit over that time period. The books often contain a bit too much drama for me that I cannot relate to. Although I sometimes enjoy one once in a while still! I often like them when I’m feeling a bit slumpy, since they are so quick!
What do you think is the most popular genre in YA and why?
I feel both fantasy and contemporary have a big following! I feel like also in adult these are two genres that are very popular! Idk why ahha, quess people just like those the most!
Why do you think YA books have such a big community as opposed to other books?
I guess it really has to do with the average age of book bloggers! But I still feel like there are lots of bloggers talking about adult books as well! Of course it also just depends on who you are following.
It might also be easier to talk about YA books since they are the most talked about books on the blog community, so your posts might be interesting to a bigger audience. But as I said before, it is important to talk about the books you want to talk about!
I’m an old lady and I love YA lol. It’s just there are a lot of themes I like and sometimes I want something with a little more simple prose and maybe some romance and YA is usually pretty good for that. 🙂
I mean YA is good for everyone!
Sometimes I just need an easy YA romance haha!
I’ve been veering towards adult fantasy a lot more often recently too. I love that there’s no age restrictions on what they can do so the fantasy is able to be a lot grittier and more complex since adult novels also tend to run longer.
I do agree that the age of book bloggers really affects what ends up being popular online. I think as people who grew up online tend to get older the tastes of the book blogger/tuber/grammer community will also start to shift.
http://literarylion.ca/the-popularity-of-ya-lets-talk-bookish/
You name exctly the reasons why I´ve been enjoying adult fantasy!
I mean it makes sense, readers taste changes over time!
Great answers! YA Fantasy is something I like to read because usually they aren’t as long as adult books, haha.
I totally feel that hahah!
Hi Evelyn! Wonderful responses, I’m a fan of YA science fiction as well (or just science fiction in general)! Fantasy and contemporary are definitely huge YA genres, but because of that, there’s bound to be good ones and some not so good ones. I mainly read Middle Grade and YA, but it’s interesting that Adult has more in depth worldbuilding and magic!
That is definitely true! And of course everyone´s taste is different!
I agree I enjoy YA for the fast pace! But I do also like the in depth world building that comes in Adult fantasy novels.
Good to hear you think the same!
I read probably about 90% YA, but I also write YA so keeping up with what’s on the market is part of that. But also because there are just so many amazing YA books out there.
I can see that!
And yes there are a lot of amazing YA books!